Chapter 175 - Trapped

After just having dealt with the 'ravishing woman' using the whole basement to his advantage, Vern barely had the time to prepare for this unexpected change of situation.

The captain upstairs had finally noticed something wrong and was going to do something about it. In such a situation, his options were terribly limited.

He was stuck in the basement and couldn't launch a proper ambush like he'd done for others. So, in a bid to take any and all advantage for the coming fight, he'd quickly run over to the section directly underneath the boss once he stopped and began power-tripping.

At least something else had gone in his favor. The last man of the group was neutralized by this leader himself. Except that sight of the leader psychologically choking his comrade had only made it clear how dangerous of a man this was.

Not someone Vern could hold back against. Yes, it went against his self-imposed limitation of not killing these raiders, but that was only for when it was feasible to do so.

Here? He was about to engage in close-quarters combat. If nothing, he understood one logic—'Hesitation is defeat.'

So, as the man began his countdown above ground, Vern stood just a meter away from the spot where he planned to collapse. After all, he wasn't immune to the debris crushing him unless he actively did something about it.

However, he had a far more important task to focus on—dealing a lethal blow before the man could come to his senses.

Not holding back anymore, he switched the cane's face to Duality and coated both its edges with Instability.

"THREE"

"TWO"

"ONE"

One blade of Duality held in his grip, Vern pushed down at the mental image of the floor as well as the solid ground, which he'd been hacking away at for a while. To minimize cascading changes, he ensured that pipes and any other assemblies surrounding them were broken away beforehand.

Chik—Boom!

As if he'd lit a match to an explosive, the ceiling burst open, and a scrawny figure fell through the hole—holding onto a metallic cage with a ghostly flame inside it.

Now! Vern released the coiled tension in his legs and launched forward, the swords extended to either side.

However, right before he was onto the fallen captain, a sudden deluge of scenes flashed past his eyes. Within them, he saw that night. The night of shattering—the Duskfall.

Back then, he hadn't really seen the aftermath of what happened since the short battle with Hensen had completely drained him of energy—leading to a three-day slumber. So, this sudden onslaught caught him a little off-guard.

Just a little, though. He knew how these observers operated, and he was tightly linked with Axiom's singularity right now. It was already out of his calculation that this man could somehow overcome that and still force these sights into his mind.

Is this the raw suppression of a high-shade observer? But that didn't feel right. His memories or the context of the situation wasn't altered like prior times he'd let himself in their illusions. Well, it's not like I'd know if the context was really changed.

Regardless, something told him this was different. Maybe this person's illusions are more than just mental make-believe and have advanced to the point of manifesting into reality?

That made more sense. Regardless, Vern knew the purpose of these visions. While the linked singularity saved him from having his perception of events and context altered, if he allowed any emotions to surface from watching these sights, it would still be over.

After all, the whole point of these illusions was to get a certain reaction out of him and then tap into his psyche through them.

Not happening… Vern asserted. The terrible sights of accidents, crashes, mothers crying over their missing kids, lovers committing suicides, and all possible sights of loss flashed in his eyes, but he looked at them with a cold serenity.

Was it heartbreaking? Yes. But such was the harsh reality of this universe. No one cared. The world only had indifference for its co-incidental life, and while Vern sympathized with the tragedy, he knew none of it mattered right now.

This was the past, and if even the gods couldn't rewind the clock enough to revive these dead souls, who was he?

With a shake of his head, he snapped out of it and entirely ignored any subsequent depictions. His eyes might be bombarded with this, but his perception of what happened in his surroundings was very clear.

The captain was trying to get back up. Not so quick! He wasn't about to give up the opportunity he'd created after so much planning just like that.

So, he considered the constellation of an overhead stance, not needing his eyes to balance himself, and without any hesitation, burst into action, thrusting the sword straight into the captain's heart.

"Motherfucker!" the captain yelled, and the man did what Vern feared.

The man's grip tightened on the cage as the ghostly flame within it suddenly flared.

Fuck! Vern cursed, but it was too late to back out, not that he believed that would do him any good. This was his chance. He was so close.

So, instead of backing away, he doubled down.

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His blades skewered the flesh with a piercing squelch followed by a deafening high-pitched wave ziinngg!

In his perception, a shockwave exploded out with the cage at the center, wiping clean the three-dimensional image of the whole hotel from his mind.

What the f— he began to curse, only to have those images of Duskfall suddenly stop, allowing him to physically see what just happened.

Before anything, Vern checked his body for any injuries but felt none. Heck, he wasn't hurt at all. Wasn't that just some kind of explosion now?

Regardless, his intuition told him whatever just happened wasn't good, and the sight in front of him confirmed it. Vern's eyes widened as he looked at the endless white expanse that greeted him.

There was…nothing.

Everywhere his sight could reach, a spotless white greeted him.

That's when, "Cough, Cough, what the fuck did you do to me!?" echoed a sound somewhere above Vern, and he turned on his heels, his stance at ready.

With a vigilant posture, he looked everywhere but couldn't find the source. What the hell? Where was the sound coming from?

Vern didn't respond, but the hoarse cry continued, "You piece of shit! Aghh, it fucking hurts!"

Could my attack have connected? It most probably did, but not in full effect, or it should have ended the man for good. Beyond that, it looked like he was somehow trapped in this endless space.

Frowning, he didn't relax but still walked around to see if this was just some illusion.

Doesn't feel like one.

The unnaturally white ground was stable, and so was the air. He walked on and on as the ragged pants of the captain continued to echo in this white world.

A sense of imbalance gripped Vern, and he couldn't help but feel a little afraid. He managed to capture me in this cage-like thing. What will happen? Could he now just crush him in here like some bug?

What if the man could keep him caged here without a problem, take him back to their headquarters, and then seek revenge?

Worse, what if he couldn't get out and he was sacrificed to sate the hunger of that 'eye' as that woman was talking about?

Fuck! he cursed as his heart dropped. This was bad. What was worse was that Vern was letting his emotions falter. I need to stop. Right now.

He'd indeed fucked up in one sense by letting the man activate the cage, but there was realistically no way for him to stop it. This was why he'd tried to go for swift and lethal. But that single moment of interruption.

It cost him this.

Ghrr, he gritted his teeth. No point dwelling on it. I can't let him use any of my emotions to break into my head. He suddenly stopped and took a deep breath, Calm. I need to stay calm.

"What the fuck is wrong with this cage. Just go to sleep, you motherfucker!"

Sleep? Am I supposed to have fallen asleep here? Vern didn't dare imagine the consequences of such a situation. That would've been a confirmed death sentence.

Then, I'm awake simply because I'm still linked to a Axiom's singularity. He didn't dare unlink himself for even a second. Previously, at the bar counter, he'd taken a calculated risk of backing out from the higher singularity.

But here? What if he was lulled to sleep in an instant before he could recover? Yeah, no. I need to pile my advantages here. Time for deception and back-handed tactics was over.

And I need to be quick. Axiom's singularity was fading fast, and if he took too long, he wouldn't have anyone else to blame.

"Aghh, curse you, you fiend! This is…this is the instability of an Entropy Manipulator, isn't it? Motherfucker! How…how did you even manage to shade it into your mind, you fucking lunatic!"

Vern's ears perked up. Entropy Manipulator? Is that the name of Cryptic Constructor's sequence I got my hands on? Or is it the name of the first shade?

It didn't matter right now, but he filed the name away in his mind. Doing his best to ignore the cries of the captain, he unleashed his perception.

It had been wiped clean, but as seconds passed, it began picking up on the details of the surroundings by itself. In no time, a weird lattice formed in his mind, and he realized this place wasn't as big as it seemed.

Hmm, I see. Picking a random direction, he assumed a better stance and began sprinting. Before long, he reached the bounds of the supposedly infinite realm and slowed down.

His eyes still couldn't see anything wrong with the scenery, but his mind saw a white pillar in his perception. A pillar that extended into the heavens and connected to a ring underneath the 'ground.'

Beyond this one, five other pillars were spread evenly all around this…cage. The more Vern looked at its shape, the more he realized how this was essentially just the cage, but he was now somehow inside it.

Regardless, it wasn't exactly those wrought iron bars of the small cage. He extended his hand, and surprisingly, it passed right through it. Heck, even his whole body passed through it.

But the moment it did, the five other pillars flickered out of his perception and reappeared in different directions, perfectly putting him back into the center of the cage.

Interesting. This isn't some simple construction. Regardless, there was still some form of physicality to all this. Could this artifact have combined authority over cognition and structure?

If so, this whole thing would make more sense. The pillars and structure existed but were ethereal, too.

He beelined to another pillar once again and analyzed it more thoroughly. Before long, a single thought entered his mind, I need to break these.

That's it. That was his idea. He couldn't see any other way out of here—and why look for another way if the most straightforward could work?

Let's try this, he narrowed his eyes.

Within his perception, he focused on the pillar, extended his arm in front of him, and suddenly snapped his fist shut, Shatter!

"Agh!!" he suddenly screamed, having to use the combined sword to keep himself from falling. What the hell?

That annoying captain barked from somewhere to pour salt on his wound, "Hah. If you think you can observe and manipulate this cage, you're more foolish than I thought. Rot in there like the pathetic pig you are.

You fucking deserve it for doing this to me. Who cares if you can resist eternal sleep? You'll still succumb to it sooner or later."

Vern ignored the remark and reviewed what had gone wrong. In his perception, a small ring of cracks had appeared around the pillar, but they were nowhere near enough to shatter it for good.

So, it wasn't entirely a failure. He soon had an idea of what went wrong. My insights in structure are worse than those of the creator of this artifact.

Which made sense. Who knew what shade observer created this?

That was to say, he couldn't shatter these pillars directly using his perception. And I can't touch them physically either. They would just relocate him to the center if he went beyond the bounds.

Vern frowned. I need a balance between both these approaches.

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Suddenly, he nodded.

The answer's obvious.

Extending Duality to his right in a wing stance, he observed its edge and murmured, Instability.

A purple sheen coated the sword's edge, and Vern continued destabilizing it further. To the point where, beyond the purple, a subtle lava-hot glow emanated from it. Its particles were destabilized to a terrifying degree.

"Tch. Good. Good. Keep doing this bullshit. Your failed attempts will soon give rise to despair, and then—Heh Heh."

Vern blinked without any change in his emotion, drowning out the mockery with the loud droning from his sword. He barely kept his hand steady, and when the sound reached a crescendo—he did it.

Swish!

A purple arc flashed in this white vista for but a moment as he executed the wide slash perfectly, aiming at the root of the pillar.

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Tch–Chik!

His hand sliced through the obstruction like butter. Almost as if it cut nothing but air.

SNAP!

But suddenly, a neat, thin gap appeared in his perception before exploding with a ferocious intensity.

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"Wh—what the fuck did you do!!!?"