Chapter 177 Ch 175: The Depths Of Mind [Pt3]

After Yohan was done dealing with all the guards in between him and the central room, he made his way in quietly. He was sure that he would be able to conquer the central cord easily.

But once Yohan entered the room, he was in for quite a bit of shock.

First of all, he could feel the energy being emitted by the central cord all over the place but the object was not in his vicinity. The shifting process had already started long before Yohan had made his way down here.

"Ugh, I wasted all this time trying to get here, only for my efforts to be in vain. I feel like destroying this place already."

If he knew that all his effort would be wasted in the end, Yohan would have made better use of his time. And now his system did not even work so he had no way of tracking the central cord.

He would have to rely on his senses to make a breakthrough. Either that or find Khole, the only person who knew where the central cord could be headed.

"Time to backtrack my steps. Luckily, my normal tech still works here. Who knew that GPS could come in this handy?"

Yohan was lucky that he had decided to take Khole's contact and save it on his phone. It was beeping currently which indicated that the man was nearby. It should have been easy for Yohan to escape an empty room.

However, when he made a move to step out, something weird happened. The walls felt like they were caving in and Yohan had to guess the direction that would be safe.

And just as he entered the corridor, he got the nasty surprise of being almost hit in the face by a gigantic hammer. Luckily for Yohan, he had incredible reflexes and he managed to dodge it in time.

But the wall behind his back was not as lucky as him and ended up taking the brunt of the attack. One crack formed, then another, and then another until the whole wall collapsed.

Yohan did not leave his back open as he observed the gigantic hammer that was embedded in the wall. But it began to move as soon as Yohan neared it.

"I won't touch the hammer so freely if I were you. This is not a conductor the likes of you can pick up."

Yohan tensed up as soon as he heard the sound of footsteps coming toward him. Instead of keeping his back on the speaker, he turned toward his side for a better chance of defending himself.

But the small child who had attacked Yohan continued to walk past him and toward the hammer in front of him. The child picked up the hammer with a fond look on his face and then disregarded Yohan who was in front of him.

"This hammer is my pride and joy. No one had ever been able to escape once they have been marked as its prey. I hope you are ready to be its next prey."

Yohan was not interested to know who this kid was. What he was interested to know was - why he was being attacked right now. As far as he knew, this kid had no reason to attack him this openly.

"All impurities who come here must be eradicated. You, as an intruder, would be eradicated as well. Please do not resist."

The kid bashed his hammer all over the place and another person would have panicked for sure in this situation. Heck, even Yohan had panicked had he been a normal human.

Kids were hard to fight against due to human's natural protective instincts that caused them to hold back. And the central cord was making use of this fact right now as well. But Yohan was not going to fall for this trick,

Mainly because he knew that the kid in front of him was no ordinary kid. He gave off an unnatural feeling when compared to everyone else.

In that way, the kid was a hybrid and he will not feel any pain when he was killed. Not that Yohan would have hesitated if the kid had been human as well.

With a single slash of his hand, the kid exploded into various small bits and pieces. It was gross and even Yohan made a face of dislike.

"Ugh, it will be a bit to clean up later. I will have to ask Diantha for ways to get the blood out of my hair."

Yohan could not find it in himself to care much about the lost life. He needed to go after the central cord.

////////////////////////////////

"Hey, how long are we going to pretend that nothing is wrong here? It's so awkward to look at my 'mom's' face and smile. I feel like hurling everything I have to force myself."

Liza was not comfortable in the setting. She had not been close to her mother for over a decade at this point and she had no intention of being close to her again. Especially not after she had been abandoned the way she had been.

But every time she tried to resist the urge and pull back from her mother's embrace, Liza was just pulled deeper and deeper into this illusion. It was so bad that even her body was beginning to betray her.

The forced smile on her face hurt especially more compared to anything else.

"Just a few minutes more. I have almost all the data compiled already so I just need a little more to complete the set. You will need to hold on for that long at least."

Khole, unlike Liza, seemed to be in his element. He was happy with the research he was able to get completed and he even had plans to conduct more of the said experiments. Liza had no idea how he was able to stomach all this negative energy in the air.

But for the first time in her life, liza found herself admiring Khole. Even the feeling of irritation faded away when she thought about the amount of effort he put into his study.

'No, don't think too much about it. I just need to get through the next few minutes and then I am free.'

Liza thought as her corset was tightened. It was beginning to hurt her ribs now and Liza was not sure she would be able to take any more of this abuse.

"Alright, we are done here. I am going to make this illusion collapse so do what you want to."

Khole warned as he lit his hand up. Magi craft fizzled out of his hand which made him grumble before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small vial of green stuff.

Somehow, Liza had a bad feeling as soon as her eyes landed on that vial. She could feel that something big was going to happen around her.

'Ugh, that vial is going to do things, right? Should I stop Khole?'

But by the time Liza made up her mind, it was already too late. Khole had opened the vial and a small explosion had taken place around the vicinity of the illusion. The familiar walls were being peeled away to make way for the white corridor they pair knew from before.

"Wa, how did you do that? What kind of magic was that?"

Liza asked with admiration. She could not believe that the illusion had been taken care of just like that. It had taken her everything not to lose her sense of consciousness in that illusion.

But Khole had so easily taken care of it that it was not even funny.

"Ah, this solution seemed to be a success. I will need to try more experiments to make this solution into a perfect product."

Liza's enthusiasm faded once she noticed that her brother did not seem to be as happy as her to be free. His brain seemed like it was eons away from whatever was happening in front of him.

"Ugh, stupid brother. We need to head out now so hurry up and make up your mind. I will not stay here to wait for you anymore."

Liza threatened and for the first time in her life, she saw her brother look at her with an annoyed expression.

Her brother, who always looked calm and collected, finally looked annoyed enough to give Liza a look and then some.

"Just wait a few minutes and allow me to gather my thoughts. I promise to help you out once I am done, alright?"

Khole sounded annoyed but ended at the same time. For the first time in her life, Liza felt like she could understand her brother a little bit and that was what caused her to let out a small smile.

Maybe all her misunderstandings regarding her brother had been because she had refused to look at him and not because he was a bad man. Maybe they could finally reach a middle ground and face each other.

And maybe, just maybe, they could both be acknowledged by the family and return home together. Liza was beginning to like that future for herself.

Of course, Khole had his reasons for doing things. But it was better for Liza not to know what he was thinking.