Chapter 65: Why did I?
Jaden didn’t know how much time had passed. All he remembered was the cold. The cold that ravaged his body without end; he felt as if he’d been cast into an icy hell.
He couldn’t move, his vision was blurry, and the cold gripped him so badly that even letting out a sound was as hard as carrying the weight of the world.
Everything froze for him, his emotions, his thoughts, his current memories... The only thing that remained was the soul chilling cold.
The mystical blue liquid, which was the melted form of [All-severing Moonlight (Replica)], continued to seep deeper and deeper.
It began with skin, then seeped into muscles, bones, marrow—until finally it reached his very being, his soul, his seed of existence. However, the deeper it went, the colder he felt, and for the first time... he didn’t hate dying; instead, he welcomed it with open arms.
***
Navin stood in front of Arden and Jamie, defending them from the onslaught of Jaden’s crystalline reflection.
Shelly and Selina used their respective spells to wound or outright kill as many reflections as possible; however, with each reflection they destroyed, a new one was born.
"Augh! How much fucking time is that bastard going to take?" Jamie questioned loudly as his lightning arrow pierced the shoulder of a reflection before them.
Hearing him, Selina glanced towards Jaden, who was still binding himself with the [All-severing Moonlight]. And was now trapped within a moonlight crystal.
"I-it can’t be... I must’ve seen something wrong."
Her face went pale as she hurriedly killed the reflection before her and turned to take a better look at Jaden.
But looking at it twice didn’t change anything because all she saw was Jaden, whose body was trapped in a moonlight crystal and had turned deep blue.
"N-no... it cannot be, it can’t end like this, NOT LIKE THIS!" she shouted in disbelief as her eyes brimmed with tears.
Hearing her voice, others also turned their heads towards the altar, and all of them had a similar reaction; Shelly’s already pale face turned even paler.
"What the fuck?!" Jamie cursed as he looked at Jaden with a dumbstruck expression.
Soon, a thoughtful look appeared on his face as he mumbled.
"What is he doing?"
Arden, who heard him, looked at him with a frown as he questioned.
"What are you talking about? Can’t you see he is trapped?" His face turned furious at the end because of Jamie’s indifferent reaction.
Jamie looked at him before shaking his head and responding.
"He must be planning something, just trust him."
Arden’s expression worsened; he mumbled, "What are you talking about?"
"Oh! For fuck’s sake, just wait for it." Jamie replied in annoyance, and he loosened the string of his bow.
Arden also stopped questioning and focused on shooting at the reflections.
’Why can’t things just go well for once?’ Navin thought as he killed one of the reflections by piercing its head with his spear, which was barely hanging on.
The same was true for everyone’s armour and weapons; all of them were barely holding together.
Selina looked at the reflection before her with a furious expression and swung at it with all of her strength; however, her anger didn’t help her defeat the reflection; instead, the reflection easily dodged her attack and kicked her in the abdomen.
"Ugh!" A groan escaped her lips as she skidded a few steps back. This, however, didn’t calm her; instead, it worsened her anger.
"Why did I do it? It’s all because of me. Only if I hadn’t forced us into the dream realm. Only if I hadn’t listened to that guy," she mumbled darkly as she attacked again.
She attacked like a wild beast, without any technique or rhythm—and it began to take a toll; the reflection dodged all of her fatal attacks.
Seeing that, Selina lifted her free hand to cast a spell, but the reflection shifted and grabbed hold of her free hand, lifting her and slamming her to the ground with all of its might.
"Guhk!" She coughed up blood, and her vision began to blur.
"Why... did I...?"
She mumbled as her eyelids turned heavy.
The reflection walked towards her and lifted its hand, the hand turned into a sharp spike before it swung at Selina.
Just as its spike was about to reach Selina, a pair of daggers stopped it and sliced it off before attacking the reflection and slicing it into two.
"Young lady!" Shelly called out worriedly as she checked on Selina.
Selina slowly opened her eyes and looked at Shelly with tears as she questioned.
"Why did I do it?"
Shelly looked into her eyes and stood up as she muttered flatly.
"I don’t know why you did it. But you can’t give up just because of it, you put everyone into danger, so you must take them all out."
Selina sighed and pushed herself back to her feet.
"You are right... I apologise for showing such a shameful side of mine."
The reflections that were attacking them suddenly stopped and turned towards the moonlight crystal that trapped Jaden.
The crystal was pulsating blue; soon, cracks began to appear on its surface, and each crack turned the hall darker.
Jaden opened his eyes, and the crystal burst apart. His face held no expression, and there wasn’t much change in his body either... it just appeared much robust. He lowered his head and looked at his fist. He clenched it and spoke in a low voice.
"Burst."
The hall suddenly grew colder. The reflections burst apart, melting into crystalline liquid. The crystalline liquid wiggled and moved towards the others and covered them, taking the form of armour and weapon.
Everyone looked at the strange phenomenon, with widened eyes, before their eyes stopped on Jaden. Selina had already begun running towards him with tearful eyes.
She walked onto the altar and hugged him, her tears froze under the cold emitted from his body, but she didn’t let go.