Wind magic enveloped the two, hurtling them toward their destination. The fourth floor, the third... the second floor was almost there.
Just as they rounded the corner, Qi Zhimu began to brake sharply, but a withered, sharp claw pierced through the wall first, stabbing into his side.
Blood quickly soaked through his clothes.
Qi Zhimu let out a soft groan, his brow merely furrowing as if it wasn't his own stomach that had been impaled.
Do you really think you're an assassin?
He abandoned the idea of slowing down, using the surge of pain to burst forth with unprecedented speed.
"Hold on tight, kid!"
Wind pressure blasted a vacuum in the surrounding area as a cyan afterimage, nearly impossible to track with the naked eye, rushed toward that ignored floor.
Blood was splattered all along the way.
When the two finally stood on the first half of the stairs at the entrance of the starting floor, the air distorted without warning—
Two ghosts, which should have been behind them, actually appeared out of thin air to Qi Zhimu's left and right.
Four withered, bony claws, like two pairs of closing scissors, were about to snap him in half at the waist.
In a flash, Qi Zhimu saw the image of the next instant: the Mirror Ghost, with its limits completely removed, would pierce through both him and Herta together.
"Get in!"
A look of ruthlessness flashed in Qi Zhimu's eyes. The outer layer of wind became extremely gentle, enveloping the girl in his arms and sending her toward the closed door like a bullet from a gun.
Bang!
The door was knocked open. Herta landed with the help of the gentle wind and immediately looked outside the door, only to hear the hair-raising sound of bones cracking first.
Four withered claws dug into Qi Zhimu's arms, brutally twisting off both of his forearms at the elbows!
Blood stained more than half the wall, turning the area near the stairs into a slaughterhouse.
Any ordinary person would have fainted from the pain by now.
But Qi Zhimu gave an abnormal smile, one that was arrogant and unbridled.
The moment his arms were severed, his magic lost its guidance, forming a terrifying wind vortex under the control of a frantic will.
Within the vortex, hundreds of wind blades spun at high speed, cutting indiscriminately without distinguishing between friend or foe!
The shrill scream of the air being torn apart drowned out everything else.
The two nearby ghosts didn't last even half a second before they were turned into minced meat in the brutal web of wind blades.
But this couldn't kill them at all.
In less than a second, the gray mist formed from the minced meat rolled rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, it was about to condense into four terrifying figures.
From one to two, and now from two to four.
The faster the Mirror Ghost's fake bodies died, the faster the people would die too.
Qi Zhimu's gaze sharpened. Taking advantage of the fact that the Mirror Ghost's splitting and rebirth were not yet complete, he swept up the two severed arm segments from the ground, and with a huge thrust from an explosion beneath his feet, he dove into the starting floor.
In that instant, it was as if he had crossed the boundary between life and death.
Ignoring the bloodstains all over his body, he immediately looked back.
Four hideous ghosts stood outside the door frame, less than two meters away.
Their dripping, withered claws were still waving frantically, but they seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier. No matter how much they hissed and roared, they couldn't advance an inch.
"Ha... haha! Just as you expected, not bad, kid!"
Qi Zhimu slumped down, and a faint paleness began to surface on his face.
Blood flowed down from the stumps of his arms, but the expression on his face was much like that of a player who had just cleared a game on hell difficulty.
Satisfying.
Seeing Herta staring at him in a daze, Qi Zhimu moved his partial arms and took out all the Art Mirrors.
"Time to get to work."
His words were urging, yet they carried a forced, casual tone.
On Herta's small face, which usually showed little emotion, there was now an expression of indescribable trembling.
Qi Zhimu's empty sleeves and the two severed arms on the ground made her mind constantly replay the scene of him sending her in first.
She said nothing and began to assemble the Art Mirrors.
Her movements were so fast and steady, as if she were racing against time to save someone.
Soon, the five mirrors were snapped together in their correct positions.
Click.
The final crisp sound fell; it had taken less than twenty seconds.
Space began to vibrate. The assembled mirrors formed the shape of a door, which quickly stood upright and then swung open to reveal a pitch-black entrance, leading to an unknown depth.
"Go!"
Qi Zhimu rushed into the door with Herta.
The world behind the door was narrow and oppressive, with only a highly decomposed corpse hanging from the ceiling by iron chains.
The corpse's neck was intact. Even though its body was rotting and infested with maggots, its cloudy eyeballs stared fixedly at the intruders, and its entire body emitted a nauseating stench and chill.
Qi Zhimu hadn't expected that the Mirror Ghost's true body would be so... ordinary.
But it was this very thing that had created the fake bodies that had chased them like rats across these sixty floors for over ten hours.
The frustration accumulated during the pursuit exploded, and a fire rose in Qi Zhimu's heart.
"Die!"
Violent flames condensed into a longsword that pierced through the corpse, and then—
Boom!
Flames surged. Under the incineration of the high-temperature fire, the Mirror Ghost's true body turned to ash in just a few breaths.
The office building scene peeled off and disintegrated inch by inch, like a shattered mirror.
[Congratulations on clearing Life-taking Mirror Shadow.]
A familiar notification sound surfaced in Herta's mind, followed by an intense white light that was blinding.
When her vision cleared again, a dry and desolate wind, mixed with grit, hit her face.
The sensation beneath her feet was no longer marble or floor tiles, but a rough asphalt road surface covered in cracks.
A long-abandoned highway stretched into the distance, with weeds stubbornly poking through the gaps in the road.
"Phew... it's finally over."
Qi Zhimu sat down on the rusted guardrail by the side of the road and let out a long breath.
Just as he was about to make a few jokes, he noticed Herta staring blankly at his severed arms, her gaze so complex it made him feel uncomfortable all over.
—It seemed to be a mix of guilt, gratitude, and a hint of lingering fear.
"Hey, hey, don't look at me like that."
Qi Zhimu whistled with feigned ease. With a slight thought, the wind lifted the two severed arm segments, making them hover in mid-air.
"I'm a Virtual Substance Lifeform. You should know that this little injury is nothing to me. I'll just sew them back, and in the end, there won't even be a scar."
Herta certainly knew about the traits of Virtual Substance Lifeforms, but... seeing someone get their arms torn off to protect her with her own eyes, that kind of impact couldn't be smoothed over by a few lines of lore.
The vast majority of people in the Azure Star United Government were far inferior even to Virtual Substance Lifeforms.
Herta's dry lips moved slightly; a "thank you" was already at the tip of her tongue.
Qi Zhimu seemed to have long anticipated what she would say, and he glared at her with a warning look in his eyes.
"Stop right there."
He turned his head away, his tone full of disdain.
"Don't give me that sentimental crap. Saving you was only because I didn't want to break our agreement. I prefer practical action over cheap verbal thanks."
...I saw some real trash on Bilibili. Giving a heads-up to readers who like browsing fanworks to avoid this landmine; it's called "The Unfinished Book."
Haji Huan decided to end the previous book because he was afraid of not writing the Amphoreus characters well. As for the character plots in this one, there's no space to describe them in the game, so I have to put an OOC warning at the start of the first chapter.
That video was just ridiculous. It made all the Chrysos Heirs completely unrecognizable, just using their names while the character cores were severely deviated.
Only Mydei and Hyacine, who haven't appeared yet, escaped the disaster.
Here are some examples: Phainon said, 'It wasn't Destruction that chose me, it was I who chose Destruction,' and even pushed a CP with Cery.
They even added a twin setting for Cery, doing that whole Furina thing.
Cyrene became the mastermind big villain.
Long Night Moon warned Stelle that Memi, who kindly calls you 'partner' in the original work, isn't a good person. My blood pressure was rising just watching it; what a way to start the New Year with such bad luck.
Avoid it at all costs. If you like the original characterizations and come across it, don't watch. Just dislike and block.
Look at my cute Herta to wash your eyes.