Chapter 201: I shouldn’t... be here

The chef was the first to wake up. Having never experienced anything particularly traumatic, the illusion had little effect on him.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t of any help to Eva, so he could only watch Julian and Ethan diligently, allowing Eva to focus fully on the fight.

The battle against the sunflowers was reaching a deadly climax.

Eva staggered on her feet, her face pale and her clothes soaked in her own blood and the green fluid from the sunflowers.

Her breaths came in heavy pants as she struggled to stay conscious; around her lay heaps of destroyed sunflowers.

The sheer number of corpses showed how brutal the battle was, but it did nothing to slow the sunflowers ahead.

"When... will they... stop? Haa... I can’t hold on much longer," Eva murmured hoarsely, her hand numb from gripping her weapon for so long.

At that moment, she realized her powers weren’t limitless. Although she could absorb energy to replenish what she had expended, she couldn’t do so indefinitely.

Constantly drawing in energy would eventually overtax her powers, and she had already reached that point.

Eva’s power core beside her heart had dimmed, fading from a gleaming emerald to a lifeless rock. Now she couldn’t even summon a flicker of her powers.

Fortunately, her other power remained, or she would have fainted.

Eva felt that her water powers were completely useless in her current situation. She assumed they were incapable of dealing any deadly damage to the man-eating flowers—if anything, it seemed like she was simply watering them.

So she had no choice but to fight with her shoulder-length sword.

Sidestepping an attack, she swung her weapon through the air, slashing the sunflower in two, then staggered forward from exhaustion.

This couldn’t continue, or they would all die here. The realization made her heart sink. She looked toward the unconscious men and wondered if she should abandon the fight and escape with them.

But when she saw the countless swaying sunflowers surrounding them, she shook her head in despair. If she were escaping alone, there might be at least a ten percent chance of success. But trying to take all of them with her would be nothing short of suicide.

’Hold on until the next day, and you can hide out in your space,’ she thought, her grip on her weapon tightening.

Then she searched through her space for a potion she would normally avoid. She needed all the energy she could get to stay on her feet and protect the others.

But after searching for a while, she couldn’t find any, and a sigh escaped her lips.

Then a thought flashed through her mind, and she took a cup from her ring, filled it with her water powers, and took a sip.

As faint powers washed over her, her eyes lit up in elation.

She had thought that since her water could cleanse impurities from the body, it might also be able to relieve her exhaustion and heal her wounds.

"Lucky..." Eva whistled in delight; she felt like the main character at that moment. ℯℯ𝑙.

Who said a passerby couldn’t have a cheat like the main protagonist?

The swaying sunflowers looked at their opponent, who was laughing wildly in the air, with curiosity; they wondered whether their illusion mist had gained the ability to make people mad.

Eva, who had been labeled a madwoman, was still laughing happily. After drinking four cups of water, she felt completely refreshed, her energy fully restored.

She swung her sword through the air and rushed forward, cutting down the sunflowers closest to her. The others tried to entangle her with their roots, their fangs snapping toward every part of her body.

Eva remained unfazed. She skillfully slipped through their encirclement, dodging their attacks while cutting down more sunflowers.

On the boulder, the chef noticed Julian’s fingers twitch. Thinking he had imagined it, he leaned closer to look. A moment later, he saw Julian’s eyelids tremble before his eyes suddenly shot open.

"Young master, you’re awake!" the chef exclaimed, his voice filled with relief.

Julian was disoriented, half of his mind still trapped in the past while the other half struggled to return to the present. It took him a moment to regain his senses before he quickly sat up.

"What happened?! Where’s Eva?!" he asked anxiously when he didn’t see Eva’s figure.

"Madam is fighting over there. Master, you were entrapped in that flower illusion; fortunately, you’re free." The chef explained, pointing to Eva’s figure as it flashed through the crowd of flowers.

Julian disappeared on the spot; the chef blinked, dazed for a moment, only to see Julian standing beside Eva.

"So fast..." The chef trailed off in wonder, then focused his attention on the sleeping Ethan.

Julian’s sudden appearance caught Eva off guard, leaving her too slow to react.

She absentmindedly slashed through the sunflower in front of her before her mind finally registered what had happened.

"You’re awake!" she cried, rushing toward him and wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

"Hmm... sorry for making you wait so long," Julian whispered as he gently caressed her hair.

"Are you alright? You finally broke out of its illusion!" Eva rambled excitedly, her green eyes shining like emeralds in the darkness.

"I’m alright. You can rest now. I’ll take care of the rest." Julian’s eyes filled with heartache as he looked at her bloodstained figure and pale face.

Before Eva could react, Julian teleported her back to the boulder.

"Wait... I—" Eva stammered in confusion, but before she could protest, Julian had already disappeared, leaving her stunned.

’Huh? What just happened?’ A big question mark filled Eva’s mind.

She was happy to see him awake, but being suddenly removed from the fight without her consent left her conflicted.

She didn’t know whether she should be angry with him or not; after all, he was only acting out of concern for her.

"Alright then, I’ll rest for a moment before reentering the battlefield. He can’t handle all the sunflowers himself." She murmured aloud, then turned to check on Ethan.

She stared at his serene face, wondering why he hadn’t woken up yet.

She lightly caressed his face before lying down to rest.

Julian, on the other hand, had entered a slaughter. A huge, hazy clock appeared in the air, and its hands began spinning rapidly. The sunflowers started to wither as time accelerated around them; their once-green leaves turned into dry husks.

The sunflowers sensed the danger the man posed and began to retract a bit, though afraid, they hadn’t given up on their food.

They had been starved for days with no living thing in sight, forgetting they were the ones who had caused their current situation.

More than half of their numbers were wiped out by Julian within seconds. If Eva had witnessed this, she would have pulled her hair out in envy and frustration—he made it look effortless.

Eva, who had planned to rest a bit, fell asleep, clearly exhausted.

While Julian continued killing with ease, his sword was drenched in green liquid, and the ground was littered with heaps of destroyed flowers.

The sunflowers no longer exuded that white mist; they were too caught up in the hunt to care—but the sheer number of their fallen kind made them afraid to come close to Julian.

Eva was like a little demon, and they had barely managed to wear her down. But this man was a great demon—one who had appeared with the sole purpose of wiping them out.

There was no hesitation in his attacks; they were swift, and every slash and stab of his sword felled countless sunflowers in its wake.

They didn’t realize they had touched the past Julian longed to forget, which made him furious; then the icing on the cake was that his wife was covered in injuries they had caused.

Julian felt his blood boil as he recalled the gash on Eva’s shoulder, and his attack grew more brutal.

...

In the illusion world, Ethan lay face down on the exercise mat.

His shoulders were covered in overlapping cane marks, some red and fresh, others faded blue, proof that new wounds had been inflicted before the old ones had a chance to heal.

Two months had passed since his mother’s death, and his father became increasingly cruel in training him.

His interactions with his father grew colder, though his father said not a single word of blame. His every action hinted at it.

This extinguished the last remaining light in Ethan’s eyes. Now, all he could do was train—keep training until he grew stronger, hoping the pain would numb his sorrow and prevent him from remembering that day.

Lost in his melancholy, he saw a strand of green hair flicker through his mind like a fading illusion.

He sat up immediately, groaning in pain as his wounds pulled taut.

Why do I keep seeing that? That person’s hair feels so familiar, he mused. Deep within his mind, he sensed he was missing something important, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t grasp it.

"Eva..." The name slipped from his lips unconsciously, and he froze. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his head.

An image of Eva flashed through his mind for a brief moment before an overwhelming sense of wrongness washed over him. Something about his surroundings felt deeply unnatural.

"I shouldn’t... be here," he whispered shakily, clutching his head in pain before losing consciousness.

In the real world, his eyes suddenly snapped open. The first things he saw were the starless sky above him and the sickening scent of flowers filling the air.