Chapter 68: Family
"Marissa! Where are you going!? And who is he?" Robert’s voice rang through the burning trees as he finally skidded to a stop. His breath was ragged, chest heaving from the sprint—and yet none of that compared to the weight of what he was seeing.
There she was, just ahead.
But the woman beside the cloaked man wasn’t the Marissa he knew.
He had expected soft brown eyes filled with warmth, a gentle smile that once healed every wound in his soul. But instead, what stared back at him was... wicked.
Her eyes now glowed an eerie crimson. Her once tender expression had twisted into something cruel, almost inhuman. Her smile curled like a demon’s- sharp, venomous and mocking.
Robert’s heart clenched.
This wasn’t his wife. And yet... she wore her face.
"W-why?" His voice cracked. "Why do you look like Marissa... but feel nothing like her?!"
He instinctively drew his blade, the steel humming with his sword aura. Light flared across its length as his [Falcon Focus] skill activated, his eyes glowing faintly blue with heightened perception. Anger and sorrow churned in his gut like wildfire.
The woman gave a mocking smirk, eyes glinting like blood under moonlight.
"The Marissa you knew?" she said coldly.
"She’s gone. She was never real to begin with."