Chapter 28
"I won't say anything more—no need to waste time. Let's begin the final trial now. Although the last one didn't fully follow the rules, you still managed to pass..."
The tall, brown-haired Tagitsu-hime was the first to speak. Before Zixu could react, she moved like a gust of wind, pouncing on his back and gripping his shoulders with an iron-like hold. Her face tilted upward, her jaw stretching unnaturally wide—revealing a horrifying maw of razor-sharp fangs, as if a snake's upper half had merged with a human's skin. It was unsettling to behold.
"Ding! Ding!" A metallic clang echoed from Zixu's neck.
Tagitsu-hime's expression flickered with surprise. Though she had restrained her strength to avoid piercing his throat, she hadn't expected his defenses to hold up this well. His physique was already far stronger than most who had taken the Ryūchi Cave trial.
But she wasn't some ordinary being—she had lived for thousands of years. Without hesitation, she struck again, this time with more force.
A sudden, numbing chill spread through Zixu's neck, like an electric shock. Then, his consciousness faded into darkness.
There was nothing he could do—these were monsters who had lived for millennia. No matter how he looked at it, he stood no chance at his current level.
As Zixu's body hit the ground, unconscious, Ichikishima-hime—the petite, purple-haired snake princess—relaxed her pout. With a small, satisfied huff, she threw a light punch in the air toward Zixu's fallen form. That was the extent of her reaction.
Inside the Illusion
A dizzying sensation washed over Zixu, like his body was being violently spun inside a washing machine. When he finally came to, the snake princesses were nowhere in sight.
The ruins of the forked path still lay before him, but after experiencing so many powerful illusions, Zixu could sense it—this was just another trick.