Chapter 122 ‒ The Hall of Regret
Chapter 122 ‒ The Hall of Regret
Tyler trudged forward, each footstep echoing against the maze walls like a lonely drumbeat in a canyon. His legs burned with exhaustion, his armour weighed on him like iron chains, and every breath scraped down his throat like sandpaper. But he kept moving, eyes focused ahead.
The labyrinth twisted endlessly around him, each turn feeling like an accusation, each shadow whispering in voices he thought he’d left behind. The air felt thicker now, tinged with a subtle weight that curled around his ribs and squeezed.
Then, through a narrow corridor, he caught a flicker of movement. A small figure darted out, silhouetted by the glow of distant torches. Tyler’s eyes snapped to it, his heart stuttering.
“Stay away from me!”
The voice — small, trembling, piercing — struck him harder than any blade. Tyler froze in place, fingers slack on his hilts. His visor quivered.
No… it can’t be…
A few steps ahead, Miho stood there, her small frame trembling. Her eyes, wide and wet with tears, locked onto him with raw terror.
“Monster! You destroyed everything! Why are you here?! Go away!”
Tyler stumbled forward, one hand rising weakly as if to reach her. His voice cracked, brittle as shattered glass.
“Miho… please, I… I never meant to—”
But Miho staggered backward, eyes flooding. She shook her head violently, fists clenching at her sides as her cries echoed off the walls.
“No! I can’t forgive you… You took everything! Leave!”
Her words slammed into him, each syllable a hammer blow. His fingers curled into shaking claws as guilt twisted in his gut like a knife.
Before he could take another step, the ground beneath him suddenly gave way. Sand churned like a hungry maw, sucking at his feet and calves, pulling him down slowly, mercilessly. He tried to scramble back, but the sand clung to him, climbing higher, coiling up to his waist.
Miho stood at the edge of the pit, her sobs turning into harsh, cold words that stabbed at his chest.
“This is where you belong… sinking beneath the weight of your sins.”
Tyler gasped, each breath drawing in more grit and dust. He strained his arms, trying to claw his way out, but the sand only swallowed him deeper. Miho’s eyes bored into him — no warmth, no pity, only a mirrored hatred.
“Kill me too! That’s all you’re good at! You think you’re some hero?! You’re just a villain — a monster!”
His vision blurred. Tears spilled past the edges of his visor, leaving salty trails down his cheeks. He bowed his head, his shoulders quivering. Every word she threw at him felt like a brand searing into his flesh.
A shuddering sob clawed up from his throat. Slowly, as if moving underwater, he raised one hand above the sand, embers beginning to pulse in his palm.
Miho leaned forward, voice twisted and sharp as broken glass.
“Yes! Do it! Destroy me like you destroyed everyone else!”
The flames danced higher, swirling around his fingers like a cruel halo. Tyler’s breath shuddered, and for a moment, it seemed like he might drop his hand.
But then, his fingers snapped closed.
[Activated Skill: Firestorm]
A wild torrent of flames exploded from his palm, spiralling outward in a devastating swirl. The sand pit roared as it ignited, molten glass and superheated air crackling beneath him. The heat climbed, wrapping around Miho’s illusion, setting her fragile form ablaze.
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Her burning silhouette stood for a brief, eternal heartbeat, eyes wide in a final, silent scream — before crumbling away, reduced to drifting particles of sand.
Tyler hauled himself onto solid ground, his arms and legs shaking violently. He collapsed to his knees, head lowered, shoulders heaving with each ragged breath.
“I’m sorry… Miho… even if it was fake… I’m sorry,” he whispered, the words falling into the empty air like dying embers.
He wiped his tears, leaving smudges on the cracked visor. He rose shakily to his feet and pushed forward, each step a battle against his own faltering spirit.
The passage twisted again, opening into a wide, dimly lit chamber. Pale sconces burned low along the walls, their flickering flames throwing long, shifting shadows across the sand-covered floor.
At the chamber’s centre stood a figure — tall, armoured in reinforced titanium. A steel sword gleamed in his hand, and his posture was eerily still.
Tyler’s entire body froze. His breath caught in his throat, pain flashing in his chest.
No… not him…
“Milo…” he whispered, the word barely escaping his lips.
The figure’s head lifted slowly, his eyes locking onto Tyler’s. They were filled not with warmth or love, but with a cold, stinging disappointment.
“Tyler…”
Tyler stumbled forward, his hands reaching out as if to grasp a fading dream.
“It’s… it can’t be…”
Milo took a slow, deliberate step forward, his voice heavy with a sadness deeper than any abyss.
“I warned you so many times… I knew such a day would come… but even I didn’t foresee it happening so soon. Tyler… do you know how I felt when I was dying?”
A low hiss rose from the ground. Pale green mist snaked through the chamber, curling around Tyler’s ankles and chest. His skin prickled, lungs tightening painfully.
Milo’s voice dripped into him like acid, each word a poisoned blade.
“Do you know… how painful it was? I was suffocating… my heart was beating too fast, urging me to take longer breaths, but the more I breathed, the worse it got… You… you killed me, Tyler.”
The green mist thickened, roiling around him, pushing into his helmet. Tyler staggered, hands clawing at the straps. He gasped, each inhale tearing at his lungs like fire. His vision blurred, system messages flickering frantically across his system window.
[Status: Affected by [Poison Mist] — Target loses 150 HP per second for 15 seconds.]
He dropped to his knees, eyes wide and wild, tears streaming uncontrollably. His mind began to fray, vision collapsing into dark tunnels. Milo’s figure blurred and wavered. The world tilted and shivered, his thoughts slowing, slipping into a distant, echoing void.
In that haze of poison and grief, a single wish clawed at Tyler’s mind — that desperate wish he had carried all this time. After failing to reach Milo’s spirit at Muckwood, he had wanted, just once, to see Milo again. To hear his voice, even if it was scolding, even if it was filled with hatred. If Milo could just shout at him, curse him, maybe then Tyler could carry a little less guilt. Maybe then he would feel he had atoned, even if only a fraction.
Milo’s voice continued, calm and soft, twisted in its gentleness.
“But Tyler… I do not resent you… You are my brother. So, I forgive you… now let this poison engulf you and cleanse your soul. Then… we can be united again.”
Tyler’s arms dropped limply. The poison carved through his insides, each breath a strangled rasp. Milo’s figure seemed to shimmer and drift, each word echoing as though spoken underwater.
In his mind, Tyler felt a growing silence. The labyrinth’s walls blurred, the flickering torchlight stretched and twisted, colours bleeding together in a fevered haze. His vision began to go dark at the edges. He felt as if he were standing at the bottom of a well, Milo’s voice echoing from far above.
He tried to respond, but his throat closed up, his fingers numb. The sense of weightlessness spread through his limbs, as though the world itself was urging him to surrender, to let go, to drift into the abyss.
Then, cutting through the fog — a voice.
“What are you doing?”
It was faint, but steady. A thread of warmth piercing the cold void.
Tyler’s eyes widened, a tiny spark reigniting behind them. It was Milo’s voice — not the illusion before him, but the real Milo. The Milo he had lost, but who still lived on inside him.
“Live like I’m still watching you… don’t mess it up.”
His trembling fingers twitched. That voice, that warmth, it reached into him like a lifeline. Slowly, his mind pushed back against the poison’s grip. His breathing stuttered, but a stubborn fire started to burn in his chest.
“The Milo I know… would never say something like that…” His lips curled into a snarl, breath ragged but defiant.
[Activated Skill: Undying Tenacity]
A burst of golden light erupted from his core, flooding his veins like molten sunlight. The poison sizzled and evaporated, the green mist recoiling and shrieking as if in pain.
Tyler rose to his feet, eyes locked onto the illusion, tears and sweat mingling on his battered face.
“I’ve had enough of your games… using Miho, then Milo, to break me. You’ve sunk too low — and you’ll pay for it.”
Tyler’s voice echoed through the labyrinth, bouncing back in twisted, hollow reverberations. His fists trembled, but his eyes burned with clarity.
“I will not fall here. Not to ghosts. Not to lies.”
He inhaled deeply, steadying himself as the labyrinth seemed to hold its breath in answer.
Forward… only forward.