CHAPTER 313: THE MOUSE IN THE TRAP [1]

Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.

The words kept echoing in my mind, a frantic drumbeat against the sudden, icy calm I forced over my features.

I didn’t expect him to figure out the mirror’s true purpose so quickly. The final step was to confirm my suspicions about his true identity silently and act accordingly later.

This... was a small but also a big mistake on my part.

...Think, think...

I slowly turned toward Ossian and met his gaze, my expression a mask of serene curiosity. I slowly lowered the mirror.

"So, this is his true form, Senior?" I asked, keeping my voice steady. "The Architect of Discord, I mean. And it seems you remembered wrong previously."

"..."

For a heartbeat, there was only the oppressive silence of the bone chamber.

Ossian kept staring at me, and I didn’t dare avert my gaze.

"Hehe," Ossian then chuckled, leaning back. The sound held genuine amusement now, entirely different from the warmth he’d been projecting since the beginning.

"You’re still going to keep pretending?" His voice also changed dramatically, the benevolent guardian persona melting away like mist under a harsh sun. The weariness and vulnerability were gone, replaced by malevolent and unsettling amusement. Yeah, just like that voice in my head just now. "Even now, looking upon the truth, you play your little game of masks. Though I must admit... I’m impressed."

He leaned forward, and the shadows in the chamber seemed to lean with him, deepening and thickening around his skeletal form. The surroundings went pitch black, leaving me in his domain.

The violet light in his sockets intensified, no longer the soft glow of a weary sentinel but the piercing gaze of a predator.

"Tell me, little one," his voice echoed both in my mind and from all directions, the endearment now laced with dark curiosity. "When did you know? Was it my touching story of brotherly betrayal? The conveniently weakening seal? Or... was it simply that you are too clever for your own good?"

...

Should I answer truthfully or keep pretending?

Urgh...

..Alright, I just need to keep stalling. Maybe I can learn a thing or two from him.

"...You were too eager to let us take away the relic," I finally replied after taking a deep breath. "It seems like being trapped too long here had worn out your patience."

I wasn’t lying, not really.

Because I never let my guard down from the moment I saw him. Because there were many scenarios where the guardians or characters like him would end up being evil villains. I didn’t want to make a foolish mistake and free a dangerous entity that could be acting to trick us, putting ourselves and the whole world in danger.

And... I ended up being right, in the worst possible way.

The first crack in his performance was when I’d observed that supposedly desperate battle was a little too perfectly timed. The way the ’abyssal monsters’ had conveniently attacked just as he finished his tragic story, giving him a chance to show off his power and act as ’proof’.

However, the way their forms, under the timely activation of Exorcist’s Gaze, hadn’t felt quite right. I couldn’t pierce through it completely, but there were signs of it being an illusion, a high-tier one at that.

Then came the next cracks - the lies and the truths.

Four separate times, I’d caught inconsistencies with Discerning Gaze’s lie detection effect.

First, when he’d claimed he wouldn’t ’eat’ us. That was... true, which led me to doubt myself.

Second, when he described the shield’s effects, that was... also true. Which led me to make a change in my plan. I had purposefully asked for such a relic.

Third was when he said ten years... The lens said it was the truth. But the Discerning said the opposite. Which made me figure out the lens was fake, or he was somehow controlling it. It further strengthened my suspicions.

The fourth time was when he described the Architect of Discord’s appearance, which was a lie.

Coupled with the fact that basic status reveal didn’t work on him, his hidden, shrewd, manipulative personality, and his utterly believable, heartbreaking performance... the pieces had formed an undeniable truth.

Ossian wasn’t just hiding something...

He wasn’t the Warden he claimed to be.

He was the prisoner.

The ’Nexus Stone’ wasn’t the lock’s power source; it was the lock.

That is precisely why he wanted us to remove it so desperately, why he created such a perfect play.

Worst of all...

I nearly believed his words and performance. If not for my knowledge of-

"Ah, now I know!" Ossian’s exclamation jolted me out of my thoughts. Thankfully, I never took my eyes off him. "Your eyes, they were different that time, weren’t they~ Your expression was different too, though you quickly masked it. I guess that ’coincedental breach’ was a bit overexaggerated for my own good. A shame~ It was such a beautifully staged battle, don’t you think?"

...Damn, he’s spot on.

He sighed playfully.

"But you are correct, patience was never my strongest virtue. Five hundred thousand years of solitude does make one... eager for company. And of course for freedom. Tough, I don’t believe it was really half a million years."

...Does he have lie detection ability too...

Then... Was I playing in his hands from the beginning?

"And here we are," Ossian said, his voice now a symphony of whispers that seemed to come from the bones themselves. "The clever little mouse who found the trap. Tell me, what do you intend to do now? You are in my domain. The exit is sealed. Your power is suppressed."

He spread his massive claws, and the void in his chest swirled like a hungry galaxy.

"You have uncovered the truth. Congratulations. Now, let’s see what you can possibly do with it."

"..."

I went silent.

The cold, hard truth of his words settled in my gut like a stone.

He is right. There is nothing I can do.

The realization hit harder than a physical blow.

...The suppression field neutralized our auras. The exit was gone, sealed by his will. We were in the heart of his power, surrounded by the bones of a world he had helped to destroy...

Every tool he gave us was likely cursed or flawed, designed to serve his purpose in the end. Even the brilliant deduction I’d felt so clever making...

...Had he planned it too?