Cicada Chrysalis

Even though Weise reacted instantly, her hands lunging for the Watcher's vitals like a viper snapping and a wolf baring its fangs, his speed was vastly superior— *Clack!* The tip of his sword pressed against Weise's throat, pinning her against the wall. There were no flashy, elaborate flourishes. She had clearly perceived that he had simply drawn, extended, and thrust his blade. His physical capabilities hadn't reached an inhuman level either, yet the sequence of his movements was impossibly fast, virtually... It defied all reason, just like Slay All Crows... The Watcher sheathed his blade and proceeded down the passageway without uttering a word. Weise touched her neck and found not a scratch. A flash of realization struck her, and right then, a new notification popped up on her watch: [Cicada Chrysalis: Before the trial resumes, all trial-takers possess a Sanctuary-like barrier—the Cicada Chrysalis—which wards off all damage. Once the trial begins, the Cicada Chrysalis will vanish.] [Metamorphosis: During the corridor trial leading to the Cicada Chrysalis Hall, there is a certain probability that Sanctuary-rank combatants will appear.] As usual, the trial notifications were stingy with details, yet these key pieces of information were enough for Weise to grasp the crux of this third stage: cooperation and betrayal. The existence of the Cicada Chrysalis ensured that, prior to the trial, they wouldn't have to worry about being assassinated by other participants. However, the enemy's strength scaling up to the Sanctuary rank meant they would have to cooperate sincerely if they were to have any hope of clearing it. Yet her current teammate was no longer her thoroughly understood Fate Twin. Instead, he was the competitor she had been fighting tooth and nail against for the past two days—Yaxiu's half, the Watcher! Although she hadn't interacted with the Watcher much, Yaxiu had already revealed most of his personality traits in the Void Realm. Setting aside subjective impressions like 'tsundere,' Weise had a crystal-clear understanding of the Watcher: calm, cold-blooded, unmoved by external circumstances, and unburdened by emotion. By all accounts, the Watcher sounded like the 'true Yaxiu' she needed. Yet he not only protected Yaxiu, but also managed to maintain a good relationship with him, proving he was still intoxicated by the illusions Yaxiu spun. As an artificially manifested Fate Twin, the Watcher was, at most, an inept counterfeit of the 'true Yaxiu'—nothing more than a lightweight in the end. Though imperfect, he was exceedingly troublesome as an adversary. Weise understood the mindset of such people all too well: pacts and alliances were meaningless; they believed only in their own judgment. One second he might choose to cooperate with Weise, and the next he could betray her—so long as the stakes were high enough! If the Cicada Chrysalis could remain indefinitely, they might still have had a foundation for cooperation, since they couldn't harm each other. Yet once the trial began, the Cicada Chrysalis would vanish, and friendly fire would be enabled. When that happened, a single thrust from the Watcher could pin her dead against the wall! Of course, Weise's hands could just as easily crush his throat at any moment! Would she dare entrust her back to the Watcher during combat, rather than reserving three-tenths of her attention for the enemy and seven-tenths for him? Would the Watcher dare fight with reckless abandon, rather than keeping his eyes glued to her every move? Under such circumstances, how much of their true strength could they even muster? What was most intriguing was that Sanctuary Sorcerers only had a probability of appearing; their arrival wasn't guaranteed. With their current prowess, even taking on a Two-Winged Sorcerer in single combat wasn't entirely hopeless. In other words, the Watcher might gamble on a Sanctuary Sorcerer not appearing at all, assassinate her right in the middle of battle, and clear the trial entirely on his own. Not having to worry about a teammate's backstab might actually be safer. Weise harbored the exact same thought. Naturally, she wouldn't take that gamble herself, but she hoped Youlan would take the chance and find an opportunity to stab Yaxiu in the back mid-battle. At this moment, Weise suddenly grasped the malice and mockery hidden within the mechanics of this trial. First came the Dormant Cicada Hall, where they were bound to meet and clash in a chaotic melee, sowing mutual enmity. Then came the Cicada Hall, where all the twins were separated and forced into solo free-for-alls. And now, on the way to the Cicada Chrysalis Hall, they were forced to swap partners with the very enemies they had clashed with over the previous two days—confronting the threat of Sanctuary Sorcerers while constantly guarding against betrayal from their supposed allies. Fortunately, there were only two pairs in this trial. Back during the heyday of the Grey Fox Divine Era, when sixteen pairs vied for the divine fire, the sheer scale of deception and mutual paranoia would have made one's scalp tingle just thinking about it. At the same time, a trace of doubt surfaced in Weise's heart. The mechanics of Dormant Cicada and Cicada Hall were one thing; they could be explained as unavoidable 'trials of death' meant to weed out anyone who wasn't prime divine fire material. But the Cicada Chrysalis mechanism felt like unadulterated malice, almost as if it had been designed specifically to expose the participants' ugliest sides. Were the followers of the grand laws in the Grey Fox Divine Era truly this dark-hearted...? At that point, Weise followed the Watcher to a door. The automatic door slid open, and their watches chimed with a notification that they had entered a lounge. Unlike the previous lounge, however, this one was divided into a living room and two separate bedrooms. Weise breathed an immediate sigh of relief. The Grey Fox sorcerers at least possessed some decency; during rest periods, the occupants could at least be separated without having to constantly guard against the other. If she had been forced to share a single room with an enemy, entering the Void Realm would have been out of the question. Even while sleeping, she would have had to keep one eye open, not daring to take off her fox mask, let alone relax her mind. After all, he wasn't Yaxiu... *Click.* The Watcher stepped quietly into his room and shut the door tight. Weise let out a heavy breath and entered the other bedroom to look for bandages to tend to her wounds. Although she had injured Yaxiu, he had left plenty of marks on her as well. Taking off her fox mask, Weise stripped off the clothes Yaxiu had shredded to tatters, revealing bruises all over her body. Looking at herself in the mirror, an odd thought occurred to her: perhaps this was the true meaning of the Cicada Chrysalis. It allowed participants to seal themselves away in independent chambers, sheltered inside a Sanctuary-like barrier, thereby attaining a rare moment of serenity to complete their self-metamorphosis within the solitary cocoon. Suddenly, the corners of Weise's lips curved upward as she thought of something amusing. She realized that just as she had lost Youlan, Yaxiu had lost the Watcher. *Yaxiu, you've finally lost the only half you could rely on.* *Are you bound inside your chrysalis just like me?* *** "Ow! Easy, that hurts, ow!" "Who could be so cruel? Absolutely inhumane! It hurts just looking at it..." In the living room of their lounge, Yaxiu turned his head, staring resentfully at Youlan's fox mask. Youlan tilted her head. "Ah, looks like the other me did that. Hmm, looking closely, it's actually quite artistic. Doesn't this bruise look like a violet...?" "Don't poke it!" Yaxiu sucked in a sharp breath. After fiddling for quite a while, she finally finished bandaging the wound. Yaxiu gently rotated his left arm. "It still aches a bit. It might affect tomorrow's first trial. When the time comes..." "Leave it to me!" Youlan rolled up her sleeve and flexed her baby-soft bicep. "As long as it's not a Sanctuary Sorcerer, I can handle it all by myself!" "I do believe in your strength." Yaxiu glanced at her. "After fighting the Watcher, you not only escaped intact, but completely unscathed... Good thing I wasn't the one who ran into you earlier, or I'd definitely have been beaten to death." "Not at all! The Watcher was just showing tender pity for the fair sex and held back. Don't let his cold exterior fool you; he actually knows how to treat girls gently." Youlan waved her hand dismissively. "I'm super weak, really." "I agree with pretty much everything you said," Yaxiu noted, "except that last sentence." "Sounds like you're still on guard against me." Youlan feigned dejection. "Sigh, I understand, though. After all, I'm the half of that Silver Lantern. It's only natural for you to be wary of me. "If I were in your shoes and encountered the half of a vile, ruthless, cold-blooded, and thoroughly wicked enemy, I'd certainly be on high alert too. I wouldn't trust a single punctuation mark that came out of her mouth." Yaxiu blinked. "You're being remarkably harsh on Silver Lantern..." Youlan shook her head and giggled. "I'm not badmouthing Silver Lantern, you know... But I get it. I'll scurry off to my bedroom right now and stay out of your sight until tomorrow morning. As for the third stage trial, just stay behind me the whole time. If I stand behind you, you'll definitely suspect I have sinister motives and want to backstab you..." Seeing her make a show of leaving, Yaxiu quickly reached out and pressed her down. "If I were guarding against you, I wouldn't have asked you to help bandage me up." "You're only letting me touch you so freely because of the Cicada Chrysalis's protection." Youlan's tongue suddenly turned sharp. "If you didn't have the Cicada Chrysalis, would you dare place your neck in my hands?" "Of course... not." "I knew it." Youlan let out a coquettish huff, but then repeated in a suddenly lowered voice, "I knew it." "So, doesn't that make this our best opportunity?" "Hm?" "With the protection of the Cicada Chrysalis, we finally don't have to fear harming each other," Yaxiu said. "Perhaps that's why the trial suddenly threw in this partner swap." Youlan shook her head. "I don't follow. Isn't the partner swap meant to ramp up the difficulty of our trial?" Yaxiu shook his head. "A chrysalis is an indispensable step before metamorphosis. Six hours from now, when the trial resumes, our Cicada Chrysalis will vanish... Thinking of it that way, isn't the meaning behind the Cicada Chrysalis obvious? "The Cicada Chrysalis is an opportunity granted by the trial for us to understand each other, an opportunity for mutual metamorphosis," Yaxiu said. "Let's have a good talk, Mirror Master."