The queen's screeches continued for about five minutes, echoing across the cavern in long, sharp waves that bounced off the walls and returned again and again. The sound was not just loud. It carried weight. It pressed against the mind, scratched at the nerves, and made it hard to think clearly.
Luckily, her army didn't advance.
Reever and Conner stood still, their guards raised, their attention fixed entirely on the massive creature before them. The message she had spoken earlier lingered heavily in their thoughts.
Who were these gods?
And what did it have to do with them?
For a while, Reever believed the queen was being influenced by something. The way she held her head in pain, the way her voice had changed, the way she spoke in a language that felt too human for a creature like her. All of it pointed to something deeper. Something wrong.
Even though she had said she wouldn't harm them, no one dared to relax. The army behind them remained steady, weapons ready, bodies tense. No one trusted the situation.
After a while, the queen calmed down. Or rather, she stopped screeching. But the calm, composed presence she had shown earlier was gone. The intelligence in her eyes faded, replaced by something far more primal.
Hunger.
Her gaze locked onto them, red slowly creeping into her eyes.
Screech.
She roared, and the sound this time was different. Raw. Violent. Her army responded immediately, shifting and tightening around her as if awaiting an order.
"Wait, do not shoot." Reever quickly raised his hands, signaling the team to hold their fire. He had noticed something. A small change in the queen's expression. Something struggling beneath the surface.
"She is trying to take control of what she is experiencing. If you shoot her, she will lose it and attack us without mercy."
The army hesitated.
True to his words, the queen paused. Her body stiffened mid-motion. For a brief moment, the red in her eyes flickered.
Screech.
She roared again, but this time she lifted herself with her wings instead of charging forward. The air shifted as her massive body rose, and then she turned away. With a sharp motion, she directed her army to follow.
Moments later, the cavern was empty.
Only Conner, Reever, and the army remained.
A long breath escaped Conner as he dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.
"That was close." He clenched his fist, sweat rolling down the side of his face. He was shaken. It was clear.
"If we do not attack the queen, how will we finish the mission? Plus, the message we got earlier… what was it?" He fired the questions quickly, one after another, his voice still unsteady.
Reever stayed silent for a moment, thinking.
"First, I can't be sure if the message was real or fake," he said slowly. "Heck, I am even confused if the queen we saw was real or an illusion."
He unsummoned his trident and looked back at the army behind them. Because they were controlled, they showed no fear. Their expressions remained blank, steady, almost unnatural. Still, Reever himself felt the pressure of what had just happened. Being surrounded earlier had left a mark.
"But what we need to do is slowly follow them," he continued. "We have to kill them so as to finish this mission."
He remained alert, ready to react at the smallest change.
Just then, the system chimed again.
The sound cut sharply through the silence.
[ Congratulations Darmin Slayer for killing the queen and her army.
You have been awarded 100,000,000 points.]
"What the f**k is going on." Conner cursed immediately, his head snapping up as he listened to the message.
Reever frowned. His mind started working fast, trying to connect everything.
"Something is definitely messing with us," he muttered. "Maybe even the queen we saw wasn't real. But what could be doing this?"
He scratched the side of his helmet, a habit he had picked up whenever he was thinking too much. After a moment, he shook his head.
"We are in an illusion. Someone or something is messing with our perspective and reality. For f**k's sake, we might even be trapped."
"Impossible." Conner frowned deeply. "The armor I have here is of mystique rank and it negates any mind influence I experience. This is something else at play."
He fell into silence after that, his thoughts turning inward as he tried to make sense of it.
Reever summoned his system panel and looked at the number of points he had.
[ 20,012,000 points.]
The points were real.
He checked his inventory. He had fewer explosives than before. That meant the battles he remembered had actually happened.
These were not fake gains.
"Then how did it come to this?" he thought. "How are they being controlled without noticing? Was it the queen messing with them… or another player playing around?"
He remembered how he used his camouflage skill to haunt enemies. To confuse them. To make them panic. But he only did that to people he considered threats.
Had he created an enemy without realizing it?
Or maybe it was Conner.
Reever slowly turned his head and looked at him. Even though Conner claimed to be from a Mythical-ranked family, Reever had never fully believed him. Something always felt slightly off. And Conner definitely had more than one skill. That much was obvious.
Maybe he wasn't as honest as he seemed.
The thought settled in his mind for a second.
Then he stiffened.
"No."
He caught himself.
"Something is messing with my thoughts and is trying to disunite my team."
The realization made him more alert. That sudden suspicion had come too quickly. Too naturally.
He lifted his head and carefully scanned the surroundings, every movement slow and controlled.
For once, he was at a loss.
Nothing made sense.