Elena, suppressing her anger, walked downstairs and slowly made her way towards the corridor. Before reaching the long corridor, under the huge gothic oval window, the Blood Disaster Flower slowly turned its "head", opened its dense eyes, and spoke from the central slit. "Hello, beautiful princess. How can I be of service to you?"
Elena gave it a disgusted look and was about to walk away but stopped. "Surely it can't see you, right?" "Of course not. You shouldn't doubt my power, evil princess," the Dark Lord said matter-of-factly.
[Blood Disaster Flower SAN -1] "Erm... Excuse me, princess, who are you talking to?" "Ha ha, just talking to myself," Elena gave her a kind smile.
[Blood Disaster Flower SAN -0.1] "Princess, your smile... is terrifying." "I have a question," Elena said in confusion. "If I give you a piece of meat that satisfies you, will you do something for me?"
The dense eyes of the Blood Disaster Flower immediately started spinning! "Of course, my beautiful princess! As long as I can do it, I won't hesitate!" the Blood Disaster Flower said solemnly. "But, what I'm best at is eating all kinds of meat. And to be honest, princess, I think your meat is quite good," the Blood Disaster Flower grinned sheepishly.
"I see. I'll find you when I need you," Elena said and turned to leave. "Hey, hey! Princess! That is, your eyeballs can also—" "It really doesn't know how to talk," the Lord of Fear said beside Elena. "It's just a flower. It can talk already, that's pretty good." "I can make it mute. How about that?" "If you try to deceive me again about the remaining two contracts, I'll stick garlic up your nose." "Too bad, there's no garlic in the vampire castle." "No wonder I've felt so tasteless these years."
Soon, Elena reached the third picture in the corridor. [Portrait: Clever Gnome] Elena knew of course that what she saw was just an illusion, but she had to figure out whether the words of the [Illusory Mirror] were true or false. So, she faced the portrait and started to fix her hair. The portrait hung quietly... Elena was stunned and looked at her face again carefully. The portrait hung quietly... Elena was suddenly lost in thought. Why didn't it react this time? She took a deep breath and straightened the wrinkles of her clothes in front of the portrait, smiling and saying, "What a nice mirror." The portrait hung quietly... Elena's bloodshot eyes widened. What's going on?! I've clearly seen through its pretense, yet it dares to ignore me?!
"Hey! Stop pretending, you delusional mirror! I know you're not a painting at all, but a mirror!!" Elena was so angry that she kept slapping it with her palm. The portrait hung there quietly...
"I must say, although you're evil, you're a shrewd princess," the Lord of Darkness said beside her, "Could you tell me how you, as the lowest and weakest human being, ugly as an ant, discovered that it was a mirror and not a painting?" Elena glared at the Lord of Fear with a fierce look. She could tell at a glance that he was destined to be single for life.
"Forget it. I think I need a lipstick," Elena thought carefully about the difference between the last time she triggered the mirror and this time. Could it be that only when she applied lipstick would it think she was looking in a mirror? That didn't make sense. Or... She glanced at the Lord of Fear beside her again. Or was it because there was a powerful being beside her now, so it didn't dare to show up?
"Why are you looking at me like that?" the Lord of Fear asked, puzzled. "Because you look really handsome." Elena casually curled the corner of her mouth, but she was actually annoyed. As expected, having this guy follow her around had no benefits. Helplessly, she could only walk towards the lounge. Now, to prove whether the mirror's words were true or false, she had to verify them one by one herself.
"Ha ha, there's no way around it. Humans just love this kind of ugly appearance," the Lord of Fear seemed to be in a good mood and said happily, "But of course, you think I'm the most handsome in your heart. After all, this body is completely yours. I'm the most perfect image in your heart."
"Actually, many sexy little tentacle monsters have said the same thing to me before, but I knew they were just trying to seduce me. It was never sincere. But what you said..."
"Hey, hey, hey, could you be quiet? I'm really annoyed with you, you know?" Elena interrupted him irritably as she walked.
"Why?" the Lord of Fear was puzzled. "For countless eons, no one has ever said I was annoying. Even the kings were willing to give up everything to listen to my words."
"That's because they couldn't beat you and wanted to use you," Elena rolled her eyes.
"But you can't beat me either, and you're using me," the Lord of Fear thought. "So your annoyance with me is unreasonable."
Elena stopped and turned around: "Because you always follow me, I feel you're annoying! If you weren't here, the delusional mirror would have appeared just now. It must have sensed you!"
"That's impossible, you accusing princess! Even if the delusional mirror can see through all delusions, it can't see through the root," the Lord of Fear said angrily and seriously, "I've said it before, no one can discover me!"
He was really arrogant. Elena remembered that when she first arrived at the castle, the mirror had told her that the blood mental pollution she suffered was because of a powerful being that made her see the most terrifying thing in her heart. This meant that the mirror could definitely sense the Lord of Fear's presence.
"I want to say that the mirror must have discovered you when you arrived at the castle. Do you believe me?" Elena asked.
"That's not strange. I never thought of hiding. It's just that the people in the castle were too weak, so they never discovered my arrival. But that mirror has the power to see through delusions. It can sense my existence. That's normal."
The Lord of Fear said seriously: "But now it's different. Since I'm deliberately hiding, even the delusional mirror can't see through the root!"
Elena paused, even more puzzled. "Then why didn't the mirror show up just now?" She couldn't figure it out.
"It's simple. It doesn't want to," the Lord of Fear said.
"It doesn't want to? Why?"
"There's no why." The Lord of Fear spread his hands and said, "Don't forget, the camp of that mirror is 'Chaotic Neutral'. Those 'Chaotic Neutral' guys do whatever they like, all of them are 'madmen' who don't follow any order."
Elena suddenly understood a bit. "Perhaps you're right. But aren't you a madman?" Elena asked in return.
"Ha ha ha! Of course not! Those 'Chaotic Neutral' guys are all a bunch of guys without principles! They do good things and bad things, but I don't. I always only bring fear and disaster to life. Yes, I'm only chaotic in evil, always consistent."
"So you don't do a single good thing?"
Elena nodded, but in her heart, she silently added the sixth piece of information she had known: The Lord of Fear is even crazier than a madman. Be careful! Careful! Careful!