Chapter 033. Glasya Labolas’s Trial (3)
To enter one of Glasya Labolas’s works, there were three conditions that had to be remembered.
First, you had to be chosen by the work.
Second, you had to be bound to the work.
Third, Glasya Labolas had to acknowledge you.
The last condition, especially, was almost impossible considering Glasya Labolas’s wildly unpredictable personality.
Mikael, however, was an exception.
“Hmm. Still feels like shit.”
In the past, Glasya Labolas had once dragged Mikael into one of his works, saying he wanted to draw his blood.
Thanks to that, Mikael already fulfilled the third condition.
“I know every work is different, but did he have something like this too?”
All of Glasya Labolas’s works were connected to one another.
That was how Yeonhwa and the demon had managed to escape through a portal.
It was also why Mikael had entered the book—to cross over into the mirror.
In front of Mikael, who had entered the artwork, stood a sign with a rule written on it.
[Survive until dawn.]
Mikael read the sign and looked around.
It was a dark, deserted alley illuminated only by streetlights.
In the far distance stood a tall clock tower.
Large electronic displays were fixed to all four sides of its upper section.
They all showed the same time.
6:00.
“Why six o’clock?”
Whether it was six in the morning or six in the evening, it was far too dark.
And that wasn’t the only strange thing.
“Survive...?”
Survive what?
The moment that thought crossed his mind, an enormous shadow fell over Mikael.
“Meooow.”
It was a black cat at least three meters tall.
Its body was covered in wounds, with many parts crudely sewn together with thread.
Even worse, some wounds had stuffing sticking out instead of fluffy fur.
“A cat doll?”
More specifically, it was a stuffed cat.
A normal stuffed cat might have looked cute.
But there was absolutely nothing cute about something this huge, covered in hideous stitches, with cotton spilling from its wounds.
Calling it a cursed doll would have been more accurate.
“Myaa?”
The cat, which had been licking the top of its paw, finally noticed Mikael.
“Nice to meet you, you ugly-ass ball of fur.”
Mikael greeted it casually with an insult.
Naturally, the cat didn’t return the greeting.
Instead, it blinked and tilted its head before raising one front paw.
The soft-looking pink paw pad itself looked rather adorable.
But as it rapidly grew closer, Mikael sensed danger and threw himself aside.
Whoosh!
BOOOOM!
Mikael rolled across the ground, disappearing into a cloud of dust.
Once he regained his senses, he looked back at the spot where he had been standing.
“Is that thing stuffed with steel instead of cotton?”
A massive paw print had been carved into the ground like a crater.
If that paw hit him, forget dying on the spot—he might receive a direct ticket straight to heaven.
“Myaa...”
Disappointed by the lack of impact, the cat’s eyes began glowing viciously.
Its back and tail stood straight up while its body arched.
Enoch often took a similar posture whenever he got angry.
“HSSSSSS!”
The hissing cat never took its eyes off Mikael.
Clack!
Mikael extended the Etiquette Injector he had brought with him.
He pressed the button and sent aura flowing through the rod before aiming it at the cat.
Perhaps thinking it was a new toy, the cat stopped hissing and stared closely at the Etiquette Injector.
“This is bad.”
As the cat lowered its face toward him, Mikael instinctively realized something.
The Etiquette Injector was nowhere near enough to deal with something that large.
He looked back and forth between the weapon in his hand and the giant cat’s paw.
“Feels like this thing would break before I even hurt it.”
Forget the difference in size.
Just judging from the hardness of a paw capable of leaving a crater in the ground, there was no comparison.
Fighting was hopeless.
He needed to change his thinking and focus on escape.
“Can I run?”
Mikael ran a simulation in his head.
With no aura, if he tried to run away...
One minute.
That was roughly how long it would take for the cat to catch him and shove him into its mouth.
With the cat’s wide field of vision, no matter how fast Mikael ran, he would be nothing more than a mouse.
“What the hell am I supposed to do...?”
There was one remaining option, but Mikael hesitated.
If I throw this away, I can survive. But then my future looks pretty damn bleak.
He could use the Etiquette Injector as bait.
If the cat reacted even to weak light, then the aura flowing from the weapon would definitely attract its attention.
Mikael was confident he could escape while the cat was distracted.
The problem was what he would do against the next enemy if he carelessly threw away his weapon.
But he didn’t think about that for long.
Why the hell am I worrying about that when my life is on the line?!
Mikael immediately hurled the Etiquette Injector away and sprinted in the opposite direction.
Whoosh!
“Myaaah!”
The cat’s attention snapped toward the Etiquette Injector, which was still radiating aura.
Ignoring Mikael, it chased after the rolling rod.
BOOM!
BOOM!
Its massive body thundered through the alley after the weapon.
While the cat was distracted, Mikael tried to put as much distance between them as possible.
“Kyaoooo!”
Apparently, the cat wanted both prey.
It refused to let Mikael escape.
Its hidden claws suddenly extended, covered in demonic energy, before slashing toward him.
Shhhhk!
Slaaash!
Mikael barely twisted his body enough to avoid a fatal wound, but claw marks filled with demonic energy were carved across his shoulder.
The cat looked disappointed that it hadn’t landed a clean hit before going back after the Etiquette Injector.
Blood ran from Mikael’s wound, but he had to be satisfied that he had escaped.
“Urgh! What the hell did that insane bastard even create?!”
Blood poured from the wound, and the demonic energy made the pain even worse.
Still, Mikael ran.
And ran.
He kept following the streetlights.
Until dawn came, putting as much distance as possible between himself and that monster was his best option.
Fortunately, perhaps because his overload had improved, the injured area was slowly regenerating.
Step.
Step.
After wandering around for five minutes, Mikael gradually slowed down.
The demonic energy was exhausting him, and more importantly, continuing to run had become pointless.
“Haa... Haa... I’m dying here. Is this some kind of maze?”
As he wandered through the alleyways, Mikael began to feel that this place was closer to a maze than an ordinary street.
No matter where he went, another alley appeared.
He didn’t even know how to return to where he had started.
He thought about entering one of the buildings he could see, but every building had nothing except walls.
There were no doors.
“Damn it. Is that thing some kind of illusion? Why doesn’t the distance change no matter how close I try to get?”
At some point, Mikael had decided to head toward the clock tower.
But no matter how much he wandered around, the distance between himself and the tower remained the same.
