Ruger's eyes lost focus slightly as his mind wandered for a moment. He wondered whether she could escape fate. Perhaps there was no escaping it at all; perhaps the things she did brought about change, and change itself was escape. Everything before him had shown him fate, and just how hard High-Rank Wizards were to kill. Even a Wizard who had been dead for so many years might come back to life in some forgotten corner. He also recalled the booklet he had read during his time in Mystery City, the Mystery City Truth Exposé. Its explanation of the city's origins had mentioned a kind of undying Wizard. If an old Wizard like this was already so difficult to kill, how troublesome must those who followed the path of undying Wizards be?
Hazy roots appeared in the air, resonating with those stubbornly growing through the cracks between the stone slabs.
By this point, Ruger and Layden had a rough understanding of what was happening.
The sheen and shape of that hazy mass were exactly like what they had seen during the giant python's birth on the mountain, before its body had taken definite form.
Gradually, just like that black-and-white python, the muddled mass of light before them began to take shape, forming a hazy human figure.
Looking at the muddled ball of light, Ruger thought it resembled a heap of gray, sticky snot dripping from an underground beast.
The figure suddenly changed.
The distortion of the Nightmare World seemed to be transforming her. Gradually, she grew strange, but she soon corrected herself and returned to human form.
This repeated over and over as she struggled against that power, sometimes losing every trace of human appearance.
Ruger, Layden, and even the weak-looking Mewtris, who was still hanging there, all watched the