Chapter 164: Confrontation.

On the other side of the fireball, Xiao Fen never heard anyone speak. His senses, disturbed by the high heat, also made it impossible for him to perceive who, or how many people, were behind the fireball.

There was another thing that Xiao Fen cared about very much: there were no sounds of fighting outside.

Before Callisto created the fireball, she and Lycaon were fighting from time to time with Hell Creatures attempting to sneak in through the main gate. Although the battle was not particularly intense, it had basically never stopped.

Yet now, outside the door, there was simply no sound of humans fighting Hell Creatures, nor any sound of new Hell Creatures rushing in from the main gate.

Either the humans outside had become power ful enough to deter those Hell Creatures, or there was something strange about the humans outside. In any case, both possibilities seemed to have some potential impact on the Main Quest.

The silence lasted for about 15 minutes. Xiao Fen could vaguely see moonlight falling from the sky. The fireball created by Callisto gradually extinguished, and even the heavy armor on Lycaon’s body had reached its time limit to disappear.

It looked like this was the moment when Callisto and Lycaon were most vulnerable, and it should also be the best opportunity. If one wanted to charge into this house, now was the time.

Thinking of this, Xiao Fen suddenly tightened his grip on the Staff in his hand, and the dagger in his left hand also began to shimmer slightly, waiting only for something sudden to happen so that Withered Flower could bloom where it was needed most.

Contrary to Xiao Fen’s expectations, the Trialist outside did not launch an assault but instead began to speak.

“Sally, is this how you welcome me? Or is it that you already have someone else in your heart?”

Callisto looked calmly at the world outside the door under the moonlight and responded in a low voice: “Have you ever heard that our race would betray others? Have you ever heard that the females of our race would be so fickle as to fall in love with someone else?”

“Then why are you standing there, not letting us in? This isn’t like you, Sally. If it were before, you would have rushed up to hug me long ago, instead of setting up a huge Magic Array at the door like you are now, blocking us.”

Callisto turned her head to glance at her brother. Seeing Lycaon nod, Callisto replied: “You should be very clear that on a night like this, I cannot leave this room. This Magic Array prevents not just you, but also myself.”

Callisto stared at the space outside, paused, and asked back: “But what about you? Why don’t you come in? Knowing full well that this Magic Array causes you no harm, knowing full well that killing between Trialists is forbidden, why do you dare not come in?”

The female Trialist then made a gesture of invitation and said: “If you really want to see if I already have someone else, please, come in and see. There’s no need to stand outside and suspect. Everything you are doing now is proving that you are the one with the problem, not me.”

“Enough, Sally, enough. Put away your Magic Array, put away your hostility. We need to face the enemy together. Those Hell Monsters will become stronger and stronger.”

“Yes, put away my hostility, face the enemy together, turn my back to you, and then what?”

“That was a mistake. Believe me, Sally, that was merely a mistake. I never thought something like that would happen.”

A strange smile suddenly appeared on Callisto’s face. She responded: “Of course, you never thought something like that would happen, but a teammate truly died right in front of me. And you, a person who should have died, are now also appearing in front of me. This is truly a confusing thing for me, isn’t it?”

“We can argue about these things slowly later, but, Sally, believe me, I won’t make that mistake again.”

Callisto nodded and said: “Fine, please enter. Welcome back. I have never blocked Trialists. Or should I say, are you fearing that Magic Array which is meaningless to Trialists? Are you no longer a normal Trialist now?”

“Shut up! Sally, we’ve said enough. Believing me or not is up to you, but you must admit that you need me. With the moon disappearing tomorrow morning, the light-fearing Hell Creatures will be more active than they are now. And you, well, adding your brother behind you, the two of you cannot survive this ordeal.”

“Alright, you’re very right. We cannot survive this ordeal. So, please come in. Like I said just now, I have never stopped you from entering this room. Not just you, but also that Trialist behind you who looks like he has lost his self; you can both enter this room at any time.”

“Damn it, Sally, I’ll say it one more time. Turn off your Magic Array. We need to stop being so guarded against each other before we can talk about anything else.”

By this time, Callisto was just smiling. From an angle, Xiao Fen vaguely saw tears constantly falling from the female Trialist’s cheek. These tears washed a clear trail through the bloodstains on her face. The skin beneath the bloodstains appeared exceptionally pale under the cover of the moonlight.

However, even so, Callisto still did not back down. She stood at the door, letting the person outside see her shed tears, see her vulnerability. To her, this seemed to be the first time, and perhaps also the last.

“Sally, why can’t you understand what I’m saying?”

“I used to understand, and the price was almost dying. Companions I was with day and night also died because they understood your words. Pal, I had thought about who would appear in front of me tonight, but I never thought that the true traitor in our squad would be the captain we respected, the person I loved deeply.”

Callisto’s body trembled slightly. Xiao Fen could hear a hint of hysteria in her voice. It seemed that the female Trialist was falling into a state of despair.

Pausing for a moment, Callisto continued: “This time, I still understood your words, not just the words on the surface, but also the roars and unwillingness deep in your heart. What are you angry about? Angry that this courtyard is occupied by Hell Creatures? Angry that your mission cannot proceed? Or angry at my existence?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sally. I feel you are a little confused. Let me in, and we can have a good talk.”

“What about Sophie? If you are alive, Sophie must be alive too, because the person who said Sophie was dead was you, and the person who led us out of this hall to the back was also you. What is between you and Sophie that made you betray our squad, even to the point of killing all of us teammates?”

“This has nothing to do with Sophie, Sally. I said, that was an accident, and it has nothing to do with Sophie.”

Callisto started coughing violently. From the corner of her eye, blood-colored tears faintly flowed out. There were not many of these tears, but they made her face, which had become a little cleaner, look hideous again.

“Yes, it has nothing to do with Sophie. So, Sophie is still alive, right? Are those Skills so important to you? When exactly did you decide to kill us all because of Skills? In the middle of completing the Skill mission, or at the same time as entering this courtyard?”

“We didn’t think about killing you! Sally, we never thought about killing you from the beginning to the end. Do you remember? I was the one who threw you out over the wall. I let Labro leave. I let Chen leave. They refused to go. I tried every way to make you leave, to make you no longer invaders of this courtyard, but you always refused to leave.”

The voice outside suddenly became louder and carried a sort of sobbing tone. Just as Callisto was about to say something, the voice outside continued: “Kill all invaders. We have to kill all invaders to complete the mission. As long as you leave, you are not invaders anymore. The squad is still here, we are still here, aren’t we? But none of you were willing to leave, none of you wanted to leave. What do you want me to do? What should I do?”

Hearing the sobbing sounds outside faintly, Xiao Fen rubbed his eyebrows. He could imagine how much those team members trusted their captain at the time and were unwilling to let the captain bear the danger alone, and so on. This kind of situation was indeed very entangling. It was hard for him to imagine what he should do if he were that captain.

However, Xiao Fen’s self-contradiction was quickly answered by Callisto. The female Trialist, who was no longer crying, answered calmly: “You could have not accepted this mission, Pal. It’s the same saying: your desire blinded your eyes. For that Skill, you accepted this mission. Compared to the incomparable trust your teammates had in you, those words you just said are just excuses. In any case, you betrayed us, betrayed the dead Chen and Labro.”

Because of Callisto’s words, the outside suddenly fell into silence. After a long time, the voice outside appeared again: “Sally, you don’t know how important these Skills are to me and to Sophie. Sally, you cannot feel our struggle.”

“Still excuses, Pal. Without the support of a large clan, a squad indeed lives very hard. There can be many choices if you don’t want to live so hard, but the one thing you cannot do is betray your teammates to obtain Skills.”

Callisto added an explanation: “After you betray your teammates for Skills, you will soon betray others for more gain. Eventually, you will betray Yggdrasil. In fact, you already know this, don’t you? Yggdrasil has closed its eyes to you. You cannot equip any Natural Items, cannot use any Natural Items, and will be harmed by Trialist Magic Arrays. And now, this situation is worsening. If I guess correctly, the follow-up Skill missions here can exempt you from continuing to be punished by Yggdrasil, right?”

“Yes, everything you said is right, wise Sally. So, close your Magic Array, let me in, let me live.”

“Sorry, Pal. For our race, we repay kindness with kindness and revenge with enmity.”