The Crown's Entrapment

Meanwhile, Saha burst out in a fit of laughter as soon as she heard and saw Xenia's pleas from the vision she was watching in the Lake of Life. There, she and Polo were currently watching what was going on inside Xenia's dream.

"Oh hell, Polo! Is this why you made the thousand dreams trial? To have us witness funny scenes such as these?" Saha laughed out loud as she watched things unfold through the lake's vision.

"Why do I feel like the true trial here was placing Devas and the King inside her dream and seeing how long she would last with these two having their appearances swapped? Would you answer her request?"

Silence was the only thing Saha got in reply. Turning to Polo, she curiously asked, "So, how is she supposed to pass the trial of a thousand dreams? Is it once she realizes that she's inside a dream?"

Polo stared blankly at the lake. More silence was had before he finally replied. "Initially, that would've been the case. However, that Princess will surely die within the thousand dreams contained in this trial," he explained himself.

"It's more than likely she wouldn't realize what's even happening inside her own dream before she perishes. I've left no hints at all as to how it was all nothing but a dream, especially since she felt all the exact pains and miseries she experienced throughout her body."

He frowned as he added, "But then, things got complicated because of the addition of those two fools who wanted to meddle with my trial and save her. Since they wanted to get involved so badly, then I let them be..."

He scoffed, "Now, the cycle that I created has been revised. She would pass this trial once she comes to realize who is her real husband between those two. Or they can also leave the thousand dreams by simply choosing Devas. Either way works, really."

"So there would be four scenarios left for them; one with all of them dying, one where all of them will be trapped inside the dream forever, one where all of them gets out of the thousand dreams once she chooses to be with Devas thinking it was her mate. Then lastly... what the Cordonians are probably expecting, for all of them to get out with the Princess having recognized her own mate while he's still wearing Devas's face," Saha curiously summarized.

Polo didn't reply. Instead, he sighed and murmured, "I can no longer take those two morons out of there even if the Princess pleaded with me in blood. All of their lives will now be in her hands alone, and you're well aware of what will happen if we ever went against the trials we created."

Saha nodded in agreement. Their trial could be revised by them on the fly, but it was still something that they couldn't simply stop. Doing so would cause internal damage to their inner force.

That was why Devas would often use riddles and questions in his own trial so that he could easily decide from the start what the intruder should experience at the final level of his trials. Either way, he had no intentions of revising or stopping even if he wanted to. Princess Xenia was the first who passed Devas's trial, so she hadn't experienced the final level of it where most intruders would end up heavily wounded or dead.

"That pirate... Who would've thought that he would live after passing your trial, Polo? Helena really is something of a miracle worker," Saha commented.

She pondered as she continued, "Though, I wonder why she let you do your trial first before her. She used to give helpful advice and other things to intruders before they passed your territory, like how she gave that pirate a necklace containing specks of wing dust. That kept that pirate breathing somehow till he managed to get out of our realm."

Polo burst out in a fit of laughter, making Saha frown at him.

"What is it?" she hissed, her mouth twitching. "What's so funny?"

"Well, I believe Helena is planning for the worst. That's why she wanted to be the last to do her trial," Polo replied with obvious amusement, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the lake.

Saha's eyes, on the other hand, widened, realizing what Polo had just meant. "There's no way that she would do that! Is she insane?!"

Polo remained quiet, and she could only shake her head, thinking about the possibility of Helena doing such a drastic move just to save a human when things came to worst. With Helena's character, it was quite possible for the Queen Fairy to do just that, especially to humans that she strongly believed deserved to live and get out of their realm alive.

*************

Back inside Xenia's dream, Darius and Devas both froze as they became speechless upon hearing Xen complaints. Dazed, they turned to each other with a knowing look. Then, both of them gulped as Xen's sharp eyes darted towards their direction. However, before Xen could even open her mouth to speak to them, the sky suddenly poured down rain.

"It's acid rain," Devas burst out.

A barrier suddenly appeared, protecting the three of them from the acid rain.

Surprised, Xen turned to him and asked, "Did you cast this spell, Lord Devas?"

He and Devas were caught off guard by that question from Xen. The moron quickly looked at him, giving Darius a signal to save him from his mistake. Darius could only shrug in annoyance.

"I did," Darius murmured, stating an obvious lie despite the fact that he really shouldn't have done so. He felt weird lying to Xen, thinking that he had no choice but to do so since he was wearing Devas's annoying face.

With the three of them temporarily safe, they all gathered at a closer distance to each other to minimize the number of barriers Devas had to create. Currently, Xen was in the middle of the three of them, and Darius was itching to move and place himself in between the other two instead.

He didn't trust this Devas near his wife at all, and he was about to move when Xenia turned to him with a beautiful smile. "Thank you for helping us out, Lord Devas."

Taken aback, he gave Xen a half-smile as he murmured, "It's nothing."

[At this rate, Xen will have a hard time recognizing you,] Zeus chided, already thinking up of ways of making themselves distinct from the guardian.

[You should give her a hint without uttering those forbidden words. That Polo clearly said that we can't say anything, but we can definitely show the difference through actions.]

Taking his wolf's advice, Darius moved and placed himself in the middle of Xen and Devas without so much as a word.

"What are you doing?" Devas questioned.

"Making sure that no rules will be breached when pertaining to bodily contact!" Darius replied with a wide smirk. "You see... I want to make sure that I keep an eye on what is mine..."

"You..." Xen weakly whispered, making Darius turn to her. Her face had gone so pale all of a sudden.