CHAPTER 211: TERRIFYING WOMAN!

’Calm down, Zarek! Calm down!’

Zarek frantically repeated the words in his heart. Even though she had stalked him all the way from the Dragon Festival, he hadn’t actually offered any clear help to Drayken up until now.

First, he and the other general had encountered the Naga, but everyone except him had been quickly killed. He had been a bit overconfident and ended up taking the purple light attack from the Naga Princess, which caused him to freeze in time itself.

Still, he had managed to resolve that situation, more or less, by getting help from the Naga Princess to kill the Telekinetic Grandmaster and gain enough Destiny Points to directly level up his Adapt skill.

Then in the very next scene, Drayken had taken him hostage.

So, as far as Zarek could tell, the only real issue was that he hadn’t resisted Drayken at all during the capture.

And then there was the fact that Zarek had chosen to go and protec Melissa instead of joining the fight against the dragons, that, too, was suspicious.

However, it could be summed up to unstable emotions and the reckless impulses of youth. After all, she was a beautiful girl in danger.

Love could make anyone impulsive. Not to mention, it might also be seen as his way of repaying Melissa for standing up for him when he was captured by Drayken.

So, that decision could be explained.

Which left only one real flaw, Zarek had allowed himself to be captured without putting up any resistance.

Aside from that small misstep, everything else had gone according to plan. Flawless.

Just then, Mirabella’s voice cut through the air, cold and sharp:

"Why did you not resist when Drayken captured you?"

’Shit.’ Zarek cursed inwardly.

The one thing he feared had come to pass, she really was suspicious of him because of that moment.

Still, on the outside, he remained composed. Cold. Expressionless.

"I didn’t resist," he said flatly, "because there was no point. With ten Rank Seven Dragons present, it would’ve been impossible for me to fight them all. So I let him capture me without resistance."

"Oh?" Mirabella folded her arms under her chest, her posture drawing attention to her figure, perky and dangerously distracting.

"That does sound believable. However—"

Zarek’s heart skipped a beat. No, it pounded. His instincts screamed at him, and without a moment’s hesitation, he dove to the ground.

A blinding arc of light, shaped like a spear, tore through the air, grazing the tips of Zarek’s hair just as he rolled out of its path.

The spear of light didn’t stop. It shot forward, obliterating fifty trees in a straight line before slamming into a distant hill.

The entire hill cracked and split as the spear pierced through it, vanishing only after carving a tunnel clean through the rock.

Zarek stared at the devastation, his face pale.

’If that had hit my heart...’

Without a hint of hesitation, he murmured in his mind, ’Time Save,’ locking his body’s current state within the flow of Time. Then, lifting his gaze, he met her eyes directly.

"-I don’t buy it."

Mirabella said, her voice mechanical and cold. Her eyes narrowed. Her tone grew icier with each word.

"Tell me, are you connected to Drayken?"

At that moment, Zarek understood one thing clearly, there was absolutely no way to convince her. She had already made up her mind to capture him, either for greed for his own powers of Adapt or something else.

She was a True Telekinetic Paragon. Zarek would still struggle against a sane Telekinetic Grandmaster, let alone someone who stood an entire level above that. This wasn’t just a gap, it was a different league altogether.

Even if he tried to adapt, she had already studied him, observed him far too clearly.

There was no escape.

Zarek closed his eyes. A grin tugged at the corner of his lips as a primal roar erupted from his throat. In the next instant, the ground beneath him caved in as he launched through the air.

A violent gust of wind exploded behind him, trailing his ascent as he charged straight at her with reckless force.

"If you attack me, I’ll take it as an admission of guilt," Mirabella said coolly, completely unfazed by Zarek’s charge.

"Stop bullshitting me," Zarek snapped. "I know you’ve already made up your mind to capture me, no matter what I say."

With that, his speed increased.

"Oh?" Mirabella smiled, her eyes locked onto him as she shook her head:

"You might be right. You might be wrong. But tell me, who gave you the courage to fight me?"

In the next instant, her entire body erupted in blinding, terrifying light.

Zarek instinctively squeezed his eyes shut against the brilliance but his body continued forward, committed to the lunge.

Just as he felt like he had reached her...

A crushing pressure descended upon him.

In the blink of an eye, Zarek found himself completely bound, unable to move a single inch.

There was no pain, no visible force weighing him down. But his body refused to respond, not even a twitch of a finger.

The blinding golden light still surrounded him, but when his eyes snapped open, he realized what had happened.

He was wrapped in golden chains from head to toe, glowing with divine light and confined within what appeared to be a golden cage.

[You have adapted to weak divine light]

[You have gained an exclusive skill bound to Adapt: Low-Level Divine Vision]

...

Low-Level Divine Vision

Your eyes can now perceive and interpret divine energy.

...

His pupils locked onto Mirabella.

"I know your powers," she said coldly, her voice like ice. "So don’t even try."

’I shouldn’t try?’ Zarek’s gaze flickered under the golden glow.

Even if he wanted to harm himself, to trigger Adapt, he couldn’t.

He couldn’t move a single fiber of his body. His limbs, his voice, even a single fiber of his muscle felt muffled. His telekinetic power was completely suppressed.

There was no way to Adapt to this.

Zarek’s Adapt skill bordered on invincibility. But now, his greatest strength revealed his greatest weakness.

He could turn back his body’s state in time, avoid instant death, reverse injury but none of that mattered if he was bound, helpless, and utterly incapable of acting.

And right now, he was just that, trapped in golden chains, powerless and completely at someone else’s mercy.

This weakness was thoroughly exploited by the golden-haired woman standing before him.

’This woman is too dangerous.’

Zarek was certain she had been stalking him and knew exactly how he had become so powerful.

Mirabella looked at Zarek:

"Since you attacked me, I can capture you and take you for interrogation, can’t I?"

As her gentle voice fell on Zarek, his heart chilled. He couldn’t even dare to imagine what would happen if he were captured.

’Calm down, calm down. I can still get help, even if Drayken can’t come. The Naga race is still hidden here, and that human Telekinetic Master, maybe I can still escape.’

With a hint of helplessness in his eyes, Zarek, bound in his prison, watched as Mirabella quickly soared into the air and flew dragging his prison.

Flying high, restrained by golden chains and trapped within a golden prison, there was nothing he could do.

So Zarek began to explore the exclusive skill he had gained from Adapt:

Divine Bearer