Chapter 90: Zagreus
However, as time passed, the laughter gradually faded. Most of Ghost Day had already passed.
"Hey, little girl." A bearded Rogue leaned against the bars, his voice anxious. "Are you sure that Titan is really coming?"
"Yeah." Another Rogue also chimed in. "We all got caught according to the plan, but the Tricky Titan hasn't shown up... Is this trick going to work or not?"
More and more doubtful voices arose. "You two brats didn't trick us, did you?" "I gave up a big score to participate!" "Now look, we're all prisoners!"
The One-Eyed Rogue heavily knocked on the iron bars: "Cipher, what if Zagreus doesn't come?!"
Cipher stood up from the ground, scanning the restless crowd. "No," she grinned, revealing her small fangs. "Three hundred top Rogues simultaneously failing and getting imprisoned, this biggest 'trick' itself... will definitely lure him here."
"Are you sure?" Someone questioned.
Cipher continued, "Zagreus loves to mock failures and watch the show. He will come." "That guy definitely won't be able to resist coming to see what kind of hundreds of idiots could stumble at the same time!"
But after a while longer, the atmosphere in the prison became increasingly oppressive. Some Rogues genuinely started to panic. "It's over, it's over, I'll be executed in a few days..." "I knew I shouldn't have believed in some God-Concealing Plan!" "Zagreus? Titan? They're all liars!" Even some old Rogues began to waver. "I've lived so many years and never seen the true form of a Titan..." The white-haired old Rogue sighed. "Perhaps we were all too naive; such a trick can't deceive him at all."
Time passed by minute by minute. The Ghost Day bell had already struck eleven times, with only an hour left until midnight. "See? Nothing happened." The One-Eyed Rogue sneered. "I actually believed you guys."
Cipher bit her lip, her cat ears twitching uneasily. But she still stubbornly said, "He'll come! He'll definitely come!"
The prison was deathly silent. Some began to regret, some began to curse, and some simply lay down to sleep. Finally, as Ghost Day was about to end—
An unusual aura enveloped the prison. The temperature suddenly dropped; even exhaled breaths turned into white mist. Frost began to form on the iron bars, and the torchlight flickered erratically.
"W-What's going on?" Someone asked, trembling.
Just then. The prison's main gate creaked open. A figure slowly walked in. But it was clearly not human. Its footsteps were sometimes distant, sometimes near; one moment it was at the end of the corridor, the next it was already in front of the first cell.
"Oh my god..." The old Rogue's eyes widened. "It's really... it's really..."
Zagreus appeared. The cells instantly erupted. He came? He really came?! A Titan, that's the Titan of Trickery?!
"Tsk tsk tsk..." Zagreus's voice seemed to come from all directions, carrying a mocking laugh. "Look at these poor wretches."
He leisurely walked to the first cell. "'Flying Rat' Jack?" Zagreus tilted his head. "The master thief who claimed he could infiltrate anywhere, yet he couldn't even handle a small palace?"
Jack's face turned pale, but he still gritted his teeth and cursed, "Go to hell! I just had bad luck!"
"Luck?" Zagreus laughed loudly. "Clearly it's a lack of skill, and you blame luck?"
He continued forward, arriving at the second cell. "'Thousand Faces' Martha, a master of disguise?" He shook his head. "What a pity; the princess you impersonated didn't even know royal etiquette, no wonder you were exposed."
Martha gritted her teeth: "Shut up!"
Zagreus, however, grew more excited, leisurely mocking every failed Rogue. "You, your hand trembled when picking the lock, didn't it? You're old, you should retire." "And you, you even knocked yourself out when administering the drug, truly a complete idiot!"
After passing each cell, he would stop and thoroughly humiliate the Rogue inside. Those usually unruly master thieves could only clench their teeth and endure.
"Bastard... If you've got guts, let me out for a one-on-one fight!" "Just you wait! One day I'll steal everything you own!"
Zagreus turned a deaf ear to their curses, instead laughing even harder. Finally, he arrived at the last cell. You and Cipher were sitting inside.
"Oh?" Zagreus looked at you two, a hint of surprise in his voice. "Two little thieves? And partners in crime?"
"We're not ordinary thieves." Cipher stood up, her cat ears perked, her eyes flashing with defiance.
"Oh? Then what are you?" Zagreus asked with interest.
"We're the Rogues here to steal from you!" You also stood up and added.
"Steal from me?" Zagreus was momentarily stunned, then burst into deafening laughter. "You two? Two wet-behind-the-ears brats?"
"That's right." You and Cipher said simultaneously. "Just us."
As soon as the words fell, Aglaea's Golden Thread trap activated! Countless Golden Threads emerged simultaneously from the ground, walls, and ceiling, like a meticulously woven giant net, instantly trapping Zagreus within it. At the same time, you also deployed your Golden Thread!
"?!" Zagreus was shocked for a moment, but quickly regained his composure. "Interesting..." His figure suddenly blurred, as if trying to escape through the gaps in the Golden Thread.
"Trying to run?" Cipher took out her homemade Sucky Sucky, immediately aiming it at Zagreus. And just as her Sucky Sucky was about to suck in the Titan, Zagreus revealed a strange smile. "Heh, you're still too green."
His body was pulled in by Cipher, but then suddenly split into dozens of clones. Except for the one being sucked, every other clone scattered in different directions. Cipher missed, and one of the clones had already appeared behind her! A sharp knife stabbed towards her back—
"Cipher!"
Your pupils suddenly contracted. In that instant, time seemed to stand still. You stared intently at the sharp blade about to pierce Cipher's body. A familiar murderous intent, along with all the blood in your body, surged into your heart. Just like that bloody night in Dolos.