Orion hesitated, unsure of what they should do now. If they continued to search for the right mirror, then maybe by the time they found it, they would have already turned into old bones.
That was the worst-case scenario he wanted to avoid the most. The urgency of their situation weighed heavily on him, and he knew they needed a new plan.
'What should I do?'
He racked his brain hard for any solutions but couldn't come up with anything that would help them. He felt hopeless—hopeless for their survival.
"What happend?" Lisa asked, seeing Orion's black face.
Orion turned to look at everyone and thought about whether he should tell them or not. He wanted more time, and most importantly, if they were to panic at the moment he revealed their reality, it would definitely cause more chaos, which wouldn't do them any good.
Weighing his options, he decided to take a cautious approach.
Most importantly, he felt that if they could just find the correct mirror, then all of this would be over and they would return to their normal selves. After all, it was a trap designed to hold them back and not for killing; otherwise, General Dray's team would never have gone past this mirror world.
Thinking of that, he decided not to tell them for now.
"Ah, nothing," he said, looking at everyone as his face became urgent. "Continue to move around, but do it fast. I have a feeling there is something wrong with the mirror world. So, speed things up."
They nodded, moved to different mirrors, and once again began their quest to find the right mirror.
Meanwhile, Orion didn't move. He was thinking something very questionable, which he hoped wasn't true.
'How could there not be a mirror that would lead to the other end? General Gray's team has already passed by, so there is proof of that. There is definitely a mirror leading to the other side, definitely.'
He thought as he also moved into the mirror beside him and continued the search for the right mirror from his end.
Time passed, and soon another hour had gone by.
It was also at this time that others also checked their bodies, and to their horror, they also turned into old men.
"I am an old woman now?!" Lisa screamed.
"What happened to me?" The masked girl's voice choked as she looked at her hands, filled with wrinkles.
As for Ron, he was just looking at his hands in shock. He was so shocked that he couldn't even react and could only stare at his sickly hands, trembling from time to time. The sight of his prematurely aged and frail hands filled him with a sense of dread and disbelief, making it difficult for him to process what had happened.
Soon, everyone's attention was drawn to Orion, as he wasn't the only one who hadn't changed.
"Orion, what happened to us?" Famir asked, panicking. "How did we become so old?"
Orion didn't know what to tell them. He felt that it was all his fault for bringing them into all of this. If only he had gone alone, then this might not have happened. If only he had stopped them when they aged into their thirties. But he understood there was no medicine for regret in this world, so he decided to be honest with them.
"It's like this..." He explained to them what actually happened in the mirror world and how they couldn't tell the difference if anything had happened to them. He told them everything, from start to finish.
"All of this for nothing?" Famir laughed; his voice sounded a little hollow. He couldn't believe that they had lost half of their lives and still couldn't find the damn mirror.
"Orion, why didn't you stop us?" The masked girl asked, tears rolling down behind her mask and reaching her neck. "You could have seen us aging, right? Then why didn't you stop us? Why?" Her choking voice, full of sadness, echoed throughout the cave.
As she mentioned this, everyone remembered how Orion's face had turned pale when they rested for the first time. He also told them something about them not seeing the mirror, but now that they looked at the situation, they could finally understand Orion's strange behavior from that time.
This also arose in their hearts as to why he didn't stop them earlier and why now, when everything was too late.
Therefore, after understanding everything, they turned their heads to Orion, their moist eyes looking at him, waiting for a reasonable explanation.
Orion didn't know what to say to her—what to say to any of them. He felt guilty for trying to look for the correct mirror when he should have stopped them. He now regretted that decision very much.
He felt the burden of his decisions weighing down on him as he struggled to face the truth of their situation. His hesitation had cost them dearly, and the consequences were starkly visible in the prematurely aged faces of his companions.