Some parts of the quest made little sense. Though, that just meant that I lacked some information that I would need to collect first.
[Make sure that Crazy Manipulator meets Anna.]
[Change the fate of Rosalyn and Unia from definite death.]
[Convince the Black Shadow to close the gate.]
And these two conditions were odd as well
[The Dimensional Dome doesn't open]
[The Dimensional dome doesn't close]
It seemed that I needed to open the dimensional gate and close it.
'I need to make sure the gate opens without using Trisha as a sacrifice, isn't it? And then I need to make sure that 'Black Shadow' closes the gate and not by any other means?' I thought as I read through it properly.
"Well… let's start from the start… I need to open the gate to the Inverse realm without using Trisha," I thought as I recalled a couple of items that were used before in game by the players for the event-based quest.
Finding those items would be a pain, but… there was a way I could bypass all that.
'Though first, let's look at what actually happened to Trisha.' I decided it would be better to understand the process first.
[Greater Ring of Illusions (Legendary)!]
[Description: This ring was forged by the Goddess of Light, Alepsia, for doing mischief with her siblings. She used to play with them all the time, one of the best items from her childhood. Even the Gods won't be able to see through the disguise. A curse has been placed upon it to limit its functions.
Effect: Allows the user to mask himself in any humanoid form.
Limitations: This ring will be bound to the user and cannot be exchanged.
Base Mana Cost: 70MP/minute!]
And thus I moved towards the forest and removed all the arrays first. Without these arrays, Trisha should be able to fight on her own for a while.
With that being done, I then chose a proper spot to sit and watch whatever was going to happen in the forest. It shouldn't be too hard for them to spot me, but I doubt they would have enough time to worry about me.
And soon began the show that I was waiting for.
Trisha, noticing that the arrays were all gone, turned serious as she stood up. Her eyes looked around for any disturbances before her eyes darted towards the way where the Crazy Manipulator was supposed to come from.
And Nvida, who followed the actions of Trisha, took a step back as she connected herself with the forest, firming her feet into the ground like a tree.
"THE GODS WILL BE OUR SALVATION!"
The voice resounded like before, and the trees started withering in an immediate fashion. Perhaps because Nvida was connected to the forest, her life force was pretty much halved in that single spell.
'Guess the last time my presence changed this outcome, huh?' I thought as I observed the mages coming out one by one again.
Trisha tried to help Nvida, but she was immediately bound by a bunch of arrays that formed in the sky, restricting her mana flow.
Though it wasn't that hard for her to break free from those arrays. But what indeed was difficult was to protect Nvida at the same time as freeing herself from the arrays.
Like vines that kept growing the more you cut them, the arrays, too, were forming in a rapid fashion, disturbing Trisha's spells.
Meanwhile, Nvida, who had already lost half her powers, was surrounded by three mages who were skilled in battle. One of them, Gale, was killed by me last time, the others were Albedo and Tristan.
While Nvida was strong herself, somehow she wasn't using the powers of the forest… or more like, she couldn't use it. The fight didn't continue for long as the mages overpowered Nvida and killed her with a quick succession of attacks.
[Quest Failed!]
[All Stats will be permanently halved!]
'Well, nothing we can do about it,' I thought as I focused on Trisha.
Trisha, on the other hand, was still struggling against the Crazy Manipulator. He neither got too close to her, nor too far from her. All the arrays were created as if he knew where she was going to step next.
Some arrays paused her actions, others canceled them.
All in all, it wasn't that difficult to see how she was losing against the Crazy Manipulator. It wasn't about the power levels, but the skill difference.
Despite being overpowered, Trisha was dancing in the palms of the manipulator. And as I kept looking at the fight, I saw something that was rather unbelievable to me.
'To think he was this… skilled,' I gasped a little as I saw his arrays flowing in the sky, land, and all over the place.
It wasn't that he could predict her moves and prepare in advance, instead… he was literally manipulating her moves to suit his attacks.
He was making her do what he wanted her to do and preparing for it beforehand. And Trisha, who was giving her all… was simply falling more and more into his traps.
-BOOM!!
-SLASH!!!!
-BOOM!!!
"STAY RIGHT THERE!!!!"
Trisha seemed to have lost it as she let her rage get the better of her, while the Manipulator was still having that calm expression as from the start.
As for the other mages, they seemed to have created a considerable distance between the duo and themselves.
The fight continued just like before, creating storms and gale in the air, while the dark mana enveloped everything in the sky, slowly turning day into night.
And this time, I was even more surprised than before.
"How did I even miss this last time?" I thought as I looked up at the strange arrays patterns forming as the moments were passing. But they weren't random patterns… they were forming a giant 3-dimensional array structure in the air.
And as the fight continued, so did the array in the air. And before I knew it, I saw Trisha being pushed by her own attack, landing at the center of a cube made of arrays.
"Array Magic: Inversion of Realms!" And without missing a beat, the crazy manipulator chanted, activating the array in the air.
Trisha, who was still in a frenzy, didn't notice anything strange and tried attacking, but… it was too late…
A giant gate formed right above her.
An ominous energy that seemed to contain hell itself in it.
It was at this moment that Trisha came back to her senses and immediately turned around, only to find a giant hand coming out of the gate and reaching for her.
Her eyes turned wide open as that hand grabbed her body and pulled it inside the gate. All the while, we watched her, trying her best to break free from it.
"So… this is an Array Master, huh?" I mumbled as I realized that I was still too far from being something like that. The max I could do is store mana, reform it and use it… but something like this… is what I can't even fathom to begin with.
But this was just the beginning of the show.
I looked up in the sky as the crazy manipulator flew up to the gate. His eyes seemed scared… a bit sad.
"I wish you three weren't here," he mumbled as tears came out of his eyes before he chanted,
"Array Magic: Destruction of the World!"
And thus all hell broke loose as those arrays that first summoned the gate were now getting concentrated at it, slowly withering away the gate of itself.
And before long one can even bend their head around it, the gate started crumbling at a rapid speed.
While the Crazy manipulator himself seemed to be aging faster than ever, his body seemingly breaking from the extremities. And as if there was a price for the action he did, his own body finally disintegrated into pieces in front of us.
That gate which was there was no more. But the space… it didn't vanish, but grew. Covering the entire plane as far as the dark magic was.
And thus opened the Dimensional Gate of Inverse Gate in front of us, attracting monsters from the other realm as they came rushing down to the town and the forest, destroying everything in their path.
And as I looked upon the sky, which wasn't ours anymore. White as the newly formed paper, empty as a blank canvas. It seemed as if the heavens itself stripped it of its colors.
In that same white sky, there stood a man up in the air, a being covered in darkness with not a single part visible of him.
And slowly he descended on the ground, as everyone within the town looked at him, holding their breaths. One move and we could all die… is what was going in our minds right now.
'Just what the fuck…' I cursed under my breath as I saw him standing there.
And standing there, I understood… who that Black Shadow was… what that Black Shadow was.