Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The others all closed their eyes to check. And when they reopened their eyes, none of them looked too happy.
As Angor said, instead of disappearing due to the absence of a caster, the number of illusion nodes was increasing quickly as if they went out of control.
“Luna said Erdus is dead for sure.” Keely frowned as she asked, “So why is this happening?”
“One explanation... the heart is not the core of the illusions. There’s something else, something independent, which gave birth to the illusions,” Angor explained while wearing a tight frown. If his assumption was correct, the illusion would become a lot harder to deal with.
“We must find the source of it if we want to get out, or we’ll be trapped in here forever,” Keely spoke in a low and cold voice that caused everyone to shiver.
Then they all looked at Angor again. Angor was the only illusionist in the group, and the only one adept at breaking illusions.
“Let me try,” Angor said even though he didn’t know whether he could. He only knew that he was their best shot.
He stood up. Before he managed to do anything, he coughed up more blood and fell down again.
Shan quickly helped him by casting Heal. The cantrip did some minor work easing Angor’s pain, but he had some serious internal injuries that kept causing him to faint.
Keely took out a one-use space capsule from her pouch that she looted from Yethew’s corpse.
She proceeded to break the capsule and picked up a bottle of black liquid.
“That’s Potion of Impedance?” Shan looked at the item with a surprised expression.
Keely nodded and said to Angor, “This potion will shut off all sensations regarding non-lethal injuries in your body, so you won’t feel pain or loss of consciousness. It lasts for 24 hours. But it has a great side-effect that might worsen your wounds after the potion wears off. Want to use it?”
Angor knew about such a potion. It basically worked as analgesics by forcing one’s body to cancel certain nerves.
“Let’s do it.” Angor nodded without a second thought. He couldn’t afford to give up here, and without the potion, he would get knocked out by his condition sooner or later.
He downed the black potion in one go and felt nausea quickly building up. But soon, the terrible feeling went away together with all the other negative feedbacks sent by his own body; it was as if he had just fully recovered from a serious disease.
“Don’t eject your soul again or your body won’t make it,” said Keely.
“I know. Now let me do something...”
He closed his eyes and spread his spirit feelers. He was quite surprised to find out that the number of illusion nodes around them had multiplied by several folds. He almost couldn’t find any vacant spot.
It was extremely hard to comprehend the logic hidden behind such a great number of nodes.
Angor felt his mind troubled by the mental pressure brought by the passage of remaining time as well as the expectation of his team. He forced his mind to calm down before he initiated “mind overdrive”.
In his view, the world around him turned into data and numbers that helped him to deduce the source of the illusion array by means of reverse engineering.
The others couldn’t see what was going on since Angor was only sitting on the ground while mumbling to himself. Nobody moved to interrupt him since Angor was their only means of survival.
Angor saw countless data and formulas forming up different laws and rules. As he didn’t have near enough time to figure out every rule and law presented to him, he had to look backward and find where the illusion nodes came from.
While at it, he began to feel a strange rhythm hidden behind the nodes.
The rhythm tickled his mind and was trying to guide his thoughts in an unknown direction.
At first, Angor ignored it and kept up with his own calculation. He soon realized that the remaining time would never allow him to perform a full deduction, so he decided to take a bet.
Since the strange rhythm wants me to go somewhere, then I shall follow it and see.
Without considering any reasons or facts, he discarded his unfinished calculations and allowed the rhythm to take control.
Soon, his mind reached a certain coordinate. He didn’t know what awaited there but there was no other option now.
“Follow me,” Angor said as he canceled his mind overdrive status and called to the others.
Following Angor, they traveled through a number of doors and entrances hidden behind different illusions. Angor then stopped in front of another blood-red barrier.
Angor broke the barrier by prodding it with a finger. Following his gesture, a giant surge of illusion energy came rushing out at them like a flood.
People began to see the chaotic sceneries of different natures. The illusions felt so real. If not for the effect of Angor’s mind manipulation, they would soon get carried away by the illusions where they would begin to spend their new lives.
The illusion waves kept coming. Angor could resist them just fine. However, he knew that the others would fall for them if they were to let their guards down for a second.
Following his instinct, he unleashed his Nightmare Domain. In the next second, all the invading illusions vanished.
Angor could still feel the illusion surge going wild around them, but when they approached his Nightmare Domain, they all steered clear as if they saw something dangerous.
Angor didn’t know what was going on. He took a guess that his Nightmare Domain was a “mightier” version of illusions that discouraged all other illusions from approaching.
His assumption was mostly true, but he had forgotten to consider an important factor—Erdus was dead.
If Erdus were in command, Angor’s own illusion would have no hope of competing with its absolute strength. Yet Erdus’ death had left such wild illusions that were powerless against Angor’s nightmare aura.
As the foreign illusions were chased away, Angor’s group slowly cleared their minds.
“Where am I?”
“Another illusion? Oh, this castle looks pretty good. It even recreated all of you guys.”
“Actually, it’s mine,” Angor told them. “You all stay here for the moment so that you don’t get carried away by the energy flows. I’ll deal with the source of the illusions.”
Without waiting for an answer, Angor left the Nightmare Domain and moved forward.
By following the strange rhythm, he walked on without getting pushed back by the overwhelming illusion energy. He soon entered another small room and fixed his gaze upon a small glowing sphere in the center of the room.
Immediately, the rhythm became more active as if it was welcoming Angor’s arrival.
“So this bead... is the source of this ruckus?”
Without a second thought, Angor moved and put a hand on the bead as if something were controlling his actions.
A series of light beams emerged from the sphere and sank into Angor’s forehead.
Angor remained still and embraced the strange experience.
The light beams slowly moved closer until they became one single string that connected with Angor’s brain.
He felt relaxed and comfortable as if he were sunbathing at a resort beach.
Beside him was a small sea mussel. He saw memories. Erdus’ memories, which told him how the small mussel grew into a gigantic miracle.
From its birth, all the way to the end, Angor saw Erdus’ entire life.
The ordinary sea mussel lived a carefree life for a hundred years until a Duon showed up and changed everything. It was the same Duon that Angor saw inside the strange image when the final countdown was started.
Together, they created the first Duon civilization, and from there, they established a legendary story that greatly attracted Angor’s curiosity.
But a disaster came upon the Duons a thousand years ago. Someone from Floating Mech City imprisoned the Duons and threw them into a foreign world, the Garden of Purification.
The forefather of the Duons was forced into an ice coffin while Erdus was imprisoned in a similar way.
The remaining Duons saw these intruders as their “gods”.
And from that day, they no longer had a future.