Chapter 896: The Essence Of An Illusion

Chapter 896: The Essence Of An Illusion

Mara clenched her fists as she watched the illusion before her. She was using her own divinity to ensure that the illusion continued to play out, and also adjusted it so that she could feel the fluctuations of power from the other side. Although she didn’t have the same energy as the Keeper had to spy on the group, it was easy enough for her to follow the trail back and create her own sensory device.

“Come on... you can do it...” She muttered, watching the fight play out. Aurivy was locked in a battle with six other gods, having to repeatedly use her Travel domain to dodge their attacks while creating a dungeon to try and trap them in. Sadly, one of those gods possessed the Ruin domain, preventing the dungeon from ever being able to fully form.

Nearby, Scarlet was doing her best to hold off more than a dozen gods, protecting both herself and the unrecognizable felyn half-god. Red mist surged around the two, lashing out against any divine powers that were thrown their way.

The most miserable of the lot seemed to be none other than Tryval, who Mara could tell was not truly a combat god to begin with. His body was blasted full of injuries as quickly as he could heal. Although he had summoned divine armaments, they were having a hard time narrowing the gap in combat powers.

Meanwhile, the black-haired felyn created by the fusion of the twins floated alone in the empty space, undisturbed by any of the surroundings. Mara couldn’t identify what sort of existence she was, or what powers she was using, and only knew that her eyes were locked onto those of Kruz.

The one good thing about the battle being so split was that they weren’t able to properly focus on the Keeper as much as they wanted. The one who kept trying to do so was none other than Jordan, whose body flashed forward whenever he came into the dark half of the battlefield. However, before he could get close enough to land a blow, Tsubaki would appear in his path.

This made it so that the Keeper only had to personally fight two gods at once. At least, that’s what Mara thought at first. A glimmer of energy caught her eye, pulling her gaze off to the far edge of the battlefield. Once she saw what was there, her eyes went wide in shock.

I dropped myself into a firm stance, lowering my body to fall beneath the spike of green energy shot out by the God of Poison I was fighting. Naturally, he possessed more domains than that, but that was the one likely relevant to the attack.

“Eleventh Hand...” I muttered, starting to bring my hand forward for a strike, only to have to jump back again as a blade cut through the air. My other opponent possessed the Sword domain, so I couldn’t afford to let him get a hit in on me.

Such was the flow of this battle. Although I was able to dodge the strikes of my opponents with superior stats, I was unable to move in quickly enough to land a killing blow. Even mobilizing my divinity to activate different domains was out of the question, as the God of Swords aimed for any opening I gave while doing so. Unless it was an ability that could be instant cast, there was not much that I could do.

As I was thinking that, an idea occurred to me. Dana! Bring out the puppy! Dana’s eyes lit up as she heard that, and the two of us quickly activated our spiritual brands. A piercing howl filled the battlefield, shaking the very space around us. From the center of the dark area, two piercing red eyes appeared, the shadows convulsing around it.

When the Beast of Darkness appeared, it would be able to add another powerful force to our side, hopefully tipping the balance. Such was my plan when I signalled Dana to summon it. However, before the beast had its chance to make a move, there was a flash of blinding light that enveloped it.

I could feel the presence of the creature shattering, returning to my spiritual brand. Until I fed it sufficient energy, it wouldn’t be possible to summon again. As I flew to the side to avoid a torrent of sickly yellow poison, my eyes flicked over to the source of the blinding light.

When she arrived before the Keeper, she looked him straight in the eyes. “She doesn’t want you to die.” Mara said, her words striking at Kruz’s mind. That sentence alone was enough to tell him that Mara had somehow turned traitor.

Everyone, kill Mara, quickly! He shouted, ordering all other battles to be delayed. However, he was already too late. Mara’s divinity had been expanding from the moment she entered her combat form.

“This is how you use the power of illusions.” She told the Keeper, her eyes never leaving his. The rocky hill created by Kruz, the black abyss created by Dana, all of it seemed to shatter into a white void. “What is real? What is fake? Who has the right to label such things?”

Monstrous forms seemed to break out of the white void, jagged lines forming over their bodies as they jumped for the invading gods. “Everything is real, and nothing is real. The concept of an illusion is an illusion itself.”

As she spoke, Klaus emerged from the destroyed mass of the turret, holding out a long-barreled gun that he pointed at Mara. “Traitor, die!” He shouted, pulling the trigger. However, rather than a blast of god-slaying power, the gun released a tiny crack as it burst apart from the slightest bit of weight applied to it.

“You asked her who the strongest one of the guild was?” Mara continued speaking, before breaking eye contact for the first time. Her eyes roamed over the white void, where fractal beasts were assaulting the invaders. “Freeze.”

All of the fractal beasts froze at her command, jaws paused in the process of closing over the bodies of their prey. However, to Kruz’s horror, several members of the guild had also frozen. What terrified him even more was that he could no longer muster any strength in his own body, having been rendered as still as any of her illusions.

No, she never converted me. My health is still full! Kruz declared to himself, focusing his willpower. He was familiar with all of Mara’s techniques, and there were two that could apply to this situation. The first would simply display who she had already turned, while the other was even more insidious, using her other domains to freeze individuals she hadn’t turned. If they believed that they had been converted for even a moment, their bodies would be truly converted into an illusion.

Unfortunately, Kruz had no way of knowing which of his guild members had managed to resist the attack. All he knew was that Mara’s eyes were slowly turning to face him, the corners of her lips arching upwards. “She hated you.” Mara said, walking over towards Kruz. “Every order you gave, every life you forced her to take, every time you made me come back out, she hated you.”

Once Kruz broke free of the trap she had set, a new line of characters were written along his sword. ‘New Law: Only the Truth Shall Remain’. As he swung the sword downwards, the white void shattered around him. Several guild members vanished without a trace, including Jordan and Klaus, as did all of her fractal beasts.

However, to Kruz’s horror, his blade was caught. Mara looked at him with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. She held his blade in one hand, having caught it mid swing. Such a thing should have been impossible, as his latest law should have dispelled all illusions. Kruz’s eyes went wide as a memory surfaced, opening his mouth to speak.

“Shh.” Mara said, her cold eyes staring into his. “This is all just a bad dream.” As she said that, Kruz felt his body breaking down, piece by piece, staring back into her cold eyes. When he canceled the illusions, he had also broken one that she placed on him years ago.

A woman who had more blood on her hands than anyone else he knew, one who had grown weary of battle. To escape it, she cast her greatest deception ever. She made the whole world believe that she was just a facade of a little girl, too timid to fight without relying on such a form. The illusion had deceived the entire guild, and Mara had acted perfectly for it. After all, she truly did become that timid girl she wanted to be. Only, the timid girl wasn’t the ‘true face’ of the coin. She was just a disguise that Mara had cast to fool even herself. A mask that would only come off when the coin was flipped again.