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Chapter 896: The Essence Of An Illusion

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.

There, I saw Klaus, the God of Construction among the guild, sitting atop a massive turret. He grinned like a madman as the barrels quickly cooled, turning to aim the turret at me next. When Tsubaki saw this, she tried to rush over to Klaus to stop him, only for Jordan to appear in her path.

To my surprise, the two gods fighting me didn’t back off. Either they were waiting for the very last moment in order to give me no time to dodge, or… they had no intention of dodging in the first place. After learning more about their guild system from Mara, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were those who had been trained to rather throw their lives away than to let the enemy have a chance to escape.

Beast of the End failed, and I wasn’t able to gather the energy needed to land a hit with the Twelve Shattering Hands. This left only one of the styles that I had trained. I felt my body briefly tense as the God of Swords slashed at me again, before a deep clang echoed out. The sword that had been striking for my body recoiled off of almost rock-like skin.

Beginning Earth had the characteristic of halting momentum, making it a highly defensive power. When using this energy through Elemental Embodiment, my speed was reduced significantly. In return, I received the same natural ability as the Beginning Earth.

Sadly, that wouldn’t work a second time. The God of Swords had his eyes widen in surprise, before a look of determination flashed across his face. Now that he was prepared to cut through a powerful defense, I was sure that the next strike would be able to split me cleanly in half.

That’s why I immediately switched energies, and began circulating the Beginning Wind. This was the opposite of the previous energy, carrying the property of amplifying momentum. When embodying this energy, I received a drastic movement speed increase in exchange for my defenses.

Thankfully, I wasn’t planning to use this power simply to dodge, and instead used it to rush towards the turret that was aimed at me. With my newly enhanced speed, I was able to arrive on the top of the turret before Klaus could fire, causing his eyes to go wide. However, he still had a crooked grin on his face.

It can self-destruct! The thought flashed in my mind just in time for the turret to light up once again. Only this time, the energy exploded out in all directions, as opposed to through the barrel. I switched back to Beginning Earth as the explosion engulfed me, knowing that I wouldn’t have time to escape the blast range.

“That’s enough.” A voice spoke up in the void of space, clearly heard by all present. There was a brief lull in the battles as the light of the turret dimmed, a young girl stepping out onto the battlefield.

Mara’s alive?! Kruz questioned mentally, eyes wide as he saw the girl appear, holding her coin in her hand. Until now, the fights looked like they could go either way. The true tipping point would be whoever could deliver the first fatality, as those forces would be able to join the others. Now that Mara had arrived, it seemed like they had just gained an extra life on their side.

Kruz didn’t have the mind to question how Mara wasn’t registered in the guild system anymore. Maybe the enemy had her trapped in some special dungeon that cut her off from external systems. Either way, her presence was sure to turn the tide of battle.

When Mara’s coin flipped into the air, Kruz had a wide grin. The hand gripping his sword tightened, as if ready to send it down at any moment. Until that moment, the unknown power of the black-haired felyn had stopped him from activating the law in his sword, but Mara’s presence was beginning to give him courage.

Mara’s body began to change as the coin flew into the air, landing in her hand. By the time it had landed, she was a taller, adult woman with a stone cold face. Her small dress from before was replaced with a black suit, though she still maintained her slender frame.

Kruz watched as Mara’s eyes coldly examined the battlefield, before walking towards the Keeper with calm steps. Neither his side nor the Keeper’s people made a move, as if both were wary about her actions.

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.