Alyssa swung her lance, about to charge.
But Caelan didnât give her a chance to show off at all.
Before Alyssa could even touch a single Maskmaster, Caelanâs sword-light had already shredded them all into pieces.
Yet this time, Maskmaster still hadnât taken any real damageâonly more masks shattered across the ground.
By now, Maskmaster had realized Caelan was not someone to trifle with.
So they shifted their target.
They decided to deal with Alyssa first.
In the next instant, two figures shot forward at the same time. And on their faces, a fox mask appeared.
"Illusory World!"
Alyssa never wouldâve imagined Maskmaster would lock onto her!
Her mind felt as if something brutally twisted inside it. Strength drained from her body in an instant, and she collapsed limply to the ground.
Her vision blurredâ
And the world flipped.
She was dragged into a boundless maze. The stone bricks beneath her feet were cold and damp. The walls curled and twisted endlessly, and the air itself carried a suffocating pressure that made her chest feel tight.
It was the familiar scent of battle... and yet everything was warped, strange, wrong.
Then the shadows surged from the far end of the labyrinth.
They were every boss and elite monster she had ever slain with her own handsâ
Except now, their forms were grotesquely mutated.
Their flesh looked like it had been stitched together again. Joints bent the wrong way. Scales and bone spurs erupted wildly from their bodies, and in their hollow eye sockets burned a scarlet glow.
Each one looked like a monster crawling out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of bloodâcarrying a killing intent Alyssa knew all too well.
They let out hoarse roars and lunged toward her in unison.
Claws tore through the air. Fangs ground together with a shrieking scrape. Dense footsteps surged like a tideâlike they were going to drag her back into the deaths she had personally delivered.
Alyssaâs breathing caught. Her chest constricted.
She tried to raise her arms, but her limbs felt as heavy as lead. She tried to retreat, but her feet seemed glued to the mazeâs shadow.
In that moment, the fear didnât come from the enemies themselvesâ
It came from the fact that they had all died by her hand, and that truth was being magnified infinitely... reflected back at her like a curse.
"...No. This isnât right." She clenched her teeth, but her eyes were still involuntarily drawn to those familiar yet distorted silhouettes. Her consciousness started to drift.
Just then, a calm voice sounded behind her.
"Looks like youâve killed quite a few monsters."
Alyssa frozeâthen her mind snapped awake.
She whirled around and saw Caelan standing at the other end of the maze, as if this twisted world couldnât stop him at all.
"Caelan?! How are youâ"
Caelanâs face was tranquil, even faintly intrigued as he looked over the surging monster shadows around them.
"Iâll give them thisâthis illusion is pretty convincing."
He casually pointed at the mutated boss swarm charging toward them, his tone as relaxed as if he were commenting on a cheap stage play.
"But no matter how real it looks, itâs still an illusion. If it can scare you, it means youâre still saving a place for them in your heart."
He paused, then added lazily,
"If you want to catch up with your âold acquaintancesâ here, I wonât stop youâbut youâd better be quick. Those two outside donât look like theyâre planning to wait for you to recover."
Alyssa hesitated, uncertainty flickering in her eyes.
But a moment later, her gaze hardened again.
"No. Itâs all fake anyway."
"More importantly... we should figure out how to escape this illusion realm."
Caelan stayed calm and lifted his hand, pointing toward what looked like the mazeâs exit.
"Leave? Thatâs easy."
But Alyssa grabbed his arm immediately.
"Caelan, donât be reckless! In an illusion, the exit you see might not be an exitâit could be a death trap!"
"I think we should be cautious, becauseâ"
Before Alyssa could finish, she abruptly stopped.
Because Caelan was already raising his sword with visible impatience.
"Enough with the fancy tricks. They donât work on me."
In the next instant, an eye-searing sword arc flashedâ
And the entire illusion realm shattered like a mirror, breaking into countless fragments of different sizes.
Alyssa stood there, utterly dumbfounded.
Back in university, she had systematically studied methods forç Žè§Łćč»ćąâbreaking illusions.
Analysis, techniques, all kinds of careful approachesâ
But she never wouldâve expected Caelan to use such a violently direct method!
And yet...
Why did it feel like this method was the most effective?
Ahem.
...
Meanwhile, inside Killing Groundsâ
As human awakeners continued their trials, someone suddenly noticed the presence of elves.
At first, nobody thought much of it. After all, [Killing Grounds] was managed by the elf raceâseeing elf awakeners inside was perfectly normal.
But soon, people realized something was off.
Because under normal circumstances, the elves were an extremely proud race.
Even the most ordinary elf would look down their nose at the sky.
But now?
These elf awakeners were gathered like stars around the moon, surrounding a blond elf in the center as if guarding a crown prince.
"LookâJoseph! The elf raceâs strongest genius!"
"My god... even Josephâs attention has been drawn here? Then today we might really witness history!"
At the same time, other awakeners noticed elites from other races appearing as well.
"And over thereâEikon of the Titanborn! That muscle-for-brains bruteâhow is he here too?"
"And Yorick of the Bloom Elves... and Santero Shellback of the Beastfolk..."
In an instant, the entire [Killing Grounds] became even more lively.
What was happening here drew nearly everyoneâs attention.
"Do you think weâll witness history today?"
"My god... just imagining it is thrilling!"
"Place your bets! Who do you think is most likely to become the man who breaks the record?!"
...
Caelan had destroyed the illusion realm with a single sword.
As the shattered illusion faded, another mask broke apart on the ground.
But this time, Caelan had no intention of letting them slip away so easily.
His sword shot forward like a nimble serpent, thrusting straight toward Maskmasterâs chest!
Caelanâs thinking was simple:
You can swap masks endlesslyâbut you canât swap out your heart, can you?
No matter how flashy you are, if your heart gets pierced, youâre still going to end up flat on your back.
What Caelan didnât expect was that, faced with a life-or-death crisis, Maskmaster chose to retreat.
Waitâare the simulacra really this intelligent?
A helpless look crossed Caelanâs face.
Fine, fine. If thatâs how it is, heâd better hurry.
Outside the bubble, the crowd of spectators was getting larger and larger.
They stared at the enormous bubble and chattered noisily among themselves.
"Joseph really is the most elegant. Look at his mannerâ even in danger, heâs smooth and composed!"
"Hah! I think Eikon of the titan race is way cooler. Violent aesthetics are perfected on him!"
Of course, some people voiced concern.
"Maskmaster isnât easy to deal with. Joseph and Eikon should probably be more careful."
"By the wayâdoes anyone have an analysis of Maskmasterâs weaknesses?"
But at this moment, the area went strangely quiet.
Even if people knew Maskmasterâs weaknesses, they didnât dare step in personally.
Besides, from the moment Maskmaster was born to the day he fell, he had always been portrayed as invincibleâfinding a weakness was no easy thing at all.
"What else can we say? All we can do is wish them luck."
Under everyoneâs gaze, Joseph and Eikon finally stepped into the last giant bubbleâwhere the floor boss Maskmaster awaited.
But the moment they entered, the giant bubble split.
In front of Joseph and in front of Eikon, a separate Maskmaster appearedâone for each of them.