[Chapter 56 Comment]
"The tower is blown up?" Haruka and Avalon were utterly dumbfounded, never considering the possibility of the tower getting destroyed. Before they could even think about it being an illusion, they were surprised by another creation. A giant circle enveloped the explosion site.
"What is that?" Avalon pointed at the circle. "Is that an Inscription?"
"No. I've heard of this from Lancelot when asking about the information of his world. This one is called a Magic Circle. Basically, the people in this world can only use their essence through this Magic Circle. Inscription is another branch that focuses on the natural flow of the essence," Haruka explained, showing her preparation before going on this mission.
"Then…" Avalon wanted to say something but stopped as the magic circle changed the shape of the fire from the explosion. "What is that?"
The fire gradually shaped into a small humanoid Marei, similar to the one they encountered when coming to this place, but this one had the height similar to the tower.
"Even Sir Baold couldn't defeat that Marei easily… And we're here to take on something even bigger?" Haruka gasped.
Before they could become even more panicked, they reached the apex and started to fall down.
"Aaaahhh!" Haruka was scared.
Avalon hurriedly gathered his essence on his shield while looking at the ground. He had to time his release perfectly to break down the fall.
But before he could do it, Haruka regained her composure and took out a wind talisman, tossing it below them.
The talisman generated wind and slowed down their descent, allowing them to land at a slow speed.
"Haruka, I know that you're panicking right now, but we have no choice but to fight that thing. It's the one coming from the tower explosion, so it must be the clue to clearing this second floor."
"I know. But I still can't find anything to defeat that monster," Haruka said, recalling all the talismans she brought with her.
"In any case, I will be going first. Please support me," Avalon stated when he saw the monster staring at them and about to lift up its right foot.
Avalon didn't wait for her answer as he charged while gathering his essence on his sword. With a single wave of his sword, the essence burst out like a whip, creating a crescent-shaped wave that struck the giant Marei's ankle.
Boom! The burst of energy exploded once it hit its target, but surprisingly, the Marei didn't even flinch. It raised its foot and stomped the ground, trying to crush Avalon.
"Not good." Avalon pushed the Knight Links to the limit and rushed to the side, avoiding the stomp. However, due to the Marei's size, the stomp shattered the ground around it, tripping Avalon.
"Kh." Avalon gritted his teeth and hurriedly used his hand to support his entire body and stand up. He saw that the giant was actually aiming for Haruka as it continued moving forward. "Haruka."
Instead of avoiding the giant, Haruka closed her eyes while taking out five talismans.
Suddenly, the five talismans emitted different colored lights, and a rainbow thread connected all of them, starting from the big circle to the individual connections that formed a star.
The rainbow-colored star released a beam of the same color towards the giant's body. The burst of essence was so great that a shock wave emitted from both the impact point and the release point. Avalon used his shield to block the shock wave and was a bit stunned that Haruka could achieve this level of power. He couldn't help but glance at the orb. "Do you have anything to say? If you don't do anything, we might lose here."
Instead of an answer that could make him stronger, the orb actually said, "Over-reliance will just cause one's downfall. You already have the power to defeat your enemy; you just have to discover that power."
Avalon didn't understand. He had the strength but had yet to discover it? While he was thinking, Haruka was having a hard time fighting against the giant.
"Is this the reason why even Sir Baold couldn't proceed to the second floor?" Haruka frowned. "However, there is one piece missing. Sir Baold mentioned that all the explorers before us have never returned. It should mean some, if not all of them, have died on the second floor, so where are their corpses?"
Haruka remembered that the room was completely empty when it was supposed to have a few corpses. "Did the tower absorb them? Did they die facing this giant? But even from the very start, we had fallen into the tower's illusion…" Haruka recalled the experience on the first floor and started to notice. "Don't tell me, the giant Marei is actually an illusion?"
Haruka realized how absurd it was for the tower to explode. In addition, she couldn't find anyone around the tower, which was supposed to be filled with people. With all that information, she concluded that they were within an illusion.
"Now that I know this is an illusion, how can I defeat it?" Haruka looked around, wondering if she could get some clues to defeat the illusion. She recalled all the illusion lessons, not only from Theo but also from Li Wei.
"In my cultivation world, we have a Formation. There are formation flags that contain all kinds of arrays that create a giant illusion. By placing the formation flags in their designated positions, we could trap people inside. The only way for you to escape is to find the eye of the array. All formation flags are linked to each other, and this eye is the core of the formation. If destroyed, the illusion will be dispelled."
Li Wei's information about formations seemed to match the current situation. Instead of arrays or formations, this world had inscriptions.
"So, where is the eye?" Haruka muttered in a low voice before shouting, "Avalon!"
Her shout woke Avalon up. He saw Haruka pointing at the giant Marei. "I need you to distract it and find any weird spots on its body."
"Weird spot? Can it take the giant down? No, wait…" Avalon fell silent, remembering the information from his world. "Don't tell me, it's something like a dragon's reverse scale?"
He aspired to be a Dragon Knight, so he obviously had knowledge about dragons. If his prediction was correct, he could defeat the giant as long as he could find that spot.
Without hesitation, Avalon rushed to the giant. "I'll take care of it."
The giant saw Avalon rushing and tried to kick him. However, Haruka tossed a talisman into the air. Once it was activated, numerous giant vines emerged from the talisman and enveloped the giant's knee. Even though the giant could destroy the vines easily, the resistance the vines provided caused the giant to lose its balance. Ultimately, the giant tripped and fell to the ground.
"Hurry!" Haruka shouted. Only Avalon could explore the giant's body since he had the Knight Links. Meanwhile, Haruka used this opportunity to use the wind talisman to shoot herself into the sky and land on the spot where the tower was supposed to be. She thought this should be the place where the core of the illusion was hidden. Just like the flame, she was going to find it.
The giant was also relatively weak despite its size and power, so this trial was supposed to be hard but not impossible.
With that thought in mind, Haruka began to look at the explosion site. The flame had subsided, leaving only the rubble. She was using the wind talisman to lift up the rubble to find any suspicious spots. At the same time, she couldn't help but remember what the orb said earlier. "What is the most ridiculous thing in the world?"
It seemed that she had to combine what she had found about the core with the question from the orb. "What is it? I have to find it."
While Haruka was searching for the clue, Avalon had been running on top of the giant's back. As a knight who had to take down his opponent, he was running while sliding his blade, creating wounds all over the giant's back. To his surprise, blood didn't come out from the giant's body. Instead, he could see golden particles leaving the body. On the one hand, he thought this was because of the illusion. On the other hand, the golden color reminded him of the orb.
He had the same thought as Haruka, wondering what was the most ridiculous thing he could think of. "Come to think of it, why is the giant Marei this weak? Why does the illusion form this Marei instead of anything else?"
Avalon felt suspicious. There were thousands of Marei that the illusion could choose from, but why would it form this one? Avalon felt like he had found a clue but couldn't connect it with the others they had found. He asked out loud, "Haruka! Why is the illusion forming this Marei instead of anything else?"
Avalon acknowledged that he wasn't as smart as Haruka when it came to riddles because he was used to the straightforward way. That was why he knew when to push aside his pride and ask for someone's guidance.
"Huh?" Haruka frowned. Avalon's question gave a ray of light in her mind. She had been thinking about the fact that the giant was a Marei instead of why it was this particular Marei. When that question entered her mind, she fell silent for a moment. It was at this time that the orb next to her asked another question.
"This Marei… is the one that gave the most impact yesterday, right?"
"The most impact…" Haruka repeated it several times before raising her head. "Don't tell me. The core of this illusion is…"