[Chapter 59 Comment.]
"It's my time," Theo smiled. This wasn't a fight in the traditional sense because Lemin didn't have any physical body anymore, making it impossible for him to exert the true power of his illusion.
That was why Theo remained calm but also felt a bit disappointed. He had never fought against an illusionist whose strength was on par with his own. Of course, there was also the Goddess of Mischief from his original world who had pushed him into the illusionist world. However, Lemin was different. He was not related to him in any way. Unfortunately, due to the limitation of Lemin's body, they had to change the method of their fight into something like this.
For Theo, instead of a fight, this felt more like a discussion. While having a conversation with the greatest illusionist of this world was valuable, he still wanted to engage in a real battle with someone of Lemin's caliber. Unfortunately, he had to content himself with the current duel, thinking it was better than nothing.
In a way, this battle was also quite intriguing. It wasn't like Lemin was holding back either. If it were a normal person, Theo might have been paralyzed or even lost his life. The only reason why he could stop all of Lemin's attacks was that he could see through the illusion.
That was why he was planning to defeat Lemin with his illusion.
The moment Theo lifted his hand, everything around them began to wither. The grass, the trees, even the stones started decaying.
"This is..." Lemin widened his eyes in shock. He could feel an extremely powerful death energy that was draining the life from all the living beings around them.
The death energy brushed against his skin, causing him to feel like he was rotting. In a desperate attempt to counteract the destruction, Lemin hurriedly raised both hands, forming new living beings to replace the ones that had disappeared.
Theo continued to take their lives away, and Lemin kept creating new life at the same rate, determined not to let Theo destroy this place.
However, the death energy seemed to increase in intensity the more living beings he produced, as if it was accumulating within this space. The temperature dropped rapidly, causing Lemin to feel the cold despite having no physical body. An ominous presence was approaching.
When he traced the source of the death energy, Lemin couldn't help but look up as the air split open from the other side, and a red eye stared at them from behind.
"!!!" Lemin felt like his life force was being sucked into the eye. Despair, helplessness, and fear crept into his heart.
However, Lemin wasn't one to be easily defeated, especially after learning about the concept of one body and one mind from Theo. He believed this experience was a result of that concept, so he steeled his heart, telling himself it wasn't real.
As he hardened his resolve, he heard someone's voice coming from the side.
"Teacher?"
"!!!" Lemin widened his eyes in surprise because he recognized the voice.
In an instant, everything disappeared. The death energy dissipated into nothingness, the unknown monster vanished, and all the overwhelming emotions were gone.
Lemin turned around and saw the young student who had called him "teacher" earlier. It was none other than Haruka. Even Avalon was standing behind her, peeking from afar.
In a corner of the illusion, there was a small room that represented the last staircase they needed to climb to reach this place. Haruka and Avalon had actually defeated all the trials and caught a glimpse of this place, noticing Theo conversing with another person.
"Haruka, Avalon," Theo looked at Lemin with a wry smile, apologizing for the interruption.
"Hahahaha!" Lemin laughed out loud. "To think that you have two blessed students."
Seeing Lemin's approval, Theo waved his hand, signaling Haruka and Avalon to come in.
They both nodded and fully opened the door before entering the room. They approached Theo carefully, wondering if they had interrupted something important.
"These two are the students you brought to this place, right? Hello," Lemin greeted them gently. "You two must be smart to be able to see through my illusion and complete all five trials so quickly. Let me introduce myself, I'm Lemin Balkman, the owner of this tower."
Theo placed his hands on both of their shoulders and said, "Introduce yourselves to him. Despite the difficulty of the tower, he is a rather good guy."
Avalon and Haruka looked hesitant, having gone through so much already.
"I am Haruka Kimura from the Exorcism Realm," Haruka spoke up.
"I am Avalon Pendragon from the Knight Realm," added Avalon.
"I've heard from your teacher earlier that this world is connected to a few other worlds. I see, you're not from this world. It seems that the people from my world are lacking compared to the other worlds," Lemin made a sad smile, disappointed that the ones who could actually defeat his trials were people from other worlds. Of course, Theo was an exception.
"Thank you," Avalon and Haruka timidly nodded their heads.
"You two are blessed with a good teacher. To think that he would be able to see through my illusion in an instant and reach this place unharmed… With him as your teacher, I think you two will become great people in the future," Lemin smiled.
"Is that so? Thank you," Avalon thanked him immediately while Haruka only nodded her head.
"I'm sorry, but I think you two have to wait for a bit. We are sparring right now," Theo smiled and assured them that this was just a spar to not make them worry.
"Well, I would be ashamed if I had to let your students wait, Theo. I think we should wrap it up right now," Lemin smiled wryly. Although he was disappointed that he couldn't see the full power of Theo's illusion, he also felt a bit dreadful about what Theo had just shown earlier.
"Yeah, I think we should wrap it up now…" Theo sighed and added, "...since I have done showing you my illusion."
"!!!" Lemin instantly realized what was happening. When he took a look to the side, Avalon and Haruka had disappeared as though they were not here in the first place.
At the same time, he found both of them about to solve the fourth trial before completing the last one and reaching this place.
In other words, Theo had taken that sensation from him, so he had lost track of his students. Additionally, Theo used his illusion to shift his emotions and feelings, so he didn't notice that he had been under the illusion this whole time.
With how the two students entered this place by using the stairs in the corner, Lemin had no other choice but to believe it.
And that left a big question in his mind. When? When exactly did he fall into his illusion?
As if seeing through his mind, Theo answered, "From the very start…"
"From the very start…" Lemin looked down, recalling their time in this place. "No, not the start of our fight… Don't tell me…"
Theo nodded. "It seems that you've realized it."
Lemin couldn't help but gasp, noticing how monstrous Theo was. What he meant by the start was when Theo first entered the tower. He completely saw through the illusion and used his own illusion to counter it.
When he reached this place, Theo had been shifting his focus so that he wouldn't think about the two students and the fact that he had fallen into his illusion.
This was Theo's illusion… the illusion that looked so real that all the people inside it thought it was reality.
Lemin laughed while covering his eyes. His laughter lasted for a minute because the realization struck him so deeply that he couldn't believe it.
"Hahaha, you're amazing, Theo. This is the first time I've experienced this kind of illusion," Lemin admitted his defeat.
"You are great too. Your illusion is a combat illusion, allowing you to destroy your opponent without physically harming them," Theo nodded. "I learned a lot from you. Thank you."
"No, I should be the one thanking you," Lemin shook his head as he looked at Theo. A tear formed in the corner of his eye as he said sadly, "If only I could meet someone like you when I was alive, I would have reached a whole different dimension. We might have even become best friends. If only my world was connected to other worlds in the past… such a shame."
He regretted being born too soon.
"I'm just glad that I could actually meet you before my soul fully dissipates," Lemin paused for a moment. "That's why please take everything I have, Theo. This is my thanks to you."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I could feel a lot of people outside this tower, so I know that they are aiming for my great treasures."
"Indeed. They allowed me to take the Eye of Truth while getting everything else, such as the Sun Staff and Great Imperfection."
"Ah. Those three…" Lemin nodded in understanding. "It seems that they are not aware of the real treasure."
After talking to him, Theo also noticed the true treasure that Lemin possessed. "This tower, huh?"
Lemin smirked. "That's right. The tower has been encompassed by the illusion inscription. If they use it correctly, they can make people fall into the illusion and face something that will end up training them. In other words, it can be used as a tower to get stronger. They can even experience an illusion that allows them to have a breakthrough. Additionally, the material that is used to create this tower can absorb essence to a certain degree, allowing you to hit it without destroying it. This is the true treasure."
"Indeed. This tower is excellent. Though, I have requested Inscription Books from them so that I might be able to recreate something like this."
"I don't think you can rely on them, Theo. I mean, if they have enough knowledge about illusion, they should have deciphered my tower by now. So, I want you to take this tower and use it for yourself."
"Huh?" Theo frowned. "Do you think they will let me keep the tower?"
"Do you think you can't fool them?"
"…" Theo and Lemin didn't say any words after that, but both of them knew that it was an easy task to fool them.
"If you don't mind, I have a request…" Lemin raised one finger. If he just gave it away to Theo, he was afraid that Theo would feel bad because he didn't have any choice. So, this request was just something to avoid any hard feelings.
"Sure."
Lemin pointed to another corner. "You see a room over there? My coffin is in there. If you don't mind, can you bury me on the outskirts of the city called Lekin? My father was a city lord and gave me a name similar to that city in the hope that I would protect that city for him. At the very least, I could go home."
"I understand. Though, it's better for you to make a will to convince them."
"Fair enough." Lemin also knew that his corpse might be considered a treasure. Since they might be able to learn about his secret. Of course, they wouldn't be able to find anything, but there would certainly be that kind of thought.
"How about a cremation? I don't think this world has this kind of tradition. Basically, you burn away the corpse and either store the ashes to remember or spread them to a special place in the hope of something." Theo suggested another way.
"That's also good. In that case, please do that and sprinkle my ashes around that city. At least, I can still fulfill my promise to my late father." Lemin smiled as if he was ready to bid his farewell, "Thank you, O' Traveler from another world."