Temporarily putting Amelia's words to one side, Nathan continued walking, paying attention to his surroundings. He knew that with Roderick they would have no problems with ambushes, but he still preferred to be cautious.
The laughter was getting worse with each passing minute, then suddenly Nathan saw something behind a piece of furniture at the edge of the attic and looked at it with a frown.
But there was really nothing there, so Nathan clicked his tongue in annoyance.
'Damn hallucinations'
It was like seeing shadows on the sides of his peripheral vision.
Now the hallucinations were beginning to manifest themselves, but they were still hidden, only appearing faintly in his vision.
Nathan quickly understood the calamity's method of attack. First, he would try to put his target to sleep, if this worked then the fight was over.
If that didn't work, then it would start creating auditory hallucinations to disturb them, thus breaking the people's calm.
If that didn't work either, then the hallucinations would start appearing in the peripheral view, ending the last shred of tranquility.
Then, once they got closer, people would already be uneasy, and their mentality would be shaken. That would be the best time to strike.
Seeing a shadow at the edge of his vision, Nathan sighed and tried to ignore it, it was then that it laughed loudly and jumped over the piece of furniture it was hiding behind before running towards him.
Nathan opened his eyes wide, not expecting the calamity's sudden act and drew his sword before swinging it at it.
His greatsword hit the floor leaving a crack in the wood, then Herfir looked at him confused.
"Did you see one?"
Nathan raised his sword again and slung it over his shoulder.
"Yes..."
The hallucinations were different for everyone, so no one besides him had seen it.
Everyone was completely aware of their surroundings now more than ever, then the frequency with which Nathan saw the hallucinations began to increase.
Now they did not only appear in his periphery, sometimes they even appeared next to him without any warning. But they were still limited to scaring him without really hurting him.
The appearances of the hallucinations were fast, lasting less than a couple of seconds. Nathan had to see them a couple of times before he knew what they looked like.
Like the red mist, the calamities had red skin, their limbs were long and spindly, standing more than two meters tall.
In addition, their faces were empty, they had no eyes, nose, or mouth, only a pair of ears on the side of their heads.
The hallucinations were strangely human... but at the same time inhuman.
It was then that Nathan saw Mary punch the air and then retract her fist while clicking her tongue.
Slowly everyone began to swing their weapons into the air, attacking hallucinations that Nathan could not see.
As the minutes passed, Nathan began to see more and more hallucinations, and some of them were actively attacking him.
'Tch... there are too many of them'
They still weren't a problem, it wasn't until Nathan ignored one hallucination that approached him and punched him in the torso before disappearing.
Nathan cringed as he felt the first on his torso, then looked around but the hallucination was no longer nearby.
"They've started!" Mary shouted drawing everyone's attention.
'A bit late...' Nathan complained he had already taken a hit.
Fortunately, the hallucination's attack wasn't very strong, but they were so unpredictable that Nathan had no choice but to attack all the ones that came near him, which turned into red mist as soon as they received his attack.
In silence, Amelia, who had many doubts in her head, began to concentrate, then the bracelet on Nathan's wrist glowed and shortly afterwards a small orb of light appeared in the air.
Nathan noticed how Amelia materialized but did not say anything. However, he still heard her voice inside his head.
'Why are you attacking the nothingness...?'
Nathan frowned as he punched a hallucination before it turned into red mist.
'What do you mean, nothing? Can't you see I'm surrounded?!' Nathan complained to Amelia as he attacked another hallucination.
Around him, there were over twenty hallucinations constantly appearing and disappearing, all of which took turns attacking him, but never stopped laughing.
'Surrounded? I only see ten of those things... and only two near you'
Nathan stopped momentarily.
'What?'
Amelia nodded again.
'Yes... there's one watching you behind that piece of furniture and another that's a few meters away from you'
Nathan didn't understand what Amelia was seeing compared to the dozens of hallucinations around him.
'Why don't you see them?'
Nathan hit another hallucination, which faded back into red mist.
He knew clearly that they were hallucinations, that the calamities around him existed only in his mind.
Every time he hit one with his sword, he wasn't really hitting anything, only the air. But then how had he been hit before?
Nathan began to seriously doubt the hallucinations, so after finishing another one he asked Amelia.
'Which ones do you see?'
Amelia didn't hesitate to answer.
'One is behind the third pillar to your right, the other is four meters to your left... the others aren't focusing on you'
Nathan looked at the calamities Amelia had told him about and saw them surrounded by other calamities.
Why did Amelia only see those, and he saw dozens?
Nathan could not find an explanation, then Amelia warned him.
'The one on your left is coming!'
Nathan clicked his tongue as he realized that another one was approaching from the right at the same time as the one Amelia had warned him about, so he had to make a decision.
Forgetting about the hallucination on his right, Nathan attacked the one on the left, which seeing the sword coming dangerously close towards his head decided to back off and return to the other hallucinations.
'Did he back off?'
So far, all the hallucinations had charged towards him regardless of his attacks, but this was the first one to dodge his sword and regroup with the others.
Nathan began to seriously doubt the hallucinations, then looked at the others around him with a frown.
'Do they really exist?'