Doubting the hallucinations, Nathan took advantage of a moment of rest to look at the others. They were all busy fighting the hallucinations that only they themselves could see, then, taking advantage of the information Amelia had given him, Nathan quickly approached Herfir.
"How many hallucinations do you see?"
Herfir attacked the air from Nathan's perspective then answered without looking at him.
"Too many to count!"
Nathan smacked his lips and looked at the orb of light next to him.
'Can you stand beside the calamities you see?'
Amelia hesitated for a couple of seconds before answering hesitantly.
'I can... but you'll have to give me your essence in order to get far enough'
Amelia still depended on Nathan's essence to materialize, or at least to stay in that form.
'Fine, take whatever essence you need'
Amelia nodded but still held doubt in her heart.
'Got it...'
Slowly, the orb of light floated towards the calamity and hovered above its head.
"Now you see a calamity with an orb of light above its head to your right?" Nathan asked Herfir again.
Herfir clicked his tongue in annoyance not understanding Nathan's question but took the trouble to look for the hallucination Nathan mentioned.
There were several sources of light in the attic, so the place really wasn't that dark, still, Amelia especially stood out with white light emanating from her body.
"Yeah... I see it"
Hearing Herfir's response, Nathan bet it all and propelling his legs with essence, he launched himself towards the hallucination, which was still standing behind a pillar watching him silently.
Nathan didn't bother to be careful, so he simply swung his greatsword at the pillar, shattering it and catching the hallucination unawares.
This time, in comparison to the previous hallucinations, Nathan did feel that he was hitting something with his sword.
The calamity was cut in half and without even knowing how, it died.
Nathan smiled behind his mask.
'Good!'
Without a second thought, Nathan spoke to Amelia.
'Point out the others!'
Amelia this time didn't hesitate and quickly floated towards the other real hallucination she saw. Earlier, she had hesitated because she didn't know if her body could be attacked, but she realized that the hallucinations seemed unaware of her existence.
When Amelia reached the next calamity, Nathan quickly ran through the group and alerted the others.
"What are you doing?!" Herfir shouted as he saw Nathan pass in front of him.
Nathan didn't stop and shouted back.
"End these damn hallucinations!"
A dozen hallucinations appeared in front of him, but Nathan ignored them completely by passing through them and swung his essence powered sword at the calamity with the orb on its head.
Once again, the hallucination was unable to react and was cut in half by Nathan's sword.
Herfir was surprised to see how the hallucination that Nathan had cut off did not turn into mist, but his body fell to the ground and actually bled.
He was not the only one, Mary and the brown-haired woman had also seen Nathan cut the hallucination.
A faint smile appeared behind Mary's gas mask and hit another hallucination.
"Way to go, kid!"
Nathan ran towards another real hallucination, but after seeing the death of two of them, the others quickly changed their behavior and ignored the others, only focusing on Nathan.
Nathan didn't notice this, but Amelia who could see them, did.
'They're all staring at you'
Nathan frowned and swung his sword at another hallucination, however instead of being surprised she dodged his attack and ran away.
It was then that he realized that the behavior of the calamities had changed and they were now being careful towards him.
But Nathan didn't care, after all, he wasn't the only one there.
"End the hallucinations that have an orb in their heads!"
Nathan gave a general order, it didn't really matter who it was, but the important thing was that they put an end to the real hallucinations that were left. Besides, with different people attacking them each time, the hallucinations wouldn't know who to pay attention to.
Not only that, but four people in the group were faster than Nathan, and therefore harder for the hallucinations to predict and react to.
Amelia floated towards another calamity, and it was Mary who was closest to this one. The beautiful woman did not hesitate at Nathan's words after seeing how he had actually killed a hallucination, then she exploded towards the calamity Amelia pointed at and punched its chest.
Her first went through the calamity's body creating a bloody mess, then she pulled her fist out of the hallucination's body and ignored the others that were coming to attack her.
She saw that the orb did not move to any of the hallucinations near her, which gave her to understand that the ones around her were fakes.
Mary let the hallucination's blows reach her body but felt nothing.
After that, for a couple of minutes they took turns with each other until Amelia spoke to him again.
'...There are no more left'
Nathan noticed her tired tone, then smiled and thanked her.
'Thanks'
Amelia remained silent, then slowly floated back to him before slowly disappearing.
'I'm going to rest... I'm expecting a good meal after this'
Nathan scoffed and snorted.
'Yeah, yeah... I'll give you all the essence you want'
Amelia said nothing, she just gave him a light chuckle before drifting off to sleep.
It was then that Mary approached Nathan noticing that the hallucinations had stopped.
"Is done?"
Nathan nodded letting the scent dissolve from his tired muscles.
"Yes, there are no more...for now"
Mary nodded and then looked at him quizzically.
"What was that?"
Nathan froze.
'Ah... shit'
He hadn't really given it much thought when he asked Amelia to point to the actual hallucinations. He had indirectly revealed her existence to the others, so it didn't take a second for him to make up an excuse.
"I-it's a relic I found a couple of weeks ago... its only function is to indicate to the calamities"
Nathan shrugged slightly.
"I hadn't really used it before because I hadn't seen much use for it... but it turned out to be quite efficient this time"
Not only Mary but the others listened with interest.
Relics were rare, and expensive. Depending on one's usefulness, their price could vary quite a bit.
A relic that could indicate calamity wasn't really useless, it just worked in certain scenarios. For example, it could have helped him identify tribal calamities hiding from him in the swamp months ago.
Anyway, it was the first time he had asked Amelia for something like that, and somehow it worked.
The only puzzle that remained was why Amelia was immune to hallucinations compared to them.
Nathan thought about it for a couple of minutes while the group rested, then sighed as he thought about why.
'It's the mist... Amelia has no body, so she is immune to the effects of the mist'
The only apparent effect of the mist was drowsiness, but that wasn't all, it was the mist that created the hallucinations. But something else didn't square, as the corpses of the calamities lying on the ground around them were very real.
Nathan approached one of the corpses and bent down to study it.
Why were the hallucinations the same as these calamities? Did the third category calamity work together with these calamities?
Nathan didn't know and had no way of knowing. But now that they had gotten rid of the hallucinations momentarily, they were ready to move on and search for the true third rank calamity.