"Who are you?"
It was a simple question but one that invited many important answers. She, was supposed to be an illusion. But she was hugging him so it proved that she was quite real. Flesh and bone and blood. That love he felt for her didn't disappear. It was like a heart that wrapped around him and squeezed and let go.
"Inverse Warlock! You're really one of them. Only they can physically see abstract concepts"
She didn't answer him but provided more riddles instead. She was clearly not an Inverse Warlock yet she could see what she claimed only they could see. Was there something unique about her? No duh, obviously there was. She was part of an illusion and she was also real. There was no possible way for anyone to interfere with the infinite illusion. They would either be restrained or killed by strong wizards or if they somehow made it through the high security, would be ripped to shreds by an infinite cycle of time.
So how did she do it? He looked at her, trying to find some clue, but she was flawless and perfect. Her skin was smooth without blemish. Eyes clear without a single imperfection. Limbs and figure at a perfect proportion, designed to stimulate the endless hunger inside him. Every word was light, airy, and fluffy, lifting him into the sky and massaging every worry and concern and stress of his away. The infinite void in her eyes that surged him with power.
Then he pushed at her and punched with anger and fury. He was being deceived not by her or him but by the infinite illusion. He was really an Inverse Warlock but before he fully stepped out, it made one final attempt to grab him. The punch this time did not shatter the world, nor did a brand new universe appear before his eyes, but reality stretched in front of him, tears all over. As he exploded with rage, everything reversed into him.
The hand that grabbed his shoulder made him look up and cry. He saw the same girl again, but she was not perfect. She was imperfect and she was his wife. They had woken up to a city in ruin and wandered the streets before finding each other. She was petite despite being the same height as him. She was beautiful despite being athletic. Lean and slim instead of muscular. He was toned and that was it. He wasn't the smallest, the biggest, or the strongest. He was just the one with the strongest battle awareness.
She had met and traveled with dozens of guys before spending the next two years with him. Then she asked him to marry since he didn't ask and she was getting bothered by it. Didn't want another girl to snatch her man. He spent his days pretending he was the guy kissing so many beautiful girls before spending the next two years with her. He was shocked and eternally blissful when she asked him to marry her.
Then they found an abandoned house that used to belong to the Arcane Association of Fellow Wizards. It was formerly a mansion that was split into the current block that the house was sharing with other houses. From the Primitive Age to the Imperial Age to the Industrial Era to now, the entire property suffocated them. After wading through miles of invisible sludge, they finally found something called a rift. It was a temporary wormhole to an unknown location in time that offered invaluable treasure at great risk.
From what they were able to translate, there was a true and false exist. Something called the Infinite Illusion of Time. The fake treasure was called the Infinite Illusion because time was the only known entrance and exit. Without the idea of time, you couldn't locate where you had entered from, therefore being lost in oblivion forever.
She wanted to enter first but when he saw the determination in her eyes, thought of different plans. He told her it was better to explore the rest of the house first to see if they could prepare. She agreed but when she didn't show up, he knew she had lied to him. He read the text from start to end to find any clue and realized that the moment they stepped into the house, they had been caught in a trap. With nothing left to lose, he stepped into the rift and found himself in a primitive looking village. He lost all memories of everything before and lived several years in solitude.
He eventually found text that talked about the trials and errors inside the Infinite Illusion of Time. It was hidden underneath the skin of the wildlife in the world. He found it by chance when he was hungry and there was no food so he had to learn how to hunt. By piecing together hundreds of carcasses, he learned about something called Element AxE. It was the secret of ancient beings known as Wizards and to manipulate it was how one became a Warlock. Element was affixed to the name to deceive the masses. AxE stood for Automatic Xtermination of the Elements.
Wizards were human beings capable of defying the Elements and mutating their essence. Extreme mutations were powerful alterations of DNA through the use of mutated essence to create Warlocks.
But what were the Elements? The only thing he could find was that it was possible to acquire a small portion of old essence. Consuming this essence was required to break the Infinite Illusion since in it was the key to breaking the Infinite Illusion of Time. What he needed to do was attract the carrier that held it, a corpse that had been killed many lifetimes ago.
He did what he knew how to do best. It was ingrained in him. He had to violate the temple of these ancient beings. Make their spirits angry. So he broke one of the taboos that the trial wanted him to break. He purposefully made life difficult for every inhabitant of the world. He caused them to feel uneasy. His plan was successful when he noticed the mist descending onto the planet. It only took a few years but he could finally get out. Since he was the source of all the misfortune, he developed the greatest potential and talent among everyone. The problem was that he didn't know what to do with the mist.
And so began the loop that took him thirty nine plus one tries to break. Everything else was true. Every fact was true except for the world he was in. Now, he finally broke out. What always nagged him and confused him was how perfect she was. But he knew that neither of them was perfect. What really snapped him out of the illusion was how she broke logic in a world governed by logic. It was his keen awareness that recognized the flaw in the loop and his sheer willpower that finally shattered the realm that had governed their fate.
She was beautiful but not perfect.
"I thought I lost you forever"
She hugged him and cried. She didn't let go for a long time until she was curious about what happened to him.
"I'm a Magician now, I think. AxE? Automatic Xtermination of the Elements. I don't know what that is though"
But she widened her eyes when she looked at him.
"That… isn't that the circulation of Warlocks? I also recognize the Inversion too! How did you do it?"
He couldn't tell that she was a Magician but she could tell that he was an Inverse Warlock. He looked at her eyes and saw a familiar energy within it. Bits and pieces of AxE were revolving deep within her eyes, granting her immeasurable insight into the ruins around them. When she looked through the building, through the ruined city, and deep into the horizon, she became worried. He knew what she was thinking about.
The perimeter. It was the shield that protected the privileged from the wastelands, from the trash that roamed it and the dangerous threats that dominated it.
"Shou… should we go back? We're capable now, right?"
He didn't respond. Only nodded. He hugged and kissed her on the forehead.
"Not yet. Let's explore the rest of this house first and then search the rest of the ruined city.
They became husband and wife unofficially, without the paperwork, because in a world of ruin and destruction, emotions were one of the strongest tools. Not necessarily emotions but the bonds they generated between two people. It created a strong repelling force against the creatures that thrived on despair and horror. Part illusion, part darkness, and part beast, a horde of malevolent entities, formerly wildlife that had been slaughtered and taken over, had surrounded the house, unaware of what they would provoke.
Behind them were crowds of people, singles and couples, with insidious smiles on their faces, rotten and decrepit to the extreme. They surrounded the house the same way predator hunts prey.
The Banished.
Humans consumed by the same forces that consumed all the wildlife. Possessing some portion of free will, as evidence through their free thought, they were ultimately still following the will of a puppet master hiding somewhere in the world.
"Hey. This rift actually has a magnitude of 10.0. That's the limit in the wasteland, right?"
"The wasteland is split into several regions. The Frontier, the Barren Plains, the Untraversing Storm, the Frigid Underground, and the Forbidden Zone"
"The only place where a magnitude 10.0 has appeared is the area between the Forbidden zone and either the Untraversing Storm or the Frigid Underground"
"So this place is special?"
"Who cares if it is? We've got super powered freaks in there. One of them even broke the enchantment on the place. Stupid dumbfuks. The moment they step out, let's devour them first"
The Banished were strong, but by how much, they would find out soon.