Chereads / Absence of Illumination / Chapter 5 - Illusion

Chapter 5 - Illusion

Facing Luis Kearny, Mr. Rudolph flashed a triangular metallic piece with a headless griffin.

It was the badge of the Royal Knights! 

"Sir, you have to come with me. You're a prime suspect for murder."

On the roof of the Gentlemen's club, Silas nodded to himself.

That's brilliant! Mr. Rudolph is trying to get him to come with us without having to instigate a fight! 

Luis pushed away the two girls beside him.

His words came out slurred, "And what if I don't."

"I'll have to take you away by forc-"

Mr. Rudolph couldn't finish his sentence. A spear of lightning had struck him in his left shoulder.

A streak of blood ran down his arm as he jumped back.

Luis continued his attack. Pouncing forward, the priest conjured a blade of wind in his right arm and swung it down with all his strength.

Reacting quickly, Rudolph conjured a mirror in front of his and another behind him. 

The priest phased through the first mirror and appeared behind the old man.

Luis hissed and sent a gust of wind aimed at Rudolph's face.

Dodging to the side, Rudolph snapped his fingers.

He instantly appeared behind Luis and elbowed him directly at the back of the head.

Instead of falling to the ground, the force of the impact launched Luis 10 meters away.

That didn't seem to cause much damage. He immediately got up and reached for something.

The spear on Rudolph's shoulder dislodged itself and flew into Luis' hand.

The old man let out a loud cry of pain.

Blood flew out of the wound. Rudolph quickly covered it with his hand and muttered something.

After letting go of his shoulder, he snapped his fingers again.

Silas couldn't believe his eyes as the buildings, the sky and the ground on Looke Road turned into millions of mirrors.

What's a f*cking gun supposed to do against this. 

Then Rudolph vanished into one of the mirrors.

Not being too concerned, Luis let out a sigh.

"You're from the psychic domain, aren't you?"

A raspy voice echoed, "Yes I am."

The mirrors all shattered, creating an unpleasant sound. Suddenly, the scenery changed into a cemetery.

All the graves had been dug out. Mutilated corpses climbed out, their mouths were stuffed with bloody eyes and fingers.

They charged toward Luis.

Before they reached him, the priest started levitating.

"Stop hiding, at the end of the day it's just an illusion."

He shaped the spear into a ball and threw it up.

ZAM!

The ball of lighting erupted into dozens of different beams. They rained down on the corpses. 

However, some of them seemed to strike a wall.

Suddenly the cemetery crumbled. The scenery turned into a beautiful beach.

Waves came and went, a cool breeze hit Luis in the face.

The sun shined brightly and palm trees swayed back and forth.

The priest felt something on his foot. A small crab had grabbed on his shoe.

He tried to shake it off, to no avail.

SLISH!

A dark gray spear impaled Luis' foot. Then another impaled his arm. Another his thigh. Then another his chest, then shoulder, then neck. 

In his drunken state, Luis started laughing. 

"Illusions can't kill me! Come out you coward!"

"As you wish." 

The illusion shattered. However, Luis noticed dozens of holes covering his body, dripping with crimson blood.

He screamed in agony.

Standing right in front of Luis was Rudolph. He was leaning on a cannon. The fuse had almost entirely run out.

The priest tried flying upward to avoid the upcoming cannon ball.

A big mirror covering the sky stopped his ascent. 

He tried to dodge right. Another mirror stopped him.

He tried to dodge left. Another mirror stopped him.

He tried to burrow into the ground. Another mirror stopped him.

"Go f*ck yourself." 

Then the fuse burned out.

BOOM!

Blood splattered on the mirrors. 

...

Jovan Martin sat in his office, reading a book.

His butler walked in the room, interrupting his reading.

"Master Jovan, you're needed in the basement."

Putting the book away, Jovan replied, "Very well."

The basement of the black mansion consisted of 103 rooms, scattered around a labyrinth.

After carefully navigating the labyrinth, the butler and master arrived at room 83. 

There sat a bright yellow altar. A massive stone statue of a man with no face was surrounded by candles.

The stone on the statue was cracking as it was slowly moving. A bloody scream sounded from where it's mouth would be.

"Bring another sacrifice. Be quick," Jovan instructed.

4 men carried a middle-aged man. They placed him directly in front of the altar.

"Wh-what are you doing? Where am I? Who a-are you?"

"Don't worry, we're setting you free today. You can see your loved ones again." Jovan said while patting the mans back.

"Really?"

"No."

Jovan's hand dug into the back of the man's head and pulled out his brain.

He licked it before placing it on the altar. 

The statue slowly bent down, and picked up the brain. A mouth appeared on its bland face. 

After eating the brain, the statue returned to its original silence and motionless.

...

After retrieving Luis' unconscious body and returning to the Divination Shop, Silas noticed that the holes all over the priest's body had disappeared.

"Mr. Rudolph, were all those spears also an illusion?"

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting him to fall for the trick. I'm not complaining, though," Rudolph replied with a weary smile. He winced slightly, still feeling the pain from the earlier wound. "Oh, and you can keep whatever you find on his body. Fifty Talends is enough for me. Be careful not to wake him up."

"Thank you."

Silas approached the unconscious priest cautiously. He began searching Luis' pockets, finding a wallet, a pair of glasses, and a glass bottle containing a blue fluid.

Dismissing the glasses he held up the bottle to the light. The liquid inside glowed faintly. "Is this some kind of potion?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's most likely an enhancement potion. But be careful—it could be poison as well," Rudolph warned, leaning back in his chair, his eyes half-closed from exhaustion.

Deciding to examine the bottle further another time, Silas opened the wallet. He found a total of 10 Talends and 60 Florins.

Excitedly, he turned to Mr. Rudolph and handed him two Talends. "I want to know everything about weaving."

Rudolph opened one eye and chuckled softly. "Eager, aren't you? Alright, but first, let's secure our guest here. We don't want any surprises."