Chapter 77: An Illusion

Dimon looked at his own hands, now covered in blood. He felt as if a fist of lave has made its way to his internals, burning them away. He was in so much pain that he could barely listen to the words this young man said.

"Although I find no reason that excuses this mass murder, I can't help but wonder about the reason such a vile human exists."

He heard the boy's righteous words, and he felt even more nauseous at the self-righteousness he must be feeling. However, whatever was inside him rocked havoc as if a wild beast has been unleashed.

"What… What's happening to me!" He finally managed to bellow at the masked man, wishing to rip him apart. However, what greeted him back was simply two golden, freezingly cold, eyes. He almost had an identity crisis thinking himself to be an insect because of the way the man looked at him with disgust.

"What I gave you earlier was healing water for sure, but I also mixed some poison within."

"Impossible, I felt nothing when I drank it!" Dimon screamed in disbelief, yet the pain he felt was very real. He has been poisoned.

The masked man massaged his neck as he sighed and started mumbling some things. Through the pain and suffering, Dimon only managed to pick some words like 'runes' and 'tweaking'.

"Nonetheless, who made you kill so many people?"

Before he knew it, the masked man had a dagger on his neck while grabbing his head by the hair. Arthur looked at him and sought to leverage any foolish mercy for his escape, but he knew he wouldn't get any. He swallowed his saliva making a shallow wound appear on his neck by the edge of the dagger. The sharpness and coldness of the weapon sent chills of death down his spine.

"No one! I did it by myself!" Dimon shouted.

"Then die."

"Wait!" He shouted even more urgently as he felt the dagger cut deeper. Any more than this and he would truly bleed to death. He tried to summon his mana but the pain was hindering his ability to focus.

"It was someone from nobility! I don't know who he is, but he's a blonde man with a young voice!"

"Not enough, you can die."

"Wait, please! I beg of you, spare me!"

"Did you spare them? I think not. I would have also died if I was fooled by you."

It was then that Dimon was able to gather enough mana to activate the ring on his finger. Runes glowed on the ring as mana invaded the head of the man behind the mask. Dimon created a terrifying illusion to stall for time.

'It's time that I kill this bastard!'

His hand turned into a beastly claw as he slashed at Arthur's neck. However, the goblins were here to defend the young man. One of them, Dimon couldn't differentiate between the pests, blocked his attack using its crappy sword.

"Move!" Dimon slashed at the goblin's arm with his claw leaving a deep gush. His movements made his body pulse with pain as blood leaked from his mouth. Even if his body has evolved under the effects of mana, he still couldn't be immune to a poison that has already entered his body.

Dimon moved his mana toward his abdomen. The masked bastard wasn't satisfied with only poisoning him, but also slashed him in the abdomen. What gave him away so much that made this bastard suspect him? Even still, he was foolish for drinking whatever the bastard gave him. It couldn't be helped since he has been drinking this water for days and trusted the bastard to be a good person.

'The world is corrupted if people started poisoning kids under suspicion. Ah, what has times turned into?' Dimon lamented in his heart as he kept healing himself. The masked man was still in a daze, looking as if his souls has left his body.

***

When Dimon stood behind him in front of the cave, Arthur realized there was something wrong. Despite his stats, he still felt pressured by the aura surrounding the cave. Yet, Dimon, who was supposedly weaker than Arthur himself stood there just fine.

It then began to piece itself together. When Dimon was grieving, Arthur bought his sadness so easily. Yet when faced with a rational question, Dimon would quickly let go of his sadness and answer as carefully as he can. Even more, how calm he was after losing his family was truly odd.

Of course, these were still suspicion that Arthur harbored. In the end, he confirmed them by using his detection rune. It was negligence on his part all this time that he didn't use it, or only used when Dimon wasn't near.

Dimon's lifeforce was stronger than his. If he was this strong, why would he be willing to let Arthur help him? Why did he fake injury to get into his village? When these questions began to pop out, the whole act started to fall apart.

That's why Arthur used his skill to poison the water. At the same time, modified the Heal-I rune to contain this single poison. It expanded a lot of his mana, but Dimon didn't seem to notice with the chaotic mana all around them. He had used a temporary rune on the water, and when Arthur snapped his fingers, the rune was gone and the poison was no longer contained.

However, in the end, he was still too careless. No, even if he did know that Dimon had an artifact that cast illusions, he wouldn't have been able to do anything. Maybe it was for the best that he escaped, but he still wanted to free any prisoners Dimon held in case they were alive.

In the end, they were dead.

Arthur never took himself to be a saint. Of course, everyone believed they were good people. But Arthur wasn't willing to sacrifice himself for others.

Yet, it wasn't easy to throw away his humanity and act selfishly.

'Ah, how easy it would be if I just shut up and join the common masses. If I can simply turn a blind eye. What is it that I'm looking for in every act I do? Is it to prove that people are good?' Arthur thought to himself as he felt the darkness block his vision after Dimon used the artifact.

Arthur found himself in a maze. He looked around for Dimon, but he was nowhere to be seen. He started walking forward since he had nowhere else to go, but the maze extended endlessly. After some time, he finally met someone else. It was Oren.

"What are you doing here?" Arthur asked, but Oren looked at him with deeply sorrowful eyes.

"How could you do this to us?" Oren's voice was weak and tired, laced with bloodlust. Before Arthur could answer, Oren attacked him.

"Stop! What are you doing?" Arthur shouted, but his voice wasn't there. His voice was muffled as if he was underwater, and shouting was only a futile struggle.

The weapon in his brother's hand struck at him, but Arthur blocked it. He tried to disarm him but his brother was more powerful than he thought. Oren tried to kill him in any way possible, and Arthur wasn't strong enough to restrain him.

In the end, his brother stabbed his heart.

He was in the maze again. After walking for several hours, he met someone else. It was his mother, and she also killed him. Then his father. Then his friends. Every time he dies, he meets someone different. When he realizes this was an illusion and kills the person attacking him, he would be sent back to the beginning and meet the same person again. He either had to let that person kill him or kill that person infinitely.

Arthur felt like he had spent a millennium in this place, but he found no way out. In the end, he got a message from his legacy.

[Rune has been acquired: Dispel-I.]

[Dispel-I: This rune clears the mind of illusions.]

Arthur's mind raced as he instinctively used the new rune and the surrounding scenery disappeared. He was back in the dungeon with Dimon and the goblins. However, one of the goblins had its hand torn off.

"You…" Dimon looked at him as if he had seen a ghost. It seemed he couldn't wrap his head around how this could person break off the illusion even though he still supplied the ring with mana.

Arthur fell to his knees as if he had just woken up from a nightmare. Luckily, it was a nightmare and nothing more. The only thing that kept his sanity that Arthur knew it wasn't real, but that didn't make it any less frightening.

"DIMON!" Arthur roared as he took out his dagger. He then started dashing madly toward the stunned mage. It was the first time he wanted to kill someone so much.