188 A Game of Chess (1/2)

Suddenly a floating chessboard appeared between Iblis and Alexander.

The two began to move its pieces, silently challenging each other. It was as if the clash a few minutes before had never happened.

”Even the greatest of monsters can receive help from the greatest of kings,” sighed the Devil; then he rested his gaze on the table set for two a little further.

The heterochromatic eyes of the King of Madonia observed the moves of his opponent, who placed the pieces in a bored way. Noticing that Iblis' gaze had shifted, Alexander asked, pointing at the table: ”Why didn't we sit there?”

At the moment, they were both sitting in mid-air, although there were chairs and a fairly large table a few meters away.

The table had been there since Helial had memory. Iblis had continued to set, cook and clear the table. He seemed to be waiting for someone. However, who could he ever wait inside his Soul?

Several times Helial had tried to imagine, wondering if the table was for Iblis and Amaterasu. But after knowing their story, he had changed his mind. From what Helial understood about Iblis, there had to be something much deeper.

Yet whenever the Devil was questioned about the presence of that object, his only answer was silence.

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Who was the second place for, assuming the first was for Iblis?

The pieces on the chessboard continued to be moved without apparent effort by both of them. But each of their moves contained an incredible depth.

It was a higher level of understanding Mana. Alexander and Iblis were infusing their knowledge into a simple duel carried out on a chessboard.

If anyone had witnessed that scene, even if he had been an Immortal, his Path of Mana would probably have benefited greatly.

Iblis ran his finger over the cup of tea in his hand and slowly stroked the edge, until it created a slow and sad melody.

At the end of the game, Alexander lost.

The King showed no signs of frustration. He simply got up and approached Iblis' young disciple, lying on the ground and still unconscious.

”More than helping you, I want to help him,” said Alexander, placing his hand on Helial's forehead. ”Let's leave memories aside for a while. Your master never wanted to use this technique because his Mana Path is intrinsically linked to Destiny and Karma. Using a Time Block and illusory experiences to get stronger, despite its benefits, can lead to bottlenecks very quickly. Using Illusions, the risk is changing a person's destiny. ”

By imagining a person's fate as a long strip of fabric, a slow-time training could be compared to cutting a large piece of fabric and stitching the ends together. What was in the middle would probably have been lost. Rather, to be more precise, it would have been like inserting some new fabric in the middle, rather than eliminating it.

According to Iblis, such a workout could lead to a deviation in a person's fate. For example, cultivating a Skill to level up would bring benefits; but, training the same Skill in an Illusion could lead to huge losses in Experience.

Therefore, unless there was a great hurry to get stronger, Iblis would have preferred avoid using this way of training as much as possible. Helial had to make his own experiences and shape his destiny first hand, not travel on a path already beaten and too linear as those found in Illusions.

If they hadn't had such contraindications, surely they wouldn't have been called Illusions.

However real that world seemed, and however real death was within it, it was nothing but an Illusion.

Alexander recognized that Iblis' theories had revolutionized his students' training and, in fact, would create many more opportunities for his disciple's growth.

However, Iblis had overlooked one thing: a terribly powerful being, Alexander, had created that Illusion.