Chapter 277: Illusion Array (1/2)

Gravis waited for 55 minutes, but nothing happened during that time. No one from the Darkness Sect came for him, while Lasar and Old Man Lightning were still away. They were probably still fighting, which was a surprise for Gravis. They should have actually finished by now.

Gravis guessed that they might have already finished fighting but didn't want to distract him. Wanting to know the result of a fight was also a motivation to return alive. Maybe they thought that Gravis would grow ”content” when he knew that Lasar won. Maybe they thought Gravis would lose his calm if they told him that Lasar died.

Of course, all of this didn't matter to Gravis. He was used to his companions dying. Something like that wouldn't affect his mind by much. He still had a connection with his companions, but his will allowed him to quickly deal with grief.

In a fucked up way, Gravis also knew that if someone close to him died, his will would become more powerful. Of course, he would never put the people close to him into danger just to increase his will. If he ever did that, he wouldn't be able to consider himself human anymore.

And like that, the time was up. It was time for Gravis to initiate the fight. The midday sun hung above the world, but Gravis saw nothing of that. When he had been in Fear City, he had already seen the constant, black, overbearing clouds in the sky. These clouds were only more extreme around the Darkness Sect.

Even though it was day, the surroundings were darker than a new-moon night. Without Gravis' powerful eyes or Spirit, he wouldn't even be able to see his hand in front of his face. The only visible light was the horizon behind him, which created a small, blue line, stretching into seemingly forever.

Like this, Gravis started running forward. He wanted to keep his Lightning Board a secret. Who knew, maybe he would need it to run for his life? Gravis had to be ready for any eventuality. Losing wouldn't mean the end of one's journey, as long as he managed to stay alive.

Gravis came closer and closer to the Darkness Sect, but as soon as he reached a distance of ten kilometers from the Darkness Sect, a bright light shone. The light vanished just as quickly, and Gravis saw that he was on a beautiful meadow now. He could see green grass, beautiful flowers, and many animals. The light shone upon everything around him, illuminating his surroundings.

'Illusion Array, eh?' Gravis thought. 'The look of the Illusion Array is so much different to real life that probably no one would be fooled by that.'

Yet, just when Gravis thought that his mind started to become woozy. The surroundings started to become blurry and distorted while his mind slowed down to a crawl. His thoughts deviated and got sidetracked. 'This illusion is worse than I thought. Even the birds look distorted. I wonder how birds got to have their wings? How do wings even work?' he thought.

Whenever he tried to think about his current predicament, his mind started going from one tangent into another until he thought about the most menial and unimportant things. Pretty soon, he started looking at the animals like he was a kid in a zoo. He no longer moved forward as he started wandering around.

WHOOOM!

”STOP!” Gravis shouted as he activated his Will-Aura. In a sudden moment of clarity, he managed to activate his Will-Aura and concentrate on what was important. As soon as his Will-Aura activated, his immediate surroundings became solidified. He still only saw the meadow around him, but the area inside his Will-Aura was, at least, not blurry anymore.

Shhhhh.

Gravis noticed that something was hitting his Will-Aura, which surprised him. After all, he had never seen an attack that was able to strike a Will-Aura. He inspected that area more and saw small and powerful strands of darkness being diverted by his Will-Aura. The strands looked like small hairs.

He felt that those strands hit his Will-Aura with quite some force. Even though they only gently flowed around his Will-Aura, it felt like they were putting quite some pressure on it. Luckily, his will was powerful enough to withstand those. A will couldn't be exhausted, so, as long as the Will-Aura held, he would have no issues.

Gravis took a deep breath. 'That was close. I should have activated my Will-Aura earlier,' he thought. 'Well, at least I now know how an Illusion Array feels. There are probably two Formation Arrays working right now. One is there to hinder my concentration, while the other creates an area full of emotional stimulus. If I couldn't concentrate, I would remain in here and grow interested in every single little thing. That's pretty smart.'