This story follows Geta Teriza’s perspective.

 

I take a knee. My fingers are trembling. I wish I can blame it on the tremendous amount of pressure that the chaos wilds imposes on all of us, but it’s not entirely that either. I am afraid. I am terribly afraid.

Growing up in the Great Sands of Perthosh has armed my body and mind with strength that my peers do not have. Growing up in their castles and behind their walls inhibits their connection to mana. It’s in the way you scrape your needs; scald your palms; bruise your arms, and chip your nails where you actually breathe in the life that exists around you!

Yet here I am. Standing at the top of the mountain that I climbed with six other souls placing their faith in me. I’m kneeling in the middle, none of them laying their doubtful eyes. All of them looking ahead, their roles occupying their minds.

Ayre’s eyes are fixed on the gap, waiting for the perfect opportunity to signal a simultaneous attack. Idril, Saida, and even Toross remain unflinching. Gallas is gathering up his energy to move us along with the golems. Ayen is already buffing us with her Ice Saint magic. Everyone is relying on me. Everyone is putting their faith in me!

 

Do I deserve it?

 

My fingers tremble so much that they move even if I ball my hands into a fist. My heartbeat is pounding. I can feel myself panicking. I want to be the greatest that there is and ever was! I don’t want to be weak. I can’t be weak!

A memory of being an outcast because of my somewhat powerful command of the shadows, despite my youth, flashed into my mind. I left my wandering troupe at the young age of 22, just as my mana had started manifesting itself. The elders feared it. It was unnatural, they said. A boy should climb the ranks with natural progression, they said.

Despite teaching me over and over again about how the other races of elves sit on undeserved thrones, they discard me because of the fear that they feel for my power. Talk about hypocrisy! I wandered and wandered, always surviving by the skin of my teeth. Everything that I have, I struggled for! Every drop of mana that I can exude, I wept for! I bled and died over and over again just for the sake of survival! For the chance to prove that I deserve this power that I have been born with. I will stand at the peak of this mountain and all others! This is nothing but a mere hurdle!

I steel my nerves and let out a stream of tears to fall as I grip myself back into place. You can do this… You have to do this…

“Now!!!” Ayre shouts as the eyeball is about to peek.

The feeling of fear crept in again as all of us made contact with the creature’s eye, yet none felt deterred. Idril and Toross launched simultaneous fire and lightning attacks, their palms facing directly at the creature.

“Fire Magic: Lotus Bloom!!” Idril shouts, launching a flaming bullet at blinding speeds.

“Lightning Magic: Singular Spear!!” Toross shouts, generating a lightning-charge mana sphere that almost instantly extends toward the creature’s eye.

As the creature attempts to pull back, Saida Narira comes in for the guaranteed hit. She crosses her arms in front of her face, generating a massive force of mana pressure in her vicinity, before quickly pulling them back!

“Polar Magic: Displaced Attraction!!” Saida Narira shouts, dragging the creature back into the gap above, landing the two previous hits directly on its eye.

The Lotus Bloom seed erupts into a beautiful fire flower as it came into contact with the giant eye. The lightning spear followed quickly, generating a Hyperreactive reaction. From what I can remember, this should make the creature more susceptible to damage. I think…

The creature winces and screams loudly. A brief moment passes when the illusion flickers, displacing the sounds of the creatures around us. This is good! It’s working! Before the creature can recover, I see Ayre already jumping up so high. His right fist is balled up and glowing gold. This density of mana… Oy, oy, Ayre, you’re progressing so much faster than everyone else!

“Lesser Gale Force: Triple Strike!!” Ayre Vasatra shouts as he disappears from sight.

In the split second, before he hits the creature’s eye, I almost thought there were three Ayre Vasatras. I’m not the only one that saw it. The three other attacking mages are slackjawed. You and your freakish speed, human. I can wait to dance with you! Ayre punches the creature’s eye from three points near-simultaneously!!

Upon impact, the creature’s eye bursts, leaking foul-smelling translucent liquid from within its eyeball! It winces and cries. The illusion is consistently flickering in and out of position. I have no time to waste!

Just as I say Ayre slam back into the ground, with Saida and Idril running toward him, I dig my fingers into this horrible soil and extended the reach of my shadow tendrils within the ground, into the earth golems, and up to the creature outside. As they latch onto its slimy skin, beginning my infiltration of its mind, I felt a horrible sensation of its innate protection from magic. As I traveled deeper and deeper into its subconscious, horrific images of its previous victims flashed into my mind.

The screams… The eyes expressed pure terror… The ones who just felt silent accepted their fate… The children… The brave warriors who inevitably failed… Why must they all have to die!?

My eyes are closed as my vision is traveling with the tendrils, yet I can feel blood dripping from my eyes. I haven’t pierced through a protective barrier this strong before! A battle of illusion magic is a test of mental strength!

“Stop!! Please! I just want to go home!!” A noblewoman begging for her life.

“DIE!! Vile monster! You will not best me — “ A dwarven soldier swinging a hammer.

“Consume me, oh great horror!” A nude fanatic begging to be eaten.

Hundreds. Hundreds of screams just from this monster alone. Just how much of a graveyard is the chaos wilds? About four seconds have already passed in real-time. I’ve spent more than four days inside the mind of this creature already. I’ve broken past the primary defenses. Everything around me is painted with a thick black substance like tar. Touching it gives me another vision of another death.

The more time I spend here, the more I question if all of these are actually victims, or maybe they’re also illusions. Another set of defenses against high-level illusionists that penetrate this deep into its psyche. Whatever the case, I need to find its internal persona.

Once I reach it, I’ll be able to directly influence it with an illusion. Maybe even kill it from within. Who knows? This winding path is taking me forever to traverse.

After six more days of navigating this labyrinth of a mind, I come across a blinding light in the shape of a door. Seeing no other option, I open the door and enter a different plane. It’s a garden at dawn. Yet the plants and trees are horribly maintained. The leaves are all wilted and dried out. the stone steps on the garden pathway are overgrown with wild grass. There are no more flowers blooming in the shrubs. This is a dead garden.

From within, I hear the sound of snipping garden shears. I peer over, fully prepared to fight, but see a young boy. He’s completely stripped of any physical features. He’s just a glowing silhouette. He’s snipping a bush slowly, attempting to shape it, yet his shears are dull and cannot cut a single leaf. Still, he continues to try. He looks at me, giving no reaction, before turning back to cut the leaves. This must be the creature’s persona. Odd. I didn’t expect it to be a boy.

“Mister, can you help me trim the bushes?” The boy asks, his voice echoing like a chorus.

A persona has full control over their headspace. He can mentally move and manipulate everything in this space! If he even recognizes me as an intruder, I will be sent back flying into my own mind. Yet he cannot even cut a leaf. Interesting…

“Do you have another pair of shears?” I ask, playing along with his question.

“Nuh-uh. Only these. Can you try?” He hands me the old, rusted, and dull shears.

I accept the gardening tool as he steps back a few steps, allowing me to come forward. This is completely weird. I’m terribly out of my element. I see no point in attempting, but I cut the leaf anyway. No use. The tool is utterly broken. Hmm… I have an idea.

“Say… Do you know magic?” I ask the figure of the boy.

“Yes, sir, but I was not born with a large amount of mana. I can only do the bare minimum.” The boy answers respectfully.

“Well, if you can keep a secret, I’ll show you a magic trick!” I say warmly.

“You would?” The boy says excitedly.

“Of course! All you have to do is close your eyes, and believe that I can cut these leaves.” I urge the boy to activate his complete control of this domain.

The boy gasps. He turns around, places his hands over his eyes, and waits patiently. As I look at the garden shears, they are no longer rusted. The dull blade has been replaced by newly forged elvenite steel that glimmers in gold as the sunlight hits it. 

I smile. I grasp both handles and begin cutting the leaves. I just follow the obvious shape that it was supposed to be and began trimming. As the sound of sharp blades continually cut the leaves. The boy turns around to look.

“Whoa! You’re cutting the leaves, mister!” The boy exclaims.

“I am, and guess what?” I said.

“What is it, mister?” The boy asked.

“You can cut it yourself too. I’ve embedded my magic so that you can use it yourself. Come on, try it.” I hand the boy his shears back.

He nervously places a leaf in between the two blades and cuts it in one fluid motion. I blink and the whole garden changes form. No more wilted leaves and overgrown wild grass. The garden is well maintained by a master at this point. I turn around to see an old man’s glowing silhouette where the boy was standing. He holds the shears, now older, but not rusted nor dull.

“I’ve finally trimmed the garden…” The old man said softly.

A loud screeching noise surrounded me! Shoot! Did the creature already notice me!? No, I’m still inside.

“Thank you, dear boy. You have freed me from my eternal torment.” The old man hands me the shears as I wince in pain from the terrible sound.

As soon as I grab hold of the handles, my body gets immediately pulled back into my own. As my body leaves the garden, I see it crumble and fold into itself while the old man gardener waves me farewell.

I roll backward and pant heavily as I arrive back into my living body. I inhale and exhale rapidly as I forgot the sensation of breathing after so many days of not doing it. I grab different parts of my body to check if I’m actually here, all while Saida and Idril rush toward me, asking if I’m okay.

“I’m good… Did it work?” I said, picking myself up with Idril’s assistance.

“Perfectly so,” Gallas answers as he moves the golems forward, leaving our backside fully exposed.

There is just one black hound, the size of a wagon, and a two-headed bear, standing at least 10 meters tall, in our exposed size. Saida smiles, tapping the fire and lightning mage on their shoulders. They launched another combined attack with the hyperreactive mana reaction while guaranteeing the hit with Saida’s polar magic. I expected Ayre to follow up with an attack, but he’s sitting right beside Ayen, panting heavily as his right arm is burnt to a crisp.

Wait… Is that mana decay!? Shit... Hmm… It seems his attack is a lot more costly than what I have imagined. I guess he’s going to be out of commission.

“Earth Saint Magic: Crawling Rocks!!” Gallas shouts while kneeling, lifting the earth beneath us.

The earth started to move! With the four golems in front, we are bolting against the creatures that are standing in our path. Any strays or flying creatures were easily handled by the combined efforts of Saida, Idril, and Toross. Ayen is definitely doing a major brunt of the work. I can’t imagine these fools being capable of continuous casting without her regenerative buff. You’re definitely lacking, Ayre. As of right now you're not — 

 

What? Ayre’s right arm is fully healed.

 

No burns, no drying, no cracks, no nothing! Did my eyes just fool me? That’s impossible… Ayen’s regenerative buff isn’t strong enough to reverse mana decay that quickly! Just what is your secret, Ayre Vasatra…

As I am pondering, I almost get hit by a diving bird-like creature. I duck, but I’m not too fast. I am going to get hit!

Just as I dove down, Ayre suddenly appears ahead of me, landing a spinning kick right to the bird’s face. He immediately follows it up with a stomp with his other leg, sending the creature flying. There is definitely something other than just mana-reinforced combat playing here. The two kicks have different mana pressures to them. Not just intensity, the density, and feeling that the mana pressures convey are wildly different. Interesting… I have a great rival!

Ayre falls down again and winces in pain as he buries his face in his arms. This guy is good with takedowns, but he can’t sustain himself in prolonged fights. He’s definitely still a glass cannon.

As we ride forward, only one thought in my mind remains. Gazing back from the trail where we left. There is no carcass of the creature that cast the illusion. No sign of defeat. Nothing. Maybe it could have run away. Yet what bothers me is the sudden appearance of an elven skeleton from where we came from. The chaos wilds still holds more secrets.