Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3059: Chapter 3060: Breaking the Illusion

After confirming the plan, Aex did not hesitate in the slightest and immediately shattered the time-space barrier.

Although destroying the time-space barrier would also inflict a certain backlash on him, compared to having that strange energy blow his Spirit Sea apart, this bit of backlash was something he could still endure.

As the time-space barrier shattered, countless Iridescent Silk Threads emerged out of thin air from within Aex’s body.

From an onlooker’s perspective, one end of these threads was connected to Aex’s skin, while the other end went straight into the Sky Dome, linking to some unknown Void; if one hadn’t witnessed it personally, it would be hard to guess that the threads had emerged from Aex’s body. Instead, it looked more like Aex had been pierced through by the threads and turned into a marionette controlled by some unknown lifeform.

As soon as these Iridescent Silk Threads appeared, they began slowly releasing a faint, thin Mist outward.

If Angel were here, he would recognize at the first moment that this Mist was precisely the Mist Illusion he had released earlier on the arena.

”Can you see anything from it?” Witch Sharon looked toward Stop.

After seeing the Mist, Stop’s gaze never shifted away again; clearly, he was analyzing the structure and source of this Illusion Technique.

Stop: ”There’s some unusual Energy in the Mist... it doesn’t feel like Primordial Magic.”

Witch Sharon echoed, ”When I was trapped in the Mist before, I noticed that as well. I used the Wizard’s Eye to probe its microscopic structure and discovered some strangely-shaped green Patterns.”

Stop had also noticed those glowing green Patterns in the microscopic field of vision. They leapt, pulsed, gathering and dispersing, like one bizarre, twisted tadpole after another, constantly forming strange arrays.

This kind of bizarre green Pattern made Stop recall the time when he first came into contact with Primordial Magic. Back then, he was still an uninitiated Talented One. After undergoing countless hardships, when he finally sensed that thick Primordial Magic that was as viscous as flowing honey, his shock was beyond measure.

Anyone who has lived for decades in colorless, tasteless, formless air, whose worldview has already started to calcify, suddenly discovering that their worldview had been skewed from the very beginning—that there actually existed such ”substantial” and ”vast” Primordial Magic in the air—would likewise be shaken by such an upheaval.

Moreover, Primordial Magic seemed to possess a will of its own, drawing close to every Talented One who perceived it.

It was as if... it were alive.

But as Stop’s research into Primordial Magic grew deeper, he also understood that Primordial Magic was just a kind of Energy. Its affinity toward Talented Ones was merely due to the Law of Attraction between energies of the same Origin Energy.

Put bluntly, it still conformed to the logic of natural Laws and was not actually ”alive.”

Yet now, looking at those dancing green Patterns and their spontaneous combinations, Stop once again felt the same impression he’d had when he first laid eyes on Magic Power—that these green Patterns seemed to be alive?

Although Stop had harbored similar impressions about Primordial Magic, after all this time, with his experience now so much richer, for him to still make such a remark was enough to show how shocked and... unfamiliar he was with these green Patterns.

”Perhaps the reason Aex felt his Spirit Sea was about to burst is also because of these green Patterns.” Stop said softly, ”These green Patterns are definitely not simple.”

Pausing for a moment, Stop looked toward Witch Sharon. ”The Mist Illusion is about to start to diffuse; you should leave first. Leave this to me.”

Witch Sharon understood what Stop meant. Once the time-space barrier completely shattered, the surroundings with Aex at the center would all fall into the Illusionary Realm of the Mist.

And Aex would suffer the backlash from the shattering of the time-space barrier, leaving him unable to mobilize Energy for a short period... which meant that he alone would not be able to break the Mist Illusion.

Because Aex had a special mental connection with the Mist Illusion, even if they directly took him away via Spatial Transmission, the Mist Illusion would follow along. Moreover, in Aex’s current condition, he was not suited for Spatial Transmission.

So, transmission wouldn’t work, and he couldn’t break it alone; that meant they would inevitably need an outsider to assist him in breaking the Mist Illusion.

And here, only Witch Sharon and Stop could help Aex.

Witch Sharon had originally thought that the two of them should break it together; that way, it would be faster. But Stop told her to leave first, which made her hesitate.

Witch Sharon hesitated for a moment and said, ”Can you handle it by yourself?”

”I don’t know, but I’ll do my utmost to break it.” When Stop said this, he did not look at Witch Sharon; instead, he stared obsessively at those leaping green Patterns, his eyes full of interest.

Witch Sharon: ”Two people working together will be faster.”

Stop said calmly, ”I agree with you, but you need to stay outside to intercept that group of guards from King Gumman’s Royal Capital. External threats are for you to handle; internal troubles, leave to me.”

Witch Sharon still wanted to say more, but Stop directly cut her off: ”If I still haven’t broken it by then, once you’ve dealt with the guards, come back in and help me.”

Hearing this, Witch Sharon still nodded.

Indeed, someone had to deal with the external disturbances, and it had to be either her or Stop. And she had already experienced the Mist Illusion on the arena; she was certain that breaking the Illusion in a short time was beyond her... unless she used Spatial Transmission to leave.

But leaving the Illusion via transmission did not mean she had broken it; it would merely be a form of escape.

Since she could not break it, she could only leave it to Stop.

She glanced again at Aex beside her, whose body was connected by the threads... Aex’s condition at this time, to the naked eye, was much worse than before. Every place his body had been pierced by threads was bleeding. Moreover, his skin looked like shattered glass, bearing obvious crack lines.

All of this was the physical backlash on his body after the time-space barrier shattered. Miserable as it was, physical pain was something Aex could endure and had ways to mend; but if anything happened to his Spirit Sea, the consequences would be grave.

So, though Aex looked worse than before, from his own perspective, after releasing the Mist Illusion, the burden on his mind had been lifted, and he felt far better than before.

At the very least, he could now think and speak.

”Don’t worry, I’ll work with Stop to find a way to break the Illusion.” Aex said to Witch Sharon.

Witch Sharon nodded. ”Then I’ll leave this to you... Oh, and you need to be careful: when I was trapped in the Mist Illusion, I found that my five senses were off. It might confuse the five senses. Although that Wizard named Jon isn’t here, who knows whether this sensory confusion was something he was manipulating, or a built-in ability of the Illusionary Realm itself? If it’s inherent, you must be very careful.”

After a few more brief reminders, Witch Sharon walked toward the boundary where the Mist Illusion was spreading.

A minute later, the Mist had already shrouded this patch of pitch-black mountain forest.

The naked eye could no longer see Stop and Aex; clearly, they had already completely fallen into the Mist Illusion. From here on, it would depend on whether they could successfully dispel the Illusion.

Witch Sharon lightly tapped the ground with her toes, her whole body soaring into midair, finally alighting on the top of a fifty-meter-tall black fir tree. After glancing at the billowing sea of fog behind her, Witch Sharon slowly withdrew her gaze.

While Stop and the others worked on breaking the Illusion, she also had her own tasks to complete.

Blocking the guards from approaching was a minor matter; the most important thing now was to see if she could establish contact with Aex inside the Mist.

Before she left the Mist Illusion, she had already used a Mind Ribbon to link Aex and Stop. If she could contact those inside from the outside, even if it didn’t directly help them, at the very least she could track Stop’s progress in breaking the Illusion Technique.

Thinking of this, Witch Sharon calmed herself, and began to call softly through the Mind Ribbon.

Very soon, Witch Sharon received Aex’s response.

After getting Aex’s reply, Witch Sharon let out a slight breath of relief: ”Now the Mist has already covered this whole mountain forest, and for the moment there’s no sign of further diffusion. I’ll keep an eye on any changes outside... If you make any progress on your side, it’d be best if you tell me as well.”

Aex: ”Alright, be careful out there.”

In the time that followed, Witch Sharon began scouting the diffusion of the Mist; she also occasionally checked on Aex’s progress.

Only, as far as the breaking progress was concerned, there was no good news coming from Aex’s side.

It’s not that there was no progress... it’s simply because Aex himself wasn’t participating in the cracking, so he wasn’t very clear on the progress.

Originally Aex had planned to research together with Stop. But once Stop entered a research state, he basically ignored everyone else.

Aex himself was frail and sickly, and couldn’t see any flaws in the Illusion Technique, so he could only quietly give up and hand the path of breaking the spell over to Stop.

He himself just chatted with Witch Sharon through the Mind Ribbon.

At first their topic was still on the Illusion Technique, but gradually it shifted to Angel, the one who cast the illusion.

Aex: ”When I first saw Jon... that’s what he calls himself, right?”

Witch Sharon: ”He calls himself Jon, but I feel that’s an alias.”

Aex: ”An alias is fine, at least it’s something to call him. Unlike that Sea Eagle from the Birlos Family, who can’t even be bothered to make up an alias—no one knows what he’s called, so everyone can only keep calling him Sea Eagle, Sea Eagle.”

Aex sighed, then went on: ”When I first saw Jon, I thought he was a Shadow‑branch Wizard. His control over Shadow has definitely reached the top level of Level 1 Wizards. I didn’t expect him to also be a Space Wizard... and his Illusion Technique is very strong too. Could he also be an Illusionist?”

Witch Sharon: ”I don’t know. The feeling I get from him and Dox is very strange. Even now I’m not sure whether my judgment of their branches is correct.”

”Moreover, I have no idea how they discovered the Paradise Land layout. And what their true purpose is in coming to the Earth Cavern arena, I don’t know that either.”

As she said this, Witch Sharon suddenly remembered that Angel had snatched a Necklace from her.

”Surely it can’t be that he really came here just for a broken Necklace?” After saying this, Witch Sharon shook her head with some confidence: ”Definitely not.”

Aex: ”That Necklace really doesn’t have anything special about it?”

Witch Sharon: ”No, that Necklace is made of ordinary materials, with several substitute objects I crafted hanging from it. And those substitute objects aren’t even usable for him... Huh, wait.”

Suddenly, Witch Sharon paused, as if she’d thought of something: ”There’s actually something inside those substitute objects.”

”Something inside? What?”

”...A few strands of breeze.”

She remembered that when she went to Paradise Land, she encountered several wind‑branch seeds that had the potential to become Wind Elemental Sprites, which was quite rare. Because she was still in the middle of Paradise Land’s game and hadn’t specially searched for a container suited for storing wind‑branch seeds, she temporarily stuffed them into the substitute objects, one strand of breeze corresponding to one substitute object.

”Could it be that he came for these strands of breeze?” Witch Sharon asked in puzzlement.

As Witch Sharon was still puzzled, Aex said: ”A few strands of breeze? I actually met Jon before. At that time, there were a few strands of breeze floating around him. Based on my judgment, that should have been the Avatars of some wind‑branch Elemental Creature... You didn’t happen to mistake a wind‑branch creature’s Avatar for a wind‑branch seed, did you?”

Aex has Elemental Creatures, so he’s fairly familiar with them; but Witch Sharon has never found an Elemental Creature suited to herself, so it’s normal for her to be unable to distinguish between wind Avatars and wind seeds.

Upon hearing Aex’s words, Witch Sharon herself became a little unsure.

She still vividly remembered that after Angel took the Necklace, he’d clearly said one thing: ”I’m only taking back what’s mine.”

Could those strands of breeze really be his? Did he come here for the breeze?

Thinking it through carefully, she realized that she had indeed, on the arena, because of the substitute objects, released quite a few strands of breeze... Where did those strands of breeze end up?

Witch Sharon thought carefully, and it seemed they had all vanished.

There was obviously an Illusionary Realm around the arena; they couldn’t just disappear into thin air. That leaves only one possibility: they were collected by the other side.

Thinking further, Dox’s strength was very high. He looked vicious, but she always felt he hadn’t yet revealed his full limit. And in close combat against Dox, she was only slashed once, a mere light injury.

This didn’t quite fit the style of a Bloodline Wizard... Could it be that all his ferocity was actually just to force her into using the substitute objects, so that he could make her release those strands of breeze?

Re‑examining all these little details, thinking along this line, it really seemed like they’d come for the breeze?

If the current situation was really all caused by a few strands of breeze... Witch Sharon couldn’t help feeling a kind of magical‑realism absurdity.

Since she had no way to determine the truth, Witch Sharon temporarily dropped the idea of digging deeper. Anyway, whatever their goal was, they had already left Bilun Tree Court, so none of it mattered anymore.

Right now, the most important thing was still to crack the Illusion Technique and provide Worry Relief for Aex.

Time slipped by bit by bit.

After roughly a quarter of an hour, Witch Sharon received a piece of information from Aex’s side.

Stop finally spoke up! And Stop brought an important piece of information.

He had discovered that after multiple rearrangements and combinations of some green Patterns, signs of dissipation began to appear.

This was good news, meaning the green Patterns weren’t an unlimited Energy; they wouldn’t be replenished by outside sources.

Aex: ”According to Stop’s conjecture, this Energy should be a kind of foreign Energy System. If someone were controlling it, it might still receive external replenishment; but now that no one’s controlling it, once it naturally dissipates, the Illusionary Realm might even collapse without needing to be attacked.”

Of course, natural dissipation might take a long time.

However, right now those green Patterns weren’t ”naturally” dissipating; they were still continuously maintaining control over the Illusionary Realm, which meant they themselves were accelerating their own dissipation.

In other words, it wouldn’t be long before the Illusionary Realm could be broken!