…….
Within the dark cloud, a mesmerising milky white light burst out covering the entirety of the environment. Zilan’s eyes instinctually closed due to the blinding light however, they snapped open immediately after. What lay before him now though was no longer the dark cloud instead a humungous set of stairs took its place. The steps themselves were completely black, surprisingly inscriptionless and a clean aura of purity could be felt coming from them.
Zilan’s eyes examined every inch of the stairway that led up to an altar housing what he assumed to be the ‘Supreme Scripture’. He did not know from where but he could clearly feel that someone was watching his every move. Seeing as he had yet to make a move, the steps lit up once before going dark again. It was a sign for him to begin ascending.
Zilan’s current temperament was the epitome of seriousness. If what was up on that altar was truly the thing he wished for, the key to the Soul flame, then no matter what stood in his path he would make sure to attain it. What troubled him though was the Chairman’s thought process. For the life of him he could not comprehend what the man wanted to accomplish especially after that visit from Little Red.
‘No use thinking about it now. Not everything will always go according to plan.’
With that out of the way, Zilan took his first step on the stairway. A rush of energy assaulted him the instant his foot touched the step. It was a pure, gentle energy that despite its quantity actually smoothly entered his body. He was surprised by its nature but Zilan did not let his guard down. He took his time thoroughly examining the foreign energy but it was all for naught, he found nothing. All signs pointed to the energy being harmless.
Perplexed yet alert, he proceeded to take the second step. The same thing happened, only this time the energy was slightly more in quantity.
“This is strange.”
Doubtful and at the same time somewhat fearful, Zilan continued to ascend the steps. The energy similarly continued to piled up. What was strange about the whole thing was the fact that despite its quantity and being quite gentle in nature, the energy served no other purpose. It did not circulate around his body nor did it even appear to have any power to do anything except seamlessly penetrated into his body.
This strange situation continued to take place as he steadily climbed up, one step at a time. The audience was confused by how swimmingly things were going for him. It was to the point that many of them wondered what the point was of having the stairway there in the first place. For dramatic effect, so that he could show off as he attained the Supreme Scripture?
Fortunately for them or rather unfortunately for Zilan, things took a sudden turn for the worse once he crossed the half way point of the stairway. A dark smoke like mist was being shot out by the upper half of the steps. With every step more smoke was being let out into the atmosphere.
To Zilan this was not much of a hindrance as once again he found that the smoke was harmless to him in every way. His feet never stopped as he gradually made his way up the stairway.
To the spectators though, they were confused as to why Zilan had all of a sudden stopped moving once he had crossed the half-way point. Yes, what he was seeing and what the spectators were seeing were two different things. They couldn’t even see the smoke that Zilan could so vividly feel. So which of the two was seeing the truth? It was the spectators, except the smoke was actually real only hidden from them.
Zilan was trapped in some sort of illusion and he did not even know it. What would shock Zilan if he was aware of his predicament would be the fact that illusions were supposedly not supposed to work on him, it mattered not what grade of illusion, as long as it was before him he was supposed to be able to tell that it was fake. So, then what happened this time that made the impossible happen?
Well, before we get into that one first has to understand what Zilan getting caught in the ‘illusion’ means. As of now, there could be no doubt as to whether or not the Chairman was aware of Zilan, the true Zilan. The level of planning he went through just to get him in the illusion could only mean that he was familiar with his immunity towards normal illusions and had set this one up specifically for Zilan.
Now was the illusion going to succeed? Well, unfortunately for the Chairman even if he knew what Zilan was, he could not possibly understand how much more he was compared to the normal Scorched.
As the smoke and foreign energy continued to enter Zilan’s body through his pores, the space within his body for storing energy was slowly being taken up. This meant that sooner or later, the foreign energy would have to interact with Zilan’s unique blood force, and it did. Only, the reaction the Blood Force had towards the foreign energy was that of one meeting a sworn enemy. Things escalated and before even a minute had passed, an explosion occurred within Zilan’s sea of consciousness jolting him awake.
His initial shock was not light however, the second level of the Gift of Love timely kicked in, focusing him. Zilan’s eyes darted about and seeing the smokeless environment and looking at his position, he forcefully calmed himself down and began running with all his might. As soon as he started doing that though, parts of the stairway started breaking away into tentacles of dark misty-cloud that attacked him.
‘What the f*ck? What the f*ck?’ As he ran, Zilan’s thoughts went wild with conjectures. He was trying to understand what had happened. How it had even happened.
He couldn’t give a damn about the sea of tentacles coming his way. In his anger and confusion, he let loose and two Dragon claws appeared to his side, facing upwards. With a grunt, he summoned every single Storm Claw he was currently capable of and unleashed them on the tentacles. As expected, a gigantic hole was punched through the tentacles advance and soon, not as single one could be seen.
Zilan’s speed did not slow for even a moment and as a result he reached the top of the stairway in no time. His breath however, was erratic and the happiness that should be expressed on his face or in his heart was nowhere to be found.
Zilan was so rocked by what had happened that he was beyond tempted to open the scorched gates and scan everything within the damned place, especially the stairway. Fortunately before he could do that, the Book of Path gave him an answer, well part of the answer.
‘Soul technique : (Soul Spectre)
Extremely powerful soul technique thought by Zaum to be lost long ago. Creates an illusionary effect by weakening the soul, invading it and eventually feeding off of it until nothing remains.
The extent of the technique used on you follows the principles of the Soul Spectre technique however, the user intentionally showed mercy to you. From the analysis the user’s aim was to only put you in an illusionary state, should he have attempted to do more although he would not have succeeded you would have suffered a substantial amount of soul damage.’
“Why wouldn’t he have succeeded?” asked Zilan, still flustered.
‘The extent of the technique is within the realm that I can stop.
Suggestion: DO NOT LET FOREIGN ENERGIES INTO YOUR BODY.’
Zilan’s heart was racing. The type of illusion that assaulted him was something even Zaum thought to be extremely powerful so then where the hell did the Chairman get it. Secondly, why wasn’t he ever told that he was not immune to illusions of the soul? His confidence came from his father’s words as well as from notes in the Book of Path, which said he could see through everything.
‘You are too weak.’ Was the Book of Path’s final transmission before it went silent.
A wryly smile formed on his face before he sighed. He then turned and walked towards the altar.
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