34 Realistic Illusion

Her notion was right. The battle had drawn out for far too long, enough to gather the attention of fiends or hunters. It wasn't all because of their numbers or the coordination they shared that gave her the sense of a pack of wolves working together as they bared their fangs at a larger prey. It was because she was inexperienced in a battle such as this.

'Somethings don't change so easily.'

Her mentality wouldn't change overnight or during the span of two weeks just because she physically changed. Her morals and tastes did change somewhat due to her conversion into a demon. But, fundamentally, she didn't change much. Through the teachings of Ayin, she had learned theoretical skills as well as others, but it didn't include practical experience.

It wasn't all for naught, though. The knowledge she had gained was valuable, but she knew that experience was equally valuable. One just happened to be easier to obtain in a shorter duration than the other, where both play a part in the key of survival.

Even so, she would not lose.

She knew this not because she was arrogant or stubborn, which someone of her age would sometimes have. She knew this because they were unlucky.

She had sensory deception, a sub-skill that served its purpose, as its name suggested. To deceive the senses of those affected in any matter that the user desires. It was a skill with great power in deception while also being very simple at the same time. A skill that these fiends couldn't oppose. She had confirmed this when she killed the assassin and injured the spearman.

'The only one that has some immunity is the spearman.'

The spearman had moved his body the moment before her attack could hit, which allowed him to survive the fatal attack at the cost of his left arm. Nevertheless, he wasn't completely immune. Choosing to evade to avoid the attack rather than blocking from the start was proof of that. In actuality, it seemed that instead of reacting after seeing through the deception, his body moved on its own intuitively from the sense of danger.

It wasn't enough.

He was able to react to her attack even when she used sensory deception, but that was all because his instincts were keener than most and he could somewhat sense the danger through the sensory deception. He was also not in the right state of mind to fight; he had been shaken and disoriented by his loss of his left arm and the ear-piercing scream he let out. For him to fight, it would have required the best state of mind, and even then, the conclusion wouldn't change much: his loss.

'I'll take him down first. He's easier to kill while he's in his current state.' Amidst her thoughts, Lilith threw the dagger in her left hand.

The dagger left her hand with immense speed, hurtling forward towards the spearman's throat, aiming to pierce it. To Lilith's expectations, right before the dagger pierced through, he avoided a fatal wound, leaving a slightly deep cut across the right side of his neck.

The dagger had served its purpose. To force his instincts to focus on evading the immediate threat while disregarding any follow-up that could happen afterward. It was a feint that also served to weaken his reaction time further with the effects of the dagger. By the time that the dagger had nicked his neck, Lilith had already lunged with her other dagger.

A dagger was stabbed upward towards the soft area under his chin, giving the spearman no time to stabilize his disoriented body from previously evading or to react. At the same time, Lilith grabbed onto the dagger she had thrown earlier and stabbed it towards the back of his neck.

"Argh!" The Spearman's hoarse, almost broken scream fell into Lilith's ears.

'I'm dying.' This realization struck the spearman and freed him from his disoriented state. His death felt very close and so much more real than before.

Blood dripped down his chin, overlapping past the dried-up blood, while he tried to dissuade himself from the pain. His blurred vision was now a mix of red and black, slowly fading away along with his life. With a dagger having passed through his spinal cord, he'd lost the control he had over his body and couldn't move. He was helpless and defenseless.

'Who would've thought I'd go out like this? To a human, an existence I left behind.'

He truly desired to fight back, to turn this fight around, and to win. A fight that would push him to the verge of death, but he would be the one to survive at the end. He would remember this as the very first moment that he won against someone with talent that he never had. Today would've been marked as the day he changed his course of life—the day that he, instead of losing like he did in the past, won. He would feel bliss in his victory for achieving something he gave up his humanity for and succeeded in.

'That's just a fantasy.'

He chuckled as his eyes dipped. He was finally forced into resignation; he knew he could not win. It's been that way since the beginning; he'd just been too narrow-minded to see it and had lost more than he'd gained to finally understand. Now, he was going to die today, which was the day he feared the most ever since the day he came into this world.

"B-before I die... Tell me… Why is this world so unfair?" His voice was quiet and hoarse, but he used the little eldritch energy remaining inside his body to further amplify his voice. Unlike when he'd spoken before, his voice held pure curiosity.

"It's not my place to answer that question."

He couldn't call it a satisfactory answer. But the spearman didn't have the energy needed to ask another question. Even if he did, it wouldn't do anything besides satisfy some questions he wished answers for at his deathbed. Lilith then proceeded to slit his throat.

[Jerimoth, Half Demon (Lv. 23)—Defeated!]

[+115 exp]

[950/1400 EXP]

'Now, for the others.'

Since the beginning of the battle, the assassins and the mages have worked efficiently together with the spearman to attack her and wear down her strength. Their tactic had been successful without any problems until now. They had lost the central piece that connected the supporting pieces, which had changed the tide of the battle. Of course, she ensured none of them knew of this fact, as it would hinder killing the rest of them.

It wasn't easy, but sensory deception could do anything as long as her enemies didn't surpass the restrictions. The fact that none of them had a reaction to his death was the proof she needed that it was a success. However, she knew there were still possibilities for error. She could make it seem that he was alive by fooling their senses; that was all. The recreation wasn't a real creation, just a life-like illusion. It couldn't create the real him, so there could still be discrepancies between the fake and the real.

Even so, it was enough, even if they noticed the discrepancies in the fake and knew that it wasn't the real one. She was sure that by then, it would've been too late.

Noticing something, Lilith raised her dagger.

Clang~

Blocking the dagger that targeted her life from behind with her own, she used the other dagger to attack and kill.

'So that's how it is. Who would've thought?'

Apart from the fake Jerimoth, she used sensory deception to hide her presence from them. She had thought it would remain active, but with this attack, it was clear that it wasn't. The reason for this wasn't too hard to guess. Since she created an illusion of someone who would act as if they were the real one, the eldritch energy and control needed wouldn't be small. She couldn't do them both simultaneously, so it opted for the most important one at the time.

'Nothing will change anyway.' Another attack came from the side, which she immediately countered, bringing the remaining fiends down one by one.

[Lecia, Half Demon (Lv. 16)—Defeated!]

[+80 exp]

[1030/1400 EXP]

The more she killed, the more the fiend's confidence crumbled, like a sand castle losing its support. However, it became too late to turn back now or run, as before they knew it, there was none left, all falling to the daggers of Lilith, covering them with their blood.