Blurred Realities

"So, this woman uses Illusion Magic? I don't really have an idea on how to beat that but as long as I can distinguish between what is real and what isn't... then I might be able to do this!" Lucas thought to himself as he gripped his Energy Whip in his left hand.

Mystic eyed the Golden Dawn mage up and down. She noticed the scars on his face and concluded that he may have had a troubled past. Instead of feeling sorry for the boy, she licked her lips instead. "This... could be something I can work with", she giggled.

The Diamond Kingdom mage took a deep breath and started her attack on Lucas.

"Illusion Magic: Dragon's Roar!" Mystic opened the palms of her hands and a mild purple glow formed around them. She stretched her hands forwards, and the glow shot outwards towards where Lucas was standing and seemingly made an entire dragon form from the ground up. As Lucas looked up towards the red dragon's sharp teeth and it's black scales, the figure in question opened its mouth and started to scream in an ear-piercing way which vibrated across the entire room. The walls shook and the dust that sat around started to shift.

However, that didn't actually happen.

"Illusion Magic can make it so that only the desired target feels the effects of what's happening. Whilst I can see Lucas and the dragon, the actual screams can only be felt by Lucas, while I just stand here and enjoy the show!" Mystic chuckled.

Lucas was in the middle of the room, being overshadowed by an entire dragon that was screaming its lungs away. Its mouth was open, and the sheer waves of sound started to make Lucas's ears bleed.

"Oh, God! An entire dragon just appeared!" Lucas plugged his ears with his hands, letting go of the Energy Whip that he had ready. He bit his lips to divert some of the pain his head and ears felt on to his lips, but he still felt the full force of the attack.

"I can't stay like this! I know this is an illusion, but it's so very realistic!" The Light mage mumbled.

The dragon's screams increased in volume and even sent Lucas to the ground. The mage was on one knee, his body shaken, and his hair was waving around in the air from the dragon's attack. Yet, he turned his face upwards and thought again;

"It's only an illusion, so I should be able to get through this. It's not real... Light Magic: Spark-Charged Beam!" Lucas's left hand started to shake as he brought about the dregs of light that were scattered around from the cracks in the walls and ceilings. They formed into one powerful sphere of light and he shot it towards the dragon above. With a powerful and bright spark, the illusion warped away and transformed into nothingness.

"That... was a bit easy when I actually got a control of the situation", Lucas spoke to himself. He managed to stand up and as he checked his ears for any more blood damage, he realised that he was in perfect condition. "Huh? I could have sworn I was bleeding from my ears!".

Lucas looked towards his opponent and saw her gritting her teeth.

"I thought the illusion would have taken a bit more time to break. This kid... he's smart. The only problem with my illusions is that the effects wear off afterwards because, well they're illusions... I just hoped he would have fainted or something before!" She clenched her fists as she looked to Lucas.

The Diamond Kingdom mage pointed at Lucas and declared that she would break him down with her magic. "Look here, sweetie!" She rubbed her hands across her chest to which Lucas immediately looked away from in an embarrassed blush. "Lucas... I will break you down!"

"Illusion Magic...", she summoned another spell.

Lucas looked towards his opponent and got ready for another attack. "Now that I know that I won't actually get damaged afterwards, I can do this!" He flicked through his grimoire.

In a different part of the dungeon, a few minutes ahead of Lucas and the room he was in, his Golden Dawn squad mates were standing in front of a huge door that separated them from what was likely to be the treasure room.

"My, my, we got here first! Asta and Noelle are nowhere to be found so I guess we win!" Mimosa clapped her hands and smiled.

Klaus walked forward ahead of both Yuno and Mimosa and corrected his glasses. "Well, of course. The Golden Dawn are the best squad, so it is only normal we win any battle we compete in".

Yuno stepped forwards too, in line with Klaus, and looked around. "So, Asta isn't here, and neither is Lucas. Those two are definitely reliable so we'll see them soon", he thought.

The three mages eyed the huge door in front of them and wondered how they could get past. The room they were in was quite big and the floor had a small lake that separated the ground they stood on and where they came from.

"I can sense immense magic coming from this door and from what's behind it", Mimosa thought. "I just wish Lucas would hurry up! We expect him to join up with us, but I do miss hi-!"

As the royal Vermillion was thinking about her squadmate, a silent attack was coming from behind her, but no one noticed it approaching. Without even a second passing from when Mimosa started to think about the Light mage she was hit, badly.

Yuno and Klaus, as if time were moving slowly, turned their faces back towards their vermillion-haired teammate, and saw shards of minerals and crystals pierce Mimosa and her cloak. She then fell to the ground in a heap with blood falling from her wound.

Yuno's yellow eyes widened with worry. "Mimo...!" He then turned around to see where the attack came from and saw a tall figure with pink eyes and sharp, light-pink hair moving towards the group.

Klaus immediately went to where Mimosa had fallen and tried to see if she was alright, but his attention also got drawn to the suspicious enemy that got closer. "Who are you?!" He shouted across the open space.

The spiky-haired enemy walked closer with his high boots clanging off of the floor's surface. As he drew near, his full appearance came into light and it looked like he had a similar style to enemy that Lucas had come across. With four gemstones embedded into his body, with three on his forehead and one at the centre of his chest. He donned a black fur coat that stretches and falls to the ground at the back of his attire, and the only thing that separates the fur coat from his bare skin was a skintight vest and cropped pants over a black jumpsuit.

He opened his mouth, and instead of answering Klaus's question, he questioned them. "Who dares stand in my way? Move".

"Light Magic: Angelic Strike!" Lucas forced his way out of every single illusion that Mystic made for him. Now that he knew the trick behind getting past her magic, it seemed like it was a walk in the park for him.

"Light Magic: Energy Whips!"

"Light Magic: Spark-Charged Beam!"

Lucas continually got through the illusions and slowly made his way towards Mystic who was busy getting annoyed by the mage's progress.

"This... isn't good. I'm going to have to use that. The only reason why I didn't use it is because it's something that isn't mine... but to complete my mission, I'll have to!" Mystic gripped her grimoire and flicked through.

Lucas took a notice of her grimoire for the first time and noticed the odd colour scheme and stitchings that patterned the spell book. "Her grimoire... it's kind of like mine!" His eyes widened.

Though Mystic's grimoire wasn't yellow and blue with a clover in the middle, her grimoire was a mix of two colours; a soft purple which represented her Illusion Magic, and a bright white which represented something else with the shape of a diamond on the cover.

"T-two attributes?!" Lucas realised.

Mystic grinned menacingly and summoned a different kind of spell, using the second attribute of hers. The gemstone in the middle of her forehead started to glow which put a higher emphasis on her secondary magic attribute.

The opponent shot beams of white energy all around the room which closed into Lucas immediately and she spoke the name of the spell. "Memory Magic: Dangers of the Past!"

"M-M-Memory Magic?!" Lucas shouted in disbelief. "Wh-what does that even mean?"

Whilst Lucas was busy worrying about the possibilities of Mystic's secondary attribute, she was already hard at work.

"The good thing about my Memory Magic is how quickly I can use it. I can go through the opponents memories from a distance and pinpoint areas that would hurt the opponent!" Mystic licked her lips. "Now... judging from Lucas's scars, I can tell he's had a troubled past so let's see what I can work with!"

The Diamond Kingdom dual mage looked through Lucas's memories at a high speed, obviously wary of her limited time since Lucas could just run ahead and beat her. "Let's see... Oh! Let me use this...", she gasped.

"Illusion Magic: Memory Reality!" Mystic used her Illusions, but used them in a way that considered what her Memory Magic showed her. Within a few seconds a familar scene started to materialise from Lucas's perspective. It was the inside of a Church with three figures standing inside.

Lucas's eyes widened in horror as he realised what was being shown to him. "N-no!" His voice started to shake, and he started to whimper. He reached out towards Mystic as a way to say "stop this", however, the memory started.

What was being shown to 15-year-old Lucas, was an incident that occurred to his eight-year-old self. The Mother and Father of the Church, the people that the dual mage once trusted, were beating him. Punching, kicking, pushing a small little child to the ground.

"M-Mystic! Please... s-stop this!" Lucas screamed as loud as he could, tears falling from his eyes and staining his Golden Dawn squad robe. Lucas realised she wasn't listening so had to figure something out, however, that was when he let out a scream of pain. "Ow, ow, ow!"

Lucas, though he wasn't being attacked, felt the pain that the past Lucas was feeling. As it was Illusion Magic, the nature of it did in fact effect Lucas. So, as the eight-year-old Lucas was being hurt, the present-time Lucas was feeling the full force of it. He fell to the ground in pain and horror, and he slowly looked towards Mystic who was standing ahead of him. A face full of anger plagued the Light mage's face and his eyes darkened in colour.

Mystic, however, was looking at this situation completely differently to what Lucas thought she was. Instead of being happy with how she was winning the fight, a look of disgust filled her face.

"This... is not what I expected at all. I flickered through his memories quickly and just saw that he was being beaten up, but the nature and context of it wasn't something I bothered to look into!" A tear even fell from her face because of the situation she was looking at, though she quickly wiped it away.

The memory finally ended as the eight-year-old Lucas blacked out. Present-time Lucas slowly looked around as he stood up and stopped his crying. He started to move forwards but was hit with another memory of his. "N-n-no... not another one!"

This time, a bright light filled the area through Mystic's Illusion Magic. It was a nice and sunny day in the Town of Hoffvol in the Forsaken Realm. A young 10-year-old Lucas was busy playing with his older sister, Iris.

"I-I remember this day... nothing bad happened", Lucas relaxed but then wondered why he was being shown a happy memory.

The two in the memory sat down underneath a tree and started to have lunch that Iris had packed for them. As they ate, the clouds slowly greyed in colour and darkened the atmosphere. Rumbling could be heard all around and the sound of thunder was everywhere. All of a sudden, a flash of lightning struck the tree that the two sat under and started to burn it.

"Th-this... never happened! Don't tell me she can alter things that happened with her illusions!" Lucas shouted. He recognised he was in a lose-lose situation considering he wasn't even attacking Mystic anymore, so he tried to ignore the illusion that was being played and tried to move forwards.

However, he could not because of what was shown to him.

The burning tree started to tumble towards the ground and fall, and it did. It crushed Lucas's sister into the ground, and she let out a deafening scream as her body flattened into the burning grass. The memory then started to fade but Lucas continued to cry.

"Big Sis, Iris!" The Dual mage cried out. He quickly turned towards Mystic and saw her horrified face. He lunged towards her, but another illusion started to play which stopped Lucas as it messed with his senses. "No... what is it this time?!"

This time, what was presented to Lucas was not a memory but a possible future through illusions. It was a scene of the Golden Dawn Headquarters.

"Wh-what is this?" Lucas thought, gulping at the possibility of Mystic altering this.

As the Light mage wondered what was happening this time, Mystic was deep in her thoughts. "This... isn't right. What I'm doing... he doesn't deserve this, but the Diamond Kingdom needs me, and so do you two...", she thought with a frown.

FLASHBACK - A FEW YEARS AGO:

"I never expected that Mars kid to win the death match! It's a shame he had to kill his best friend but that means we have another modified soldier", the tall figure smirked.

There was a group of people sat in their seats, on a platform and above where the Diamond Kingdom death match was happening. There were two others behind the man speaking, one with black hair and one with red hair.

"Sir, do you really think doing these death matches are the best way forward for the Kingdom?" The red-haired man spoke with worry.

"I agree... this is a bit... barbaric", the man with black hair added.

A bout of laughter ensued from the tall man in front. He corrected his glasses and straightened his lab coat. "Nonsense... the Kingdom will only prosper with these modified soldiers! Surely you want the best for your daughters, Lotus?" He then turned to the red-haired man and spoke. "A good and prosperous country for your wife is appealing, is it not?"

The two men stopped speaking and sat back down.

"Now... Mystic. It's your turn to fight those other people on the ground as part of the second death match of the day! You didn't see what was going on and don't even know the Mars kid, but if you win this, you can team up with him", he laughed and grinned. "Remember, you're a special child since you have that rare Illusion Magic. If you win, I'll let you use this artifical Memory Magic that I've been working on...", the man then stopped smiling and looked seriously at the teen in front of him. "Regardless... if you win and follow my orders... your parents will...", he continued.

"Yes... Mister. If it means my parents will get treatment, then I'll do whatever I can for you...", the shivering violet-haired teen spoke with a small whimper to her voice.

FLASHBACK - END

"Mom, Dad... is this right?" Mystic whimpered.

Lucas looked around in his tear-stained squad robe. "The base? What's going to happen here?" He wondered with a shiver. He looked around but then suddenly heard an explosion near the common room where everyone was at. In a flash, he saw his team dead, and, on the floor, William was stabbed to death and Hamon and Letoile had their bodies broken. "No... this is only an illusion... Yes, that's right!" He sighed.

Lucas focused back on the Diamond Kingdom opponent and started to run forwards, ignoring the destruction that the illusion showed him. As he neared, the illusion changed to be right in front of Lucas and this time he stopped. In front of him were the bodies of Asta, Yuno, Noelle, and Mimosa. They had swords sticking out of their torsos.

"No!" The mage cried out for what seemed like the hundredth time. He kneeled down and collated his thoughts. He realised that Mystic was an enemy with no heart and had to do anything possible to make sure she would not escape. Though, as much as he tried to think with a clear head, the illusions that the enemy showed him were stained upon his conscience. His blue eyes started to shake, and his breathing became irregular.

Everything became silent in the room with only the trickles of water making a slight noise from the lakes and waterfalls.

"I've had enough. You've gone too far, Mystic!" Lucas roared with what seemed like his voice changed in tone. His voice grew deeper and sounded slightly evil with how he spoke.

A shiver was sent down Mystic's spine. "Whose voice was that?!" She wondered. She tried to think but she saw that the voice definitely came from Lucas. "His voice... it sounded so distorted and definitely... not... hu-", she trailed off.

Lucas looked towards his opponent and saw how frightened she was, however, Lucas was not going to easy on her. He wasn't even thinking properly as he lunged forwards. His face was dark, his emotions were out of control, and his palms were open as he went in for the hit. The mage moved quicker than he did before, with an insane speed which was weird for Lucas as his Light Magic didn't allow him to be as quick as other recorded Light mages.

"His Light Magic... isn't supposed to be this quick!" Mystic shouted. As she saw the oncoming Lucas, she noticed some other things about him. "H-his eyes... one is glowing yellow and the other is glowing a bright blue? His grimoire... it's glowing a mixture of yellow and blue... and his palms... the left is yellow, whereas the right, blue!" She screamed. She started to think and go through her mind for a possible explanation. "What did I miss from his memories? What did I miss?! Oh... I was too hasty", she realised as she pinpointed what she missed due to her willingness to finish things quickly. "He... has Time Magic!"

Lucas ignored everything she said as he was seething with rage. He propelled himself forwards with his glowing blue palm, and without knowing, used his Time Magic to increase his body's speed to make sure he was up towards Mystic's face. With his left hand, he chanted a spell.

"Light Magic: Angelic Strike!" Though Lucas was raging, he still had his sense of reason. So, instead of disintegrating her with his open palm, he formed it into a fist and punched her right in the face. He knocked her out immediately and took hold of her grimoire.

Mystic was now on the floor, in a heap, and unconscious. "You... You... horrible, horrible person!" He wiped his tears and shook his head, regaining his composure and not realising that he actually used his Time Magic, albeit in a minimal way. "How could you do something like that? You... are not human...".

"Light Binding Magic: Coils of Trapped Light!" Lucas summoned a binding spell that restricted Mystic's movements and bound her in a spherical ball. He stood around for a few minutes and gathered his thoughts and made sure the enemy was secured tightly before moving on.

"That battle... was very tough. I need to work harder to make sure I'm not on the backfoot like that ever again...", he spoke to himself. The mage thought about the illusions that he just went through. "So much pain and suffering... they seemed so real".

He then looked around and realised that he forgot which direction he should go to reach where Yuno and the others were. However, he thought back to the blue electricity he saw running through the area into one of the other caves.

"There was a rumoured Lightning mage that Mystic talked about. He may be an enemy but it's the only viable option", Lucas thought as he walked towards the source of it, a trapped Mystic floating behind him.

A few minutes passed and he reached the area where he saw the blue electricity come from, but instead of finding a group of enemies, he saw a group of familiar faces.

They all turned around and saw Lucas and ran towards him.

"Lucas! Surprised to see you here!" One of the people spoke, it was the loudest of the three.

"A-Asta! I didn't think I'd see you here...", he then turned around and greeted the others.

"H-hi, Noelle...", he spoke softly. He then turned to the other side and realised it was the Lightning mage. "You must be...?"

"Haha! I'm Luck Voltia! You seem strong since you've trapped an enemy in your Light Magic, so let's fight one day!" He punched the air in excitement.

Lucas was scared at the thought of fighting someone right now. "F-f-fight?!"

Noelle walked up to the dual mage and calmed him down. "Now, now, don't worry. That's just how Luck is, it's no problem".

"So, you fought an enemy too?" Asta asked. "We just went up against one called Lotus, but he managed to escape! How come you're on your own and not with Yuno?" Asta asked, sliding his large broadsword back into his grimoire.

"Oh...", Lucas scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I got attacked by an enemy, so I had to fight her, but now I'm just looking for the way to my squad. Do you mind if I join you lot?" The ginger-haired mage asked, twiddling his thumbs.

"I guess that will be alright. Just don't slow us down!" The Water mage flicked her ponytail.

"I'll do my b-best!" Lucas pumped his fist