CHAPTER 96: illusions

The people were barely affected by the fire. This had to be expected since they were used to fighting demons.

Their leather armour had been polished with some kind of wax with a very strong smell that was most likely the culprit for this phenomenon.

Since I was merely controlling the flames that I naturally produced with my magic I could do more things than just setting this place on fire.

Magic was not limited by a single element and one could basically create or manipulate everything as he or she wished. It was just that creation took way more energy than manipulation. Even to the point where it might be impossible to create certain things.

And even then, people might have more talent for one certain type of magic. Making it so that it was a lot harder to learn other magic skills.

It was only natural that I had a talent for the manipulation for flames since I was a fire type demon. But right now, I couldn't only rely on fire. So, I used one of my other tactics.

With almost four years of using illusions in my combat I had become fairly skilled in using those.

I completely erased the surroundings for the people that were just approaching. Making them unable to see the fire and slowing them down as a result.

They were all wearing necklaces with weird symbols engraved and woven around them that prevented me from completely entering their minds.

I had no way of knowing if they did or did not got effected by my illusion of total darkness. But since they seemed disorientated, I assumed that I succeeded.

As for the man that was annoying me from ever since I got here. I had another illusion for him in mind.

Ever so slowly I altered the space around him to resemble the hellish landscape that I had been trapped in for three years.

At first, he panicked. After that he tried to just focus on my glowing eyes that clearly stood out to the fake surroundings.

Tough my illusions were realistic; I could only manipulate vision. There was no sound, smell or feeling that came together with the illusion that I created. So, he could move out of the way from the fire simply by moving away from where he felt the heat. And as long as he had something that he could focus on, he would not be affected by his surroundings.

I grinned as I decided to play with his small grasp of reality.

I created an illusion of myself that kept approaching him while the real me circled around him. Once the illusion came close enough, I made it stare deep into his eyes. I made sure that this was all that the man could see.

With that I created a reflection in the eyes of the illusion.

I was not sure what would shock this man the most since I could not enter his mind. But in the end, there is only so much that the human mind can take.

Therefore, I showed him all the unspeakable horrors that I had seen. The ones that were supposed to stand in direct contact with the gods that let people wander down a path of darkness while they themselves made use of the sacrifices. An innocent man that was being slaughtered due to false rumours. The corruption that kept spreading from world to world, while the creatures that used to live there basically melted away in the fungus like growths while being fully conscious. How everything would eventually be absorbed into hell. And finally, the impossible power of the being that I had encountered.

The man started to shake. Saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth and his eyes seemed lifeless and empty.

Even I felt a little hopeless after recounting everything that I had seen. ("Is it all for nothing? Is everything going to end up in hell any ways?")

I quickly stopped thinking about that. Maybe there was something I could do about it once I was strong enough.

With one swift movement I clawed open the back of the man, leaving him to bleed out.

I grabbed Beatrice and took off. The people started to reorganise and eve tough I had grown a lot stronger; it would be troubling to take them all on.