Illusory Maze Realm

Thunk. Another body fell to the floor, and Noah dropped along with it. However, instead of a hard floor, he landed on a dismembered body of the white ghost. The splatter he made was followed by a groan. He had been fighting for a long while, and he had even filled his immediate surroundings with the bodies of the two.

"When will this end?" Noah got to his feet slowly, but as he did, he was hit by the bullet the white ghost would shoot at her entrance. He loudly screamed in pain as he held onto his shoulder before glaring at the emergence of another pair of enemies.

"I haven't—!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm free, you bastard." Noah snapped and got to his stance as the copy seemed to ignore him and continued to speak. "Are they programmed to spout the same shit every time? Will I die if I don't fight now?"

Noah only stared at them, but he kept on reminding himself of the pain on his shoulder. If he didn't fight, he might not be able to survive. However, there was no point in fighting…

"Squirt…"

Noah began to hear someone else in his head. His eye twitched as he recognized the voice, and yet he didn't express his anger towards the speaker.

"How long are you planning to be stuck in this little illusory world?"

"Illusory? It's all real. The pain is real, Belphegor." Noah huffed and began evading attacks again. He was too tired to lunge and swing anymore, but he would never get some rest if this duo continued to show up again and again.

However, his legs were already failing him. He would stumble and fail his landing from time to time. The bullets and the blasts all hurt so badly that he would scream at Belphegor if he insisted that these were illusory. Illusions were not meant to be felt after all.

"Wrong." Belphegor gurgled a mocking laugh as he listened to Noah's thoughts. "How stupid. You are in an illusory maze realm. As long as you accept these as your reality, you will live by so. Quit feeling so defeated and make use of your hellhound flame to decipher reality."

"Why are you telling me this now? Aren't you famous for letting your witches down?" Noah only chuckled darkly, weakly defending himself against the white ghost's attack.

Belphegor then laughed as if he was proud of it. However, his tone grew serious despite the amused hum. "I know the best places to let people down and the best times to do so. Today is not a good time so forgive me for kicking you awake from your pathetic dream."

Noah wanted to answer, but he got thrown away by a blast. His body flew meters away from his original spot and rolled hardly on the floor. He groaned and didn't even move. His eyes remained closed as if invoking a certain state.

Using the hellhound flame wasn't something taught by Mephisto—perhaps because he didn't know how to make use of it as well. However, after Lady Dione burned his body, Noah had felt a sliver of fire inside his body… inside his heart responding to the power distributed to the hellhounds.

Looking inside his body, he ended up managing to summon a small wisp of blue flame. It burned in the darkness of his thoughts, and it seemed to have coated his body with its heat. His ears began to pick up strange sounds of gnawing blobs, and his skin felt like he was in water.

When he opened his eyes, he could still see the battlefield full of dismembered bodies. However, sooner, the bodies began to change… as the place began to turn blue. For some reason, the images of the dark place dissipated… leaving him with the water around him.

Of course, water blobs were wriggling all around him as if they were eating each other to keep him inside them.

Noah's eyes widened, and he gasped, bubbles escaping from his mouth. He then grabbed his mouth and felt like he wasn't drowning at all. It's just that the blobs had already realized that he had broken out of the nightmare. They wriggled angrily at him, but they soon felt like something was coming their way.

Something way more powerful than this pathetic little witch…

A cane showed up before Noah, and the man mindlessly took it into his hands. The cane then shone with black light and drew a barrier around Noah.

Boom! A powerful explosion racked the water, and a terrifying blast rushed all over the place. The water blobs quickly disengaged from Noah and fled, only to be hit by the blast. Their bodies wriggled vigorously as they cried out, soon bursting to death.

Noah also felt the terrifying blast, and the presence was more powerful than that level seven he fought before. However, because he felt the pressure of a level nine, he still had enough consciousness left as he held onto the cane which protected him from the blast.

At the distance, Gianna had channeled all her power to create a purifying spell powerful enough to rival a level eight's attack. She destroyed all demons in the vicinity and possibly even broke the bounds of the fourth floor. The power was so immense that it echoed all throughout the castle.

Pollo, who was walking around, felt the tremble that the fluctuations had caused and just huffed. "That minister' daughters are breaking through the bounds of divine magic allowed by Lord Master in the human realm. Should I mess with them?"

…

The same kind of power rattled through other floors. A young man in a black suit and shorts moved his head up in the direction of the blast's ground zero.

He then huffed. "How funny that Asmodeus is still not dealing with them. Is he trying to fool Michael into thinking that he was allowing them to advance further?

"What can I do though? That earl is very pathetic." He continued walking, but the floor expanded as he did. The mud underneath wobbled, but the floor made of diamonds spanned without fear.

However, the child stopped walking and looked down at the floor. He then kneeled down and dipped his hand into the mud. As he couldn't reach what he was hoping to find, he growled and almost pushed his little body further, his face almost getting dipped into the mud.

"Why did I think having a child body is in my best interests?"

He finally reached what he needed and pulled a person out of the mud. Luca's entire body was covered in mud, and he wasn't breathing at all. The child pulled him fully into the diamond floor before standing next to him.

Bang! The child stomped at Luca's abdomen! Luca felt the jolt and the pain that woke him up so violently. He then began to choke and wheeze and even sneeze out the mud off of his face's apertures. The child only crossed his arms on his chest, tainting himself with the mud.

"How could you be this weak? What was that minister trying to achieve by doing this to you? Did he think he won't find you if you're like this?" The child spat before he walked off. "I have more things to attend to. Get to your feet."

Footsteps echoed along the diamond floor, but Luca didn't see a trace of the child. He heard the child's voice, and yet he had no idea who was speaking with him. However, he spoke of a minister doing something to him…

Orpheus Allsworth was one of the highest ministers of the Order; were they talking about his father?

"What… is going on?" Luca panted, but his exhaustion caused him to pass out once again.

…

"Alessa!" Isla screamed in a very high-pitched voice as she tried to pull Alessa away from the dragon blob she was devouring with her all.

The other dragon blobs had run away while one had been caught by Alessa's arms. She had already eaten half of its face when they felt the trembling blast that Gianna had unleashed. Isla ended up letting go of her other sister, worrying about the one who needed to cast a spell that strong.

Alessa seemed to have been jolted awake when she felt the shake in the illusory maze realm. Since the realm itself was shaken, the gluttony spell on everyone was lifted momentarily.

She found herself falling from a height, but she didn't whine as she got to her feet. A drop hit the floor, and Alessa realized that something cold was on her face. A hand moved to her lips and chin to clear it from drool, her cheeks free from any streak of redness from her embarrassing behavior.

"That's Gianna. Where is she?"

Isla summoned her netbook and located all of them in an instant. "Gianna, Tabitha, and Noah are a floor above us. Luca is underneath." Her eyes then quivered as Angelos gave her revelations. "Se… several level eights and level nines are in the area. A level ten is also walking around…"

"Level ten…" Winona had a different experience with Mephisto so she was shaken when she heard that a level ten was in the area. Alessa, however, squinted. "That level ten must be looking for Noah. Nevermind the level ten; let's fetch Luca on the sixth floor and wait for everyone near the exit."

She moved ahead and led the group towards the weak point on the floor. She destroyed the spot on the floor and dropped to the lower floor. Isla and Winona only chuckled as they pretended not to remember Alessa trying to eat a level six blob earlier.

However, as they dropped to the lower floor, they found themselves falling from the height… only to be submerged in mud.