Chapter 315 -: 314 Eternal purgatory of illusions.
’No...’
Jasmine’s eyes widened as Lyra’s fingers slowly curled around the small black cube attached to Kavin’s sternum.
The moment she recognized what Lyra intended to do, her heart nearly stopped.
That cube wasn’t an ordinary artifact. It was a priceless treasure crafted by the master artificers of the Hayes Clan, an object so sophisticated that it could deceive the senses of even an Infinite Core spell caster.
Julius had once tested it thoroughly, even seeking his father’s help to ensure its perfection before coming here.
It flawlessly concealed a person’s appearance, aura, and even subtle traces of their identity. Yet despite its incredible capabilities, Jasmine knew it possessed one unavoidable flaw.
The artifact was built upon countless microscopic spell formulas compressed into an impossibly small space.
Every inch of the cube was already occupied by intricate enchantments, leaving no room to incorporate a security mechanism.
As a result, if someone placed all five fingers around the user’s sternum in the correct position, the cube could simply be pulled free without requiring any form of identification or authorization.
It was the only weakness the artificers had been forced to accept.
’But... how did she know?’
The thought flashed through Jasmine’s mind for only an instant before instinct overwhelmed reason.
She didn’t have the luxury of searching for answers. Her body lunged forward with every ounce of strength she possessed, the shattered arena blurring beneath her feet as she sprinted desperately toward Kavin.
Brilliant mana circles burst into existence around her arms, legs, and back one after another, each spell consuming enormous amounts of mana directly from her core to push her body beyond its natural limits.
The distance separating them wasn’t great, yet it had never felt so impossibly long.
Every heartbeat stretched into an eternity as she desperately prayed she would arrive before Lyra’s fingers completed their movement.
****
High above the arena, inside the VIP viewing area, Magnus and Salena watched the arena in silence.
Lyra had remained perfectly motionless for several minutes after activating her Domain, and only now had she finally begun to move.
Magnus didn’t know the exact nature of her Domain, but judging from Kavin’s completely frozen state, it appeared capable of trapping its victim’s consciousness somewhere beyond reality.
Whatever was happening, it wasn’t a battle anyone else could witness.
"If he doesn’t move..." Magnus murmured to himself, his gaze narrowing as Lyra slowly extended her hand toward Kavin’s chest.
Her fingers settled upon his sternum.
Then everything changed. A small black cube quietly slid free from beneath her fingertips.
For a heartbeat, absolute silence descended over the arena.
Then Kavin’s appearance began to unravel before everyone’s eyes.
The illusion concealing him dissolved like mist beneath the sun.
His rough, brownish skin gradually faded away, revealing flawless alabaster skin beneath it, while the ordinary features everyone had grown accustomed to melted away as though they had never truly existed.
His short black hair transformed into soft golden strands that fell naturally across his forehead, shimmering beneath the arena’s light, and the plain black eyes that had never attracted a second glance became brilliant pools of molten gold capable of captivating anyone who looked into them.
Long golden eyelashes framed those motionless eyes, while his entire face shifted into one of breathtaking perfection.
High cheekbones, a perfectly straight nose, and flawless symmetry combined to create a beauty that could rival even the finest standards of the Zlycons, a face so striking that it almost seemed unreal.
Yet not a single person found themselves admiring that beauty.
Instead, countless eyes were locked onto the truth that appearance had revealed.
"...A human?"
Magnus’ pupils contracted violently, disbelief washing across his face, while beside him Salena froze as though struck by lightning.
Their voices were soon drowned out by identical gasps erupting from every corner of the arena.
Nobles, warriors, merchants, spectators, and even seasoned spell casters stared at the young man standing silently in the center of the battlefield, unable to believe what they were witnessing.
A human...
A human had entered the tournament.
Before anyone could even process the revelation, Kavin’s motionless body twitched ever so slightly. His golden eyes blinked once.
At that exact moment, Lyra let out a piercing scream.
Her face twisted in agony as blood trickled from the corner of her lips before she collapsed onto the shattered stone floor, clutching her head as if her soul itself had been torn apart.
"U-Uncle..."
Salena instinctively turned toward Magnus, only to discover that the seat beside her was already empty. He had vanished without leaving behind so much as an afterimage.
Her gaze snapped back toward the arena, where the situation had descended into complete chaos.
Powerful figures burst forward from every direction with terrifying speed.
The first-ranked spell caster was already crossing the arena in a single step, while elite guards and numerous experts whom Salena couldn’t even recognize surged toward Kavin like an unstoppable flood.
Each of them possessed strength capable of crushing mountains, yet every one of them had reached the same conclusion.
The human had to be captured.
Meanwhile, the ordinary spectators remained rooted to their seats, their minds unable to comprehend what had just unfolded.
The revelation had shattered every expectation they carried into the tournament, leaving them frozen in stunned silence.
"He... is a human..."
Salena finally whispered, her voice barely audible as fragments of thought slowly returned to her mind.
Relief, betrayal, fear, confusion, anger—so many emotions surged through her heart that she could no longer distinguish one from another.
She didn’t know what she was supposed to feel anymore, but one thing was painfully clear.
There was no escaping this.
Then, before any of the approaching experts could reach him, a familiar voice echoed across the entire arena with chilling authority.
"Eternal Purgatory of Illusions."
The words had barely echoed when the vibrant colors of the world were stripped away in an instant.
Crimson became gray, gold faded into white, and every trace of life vanished beneath an endless monochrome veil.
The sky, the arena, the spectators, and the mountains beyond all dissolved into a silent world of black and white.
And then...
All hell broke loose.