***
Amon's eyes widened as he stared at the ruined infirmary in front of him, that once stood tall and strong.
It was devastating to believe that such a small group could cause this amount of destruction.
But even more...
His head slowly turned down, only to see a field of strewn laid out corpses around him.
Their bodies were completely torn up as if a barbarian had tore them open.
Their faces mushed up, being completely unrecognizable.
Organs and blood were spilled over the whole ground, painting the once beautiful lush green fresh ground with a grueso crimson red.
It was a massacre. A brutal massacre that Amon couldn't believe with his widened eyes.
All the patients outside...
And not a single one was alive.
'H-how...Wasn't Arthur here?' Amon questioned in his thoughts.
But there was nothing here.
Even if he had to venture inside, Amon was sure that Arthur would have left so shadows outside.
'The fuck happened?' Amon walked through the corpses.
Suddenly, he felt an arm latched onto his leg.
His senses instantly kicked off at full alert as Amon swerved to the source.
But as he looked down, he saw a small human hand latching onto his leg.
And the owner of the hand?
A butchered corpse.
Confusion etched on Amon's face as he stared at the unusual phenonon.
It was then, that he heard a deep hissing voice from above.
[Can't you see it yet?]
Recognizing it, Amon's widened eyes looked above, only to find a gigantic snake floating in the air.
With a slim but also athletic long body, its whole fra was covered in thick polished athyst purple scales.
An ethereal black and purple wispy mist surrounded its floating coiled body.
Two golden slits stared indifferently at the body beneath Amon's feet.
It was Vainglory's full form.
In terms of length, it was almost as long as a normal tree's trunk.
And in terms of width, just slightly smaller than a street pole.
'Damn, that look's majestic.' Amon comnted, forgetting the seriousness of the situation for a mont.
Fortunately, Vain was quick to snap him back to reality.
[I get it. But for now, we should focus on sothing else.] It hissed, its crimson-forked tongue slithering out.
'Ah, yeah.' The surroundings registered in Amon's view again as he looked down.
He finally understood that this was Vain's doing.
[I'm sure you understand now.]
Amon nodded.
Realization finally set into his body.
This whole scene around him. It was an illusion.
The people around were still fine with Arthur's shadows guarding them till now.
But the illusionary caster was doing this to set fear and desperation into his body.
He was also responsible for the barrier aspect.
It had to be known that even if you killed one of the casters of the barrier, their elent from the barrier would not disappear in many cases.
It was because the barrier was done and already finalized with the other casters and it would hold out until soone broke it.
To give an example, it was like a fireball cast by a user a second before their death.
Even after they died, the attack wouldn't disappear because it was a separate object.
And to break the barrier, it ant to properly break which was sothing very hard as you needed a person of equal strength as the caster.
Amon didn't break the barrier. He had just created an opening large enough for him to pass through.
Small cracks in the barrier would be fixed by themselves, however, the mana in the barrier would lessen significantly.
Coming back to the present, Amon looked back to the ruined infirmary.
There were chances that it was an illu-
[No, it isn't what you are thinking.]
Amon's words stopped in his mouth as his eyes widened a little.
So the infirmary...
Was actually destroyed.
[Forget about it for now. The illusion caster is near, I can almost feel him though he's
stealthy.] Vain said, completely serious about the matter.
It was weird to see him with this attitude but Amon didn't mind it.
Amon nodded.
He summoned his nodachi, gripping it in his hand.
Without any hesitation, he shot into the infirmary.
And as he did, he imdiately felt the caster's mana for a split second.
His eyes darted upward.
'The upper floor.'
It could possibly be a trap for him.
But...
Right now, he was willing to take a shot.
If it ca to the worst like in the Slave Center....
He was prepared this ti.
Amon ran through the dark corridor, looking for the stairs to the upper floor.
His steps echoed in the bloody dry corridor.
His blurring form shot past doors and flickering lights as he finally found a staircase leading
upward.
Amon didn't take any break.
He shot up the stairs, taking multiple stairs with one step.
At an insane speed, he took a turn on the stairs as he jumped to another staircase.
Before finally reaching the uppe-
Amon's eyes widened as he saw multiple flying kunais coming for his head.
He quickly ducked down.
But then, a sharp kick hit him in the abdon, sending him crashing to the right wall.
'What the fuck?' Amon's face scrunched up in pain.
[You fool! Those daggers were an illusion!] Vain shouted at him as he quickly fended off the
attacker with his fangs.
His form slithered back to Amon as the latter stood up from the crater in the wall.
[You are too inexperienced in identifying illusions.] Vain told him straight up.
Amon nodded.
"I know, urghh." Amon straightened his shoulders.
Unfortunately, he had no ti to relax as the hair on his back stood up once again.
With widened eyes, he quickly ducked, dodging a kick to his head.
[It's an illusion!] Vain told him, as for a mont, the attacker's form was imbued with a
golden hue.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
Amon quickly lodged towards the kick in the air to grab it but was once again, taken by
surprise as his hand simply phased through.
And in the sa instant, a punch hit him straight in the cheek.
His body was sent crashing again into the sa wall, breaking it this ti.
Amon's body bounced up and down in the other room.
Gritting through the pain in his body, he put one hand on the floor.
And sorsaulted into the air, landing back on the floor.
He was once again saved as he saw Vain in a heated duel with the dark agile form of the attack.
Fortunately, the latter was once again sent back and Vain arrived near Amon again.
[Alright, listen. This is the only way you can currently win right now. You need to see through
his illusions and this is the perfect ti.] Vain instructed him quickly.
Amon nodded imdiately.
'Okay, what do I do?' [Close your eyes, we are going to form a Familiar Bond.] Vain instructed him.
Amon's eyes widened.
Just like [Void Bond], a Familiar Bond was essentially the sa thing.
It was a transformation that granted the owner of the familiar several qualities related to his
art and the beast.
The beast would also receive additional powers.
However, at the sa ti, there were risks.
One of them was the synchronization rates.
In the transformation, any pain received by the beast would also be transmitted to the caster.
Furthermore, the more out of concentration you got or the damage you received, your synchronization rate would fall out of sync.
And once you and your familiar were out of sync, the transformation would fail and both of
you could also faint.
It was very dangerous.
Especially, attempting it for the first ti.
But...
Amon was all down for it.
'Okay, let's go.' He took a deep breath.
Vain nodded.
[Alright, close your eyes and we will rge slowly.] Amon followed him.
And as he did, instantly a transformation began to take place.
A slight rumbling shook the floor as so pebbles and rocks started to float.
Vain's golden eyes glowed in an amber glow as cryptic golden engravings started to appear on
his body.
Two sharp horns jutted out of his head slowly, angling backward.
Two crimson-red fangs also protruded from his mouth.
Vain let out a fierce hiss, almost guttural.
But he wasn't the only one going under a transformation.
Black engravings were etched on Amon's arm and body as they extended toward his face.
They slowly spread upward, stopping right at the chin.
Amon's pupil was shaped into golden slits and two beautiful horns jutted out of his head as
well.
Scaled armor stared to appear on several spots of his body as well.
Finally, they were both done.
A golden aura erged from their form as the whole floor shook with an intense rumble.
Amon's cold eyes locked with the slow form of the attacker in the distance.
He could see everything clearly now.
Every speck of motion. Every illusion. Every trace of mana.
It felt beautiful and elegant.
Vain's deep beastly voice quickly pulled him out of his bliss.
[Since this is our first transformation, we only have roughly about 5 minutes. Don't ss it
up.] He hissed through his crimson fangs.
Amon nodded as his black engravings glowed golden again.
'Alright, let's go.'
And in the next instant, both of them shot forward, leaving web of cracks behind that ford
into a large crater.
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