By: Daalaas
The Island felt stretched and distorted in a way that defies logic.
He had been walking for a long time, but he didn't feel like he was getting closer to the mountains. No matter how far he moved, the mountains remained distant, making it more out of his reach.
Instead, he found himself looping through the same scenery over and over again.
Trees remained the same, leaves rustled in the same way, and the path he took remained same as well, as if someone was playing tricks on him.
At only two times of looping, his suspicion grew upon seeing the same scenery which is not normal in any logical explanation.
He decided to make action, clearing off his suspicion. He drew his knife out from his right waist, and sliced the few thin branches and scratched some marks on the trees.
After leaving a few marks, he walked ahead trying to go through the loop again.
In just a few seconds, he stood at the trees surrounding him with the same mark he left, it was still flesh and didn't seem to have been carved a long time ago.
Narrowing his eyes.
"I dearly hate those fairies," he muttered mixed with frustration.
Fairies are creatures that are always doing childish things, it also brought disaster because of their childishness.
A long time ago, the fairy creature did something that shook the kingdom. There was a monster called Manta, which are creatures similar to mantis, however, it was filled with a lot of mana energy inside it's core killing off about 6% of the population of the kingdom.
Defeating a fairy is something he wasn't able to pull off.
Unless... If this isn't a realm he would be able to break through, and get some items to kill a fairy.
He sighed, sitting in the tree he left a mark. He leaned back and slowly closed his eyes, he drifted into his thoughts, thinking about the books and details he had read.
Unfortunately, he cannot remember anything related to "Realm," only remembering the basic details of it.
Realm is something similar to a small fraction of a world itself; in other words, a realm is a completely a small world where the desire of the user can be done.
Suddenly he felt a presence, a presence that doesn't have anything other than its proof that it exists.
"Be aware." It was hollow but it was clear.
Be aware? You mean?
He wondered. Thinking aback, there was everything in this place, as if the realm itself is made from an identical island.
However, the Realm itself is nothing like that, a realm was supposed to create a world, a world that isn't identical to anything. It was done by various scenery that is nowhere seen in the world, that's why forming an realm like it was an inhabitants island is clearly out of the chart.
He felt his breath slowly getting short, his heart began to pound as if he was doing his daily routine.
Probably, most of the people don't notice, but the sudden change of the oxygen or the air surrounding us, is indicating that the place is a contained place.
Because every human or even mythical creatures breathe the same air as humans, they also didn't even notice the changes of the air, which led to them unconsciously replicating the oxygen using their mana.
Then a realization hit him harder, he lowered his head and looked at the soil beneath him.
Illusion magic.
He muttered, grinning widely, realizing that he wasn't facing a mythical creature, a fairy, but a person who was using an illusion magic.
***
A sense manipulation or an Illusion magic.
But it has a weakness similar to other magics.
Based on Vanitas studies, illusion magic could be destroyed even from within. However, there were two key conditions that had to be met.
Awareness, the moment someone realized they were trapped inside the illusion, the magic eventually lost its grip on the person's senses. The brain, that deceived starting to reject the false reality, overriding the fabricated sense of sight, touch, taste and sound.
The next is interception.
Magic functioned through intricate structures. Using mana a mage would be able to create the structures of the spell and materialize them. In this case, to destroy an illusion, one had to disrupt its structure by injecting their own structure to force it to collapse the illusion structures from within.
"Every spell is built from structure. While creating structure required mana. And right now all those hours studying that complicated shit are finally paying off."
He exhaled, muttering under his breath.
Even with his limited mana, he gathered them and focused on channeling those mana on his left eye.
As he planned, a faint, blue hue glowed to life.
"Tracer." He whispered.
It was an ancient magic, one that he had painstakingly studied and improved since childhood. It was a magic granting him ability to have a perception near to the Item called "Eye of Angel." Which can see the structure of an item, magics, and such. But tracer is a lesser level which is only able to see through the structure inside the magic.
Unlike other perception spells, Tracer didn't rely on a large amount of mana but instead how to function it using a slight amount of mana.
Of course the ancient magic he used came with a limit. Against the lower-tier mage, it was an invaluable tool. But against someone wielding high-level magic, even if he saw structures, he wouldn't be able to have power to destroy it.
However...
A small smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
Let's see, just how strong this illusion really is.
He gradually reduced the mana channelled to his left eye, redirecting it to the tip of his index finger. A faint, crackling energy gathered there, invisible to the naked eye but pulsing with a raw potential.
An Illusion, like all magic, had a structure. And structures could be dismantled.
"Null magic."
The words slip out from his lips quietly commanding.
Instantly, the world around him trembled, as if it's getting sucked into the white and transparent shapeless magic on his palm.
The illusion began to collapse, its false reality was being dismantled. Trees swayed like a tempest coming. The soil and grass beneath his feet twisted and warped, revealing the glimpse of the real world beyond. The towering mountains in the distance, fractured like glass breaking apart into many pieces.
A null magic.
A magic that was lost a long time ago, but it wasn't something like a forgotten magic, but it was abandoned. Because no one had ever mastered it and titled it a worthless magic, its effect is unpredictable, its potential was limited to being nothing.
But he had uncovered one of its most valuable properties: it was a direct counter to all elemental and structured magic, and most of all it was difficult to operate.
Its power depended solely on the user's mana reserves, and also their knowledge of the properties of null magic.
Even having a limited mana, and enough knowledge about the properties of null magic, it was enough for him to be able to wield it freely.
The illusion continued to dismantle.
He lowered his hand, watching as the last remnants of the spell shattered and disappeared like dust in the wind.
A small grin played on his lips.
"Checkmate."
"Yep, Checkmate indeed."
A voice rang out from nowhere, it was smooth yet laced with amusement.
Vanitas turned his gaze behind and lift up his face up. A lone figure floats before him, silhouetted against the fading remnants of illusion.
"Welcome to my island, Gu."
The man spread his arms wide, and he expected Vanitas to break free. His expression was unreadable, a mixture of intrigue and satisfaction.
So... He was behind the illusion.
"The name's Ego," the man continued as the black suit he was wearing, casting his superiority while the sun behind him. Then a smirk tugging at his lips. "Please do remember it, Young Master Vanitas Leywin."
Vanitas took a step back, instinctively feeling the man named Ego's aura and power. But the moment he took the step back, he bumped into something. A hard wall, a wall that cannot be penetrated with his strength alone.
Cold sweat drifted down, as soon as felt the invisible wall barring his escape. Even calming his mind, and tried to look for an outcome where he won, but he was certain that it would be only zero.
Another illusion?!
His eyes widened in realization. Ego, unfazed, simply chuckled. "Don't worry, I won't kill you, that was I owe to you because the magic you have used is quite peculiar. Even I myself cannot comprehend what it was."
Ego gaze bore into Vanitas, the flickering curiosity can be seen in his eyes.
Vanitas realized the glimpse of Ego's intention.
So I was trapped again. But I doubt the same technique would work.
He narrowed his eyes, suppressing his irritation. Once more, he was trapped.
"Oops, wait! Looks like you got something wrong," Ego spoke with amusement.
Vanitas kept his guard up, cautiously scanning his surroundings.
His eyes locked onto Ego, taking notes about him inside his head. There was unsettling confidence in Ego's way of talking.
"I know what's behind your mind right now," Ego continued, brushing his fingers to his jawline. "But since you show me something interesting, I'll reward you with some piece of advice."
His eyes narrowed, sharpening his gaze while meeting Vanitas eyes, a wide grin appeared on his face.
"What the eyes ignore is what truly remains, The mask you trust is bound in chains."
Vanitas furrowed his brows, processing the riddle word that Ego left to his memory.
'What the eyes ignore is what truly remains?' he wondered, for a few moments Vanitas decided to turn around to ask Ego a question. But before he could even ask, Ego had disappeared.
He stood still, the cold silence brushing off around him. He then sighed heavily, running his hand through his silver hair.
The mask you trust is bound in chains.
He continues to break the riddle in one go.
The pressure and weight of the riddle made him ponder for a while.
He takes a few steps, his boots sinking slightly into the soft ground. The air around him was eerily still, as if the very space he occupied was holding its breath.
Something isn't right.
He clenched his fist, frustration built up. Even with his ability to predict the outcome, he wasn't some old fart who used riddles to communicate.
However, Vanitas still had knowledge when it came to riddles. But he was doing it wrong.
"I was doing it so wrong," he whispered to himself. "I need to focus, calm and... Break down the riddle into two parts."
His mind once again is in a state of focus.
Vanitas had begun to break apart the riddle after breaking the riddle he broke down each part into two parts once again.
He pinned the phrase into his mind, word for word.
"What the eyes ignore is what truly remains."
He whispered it back slowly.
"What the eyes ignore..."
"What do eyes ignore?" he pondered aloud. "Illusions? Hidden truths? Or maybe… the obvious? The familiar?"
No… maybe it's not about illusions at all, he thought. Maybe it's about habit. Familiarity. We tend to overlook what we believe we already understand.
Then, like returning to a riddle mid-thought, he recited the rest.
"...is what truly remains."
The things we fail to notice... they're the ones that linger. The constant. The unchanging.
He stayed focused, not wasting time.
"What the eyes ignore..."
"What truly remains..."
A spark flickered in his mind.
That's it… the truth.
"What humans ignore with their eyes is the truth. And the truth is what remains—after everything else disappears."
So... does that mean everything I see, everything I feel right now... is just the truth?
Still, Vanitas locked the thought away, pushing forward. A new phrase took hold of him.
"The mask you trust is bound in chains."
A person? A role pretending to be real? An illusion, maybe?
But then came the next piece.
Chains… that's restraint. Control. Servitude.
His mind raced, piecing together the meaning.
"The mask you trust… is bound in chains."
The face you believe in... it isn't free. It's shackled, manipulated. Maybe even by the truth itself.
He narrowed his eyes.
"The illusion… it's trapped by reality. It can't shift, can't adapt. It's a slave to what it's hiding."
The surroundings... what's truly there was the truth. But what do I perceive? That's the illusion.
A grin spread across his face, wide and certain.
He had cracked it. Every word made perfect sense now. And this time, he knew he was right.
He realized everything from the moment he broke the illusion. He wasn't inside some kind of normal illusion. Instead it was an illusion layered by another illusion.
He clenched his hand. The realization made a chill climb onto his nerves. The theory he had once read along with the old alchemy and history books suddenly resurfaced in his mind.
The Dream Theory.
The book has described an eerie phenomenon where a person could experience multiple layers of dreams, each indistinguishable from reality.
Dream upon dream, stacked so seamlessly that one could continue living within them, believing each to be real. It was a concept so complex that even the most experts when it comes to illusion magic cannot add the dream to illusion because of the differences of the two.
But Vanitas knew he could feel the exact same thing in the theory poured into the illusion.
He grinned widely, he realized who Ego is.
"Ego, you're a genius, a once in a century genius." He muttered, he couldn't hide the fact that he was admiring a person who trapped him inside an illusion that was also similar to a dream.
.
.
.
.
.
When Vanitas had come to his senses, forgetting the moment he praised Ego.
"If the illusion follows the dream principles... then my physical body hasn't moved at all," he mused, crossing his arms. "My mind is trapped inside the illusions but my body remains unmoved. More likely my body stopped moving before I could enter the jungle."
"But forget about that for now. If I stay here for too long, I might die for real in the real world."
It was a slow, cruel form of execution.
Vanitas exhaled, his mind racing.
"Should I call it Double-layered Illusion. "
He took a deep breath.
He needed to think fast and concisely.
A flaw might be in the illusion since it was more likely a newly created magic and Ego used me as his guinea pigs.
Now, Vanitas had already broken through the first layer which made him believe that he was already out. But now, it was time to tear through the next one.
***
Meanwhile... At the dark place where there's nothing to see, only a person and a rectangle hologram screen.
Ego stood from a distance, while his arms crossed. His golden eyes gleamed as he watched Vanitas with fascination. Then while he watches and tries to predict what Vanitas would do in this situation, a sly grin etch out on his face.
"Impressive, Interesting," he whispered. "Figuring out that fast, exceeds my expectations."
For a moment, he was genuinely curious about Vanitas. Especially when he used an unknown magic. But seeing how quickly Vanitas had almost deducted everything related to his illusion...
Only those words came out from his lips.
"It was impressive, It was Amazing!!"
He didn't expect Vanitas to break through his illusion quickly. Because of the small amount of mana inside Vanitas, he was like flying inside a room between him and the illusion he made.
Yet, by Vanitas knowledge, Intellectual, he gained Ego's interest. And even more on that, he was even thankful for using magic such as the "MASS Teleportation."
Ego, widened his grin. "I truly found something really interesting."
But at the same time, Vanitas, who doesn't have any knowledge when it comes to the fundamentals of illusion, had no way for him to know about "Reality Sensitivity."
Ego had perfect the Illusion magic, completely dominating the senses of his targets. But his knowledge was lacking. That's why he did his research.
A research that anyone would make fun of.
He was the writer, the author of the book named "Dream Theory." The one that Vanitas had read.
He finished the research, but not only just a research, but it was a research on how a dream works and how it would be able to perfectly perform the reality inside of it.
He found the solution to perfectly make an Illusion that anyone would be unable to tell the reality and the illusion.
It was Reality Sensitivity. With the use of reality sensitivity the illusion he made slowly formed perfectly replicating the world itself, and only for more years, his illusion magic would step up to another realm.
Ego watches Vanitas closely.
His eyes were mixed with curiosity and admiration. Vanitas, the young man who was able to break down and learn about the complex Double Layered illusion by himself.
However, even though Vanitas was impressive in his eyes, there's still people who took his interest and Vanitas is just one of them.
This Island is Ego's both experimentation ground and also Entertainment Area.
To be continued…