Sam felt his body shiver.
He could feel it, the fear that was ingrained into his soul. The fear that played a part in turning him into the monster he is. The fear only lasted for a mont though.
The shiver turned to a tremble.
A tremble not of fear, but of anger and rage. In his past life, one of the things he regretted is not being able to take revenge for this. The people who subjected him to this died in his own hands. He poisoned them.
However, he didn't kill them with that intent.
He didn't get to channel this rage. That anger is now flaring up. However, that is not the only thing that is angering him. Instead, there is sothing else, soone else that is the target of his anger.
The bloody test.
There is only one thought that is running through his mind.
How dare they do this? How dare they peer into his deepest darkest mory and make it flare up now?
Sam's trembling anger made his mind clearer and clearer. He completely isolated himself from this thought. The montary fear and anxiety that ca with that mory disappeared and along with it, the illusion around him also collapsed.
Sam found himself in the sa sky.
There is still nothing around him, however he could guess what happened here. It could be a spirit attack. The other party could have been a specter, or a corrupted soul. Sothing like that has attacked him.
His mind.
The fact that he couldn't perceive it, sense it or engage with it, made it easy for it to deal with this situation.
However, it is not like he didn't have any asures against it. Sam's body surged with death energy. The partial fusion state made him look like he ca straight out of hell. He fortified his ntal state completely.
*BUZZ*
There it ca, another attack aid at his mind. But this ti, the specter, spirit or whatever it is, didn't have enough strength to penetrate it.
The specters that ca out of his body all spread around. Hundreds of them. They are enough to occupy a significant radius around him.
From all the previous rounds, he noticed one thing, the formation nodes are within a specific radius from the area he spawned. Whether the structure was of a do, sphere or sothing else, they were always within a certain radius.
Sam made the specters spread around and occupy that exact radius.
They all started gathering energy. Their death energy riled up as well and soon, energy lines spread from their bodies.
They are acting as nodes and a network is being ford at great speeds.
Sam acted as the center of it. He didn't care to find the moving elents, he didn't care to find the core of the formation puzzle, he just stood there and made his own formation. Soon, a faint grey hue emitted from all the specters
The formation was completely filled with it and within that grey hue, Sam managed to spot two figures, that were previous invisible.
Their audacity... they are even right next to him.
*SCREECH* *SCREECH*
The formation acted up.
All the specters used the formation and started sucking the energy out of these specters.
Specters are such peculiar creatures, they don't have any cognitive skills except for the instinctual thinking. But they can project all the other emotions like happiness when attacking others, anger when their prey resists, pain and fear when they finally beco the prey.
Right now Sam saw them screaming. He didn't bother with the puzzle, he didn't bother with the competition.
He just wanted an outlet for a mont and the specters are perfect for it.
*SCREECH*
Within next three minutes, another specter spawned out of thin air. However, it fell within the formation radius and it started screeching as it ca.
It didn't even have any ti to attack or even project an intent to attack Sam.
Sam let the specters scream in pain.
The elders watching this were stupefied.
"He broke his illusion that fast? Is it really working properly? How can soone escape from their darkest mory that fast?" One of the elders spoke with a shivering tone. The other one is too stunned to even speak.
The elder from Loki academy looked at the situation and gulped.
"I don't know what mory he saw, but it definitely triggered him too much. he is not even trying to finish the test, he is just trying to vent his anger."
"But... the specters are the key to move out."
"I know. The whole point of this round is to make them endure. They need to endure the specters long enough ti to let enough specters spawn.
Once they are enough, they will reveal themselves as nodes. If they could gather enough of their ntal energy and endure enough to not collapse under the onslaught of these dark mories, they would be able to construct the formation to break this puzzle and move to the final stage of the illusion tower.
But this guy...
I don't even understand the point of this competition.
Did he really just co to the second grade? What are the second graders even trying for?" The elder of Loki academy elaborated the absurdity of it.
"The kids from the Viswakarma academy and that kid from Hel academy are doing really well. Their timings are better than all the second graders that attempted the illusion tower before.
If this monster is not here, they would have shined brightly.
He just stole the spotlight."
"The attempts on his life are for no reason. I heard he was attacked repeatedly yesterday. It seems like the results of the first prelims already made him a target."
"Of course, his identity itself doesn't help much."
As they are discussing, another three minutes later the fourth specter appeared, three more minutes, the fifth one ca.
At that mont, the specters all started glowing. Sam imdiately sensed it. Just like how the elder explained to his fellow elder, the specters are the nodes of the formation that Sam needs to use to get out.
These are not just typical nodes, they themselves are incomplete formations with their own intricate structures.
By combining all the specters and finishing the network, they will create the formation to get
out of here.
Sam scanned their structure, he did want to make them suffer a bit more. However, he knew better than taking his anger out on juts re tools. What would happen to the people who
used these tools if they don't give them a ssage?
They need to take the brunt of it. Until then, he has to suppress it just a little.
After looking at the structure, four of Sam's specters moved. They broke out of the formation
and ca near him.
Sam started modifying their bodies. He injected the energy forcefully and morphed their structures completely. The next mont, using the force of the formation, he started moving the specters of this illusion to their specific locations.
The elders abruptly stood up.
"What the fuck..."
One of them scread out.
Sam forcefully placed these specters in their locations and used the specters of his own to
finish the formation to exit this space.
As for the energy source? He used his own energy. He didn't care for the energy of the puzzle's
core, he just used his own and burst out of this place.
"This guy is fucking crazy. That formation... it consus even the energy of a peak stage
second grade student completely dry."
Sam just set a new record for escaping that phase of the illusion tower. That phase basically had a minimum ti because at least nine specters are needed to get out of there. But Sam
didn't wait until nine are there.
Five spawned and he used his own specters to fill out the rest.
Sam exited that zone quickly and found himself in another grey hall. However this ti, it is
not just so empty hall with nothing in it. There are mirrors, dozens of them, all placed at various spots in different angles.
As soon as Sam appeared there, his reflection from various angles is visible on those mirrors. Sam looked at them with a frown. He didn't know what to do here.
At least in the tunnel puzzle, he knew he had to walk, in the next subsequent levels, he knew he had to deal with the creatures and climb the floors, but now... he doesn't know what to do. The only thing odd is that even though there are so many mirrors, none of them is clearly and directly facing him. So, there is no straight reflection of his on any of the mirrors.
He walked to the closest mirror and stood in front of it.
He could see his image, clear as a day. He then turned around and took a few steps, but before
he knew it...
*SWOOSH*
A fire ball flew towards him.
The reflection that he saw in the mirror before, is stepping out of it with both hands carrying
golden fire balls.
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