Chapter 155: The Real Illusion

Everything before his eyes was twisting and spinning at a furious speed.

The entire world seemed to have become a massive vortex sucking into the deep sea.

The surging, churning sea of blood gradually receding into the distance.

The figures of the combatants, and the various flying spells.

Even the Sog Ruins city under the shroud of night and blood, all twisted and warped.

Hazy and interwoven, as if everything was about to be torn apart by the vortex.

Gunie, enveloped by the divine ability "Flower Nightmare."

He saw clearly the intense ripples wildly flashing on his spirit helmet.

This was the sight of enduring a massive soul attack.

Maeza's soul attack was so fierce that slight cracks appeared on the spirit helmet.

At the same time, Gunie himself felt the devouring and shredding from the Flower Emperor's soul.

Fortunately, Gunie's soul was strong enough; after the spirit helmet blocked most of the soul attack's power, Gunie could withstand the residual assault.

A few seconds later.

The entire spinning world emitted a cracking sound!

Then,

"Bang!"

The twisted scene before him shattered completely, and Gunie landed on the ground.

The moment he landed, air rushed out of his lungs.

"This is... a deep layer of the Shadow World?"

Gunie squinted, looking around. From the environment, he could tell this was a deep layer of the Shadow World.

A silent, barren landscape of hills and plains under the night sky.

Scattered light pillars from the Tyndall effect shone sparsely through the uneven space, illuminating the hills and wilderness.

It was usually difficult for strange creatures to survive in the deep layers of the Shadow World.

But here, the hills and barren mounds were covered with nightmare-like human-faced flowers.

Dense clusters of human-faced flowers, an immense number.

Looking out, at his feet, on the slopes, and on the distant rolling hills, all were human-faced flowers—this was entirely an ocean of human-faced flowers.

"The luster is noticeably stronger than the hunting layer, meaning this layer is shallower than the hunting layer."

"Trying to pull me into some peculiar shadow layer and then banish me?"

Gunie squinted.

"If that's what you intended, you miscalculated, Maeza."

His eyes narrowed, and his source vision quickly activated.

After a moment, Gunie smiled.

The next moment, Gunie sprinted swiftly in one direction.

As soon as he moved, he felt his feet entangled.

Looking down, he saw at least twenty of the half-meter-tall human-faced flowers extending vines to tightly bind his legs.

He even felt the flowers drawing energy from his legs, though the rate was minuscule.

With a thought from Gunie,

Swish, swish, swish...

A series of Fire Arrows shot out.

The flames of the Fire Arrow spell were highly effective against plant-type creatures.

They ignited on contact, and as a fourth-level spell, the fire's burn was quite potent.

"Sizzle, sizzle..."

Tongues of fire quickly spread, igniting the surrounding human-faced flowers.

Then the flowers began to writhe wildly in the flames.

Gunie then summoned five Ring Bombardments.

Under his control, the five Ring Bombardments lined up side by side.

Like a steamroller, they advanced forward.

Any human-faced flower in their path was crushed to bits, roots and stems alike.

After advancing about fifty meters,

Gunie stopped on a hill.

The five Ring Bombardments quickly rolled toward a particularly dense patch of human-faced flowers at the bottom of the hill.

"Boom—"

The five Ring Bombardments exploded simultaneously.

The destructive blast uprooted and shredded all human-faced flowers within a dozen meters, sending dirt flying everywhere.

At the same time, the violent explosion flung up a figure.

It was Maeza's figure.

Earlier, Gunie had detected abnormal source energy fluctuations here through his source vision.

Given that Maeza's shield outside was nearly shattered, staying outside would likely mean death.

Gunie guessed that Maeza had used this innate divine ability to attack him while also entering herself; now it seemed he was right.

As Maeza's body was thrown up,

Gunie wasted not even half a second.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

A dozen sharp Magic Blades shot toward Maeza's head.

"Chirp!"

This time, without shield protection, three sharp Magic Blades instantly severed Maeza's neck.

With a muffled scream, Maeza's head and body separated.

Her head and torso fell separately into the human-faced flower patch.

Gunie quickly stepped forward, releasing Puppet Threads to swiftly bind Maeza's headless body.

"Collect!"

The body, now lacking self-will, was no longer considered a living being and was instantly stored into the system space.

Then Gunie approached Maeza's severed head, using Puppet Threads to lift it easily.

Without her body, Maeza's head could hardly harm Gunie.

"Drip... drip..."

Blood continuously dripped from the severed neck.

As the human body of the Flower Emperor, her blood was highly active; even without the body, the blood retained strong vitality within the head.

Not wanting to waste the dripping blood, Gunie quickly used Puppet Threads to form a disc under the neck, collecting all the fallen blood.

This blood was very, very important.

As a Blood Curse Master, Gunie's transcendent profession granted him powerful abilities with blood.

And if he mastered some powerful "ritual spells," finding Maeza through her blood would be no problem.

With the blood in hand, no matter how far Maeza and her Flower Emperor本体 fled, Gunie could locate them.

Her face twisted in pain for a moment, then gradually calmed, returning to the seductive and majestic expression of the Human-Faced Flower Emperor.

Then Maeza slowly opened her eyes.

As soon as her eyes opened, Gunie saw ripples spreading on the front of his spirit helmet.

"Still trying to attack me with soul power even now? My dear sister, I must say, you and I are alike in that regard." Gunie gazed at Maeza, speaking softly.

Maeza did not respond, simply staring at Gunie in silence.

In the eerie, silent deep layer of the Shadow World,

A man and a head stared at each other.

Already severely damaged by the backlash of that terrifying power, the soul in Maeza's human body was crippled.

And the destructive force was still eroding her human body's soul; she wouldn't live long.

Fortunately, though the Flower Emperor本体 was severely injured, its survival was not in question.

With the Flower Emperor本体 intact, everything was manageable.

When she used her innate divine ability earlier, she had intended to kill Gunie.

She hadn't expected Gunie to withstand the divine ability's attack.

Still, she had managed to pull Gunie into this deep layer.

Here, Gunie couldn't escape.

After a moment, Maeza broke the silence.

"How did you know?"

"Know what?"

"That indescribable... rage... and roar." Maeza stared directly at Gunie.

Earlier, no one had known about the sudden upheaval.

But Gunie had spoken of it.

As the Human-Faced Flower Emperor, she had been privy to part of this plan.

It was a plan that seemed almost foolproof.

Several Transcendent Masters had even collaborated on a full-scale deduction, with a very high success rate.

For this, the Heroic Barbarian Saint had invested substantial resources.

But the outcome was quite tragic.

The several Transcendent Masters presiding over the ritual, facing the indescribable backlash, could hardly have survived.

Not only did the plan fail miserably, but casualties were severe.

She had absorbed only a portion of the power and suffered such a violent backlash.

Those stronger ones were probably worse off than her now.

When facing the backlash of that terrifying power,

She, as the direct recipient of the ritual's power, hadn't sensed anything unusual.

Yet Gunie had known beforehand—that in itself was highly abnormal.

"Oh?" Gunie smiled, a hint of amusement in his eyes.

"As you can see from the Star Digger transcendent ability you inherited from Dad, I'm very ordinary."

"So, obviously, I just guessed." Gunie shrugged.

"No..."

Maeza looked at Gunie and spoke softly.

"You are not ordinary at all."

"If you see nothing, that's not strange, because it's being concealed."

"But sometimes, seeing everything, only to find it all an illusion—an illusion as real as reality—that is the most terrifying thing."