Numbers x Casket-Chapter 40: Illusion

"Thank you, Alleah. You’re beautiful as always," the Fourth Pillar commented upon joining the host in the front.

"You flattered me," Alleah replied and smiled at the man.

Afterward, Zeyn looked at the sea of people, and saw the excitement present in their eyes. Thus, he didn’t let them wait any further.

"Maybe you guys are wondering why this not-so-old man is here instead of our lovable Grand Lord. Well, I would like to apologize if I’m not as handsome as him," he said.

It was just the opening of his speech, but the crowd already burst into laughter. Of all of the Pillars, Zeyn was the one who was always available to people, making them at ease around his presence.

"On a serious note, the Grand Lord needs to attend something right now, so I will be the overseer for today’s event. So, let’s cut it short. As the Grand Lord’s representative, I hereby announce that we will now proceed with our first event for today!" he exclaimed.

Afterward, he glanced at the host next to him and spoke again.

"Our beautiful Alleah, will you please do the honor of explaining the rules?" he added.

Upon hearing his statement, the woman nodded and pulled a piece of paper from the pocket of her robe. Then, she unfolded it and read its content with her eyes before reverting her gaze back to the sea of people.

"For the opening event of our festival, I would like to invite here in front all of those people who listed their names for the Grand Lord’s trial," Alleah said.

Upon hearing her statement, young equators stepped forward and lined up in front as they were told.

"As we all know, the aim of this trial is to find the strongest equator for the Grand Lord’s daughter..." The host paused for a second and waved the piece of paper in her hand before continuing. "And from this list alone, the number of participants exceeds a whopping thousand."

"Lady Lindsay is sure popular," Zeyn chimed in.

"Indeed, she is!" Alleah supported the Fourth Pillar’s claim.

Then, she took a step forward and eyed the participants.

"Sadly, out of these thousand people, only those who had the skills would be able to proceed to the next stage," she said.

Afterward, she snapped her finger, and a massive magic circle appeared above the crowd.

"For the event’s rules, you’ll be entering an illusion; you’re going to face your very own fear. You need to defeat it within a quarter of an hour to pass the trial," Alleah stated, and the complex pattern began to emit light.

Then, a crack appeared on the horizon, and a massive eye protruded from it.

"All you need to do is look at that giant eye to enter the illusion, and those who would fail to conquer their fears would be marked by that thing. This task will allow us to filter the talented ones from weak-minded people," Alleah explained and let her eyes roam around.

"Any questions?" she added.

Then, upon seeing no one utter a thing, she exclaimed. "Great! Now, start!"

On her command, all of the participants raised their heads and stared at the giant eyeball. Seconds later, a small eye appeared above everyone’s heads, which signified that they all entered each of their illusions.

"Lord Zeyn, how many of them would be left? Take a guess," Alleah glanced at the middle-aged man next to her and asked.

However, she received no response as the Fourth Pillar just shrugged off his shoulder, though there was a smile painted on his face. He focused his attention on the participants, and after only a minute, someone woke up screaming from the illusion.

The eye on top of his head burst, and his body started to glow red, signifying his failure of the task.

"Looks like we have our first dropout," Alleah expressed.

Meanwhile, the onlookers continued to watch as more people were eliminated from the event. Some screamed like the first one, while others fell on their knees; there were even a few who wailed after.

Then, as the time passed by, successful participants started to emerge one after another. The eye above them popped as well, but it bathed them with blue light color.

Cheers from the viewers reverberated as they saw more people come out victorious. However, the applause died down when a certain individual completed the trial. It was none other than the strongest contender of the event—Zack Chronos.

Despite coming out victorious, his eyes had not a single ounce of joy. He found the task annoying and boring.

"The child of Chronos is in a bad mood," an equator uttered with the lowest voice he could muster.

"That’s for him acting arrogant all the time. I want him to be humiliated even more," another replied as he stared at the battle mage’s back walking away from them.

Little did they know, the man heard their every word but just chose to stay silent.

’Let’s see who will have the last laugh,’ Zack conveyed inside his thoughts.

He was already about to leave the magic circle when murmurs prevented him from doing so; it piqued his curiosity along with the other people in the area.

Then, as soon as he took a glance in that certain direction, he couldn’t help but shake his head, dumbfounded by the scene transpiring before his eyes.

The appraiser, the man he despised with all his heart, was the main reason for the curious whispers. The ground around him caved in while there was a fluctuation of energy present in the air.

"What’s happening to him?" he asked, his mouth partially opened from shock.

For them, it was just a simple task, an assignment to overcome their fear; however, it was slightly different from the appraiser’s perspective.

. . . . .

Several moments earlier, after having a hefty meal, Efraim and Lindsay left her grandfather’s house and separated their ways upon reaching the Magic Tower, despite the daughter of the Nightfall wanting to tag along and watch the events unfold with her own eyes.

If not for the condition that her father gave her yesterday, she would definitely come with the appraiser. She already pleaded with her father to let her out and even allowed her to meet the appraiser in one condition—sneaking out during the festival would not be tolerated.

Thus, she had no other choice but to obey, which left Efraim to go alone to the festival.

As soon as he arrived at the open field, he watched the opening ceremony while maintaining his distance away from the crowd. Then, upon recognizing the middle-aged man that walked towards the host side, he couldn’t help but smile as he remembered their first meeting outside the city.

"Fourth Pillar, huh?" Efraim said in a low voice.

Afterward, he closed his eyes for a second, and the moment he opened them, his left eye had already shifted its hue. From plain black, it turned into a cyan-colored hexagram, and numbers floating around everyone present appeared in his sight.

However, he ignored them all; the entirety of his focus was on the man standing in front.

’Seventy-nine and a golden one as well,’ Efraim thought.

During that moment, he contemplated if all of the remaining members of Magic Tower’s Pillars had the same golden color in regard to the figures above their heads.

While already on it, Efraim diverted his gaze to the woman next to Zeyn, the host of the event.

"Not bad," he commented upon seeing the purple-colored numbers.

Then, he continued checking the other equators as well, looking for a worthy opponent aside from Zack Chronos. He found a few people with promising talent and another one with a gold radiance.

Efraim stared at him; based on the large sword hanging on his back, he assumed that he was a warrior.

The next second, Efraim glanced at his side. He wanted to search for more of his potential opponents, but the thick sea of people and the tangled numbers in his vision made him deactivate his Flair.

’I’m getting sick of all of those figures,’ he thought.

Afterward, as the host made them step forward, he noticed the giant magic circle that materialized above them; its sudden appearance caused him to place his hands on the hilts of his blades, but after hearing Alleah’s explanation, he let go of his weapons.

Efraim stared at the magic circle and watched until a massive crack appeared and a giant eye emerged from it.

Then, with all of the people stepping inside the spell’s area of effect, they started to doze off and succumbed to the illusions with their eyes still open. Even Efraim had been caught by the visual deception as he found himself standing in an open place alone.

"Where am I?" he asked, hoping that someone would emerge and fill him up with the details, but no one did; nothing showed up.

Thus, Efraim surveyed his surroundings; the sky was painted with a crimson hue as the sun was already setting down. In front of him lay a remnant of a civilization, with giant piles of broken debris scattered everywhere along with the hundreds of skeletons present, covered with dirt lying on the ground.

The appraiser inhaled a deep breath; he had already seen countless ruins, but it was his first time seeing a place with so many bones, so he began to wonder what kind of chaos the place he was in had gone through to have this many casualties.

While pondering, he chose to saunter deeper into the heart of the place, and with every step, his heart began to race. His chest felt heavy for an unknown reason, and after a few more strides, he shook his head while his mouth was left partially open.

Sitting at the center of the ruins, a massive piece of architecture stood with its walls destroyed and covered with vines and moss. While half of its towering structure lay on its side.

"No, that’s impossible! This is not Arcane City," Efraim murmured, rejecting his thoughts.

. . . . .