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Chapter 337 Chapter 337 – Illusions

?Over 200 years ago:

"How was your day at Miss Rosenfield\'s?"

"I missed Mommy!"

Atum held his mother\'s hand, the two walking side by side. Atum was eight years old, and he just finished his day at Miss Rosenfield\'s, the teacher of their village. He would sit there for a few hours with some breaks in between and listen to her teach different subjects that the residents required.

"Haha, I missed Little Atum too!" His mom laughed and tweaked his cheeks. For some reason her face was blurred, only her black hair and emerald eyes seemed clear.

Atum skipped by her side, their hands swinging with the rhythm of his bouncing. The blurred lady stayed silent, although Atum instinctively knew she was watching him with fondness and a wide smile.

*ROAR*

That\'s when everything went wrong.

The windows shook, the houses felt fragile and unstable. It was all from one single roar, nothing more. A single roar that made everyone freeze in fear and look around them anxiously.

His mother once told him that the sound of thunder was cooler than the flash of lightning, so the sound always came late. However, not this time. The sight that accompanied the sound was majestic, spectacular even. To prove it, it came second, just a second after the roar.

A large beast that slithered in the air without wings made its appearance. Its blue scales shone under the light of the midday sun as though a bundle of diamonds was hung above the village for a holiday.

\'It\'s beautiful,\' Atum thought. However, it was his last positive thought about the creature.

The dragon opened its maw, revealing two rows of fangs that could easily cut through the thickest house they had in their village like butter. The Qi that the dragon sucked into itself was so abundant that Atum could sense it despite being a normal mortal. A sphere of fire took form before it was unleashed upon the village.

"AHHH!"

People screamed in fear as they were burned alive. Once the fire touched someone, he simply evaporated, leaving nothing but ashes behind.

"Atum, we must run!"

His mother finally overcame her frozen state of fear, now driven by the impulse to run away.

"Mommy!" Atum yelled in fright, tightening his grip over her hand. The two ran away with Atum being dragged. They ran back home to where the kid\'s father should be, believing they could run away together.

*Roar!*

Another menacing roar echoed between the walls of the still-standing buildings. Looking back, Atum thought it must have been some sort of laughter. Hundreds of humans flee helplessly, a tragedy, and also an amusing show for the culprit.

"Dorothy!" his father called. The scene made Atum recall a name he had long forgotten.

"**** We need to run! Let\'s go south!" Dorothy shouted while dragging Atum behind her. Apparently, he could not recall his father\'s name.

"We don\'t have time, we are about to be killed!" he shouted in despair. He looked at his wife and his child decisively before separating them with a pull of their hands.

"Hey, what are you doing-" Dorothy yelped in surprise.

"I\'m sorry, Atum, we can\'t take you with us. I\'m so sorry!" His father\'s eyes were filled with tears, but Atum, who did not understand why his family would abandon him, did not care about them. His father did not even have a single clear feature, presenting only a foggy silhouette.

"Wait, Mommy, Daddy, don\'t leave me behind!" He cried as he watched their backs get further away. He was lost, he did not know where to go. He could not catch up with his parents, and he did not know where he should run.

"AHHH!"

A familiar scream reached his ears, and through his tears, he managed to see those who had forsaken him being forsaken by luck. Dorothy and her husband burned to death by a casual tilt of the dragon\'s head who did not even aim at them specifically.

The creature soon got bored by the little game and left, leaving behind a destroyed village where most of its population died. It was not for food or anything, just the misbehavior of a young dragon.

---

Back to the present:

He remembered the helplessness on the day a dragon invaded his village, killing dozens of humans and destroying several buildings in the process. Back in the day he just watched as the only place he knew turned into rubble and the people he loved were killed randomly like pests.

The music made him see the image as realistic. He heard the dragon\'s roars, the villagers\' screams, himself begging his mother to run away with him, yet nothing helped.

\'Dorothy…\' he thought, letting the forgotten name roll off his tongue.

He glanced at the hell surrounding him and remembered himself as the young child he was, crying in place without any option of retaliation. He felt like he was in the same situation again.

He sensed the dragon\'s claws tear him apart, opening bloody gash after bloody gash, but he knew he could not fight back, so he stayed put, detached from feelings.

\'Wait, claws?\' He realized. His mind sharpened and his Demonic Qi blasted the whole area. With his sight clear again, he saw Ken backing off, and the sight of the plain returned to its original state. There was a small pool of blood beneath his legs, his blood.

Many flowers withered while others were cut by Ken\'s sword, but it was undoubtedly the plain.

"Illusion!" His eyes turned bloodshot. He was in a critical condition. Sword Qi rampaged into his body, dealing additional damage.

Ken was systematically cutting through his refined body, each time cutting slightly deeper, until multiple deeper wounds accumulated. It only took him one second to break the illusion, but the price was devastating.

"Destroy!" He shouted and used his muscles and body to close on the Sword Qi affecting him. While others normally used their Qi to dispel it bit by bit, he knew he could not spare his mental resources for that.

If Ken could make him fall for an illusion with his mind free, twice, then it\'d be fatal to pile up the tasks. Luckily, his body was much more durable than most cultivators.

\'Hmm, he is much tougher than I thought,\' Ken mused. He never imagined someone only one stage above him could survive so many strikes. Ken\'s sword could cut a small mountain and each of his companions\' skills could make someone get lost in an illusion until they starved to death. Atum was strong, Ken recognized that.

"Fine, let the real battle begin now," Atum gritted his teeth. His aura turned almost tangible, causing a foreboding to everyone nearby.

Ken and Atum both vanished and reappeared in front of each other, one using a sword while the other swinging his bare fist. The punch passed through Ken\'s body and Atum was sent back again.

"It\'s a Reflecting Formation! Let me see how many blows it can handle before it shatters!" Atum recognized the problem this time. He clenched his fist and brought it down like a hammer to the ground.

He knew that each strike caused heavy damage to the formation; it was the nature of the formation. Taking damage and reflecting at the enemy.

He ignored the pain caused by his own attack, preparing to deal the next strike.

Suddenly, he sensed a presence creeping up on him, and the moment he did, Ken who seemed to do nothing 100 meters away from him dissipated and materialized behind him, his sword seeming like a nest of snakes aiming to bite him. He executed a technique, turning his whole body into a shield.

*Cling!*

The sword lost its momentum after penetrating his skin, failing to cause serious inner damage. Ten such holes were opened in a single Snake Thrust execution, but they were not enough.

"Haha, you cannot pierce my defenses so easily, Young Boy. I admit, you are amazing for becoming so strong within less than twenty years, but you are still far from fighting a peak seventh-

stage cultivator!" Atum laughed and stomped the ground, finally breaking the formation at the cost of a small fracture in his foot. He bathed in magma to get stronger; pain never played a factor when it came to him.

\'Symphony of Arms\'.

The music turned rhythmic. With a fast beat that resembled the music of war, the air seemed to be loaded with sharpness. Back underground, Alaric\'s fingers rocked the guqin back and forth, his face a mask of concentration as he struggled to match it with Ken and Tiara\'s techniques.

\'Beautiful Death.\'

Everything became artistic in the area. Tiara\'s charm affected the whole scene, turning it breathtaking.

\'The Snakes of Eden,\' Ken called the combined technique. Its name was based on the biblical story from his previous world in which a snake seduced the first woman, Eve, to her own doom.

A hundred snakes appeared this time, enhanced and multiplied by the melody in the background. They all appeared graceful, leaving Atum to watch them mesmerized until they bit him.

"ARGH! FUCK, YOU HAVE TOO MANY ILLUSIONS!" Atum was furious, confused, and scared. The terrifying part was not the number of illusions; a cultivator of his caliber would never fall for the same trick twice. It was the fact that each illusion worked with different mechanics, meaning that he fell for a different trick every time.

The first illusion cast by Henry and Alaric was based on peace and relaxation. Next, the technique done by Ken, Henry, Alaric, and Vivienne relied on fear and past traumas. Now, it was beauty and charm.

Atum kneeled on one knee. His body was battered with holes. His blood, contaminated by Demonic Qi, turned the whole area dead and withered.