It was just like Zilly to run ahead and try to get all the glory for herself. Except was it? Even she should be smart enough to not pull something like this with a [Witch]. She knew what they were capable of.
As he scanned the trees for some sign of her, he noticed a change in the Wisp. [Know What’s Real] was telling him that the faint glow of light, barely visible in the daytime, wasn’t real any longer. An illusion. He should’ve guessed, but Wisps were illusion beasts. This just kept getting better.
It would be nice to have an Eveladis right now. For whatever reason, he’d never once thought of buying one for his own use. He was too focused on thinking of the anti-illusion potion as the enemy.
“Does anyone have strong senses that don’t rely on sight or hearing?” Brin asked the group.
“She’s not nearby,” said Hogg. “And we don’t have time to look for her. Let’s go.”
“Alone?” Jeffrey asked. “He should take at least one other.”
Brin realized that Hogg was trying to get the group away from him so that he’d have an advantage. This would be much easier if he didn’t have to hide his illusion powers.
“I’ll be fine. I have Marksi with me.” Thinking fast, Brin selected the one other member of the group that knew about his illusions. “And Davi could stay with me. Two [Bard’s] are barely better than one.”
“Fine. Davi stays. Now let’s move; no more arguing,” said Hogg.
Jeffrey shrugged and dutifully followed the others to move away from the Wisp. They left silently, which wasn’t a surprise for such high-level people, but it was a bit of a shock to see Big Ron move as quietly as the rest.
“Sorry,” Brin said to Davi.
Davi looked a bit conflicted for a moment, then his face firmed and he said, “No. It’s fine. Better this way. I don’t know if I was really ready for… that.” He turned away to look at the illusionary Wisp. “So what’s our plan for this thing?”
“I’m going to try an illusion first.”
Brin pictured shooting a beam of light from his spearhead, but found the magic didn’t come naturally. He really needed to spend some time putting his ideas for making lasers into practice. For now, he made an illusion of a glass knife, and it sprang into being with barely a thought. With a few more tries, he found that plates, glasses and bottles all sprang to life easily as well. He’d be able to make illusions of things that he understood on a fundamental level, which for now was anything glass. That was fine.
He launched the illusion knife at the illusion Wisp. Since it wasn’t real, there was no extra Mana cost for making it go faster, so he chose very, very fast.
The knife blew into the Wisp, and he was struck by an onslaught of the Wyrd. When his magic hit the Wisp's, it put their arguments into conflict. He’d barely made any argument other than “let’s see what happens.” The Wisp’s argument, on the other hand, was strong.
In the past few months, Aberfa and he had nailed down exactly what [Know What’s Wyrd] could do, and what it couldn’t do. It couldn’t let him sense every creature or magic in the area, only magic cast by [Witches]. But when his magic came into conflict with other similar magic, it did let him read the caster’s Wyrd. It had taken Aberfa a while to admit that it was really happening; in her mind this was too much power for him.
He saw the Wisp in the Wyrd. He saw its connection to its master–that was unhelpful. Moving mountains would be easier than breaking that bond, but there was also more useful information.
The Wisp was a creature of trickery and mischief. It had been created to entangle the senses and lead people astray, and it was fulfilling that role. Unlike Brin, who merely used illusions, the Wisp was literally a being of living light. It was an illusion.
Also Brin was invading its home. He was the aggressor. Also, this was a peaceful Wisp. Where its natural inclinations would normally have it leading people to traps or try to drown them in lakes, it wasn’t doing that. Its [Witch] didn’t want any people going missing and drawing attention, so the Wisp simply guided them around its home and left them alone. Brin, on the other hand, was here to kill someone he’d never met and who had never done him wrong. The reasons didn’t matter. The Wisp was acting more peacefully than its nature, and Brin was acting much more violently. That gave the Wisp the stronger claim.
Brin’s knife disappeared, while the Wisp illusion remained in place. He figured that normally both illusions should’ve winked out. After all, before the Eveladis, the best counter to an [Illusionist] was another [Illusionist]. But in this case, the Wisp was so much stronger in the Wyrd that it was overriding him.
The illusion of the Wisp disappeared on its own, but more illusions appeared. The day got a bit darker. Clouds blocked out the sun, and the trees started to click ominously in a breeze that wasn’t actually there. Ravens called out and bats flapped in the sky. The mood was being set; the Wisp was probably trying to build up tension and fear so that they’d jolt as soon as some kind of sudden movement happened.
A black owl suddenly flew from the trees, flapping wings as loud as thunder and screeching a hunting cry. It was fake, of course, and Marksi pounced and caught it in the sky. He took a bite out of its wing and the entire bird dissipated into motes of light which quickly faded.
He’d forgotten. Marksi had been eating illusion magic since he was a baby. It was practically his mother’s milk.
“Nice!” Brin said. “Get as many of those as you can.”
Marksi nodded into the trees, like he was pointing at something.
“Is the main body that direction?”
Marksi twitched his tail for yes, then indicated the same direction again with a determined look on his face.
“You think you could take this thing out on your own?”
Yes.
Brin chewed on that for a minute. His initial reaction was to say no because this was his fight, but did that make sense? Aberfa had to know that he and Marksi were a package deal.
“Ok. If you get the chance, take it, but I don’t want you running off alone. Not until we know what else is out here,” said Brin.
He looked at Davi, and noticed the big guy was a lot more affected by the growing illusions around him than he’d thought. “You doing ok, there?”
Davi startled, then looked a bit sheepish. “Fine. How can you stand this? There’s no way to know what’s real. How do I even know that you’re real?”
Brin poked Davi in the shoulder, and he startled again.
“Sorry. But that’s one way. It can’t fool your sense of touch. So can you give me some support here? Its illusions are stronger than mine.”
“Illusions…” Davi shook his head. “It’s so weird to hear you talk about it openly. You’re usually so cagey about it. What kind of stuff can you do?”
“This and that, but nothing really complex without holding still and having some time to prepare. So about that song?”
“Oh. Sure.” Davi started playing, and just as Brin had hoped, he immediately felt the adjustment in the Wyrd. Davi’s song wasn’t action music or a heroic ballad, it was about a famous teacher. A truth teller. A light bringer.
Brin threw another illusion-knife at a passing crow and this time he felt himself borrow the truth-telling power from the song. He would reveal the truth of the world, and dispel illusions. The knife hit the bird and both exploded into motes of chaotic light. Good enough.
The environment was still changing. Heavy mists started to cover the ground and the surrounding forest grew even darker. Grass grew high to obscure what was around them and trees grew extra branches to wall them in. The walls were quite literally closing in on him.
He held up a glass sphere and shone bright white light through it, pouring in strength and pure intention from Davi’s song. Reveal the truth.
The darkness around them retreated, and a wide circle turned back into day, made even brighter by his bright light.
His death sense went off.
Brin dropped his sphere and leapt to the side, barely avoiding a bar of jagged flame that slammed into the ground beside him. It barely missed him, but he felt the stinging pelts of hot dirt and burning grass.
Not just an illusion beast. This thing had real power. It wouldn’t need to rely on leading him to quicksand or something; it could kill all on its own.
“Marksi, stay with Davi!” Brin yelled. The little dragon had keen senses; he’d be able to help Davi dodge any attacks aimed at him.
He looked to see if they’d heard him, and found them nowhere in sight. Stupid illusions. The darkness has spread, enshrouding everything around him and hiding his friends from view. [Know What’s Real] helpfully told him that everything was fake, in every direction.
Brin held up another sphere and pushed light into it. The flame attack had actually undermined the Wisp’s argument quite a bit. It was no longer the pacifistic trickster it had represented itself as. By gaining a flame attack from its master [Witch], it had undermined its own Wisp-ness. Its purpose wasn’t pure any more, it was muddled.
Brin was no longer an invader, he was here to fight for his life and protect his friends. The Wisp fought back with new arguments of its own. Purity of purpose was still maintained because its only purpose was to serve its [Witch].
Brin’s light fought the shadowy illusion, pushing it back in a wide ring around him, but Davi was still nowhere in sight. He pushed harder, and the illusion strained against him, maintaining a perimeter about twenty feet around him.
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No new bolts of flame came at him, the Wisp must be focusing on Davi.
Brin flared his light in one bright pulse, but the darkness didn’t recede any further. Time to try something else.
He dropped the light and sent out a flurry of illusionary glass bullets. With no need to worry about mana cost, he could send as many as he wanted, and chose to send hundreds in every direction. He felt them press against the illusion… and then pass through, damaging little. The darkness stayed intact.
He tried real bullets next, using the Language to summon a couple dozen bullets and launch them, but not so fast as to actually hurt anything. He just wanted to feel if they hit anything. Many of them hit something, but he couldn’t tell what.
What else could he use? Invisible Eye? Worth a shot. He used [Directed Meditation] to summon it quicker, thinking that if he were attacked again his death sense would be enough to snap him out of it.
With the Invisible Eye summoned, he sent it out into the darkness. It hit a passing band of mist and he felt it press against the Wisp's magic and pass through. It was too dispersed to destroy an illusion that had his full attention.
He waited for the Wisp to try something else, to send a stronger illusion to disperse his. The wind picked up in the area around his Invisible Eye, but it was in the broad area. Hitting its magic hadn’t given it a perfect bead on his location; just the general direction. Interesting.
Soon after, a passing leaf blowing in the wind struck Brin’s Invisible Eye. Again, the Invisible Eye won and the leaf passed through, but this seemed to give the Wisp its exact location.
A raven shot like a bullet from a gun and hit Brin’s Invisible Eye dead-on, dissipating it completely.
Brin smiled and summoned another one. This time, he cast it high into the sky immediately.
He burst up and through the illusion and mentally squinted at the bright daylight above. In the usual manner of things, his problems looked a lot smaller when viewed from above. Instead of turning the entire world dark, there were three distinct bubbles of darkness. One for him, one for Davi, and one for Zilly.
Somehow the thing had led her away from the rest of them without anyone noticing. It must’ve been supremely skilled to pull that off, but then again, that was its entire life’s purpose.
Davi looked fine. He sat in the dirt and furiously worked at his oud, probably trying to make his music dispel the illusion on its own instead of needing Brin’s light to act as a focus. There was a burned divot on the ground nearby, so the Wisp had tried at least once to take Davi out. Marksi was perched on Davi’s shoulders, happily chomping at any pieces of illusion that came too close.
Zilly was fighting for her life. Against him. Or more precisely, hims. Ten mirror images of Brin stood around her in a ring holding glass spears, mocking expressions on their faces, beckoning her to attack them. One charged her and stabbed, and she dodged on instinct by jumping to the side. A beam of fire exploded at her, and somehow she twisted around in the air to avoid the worst of it, but landed on her side on the ground with a line burned through her pant leg, blistering burns underneath. She had two more such trails, one on her back and another on her left hand. At least ten burned divots on the ground.
“Come on, is that the best you got?” a false Brin taunted.
“You’ll never catch up to me at this rate!”
“Why didn’t you just stay with the caravan where it's safe?”
“Useless. Unnecessary. All those crimes to gain power and you’ve still never managed to help anyone.”
“I’ll never respect you. I don’t even like you.”
Zilly stood on shaky feet, but then blinked forward with [Dash] to slice at an illusionary Brin who easily stepped out of the way. Not hard to do when you didn’t have any weight.
“So slow,” the illusion taunted.
“Shut up! You’re not him!” Zilly yelled.
“But how do you know?”
Zilly chuckled darkly. “The real Brin… would never tell the truth like that.”
Brin winced, but all the illusionary hims stilled for a minute, maybe unsure what to say. Zilly had stumbled onto the surefire defense against taunts. It was hard to insult someone with no self-esteem who just accepted everything you said as true.
She grinned. “Gotcha.”
She used [Dash] again to launch herself at seemingly nothing–she must’ve seen something there that he couldn’t.
The Wisp answered with a bolt of flame which she narrowly dodged, and by the time she got to her feet again, the illusions were all moving and yelling at her again.
She might win this, given enough time. Or maybe not. He had to do something.
He stood and started walking. He used the trick he’d learned to keep the Invisible Eye up so that he could use it as a compass to find Zilly. With it so high in the air, there was no chance of the Wisp finding it.
The illusion moved to block him. First in obvious ways by placing trees directly in his face to try to make him go around. He walked right through them. Then the illusion became more subtle. It placed rocks and bumps on the road, just in the right place to make him want to place his foot a little to the side. He stepped right on them. Then the ground under his feet kept shifting slightly to the left. If he didn’t have his Invisible Eye to follow, he instinctually would’ve adjusted to the right.
He wasn’t fooled, but it was nice of the Wisp to show him all these tricks. He’d have to remember that one.
Step by step, he walked towards Zilly. Up above, he saw his bubble intersect with Zilly’s, and then he saw her with his actual eyes.
“Hey!” he shouted at her, but felt sound illusions block his voice. He looked down at himself, and saw that the Wisp had made him invisible.
“...if I can’t see you, I’ll have to use my other senses,” Zilly was saying. Her eyes were shut and she turned in a slow circle. Then they snapped open and she was staring directly at Brin. “There!”
“Oh crap.” Brin braced his spear, hoping that its Bog Standard haft would hold up against her [Overload] because he just knew she was going to go all-out with her strongest Skill.
She [Dashed] to close the distance, and he felt her sword hit his haft, but it wasn’t [Overload]. The sword snaked around and sliced into his arm. He dropped the spear and jumped back, barely keeping her from taking the arm off completely.
She pressed the attack, and he summoned a glass shield to deflect her next attack, which shattered it. Then he did what he should’ve done to start and pushed light through a glass ball that he summoned on the spot.
She stopped, noticing the blood, but eyes widening on the shattered glass. “Brin? Is that the real you?”
He tried to grab her with his left hand, but it wasn’t moving too well. She’d cut straight to the bone of his forearm. He dropped his light ball to grab her wrist with his right hand. “I’m real.”
Zilly shook her head. “This shouldn’t–”
She grabbed him and pulled him away just in time to miss a bar of flame from the Wisp, striking where Zilly had just been standing. Death sense hadn’t warned him, but it would only warn him of strikes that could kill him, not those that would merely wound him.
Brin pumped more mana into his ball of light, pressing the darkness back. “This shouldn’t be happening! I have a Skill against mental manipulation.”
“It’s not mental. This is illusion magic; it’s all light and sound,” said Brin.
“But it… it knows things about me.”
“No it doesn’t. It only knows what it saw by watching us walk in. And you’ve been using [Rogue] Skills all over the place, so I’m guessing it just extrapolated from there. For Nocta’s Sake, Zilly, you would know all this if you weren’t such a useless idiot.” Brin didn’t actually say that last part. His light was only blocking light magic, and the Wisp had stolen his voice.
He rolled his eyes and pointed to his mouth while shaking his head. Zilly looked shocked and hurt, but quickly smiled in relief and nodded in understanding. She put a finger to her lips and Brin nodded.
Alright, now he had Zilly. He still wasn’t closer to a solution. Their best bet was to get everyone together, then he could think of a plan. During the excitement, he’d lost his Invisible Eye. He needed that back if he was going to get to Davi.
He held up his arm, and Zilly winced. With [Scarred, but Healing] it would be fine, but it gave him an excuse to stall. Zilly pulled a bandage from a pouch at her side and started wrapping him up. By the time she was done, he had another Invisible Eye ready, and he started leading her towards Davi.
At first she seemed confused that he was walking so slow, but he had to walk slow. His quick-switching trick meant that he had to be extremely careful with every step. With all the distractions around, this was much harder than it had been in the dark camp, but he couldn’t fail, so he didn’t.
A few times, Zilly tried to correct his course when the illusion made it look like they were turning to the side, but Brin was insistent and she relented each time, though he could tell she was getting more and more irritated.
While they walked, both of their voices joined together to taunt them. Sometimes basic taunts about their ugliness or bad personalities, sometimes screams of pain or alarm. Once, he heard Zilly’s voice telling him that the Zilly he was holding was fake and that she was the real one and that she was hurt. He knew it was fake, of course, but the pain in her voice made his stomach lurch and he still felt himself wanting to go rescue her.
“I have a huge crush on you, you know. I always have.”
Brin looked at Zilly, who blushed and waved both her hands in negation.
Thankfully, the Wisp didn’t launch another bar of flame at them. It must’ve had a cooldown, or limited uses, and it was waiting for its chance.
From above, their bubble joined together with Davi’s and he saw the [Bard] and Marksi again with his own eyes. There were a few more burning divots in the ground, but neither he nor Marksi looked injured. Davi was still bent over his oud, though Brin couldn’t hear the music. He looked up at them suspiciously as they moved towards him.
Brin put his hand in his pouch to discreetly summon another glass orb, and then filled it with light and threw it in between Davi and them. The orb pressed the illusion back in a ring, giving them daylight and a relief from ambiguity.
“Careful!” Zilly called. “It can still change our voices.”
“Oh. I can help with that much,” said Davi. He played the same song as before, the one about light and truth. Brin didn’t hear anything change, but hopefully Davi was right.
Brin put his hand back in the pouch where he’d kept the enchanted glass balls. All of those were spent, but Zilly didn’t know that. She still thought he was a [Glasser], and even though it might be a little selfish, he didn’t want her to know the truth quite yet.
How many could he reasonably still have in here? Ten? He summoned ten.
“Alright, we’ll only get one chance at this. These will disrupt its illusions long enough to get one good hit. Davi, you know what to do?”
Davi nodded.
“Zilly, ready? Marksi?”
Marksi and Zilly nodded.
“Let’s go.”
Brin threw the glass balls all around them. Still more were scattered around from when he’d sprayed them earlier. He pumped as much magic as he could into each and every one of them, his argument bolstered by Davi’s song.
The world lit up into day. His eyes watered as he refused to squint against the bright light. He needed to find the Wisp.
There, a faint blur in the air, no more than a mirage. Zilly saw it too, and [Dashed] forward, sword gleaming. A bar of flame shot forth to answer her, and she dodged just in time.
Cursing himself for not thinking of this earlier, Brin summoned a shield, using the language to make it faster. “
With the word
“Zilly!” He threw it and she caught it in the air, and then charged the Wisp again. It fired off another bar of flame, but when it hit the shield the entire thing dispersed into harmless rainbow beams.
She ran through, and the Wisp retreated.
Marksi pounced. He caught the Wisp in the air and drove it to the ground, biting and clawing. It didn’t take long.
You have defeated: Wisp [33] Experience split between members of your party.
Level up! 34 -> 35 +5 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +2 Vitality, +2 Magic, +3 Mental Control, +1 Will, +2 free attributes.
Brin put both his hands in the air and cheered. Zilly let her sword and shield fall, looking disappointed, and Davi played through the rest of the song, but with a much more triumphant tone. How had he been hunting monsters all this time without victory music? It was an important part of the experience.
Marksi kept eating the downed Wisp. The little dragon looked determined to eat every last bite of the monster that Brin still couldn't totally see clearly.
The System sent another notification, the one he’d been waiting for. His next Skill. He almost didn’t want to look at it, because this was the big one. He needed [Split Focus] or [Persistent Casting]. If it were one of those, it would do so many things for him. If not, it would be months before he got another chance. Maybe years. Most people never got to forty.
He skipped over the possible upgrades to [Call Light through Glass] and [Mana Well]. The last Skill wasn’t one that he’d hoped for, but he didn’t despair. It was a Skill he’d never heard of before, but he thought it still might be what he wanted.
Multithreading - Unique Skill.