CHAPTER 8

Barely surviving the fourth room. Kevin and Maria finally made it to the fifth room. Above the doorway had a sign that read “The Illusionist welcomes you to the halls of hell”. They both walked slowly side by side not to trigger any traps. There they saw sitting on a throne at the end of the room was a man in a black magician’s outfit. He was wearing a magician’s top hat. Right as Kevin and Maria stepped into the room. The man stood up from the throne and took off his top hat and welcomed the two in a dark cold tone. “Congratulations on making it this far.” The man said. He began to introduce himself. “I am the Illusionist.” He said. Just then he snapped his fingers and both Kevin and Maria were bound with magic restraints. Maria was quickly doing what she could do to break free. The illusionist then took out a crystal ball with a devious smile on his face. He looked at Maria through the crystal ball. He frowned as he investigated it. He then looked over at Kevin. His frown became an even more hideous smile than he had before. Maria was working fast to break Kevin free of his restraints so he could run. She was able to break him free. The Illusionist stepped back in surprise as Kevin drew out a sword to attack him with. Maria told Kevin to run for it on the system chat. Kevin ignored her and attacked the man with the sword, but nothing happened. Kevin just stared at the sword confused. His expression turned to despair as he looked at the sword a second later, Next thing Maria saw Kevin to be enveloped in smoke and disappear with a flash of light right into the crystal ball. The Illusionist laughed. “Let’s see if your friend can survive his despair.” The Illusionist then stated if you want to save your friend, you need to beat me he laughed. Maria saw in a mirror that Kevin was in total panic.

Kevin was next to Maria as they were in binds. She said she would break them free from this over their party chat. The man he saw frowned when looking at a crystal ball directed at Maria. Kevin was broken from his binds. He quickly pulled out “The Slayer” and carelessly slashed at the Illusionist. “Take this!” Said Kevin with confidence. The sword hit the illusionist but did nothing. Kevin looked at the illusionist in confusion. He then looked at the sword stats it had gone from the last room from a 100% auto kill rate to 1%. Kevin froze up in fear. Then the man turned the crystal ball in his hand at Kevin. Kevin suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, the man was scanning his memories from when they entered the room up until he was born. It only happened in a split few second. He then heard the man’s voice in his head in a demonic tone. “I’ve got a special fight just for you.” He said.

The next thing Kevin knew he was being eaten in a cloud of smoke. At first, everything was dark. He took a blink and found himself a few years younger with his parents at a high-tech facility. Kevin fell into despair fast. He couldn’t move out of fear and shock. He tried to call out to his parents who told them to stay at the temporary office they were given to work from. Usually, he enjoyed memories of his parents playing with stuff in the offices they had worked in as they moved around. This time though it was different. The day that changed everything. He pleaded with them not to go but they couldn’t hear what he said. They headed to the part of a facility that said experimental testing. They were going to help with repairing and fixing machinery. They locked him in the office for what they said was his protection. He looked over at the clock, it was 10:28 pm on the clock.

Two more minutes before everything would changed. He tried his best to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. The clock was 10 seconds away from 10:30. He began to panic now. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0. The clock turned to 10:30 pm. A low rumbling noise began to shake the building. In just a blink of an eye. The building and everything in it went up into a massive explosion. A few seconds later was followed by a massive fireball.

Kevin was blown back into the wall of the room. He hit the wall and blacked out. He then was woken up in the illusion a few seconds later by a demonic laugh. Kevin felt pain all over his body. He couldn’t move and was bleeding all over. The office he was in was now a smoldering inferno. He heard cries for help. He knew he couldn’t do anything. The office door suddenly was kicked off his henges. For a second Kevin had hope in his eyes even though he was in a ton of pain. What he thought was his savior turned out to be the same man in the magician’s outfit.

“That was fun wasn’t it,” he said, sarcastically. Kevin knew he was in big danger he tried to get up and stand. When he tried to he fell with severe pain in his left leg. His leg was broken. As he fell he happened to hit a daggling ceiling light and hit his face on it. Where there was a gash in the middle of his forehead, hitting the lamp made it grow bigger and bleed more. He was now lying on the ground. His whole body ached in pain. He began to cry in horror as he began to cough up blood. He had many cuts and gashes all over his body. He manages to at least prop himself up to fight. He grabbed his sword and tried to fight what he knew would be a losing battle. If I can keep myself alive for a little while hopefully, Maria can save me. He thought.

The man cast his hand to one side and swatted his sword out of his hand with no effort. He then Kicked Kevin in the chest sending him flying throw some broken glass. The man then retorted. “As long as I control the crystal ball, I can make you suffer however and with whatever I want. I plan to kill you off slowly and in the most painful ways possible,” he said. He then grabbed Kevin’s sword and started to attack him. Kevin began to scramble limping throw the building. Kevin ended up at a dead end. The man stabbed Kevin right in the abdomen. The sword had him pinned. He began to bleed from the wound as well as coughing up more blood. The man then signed. “It looks like your friend may beat me after all, but I will finish you before she does me,” he said. The man grabbed a piece of broken glass and quickly thrust it into Kevin’s chest right into his heart…, Kevin took his last breath and his eyes shut.

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MARIA POV

Maria was quick to deal with the Illusionist. She managed to kill the man with a meteor strike. Unfortunately, it took a good while to cast the spell. She was able to unbind herself and then put up a barrier that kept the man from attacking her the spell would only last for about 30 seconds. That was all the time she needed to cast the spell. The man realizing, he was running out of time sped up time in the crystal ball. Maria watched in horror as she saw the man attacking Kevin. She was furious and started to cast [INSTACAST]. As soon as the man saw this, he made the speed in the crystal ball go even faster. All Maria could do was watch helplessly as Kevin was stabbed in the abdomen, and then a split second later right throw the heart…

The last thing the man saw was a rain of hellfire before being reduced to nothing more than burning ashes. Maria began to scream and then cried as Kevin was brought out of the crystal ball. His health bar was at zero and he was dead. Maria kept sobbing as she began to recall that specific day.

Maria recalled the day started with her running a special advancement rank dungeon for healers. She was going all out for the test since it would bring her rank from SS to SSS. She had just finished up with the boss and claimed her prize for SS rank. She was very thrilled. She now was the game’s first-rank SSS healer. She activated the dungeon’s exit statue. After she had activated it. Maria headed for the portal that began to open. As she stepped into the portal, Maria felt a powerful shockwave. She stumbled into the portal. “What was that?” she thought. Maria stepped out of the portal. Unfortunately, she wasn’t back at the dungeon’s starting point. She was looking at a scene of complete and under carnage.

She was inside some sort of high-tech facility. The whole building was ablaze and in ruins. There was dead everywhere with others crying out for help. She stood there in total shock. She thought to herself. “Is this another test?” She thought she was still in the game because she was still holding her staff. She soon began to hear sirens in the far distance. Something told her she was in the real world. She couldn’t wrap her head around why she was able to use her abilities in the real world. She was about to start healing the injured when she noticed a symbol on a was nearby. It was the local of the Shadow Corps. She began working on healing the injured; to her surprise it worked. Those from the Shadow Corps she healed but then locked up in restraints not risking being assaulted.

She then combed her way throw the facility. Where she came upon an office that had the windows blown out and the door hanging off its hinges. She heard a low moan. She kicked the door open, and it fell over. She looked over into the corner and saw a young male battered and bloody in the corner. She saw a gamer tag pop up indicating he was a player, but not from the Shadow Corps. She ran over to the boy and quickly healed his injuries. “What happened”, he moaned. “I have no idea”, said Maria. I figured you knew what had happened I managed to heal your injuries”, she said. The boy suddenly began to panic. “MOM AND DAD”. He got up pushing the girl aside. “Wait” She yelled. The boy ran towards where his parents were working. She ran after him. She soon found him standing frozen in place from shock. He began to cry. She came over to him. She tried to comfort the boy. He pointed towards items that belonged to his parents. Nothing was left of the room. “We need to leave,” she said. She held him for a while as she scanned for a way out. Suddenly, they heard a dark voice from behind them. “Well. If it isn’t the newly ranked SSS healer.” Maria turned around and drew her staff. The boy still in tears froze in fear not sure what to expect. Standing in front of them was the leader of Shadow Corps at the time. Marvin was his name.

“Now I know why everyone was all restraint.” he said as he glared viciously at Maria. “It is time I finish you off, You have been nothing but a thorn in the side to Shadow Corps plans.” he growled.

Luckily, for Maria, she was able to quickly dispose of the man. He wasn’t in the best shape to fight. He didn’t have anything to fight with either. Maria casted a simple sleeping spell on the man as he fell into a deep sleep. “We need to go,” she said. Maria and the boy took off running out of the burning wreckage of a building…

All hope seemed a loss for Maria until she saw on her display screen defeating the boss. Items acquired by the [CRYSTAL BALL] lets a player summon any summon they want with any power at any rank. Skills acquired [RESURECTION] revive any dead being, had to be dead for less than 5 minutes to work. [FULL RESERECTION] can revive any number of dead people in the area, they can only have been dead for less than 5 minutes to be successful. Maria gasped at the ability. she quickly began to cast [RESURECTION] on Kevin with all the little mp she had left. Suddenly, Kevin was engulfed in light and all his life-threatening injuries were gone. Kevin still had severe injuries Maria ran over to Kevin crying. Kevin looked at Maria in confusion. “Am I dreaming again?” he said. “I cannot heal your wounds, my mana is completed depleted, and I used all my MP potions back in the room before.” She said gravely. “Looks like I’m going back to the hospital.” Said Kevin. Maria helped Kevin up and out of the dungeon. They slowly exited the dungeon and were teleported back to the HQ.