"Why?" Zagronan wondered.
He continued, "If one can turn into an illusion, doesn't that mean one can also become real again?" he wondered.
Rachel responded, "An illusion can never turn into reality. Some techniques can scan the illusion and create a copy of it in reality. However, that would cost great amounts of realization energy, and the newly realized 'thing' would not be the illusion; it would just be exactly similar."
Zagronan looked dumb, and he was initially dumb, but after so long, he gained a lot of wisdom. As a result, he understood Rachel's meaning.
"Then, please, Rachel, don't let the illusion consume me," Zagronan was afraid of illusions but trusted Rachel.
He went down and snapped his fingers.
After the fireball, a vast land area was in flames, but with this snap, all disappeared.
"Are you a demon?" a woman with two giant sharp horns on her head appeared.
The horns were so exaggerated that they were half her height, around 2 meters.
"What a realistic illusion," Zagronan was genuinely impressed.
"Yeah, a demon king, actually," Zagronan smirked.
The woman looked cold, took off her clothes, and transformed!
She became a colossal dragon, so enormous that even faintly surpassed the size of this world's diameter.
Zagronan never saw something so huge.
"Rank 10? Why do I feel like she has a complete law?" Zagronan was disturbed.
"She doesn't have any complete law, but if you don't discover the flaw, she may as well have," said Rachel.
"What flaw? Where?" Zagronan racked his brain. He lacked time because a rank 10 could kill him in an instant.
As he was thinking, he felt the dragon readying to attack. It inhaled and then exhaled the dragon's breath.
Unbelievable fire appeared, so much so that Zagronan's Fireball was like a candle before the sun.
"Rachel?" he screamed in his mind. Rachel remained silent.
Zagronan teleported at the last moment, but to his surprise, even though the space wasn't locked, the other end of teleportation was a few meters away, not saving him from the situation.
The dragon's breath hit.
Zagronan should have died.
Fortunately for him, it was all an illusion. How can one die from an attack of an illusion?
Therefore, he survived, but he paid the price. His reality charge began to change rapidly, dragging him away from the real world and into becoming an illusion.
He realized it and began to think. "The attack didn't kill me, but it's making me an illusion. I now firmly understand that it's an illusion, yet the illusion's attacks are as fatal as real mages' attacks."
"Rachel says I should discover flaws. Where are the flaws?" he thought and started to talk.
"How can there be a dragon this big?" he shouted and asked the girl.
Even though she was a rank 10, the size of this dragon was unreasonable.
The dragon disappeared, and the girl appeared again.
"How can you survive my full attack?" She seemed as surprised as Zagronan.
"Answer my question first. Why is your dragon form so huge?" he asked with seriousness.
The girl shook her head and began answering, "I am a member of the Fire Dragon clan. My clan specializes in fire magic; however, I had a talent from birth. I can create a phantom far bigger than my real body. After reaching rank 10, this talent got much more powerful, with the Phantom as big as a world. Now, it's your turn. Why are you alive?" she asked.
Zagronan began to think, "Phantom being so powerful? That's impossible!"
He looked around and realized the strike was so strong that everything evaporated. Now, he was standing in a place resembling the surface of a star.
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He began to laugh.
"Why are you laughing?" the dragon girl shouted.
"I'm just pitying you," said Zagronan with a look of pity.
"You!" She got mad and started attacking again. Zagronan was not afraid. He's not a master of the Phantom, but he knows how it works.
What is a phantom? It's very close to an illusion but different. While an illusion is a reality with a different charge, a phantom is the imagination of a powerful existence. A phantom cannot exist without a powerful existence supplying it, while illusions can be left and remain in a place for an infinite time. One essential detail is that the Phantom is weaker the bigger it is.
The dragon, with its immense size, attacked; even though it was rank 10, it shouldn't have been able to kill a rank 7 mage, let alone Zagronan.
Because, with its size, its power should have been downgraded many times.
When Zagronan survived, the girl was surprised. It seems she was used to her Phantom getting stronger the bigger it was.
The exact opposite of how it should be
Therefore ...
"Phantom!" Zagronan cast. He is good at the law of wisdom but can still use other spells.
Giant phantoms are usually used for being seen by a lot of people. They are useless for battles, as they have low combat attack power. Only smaller phantoms can be helpful.
With his spell, a colossal phantom at least a hundred times bigger than the dragon girl appeared.
It had zero combat ability, not even able to hurt an ant.
But the girl became pale as paper.
Here, even the laws of the universe are different.
The matter regarding huge phantoms is universal; The bigger the Phantom, the weaker it gets. But here, in an illusion, it's the reverse.
The giant Phantoms punched the ground.
The world shook, mountains fell, and seas evaporated. After a while, everything shattered and disappeared!
...
Zagronan opened his eyes.
"Welcome back!" Rachel smiled.
"What is going on?" Zagronan thought he had succeeded, but looking around, the city that he destroyed was intact, and everything had returned to its original place.
"Didn't you realize? The illusion infected you and was about to consume you. But in the last moment, you found a flaw and returned to reality."
Zagronan's hairs stood on their ends.
"But, I... you were there," he retorted.
"Of course, I was. I was observing and guiding you. Now, here we go again; what do you think? Is it the 'real' illusion, or are you still infected?" she asked.
Cold sweat appeared on Zagronan's forehead. Now, he wasn't sure if anything was real! Even Rachel might be fake!
He destroyed the city again.
Then, he landed on the ground; the dragon girl appeared again, asking if he was a demon.
He said yes again, and the dragon girl transformed into a colossal dragon.
But this time, Zagronan cast a phantom spell immediately. He then punched the girl, turning her into meat paste and breaking the whole world again ...
...
"Good... you are getting faster!" said Rachel.
Zagronan opened his eyes and looked at the intact city.
"Are you real?" Zagronan asked.
"That's the wrong question. How do you think people turn from reality to illusion? I am real; just remember that and hold me as an anchor. Without me, you would have been lost, but with me, you can always keep a grasp of reality," she said.
Zagronan was reassured and asked, "What am I supposed to do?"
"Find the flaw!" she said.
"But I did find the flaw! It's the Phantom!" he insisted.
"Yeah, that's a superficial flaw, not the root of the problem! This is a huge illusion world. If you want to break it, you must discover the main flaw," she said.
"How?" he was getting frustrated. He was not suitable for these puzzles.
"Who knows? But don't worry! Time is also an illusion here, so even a million years is just a moment!" she said.
"Also, I extended your lifespan to infinite as long as you remain here," she assured him.
But Zagronan was not assured in any way. From the looks of it, Rachel wants him to remain here for a very, very, very long time.
He exhaled deeply and fireballed the city again!
After landing on the ground, the dragon girl came again.
"Are you a demon?" she asked.
"No," he answered.
The dragon girl was taken aback, and after thinking for a moment, she smiled.
"Hello! My name is Sasha. Happy to meet you!" She extended her left hand.
Zagronan went along and did the same.
The girl looked at Zagronan and said, "You are not from around here, are you?" she asked.
"I'm not from around here. I just returned. My mother lived here when I was a child!" he made up a story.
"Your what? What is a mother?" the girl was getting suspicious.
Zagronan, who himself had no mother, gave a vague answer, "The person who helps you grow into an adult."
The girl looked at him with confusion and said, "You seem not only from far away but from another world! Come with me; I can help you meet someone!" she said.
Zagronan nodded and continued moving. After a while, they reached an old house.
"That is the house of my teacher. He is also a fire dragon like me. He may be able to help you!" she said.
Inside, a man with a bald head and no hair anywhere was sitting on the rocky ground with closed eyes.
"Call me Real."
"Real?" Zagronan was surprised by this name.
"Yes. I was like you, someone exploring illusions, but look at me now. I've become a part of it," he said.
"Can you help me?" Zagronan asked, hoping he could help him find flaws quickly.
"Yes!" Then, he cast his spell. "Possession!"
An invading force attacked Zagronan, trying to take control of his body.
Rachel sighed, modified the code a bit, and removed the invader.
"It's the 14,781st time I'm saving you! Be more careful!" she said.
"How many? Why don't I remember?" he was confused.
"It's normal; when you first explore illusions, your memory gets confused. You will eventually remember."
The girl came in and looked at the teacher lying on the ground, with Zagronan standing!
"You! First, you destroyed a city, then killed my teacher?" she screamed and turned into a dragon phantom bigger than the world.
Zagronan sighed and cast his phantom spell, punched the dragon, and killed the girl, but didn't punch the ground so powerfully that the world shatters.
Nevertheless, the world began dissipating.
"Why? I didn't damage the world!" he asked Rachel.
"All these questions are for you to answer," she wanted him to learn illusion himself so she could not reveal everything.
...
"This is the millionth time! I hope this time, you can get past the Blue Dragon Clan."
Zagronan, who had begun to remember all the memories a while ago, was exhausted and dropped to the ground, sleeping.
...
With Rachel and Zagronan exploring illusions, Lee was busy with the dream world.