Staring out at the horizon, Oscar wiped the sweat from his brow at the wave of destruction that rampaged, kicking off mounds of dirt. From the overturned grounds of the plains, great trees sprouted out, becoming a forest in an instant. The destructive forest came closer and closer, filling up more of the plains, tossing up more dirt and grass that fell like rain.

"What is this forest?" Oscar mumbled with a pale face at the vines that moved and slithered around, diving into the ground and rising back up. These vines were the reason for the uprooting of the plains and paved the way for the forest to spread. He saw the vines move as though they had a hint of intelligence from their strange coordination in attacking the animals.

A thought passed in his mind that made Oscar shudder. "What if this is all the work of a person? What kind of powerful Exalt can do this?" Oscar stayed still as the vines approached his tree, coiling around it and crushing it. The sounds of the bark cracking and the great trunk breaking barely reached Oscar's ear before a vine impaled him through the chest.

"Kuh!" Oscar vomited blood, and his eyes dimmed, making his vision hazy. But, despite the shroud of death blurring his sight, Oscar noticed the red blood splattered on the vine disappear into its green stem. Soon his body began to shrivel, and Oscar figured out the vine was sucking out all of his life, reducing him to a husk of his former self. "It wants my blood?"

His vision turned black, and Oscar felt the quicksand of death overtake him again, dragging him down into the abyss until he awoke to the morning light in his bed. He forced his eyes wide awake and forced himself to get up with sweat drenching his back. Oscar calmed his breathing and thought about what had happened.

The vines tore the ground to make way for the forest.

The trees sprouted up from nowhere in countless numbers instantly.

The way he died from the vine sucking out his blood.

"They say King Exalts can overturn large areas alone, but this is horrifying." Oscar pondered, believing the forest to be a work of an Exalt. "Or perhaps a large group could enact a collective spell and make it work."

Sitting around and thinking about it did Oscar no good. He needed a refresher, and right then, Celestina came home. Oscar greeted his fake wife, and they happily went to his parent's house to spend the day while he tried to determine a solution.

"I would like to go into the cellar, but I need to know what else happened," Oscar mumbled. He walked back into his house.

"What was that?" Celestina asked. Her emerald eyes shone in the dark.

"Nothing," Oscar smiled and dropped to his bed. "I won't be going to work tomorrow."

"Huh? Why not?" Celestina looked taken aback.

"I don't feel good," Oscar said his usual excuse and tried to close his eyes. However, Celestina embraced him, and his hands moved on their own accord to wrap around her back. He looked helpless as he lost control of his body and his lips moved toward hers.

After another long series of kisses, Oscar fell asleep.

The next morning, Oscar spent the whole day with Celestina, having a lovely day. Every now and then, he stared out the window to judge the time from the sun, knowing the disaster would come once it was at a certain point.

"Celestina, let's go outside." Oscar wanted to see it from the town square. Without waiting for her reply, Oscar grabbed her hand and rushed outside. He felt a tinge in his heart, seeing the fake Celestina's delighted expression with a wide smile and uplifted red cheeks. 'It's an illusion.'

At the town square, people were beginning to pack up or finish off their businesses for the day before sunset. Oscar stopped in the center with Celestina tightly gripping his hand. The place gave off a good feel from the smiles on the townspeople and the rowdy conversations of trading.

"Oscar, aren't we too late? It's almost the end of the day." Celestina smiled despite her worrying words.

"...." Oscar did not reply but watched the sun approach the certain position. Right on time, the ground quaked, and Oscar hugged Celestina to his chest. "Careful."

"Don't worry about me." Celestina grinned, but her smile quickly faded as the ground shook more violently, and she and Oscar lost their balance. With a pale face, she screamed, "We need to get away!"

However, Oscar held onto her, stopping Celestina from moving. "Don't worry. It'll fade fast."

"What?"

All around them, the vines smashed the stone houses, which were then uprooted by the trees, and slaughtered the townspeople, their screams muffled by the vines. Some houses survived the ordeal but were sunk in the ground, which Oscar knew would become ruins in the real world. By his side, Celestina screamed and cried, and he softly stroked her hair.

Everything was an illusion, but he couldn't help but do this to console the fake Celestina. Next, the vines came for them, and Oscar woke up in his bed at the next reset. He rubbed his tired eyes and sighed. "So nothing remains except for the few houses that were not completely destroyed, not even the people. Where were the Exalts at this time?"

With no new information, Oscar clenched his fist and decided to return to the cellar door. He played his part through today and sprinted toward the fortress the next day. He didn't notice it before, but he now saw a block on the side that wrote, 'Oen Fortress, Dragon Vault.'

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This block was the one he found in the real world that had faded and weathered down. Oscar passed it and went into the fortress. Once in the basement, Oscar observed the door with the two guards flanking it on each side.

Oscar cursed and tried to wrack his head around what to do. The last time he tried at the moment the guards left, but the vines killed him before he could react. He made sure to make it look like he was busy while observing the place.

"I have to aim for the timing." Oscar focused as the time of destruction slowly approached. Then the grounds began to quake on time, making the guards nervous and leave. "Now!"

Right as the guards moved, Oscar moved. They were still in the hallway as he sprinted to the door, opened it, and ran down to the cellar door.

"You!" A guard noticed Oscar had gone in and chased.

Oscar opened the cellar door and entered. Suddenly the world became black, and Oscar could not see anything. "Where is this? Where's the dragon gate?"

Then words began to form in the darkness, made of fire. The flames molded and twisted to show their meaning to Oscar.

"The excess must be cut off to return to the balance of how things were."

"What does this mean?" Oscar frowned at the words of fire, keeping his gaze on them, but he suddenly woke up again in his bed. This time, however, he did not have the usual weakness from dying. "Those words mean something, but what?"

Oscar thought deeply. Days passed again as he kept moving to the cellar door to see the words of fire every time. He wracked his head to figure out what the excess and balance entailed.

Each day, he spent the night with Celestina and ate with his parents, but no answer came. He began to think of approaching the problem from a different angle. "What is the purpose of the illusion? I'm allowed free movements and retain my memories. An illusion as powerful as this should be capable of restricting my memories and falsifying them"

"But certain things I cannot say and do because it doesn't want me to go beyond the limits." Oscar was in his bed from another reset. His body no longer felt terrible because of making it to the cellar door each time. "If anything, I'm an excess that's ruining the perfect world of the illusion with my actions, but I tried killing myself many times."

Then a thought came to Oscar, and his eyes trembled from the realization. He sat up, leaning forward in his bed, looking green and sick. "That's right…It's a cross-way illusion. If the balance is this world of the past replaying its history, then everything that came from me is the excess. I, Celestina, and my parents were never here."

Oscar clenched his fists, digging his nails into his hands. He spoke to the illusion user, "You bastard! You wanted this all along?"

"Oscar! We have to go to your parents." Celestina waved over to him.

"R-right." Oscar looked green and pale, and his hands trembled. Despite all the honing of his mind from this illusion, Oscar still felt himself losing it after realizing what he had to do. However, an image of his friends popped into his mind, reminding him of what he had to do.

He clung to the hope of escape to get back to the others, willing himself to keep going. He could not waste away here while everyone else needed him on the outside. His eyes darkened with a dark resolve.

After sharing the same meal with his parents, Oscar turned to Celestina with a smile. "Go on without me. I have something to tell mom and dad."

"Privately from your wife?" Celestina's expression grew slightly colder.

"Don't worry. It's a surprise. I'll tell you about it later." Oscar coaxed her into leaving, and he sighed before turning to his parents, who were sitting at the table. "Let me help you clean up."

"Don't worry about it. Just go home to your wife." Henry stood up and took up some plates.

Oscar went over to help him, taking up some plates, including a large knife. He stared at the knife and closed his eyes to concentrate. It had to be done.

"Dad?"

"What?"

"I love you, illusion or not." Oscar cried.

"What do you mean?" Henry walked over to his son.

Oscar swung his knife and cut his dad's throat, seeing the confused look in his dad's eyes. "I'm sorry."

His father fell to the floor with a loud thud. Gwen looked shaken and ran to her husband. "Honey! Why? Oscar, why?!" She turned to Oscar with a crying face full of despair.

"I'm sorry." Oscar cried again and stabbed his mother, and she fell to the floor. He could feel his knife sinking into her flesh.

Oscar stared at the blood on his hands and his dead parents on the floor. His breathing quickened and became more ragged, as though he couldn't breathe any air. He bashed his chest with his hands to get a grip on himself, but tears fell down uncontrollably.

'It's an illusion. It's just an illusion.' Dragging his feet over to the water basin, Oscar washed his hands, dirtying the clean water with his parents' blood. His head shook repeatedly, and his eyes trembled at the struggle, unable to tear away from his parents' bodies. 'It's an illusion.'

Slowly, he recovered his composure and grabbed the large knife. There was one more thing he had to do. Each of his steps felt so heavy, like he was weighed down.

Luckily, no one was outside at night as Oscar fell and tumbled multiple times on the way back home. In front of him was his stone house. He slowly opened the door and saw Celestina humming while cleaning the table with her back toward him.

Oscar ran ahead and embraced her from the back, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Oscar! How was the talk with Mother and Father?" Celestina turned her head back and smiled.

"It was fine," Oscar said in a low voice.

"Just fine?" Celestina was confused. "Did something happen?"

Oscar's obsidian eyes met her emerald eyes. With a final thought to tell him this wasn't real, Oscar breathed out, looking worn out with a helpless sad face. "I will never do this in the real world. I will never betray you."

"What do you mean?" Celestina's voice became more anxious.

Oscar clenched his teeth and stabbed the large knife into her heart.

Celestina turned forward and looked down to see the knife in her heart, blood flowing down her lips. Shakingly, she turned to Oscar, trembling and crying dry tears. Her mouth quivered, struggling to get the words out.

"W-why?"

Oscar said nothing but sank the blade deeper in, making her vomit blood and let out a painful groan. He embraced her tighter with a sad face and said, "I need to get out to the real world where you and others are waiting for me. I'm sorry."

"Why?"

Celestina's tone of despair from his betrayal cut deep into Oscar's heart, but he willed himself to stay strong. Soon world around them started to shatter, and cracks formed everywhere. Everything distorted, and Oscar felt his head tearing apart, letting out a scream.

His eyes snapped open, and Oscar screamed in horror and sadness, squirming on the green stone floor. He cried for a while until he realized that he hadn't woken up in the same bed he'd been in for many days. Below him was the same high-quality green floor and in front was the opened dragon gate.

To his side, he saw Austin and Erik. They were unconscious.

"I'm out?" Oscar said hoarsely, wiping away his tears.

"I didn't expect you'd actually do it. How unexpected and fortunate for you." A deep voice resounded in Oscar's ear.

"You?!" Oscar sprung to his feet with his face red from anger. "That illusion was your work?!"

"Step in the doors and find out."