"An illusion demon."

The body of an illusion demon lies motionless on the ground.

The demon looks miserable, his body is covered in blood and sword wounds.

'It looks like the demon is on the verge of death, and it seems to be a mid-ranker demon. Should I put the nail in the coffin and kill it?'

Ranks or Rankers are separated into four sections: the Beginning rankers, The mid-rankers, the High rankers, and the transcendental rankers. The beginning ranks are composed of people that are ranked F and E. And the mid-rankers consist of people rated D, C, And B.

As I walked closer to the demon's body to examine it more closely, I noticed that the pattern of the sword slashes on its body was somewhat familiar.

'This demon is, as I suspected, a mid-ranker, and judging by the quality of the mana around him, he's in the late stages of D rank.'

'I'm curious about the one who created these sword wounds on this demon's body; judging by the wounds, the combat was one-sided and the demon was being dominated from the start.'

But the fact that this demon got dominated was not surprising.

mana control and illusions that's where this kind of demons excel. Their mediocre bodies and poor endurance and strength stats make them not suitable for close quarter combat.

'...'

'the wounds are really interesting...'

The sword art appears to be incredibly elegant and skilled.

After eliminating all of the swordsmen I knew from the original timeline, I believe there is one ranker that matches the sword techniques, judging from the wounds of the demon.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

'But that can't be him. I'm pretty sure that at this point in time, he can't be here. But, it's not entirely possible.

'I remember that he fought with the demons on the other city and it's one of his early achievements.'

Adrian unsheathed the dagger on his waist and coated the blade and his arms with mana, intending to pierce the demon's heart and kill it.

But as soon as his blade touched the heart, he was immediately dragged into an illusion.

'So he wants to drag me into his grave... I say. A total rookie could fall for that, but identifying the core is simple for me.'

Adrian appeared on a desolate, rocky land full of craters and leveled mountains.

Scanning my surroundings, I found a giant crater in the middle of a devastated land.

'A familiar location.' a thought came to me. 'This is the scene of my death.'

As I reached the crater, I noticed five hazy, life-like figures surrounding the original timeline me in the center of the crater.

I instantly injected mana into my eyes and scan the area to find the core.

A bright sphere-like light can be seen inside the kneeling figure's heart. "The core was located within the Original timeline me."

As I was slowly approaching the figure in the distance, The kneeling figure in the first timeline suddenly laughed hysterically.

After a short burst of hysterical laugh the kneeling figure suddenly spoke, "I get it now." His lifeless eyes stared at the four people that surrounded him.

"Jealousy and Envy..." the kneeling figure chuckled once more. "As I lived through all those years, I learned how dirty humans can be."

"The things that I witnessed... sparked a thought in my head. Humans can be more disgusting than demons."

The kneeling figure paused as he scanned his surroundings, his gaze stopped on me. While staring into my eyes, his mouth slowly turned into a curve. And as he looked at me, his deep dark eyes seemed to pierce my soul.

His lips abruptly parted and he muttered something. Even though I couldn't hear it because of our distance, I was able to read his lips. The words he spoke made me quiver uncontrollably. 'Kill me.' he muttered as he stared at me.

'This is only a illusion.'

I closed my eyes and repeated the phrase 'This is simply an illusion' to calm myself down.

I was drawn into several illusions in the original timeline, but I can't help but believe that this illusion is different.

As I opened my eyes, I saw that the kneeling figure was already staring at the four hazy figures that were surrounding him.

I was about to walk towards the center when the figure spoke again.

"A demon once told me that this war is senseless. He said that the demons don't need to fight humans; that the ones they should be fighting are the other races only. At first, I thought that he was just spewing nonsense, but the next words that came out of his mouth made me motionless."

"Humanity will ultimately destroy humanity. That is the reason why the war with you humans is senseless."

"Those were the demon's last words before he died."

"That phrase made me recall a memory from the depths of my mind, A figure talking to my old man had said that exact phrase." The kneeling figure said as he stared at me and chuckled.

A few minutes ago, I already moved up on the kneeling figure to close our distance as he was speaking.

As I came face-to-face with the original timeline Adrian, I couldn't help but pity him, pity myself. 'So this is what I looked like at the moment of my death. I looked miserable.'

I held my dagger tightly as I aimed it at his heart. The kneeling figure bowed down, seemingly ready to face the cold embrace of death.

Looking at him, I felt a sudden surge of emotions. As I pierced his heart, an uncontrollable impulse compelled me to whisper to him.

"Embrace the darkness."