Chapter 540

Chapter 162: Long Night’s Hidden Flame, Part Nine

— Illusion.

The abyssal hallucinogenic power was instantly released through the raven’s blood-red eyes.

Many days ago, during the night, before the return of the goat cheese and the beginning of the siege on the southern city of Alertheon, I had killed a group of lurking heretics in the forest consumed by infernal flames.

During that time, the raven flying in the sky for surveillance played a significant role. Its sharp eagle-like gaze could always quickly locate the hidden heretics from the burning fires and smoke, then signal me with its cries—such occurrences increased the likelihood of enemies retaliating, launching fireballs at the goat cheese, hitting it accurately, more than once.

Then I discovered the raven’s “secret.”

It wouldn’t die.

No matter how fierce the flames or how powerful the explosions, no matter how shrill its cries in the night sky as its body fell, it would adjust its posture mid-air, flap its wings, and fly back into the sky—like an immortal divine bird.

Although this divine bird wasn’t golden.

Once things were nearly settled, the stupid bird flew back, landing on my shoulder, and I was amazed to find that it had barely any obvious burns. The fallen feathers were regenerating, and faint black smoke was emanating from its wounds—I knew that smoke well; it was undoubtedly death smoke.

Though I didn’t understand what was happening, it had not been unscathed before, though it recovered quickly, but never displayed such power… I guessed it might be related to the severity of the injuries. Under the relentless assault of the heretic’s infernal flames, the goat cheese had to naturally use the power of the abyss to survive—this stupid bird might be an “abyssal creation.”

In that moment, I realized this.

At least, it possessed abyssal power…

To confirm this, I tried to cast Illusion on it—the result was as expected, the “illusion” could be stored in its consciousness and performed through the bird’s eyes—I made it look at me and cast Illusion, which succeeded, plunging me into the dream I created.

…惊喜 or 惊吓.

It’s hard to say what feelings I had at the time, but under urgent circumstances, there was no time to ponder deeply. I had to suppress complex emotions, leading Safiros and others out of the forest, meeting up with the bald-headed man outside the city, followed by the intense siege battle.

Inside and outside the city, everywhere was fire and blood, the battle against heretics rapidly intensified until dust settled, and the jester received news again. Angel sent me back here using the divine relic “World”…

There was hardly any time to rest, and I never had the chance to familiarize or verify the “Illusion” power through the stupid bird. Until now, I still didn’t know how many variables existed, whether new problems would arise, or if it could be used on transformed heretics.

I took the risk because…

I couldn’t think of another way.

However, when the goat cheese’s pupils glowed red, the monster called the jester looked down, its face covered with barbed antlers, six pairs of blood-red eyes staring directly at us. It met the raven’s gaze, seeing the flickering crimson light.

Then, the fiery night sky dimmed suddenly.

The sky roared, like countless women crying, the wind whistled past our ears, then abruptly stopped. The sparks floating in the air vanished, replaced by countless black ravens spreading their wings, like dense locusts, sweeping across the sky from all directions. In that moment, my heart raced, followed by overwhelming joy—

It worked!

“Illusion” was effective!

Even against such a monster, it would fall into an illusion in an instant!

Flap flap flap—

Countless black birds obscured the night sky, concealing the frosty cold air, bringing the darkness back to the land. The view became dim, only faint red light filtered through the gaps in the wings, vaguely illuminating the silhouette of the monster in the sky—he seemed to raise his head, lifting his massive right arm, as if to launch some attack at the swarm of ravens overhead…

But the attack failed to initiate in time.

The flock, noisy, like the wailing of the end times, echoed throughout the night sky. The crows descended, enveloping the monster in an instant, attacking en masse. The monster swung its bloody giant hand, stirring up wind and fire, sending countless ravens flying and falling, but more ravens surged forward, soon burying the huge figure in the sky.

This process happened in the blink of an eye, too fast for me to react.

Oh…

I stood in place, looking up at the scene, feeling a shock… I had simply imagined many goat cheeses as a “preset” in the “true” stupid bird’s consciousness… The result was so many… My goodness…

Dazed for a second, I immediately snapped back.

…Fire meteor!

The overwhelming black birds blocked my view of the higher sky, of the situation in the town, only knowing that the streaming fire had dimmed, but…

“Stupid bird, keep watching it!”

I picked up the stupid bird on my shoulder, hurriedly placing it on a nearby stone, the stone…

The frost had already melted under the heat of the blazing fire. The foolish bird stood there motionlessly, maintaining its original posture—it had fallen into an illusion and couldn’t move anymore. Naturally, it couldn’t hear me either, but I didn’t have time to worry about that.

In the next moment, I stepped out in moonwalk, treading on ice pillars rising from the ground, weaving through the flock of birds, and soaring higher into the sky.

Thirty… fifty…

The fierce wind howled as countless black birds circled and flew within my vision, inevitably colliding with my body and face, passing through silently as if they had no substance—I couldn’t touch them because they were just illusions. Even though I could see them, I wasn’t trapped within the illusion myself.

After surging up to about a hundred meters and breaking through the dense flock of ravens, my view suddenly opened up.

Crack crack crack…

Thick, irregular ice blocks condensed beneath my feet. I steadied myself on the ice block in midair, looking towards the direction of the town…

The light of the sky indeed dimmed.

The blazing fire that had been swirling and gradually forming into a sphere above was still there, but it was dissipating at an incredibly fast pace—likely due to the Joker being trapped in the illusion, which caused the real-world power to slacken… That should be it, although perhaps he just hadn’t reacted yet.

And…

Rumbling…

The rumbling sound in the night sky continued. I glanced towards the town for a moment, then looked down at the flock of ravens rolling like dark clouds, with faint flames flickering in their center… My brows furrowed slightly.

The threat of the fire meteor seemed to have temporarily dissipated…

I let out a long breath of relief in my heart.

For a force I had not tested or was somewhat bewildered by myself, I actually had some doubts. It was really good to have stopped the fire meteor successfully…

With the civilians no longer threatened, I could now focus on dealing with this monster.

Thoughts raced through my mind in an instant. I lowered my head, looking at the dense swarm of crows below, my brain working rapidly.

Dreams, reality…

The current situation seemed to allow me to see both…

…But logically, if the monster that the Joker had transformed into truly fell into the “Illusion of Annihilation” cast through the eyes of the goat cheese, he should have been unable to move in reality just like the goat cheese did.

However, just a moment ago, after the Illusion of Annihilation took effect, I definitely saw him move. There was no mistake.

What’s going on…

Why can that monster move?

I casually swung several ice spears downward, sharp ice spears piercing through the crow swarm without obstruction, shooting toward the direction of the red glow, my eyes fixed intently on it. Soon, the clown in his monstrous form roared.

“Roar—”

The eerie roar surged powerfully, scarlet flames exploding suddenly among the crows, scorching winds whistling, nearly blowing me off the ice platform. My hair flew wildly, my skirt flapping up, revealing smooth, flawless thighs, and the flapping fabric almost covered my face… Oh no, my panties!

My thoughts immediately broke off, my heart panicking. The body that had been staggering to regain balance lost it again, falling off the ice platform. As the sensation of weightlessness hit me, I frantically flailed my arms and legs in midair. Two seconds later, I came to my senses, pressing down on my skirt with one hand while releasing several bursts of frost mist with the other, using the impact to slow my descent. After plunging into the crow swarm, I felt a bit of safety, rolled over, and stood on the newly formed ice platform, launching myself toward the red glow like a cannonball!

Boom!

A massive impact spread through the crow swarm, ice and fire forces intertwining for an instant before beginning to warp and wildly spill out. The violent force had no effect on the crows; they continued to circle frenziedly around the explosion’s epicenter, landing on the monster’s body, scratching with their claws, pecking with their sharp beaks, completely unafraid of the burning flames. Reality and illusion were hard to distinguish at this moment, but I had no time to think about it anymore. I was already standing on the monster’s back, twisting one of its blood-red arms, and with a powerful wrench, snapped it with a “crack!”

“Roar—”

The monster roared again.

Then, it laughed bizarrely: “Haha, hahaha… So that’s how it is… I was wondering… So that’s how it is… Hahaha…”

“Laugh, Dad Lee.”

Bang!

I released his arm, raised my small fist, and punched down on his back. A huge muffled sound spread outward with the shockwave. The monster’s body plummeted rapidly. I grabbed onto his fur, tightly following, punching repeatedly on the protruding vertebrae.

Bang! Bang! Puff—

The final powerful punch shattered the monster’s spine. Then, its massive body crashed heavily onto the ground, dust and frost bursting up, obscuring my vision. The tremor from my feet made my legs go numb, so I quickly rolled to one side to release the pressure, tumbling off the monster’s back and rolling four or five meters away. I quickly got up.

“Joker…”

I limped towards him.

“No matter what you do… it won’t work…”

“Hahahaha—”

The giant beast’s body also rose up. Its broken arm instantly recovered after a few explosions. It crouched low like a wild beast, turning its large head towards me, baring its teeth in a mad laugh, revealing vicious fangs.

“So that’s it… This hateful, detestable power… Sylvieja, this is… your secret…”