[Nightmare]

"Ughhhhhhhhh." Helix groaned.

"Oh good, you're awake.

That means we're ready to start your torture session." Tilo announced with a serious voice.

Helix's eyes shot open.

He was currently laying on Tilo's bed, and cold sweat poured down his back.

"I have to punish you and want to know what I'm looking at.

Torture accomplishes both of those things, don't you think?" He asked with a murderous gaze.

"Can I tell you what you're looking at and then accept getting hurt?

I understand your anger, but I'd rather not try to explain that thing while I'm in pain." Helix replied.

While his comment sounded sarcastic, he was being dead serious.

Helix knew what he did, and he wasn't going to pretend he didn't see how close he was to getting his body smashed in.

Tilo sighed and looked at Helix with a complicated expression.

"If you had to describe what I'm looking at with a magic circle name, what would you call it?" He asked with a serious expression.

"A fake Circle of Disillusion." Helix replied without the slightest hesitation.

Tilo burst into laughter.

Every laugh was different shades of bitter, laced with a rainbow assortment of disbelief.

"Boy, you got a really fucked up sense of fake." Tilo declared.

"This is eighteen shades of evil darker than the Circle of Disillusion.

Did you know what would happen when you hit me with this?"

Helix looked into Tilo's olive-green eyes with bitter remorse.

"Yes." He replied.

Tilo didn't know whether to praise the boy or beat him senseless after confirmation.

"You're lucky you're smart, boy.

If you weren't, I'd be still getting my ass chewed out, and I'd be taking out my frustration on you later." He laughed with bewilderment in his eyes.

Tilo genuinely felt like he might go insane.

"Describe your strategy for defeating me." Tilo requested with a complex expression.

"Use your inability to strike me to keep pressure on you while using your misconceptions of me to my advantage." Helix replied simply.

"Well, you achieved your goal with flying colors.

I was impressed that you chose to make physical attacks your primary strategy.

Moreover, I was shocked by how different your stats were from what I've heard.

Your speed, strength, agility, and spirit particle reserve don't match up.

Nor does your ability to control spirit particles. It's baffling to me." Tilo confessed.

"It's bitter-sweet considering you side-stepped the entire purpose of the match to accomplish it." He laughed in bewilderment.

"Your use of illusions is extremely impressive as well.

Using the rule that I couldn't hit you allowed you to back me into a corner and fall for your trap." He chuckled.

"In all ways, you'd be a prize if you didn't pull that stupid fucking stunt at the end."

Helix gave Tilo a wry smile.

"I apologize. I knew what that spell would do, but I underestimated its effect on you." Helix replied.

Tilo gave Helix a wry smile filled with shame.

"For someone at my level, it's rational to assume that an intermediate spell wouldn't cause so much disorder." Tilo affirmed.

"If you pulled that strategy out when I wasn't disoriented, it wouldn't have been a problem.

I'd be praising you instead of chastising you.

Punishing you for your brilliance frustrates me because the potential for disaster results from my failures.

You've reminded this old man how dangerous it is to underestimate any opponent."

Tio laughed bitterly in disbelief.

"But come on! How the hell would you expect anyone to deal with this hallucinogenic hellscape!?"

Tilo burst into madness-stricken laughter as he pointed to the magic circle.

The circle was a simple [Ghost Walker Trigger] circle that he copied to create multiple illusions.

Helix had modified the spell with the outer ring to mimic Tilo's movements.

He placed an inner circle as close to the main circle as possible.

As a result, the clone overlapped Tilo's body, and its movement was only slightly different from the person's real body.

The effect was that someone would see their body moving slightly off their brain's alignment, making every movement feel like an afterimage.

That experience alone can cause serious disorientation to a person's brain's balancing system.

It was similar to watching a video out of sync with the audio, only with a person's body.

It was twisted.

However, Helix copied Ghost Walker Trigger [five] times, making a five-layer spell.

The copies overlapped the main circle so many times that it was impossible to pinpoint the original circle.

The lines were as close to the main circle as possible and overlapped at different center points.

In short, Tilo's body was creating afterimages in five different directions.

Just looking at the circle made it feel like a hallucinogenic hellscape.

"Did you have to make five, for fuck's sake?

You could've thrashed my concentration with two!"

Tilo was a conflicting pool of emotions.

He wanted to praise Helix for creating a devastating spell that could kill his opponent.

However, Tilo was his opponent.

"You stacked my deck with unusable cards, and I didn't have the time to consider all of the creative use cases." Helix sighed.

"You would instantly negate the sensory deprivation spells since I don't have the real battle capacity to keep pressure on you.

The trap spells would be child's play for you to dodge, so they weren't a real threat.

And… you gave me four calamity spells as a trap." Helix chuckled bitterly.

Tilo rubbed his temples to soothe his headache.

"Seems that you identified the entire set of teachings for the match before it began." He chuckled in bewilderment.

"Since you knew you would lose before it started, you created a trump card?"

Helix nodded in confirmation.

"My only option was to hit you physically and use illusions to disorient you.

The Circle of Illusion was difficult to modify in the preparation period.

I ran out of time when I set up the Eruption trap, or it would have been an illusion.

My limitations left me with Ghost Walker Trigger as the one real chance of defeating you.

Therefore, I needed to ensure the spell was as absurd as possible to gain a chance."

Tilo's brain felt like it was on fire.

"You created a strategy that could honestly come out on top." He chuckled in disbelief.

After a moment of silence, Tilo looked Helix in the eyes.

"Helix. You passed with flying colors.

There is no way you couldn't have known that.

So why would you play the Eruption trick?

Why would you put yourself in danger to win like that?

Illusion or not, that was courting death for the sake of nothing!" Tilo cried in exasperation.

Helix opened and closed his mouth a few times.

"Tilo. While it's been over a month since Lina stabbed me to you, I…. was attacked yesterday.

I was in a deep sleep that entire time." Helix replied with trembling eyes.

"The woman I love was… killed before my eyes because I was too weak to stop it yesterday.

I also had no chance of success back then in the same way I didn't during our fight.

So I resolved to fight and win despite knowing my enemy far outclassed me.

If I don't do that…."

Tears welled in Helix's eyes.

"Boy…." Tilo called out with regret-filled eyes.

Helix had been so calm, composed, and sharp since he laid eyes on him that he hadn't processed the reality of the young man's situation.

Tilo rubbed his eyes with his palms.

"Helix. You were masterful today.

If you had a sword, real strength, and agility, you would have killed me because of my arrogance." Tilo replied with a calm voice.

Helix looked at him with a serious expression.

"Protecting people isn't a matter of power. It's a matter of making the most of what you have, and you did that well.

However, moving forward, you will have to identify what victory means.

If you would have died back there, could you have protected your girlfriends?" He asked with a strained expression.

Tilo groaned inwardly for throwing salt on Helix's wound, but it was necessary for this situation.

Helix closed his eyes, and bitterness overwhelmed him.

"As homework, reflect on whether you would have been confident you could have won with the Eruption trick.

If you can identify when you had a true shot at victory, you can feel confident without nearly dying by using it.

Keep the thought within the context of my distorted state of mind.

It wasn't a bad trick; you just used it irresponsibly.

Figure out if you could have solved your inner struggle without concrete proof.

Is that acceptable?" Tilo asked.

Helix nodded in affirmation.

"I'll reflect upon that tonight. Thank you for taking me on as your apprentice.

I hope the others are so angry at my recklessness that they disown me as recompense."

Tilo's eyes widened, and he burst into emotional laughter.

"No, boy. You're not getting away from me even if you want to.

Which sucks for those other grandmasters because they're devising strategies to capture and tame you." The man laughed.

"Now, get out of my room. I'll be meditating for the next 36 hours to get my head back on straight.

Use that time to get acquainted with Lexion, and meet the other teachers and grandmasters.

I'll give you four hours a day to learn from the others as my apprentice.

It's getting dark outside, so hurry back to your room.

Now shoo, shoo." Tio ordered as he waved his hand to the door.

Helix chuckled in bewilderment and compiled.

A moment later, Tio laid down on his bed and stared at the magic circle on the battle disc.

"This kid…. I couldn't believe the magic circles I saw drawn on that mirror.

After journeying a thousand miles to meet this kid, I believe what I saw then even less." He chuckled.

"That brat nearly started a war with a deceptively simple spell to revert people's faces into their Earthian forms.

That's an absurd concept that doesn't make sense.

However, after facing mortal danger with an illusion that only copies my body…." Tilo sighed.

"I don't know what to think anymore."

—

[I'm releasing a bonus chapter for the people that have already reviewed, commented, thanked me for the chapters, asked great questions, and made me feel welcome.

I'll do a five chapter mass release for you all after the bonus period ends. :)]