"Kaili, can you find it? A magical beast that specializes in illusions won't have much direct combat strength. As long as we can find its location, I can take it down myself!" Keli, the plant controller, was desperate to win back face in front of the girl he liked, and he spoke with great assurance.
The female apprentice named Kaili was filled with disgust. Keli had just abandoned her and run, and that had cost him her trust. If they weren't in the middle of the trial, she would have turned and walked away.
"Quiet. I'm looking."
The magic item at her neck had a calming effect that could break low-level illusions, and it could also track the caster. All in all, it was a pretty good piece of gear.
"Found it. Over there."
Kaili pointed out the location, then hid behind the others and slowly crept toward where the devil was.
The devil was frantic. An illusion of that level was already the limit of what it could do; it had thought it could scare them off, but they had seen through it. And Adam's order was to let nothing come near him—and these three humans were obviously included in that.
Even though it was of the same kind as its master, as a devil it understood the nature of humans better than anyone, and it could not guarantee they wouldn't disturb the master.
"To hell with it—one more try!" The devil cast the illusion again. In the three's eyes, a vast sea of fire appeared ahead, sweeping toward them and filling the sky.
Keli's first instinct was still to run, but remembering the last illusion, he forced himself to stop. He slammed one hand hard against a tree, and the tree began to grow forward, piercing through the sea of fire.
Kaili's eyes lit up. She pointed at the devil's hiding place and cried shrilly, "There! Right there!"
The unnamed third member raised an arm and swept it down hard, sending a wind blade slashing at the devil.
The devil hurriedly floated aside to dodge, then bolted, trying to flee back to Adam's side—but the moment it moved, a string of spells came flying after it. It could only stop, screw up its courage, and take on Adam's appearance as it drifted down to the ground.
"Stop. It's me." It mimicked Adam's tone and spoke coldly to the three.
Kaili and the other two were stunned. They hadn't expected to run into Adam here. Could Adam have cast that illusion on them?
Keli said in astonishment, "Adam? Why are you attacking us?"
The devil was scared to death, but kept its face calm. "That was only a warning. Leave now, or it won't be just an illusion next time."
Adam had a fearsome reputation, and Keli did not want to provoke him. They hadn't really been hurt, anyway, so he turned his head and asked, "Should we..."
The suspicion in Kaili's eyes deepened. The person before her looked like Adam, but there was no energy fluctuation coming from him at all—and she seemed able to see the trees behind him through his body. She channeled her spiritual power into the pendant; blue light shone out again and clung to her eyes.
"Just as I thought. It's fake." In her eyes, the devil had already returned to its true form.
The devil still had no idea it had been exposed and kept acting with all its might. "Leave, or die."
Kaili pulled a bottle of magic potion from her clothes. At the same time, she used her spiritual power to draw out mana and trigger it. The potion burst, and red mist flew swiftly toward the devil.
"Kill it! It's a fake!"
With a bizarre shriek, the devil turned and ran. The red mist had burning properties; wherever it passed, trees and plants were reduced to charcoal as if they had been hit by fire magic. The devil did not dare take it head-on.
"Master, I'm sorry. They didn't fall for it. Your loyal servant can do no more." It zipped behind Adam and said weakly.
Thirty minutes had passed since Adam's escape. With all his threads working at full capacity, his spiritual power had recovered by more than half. He only needed a little more time before he could once again use the pseudo-composite magic he had used to destroy Quelina and the parasitic monster, and draw the overseers' attention.
"Them? Apprentices?"
Adam knew the devil was useless and hadn't expected it to help much; getting it to serve as a scout was already good enough.
"Humans. All humans. Three of them," the devil answered, then streaked back into Adam's mind.
Just then the bushes parted, and Kaili and the other two burst out. "Found him!" With that, they charged furiously at Adam.
"What a pain—now, of all times!" Adam's brows knitted tight. He didn't want any extra trouble, so he split off one of his precious threads to trigger the lowest-level spell, Fireball. An orange-red fireball shot diagonally toward the open ground ahead.
Adam's intention really had only been to scare them off; he hadn't even dared use a spell with too strong a mana fluctuation. But he didn't know that the devil had just fooled the three of them in exactly this way. Keli did not believe this was real magic at all, and this time he didn't even make a token defense. "You think the same old trick will still—"
Kaili screamed, "Keli, get back!"
But it was too late. Before Keli could finish his gloating words, the orange fireball struck him and burned him to charcoal.
"This..." Adam was dumbfounded. He hadn't thought anyone could be so stupid. The spell hadn't even been aimed at him—he had run right into it. Does he have a death wish?
Kaili's pretty face darkened. She held back the third member, who wanted to go up and argue it out, and asked, "Are you Adam?"
Adam was in no mood to waste words on them. "You'd better leave right now, or you will die."
Kaili gave a cold laugh and pointed at Keli's corpse. "Like him? Are you going to kill us too? That thing just now was yours too, wasn't it? Ha, so this was your aim all along? What's this—the famous apprentice Adam has to stoop to such cheap tricks now?"
Adam was on edge. Some vague sense told him Peter Om was closing in fast—perhaps in the next second he would be on the defensive again. He simply stood and prepared to leave. If he couldn't drive these people off, then he would go himself.
Kaili threw out another potion spell and cried out to Adam in grief and fury, "You kill someone and then just walk away?"
Adam whirled around. A fierce wind pressure swept out and scattered the potion in the air. His emotionless eyes fixed on Kaili. "Do not test my patience, woman."
The third member could no longer hold back his rage. With a low roar he charged at Adam, muscles surging all over his body as he transformed into a giant over two meters tall. "Who gave you permission to talk to Miss Kaili like that?"
But before he could reach Adam, an immense pressure appeared out of nowhere and crushed him to the ground. His fearsome muscles split open inch by inch, and bright red blood soaked his body. Kaili let out a scream as the pendant on her chest shattered; a blue barrier appeared over her body, sparing her from instant death.
Damn it! Adam cursed inwardly. Because these fools had interfered, his plan was ruined.
Peter Om stepped out of the darkness one step at a time, floating in the air with a mocking expression. "Not bad magic. You're the only person I've ever seen who can use Teleportation at the apprentice stage. But it seems to have done you no good, doesn't it, little mouse?"
Kaili stared at Peter Om in terror. Spoiled and foolish as she was, she knew this was an enemy she could not resist. The blue barrier around her trembled under the pressure of his mana and looked ready to shatter.
"You—who are you?"
Peter Om looked at her coldly. As he passed her, he suddenly smiled warmly, extended a finger, and lightly touched the barrier. His finger pierced it as if the barrier did not exist at all.
"No, no, spare me, don't kill me!" Kaili did not even dare cry; she only begged in broken snatches.
Peter Om tilted Kaili's chin up. "Look at this—such a young soul. Innocent, full of vitality, and—" Pop. His finger pierced Kaili's forehead, and Peter Om tore out her soul and swallowed it. "Delicious."
Peter Om glanced at Adam, in no hurry. Instead he walked forward and, in the same fashion, extracted two more souls and ate them, then said with a light laugh, "I have to say, your luck really is terrible. To think you teleported right into the center of the trial grounds. Now I have plenty of time to play cat and mouse with you."
Adam shattered the rune group he had just built. Riding the force of the spiritual power burst, he won a brief breather from the mana pressure, then teleported again without hesitation. He was glad he had not been careless and had begun calculating the gravity parameters the instant he landed; otherwise this time he wouldn't even have had a chance to flee.
Peter Om's face darkened. He leaped up and gave chase toward the death mark's location. "Sly mouse."
Adam was once again spat out of the void. His injuries and spiritual power were once again completely drained—and this teleport had carried him less than half the distance of the last.
He did not stay where he was. He fled while recovering his spiritual power, knowing his earlier thinking had been wrong—staying put had been far too stupid.
Adam's temples throbbed ceaselessly. The deep malice coming from afar made him feel as if thorns were pressed against his back.
He had not flown far when he saw a team of apprentices attacking a huge land-dwelling magical beast together. Adam banked slightly and skimmed past them without a word. At a time like this, all he could do was ask some nameless god to grant them the luck not to be spotted by the Magefoe.
The apprentices did not even see clearly whether what flew past was human or beast. One of them muttered blankly, "What was that?"
"Don't get distracted! Are you trying to get us all killed?" someone cursed angrily.
More than ten minutes later, they finally killed the magical beast. Remembering the apprentice who had gotten distracted, they all began to blame him. "Dawn, you almost got us all killed just now. If it happens again, leave our team."
The apprentice named Dawn hurriedly admitted his mistake. But just as everyone relaxed and began recovering their spiritual power, Dawn suddenly pointed behind them and said again, "And what's that?"