Chapter 2288: Reflection

Sam felt his body shiver.

He could feel it, the fear that was ingrained into his soul. The fear that played a part in turning him into the monster he is. The fear only lasted for a moment though.

The shiver turned to a tremble.

A tremble not of fear, but of anger and rage. In his past life, one of the things he regretted is not being able to take revenge for this. The people who subjected him to this died in his own hands. He poisoned them.

However, he didn't kill them with that intent.

He didn't get to channel this rage. That anger is now flaring up. However, that is not the only thing that is angering him. Instead, there is something else, someone else that is the target of his anger.

The bloody test.

There is only one thought that is running through his mind.

How dare they do this? How dare they peer into his deepest darkest memory and make it flare up now?

Sam's trembling anger made his mind clearer and clearer. He completely isolated himself from this thought. The momentary fear and anxiety that came with that memory disappeared and along with it, the illusion around him also collapsed.

Sam found himself in the same sky.

There is still nothing around him, however he could guess what happened here. It could be a spirit attack. The other party could have been a specter, or a corrupted soul. Something like that has attacked him.

His mind.

The fact that he couldn't perceive it, sense it or engage with it, made it easy for it to deal with this situation.

However, it is not like he didn't have any measures against it. Sam's body surged with death energy. The partial fusion state made him look like he came straight out of hell. He fortified his mental state completely.

*BUZZ*

There it came, another attack aimed at his mind. But this time, the specter, spirit or whatever it is, didn't have enough strength to penetrate it.

The specters that came out of his body all spread around. Hundreds of them. They are enough to occupy a significant radius around him.

From all the previous rounds, he noticed one thing, the formation nodes are within a specific radius from the area he spawned. Whether the structure was of a dome, sphere or something else, they were always within a certain radius.

Sam made the specters spread around and occupy that exact radius.

They all started gathering energy. Their death energy riled up as well and soon, energy lines spread from their bodies.

They are acting as nodes and a network is being formed at great speeds.

Sam acted as the center of it. He didn't care to find the moving elements, he didn't care to find the core of the formation puzzle, he just stood there and made his own formation. Soon, a faint grey hue emitted from all the specters

The formation was completely filled with it and within that grey hue, Sam managed to spot two figures, that were previous invisible.

Their audacity... they are even right next to him.

*SCREECH* *SCREECH*

The formation acted up.

All the specters used the formation and started sucking the energy out of these specters.

Specters are such peculiar creatures, they don't have any cognitive skills except for the instinctual thinking. But they can project all the other emotions like happiness when attacking others, anger when their prey resists, pain and fear when they finally become the prey.

Right now Sam saw them screaming. He didn't bother with the puzzle, he didn't bother with the competition.

He just wanted an outlet for a moment and the specters are perfect for it.

*SCREECH*

Within next three minutes, another specter spawned out of thin air. However, it fell within the formation radius and it started screeching as it came.

It didn't even have any time to attack or even project an intent to attack Sam.

Sam let the specters scream in pain.

The elders watching this were stupefied.

"He broke his illusion that fast? Is it really working properly? How can someone escape from their darkest memory that fast?" One of the elders spoke with a shivering tone. The other one is too stunned to even speak.

The elder from Loki academy looked at the situation and gulped.

"I don't know what memory he saw, but it definitely triggered him too much. he is not even trying to finish the test, he is just trying to vent his anger."

"But... the specters are the key to move out."

"I know. The whole point of this round is to make them endure. They need to endure the specters long enough time to let enough specters spawn.

Once they are enough, they will reveal themselves as nodes. If they could gather enough of their mental energy and endure enough to not collapse under the onslaught of these dark memories, they would be able to construct the formation to break this puzzle and move to the final stage of the illusion tower.

But this guy...

I don't even understand the point of this competition.

Did he really just come to the second grade? What are the second graders even trying for?" The elder of Loki academy elaborated the absurdity of it.

"The kids from the Viswakarma academy and that kid from Hel academy are doing really well. Their timings are better than all the second graders that attempted the illusion tower before.

If this monster is not here, they would have shined brightly.

He just stole the spotlight."

"The attempts on his life are for no reason. I heard he was attacked repeatedly yesterday. It seems like the results of the first prelims already made him a target."

"Of course, his identity itself doesn't help much."

As they are discussing, another three minutes later the fourth specter appeared, three more minutes, the fifth one came.

At that moment, the specters all started glowing. Sam immediately sensed it. Just like how the elder explained to his fellow elder, the specters are the nodes of the formation that Sam needs to use to get out.

These are not just typical nodes, they themselves are incomplete formations with their own intricate structures.

By combining all the specters and finishing the network, they will create the formation to get

out of here.

Sam scanned their structure, he did want to make them suffer a bit more. However, he knew better than taking his anger out on juts mere tools. What would happen to the people who

used these tools if they don't give them a message?

They need to take the brunt of it. Until then, he has to suppress it just a little.

After looking at the structure, four of Sam's specters moved. They broke out of the formation

and came near him.

Sam started modifying their bodies. He injected the energy forcefully and morphed their structures completely. The next moment, using the force of the formation, he started moving the specters of this illusion to their specific locations.

The elders abruptly stood up.

"What the fuck..."

One of them screamed out.

Sam forcefully placed these specters in their locations and used the specters of his own to

finish the formation to exit this space.

As for the energy source? He used his own energy. He didn't care for the energy of the puzzle's

core, he just used his own and burst out of this place.

"This guy is fucking crazy. That formation... it consumes even the energy of a peak stage

second grade student completely dry."

Sam just set a new record for escaping that phase of the illusion tower. That phase basically had a minimum time because at least nine specters are needed to get out of there. But Sam

didn't wait until nine are there.

Five spawned and he used his own specters to fill out the rest.

Sam exited that zone quickly and found himself in another grey hall. However this time, it is

not just some empty hall with nothing in it. There are mirrors, dozens of them, all placed at various spots in different angles.

As soon as Sam appeared there, his reflection from various angles is visible on those mirrors. Sam looked at them with a frown. He didn't know what to do here.

At least in the tunnel puzzle, he knew he had to walk, in the next subsequent levels, he knew he had to deal with the creatures and climb the floors, but now... he doesn't know what to do. The only thing odd is that even though there are so many mirrors, none of them is clearly and directly facing him. So, there is no straight reflection of his on any of the mirrors.

He walked to the closest mirror and stood in front of it.

He could see his image, clear as a day. He then turned around and took a few steps, but before

he knew it...

*SWOOSH*

A fire ball flew towards him.

The reflection that he saw in the mirror before, is stepping out of it with both hands carrying

golden fire balls.

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