The spell manifested with a sharp, crystaline crack.

In an instant, the cavern changed. Every surface, including the walls, ceiling, floor, and even the air itself, fractured into countless rectangular mirrors.

They hung at impossible angles, overlapping and intersecting, reflecting one another endlessly. The space felt multiplied, as if the cavern now existed in a thousand slightly misaligned versions at once.

At the same time, right after the spell came to life, the abomination ruthlessly struck Adam.

Dozens—no, hundreds—of tentacles and tendrils slammed down on him from every direction. They wrapped around his limbs, crushed against his ribs, and tore at his flesh.

Pain radiated through every inch of his body. It was overwhelming and immediate, instantly drowning out all of his thoughts. The pressure was immense and relentless, as if the cavern itself had turned hostile.

For a brief, brutal span of time, Adam was in a world of pain and could do nothing but endure.

And then…

The House of Mirrors took full effect!

Reflections began to stabilize. Each mirror captured fragments of movement that had never been fully seen before. They warped outlines, half-formed shapes, and eyes that should not have existed.

The concealment finally faltered. The abomination, forced into countless acts of observation, had no place left to hide.

At last, the paradox had locked in.

By observing itself through infinite reflections, the monster violated its own nature. Its form finally solidified into existence.

A massive, writhing mass of tentacles, tendrils, and eyes now occupied the center of the cavern, visible from every angle at once, trapped in a space where it could no longer remain unseen.

With concealment stripped away, the abomination's true form asserted itself, and the sight was wrong on a fundamental level.

At its core was a swollen, amorphous, and swirling mass. Its surface constantly shifted, folding inward and unfolding again, as though the creature existed half a moment out of sync with reality.

An otherworldly arched gate stood firm at the center of all this chaos, and within the gate were more layers of gates, receding endlessly, leading to a faraway realm.

The abomination consisted of countless tentacles and tendrils of varying thickness and length. Some were as thin as cords, others as wide as pillars, all of them in constant motion. Eyes were embedded everywhere, gleaming with cold indifference.

Even after realizing that its concealment ability had been countered, not a flicker of emotion glimmered in its countless eyes.

This was not a being meant to exist fully in this world.

It was only a fragment of something… far greater.

The countless eyes of the abomination blinked once, taking in the surroundings. Yet, it remained unmoved. Then all of its eyes locked in on Adam's figure.

He lay on the ground, on a puddle of his own blood. Several of his bones had fractured from the previous onslaught. His clothes were reduced to mere blood-stained tatters. Many wounds, big and small, criss-crossed his body.

Moreover, these injuries were slowly beginning to darken, and tiny tendrils were emerging from the bloody flesh. He had been corrupted. Again.

The abomination blinked once more.

Then it raised dozens of its tendrils and viciously struck at Adam's unmoving body. But right as the attacks landed on him, something strange happened.

Crack!

His figure shattered into countless shards of mirrors.

The House of Mirrors not only incorporated principles from the School of Summoning, but also from the School of Illusion!

Still indifferent to the turn of events, the abomination paused for a brief moment, then thrashed around violently, its tendrils and tentacles lashing out in every direction.

Mirrors exploded into shards under each strike, ringing through the dark cavern like breaking glass.

Yet the destruction was futile.

Wherever a reflection shattered, new mirrors immediately formed, sliding into place and restoring the endless lattice that trapped the abomination. This ensured that it always remained under a state of observation and thus visible.

Hidden somewhere deep within the cavern's shadows, Adam lay pressed against the ground, away from the prying eyes of the abomination. Blood soaked through his tattered robes, pooling beneath him as his breathing grew ragged.

With trembling hands, he consumed the fruit of the unholy tree and circulated the Five Elemental Codex. He forced mana through his body, battling the corruption, and at the same time, guiding the vitality of the fruit to heal his broken self.

His attempts were clumsy and desperate, driven less by precision than by sheer refusal to collapse. To lose consciousness at this stage would mean his spell falling apart.

He had sacrificed a lot to get till here. There was no way he was going to stop just because of some pain!

The cavern shook with distant impacts, but Adam focused only on survival, fighting to keep himself conscious long enough to heal.

Because the corruption in his body this time had originated directly from the abomination, it took him a lot longer to counter it and heal his injuries. As a result, he ended up using two fruits to fully deal with the corruption.

The vitality from the two fruits—in conjunction with the Five Elemental Codex—had gone entirely to counteract the abomination's corruption. Due to this, only a little of it could be directed towards healing his injuries.

Although his body was still riddled with ghastly wounds and his stamina had nearly depleted, at the very least, the corruption had been taken care of.

That… was close, Adam thought to himself with lingering fear.

If Adam had failed to cast the House of Mirrors in time or failed to keep it activated while he struggled to heal himself, the consequences would have been extremely dire.

Not only would all of his progress have gone to waste, but it was highly likely that he would have died. Or worse, succumb to the corruption!

He had never felt so close to death's doorstep as he had just now. But fortunately, his gambit had paid off, and he had managed to remove the veil of concealment from the abomination.

Now that the abomination had lost its stealth ability, phase three of Adam's plan could finally be put into motion.

This was the actual fight!

Adam weakly rose to his feet as he took support of the Staff of Calamity. He inhaled deeply, then exhaled. Strangling the pain and weakness wrecking every inch of his body, he finally got ready to battle.

He took a step forward and entered the maze of reflections.

It was time to defeat the abomination.

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