17 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I've lost count of how many hours have passed since we've been here, but all I can say is that it feels like we've been here forever. I looked around at our surroundings and at the sky above, everything feels right.
"Spatium Infinitum," I repeat the term they mentioned while discussing what kind of illusion has trapped us. I tried to recall what I've read about magical illusions.
Circulus Inextricabilis (The Unescapable Circle) traps specific targets in a seamless spatial loop where every step forward mathematically returns them to their starting point, exiting only through an unreachable mirage.
Spatium Infinitum, on the other hand, makes the victim experience the crushing isolation of an endless void. They remain selectively tethered to a small, fixed location in reality, invisible or unreachable to those not caught in the spell.
I wanted to say that this isn't a spatial illusion, but I stopped myself from drawing unwanted attention.
Who knows what might happen again? Maybe it looks like a spatial illusion because it behaves like a space loop. They're almost the same, but if I had to choose between the two, I'd choose Circulus… it perfectly matches where we are right now.
If this is Circulus, then there's a chance the sorcerer has control over the space. It can even bring creatures into this place where we're trapped. That's the real danger, not the passing of days. There's also the possibility that something will appear, especially if the one who cast this is a high-tier sorcerer.
How can we tell if this isn't just Spatium Infinitum?
I'm getting sleepy, but I need to act if I want to escape this place. I might want to die, but doing nothing isn't who I am. I walked over to Craige, who was still talking, and Lira was there too. She smiled at me, so I smiled back.
"You should rest… there's a high chance that this space also consumes our mana, so moving isn't a good idea," Craige said in a worried voice.
I nodded, then sat beside him and looked at what was written on the paper.
The word DISPEL is written down.
"Dispel" is one way to break an illusion, by simply standing still for ten seconds.
But it has been crossed out from the list of ways to escape the spell. Even Shadowless Glitch, where the victim must realize they're inside an illusion space, didn't work. I even thought at first that this glitch only applied to mental illusions.
What we fear is that this might be a high-tier spell. Unfortunately, it feels like one, where the only way out is to find the caster and kill them. But if this is truly a Circulus Inextricabilis… then we're doomed. The caster can bring unknown creatures.
"Source." I read the word written down.
Every Circulus has a "Source", usually located at the exact center of the loop, and destroying this object (the "focal point") will destabilize the mana holding the space together. I still hope it's the way.
"Grace…"
We turned toward the one who called her, something I almost wish I hadn't done. It was Avelyne, the princess. Only now did I realize she had been with us all along. I hadn't noticed her before.
I felt the others' gazes fall on me, but I chose to ignore them.
Grace is an arcanist, the one trying to create a spell to locate the source. There are only three arcanists among us, and it just so happens that Avelyne is one of them.
"I didn't know she was here, too," I whispered to Craige.
He looked at me, his expression serious, as if I had said something wrong.
"What?" I asked. I know it's embarrassing, what happened in the Red Tower. He simply shook his head and glanced around.
"Lira…" he called. Then Craige took my hand and pulled me away.
I frowned, confused by what he was doing. I wanted to ask why he was distancing me from them. Does he think I'll do something reckless again? But I let him be.
"Craige… are you leaving?"
It was Avelyne. I couldn't help but furrow my brows at how suddenly she called his name. Craige and Lira exchanged a glance, as if they both already had an idea.
"If you're worried I might do something to Seraphina," she said, looking at me with a serious expression before turning to Craige, "then you can relax. I'm not so immature as to summon her to court over something as shallow as that."
I looked at Avelyne then, studying her face. For a moment, it didn't feel like she was the one speaking.
"Forgive me, Your Highness, if I made you feel that way, but it's not you I'm worried will do something…" Craige said, glancing at me. My mouth parted in shock at his words.
He's implying that I'm the one who might cause a scene. I wanna argue on that, but on the other hand, I might really do something crazy if I were to stay in the same space with her. That's why I didn't even notice her from the start.
Avelyne laughed softly, as if she found it amusing. I had never heard her laugh like that before. It caught me off guard. It sounded more refined, more genuine than the polite, practiced laugh she usually wore.
"That makes sense. Seraphina is such a woman of thought."
At that moment, I wanted to test the theory that had been lingering in my mind for the past few hours we'd spent here. I turned toward her and slipped my hand free from Craige's grasp, catching the clear disapproval in his eyes.
I walked straight to Raiven and kissed him without giving myself time to think whether it was a good idea or not.
Avelyne was standing right beside him.
As my lips remained pressed against Raiven's, I looked directly at her. The smirk on her face never faded. There was no shock in her expression, no hint of anger or surprise… just amusement.
The Avelyne I knew would have shown anything but amusement after what I had just done. I was about to pull away from Raiven when his hand suddenly caught my waist. His other hand slid to the back of my head, guiding me back toward him as he deepened the kiss without hesitation. Before closing his eyes, I caught the smirk tugging at his lips.
But the moment he realized I wasn't responding, wasn't kissing him back, he immediately stopped. His brows furrowed slightly as he looked at me, confusion flickering across his face.
He wondered why I wasn't kissing him back despite the fact that I had made the first move, I was the one who kissed him first.
I shove him away before quickly retreating toward Craige. Raiven's expression was unreadable, but he looks far more furious than shocked by what had just happened.
"You must've figured it out from that…"
Without warning, Princess Avelyne lunged at me and wrapped her hand around my neck. The next thing I knew, we were flying across a great distance from where the others stood. I let her choke me as she slammed me against a tree, pinning me there.
"You really are that man's flesh and blood. Damn!"
The fury in her voice shook with every word she spat at me. I only smirked in response while secretly reaching for the knife hidden beneath my uniform. The moment she noticed, her grip around my throat tightened painfully. Then she hurled me away again. Everything happened within seconds.
Craige ran toward me immediately, catching me before my back could crash against the massive boulder behind us, a towering wall of stone.
The force of his spell, used to stop our momentum, shattered the wall on impact. Rocks crumbled violently around us, triggering a landslide.
The whole place was changing.
"A shining armor, huh?" Her grin widened even more. That was when Avelyne's face starts to feel like a different person, more like a villain. It only lasted for a second, but I didn't miss it. I didn't know where the real Avelyne was. She could've been captured… or maybe already dead. I didn't know.
But one thing was certain, if I couldn't fucking kill the real Avelyne, then killing her copycat would be just as satisfying.
I smirked and quickly pushed myself up from the ground. Pain shot through my body, but I ignored it. Only minutes had passed when Craige suddenly disappeared because of the spell released by the fake Raiven. I didn't know when the switch had happened, or if from the very beginning… that person was never truly Raiven at all.
One by one, familiar faces started appearing around us—friends, classmates, people they once knew. I didn't know who I could trust inside this dimension because there was no way to distinguish ally from enemy.
All you could do was survive.
Kill or be killed.
What a fucked-up kind of logic.
I squat to reach the ground, doing it quickly as I tried to activate the spell I wanted to test, but I couldn't fully control it because it was too destructive for the surroundings.
"Pulsus Ruinae." A magic circle formed on the ground as crimson runes ignited and mana compressed violently beneath me, the air trembling under the pressure. I stayed crouched, forcing control over the unstable energy.
"Emissio Ruinae."
The spell was released. The compressed mana erupted outward as a controlled shockwave, turning into a localized earthquake that rippled through the ground. Trees shook and cracked, roots snapping as the terrain shifted violently in expanding waves.
She managed to break free quickly, almost mocking me like it was a failed attack—but she was wrong.
The moment she was lifted into the air by the recoil of the quake, I already had my bow in hand. In one smooth motion, I drew the string back and aimed it straight at her.
"Sagitta Glacialis."
An ice arrow formed at my bow, cold mana freezing the air around it. I released it, and it shot forward fast, leaving a trail of frost as it flew toward the target. She didn't expect it, so one of the arrows grazed her cheek while she was still in the air, with more following right after.
She reacted quickly, casting a defensive spell. A barrier appeared around her, and she destroyed each arrow before it could hit her. Ice shattered against the shield, turning into cold mist that spread through the air. While the arrows I released multiplied into triple the number, she was busy defending herself, and I took the chance to run—not away from her, but toward her.
I stopped when I was directly beneath her. She noticed me immediately, so I moved faster than necessary—I ducked down again and touched the ground.
"Ex terra ori, vincite et ligate." I chanted, not sure anymore if I said it clearly enough, but I didn't care. I took the chance as her defensive spell had an opening.
The ground cracked open as vines burst upward like living chains, wrapping around her barrier and tightening with force, trying to bind her completely.
I saw the anger on her face clearly. My spell wasn't as strong as it should have been, but I used that opening to leap into the air and grab her, placing a magic circle on her wrist to bind her using the ice magic I saw from Raiven on the first day of water training.
"Frigidis Vincula, bind in frost!" I chanted as I pushed her down to the ground, harder, just like they did to me earlier. I heard her scream and saw the hateful glare she gave me. I know she would break out of the bind I placed on her, but before she could…
I move again as I slam her into the ground.
I turn her to face me, then immediately draw out my katana. Without hesitation, I stab it on her chest, without thinking if this is real or not.
It didn't matter anymore if she was the real Avelyne or just a copycat…my rage was stronger than logic in my mind at that moment.
"Fuck!" She screams as the blood streams down her chest.
I thought I would succeed in my plan, but before I could pull the knife from her chest, I suddenly felt my strength weaken. I had a bad feeling about what was happening.
So I try to stand up to get away, but she grabs my hand while laughing.
Fucking black magic. She is sucking my mana. I try my best to counter it, but I can't even think properly anymore. In an instant, I am thrown on my back again. It's a spell I'm not familiar with, but it causes extreme pain in every part of my body.
It feels like all the pain I caused her is being transferred to me.
I don't miss the moment she pulls my knife out of her chest. The blood that was flowing earlier suddenly stops, and the wound closes. I close my eyes as I crash into a tree, so hard that it breaks, as if I passed straight through it instead of hitting it.
I stood up again. "You're a tough one," she said with a grin. She's holding my blade in her right hand.