Chapter 519 Black Whirlpool <TOC> Chapter 521 Pulsating Sound
Translator: SumTLMan
Initially, Angel thought that being in a soul state should make him immune to illusion spells. But to his surprise, even his soul state was affected here.
Angel’s expression wasn’t great, as time ticked away, making him increasingly anxious.
“Give me a minute, I’ll try again.” Angel left his body behind, and his soul soared upward. This time, Angel used the Gravity Line, reaching extreme speed. If nothing went wrong, he should be able to fly out of the water in a few seconds.
But a minute later, Angel returned to his body with an uneasy expression.
Angel’s expression already revealed the problem, and everyone fell silent for a moment.
“It’s all my fault. If I had gone farther around, maybe we wouldn’t be affected,” Nausica said with a sad expression, her words filled with heavy guilt.
Although the others didn’t say anything, there was a hint of blame in their eyes when they looked at Nausica.
Nausica was a confident person. Why would she suddenly say such a thing? According to Angel’s understanding, even if Nausica truly felt guilty, she would apologize and then do her best to make up for her mistake, not wallow in self-pity.
And the others didn’t argue? Angel looked at them strangely, sensing something was wrong.
He closed his eyes and sensed his surroundings.
There was nothing unusual, and the energy fluctuations were normal. However, as a disciple of illusion spells, Angel was extremely sensitive to illusion nodes. He noticed some initially dormant illusion nodes surrounding everyone becoming active.
Could this be the reason?
But Angel also discovered that the illusion nodes around him became active as well, yet they seemed to have no effect on him?
After some thought, Angel decided to conduct an experiment. He reached out, and energy dispersed.
“Angel, what are you doing?” Cherie’s expression was suspicious, showing a defensive stance towards Angel.
Everyone turned around and saw Angel’s hands flashing with energy, doubting his intentions and becoming defensive.
In this situation, they didn’t notice anything wrong themselves. But Angel could see it clearly that this reaction was not normal.
Luna seemed to sense something was off as well. She rubbed her head against Cherie and kept meowing. Cherie raised her leg, as if she wanted to kick Luna away, but after some internal struggle, she put her leg down.
Angel fell silent for a moment. The others’ attitude of “if you don’t explain, then you’re our enemy” forced him to explain: “The reason we can’t leave must be because of an illusion spell. I’m trying to attack the illusion nodes.”
For this reason, everyone thought for a moment and accepted it.
Angel quickly eliminated the active illusion nodes surrounding everyone with the utmost speed. Although these illusion nodes were reborn shortly after, the newly emerged nodes were still in a dormant state, requiring a certain preheating time to become active again.
After these illusion nodes were extinguished, Angel clearly felt that the atmosphere of the group had returned to normal.
“We can’t waste any more time, we have to find a way out of here,” Cherie said: “Shall we look around?”
“Didn’t Angel just say that a woman attacked Nausica and stole the Sword of Mer? Since she dared to snatch the Sword of Mer at this time, she must have a way to leave. If we can find her, maybe we still have a chance,” Coral said.
“This method can work,” Cherie also agreed. “Angel, what do you think?”
Angel confirmed that everyone was back to normal and whispered: “You all take a look.”
He stretched out his hand and arranged a small illusion.
The illusion displayed a series of scenes that had happened when their emotions were not right earlier, especially the interaction between Cherie and Luna. Angel perfectly restored Cherie’s expression at the time. That annoyed, hesitant look made it easy for everyone to see her inner struggle.
After the illusion was finished, Angel didn’t say anything, but Cherie spoke up: “If you hadn’t shown this part, I wouldn’t have noticed. Now that I think about it, our emotions seemed a bit off just now?”
“How could I possibly blame Nausica? This clearly has nothing to do with Nausica,” Coral wondered. “And why would I suspect that Angel wanted to kill us?”
“Negative emotions were magnified. We didn’t argue just now, so what was magnified was just our mutual suspicions,” Cherie frowned. “If we had quarreled earlier, perhaps the consequences would have been more severe.”
“Did our emotions return to normal now because you, Angel, discovered some clues?” asked the rarely speaking Hilary.
Everyone looked over, as it was clear that their condition had returned to normal with Angel’s help.
“Illusion nodes, this place is full of them. But most of them are dormant. Just now, some of the nodes around you became active…” Angel briefly explained his previous guess and continued: “This place is very strange. Just now, the active illusion nodes affected your emotions, and maybe soon, other nodes will become active. By then, no one can say for sure what they will affect.”
Angel’s words made everyone’s expressions a bit uneasy. This ability to change one’s emotions unknowingly was too powerful. No one wanted to become someone they hated, and when Angel had cast the illusion earlier, they felt disgusted by their own actions in the illusion.
At this moment, Angel suddenly noticed that the illusion nodes around Coral had become active again.
“Coral, the illusion nodes around you have become active,” Angel didn’t take action immediately, instead, intending to let Coral know and see if she could suppress them forcefully.
“My surrounding illusion nodes are active?” Coral looked puzzled: “Really?”, “Why can’t I feel it?”, “Are you trying to trick me?”
“Why would you deceive me?!”
At first, everything was normal, but later on, Coral’s emotions became more and more out of control.
Angel sighed and gently snapped his fingers. The energy he had prepared around Coral instantly erupted, annihilating the activated illusion nodes.
Coral’s expression returned to normal.
This sudden emotional change left everyone silent. They had previously observed the illusions without a sense of reality, but now a real example appeared before them, they could no longer deceive themselves.
Based on Coral’s situation, it was evident that even if they knew their emotions would go out of control, they still couldn’t control them.
At this point, Angel reached out again, annihilating several activated illusion nodes around Cherie and Nausica.
Both Cherie and Nausica could feel Angel’s movements and the energy fluctuations he released. They knew what it meant, and their expressions worsened.
“I can sense the illusion nodes, but I can’t perceive the so-called silence or activation,” Cherie looked at Angel: “Do you have a way to keep these illusion nodes inactive?”
Angel shook his head: “These illusion nodes were not set up by me, and I don’t even know which branch of illusions they belong to. It’s difficult to control them.”
“Can we use defensive spells to avoid being affected by our emotions?” Nausica suggested.
“It’s worth a try.”
After a while, Angel annihilated a few illusion nodes and shook his head at everyone: “No, a simple defensive spell can’t defend against the illusion nodes…”
Angel suddenly paused: “A simple defensive spell…huh, what about a complex one?”
Angel suddenly had an idea. If he set up a layer of stable illusion nodes around everyone, could they act as a defense?
Using illusion nodes to defend against illusion nodes!
After Angel shared his thoughts, everyone was willing to cooperate.
However, after a while, Angel once again manipulated energy, annihilating several activated illusion nodes.
“No good, using illusion nodes to counter illusion nodes, it failed,” Angel shook his head.
If they didn’t solve this problem soon, their chances of leaving would become even more impossible. As they watched time slipping away, everyone felt a bit desperate.
“It would be nice if we could control our emotions,” Nausica whispered with a sigh.
“I’ve heard that once you reach the level of a wizard, you can easily control your emotions. Unfortunately, we are far from being wizards,” Coral replied.
Their private conversation suddenly reminded Angel of something. Speaking of controlling emotions… he could actually do it too!
The music box he had constructed earlier had even affected Mirror Lady, who was moved by the emotions inside. It was said that this might be his illusion talent.
Later, Angel experimented with various situations. He could not only influence emotions but also affect people’s sense of space, sense of direction, and self-awareness.
However, the requirement was that the target’s power was not higher than his. If their power was higher, he would not be able to influence them. But there was one exception: as long as the emotions incorporated had a “nightmare aura,” he could infect people more powerful than him, even the Mirror Lady, who had lived for countless years.
Angel didn’t know why this was the case, but it was probably due to his dream soul body?
Casting aside unrelated thoughts, an idea rose in Angel’s heart: If I influence everyone’s emotions first, will the other illusion nodes still be able to affect them?
As soon as he thought of it, Angel shared his idea with everyone. In this time-sensitive situation, no one could afford to think too much. Even if this method sounded a bit unconventional, they all nodded in agreement.
Angel’s first test subject was Nausica. The others had power levels similar to his, so he either had to forcibly break through their defenses or they had to willingly lower their barriers, which was a bit troublesome. Nausica’s power level was a whole rank lower than his, so he didn’t have to worry about that.
But now another problem arose: What kind of emotion should he use to affect Nausica?
This emotion should preferably not affect her judgment.
Joy? Happiness? These overly positive emotions seemed to eliminate the sense of urgency, and in these time-sensitive moments, lacking a sense of urgency wasn’t a good thing either.
Angel hesitated for a while before making a decision.
Calmness! Angel decided to impart a calm emotion, suppressing all other emotions and making Nausica completely calm and collected.
With that decided, Angel put his plan into action.
Since emotional contagion belongs to the talent of illusion magic, Angel wants to create an illusory realm for the receiver to dwell in.
However, the illusions he can create now are fixed and will lose their effect once they leave the range of the illusion. Even if his idea succeeds, they can’t always stay in the illusory realm, right?
So, Angel can only use another method to assist emotional contagion.
Nightmare Illusion!
Nightmare Illusion is a higher-level illusory power than ordinary illusion magic. Through the power of Nightmare Illusion, Angel can directly envelop emotions and infect others without setting up an illusory realm.
As a hazy breath merges into Nausica’s brow, her languid and confident temperament gradually changes, becoming calm and indifferent, as if she has turned into another Cherie.
“How do you feel?” Angel asks.
“It feels great. There are no complicated messages, and my thoughts have become very clear.” Nausica says: “I feel like I can enter meditation directly.”
The changes in Nausica are seen by everyone, and they look at Angel’s ability to control emotions with curiosity and a faint sense of awe.
Angel: “The illusion node has started to activate.”
Everyone’s expression tightens, as the key to success or failure lies in this moment.
Chapter 519 Black Whirlpool <TOC> Chapter 521 Pulsating Sound