Chapter 255: Eyeball Soccer

The temperature rose, causing the illusion forest to begin melting around him. The false trees dissolved, while the ground cracked, and the monsters screamed.

Silas held the glowing sphere above his head, causing the entire battlefield to turn gold.

Neil shouted, "SILAS, THAT IS A TERRIBLE IDEA!"

"Why?" Silas asked, genuinely looking confused, though everyone could tell he was anything but confused.

"Because we are standing here!" Neil literally screamed, fear evident on his face. He was almost on the verge of tears.

"Oh." Silas paused. Then he casually threw the Sunball upward.

Everyone watched it rise.

For one beautiful second, nothing happened. Then the sphere exploded.

A golden sun bloomed above the forest, the shockwave tearing through the illusion domain.

Every low-rank monster vanished instantly, while the remaining B-Rank monsters were blasted away.

The Horned Chimera was driven into the ground, while the false sky shattered.

The illusion forest flickered between existence and nothingness, while Valecrest stood inside the golden storm with a blank expression. At this point, Silas had shown more than too much for them to be shocked anymore- and every show of power was more mind-blowing than the last.

Silas slowly lowered his hand. "See?"

He turned toward his team.

"Controlled."

A burning tree fell behind him.

BOOM!

Silas glanced over his shoulder, his expression calm and collected. "Mostly."

Christian pointed at him, tears already streaming down his face while sweat soaked his clothes thoroughly.

"You are never allowed to say that again."

The Horned Chimera began to rise. Its body was damaged beyond recognition, yet it still moved. Its eyes multiplied, while its mouth opened across its entire torso. The voice of the illusion domain thundered.

[UNAUTHORIZED POWER EXPANSION DETECTED!]

[DOMAIN INTEGRITY FALLING.]

[HOSTILE ENTITY ENTERING FINAL PHASE.]

The monster’s body split open, and a massive black eye appeared inside its chest, causing Silas’s smile to disappear. His Fate Thread Vision activated, and he saw the truth. The eye was not the core. It was rather a door.

Behind it was the actual entity controlling the illusion domain, and that entity had finally become afraid.

Silas cracked his neck.

"Alright."

Pink threads gathered around his arms, while the golden wings on his back dissolved into golden particles. A dagger appeared between his fingers, and his eyes glowed with several different powers at once.

The Horned Chimera screamed.

Silas smiled.

"Let’s traumatize it properly."

***

Football or soccer, whatever it’s called, Valecrest and the entire New Liberty were experiencing it, and the factors involved were Silas and a massive eyeball that was literally screaming.

The Horned Chimera had fought well, but against a serious Silas, illusion or not, its end was nigh.

[Prowess Activated!]

[Cupid Trait: Authority]

[Cupid Trait: Battle]

[Cupid Trait: Mischief]

The whole team felt Silas’s demeanor change. A deep pink aura, almost red, covered him, while his hair seemed to float and glow.

[A-Rank Daggers Purchased!]

[-10,000 CP]

[Saber-tooth Wolf Fangs]

"Nice..."

Silas’s voice came out seductively and alluringly, shocking everyone. The ground beneath him cracked and cratered, hurling rocks and stone all around him, so that Chloe had to conjure an ice wall to block any stray rocks.

’Why did he sound like that?’ Neil thought, his face turning pale.

The dagger in Silas’s hand was short, curved, and vicious.

Its blade resembled the fang of an enormous prehistoric wolf, with a serrated inner edge and a sharp, hooked tip. Pale ivory markings ran along the dark metallic surface, while two small fangs formed the guard around its handle.

It looked less like a weapon forged by humans and more like something ripped from the mouth of a monster.

Silas rotated it between his fingers.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

"Could you stop doing that?" Chloe asked, catching a stray rock.

"Doing what?" Silas asked, his smile widening.

"Existing aggressively."

"Can’t."

The massive eye roared, and a wave of black energy burst from its surface.

Silas disappeared.

The attack struck the ground and carved a deep trench through the illusion forest. A second later, he appeared directly in front of the eye and kicked it- his foot slammed into the massive eyeball.

BOOOOOOM!

The A-Rank monster shot across the battlefield like a football and crashed through several false trees before bouncing off the ground.

Silas stood in the crater where he had launched himself, while everyone stared at him like he was a ghost.

Christian’s mouth hung open.

"Did he just kick it?"

Silas looked at him.

"Yes."

"..."

The eyeball bounced again, but Silas just vanished. He appeared beneath it and kicked upward.

BOOM!

The monster shot into the sky, and Silas followed. He crouched, gathering power in his legs, and jumped. He twisted through the air and struck it with his knee.

The eye flew sideways, but he intercepted it and kicked it again. Each impact sent the monster in a different direction.

The A-Rank creature tried to create barriers, but Silas’s Authority interfered with the domain’s control. The barriers formed late, broke apart, or appeared in the wrong places. The monster tried to summon dozens of illusory copies, but Silas’s sharpened instincts countered it; the attempt was futile.

His body moved before the copies even finished forming.

He struck the real eye, and the false copies vanished, causing the eye to scream. Silas then caught it by one of its fleshy tendrils and swung it around his body.

"Come here."

He released it, causing the monster to fly toward the ground.

Silas landed first and waited for the eyeball to crash into the earth, forming a crater. He then placed one foot against its surface as the monster tried to escape.

Silas pressed down, and the ground shattered.

"Stay."

The eye screamed louder, its tendrils lashing out, but he caught five of them.

[Mischief Activated...]

His grin widened, while his eyes glowed brighter. To those witnessing, he had suddenly become a demon- he pulled the tendrils together and tied them into a knot, causing the monster’s body to twist helplessly.

The eyeball suddenly opened a second mouth and fired a concentrated beam of black energy, but Silas only tilted his head, and the beam passed beside him.

He then stepped forward and drove the dagger into the monster’s outer flesh. The Saber-tooth Wolf Fang sank deep into it, causing it to shriek.

Silas twisted the dagger- just enough to make it suffer. The monster thrashed. He then pulled the dagger free and jumped backward. Then he rushed forward again.

He struck the eye.

BOOM!

His elbow struck it.

CRACK!

His knee struck it.

THUD!

He grabbed one of its tendrils and swung the entire monster into the ground.

BOOOOOOM!

The false battlefield shook, and the illusion domain began collapsing around them.

[DOMAIN INTEGRITY: 18%.]

[DOMAIN INTEGRITY: 11%.]

[DOMAIN INTEGRITY: 5%.]

The monster tried one final attack.

Its entire body expanded while thousands of eyes opened across its flesh, and black energy gathered around it.

Silas stood before it, breathing slightly harder now. His mana was not infinite. His abilities had limits, but he still had his body and his activated traits.

He lowered the dagger.

"Last round."

The monster screamed and launched itself forward, but Silas stepped into its attack. He dodged the first tendril, slipped beneath the second, and caught the third.

Then he used the monster’s own momentum to pull it closer. His fist struck the center of the massive eye- all the strength in his body gathered into that single blow.

The punch landed, causing the eye to compress.

For a moment, the entire battlefield became silent. Then Silas drove the dagger into the same point. The blade pierced through the eye, causing the monster to convulse.

Its countless mouths screamed at once, while Silas leaned closer.

"Game over."

He twisted the dagger, and the massive eye shattered.

A wave of black energy burst outward, but Silas’s Authority seized control of it before it could reach the team.

The energy folded inward, causing the monster to collapse into itself, while the illusion domain cracked from one end to the other. Then everything shattered, disappearing into oblivion, and the true battlefield of Blackridge Tower returned.

Silas stood at the center of the destruction, holding the Saber-tooth Wolf Fang in one hand.

The A-Rank monster was dead.

[HOSTILE ENTITY ELIMINATED.]

[ILLUSION DOMAIN DESTROYED.]

[COMBAT COMPLETE.]

[CONGRATULATIONS.]

"That was fun."

Nobody answered.

Neil was still trembling, Christian was still crying, Peter looked like he had witnessed a crime, Darren had both hands on his head, and Victor was staring at the crater like it was suddenly beautiful.

Chloe slowly lowered her ice wall, her face devoid of emotion, but Silas could feel the cold, piercing glare directed at him, making him shiver involuntarily. He knew he was in for a good time.

Alpha looked at Silas for several seconds. Then he said, "You kicked an A-Rank monster like a ball."

Silas smiled.

"It was a good ball."

From somewhere beneath the ruined battlefield, a final fragment of the monster’s voice whispered:

[...why...]

Silas turned toward the remaining black residue.

"Because football is fun."

The last fragment vanished.