The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 7 - Chapter 29 - The Temple of Illusions

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Wolf

After recovering all my energy, I quickly make my way into the Temple. Only to find myself appearing in some large maze which confuses me even more than the main area of the Centurion Boss Floor before it.

The maze looks… I’m not really sure how it looks.

Just like the area of the floor before the Temple, it is layered in so many illusions that I’m not sure what’s an illusion and what isn’t. But from what I can see, I’m in some sort of bizarre maze corridor. With different parts of the corridor being massive to the point of stretching hundreds of meters in width, while other parts of the corridor stretch only a few centimeters.

And it just varies between those widths constantly. Yet when I walk up to one of the walls, my hand just passes through them. At the same time, sometimes my hand just stops against some invisible wall.

Then there are the numerous monsters all across the corridors. Some of which are attached to the walls, others are just flying around.

But they all share one thing at the very least.

The moment they notice me they begin charging straight at me with abandon.

I watch for a moment before spreading my Domain outwards and devouring everything in sight. Whether they’re the monsters, the illusions, or even the smallest scraps of illusion elemental energy.

My Domain devours all. Freezing everything before slowly erasing it all and absorbing it into my own physical strength.

And as it does that, I see the illusions fading as the corridors fix themselves. Then I start moving through the corridor with my hands in my pockets. Just devouring everything I see.

A faint smile spreads across my face as I do this. Because it’s a lot easier than it used to be.

Back when I was fighting in Beelzebub’s Centurion Boss Floor, things were far harder. With the monsters themselves being far stronger.

Or I guess it’s because I’ve spent so much time expanding my Domain since I was there. So I’m a lot stronger now.

That and the fact that the illusion element is just weaker in terms of direct combat strength than the curse element.

Illusions are meant more for trickery than overwhelming things with pure strength after all.

Which, while is easier to destroy, is very annoying to deal with.

I gradually make my way through the Temple, devouring all the illusions as I go. But over time I find the illusion elemental energy changing slightly.

It starts to turn rainbow in color.

Which I guess means it’s Loki’s direct energy now.

Probably.

That said, for me all it means is that it takes more of my energy to devour it than before. Since I’m just straight up devouring it instead of attacking it.

So I continue devouring everything I can see. Turning the maze into a wasteland maze of ice.

But no matter how long I spend devouring everything in sight with my Domain, I never find the scepter. Even after going through the Temple for days upon days.

I just keep devouring the elemental energy and everything within the Temple endlessly.

Eventually entire weeks pass. Then months.

But I still don’t find the scepter.

And after three entire months pass, with me nonstop killing monsters and expanding my energy capacity with every level-up I make, I begin to realize something’s wrong.

Something is very wrong.

I’m not sure why or what’s wrong, but something just feels incredibly wrong.

Just in the very back of my mind.

And the moment I begin to feel that way, some faint cracks begin to appear on the walls of the maze. Making me blink as nothing like this has happened in the entire months I’ve been here.

I glance at the livestream chat before frowning.

[There are so many monsters. Just how long is he going to be in this floor?!]

[Is Loki just trolling us here?]

[It’s been months!]

No matter how hard I search the chat, I don’t see a single message talking about the cracks on the maze walls. Following which the cracks begin to grow wider and wider. As if because I’ve noticed something else is wrong.

My eyes narrow as the bad feeling grows worse and worse.

Am I… in an illusion right now?

The moment the thought comes to mind, the walls of the maze suddenly shatter. Revealing some sort of large field of grass.

I blink at the sight of it. Then I glance at the livestream chat again.

[Hey, he’s finally snapped out of it!]

[That took entire months! Is he finally going to continue through the Dungeon?!]

[FINNAAALLLYYYYYY!!!]

I guess the previous chat really was just faked in the illusion.

Although, when I look at my level, I find it being the same as what it was in the illusion. Which I guess means the monsters in the illusion were real enough to give me real EXP.

Then again, I guess that kind of makes sense. It’s his variant element after all.

To make his illusions reality.

Anyway, I turn my focus onto the plains around me. Only to see numerous illusions in them as well.

Except this time the illusions are hiding monsters and large pillars of stone on the plains.

I frown before beginning to devour everything with my Domain. Just to soon realize my energy is almost out.

Was the illusion hiding my diminishing energy supply somehow?

I look around for a few seconds. Then I let out a sigh and create a massive dome of lunar ice.

Sealing myself away in the dome as I sit down and close my eyes.

Time to recover my energy while I wait here.

I just hope this isn’t another massive illusion.

It would be incredibly annoying if I was stuck inside of multiple illusions after all.

To make absolutely certain that I’m safe though, I go ahead and freeze myself solid in my ice too. Not just the dome.

This should be safe.

Hopefully.