READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 19: illusion unravelled
"I hate Celestara — for beating me"
"I want to beat her"
"I want to humiliate her"
But however now
"I feel bad for Celestara." Kael muttered to himself.
Just then, a voice echoed in his mind—soft but chillingly persistent.
'Kael…'
Kael snapped his head up, eyes wide.
"Who....who is it?" he demanded, but only silence answered him.
He shook his head, determined to ignore it.
'Kael!'
He gritted his teeth.
"Who the hell are you?" His words were swallowed by an intense, vibrating hum that filled the air.
It grew louder, reverberating around him like a drumbeat.
boom, boom, BOOM!—until it felt like his entire mind was breaking apart.
"KAEL, SNAP OUT OF IT!" a voice roared, cutting through the noise like a thunderclap.
His vision fractured, as if his surroundings were shattering like glass, each fragment of reality falling around him in a cascade of splintering light.
Crack! Snap! Shatter!
Kael blinked as pieces of the glasses disintegrated before his eyes, raining down in shards that dissolved into nothingness.
For a moment, he was weightless, suspended in a world of broken images.
Then, with a final deafening crash, everything snapped back into focus.
He stumbled, his mind whirling, struggling to ground himself.
Suddenly, he found himself standing in a dimly lit room with Celestara in front of him, her hands gripping his shoulders tightly as she shook him.
Her face was pale with worry, her voice trembling but insistent.
"Kael! Kael, snap out of it!" Celestara shouting non-stop.
Kael's vision steadied as he looked into her eyes, blinking as he tried to grasp what was happening.
Kael looked around, disoriented, and murmured, "Celestara…?"
Her expression softened with relief, but the tension remained in her eyes.
"Oh, thank god!" Celestara exhaled, her relief palpable.
Kael's mind raced
He quickly glanced around the room and froze.
Marina lay on the ground, bleeding and cackling, a twisted grin spread across her blood-smeared face.
Kael's thoughts scrambled to make sense of it all.
"But…Alaric—he was here just a moment ago," he muttered, confusion mingling with frustration.
"What's going on?" kael asked.
"It was an illusion created by this bitch" Celestara answered,while glaring at Marina.
Celestara continues "If you didn't break out from that illusion ,you might die in 20 minutes— you are safe now".
As Kael processed Celestara's words, a chill swept through him.
"20 minutes, and I'd be dead?" he echoed, realizing how close he'd come to losing everything.
"So she was the one who cursed my husband" Celestara said while condensing her dark aura to not harm kael.
She doesn't know that she was the one who is cursed.
"An illusion," kael murmured under his breath, his voice filled with a mix of anger and shock
(A/N: illusion was created after the fight)
'Marina had woven an illusion around me,' he thought, a knot of anger forming in his chest.
She was playing with my mind, manipulating everything I saw and felt.
His fists clenched, and a sharp chill ran down his spine.
How much of what he'd just seen—Alaric's supposed betrayal, Celestara's suffering—had been fabricated?
Marina had twisted his perception, exploiting his compassion, his instincts, even his desire to protect.
He felt violated, as if his own thoughts had been turned against him.
"Hooooo..
He took a deep breath, steadying himself.
But as the shock subsided, a calm and dangerous focus took hold of him.
Marina had underestimated him, believing her deception could hold him prisoner, but her manipulation had only sharpened his resolve.
He looked at her lying on the floor, bloodied and weakened, and saw her for what she truly was—a master of deceit, someone willing to fracture loyalties and hearts to further her own dark agenda.
"Hoooooo.. " Kael took a deep breath again
"So this is what it's like… having someone else crawl inside your head, twisting your thoughts," he muttered under his breath, a mix of anger and disgust in his voice. "I've faced enemies head-on... but this—having my mind toyed with? That's a new low."
The last traces of doubt faded, replaced by a steely determination.
The experience had left him feeling exposed, vulnerable even, but it also lit a fire within him—a determination to make sure no one would ever manipulate him like that again.
As then Kael's vision blurred, the weight of exhaustion pulled him down.
His legs gave out, and he felt himself slipping, barely aware of a pair of strong arms catching him just before he hit the ground.
Celestara held him close, her face etched with worry as he sagged against her.
The room felt distant, voices fading in and out as he fought to keep his eyes open, but it was no use.
His strength was spent.
Before the darkness took him, he caught a glimpse of a few figures surrounding them lumia among them, her face a mixture of shock and relief.