### Chapter Seventy-One: Cognition Hell (Part Eight)
The moment the scarlet異光 burst forth from the Raven’s eyes—
The entire world seemed to freeze for a second.
The whispers in my ears vanished in an instant, and I could no longer hear the wild winds. The swirling dust in the Night Color suddenly solidified, and those tentacles curled up in the darkness seemed to stop squirming, as if time had suddenly decided to take a vacation. Everything around me just… paused…
Then in the next moment, I was filled with a fit of rage.
ROAR—!!!
It sounded like the terrifying roar of a monstrous beast—a brutal symphony that echoed through the dark like the howling of waves.
That spine-chilling sound erupted from every corner of the world, accompanied by a hurricane that paused only for a brief moment before surging violently, shaking the fortress ground. The pressure radiated outwards, hitting me like a freight train.
I couldn’t help but grit my teeth as the dreadful roar seemed to end in an instant, leaving a constant buzzing in my ears, as if my eardrums had been stabbed by sound itself.
In my line of sight, the sky above darkened further. The gargantuan eye suspended high above squeezed its pupil hard, emitting an eerie green glow that suddenly got blindingly bright.
A mountain of pressure came crashing down from above on the winds, and I clenched my jaw, enduring the mental torture as my forehead bulged with veins. I forced my head up in the impenetrable Long Night, my eyes glued on that ghastly thing until I suddenly burst into laughter.
“Ah ha—”
It took the bait…
Was it angry, or in pain!
“Caw!”
The gigantic bird on my shoulder seemed to sense my emotions. It spread its wings, almost half a meter wide, letting out a croaky, ghostly cry, standing still against the wind, its sharp claws digging into my shoulder, puncturing my cloak as if they were embedded in my flesh.
Hold your horses…
The good stuff is just beginning.
Here we go, Crow…
In the next moment, ominous black clouds began to swirl and gather above.
“Caw, caw, caw, caw, caw—”
The change happened in the blink of an eye.
It happened so fast that even I couldn’t see it coming. Just as the imagined scene formed in my mind, a flock of crows appeared, traversed through the air, and spread across the darkened sky.
They let out a cacophony of obnoxious caws, like a swarm of black clouds sweeping over the castle, invading my senses, nearly blotting out all my vision as they charged towards that eye.
In the illusion emerged the illusion…
Triggered by “Oblivion,” it further influenced “it” by altering the thoughts of those entering the illusion, creating all sorts of false images, making the “falsehood within a falsehood” appear as tangible in this realm.
Sounds convoluted, right?
But let’s keep it simple—just let the “illusion” sculpted by “Oblivion” exist here for real, and then—
Deliver some substantial, devastating mental damage to that eye, which should also only be a “hallucination.”
“Caw, caw, caw…”
I stood high in the air, gazing at the doomsday-like scene above—black clouds coalesced from countless crows, merging almost seamlessly with the pitch-black of the night. I couldn’t even count how many there were; I hadn’t preset a limit in my mind, yet it was way more terrifying than I imagined…
The black clouds suddenly cloaked the entire sky, blocking even the wind. From a distance, it felt like countless black insects wriggling on a black canvas. It didn’t take long before the light from that eye was completely obscured. In the quaking of the earth and air, I heard an eerie howl resonating from the center of that black storm.
“ROAR—!!!”
But even that roar was soon smothered and swallowed up.
Time passed second by second.
Before I realized it, even the countless bl**d-colored tentacles writhing in the darkness had quietly gone still.
The sky was entirely dark; I could barely see anything, only hearing the cacophony of cawing, the flapping of wings, and the sounds of collisions echoing like a torrential downpour.
…Huh?
Is that it…?
Clang—
Just as I felt puzzled, a sharp metallic sound echoed suddenly from behind.
!
A sword…
Puff!
Just as the thought popped into my head, I felt a chill in my chest; an unfamiliar push came from behind, nearly causing me to stumble and nearly step off the icy platform into the abyss below.
…?
I instinctively looked down and saw a silver blade piercing through my chest, the tip protruding out on the other side, sizzling with blue arcs of lightning entwined around it, scorching my shirt until it started to blacken. I caught a whiff of something burning.
What’s this, a sensory trickery…
Sound blocking?
Aside from the clang, I heard nothing hinting at an attack…
This illusion can create living beings and fully replicate their powers?
Out of nowhere, the sword pierced through my body, yet no bl**d flowed, nor did I feel pain—of course, I wouldn’t feel pain because there was no way it could actually pierce me.
“Don’t come messing things up…”
You phony Sword Demon.
Smack!
I stretched out my hand and grabbed the sword blade.
In the next second, the small body suspended in the darkness began to rapidly go blurry and twist, transforming into dozens of black crows amid the fluttering Cloak. “Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh,” they flapped their wings and scattered swiftly, circling around before darting back like arrows, pouncing on the bewildered “Sword Demon” in the sky!
Meanwhile, my “real” self had reappeared a hundred meters away, on the still-standing wall of the city in the south, shrouded in darkness.
“Tricked me, huh… heh.”
I dusted off my sleeves and shook the debris from my head as I glanced at the “Sword Demon” entangled in mid-air, now falling with a few crows, then I ignored it and looked up, focusing on the higher Night Sky.
In my view, the eye, under the black clouds formed by the crows, seemed to have no chance of fighting back, as if it were completely at the mercy of the endless flock raining down upon it.
Just a hint of green light pulsed at the center of the cloud, never fading.
That thing seemed to have given up…
No way it’s this weak, right?
Something feels off…
“ROAR—!!!”
Suddenly, a massive beast’s roar echoed through the dark city.
But this time, the sound came from the white light that erupted from my chest.
“White Dragon…”
The roar startled me.
Once I registered it, I quickly patted my chest to reassure myself, “It’s all good, it’s all good! I’m fine, see? No one can hurt me… No need to panic… You’re not fully recovered yet, so just chill for a bit longer, stay put!”
“Grumble, grumble, grumble…”
As I spoke soothing words, the white light on my chest gradually faded. I could faintly hear the White Dragon’s grumbling protest.
That sound faded as the white light completely disappeared.
…Alright then.
I shrugged, feeling a bit bored, and looked up at the sky again.
If that’s the case, let’s play something even more fun…
