Noah's eyes became cold as he regained control of his mental faculties.
"Do you know what were her last words to me?"
Lily's expression became confused and she tried to retreat but Noah's grip on her arm was firm and unmoving.
"She said: don't care about me. That woman managed to endure any kind of pain in order to give me enough time to develop."
A warm smile appeared on his face as he thought about her.
Lily panicked and spoke.
"How did you manage to break free from the illusion? Your mind was lost in guilt!"
Noah shook his head.
"I didn't, it's just that she always smiled every time she looked at me."
She replied in a confused voice.
"Then, how did you regain control of yourself?"
"Because you tried to ruin my image of her and that made me angry."
Black smoke came out from the hand holding her arm.
"So angry that all the guilt disappeared and I could think clearly again."
The smoke enveloped the arm and the scene shattered, revealing a skinny green limb that was holding a knife made of bones.
"You know, I might be a psycho incapable of choosing between my mother's life and cultivation. Call me a demon or whatever, I don't care."
The smoke consumed the limb almost instantly and Lily escaped Noah's grip.
"But if you thought that using my memories of her was a smart tactic, then you really understood nothing of her."
She had killed herself to protect Noah, to prevent the Balvan family from using her to hurt him.
Noah couldn't let an illusion do the same thing that she tried so hard to avert.
Black smoke came out from every part of his body, turning into a protective armor and covering him completely.
The scene shattered in many parts, incapable of enduring the might of Noah's spell.
Lily's figure turned into a humanoid green beast with pointy ears and a large nose.
It spoke as it retreated.
"Wait! The humans you came with are near you, you might hurt them if you keep going."
Noah yelled in a rough voice to reply.
"I DON'T CARE! DEMONIC FORM!"
The spell completely activated and he turned into the fiendish figure that constantly released black toxic smoke.
The beast tried to run but Noah arrived in front of him in an instant.
He grabbed its throat and slowly watched its body being devoured by his spell.
When nothing was left of the beast, he looked around him to inspect the situation.
'That was close, if Echo and the "Breath" in my sea of consciousness didn't oppose the illusion, I might have died.'
He had lied to the beast in order to confuse it.
It was true that he was incredibly angry but it was thanks to the internal pressure in his mental sphere that he managed to regain clarity.
'Now, I should first get rid of this fog.'
He focused and his mental energy depleted at high speed.
More smoke was produced and it devoured the fog around him.
As the fog disappeared, the environment shattered revealing the true form of the fourth layer.
It was a rocky location, with purple crystals sparsely embodied in the terrain.
'They should be Fog goblin and those crystals enhance their innate ability to create illusions. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for me to get affected by simple rank 3 magical beasts.'
After he had seen their aspect and the environment they were in, Noah guessed which kind of magical beasts they were facing.
The Fog goblins were humanoid magical beasts.
Their intelligence was high, almost on par with the human's one, and they mostly targeted intelligent beings as their prey.
They covered an environment with fog that they naturally secreted which was used to confuse their victims.
However, their actual battle prowess was low, once their illusion was broken, they were even weaker than rank 2 beasts.
'I should first find the others and then go wild.'
He released even more black smoke and carefully watched the scene transform.
The first to appear was Nigel, he was in a confused state and a goblin was hugging him while he cried.
Noah sent Echo to kill the beast and hastily made it retreat to avoid to disperse more smoke in his position.
He was trying to save them after all, if he was careless, he could kill them with his spell.
He then found June who was sitting on her knees with her face lowered.
She was biting her lower lip so hard that blood flowed on the ground.
A goblin was in front of her, holding a knife.
Echo arrived in her position in an instant, killed the goblin, and returned to Noah.
He lastly found Errol.
He had some cuts on his body and he was retreating in panic.
Noah vanquished the goblin and stopped his spell.
Echo returned in his body and he carried each one of them in the spot where the passage for the third layer was.
There was no fog in that position after Noah went all out with his Demonic form so they slowly regained clarity of mind.
"Vance, what happened?"
June asked as soon as her eyes focused.
"Fog goblins with their abilities enhanced by those purple crystals. Stay here, I will gladly clear this layer alone."
He turned before she could reply to him and disappeared in the fog.
"Noah, my child."
"Noah, I'm your mother!"
"Don't worry my child, I can endure a bit more."
Many figures of Lily appeared around him as he moved.
However, the only reaction that they caused was an increase in the coldness of his aura.
He freely launched fuming wind slashes in every direction, cracking the illusion as the partial Demonic form devoured the fog.
Lily's figures shattered many times, increasing Noah's need to vent.
'My mother might be dead but you are alive enough to withstand my anger!'
It took Noah an entire day to kill all the magical beasts in the floor.
The Fog goblins, when they saw that Noah was unaffected by their innate ability, began to hide.
Since his field of view was hindered, he decided to completely vanquish the fog itself with his spell.
He had to drink many potions to keep up with the consumption of mental energy.
Nevertheless, the test was completed and he rejoined his group to wait for the rewards.