While Alex was taking his first step into the unknown after descending from the mountain, in another location was Gracier, the leader of the Red team composed of seven members. Surprisingly, seven out of the eight members of the Red stayed together even after their travel to this floor. Somehow, Alice was not together with them.
Looking at her surrounding, which was nothing other than barren wasteland, Gracier sighed.
''From the information, we gathered, normally, if a team of five entered, while the five don't need to reappear together, at least two may stay together. However, looking at us now, seven out of eight, well I guess it could be said that we are lucky or maybe not.''
''Leader, which floor is this?" A girl around Gracier's age approached her and asked. Her name is Rose.
''Even I don't even know.'' Alexandra shrugged her shoulders; her response made the others feel dejected, as their pillar not knowing where they were made them worried about how to proceed from now on.
As if she could read their thoughts, Gracier clapped her hands and ordered, as the leader, she ought to do something; they couldn't keep standing here forever.
''Let's go; we will explore this wasteland. Use mana to wrap around your body to fight against the heat. You can at least do this much, right?"
Upon hearing Alexandra's question, the others nodded frantically; some had already done what Gracier just instructed, while does who had not done it rushed to do it.
Finally, after everyone, except Gracier, covered their body with mana, the group began walking forward; soon, they had walked for an hour already, yet they hadn't seen anything except for wasteland and the sweltering environment.
Just as they were about to fall into despair, someone among them saw something.
''Look at that half-ruined temple nine of clock!"
Following the man who had shouted direction, Gracier and others saw a half-ruined temple indeed.
However, unlike her teammates, happy to have finally found something, Gracier was vigilant because if her memories serve her right, they had passed through that area a few minutes ago, so for a temple to appear so suddenly, it was nothing other than suspicious.
With no choice, Gracier ordered the group to proceed forward but with caution. Cautiously they approached the half-ruined temple.
Crack!
Someone stepped on deadwood breaking it; this action made others tense; however, they were quickly relieved when they saw that it was nothing big, only one of them stepping on a plank of dead wood.
''Let's continue !" Gracier said, also feeling relieved.
The seven entered the temple with Gracier in the lead. Suddenly, there was a change when the last person entered; a robotic voice echoed through the dilapidated temple.
[Welcome challenger, welcome into the third floor, the Trial of Illusion shall begin!]
''What?" Gracier exclaimed, feeling an ominous feeling assaulting her when she heard these words.
Boom!
A brilliant light burst from the temple, blinding everyone, they all their senses, some felt like it had been years while some felt that only month passed; either way, everyone was affected.
Suddenly, the other six who had regained their senses felt scorching heat as if they were in the middle of lava, hastily lifting their heads watching their surroundings; they were shocked by the scene in front of them, Gracier, their leader, was fighting against someone, an ugly man.
What others previously thought of as lava was, in fact, Alexandra's fire domain.
Inside the fire domain, as the other six tried to protect themselves from the sweltering environment burning their skins, Gracier, who had her head lowered, took action.
A movement of her eyes like heavenly command made the domain spit hundreds of fireballs, like a meteor shower.
"You are angry, half breed,"
Although it was an illusion, it held the same venomous tongue as the original, Maddog who unexpectedly came back to life through this illusion, lifted a hand to create a shield of hardened, indestructible skin. "Seeing this handsome man back to finish things must have hurt you as I expected."
"Fufufu! Nothing hurts me more than being forced to see your ugly face!" Gracier said in a fit of rare anger; the tone she used was out of usual character. "So, yes, I'm angry!"
The revived Maddog narrowed his eyes.
He rotated the skin shield around him at such speed that it became a series of blurs.
RUMBLE~
The fireballs violently smashed on the skin shield. Melting heat ripples surged outward, and a few fireballs bounced back, smashing on the domain boundary.
BANG
The others were horrified. They thought Gracier was powerful as they had seen her fight to her fullest, but seeing the ease with which Maddog repelled the attacks, they were forced to conclude she was weak. It never occurred to them that it was simply because this illusion was strong or simply because he was a bad match for Gracier.
"It's not that Gracier is weak, but that man is too powerful!"
"Yes! He was able to resist the natural principles of Domain!"
''Maybe, it's because he was also using a domain, just that we haven't noticed it yet.''
''Maybe!"
While the others were all speculating, the fight continued to rage on.
Rose ignored the conversation and focused only on the fight. Due to the heat distortions and sounds of attacks, it was impossible to hear what was spoken between Gracier and the illusion she was fighting against, but she guessed it wasn't anything good.
"If I have a domain, I would have summoned it would reduce the might of his domain and help leader!" Rose though!, Somehow, it was impossible for any of them to intervene in the ongoing fight; they could only watch.
Meanwhile, Gracier slashed with her scythe diagonally. In the trajectory she made, the air ignited itself and exploded out like an arc of fire.
"Kiddo, You are wasting your strength for nothing!"
Maddog born from the illusion said with disdain as the arc swept forward, slashing like the scythe of the grim reaper. He lifted the hardened skin shield, and the arc smashed on it.
BANG
Sparks flew out like firecrackers, but unlike the previous attacks, the arc of fire didn't repel back or fade. Instead, the potent fire energy spread through the shield in the form of threads and seeped directly into the pores.
After coming to the other side, the threads of fire energy concentrated back in the form of an arc and struck Maddog.. Everything happened in a matter of seconds! And it was exactly like their fight in the past, making Alexandra frown.