Gunmage
Chapter 66: Illusion magic

Chapter 66: Chapter 66: Illusion magic

Lugh felt an unshakable sense of wrongness as he stared at the woman before him.

Her long, shimmering white hair clung to her shoulders, drenched from the relentless downpour.

There was something off about her, something beyond the obvious, but he couldn’t quite place what it was.

The rain pounded against the earth, masking the erratic footsteps of the soldiers who scrambled around them.

They moved like mad men, their bodies caked in mud, oblivious to anything but their own frenzy.

Lightning split the darkened atmosphere, briefly illuminating the woman’s delicate features. She was beautiful, her face framed by that radiant hair, her expression serene, almost saintly.

When she finally spoke, her voice was melodic, as if spun from the echoes of a hymn.

"I’m sorry to say this"

She spoke softly,

"but this is where you die."

Her gentle voice did not match the words that spilled out, nor did they match the vile acts of human experimenting she was undoubtedly an accomplice to.

Someone was going to die, that much was certain. It was only a question of who.

Lyra, who had been supporting Lugh’s weakened form, released her grip and stepped forward. He slumped to the ground, the cold mud soaking into his clothes.

His limbs still throbbed with pain, standing was difficult, but his puppets could still assist him. Or at least, they should have.

Yet, they didn’t.

Lugh’s vision blurred, his triple perception fractured and distorted. The marked ones were beyond his control. It wasn’t a full severance, but something seemed to have corrupted his link.

His mind reeled.

"Can the signals I receive through my links be jammed?"

He asked Xhi.

"Jammed?"

She echoed before scoffing

"What do you think the Mawglass is, a telegraph? It can’t be influenced by outside forces."

And yet, it was. He could neither control the marked ones nor sense their exact state. Worse still, he had the sinking suspicion that neither could Xhi.

"Then how do you explain what’s happening?"

"I don’t know."

Her answer did nothing to calm his unease. But before he could press further, Lyra acted.

With a sharp motion, she raised her rifle and fired. The woman tilted her head, the bullet sailing past harmlessly.

Lyra’s eye widened.

"Did she just dodge it?"

"That’s impossible"

Lugh said, his mind racing.

"A bullet moves at over 2,500 feet per second. Faster than the speed of sound. There’s no way in hell she could dodge it."

"Then how do you explain that?"

Lyra demanded, her grip tightening on the rifle.

Lugh was about to dismiss it again, but then, a realization struck him. His confidence in the bullet’s speed, in its inability to be dodged, was absolute. Just like Xhi’s confidence in the Mawglass.

’If I believe there must be another explanation for the bullet missing... then shouldn’t I consider that there might be another reason why I can’t use the Mawglass?’

That eerie sense of déjà vu clawed at his mind. The way Xhi had brushed off the idea of interference, it was exactly the same way he had dismissed the possibility of a bullet being dodged.

He had been so sure. And yet, both things were happening.

The white-haired woman finally spoke again.

"Are you done talking? I’ll make my move now."

"Lyra!"

Lugh yelled.

She didn’t hesitate. With practiced efficiency, she racked the bolt and fired another round. The woman lunged forward, her speed unnatural, her movements blurring through the rain.

Lyra fired again and again, but each shot missed, always, at the last possible second, the woman moved.

She was closing in fast.

Within seconds, she was upon them.

Lyra discarded her rifle. In one fluid motion, she drew her enchanted sword.

The blade was only halfway free when, a hand pressed against the hilt, forcing it back into the scabbard.

The woman was in front of her.

A smile still graced her lips, but now, her outstretched hands crackled with wicked energy.

Xhi moved first.

With a clap of her hands, time in an eight-meter radius slowed to a crawl. The rain hung in the air like scattered diamonds, each droplet suspended in the unnatural stillness.

Their minds remained sharp and unaffected, but their bodies were frozen in the same slow-motion grasp of time.

Everyone except Lugh.

In the frozen moment, Lugh pulled out Lyra’s pistol, the one he had swiped when she helped him up.

The white-haired woman’s smile was still intact, though if she could react at normal speed, it would have likely morphed into shock.

He pulled the trigger.

Aimed straight for her heart.

The gunpowder had barely ignited when time snapped back into place.

She was unable to react in time.

The woman’s body jerked as the bullet pierced her chest. Her feet staggered backward, her posture faltering.

Lugh’s eyes narrowed. Something was off.

"Lyra!"

He shouted yet again

In an instant, the woman’s hand shot forward, aiming straight for Lyra’s throat.

Alerted by Lugh’s warning, she backstepped with the ease of a seasoned swordsman, her boots sliding through the mud before she delivered a perfect rising slash with the enchanted blade.

The sword cut through the air, and through flesh.

At the same moment, Lugh fired twice. One shot at the woman. The other, based on pure calculation, at where she would dodge.

His Mawglass was still unreliable, but his instincts were not.

Blood spurted. The bullets struck, yet they seemed to do little. But Lyra’s blade, the enchanted sword, had cleaved through the woman’s arm with an unnatural ease.

A sharp grunt escaped her lips as she stumbled back, her severed limb landing with a dull splash in the mud.

Lyra’s eyes flickered to the wound. Then, in one smooth motion, she stepped into a stance, her sword angled low.

Her voice was cold and aloof

"You can drop the act now."

The woman sighed, tilting her head.

"Oh? How did you know?"

The severed arm flickered, before dissolved into shimmering sparks. A moment later, her hand was whole again.

Lugh narrowed his eyes.

Magic couldn’t do that.

"Just a bit of illusion magic" the woman explained nonchalantly, flexing her fingers.

"Shall we continue?"