Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert

Chapter 144

When light passes through a prism, it produces a continuous band of colors.

The Spectrum Prison was a dungeon created using this principle.

It divides the light into different sections and activates various traps with each one, especially with the seven colors of the visible spectrum, creating a prison.

Each light has a unique wavelength, nature, and essence.

The Spectrum Prison utilizes these features to create its dungeon.

The red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet sections are thoroughly isolated, and the intruders face a reality made of light, not physical substances.

This transcends the real world, creating what is called a superimposed space.

The outermost red superimposed space constantly stimulates and whispers to the human mind, evoking fear and anxiety, leading to self-destruction.

Zeon was currently trapped in this red superimposed space.

Everything he saw was an unrealistic landscape painted entirely in red.

There were no boundaries or distinctions, just an endless red superimposed space.

It felt as if he were floating alone in a weightless red universe.

“This kind of trap is new to me.”

Zeon murmured as he looked around the interior.

The surreal feeling of this red space, which seemed impossible to exist, was eerie.

“Is this a dungeon recreation? If so, the dungeon core must be intact, and it must be supplied with stable mana.”

Zeon had conquered numerous dungeons before.

Some of them defied human logic, much like the Spectrum Prison. So, Zeon wasn’t fazed by the unfamiliar situation.

“Where’s the sand?”

Zeon searched for his greatest weapon, the sand.

But in this red space, he couldn’t feel any sand.

“It’s certain now. This place is completely isolated.”

Even the smallest tunnel or hole would have allowed him to sense sand.

This confirmed that the space was entirely sealed off.

Zeon walked through the red superimposed space.

It felt as if his body weight was completely absent, like in a zero-gravity environment. In fact, even a slight loss of balance caused his body to spin out of control.

It must be what it felt like to drift in space.

The biggest problem was that no matter how hard he walked, he couldn’t seem to make any progress.

Suddenly, anger welled up within him.

A deep-seated rage boiled from within.

The frustration of feeling like he could never escape this place fueled his anger even more.

“Why am I struggling to walk like this? I should just break it…”

Zeon opened his subspace. A mountain of sand poured out.

Ssssss!

Soon, the sand formed a sea beneath his feet.

“Sand Blaster!”

Zeon swung his hand, and dozens of sand streams shot out in all directions. But none of them affected the red space.

“You want to play, huh?”

Unable to calm his anger, Zeon swung his hand again.

Shushushushu!

The Sand Blaster continued to fire.

With this many blasts, he should have felt some impact, but there was none.

Only then did Zeon realize something was wrong.

His uncontrollable anger was unusual, and so was the space’s resistance to the Sand Blaster.

Zeon wasn’t someone who lost his temper easily.

Maybe he did when he was younger, but after wandering the world for eight years, he had learned to control his emotions.

He had never lost his temper since then.

For him to lose control and be swayed by emotions?

This wasn’t a normal situation.

“Hah!”

Zeon sighed and calmed himself.

Then, he started to notice things he hadn’t seen before.

What he had thought was a simple red space was actually subtly pulsating, as if it were breathing.

With each pulse, red energy was being absorbed into his mouth and nose.

Zeon blocked his breathing and protected his body with mana. He then felt the foreign energy within him.

It was the red energy filling the space.

Unknowingly, he had inhaled a considerable amount.

The red energy was particularly concentrated around his central nervous system. It had taken control and stimulated his nerves, causing him to lose his temper.

Zeon focused his mind and expelled the foreign energy from his body.

“Ahh!”

Finally, his mind cleared, and he could assess his situation calmly.

“This red energy stimulates the emotions of living beings, drawing out hostility. If consumed by hostility, one loses reason and exhausts oneself. Clever! No wonder it’s hard to notice.”

Zeon found the space quite creative.

It was only because Zeon was rational that he recognized his problem; others would have been overwhelmed by hostility and gone berserk.

Damien had never intended to overpower Zeon with force.

He knew Zeon’s ability to manipulate sand and understood that if Zeon acted seriously, he couldn’t stop him.

That’s why he recreated a dungeon like this.

He planned for Zeon to exhaust himself through his own rampage.

But Zeon was much more composed and capable of assessing the situation than Damien had anticipated.

“This red space is a superimposed space isolated from reality. It’s impossible to escape by walking. Ultimately, I have to destroy this space itself.”

He confirmed that the Sand Blaster alone couldn’t damage it.

He needed a much stronger and more destructive skill.

Fortunately, Zeon had just the skill.

Whirr!

The sand beneath Zeon’s feet began to spin and rise.

A sandstorm formed around him.

Damien had assumed that isolating the space from sand would somewhat neutralize Zeon’s ability. But he hadn’t considered that Zeon carried a vast amount of sand in his subspace.

Wham! Wham! Wham!

The sandstorm grew rapidly.

As a massive amount of sand spun, it created a fierce wind.

The sandstorm shook the entire red superimposed space violently.

The red space trembled intensely, but it clung on stubbornly.

This meant that the superimposed space was vast.

Breaking it completely would require more sand than Zeon had.

But Zeon had a way to compensate for the lack of sand.

“It’s been a while since I pulled this out. Exion!”

Suddenly, black energy emanated from his entire body.

It was Exion, the finest sand particle in the world, stored in his subspace.

Exion was powerful on its own but even more potent when combined with sand.

Zeon infused the sandstorm in the superimposed space with Exion, greatly amplifying its power.

Whirr! Whirr! Whirr!

The immense power of the sandstorm caused the superimposed space to tremble violently.

Zeon intensified the sandstorm. Cracks started to appear everywhere.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The cracks widened, revealing the outside world.

A vast desert filled with sand came into Zeon’s view.

A smile spread across Zeon’s lips.

“Good!”

He drew the external sand in, and like a tidal wave, the sand from the desert surged through the cracks and filled the superimposed space.

The addition of this enormous amount of sand swelled the sandstorm to an unprecedented size.

In the face of this immense power, the superimposed space was torn apart.

With a tremendous tearing sound, the red energy that had surrounded Zeon vanished without a trace.

The superimposed space had been destroyed and dissipated completely.

“Haa!”

Zeon finally exhaled and shook his head.

Exerting such intense power all at once left him feeling drained. But he quickly composed himself and surveyed his surroundings.

A deep furrow appeared on his forehead.

The scene around him was horrendous.

Bodies lay everywhere, limbs severed and entrails spilled out. Some corpses appeared to have been killed by each other, which made sense given the various groups that had attacked.

The problem was that the two who killed each other wore the same uniforms, indicating they belonged to the same faction.

In a normal situation, there was no reason for comrades to kill each other.

“This isn’t a normal situation.”

Zeon himself had nearly perished in the red superimposed space.

The red energy had provoked his hostility and driven him to madness.

So, it was clear that the other colored energies stimulated different human emotions.

Zeon inspected the state of the corpses.

“The wounds have already dried. This means quite some time has passed. Does time flow differently in the superimposed space?”

Zeon’s face hardened.

To him, it felt like he had only been in the superimposed space for three or four hours. However, the bodies he touched appeared to have been dead for at least a day.

Each superimposed space clearly had a different flow of time from reality.

Zeon sighed and looked towards the fortress.

As if confirming his suspicions, the fortress was much more devastated than it had been just moments ago.

Indeed, over a day had passed outside.

“Damien, what have you done to cause such chaos?”

Zeon sighed softly and walked towards the fortress.

Six more colors still awaited him.

—

With a sound like shattering glass, cracks appeared in the air, and a group emerged from the distortion.

These were the elves who had been confidently charging towards the fortress but now appeared injured and exhausted.

“To resort to such tactics… I will never forgive you, humans!”

The elf gritting her teeth was Mariel, the leader of the Thorn Attack Squad.

The Thorn Attack Squad and the elves had been confidently charging towards the fortress when they were suddenly trapped in the Spectrum Prison.

They had been confined in the blue superimposed space.

Everything was blue—the sky, the ground, everything.

It felt as if they were in Kurayan, a lush and vibrant place they had only heard about in stories.

Most of the elves had been born and raised in Neo Seoul.

They had only seen the desolate desert and the advanced city.

They had never experienced the lush grasslands.

For them, the blue superimposed space evoked memories of their homeland, Kurayan, they had never seen.

Some elves were moved to tears of joy.

Mariel’s heart was also deeply stirred.

She had never realized that such an abundance of blue could make her feel so enriched.

Finally, she understood why the Elf Queen Serian yearned for Kurayan so much.

Elves were meant to grow up in such a rich environment.

That was why they had come to Earth.

However, the terraforming process had devastated Earth, and they hadn’t had the chance to experience lush greenery.

This only made them angrier.

All their sacrifices had been for nothing.

“If we get the Crown of the Spirit King, we can create a new elven homeland. We can build a paradise just for elves, free from humans.”

Mariel despised humans.

Specifically, she hated those humans who rejected the elves.

She hated living like tenants in a city built by humans. She didn’t like Serian’s decision to coexist with humans.

That’s why she followed Eli, the second-in-command, instead.

Mariel steeled herself and rallied the elves.

“We must escape this place. Everyone, hurry.”

But the elves ignored her orders.

The blue space had enchanted them.

They didn’t want to leave this blue superimposed space. Mariel’s orders sounded like mere nagging to them.

Finally, Mariel realized something was wrong.

Just as Zeon had experienced intense hostility in the red space, this blue space brought comfort and oblivion to the elves.

It would have been better to fight monsters or enemies.

In the Spectrum Prison, the true enemy was oneself.

The elves had forgotten their reasons for fighting and had become lazy in the comfort of the blue space.

That was the frightening power of the Spectrum Prison.

The seven lights each emitted different wavelengths, affecting the human mind.

The most terrifying part was that even when one’s mind was being taken over, they didn’t realize it.

Extreme shock therapy was needed to wake the elves from their trance.

Drip, drip!

Blood trickled down Mariel’s sword.

It was the blood of the elves.

To awaken the elves from their trance, she had resorted to extreme measures.

She had killed a few of her subordinates as a warning.

The members of the Thorn Attack Squad and the other elves were like siblings to her.

Killing them wounded her deeply. But she had no choice.

It was impossible to escape the blue superimposed space alone.

Eventually, the elves, shocked into awareness, gathered their strength and escaped the Spectrum Prison.

Mariel, with bloodshot eyes, glared at the fortress.

“Vile humans. To use such dirty tricks. I will never forgive you.”