Chapter 237: The Seal’s True Question

His phone’s camera.

Not exactly another eyeball, but perfect for situations like this. In fact, his phone had been so useful today that Riley silently swore to buy it a much better case if he managed to survive all this.

With trembling hands, the grateful modern man took out his phone and used the function while saying a silent prayer.

He was really hoping it was the kind of illusion that would not show up through a lens, but sadly, every vial appeared clearly on the screen.

Ah, dang it.

He had definitely been hoping for an easier life. Then again, at least it helped narrow things down.

It was not a mental manipulation, because the illusion did not break even though he was aware of it. More importantly, it still showed up on his phone.

Maybe not an emotional illusion either, because he was scared, yes, but not yet to the point of becoming a bumbling mess who couldn’t think straight.

Spatial distortion? Sure, but more likely affecting the venue rather than the bottles themselves.

Then again, it likely wasn’t glamour, because the moment he tried touching it, the object vanished entirely.

Then could this actually be an optical illusion?

Hmm…

“Source of light… source of light…” Riley muttered, looking around, only to realize that his shadow was directly beneath him. And yet he could not figure out where the light was even coming from.

“Hah!”

Good heavens.

How could he possibly forget something so basic?

Thyrran, watching closely, wondered why the subject suddenly started wiggling on the floor. But to his utter surprise, the youngster once again used that same questionable artifact from earlier.

Just what was he planning to do with that object when the chamber was already brightly lit?

Oh, but Riley was doing it precisely because of that.

He needed to change the lighting conditions. Thankfully, the dubious illumination in the chamber was not some scialytic or surgical lamp, because if it had been, his plan would never have worked.

Then again, if they had used lighting that produced no shadows at all, anyone would have noticed something was wrong immediately.

But with this existing yet unidentifiable source that cast clean, identical shadows everywhere, he needed to improvise.

And improvise he did.

In the end, the desperate human shocked the guardians yet again as he ran through the venue in a systematic pattern, sweeping his phone’s flashlight over clusters of glass vials and shouting “Aha!” every few minutes.

“What’s happening?!”

“What is he actually doing?!”

Frankly, from afar, Riley would have looked extremely silly, and if Orien could see him, the dragonling would’ve laughed and scoffed at his antics.

Well, that would be the case if the dragonling could even look at the busy mortal, who was moving around inside a chamber where concentration should have been difficult by design.

But even if Riley himself felt silly, or even if his back was likely going to hurt more than it already did after their earlier romp and this endless squatting, no one would be able to laugh at someone who actually found it.

Yes.

The right vial. The only one out of all the ones he had painstakingly shone light upon that produced the correct shadow.

And because the victors usually wrote history, he could just skip the part where he almost slipped and died because he probably pulled a muscle in his excitement.

But most importantly, Riley figured it would be best to omit the entire part that followed his success. Because then he would likely end up with a very angry dragon.

__

The vial had felt heavy in his hand; then again, it may just be because he had been panting when he inexplicably ran over to the guardian to present the fruits of his labor.

To be frank, he was worried because he wasn’t sure how he was going to hand it over, considering how the serpent didn’t exactly have hands.

Thankfully, he was told to place it on top of that runic circle that Riley could’ve sworn wasn’t there earlier.

Embarrassingly, the expectant human actually waited for something to happen. Like maybe a little confetti or perhaps a bit of congratulations from the guardian. Or at the very least, he was praying it wouldn’t be another test.

And it really wasn’t.

Great!

It was just that Thyrran’s following words were quite alarming.

The vial shone just as the trickling timer stopped, and Riley watched as the platform seemed to eat up the illusions, leaving them with a new, giant runic circle that practically started writing itself in front of him.

And when the last rune settled in place, Riley heard Thyrran say:

Drink it.

“Huh?”

Okay, not his best reactions to date, but honestly, the surprised aide’s hands shook the moment he heard that.

Because for reasons he couldn’t even explain, a sudden surge of dread washed over him at the thought of uncorking the vial. So he quietly drew it back into his hand and simply held it, unable to follow the supposedly simple instruction.

But maybe his face showed his hesitation because Thyrran actually started an unexpected conversation.

How have you been passing the trials?

Riley scratched at his cheek before shyly responding.

“Ah, well, I don’t really know what we’re testing, but if it’s survival, then I guess it’s maybe one thing humans are good at.”

“See, we’re not particularly strong, nor do we have access to innate magical abilities. So humans rely heavily on information and tools to solve our problems.”

Thyrran then listened and watched as the mortal before him talked about that thing called a mobile phone and that multi-tool keychain that could do more than just start fires.

He described how they’re relatively reliable and, in the end, mentioned that he figured out the illusion because of the corks.

The corks?

All the guardians who were listening in on the conversation similarly found the information surprising and figured they probably needed to improve the trial because of this clear oversight.

Then they all listened as he excitedly spoke about using a different and much closer source of light to forcefully cast a distinct shadow.

“So anything that didn’t produce the expected result would have to be an illusion!” said the human who looked bright as he explained his process.

No wonder Thyrran felt conflicted.

The subject before him was heavily influenced by his current ties in this life.

In the way he lived, spoke, and thought. And he had passed the trials not in spite of being sealed, but because it didn’t even cross his mind to tap into something beyond himself.

Then what would happen if they went through with this?

Well, to him it was rather obvious. But to the human who couldn’t even be informed, would he regret it?

By the looks of it, he would.

And that conflicting feeling came to a head when he didn’t respond, and the human took it as a sign to start opening the vial that would definitely change his life.

The guardian hissed.

Because he momentarily felt as though he’d misunderstood the master’s requests.

That this was the real meaning behind deciding whether the seal could be shattered.

After all, without any interference, only in death could that seal be broken.

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