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The weird slime monsters were creeping closer, seemingly unbothered by the flames.

Agrian slapped the ground with both hands, and a massive tidal wave of dirt flew up in the distance, blanketing half the fire on the horizon in an instant.

Hector was amazed, but within moments, the flames had somehow returned. And for some reason, Agrian didn't seem to notice the inhuman abominations coming his way, either.

Man, this looked bad. Hector wished he could help. He wondered how the hell Agrian was going to get out of this shit.

And damn, this heat was crazily realistic. He knew from firsthand experience. On many occasions, he'd been this close to a raging fire--typically whenever Garovel had led him to a burning building while out on patrol--and it felt exactly like this.

The Forge really knew how to create convincing illusions, didn't it? Well, fire was apparently its specialty, after all. It made sense.

...Right?

As he continued watching the scene unfold in real time, he couldn't ignore the growing question in the back of his mind.

This was all an illusion, wasn't it?

Obviously, the Forge didn't have the power to send him back in time or some shit. That wouldn't make any sense. It'd cause one of those paradox things that would destroy the fabric of the universe or whatever.

Admittedly, he wasn't exactly an expert on this stuff. His certainty waned by the moment.

Because, even if it made no logical sense to him... what if, somehow, it was real? And he ended up just standing here like a stupid asshole, gawking the whole time?

Agh.

Just as a test, he tried putting his hand out and summoning an iron javelin to skewer the closest slime monster.

No iron materialized.

The monster, however, still recoiled and shriveled away from him as if it had been hit.