The old row farmhouse that had been converted into "Witch Hunter Park" rippled like water, while blackish-purple flecks of smoke peeled away from the wooden beams and haystacks.
As though a gust of sinister wind had drifted past, the world in Emma's and Master Mark's eyes had not so much changed as returned to its original form.
"Sir mage from Kamar-Taj, there's no need to keep struggling. This is Whisper Mountain, where I've lived in seclusion for nearly two centuries. See those runes? Heeheehee—even if your Sorcerer Supreme entered this place herself, I'm afraid she'd become an ordinary mortal without a trace of magic!"
The bare, gray-white branches of the old locust trees looked as though they had been dead for many years, yet they were strangely tall and lush.
These scattered trees formed a desolate woodland steeped in eerie mystery. After a swirl of purple smoke drifted through them, the original farmhouse and little cottages turned into an illusion.
The twisted trunks of the huge trees were covered in bluish-purple brands that looked burned into their bark, each one filled with enormous, unfamiliar runes that flickered in uneven halos of light.
"So it isn't a mental illusion? This environment..."
Emma muttered in confusion as she looked at the lead-gray sky and the ghostly forest. Purple light grew ever brighter in the eyes of the ordinary tourists, who shuffled forward with strange expressions and surrounded her and Master Mark in the center of the woods.
"Mrs. Howlett, none of that was false. This is Chaos Magic, the ultimate power sought by witches. At its highest levels, it can completely alter the form and nature of matter, turning illusion into reality! But this—"
"—But isn't Chaos transmutation on a scale large enough to cover an entire forest rather shocking to you?