After enjoying a brief moment of happiness, Sambel's mood grew heavy again.
That girl who played with lightning was already difficult enough to handle.
Was there another expert lurking in the shadows?
And one whose attacks were utterly impossible to guard against, at that?
He had no idea when he had fallen victim to it.
Had it been when he killed Christa, or even earlier?
Could everything that had just happened have been a hallucination?
The thought sent a chill down Sambel's spine.
If his opponent could trap him in a hallucination without him noticing, wouldn't killing him be incredibly easy?!
He had never imagined that the Navy had someone so terrifying among its ranks.
In a straight fight, Sambel wouldn't back down even against an Admiral.
But hallucinations were beyond his ability to deal with.
Sambel's expression shifted darkly.
He glanced at the distant waves, then at Christa, and finally at the cabin where Rayleigh was being held.
Then he gritted his teeth, turned, and jumped into the sea.
Sambel decided to try escaping.
He refused to believe his opponent was powerful enough to keep him under control forever!
Once he got far enough away, the illusion would collapse on its own!
With that thought, Sambel swam into the distance faster than he ever had in his life.
He swam nonstop for a full hour.
In one uninterrupted sprint, he covered over a hundred kilometers.
An hour of all-out swimming without stopping for breath left him utterly exhausted.
But it had all been worth it.
At this distance, he was certain to have escaped his opponent's illusion!
"Ha, ha, hahaha!
Let's see you create hallucinations from this far away!"
Sambel surfaced and looked at the blue sky and white clouds, finding them beautiful for the first time.
"Hmm, I