Greatest Legacy of the Magus Universe

Adam's vision turned hazy when he took the first step.

He felt his consciousness slipping through time when he took the second step.

When he took his third, the world around him changed.

And then…

His mind was suddenly flooded with ancient knowledge.

***

In the twilight years of the first age, when the nine realms were still young, the Laughing God sought a way to walk unseen in the courts of gods and the streets of men.

He desired not only to change his face, but to become the one he impersonated. He didn't just want to be disguised, he wanted to be believed. He wanted to breathe their breath, carry their scent, but more importantly… he wanted to fool the gaze of the King of Gods.

He journeyed to a distant place in the mysterious spirit world, to a place where no roads led, a place said to stand half in the waking world and half in dreams. There, in a pool of starlit darkness, he found a silver of the moon's shadow. From it, he wished to craft a divine artifact that would fulfill his desire.

When the artifact was created, the Laughing God placed it upon his face.

It melded to his skin like gentle water. With it, he became anyone. He could be the hero or the villain. He could be the friend who never betrayed you. Or he could be the stranger you swore you had met before.

And so began his great game…

He laughed and laughed and laughed as he slipped from realm to realm, whispering treachery and promises in a thousand voices from a thousand faces, all while remaining unseen.

Wherever he went, he scattered wickedness like seeds, only to vanish and reappear as someone else entirely. Rulers of lands swore loyalty to strangers who never existed before. Lovers mourned the faces that were never real. Let alone mortals, even the Gods were fooled by him.

The Laughing God wore the artifact as casually as one would wear robes, slipping it on when the moment called for it, and discarding it just as easily when the joke had run its course.

To him, it wasn't a powerful artifact but a toy. Kingdoms crumbled, oaths were shattered, and lives were ruined in the wake of his great game. While others wept over the wreckage, he laughed.

He laughed at their grief. He laughed at their fury. He laughed at their helplessness.

Oh, the sound of his laughter echoed through the realms.

One day, after a game of deception so grand that even the Gods themselves were unaware of what had transpired, the Laughing God seemingly grew tired of his great game and walked through the veil that separated worlds. When he returned, he no longer had the artifact.

When asked what became of it, he only laughed.

And so the world believed the divine artifact crafted by the Laughing God lay buried somewhere in the spirit world, lost to time, beyond reach, nowehere to be found.

Or so they thought…

***

When Adam took the final step, he came to his senses.

A wave of searing heat crashed into him. It was a heat that didn't affect the body. No, it affected the soul.

What… what was that?!

The raven-haired youth felt a chill crawl down his spine. He abruptly turned around to look at the mysterious staircase. His eyes narrowed when he discovered that they were carved with runes—a very complex set of runes.

With trembling eyes, he tried to study them. He was able to understand the basic gist of it.

Those runes passed on knowledge to me… the knowledge of…

He turned around and gazed at the small chamber he had entered. In its center, within a ring of white flames, upon an onyx pedastal, the relic of the Laughing God floated.

The runes carved into the stairs behind him were meant to impart knowledge about the divine artifact to whoever entered. Not that many could enter it in the first place, though. The pressure of the soul flames would have driven them away before they even descended the staircase.

When Adam gazed at the artifact floating on the pedastal, his breath caught in his throat. The knowledge regarding it was already inside his mind.

This divine artifact was said to have been worn by the Laughing God when he walked among gods and mortals unseen, whispering words of deceit into their ears, sowing chaos in their midst.

An artifact wielded by the Laughing God himself…

Adam was thunderstruck!

On top of the onyx pedastal floated a smooth, featureless mask of darkened silver that absorbed light instead of reflecting it. Its surface constantly rippled with faint, iridescent waves, as though alive.

When worn, the mask would seamlessly bond to the wearer's face, reshaping their features, voice, scent, and even mana signature. It granted flawless shapeshifting and the ability to walk unnoticed in any crowd, bypassing any form of arcane detection.

Adam stood there in a stunned daze as he glanced at the mask. More information about the divine artifact appeared inside his mind. Then, with a trembling voice, he whispered the name of the artifact forged by the Laughing God himself:

"The Faceless Mask!"

His words echoed through the small chamber. As if responding to its own name, the Faceless Mask hummed. Then, the soul flames around the pedastal swayed, as though beckoning Adam forward.

The mask was calling to him…

But did he really wish to acquire it?

He hesitated. Along with the knowledge of the mask's origin, he had also learned of its one glaring flaw. That single flaw offset all the powers it granted.

The Faceless Mask belonged to the Laughing God, who wore a thousand faces and left none of his own. The wielder of the mask gained perfect guise, beyond the sights of Gods and men. That is why he was also known as the Great God of Many Faces.

But that simple flaw of the mask was utterly insidious.

A drop of sweat trickled down Adam's forehead as he thought to himself:

Ah, what else did I expect from the treacherous Laughing God!

Despite the Faceless Mask's devious flaw, it was still a divine artifact forged by a God. There was no way Adam would miss this chance. Not when it was right within his grasp. And as for the mask's flaw… he had an idea of how to counter it. Or at least, he hoped that it would counter the flaw.

Thus, he took a deep breath and steeled his resolve. Then, he stepped through the ring of soul flames. The flames didn't burn his clothes or body, but they did try to burn his soul.

However, the moment the foreign flames invaded his spirit sea, the Eternal Soul Lotus stirred from its slumber and effortlessly snuffed them out.

Then, Adam reached out for the Faceless Mask. He hesitated for only a brief moment before his eyes blazed with determination.

And the moment his fingers brushed against the cool surface of the mask…

He heard the distant sound of laughter within his mind!

That was the flaw of the Faceless Mask.

It was the whisper of the Laughing God…

A whisper that slowly drove the wearer mad!