Where the Heavy Gaze Falls

Beyond the wall, Li Mei pounded on the surface, her mouth opening and closing over and over. She was clearly shouting something, but not a sound reached him. Yujin grinned at her and gave a casual wave.

Thirty seconds later, the space transformed completely. Li Mei was gone.

Area erosion.

There could be any number of causes, but the most common was when a Divine Throne's domain began to eat into one of Atlantis's zones.

Qing Guoli had almost certainly used the power of the Divine Throne known as the Heavy Eye to force this erosion.

So Qing Guoli cut a deal with the Heavy Eye. For him to pull something this blatant… that Divine Throne is no ordinary seat. At minimum, it's god-class.

A hero-class Divine Throne couldn't shoulder a burden like this. The System was probably scrambling right now just to keep the Heavy Eye in check.

Heavy Eye. Heavy Eye… That name isn't in the setting compendium. What's its true name?

He turned it over in his mind, but guessing a Divine Throne's true name from a title alone was no easy feat.

"L-Lord Heavenly Demon!"

Someone called out to him. He turned his head. It was the Black Pillar Alliance men who had fled with them.

"What."

"Us too—please, send us outside as well! We swear we'll repay the debt!"

"Too late. You can't leave anymore."

He stretched a hand forward. Nothing met his palm. The wall that had blocked them was already gone. This place had become somewhere else entirely. The ground was parched, the sky dark. To leave, they would have to clear it.

The twenty percent that had been stripped from his stats came flooding back.

Thoom. Thooooom. Across the empty black earth, buildings no better than ruins thrust upward from the ground.

It looked like the System and the Heavy Eye had struck some kind of compromise. The lack of further reaction from the Master of the Heavens or the King of the Demon Heavens suggested the terms were at least tolerable.

The System's got it rough too.

Not every god played nice with the System. If anything, it was the opposite. The place was crawling with deities just waiting for a chance to troll. He almost felt sorry for the System that had to wrangle all of them.

"D-Damn it. Help ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠us, please!"

One of the men threw himself down and seized Yujin's leg. Irritation flared, but he held it in for a beat.

"Let go."

"I know it's shameless! But… we need your help! Please!"

The man was sharp enough to read the room. He'd realized Yujin was about to abandon them and leave. But with things as they stood, there was no reason to drag these people along. Would they be useful? Laughable. As long as they stayed out of the way, that was enough.

Yujin raised his sword and cut through the arm and head of the man clinging to his leg. The man died on the spot.

"Aaaargh!"

"Y-You psycho!!"

"Betrayal…!"

The others recoiled in horror.

"You call this betrayal? You and I were never anything to each other from the start. Don't get in my way. If you want to live, stick together and figure it out yourselves."

He ignored their stunned stares and moved off toward somewhere quieter. For now, he planned to roam carefully and take stock of the situation.

I sent Li Mei to Elena. If I hold out long enough, Elena should show up.

He lifted his gaze to the black pillar. Even now, it continued to radiate an ominous pulse.

"Hungry…. So hungry…!!"

Wang Xuan came after him. For all that massive bulk, the creature was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠startlingly fast. Yujin clicked his tongue and sprinted. Wang Xuan smashed through everything in his path as he gave chase. Even a boulder over thirty meters tall couldn't stop him.

Yujin ran, and whenever he managed a little distance, he hurled a spear. The spear punched clean through the creature's body—but Wang Xuan didn't die.

I've already done this song and dance fifty times… and the bastard never tires.

The fact that he couldn't kill it was the most infuriating part.

"How long do you think you can keep running?"

Qing Guoli's voice rolled out from the black pillar. The man had a lock on his position.

"Another week, easy."

It was only day two. Honestly, he was already starting to feel it—because Wang Xuan wasn't the only thing hunting him.

Rrrrrumble.

A faint tremor ran through the ground. Yujin sharpened his senses. Black hands burst from the earth, snatching for his legs. He dodged them all, and whenever one managed a grip, he swung his blade and severed it on the spot.

"HUNGRYYYYYY!!"

Wang Xuan devoured the black hands and put on speed.

A cliff edge loomed ahead. Beyond it, more land. Yujin charged straight for the drop.

He poured everything into the Heavenly Demon Sovereign Step, striding across empty air as if the cliff weren't there. Wang Xuan, mindlessly charging after him, plunged over the edge. BOOM! A heavy crash echoed up. Looking down, Yujin saw Wang Xuan thrashing at the bottom.

That bought me a little time.

Wang Xuan would get back up and come after him again. He either had to keep running—or clear this zone.

The medium of erosion is obvious. That black pillar.

Getting close to the black pillar and its dark pulses was no simple matter. Those waves were lethal. Approach, and they drained your life force.

"Haha. Bought yourself some time. Happy to live a little longer? What now? Not running?"

Qing Guoli's voice rang out from the pillar again.

"…Qing Guoli. You've been awfully chatty since yesterday. Why aren't you moving yourself?"

"You're already struggling with Wang Xuan alone. You think I need to lift a finger? The moment you tire, Wang Xuan will chew you up."

Yujin narrowed his eyes at the black pillar.

"You can't leave that pillar, can you. What are you doing in there?"

"And why would I tell you that?"

"You'd better stop assuming I'll just keep running forever. I'm coming to kill you."

"You'll have to kill Wang Xuan first. I respect that fighting spirit of yours, so I'll give you a hint. Wang Xuan can die in place of himself a number of times equal to the human souls he's eaten. Do you understand? You've already killed well over a thousand souls."

"That's not helpful."

"Haha. Not even a shred of guilt. Fine. Here's a more useful tip. Kill him 7,141 more times, and Wang Xuan dies for real."

Yujin looked down. Wang Xuan was clinging to the cliff face, struggling to climb. But that massive body kept losing its grip and tumbling back down, over and over.

I have to kill that thing 7,141 times? Bullshit.

Hundreds might be doable. Thousands was a different story. Exhaustion was the least of it—he simply didn't have the time.

He turned and started running again. Even he didn't know where he was going.

Five hours later, a new notification appeared.

So the erosion isn't stopping. It's spreading into the neighboring zones.

A bad sign.

Undead appeared across the black ground, roaming in every direction. The ones that spotted him charged with raw hatred for the living.

Crackle-snap.

Blue lightning flared at his fingertips and swept through the undead. Their bodies burned.

He killed undead and collected AP. All told, maybe fifty. Pocket change, as far as he was concerned.

That black pillar. The longer this goes, the more grotesque it gets.

At first it had been a clean cylinder. Now its surface was mottled and writhing, like a living creature. Black veins seemed to cling to the shaft.

Wang Xuan stopped chasing me at some point. Did he give up completely?

On a hunch, he pulled out a spatial transfer scroll and tore it.

Just as expected.

More time passed.

A group appeared—about thirty, all armed. A mid-sized Legion raid party, by the look of them. Yujin watched from a distance in silence. They cut down undead and advanced boldly toward the black pillar.

The pillar writhed. Not an optical illusion from the pulses. The body of the pillar itself was moving.

The black waves gathered at the pillar's tip and took shape.

A red eye.

What is this, the Eye of Sauron…?

The raiders unleashed everything they had at the black pillar.

"Hahaha. At last—the foundation is complete."

Qing Guoli's voice rang out, thick with satisfaction. Then the black pillar's gaze turned on the raiders. Everyone it touched simply toppled forward. Dead. From nothing more than being looked at.

It didn't even release a black pulse. It killed thirty people at once with a look alone?

Hard to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠believe—except it had just happened right in front of him.

Flick. Flick-flick.

The red eye atop the black pillar darted this way and that. Then its gaze locked precisely on him.

"Ghk—!"

His knees hit the ground. His breath seized. His heart stopped beating. It felt as if death's cold hand had closed around his body.

A familiar sensation. Death was coming for him.

Even as his body failed, his mind stayed cold and clear, parsing the situation.

The power to kill with a gaze alone.

He'd heard that myth before.

He knew the true name of the Heavy Eye.

Qing Guoli…. You contracted with a real pain in the ass.

Elena received an uninvited guest.

She did not care for uninvited guests. Nine times out of ten, people who arrived without invitation brought bad news.

Ordinarily she would have thrown the visitor out on the spot—but this one was connected to Seong Yujin, so that wasn't an option.

A woman with pink hair and a pink cheongsam. A beauty built to turn men's heads, dressed to match. Li Mei's complexion, however, was terrible. She looked like she hadn't slept properly in days.

"Li Mei, was it?"

"Yes, Your Grace. Yujin sent me. We need your help."

Elena didn't like her.

But Li Mei's face was too grave to dismiss on personal dislike alone. Something serious was unfolding—she could feel it.

"…I'll hear you out. Tell me everything that happened, in detail."

Li Mei explained.

How they had gone to the main base to kill the Black Pillar Alliance leader. Wang Xuan, transformed into a hungry ghost, and the black pillar. The area erosion. She held nothing back. Elena's eyes were too frightening to hide anything from, and she was worried about Seong Yujin.

"…I suspected something was going on with the Black Pillar Alliance. So it was Gotwall. I should have handled this myself from the start."

Elena sighed and rose from her seat.

"…Yujin might already be dead. It's been three days."

Li Mei's voice was bleak.

"Impossible."

Elena rejected the idea with absolute certainty.

"…How can you be so sure?"

"This is only a guess—but if he had died… this world would already have stopped."

"What?"

"He is not a man who dies so easily."

"…I'm coming with you."

"Stay here. You'll only get in the way."

Before Li Mei could protest, Elena was gone.