The Watcher
The Watcher.
"Urgh... where... where am I?"
"Inside a Domain. And where the Master is."
"A Domain?"
I asked about the Domain in a puzzled voice, and Sapi answered simply.
"When enough monsters gather in one place, they begin fusing together. What's born from that is a Domain."
"Then how did we even get inside one? I never saw anything."
"As if it'd show."
Sapi took a slow look around us.
"A Domain doesn't exist in the same space as the world we live in."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It just sits on top of it."
"?"
Sapi mulled it over for a moment before speaking again.
"We live in three dimensions. A Domain exists in the fourth."
"Oh. So it's a different dimension — that's why I couldn't see it?"
"Yeah. It's easier to just think of it that way."
"..."
"And every Domain has its own conditions for entry."
Sapi opened his hand.
"This one takes you on the day a solar eclipse falls — and the moment you take a wound grave enough to kill you."
Then he clenched that hand as if to crush everything in existence, and dragged the fist toward himself.
"Satisfy both conditions, and you're dragged here whether you like it or not."
I don't know how long I'd been following Sapi.
The soil beneath my feet writhed as though it were breathing. One lone star hung in the sky, and every inch of the rest of it glowed with a scatter of different moons.
And within this alien Domain — thanks to the Thousand Eyes Blessing, I only had to face forward, yet the monster that should have been outside my field of vision, behind me, showed itself with perfect clarity.
"Sapi, there's a monster behind us."
"Lebetri. Care to fight it?"
"What?"
"I want to see with these eyes whether you can beat this thing. How far you can grow."
"Got it."
I turned toward the monster. It was looking at me too, and our gazes met.
But... my reactions are faster!
BANG!
I used Linear Leap, and in the same breath swung my lightsaber for its throat —
WHISH!!
I had definitely cut it. Yet nothing came back through my fingertips. It felt like slicing something that didn't exist at all.
Blade and body alike, I passed clean through to the monster's far side — and in that same instant, its neck wrenched around, and it looked at me.
This monster's name is the Watcher.
Any being standing inside its field of vision could try whatever trick it liked — every single attack simply passed through. Which is why, to bring the Watcher down, you had to make use of ■■.
Or two of you would need to strike it together, in concert.
But this was my gamble — a wager to force Lebetri to grow.
If it went wrong, she really could die.
The futures I'd seen through the Foresight Eye — the ones where she died outnumbered the ones where she survived.
But this fight is something Lebetri needs.
With the Thousand Eyes Blessing, Lebetri has no blind spots at all. And yet she doesn't know how to create ■■.
So. Lebetri. Make yourself a ■■.
If you don't want to die... if you want your revenge...
What was that?
No sensation reached my hand at all. Like cutting through fog.
The monster, its neck twisted around, kept its mouth and ears covered — and only its two eyes followed me as I moved.
"..."
Was that a fluke? Then — once more!
BANG!
I kicked off the ground and carved a wide arc to the right. The monster didn't move. It only twisted its neck.
KRRK.
KRRRRK.
It twisted its neck to a degree that would have broken — no, severed — a human's, and still its eyes never lost me, not to the very end.
WHISH!
Through again.
"?!"
And in that very moment —
CRACK!
The monster's arm slammed into my side.
"Ghhk..."
I rolled across the ground, tasting blood in my mouth.
"Damn it..."
Why the hell won't it connect? An illusion? No — if it were an illusion, that last attack wouldn't make any sense...
The body was clearly real. But attacks alone passed through it.
Just then, Sapi's voice drifted over from somewhere far away.
"Keep..."
"What?"
"Fight while you think."
That was all. As if he had no intention of helping whatsoever.
But I trusted Sapi. This fight, too, was for my sake.
I gritted my teeth and kept attacking. Once. Twice. Three times. Every strike passed through. But one thing stayed the same.
It was always watching me. My gaze drifted to the monster's eyes. The mouth was hidden behind its hands. The ears were covered too. But the eyes — the eyes alone were never covered.
And then... the monster lunged.
CRACK!!
"Khok..."
I felt my ribs give way. Felt the shards of broken bone drive into my heart.
I died.
"Urgh... where... is this?"
"Inside a Domain. And where the Master is."
"A Domain...?"
But I never set a save point here?
Instantly, the terms of the contract I'd made with the fairies flashed through my mind.
"If you sleep, your regression point is forcibly reset to the moment you fell asleep."
Don't tell me the moment we entered this Domain counted as falling asleep — and forcibly reset my regression point?
"When enough monsters gather—"
"Spare me the explanation. I already know."
"Understood. Then shall we go meet the Master?"
What exactly are the conditions?
I walked along, turning over how to bring down the monster I'd fought in my previous loop. And then, through the Thousand Eyes Blessing, I felt it — a monster behind me.
"Sapi. Monster behind me."
"Now that's the voice of someone who's made up her mind."
"I want to take it down on my own this time."
"Good thinking, Lebetri."
The attack had passed through. And it wasn't an illusion, either. The thing was undeniably real. So why wouldn't my attacks connect?
Slowly, I retraced my memories. Every attack had failed. But there was one thing they all had in common.
It was always looking at me.
"..."
Could it be a coincidence? Lightsaber lit, I walked slowly toward the monster. Unlike last loop, I didn't leap in blindly. I simply watched its pupils. When I stepped left, its eyes slid left. This time right — the pupils followed. Back away, crouch down — its gaze never dropped away for even a heartbeat.
Still, I couldn't be sure yet. It might simply be stalking me, waiting for its own chance to attack.
BANG!
I leapt deliberately at its front and cut across its chest with the lightsaber.
WHISH.
Nothing again. I passed straight through its body — but this time, instead of pressing the attack or stopping, I broke sideways the instant I landed.
KRRK.
From behind me came the sound of the monster's neck rotating. Thanks to the Thousand Eyes Blessing, I didn't even need to check. It was watching me again.
So it is something tied to its gaze... but what, exactly, is the condition?
Eyes meeting? It watching me? Or me watching it? Those are three entirely different conditions. I'd have to test them one at a time.
I shut both eyes, and darkness flooded my vision. But the Thousand Eyes Blessing didn't fade. Its position, its movements — even the line of its gaze came through vivid and clear.
I could see even with my eyes closed. I turned around right where I stood and used Linear Leap on the monster.
BANG!
WHISH!
Again. Through this time, too. So me looking at it isn't the condition.
The instant my feet touched down, its arm came flying in from the side. Thanks to the Thousand Eyes Blessing, I could see the trajectory of an attack that should have been in my blind spot — and slip it.
Hold on... a blind spot?
Keeping low, I pulled away from it. That attack had come out of my blind side — an angle I could never have seen without the Blessing. Under any normal circumstance, it would have been my blind spot.
I have no blind spots. But it does.
It has only two eyes — and only one direction it can look at a time.
"Found it."
I still couldn't be certain. But it was worth testing.
I swept my gaze over my surroundings. Black, twisted trees; boulders jutting up from the earth. More than enough cover.
The problem was that hiding alone solved nothing. The moment I showed myself to attack, it would look at me. But I couldn't just wait around for it to lose track of me, either.
Gulp.
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. I'm not supposed to find a blind spot. I'm supposed to make one!
My eyes fixed on one of the black, twisted trees. All I needed was to block its line of sight for a heartbeat.
BANG!!
I leapt fast and slipped behind the tree. The monster wrenched its neck left and right, hunting for me.
Just as I thought — with its ears covered, it couldn't hear a thing.
Then... now!
I swept past the edge of the tree and swung the lightsaber.
WHISH!
"?!"
Through again.
"Why?"
Its eyes were already on me. The moment I'd burst out from cover, it had wrenched its head around to face me.
CRACK!
The monster's arm hammered into my raised prosthetic, and my body was flung backward.
Still... thank god I'd blocked with the prosthetic. The impact was brutal, but there was no pain. My head stayed clear.
Think.
Blocking with a tree isn't enough. The instant I attack, it will see me. That's not a blind spot.
When the monster turned, the neck moved before the body. And though the window was tiny — if that neck could only rotate so far...
"A limit?"
Even a human neck has a limit to how far it can turn. No matter what kind of monster this thing was, it couldn't rotate forever.
So what if I deliberately baited its gaze one way, then used Linear Leap in the opposite direction? In the sliver of an instant after its neck finished turning to the very end, there would be a moment it could no longer follow.
That sliver would be its blind spot.
And if I was wrong — I'd just regress and try again.
"..."
Sapi said nothing.
He simply... watched Lebetri.
But the corner of his mouth had lifted, ever so slightly — as if he could feel that she had finally arrived at the doorway of the right answer.
I raised my blade. The monster simply stared at me, unwavering, with both its eyes.
"Here I come."
BANG!
I readied myself to leap right — and its gaze slid right along.
Gotcha.
I dove in from the exact opposite side. Simple, but effective.
I dropped my stance. The monster's pupils, pinned to the right, snapped rapidly downward to chase my movement.
BANG!
I kicked off the earth and used Linear Leap toward its left. Its pupils chased me as its neck wrenched around to the left.
KRRRRRRK.
Flesh and bone shrieked as they ground against each other, the sound ringing out across the wasteland. Even with its head twisted to an angle that would long since have torn a human's neck clean off, it hadn't lost me.
But the Thousand Eyes Blessing showed me everything with perfect precision — the point where the monster's neck could turn no further, and the sight of the neck itself screaming in protest, vivid and undeniable.
I landed on the monster's left. Both its eyes were still locked on me.
Now!
The instant my feet touched down, I leapt up and vaulted backward over its body. Chasing my movement, its neck began to bend — no longer just left and right now, but up and down as well.
This time, right!
BANG!
Linear Leap. I burst out toward the monster's right. Its pupils wavered, frantic.
KRRK.
But no matter how fast it whipped its neck around, it couldn't outrun my leap. Inside the Thousand Eyes Blessing, its every movement stood out in perfect clarity — the pupils chasing me, the neck straining after them.
But it still wasn't looking at me.
In that sliver of an instant —
I swept past behind its back and swung the lightsaber.
SHFF.
This time was different.
There was no sensation of carving empty air. The blade's edge burned along, and the feel of flesh splitting flooded back through my hand — even the hardened bone melted in the light and gave way.
The monster's head left its body. The skull that had been spinning through the void plummeted toward the ground.
Thud.
Belatedly, the two eyes in the severed head rolled toward me, searching. But it was far too late. The headless body wavered, swayed — and then even its knees gave out.
WHUMP!
I retracted the lightsaber and said, briefly: