The Eye of the World
The voice drifted through the darkness.
“I’m sorry… this is all I can manage right now…”
The touch came right after. It was warm.
Pop.
A sound like a water droplet bursting on the surface of a pond. At the same moment, my closed eyelids flew open.
“Ugh…!”
I forced my heavy body upright, barely managing to raise my upper half. What the hell happened? I remembered Nephthea pulling me into her arms and collapsing, but everything after that was a complete blank.
“Ugh!”
The wound Eunhwa had left flared in my memory. Instinctively, I clutched at my chest.
Huh?
The injury that should have been there was already faintly healed. The skin scorched by her Authority looked the same. It wasn’t fully recovered, but the pain had dulled enough to be bearable.
“How is it already…?”
It must have been healing magic. In that situation, the only person who could have done something like this was—
I turned my gaze toward Nephthea, who lay collapsed beside me. Her face was deathly pale, and she remained completely motionless, unconscious.
“…”
My eyes caught on the severe wound across her shoulder. Crimson blood flowed from it, soaking the ground. She had prioritized healing me even after sustaining an injury like that?
“…What a good person.”
I tore off the lower half of the shirt I was wearing. Most of it had already been burned by flames, so it ripped away easily. Using the strip of cloth, I tightly bound her wound to stop the bleeding. I couldn’t use magic, after all. This was the best I could do.
We had bickered so much, but if it hadn’t been for her, I probably wouldn’t have survived. Once she woke up and started complaining again, I wanted to at least give her a proper word of thanks.
Rustle.
“…Good grief, wow…”
I forced myself to my feet. Thick mist blanketed everything around me. It seemed to be an aftereffect of the magic—transparent droplets like water bubbles kept rising from the ground, popping one after another.
Quite a bit of time must have passed. The faint light of dawn was already seeping in, illuminating the area.
…Had the storm passed?
The village’s stone buildings had crumbled and been crushed into the earth. The ground around the epicenter of the magic was carved out in a massive circular crater, everything swept away.
“The pinnacle of mages…”
It felt like witnessing the true scale of someone who had reached that height. My mouth fell open in shock. Even in the original story, had King-class mages possessed this kind of power? No—more than that, what astonished me was her judgment. She had perfectly understood the nature of the Authority.
‘You must never, under any circumstances, harbor emotion toward it.’
I had only given her fragmented information. There hadn’t been time for a detailed explanation in that desperate situation. Yet she had deduced a way to evade the Authority’s gaze, endured that overwhelming barrage of attacks, and remained unscathed. On top of that, she had supported me and Eunhwa in our fierce battle, evacuated the surrounding civilians so they wouldn’t get caught in her magic.
…Didn’t she once say she was older than me? From now on, I’d better stop acting cocky and treat her properly.
Step.
I slowly turned and walked into the nearby mist. I was looking for traces of Eunhwa. No matter how strong she was, she couldn’t have come out of that unscathed. Come to think of it, her ending in the original story was something like this too.
As I looked down at the ground, I noticed a long, deep gouge carved into it. Had she been sent flying so far that she was out of sight?
“Where the hell did that bastard fly off to?”
“……Are you looking for me?”
—Oh.
Only then did the thick mist suddenly clear. I could finally see the direction the voice had come from.
“…Ha.”
A shadow barely standing, using a sword as a crutch. The one letting out ragged breaths was none other than Eunhwa. She slowly lifted her hanging head.
“I never imagined… I would be driven this far. I admit it. You.”
Was it because of the magical shock? Her clothes hung in tatters. The arm exposed beneath her torn sleeve still gripped the sword hilt, but it convulsed violently, as if it might drop the weapon at any moment.
Wow. Did she really deflect all that mass with her sword?
“……You really are beyond imagination.”
“Adversity… always arrives without warning. Ah, it seems my own vessel has yet to be fully tempered…”
“That filthy mouth of yours still won’t shut up even after getting beaten like that.”
This was no time for jokes. A shiver of tension ran down my spine once more. Still, she must have taken heavy damage too. If I could just make her give up here—
Thud.
“?”
My vision suddenly dropped. To my despair, my legs had given out completely in this situation.
“Wait, what the—why is this happening?”
I tried to steady myself immediately, but my legs spasmed uncontrollably like those of a newborn fawn.
“…Of course. Struck by an Authority twice, enduring that much shock—there was no way your body would remain fine.”
“Damn it…!”
A curve formed on her lips. Was it a sneer? Or perhaps a sign that she had found something interesting?
“Seer, do not worry. I have changed my mind.”
“?”
“I will retrieve your person. Ah, for you possess the qualifications to warrant it.”
?? What the hell is this crazy woman saying?
Tap.
Eunhwa took a step closer and looked down at me in silence. A madwoman. Beneath her disheveled white hair, those twilight-colored eyes shimmered with an eerie gleam.
“No nation, no hero, no miracle has ever granted us such emotion after comprehending an Authority. Yes… perhaps it was my destiny to take you and carve the heavenly orbit.”
Her face was utterly insane. There was no sign that conversation would work.
“…However, even that vast vessel of yours would become an obstacle right now.”
“—!”
Slash!
Before I could even process the meaning of the sound, my vision was dyed red. Only then did I realize my eyes had been cut.
“?! Aaaargh!! Ugh!”
“Your sight of wisdom has become a hindrance. Wait a moment… until I finish my task.”
…Task?
A horrifying premonition. I pressed a hand against my blood-soaked eyes and somehow forced them open. Only one eye could still see. She had turned and begun staggering in a certain direction.
Toward the unconscious Nephthea.
“I realized it right after that miracle… So you were the pillar of that arrogant queen. Her neck must be taken.”
“?!!”
I immediately reached out and grabbed her ankle as she passed.
“If you were aiming for me from the start, then just take me, you crazy bitch…!”
“…”
Crunch.
The sound of my hand bones being crushed under her kick.
“Ugh!?”
Tap—tap.
Ignoring me, Eunhwa continued toward Nephthea. Right after that, she drew her blood-red blade. The sight felt unbearably cruel.
“Kgh…!”
With my crushed hand, I clawed at the dirt and thrashed. Tears of blood filled my eyes as I glared at her back. There was nothing I could do. My body, which had already surpassed its limits, could only convulse. I had come this far. Just one more time—just one more time and I could—
My body refused to listen, no matter how absurd it seemed. The moment I lifted my head while gasping for breath—
Suddenly, I felt a gaze.
It was from the sky, I assumed. My field of vision reached beyond Eunhwa, toward a corner of the lofty heavens. The moon and stars that had risen earlier had now set, and the faintly obscured Eye of the World shone clearly.
As always, it stared at me indifferently. Then—
Shrrk.
It closed its eyes.
That colossal eye had firmly shut.
—
Observer.
—
A resonance. A voice that seemed to echo alone in the vast chamber of the world. It felt the same as last time. Yet something was different.
“…”
A faint dreamlike state. Or perhaps a mirage, an illusion. The edges of my blood-red vision slowly spread, and the figure of someone began to take shape.
A woman with a pure white veil draped over her head. Beneath it flowed vivid crimson hair. She wore radiant white garments and sat quietly within the silence.
I thought she was a person, but she felt closer to a spiritual entity. A cluster of star-like radiance floated above her. I was certain I had never seen her before. Yet the sensation that reached me carried a strange sense of déjà vu.
“Tell her this.”
—
“Do not look up at the false sky.”
“Do not look up at the false sky.”
“But fear not.”
—
“Only the Faceless God shall watch over you and me.”
“But fear not.”
“Only the Faceless God… shall watch over you and me…?”
—Snap.
With a single blink, the hallucinatory landscape that had seeped into my vision evaporated in an instant.
“…?”
My sight was once again dyed red. The reality that returned immediately was no different from before. Reflexively, I looked up at the Eye of the World. As if nothing had happened, it simply gazed down at me with its usual indifferent stare.
“What… was that…?”
The Faceless God? Even though this was hardly the time, my body froze at the bizarre phenomenon that had just occurred. But perhaps the one most shaken by it wasn’t me.
“……You. What did you just… say……??”
A trembling voice, thin and quivering, broke the silence.
“Why… how…?”
“You… know the First Verse……?”
It was a sight I had never seen before. Eunhwa, completely and utterly stripped of her cold composure.
* * *
Squeeze—
“Ugh!”
“Answer me, Seer…!”
Eunhwa’s voice shook so violently it seemed ready to tear apart.
“How do you know that passage…!!”
“Kgh! I don’t… know either!!”
As if she had heard an unspeakable taboo. As if the truth she had buried had been dragged into the light. The moment she heard the words I had unconsciously recited, she instantly closed the distance and seized me by the throat. It looked like she would crush my windpipe at any second. Yet for some reason, her fingertips were trembling.
“Is that also one of your abilities as a Seer? Can you truly see even beyond that…?!”
“Explain first… before you threaten me… damn it…!”
What the hell is wrong with this woman? Why is she having a seizure like this? False sky? Faceless God? What kind of nonsense is that? Even I, who had played through the original story to its ending, had no idea what any of it meant.
“Seer, please answer—!”
Whoosh!
At that moment, a long whip of water shot out from behind and coiled around Eunhwa’s entire body like a serpent.
“—?! Kgh.”
In an instant, both of her arms were bound. The arm gripping my throat lost strength, dropping me to the ground.
“Haa… haa… now’s the chance…!!”
“! Lady Nephthea…!”
Nephthea had regained consciousness. However, she still seemed unable to support herself properly—barely managing to stay upright by leaning on her staff.
“…”
Eunhwa, who had lost her reason just moments ago, shot Nephthea a cold glare.
“Something like this can be broken anytime. Shall I sever your neck first?”
Rage. A heavy crimson haze rose from her entire body. I sucked in a breath and forced a smirk.
“If you so much as lift a finger against her, I’ll bite my tongue and die right here.”
“…!!”
She looked at me with eyes that said she couldn’t believe it. This woman had been desperately demanding something from me since earlier. A gamble that might not work. A bluff that might seem ridiculous.
“…Kgh.”
?
It worked. Her eyes, which had remained utterly still until now, were shaking.
“Pathetic… little tricks…!”
“You’re the one who told me. Something about the struggles of the weak.”
She took a step forward, chewing on my words. The moment her trembling gaze tried to pierce through me—
“—Waaaaah!!!”
The crushing pressure shattered in an instant. Shouts rang out from beyond the village.
“Over there!!”
Beyond the horizon where sunlight was slowly seeping in, the glint of soldiers’ armor flashed. Had the army’s reinforcements finally arrived?
“Looks like you lost.”
“……”
No matter how strong she was, she couldn’t have fully recovered from Nephthea’s magical shock. Too much time had passed. The breaking dawn would mean further battle. And the Creation Society always avoided leaving more traces than necessary.
“So, what are you going to—”
Bang!
In that instant, Eunhwa lightly twisted her shoulder. The water whip binding her burst apart pathetically easily.
“Wh-what…! How much power does she even have!?”
Grab—!
Eunhwa closed in and seized me by the collar where I lay collapsed. Our faces were so close I could feel her breath. Her twilight eyes hovered right before me.
“Seer, I swear upon the name of Blood Fire—I will come for you again.”
“I’d really appreciate it if you just… forgot about me…!”
“I will never forget. What you recited is not a verse that can be easily overlooked.”
As expected. She was completely fixated on it.
“Then I’ll kill myself the moment you touch even a single hair on anyone in this village. Yeah. That’s right.”
—I used that to threaten her. Because I didn’t know when this woman might return to trample Olpia Village again.
“……”
After hearing my answer, she stared at me with an even more persistent gaze. As if trying to etch my face into her memory, even for a single moment.
“…We will meet face to face again, Seer.”
Tap.
With a short leap, her form melted into the mist. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it evaporated.
“…”
And that meant the Creation Society had chosen to withdraw of their own accord.
“Huh…?”
“…Hic.”
The sudden silence that descended. The only thing left was the crimson smoke, wandering without direction before scattering in the wind. The cold dawn air settled over my torn skin.
Only then did I meet eyes with Nephthea in the distance, who looked just as stunned as I was. She, too, seemed unable to speak. She sat there unsteadily, barely supporting herself with her staff.
The thought that came to both of us was probably the same.
‘We survived.’
“…Ah.”
Thump.
“N-Noriel…!!”
Burns and scars. A shattered right hand and eyes stained with blood. My body screamed instantly. At the same time, the tension that had been holding me together gave way, dragging me down to the ground. In my final fading vision, I saw Nephthea crawling toward my collapsed form.
Wow. I actually lived through that.
A Star of the Creation Society. A miraculous night survived against that walking despair. As the morning brightened, that nightmare slowly faded away.
—
Observer.
—
“Only one chance remains now.”
“You must find the method to predict it.”
Once again, the voice came. It was a voice filled with desperate longing.