Thud.
A graceful figure appeared by the port of an enormous city, the large frames of the boats casting long shadows across the crimson water. Alongside her were several cadets as they all held onto their stomachs.
“Uekh… I feel like I’m going to die.”
“You only just feel it? I am going to die.”
“Let me help with that.”
“Fuck off.”
Teleportation wasn’t easy on the body. Delilah was fine because of her strength, but the others were far from okay. It took them a good couple of minutes to fully recover before they finally caught a glimpse of the massive city that stood before them.
Leon looked at the place with a complicated expression.
“Who would’ve thought a city like this would exist within the mirror dimension?”
The buildings were tall, primarily white in color, adding a perfect contrast to the massive white sun that hung in the air.
Further adding to that, in the distance, he could see the massive frame of a cathedral, standing imposingly at the heart of the city.
Be it the architecture and the neatness of the place…
Leon had a really hard time fully grasping the concept of what he was seeing.
‘How come the Empires never mention something like this? It almost feels like they’ve kept it a secret on purpose.’
Leon wasn’t the only one who thought this. The others also shared similar expressions and thoughts.
Delilah was the only one who stared at the scene without much thought.
The place was indeed impressive, but she cared nothing for it. She only had one goal, and that was to find out more about…
“…..”
Delilah paused, her brows slightly knitting together.
Who was she looking for? What was she here for…? Her thoughts were lost, and her mind started to go blank each time she tried to think about it.
‘What’s going on?’
The situation felt eerie and strange.
Delilah knew that she had arrived at this place for a reason. She was looking for someone. Something.
…But the moment she started thinking about the figure or object in question, her mind would go blank. She started finding it harder and harder for her to recall, and her lips pursed tightly.
‘Is someone messing with my mind?’
Delilah felt that this was the closest thing to the truth, but at the same time, she found the possibility hard to accept.
Could there really be someone powerful enough to alter her memories?
Delilah knew that there were more powerful figures than her in this world, but she didn’t think there were figures strong enough to completely alter her memories like that. The fact that a creature or person was capable of pulling off something like this made her face tense slightly.
‘This might be more serious than I expected.’
Still, with the situation like this, she found it hard to understand what to do.
The only thing she knew was that she was looking for something or someone. That was the only thing that she knew, and that didn’t really help her at all.
It—
“…..!”
Delilah’s thoughts paused all of a sudden.
Without even thinking, her head flicked towards a certain direction. She wasn’t the only one to sense the sudden pulse of energy coming from the distance.
Almost everyone within the city felt it.
The hair on almost every single person rose as a terrifying and ancient pressure bore down on the world, causing the breaths of a few to quicken.
There were even some that directly passed out on the floor, the emissaries of the church coming out as they started to scream towards the people in the streets.
“Everyone, get back inside!”
“Get back inside!”
The ships began to rock back and forth, and a strong wind suddenly pulsed through the air, causing waves to form.
Bells rang, and screams started to echo.
“Ahhh!”
“Quickly go back in!”
“In!”
In mere moments, the calm city fell into panic, and chaos ensued.
Despite the emissary’s cries, the panic continued, only growing more restless as the pressure coming from the distance intensified.
Even Delilah found her face growing a little grim at the pressure that came from the distance.
‘So it’s that beast…’
She recognized the presence. It was the same presence that had made her so wary of crossing the sea.
‘In the end, the reason why I couldn’t feel you is because you were here?’
Delilah’s hands started to itch.
Rather than being scared or panicky, she found herself growing a little restless. She wanted to test the monster. She wanted to see just how strong it was.
Who between them was stronger?
Of course, these were merely passing thoughts. She had certain responsibilities, and looking towards the cadets next to her, she understood that she couldn’t expose them to the danger in the distance.
Looking around, Delilah was about to send them away when Leon looked at her.
“Please.”
His voice was serious, his gaze fixed towards the distance. He was looking in that direction with a complicated expression.
Pulling his gaze away and finally looking at her, Leon’s voice softened slightly.
“I have a feeling that we’re both looking for the same thing.”
“…..”
Looking for the same thing?
Delilah didn’t answer, but kept her gaze on Leon.
“I… don’t understand what is going on, but I can’t remember what I was looking for. I think you’re the same, right?”
‘He is also affected?’
Delilah’s eyes narrowed further.
However, before she could get a word out, Leon looked into the distance.
“My instincts are screaming at me right now.”
Leon’s voice was soft, but there was a certain assurance to them that made Delilah pause. She was aware of Leon’s innate skill. Having observed him for a while and after asking him directly, she knew exactly what the skill consisted of.
In that case…
“I can feel it.”
Leon mumbled, his mouth dry, as he looked towards the distance where the massive pressure was coming from.
“…We’ll find what we’re looking for if we go there.”
***
The eye stood imposingly above the fractured water, its massive frame reflected within the fractures as though a thousand eyes were all staring at Lazarus at the same time.
Time appeared to stop in that moment.
A suffocating pressure bore down on the world, and Lazarus found himself stuck in the spot.
Sweat trickled down the side of his face as he stared at the eye directly.
‘I can’t move, I can’t move, I can’t move…’
Lazarus wasn’t one to panic easily. Even in front of the goddess, he was able to maintain a certain calmness, but in front of the massive eye that stood before him, Lazarus found himself panicking.
He was helpless.
He… felt helpless.
Regardless of how hard he tried to break free of the shackles of the eye, he couldn’t move at all.
It was as if he had lost complete control of his body, leaving behind only his mind.
And then—
Thud!
As ripples formed across the fragmented water surface, a figure appeared not far from where Lazarus was, his smile wide and eyes completely white, devoid of pupils.
“We meet again.”
“We meet again.”
“We meet again.”
His multi-layered voice echoed within the darkness, adding to the sense of eeriness of the situation and causing Lazarus to panic further.
“Hmm, hold on.”
“Hmm, hold on.”
“Hmm, hold on.”
Tapping onto his chest, Sylas coughed a couple of times.
Eventually, opening his mouth again, he started speaking with his ‘original’ voice.
“Ah, that’s much better.”
He directly turned his attention towards Lazarus, his lips pulling further as he looked at him.
“You sure came a long way to get to the Remnant South. I bet your journey was a lot smoother than you expected, right?”
Sylas began to laugh.
He had been present the entire time, watching over Lazarus and the others as they traversed the Crimson Sea to get to the Remnant South. He was the main reason why their path was so unobstructed.
He couldn’t afford to let them die so easily.
Not when he… and the others were so necessary to him.
Calmly taking steps towards where Lazarus was, Sylas took a good look at him.
“Do you know how fascinated I was to see your emotive magic in action? You… heh.”
Sylas covered his mouth while suppressing a chuckle. He could still distinctly recall the scene in which Lazarus fought against the Luminarch, beating him to submission with just his emotive magic.
Shivers.
That was what Sylas felt in that moment.
Shivers.
“I was aware from the very start that you were a powerful, emotive mage. That was also one of the reasons why I chose you.”
Sylas walked around the frozen Lazarus.
Although it seemed like he was wasting time talking to Lazarus, in reality, he was merely waiting for the primordial one to completely erase his existence from the world. It was a process that usually lasted a few minutes.
Before then, Sylas couldn’t touch him.
“But you see…”
Sylas turned his attention towards Lazarus, pausing to meet his gaze.
“…You’ve far exceeded my expectations. Not only are you an extremely powerful emotive mage, but you’re probably among the top in the entire world!”
Sylas suddenly burst out laughing, his face unable to hide his joy.
Finally.
Finally, he had found the missing ingredient to his ascension.
Once the primordial one was done absorbing his existence, Sylas planned on absorbing his emotive powers. He, alongside Anne, were the missing pieces that he was craving for. By the time he absorbed their powers…
“We’ll finally be whole again.”
“We’ll finally be whole again.”
“We’ll finally be whole again.”
“We’ll finally be whole again.”
“We’ll finally be whole again.”
Sylas suddenly covered his mouth, his white eyes flickering. Eventually recollecting himself, he looked towards Lazarus.
“Sorry about that. It tends to happen when I’m excited.”
Chuckling, Sylas looked around. Eventually, his gaze fell on a certain object in Lazarus’s hand, and his brow rose.
“A mirror?”
Looking closely, the mirror had some intricate patterns that made it visually appealing.
However, it didn’t really seem like anything special.
“Why were you holding onto a mirror? I doubt you were checking yourself out in this place.”
Sylas lowered his body to get a better look at the mirror.
Although he couldn’t feel a single thing from the mirror, he wasn’t stupid enough to think it was just a regular mirror.
‘It must be some sort of relic.’
Thinking about it, why was he here?
Sylas licked his lips, thinking over the situation. The Eclipsed Maw was famous for its bones, as all the monsters within the premises seemed to magically contain bones. It was a treasure trove.
Was he here for the monsters?
‘No, I doubt he’s here for the bones. I’ve seen him kill a few monsters, but that doesn’t look to be his main goal.’
Then…?
What was his goal?
Sylas thought deeply and hard about the situation. Eventually, however, he recalled a certain something that he had stumbled across when he had visited the cathedral of the goddess, and his mouth slowly curled up.
“I see.”
He suddenly started to understand, his gaze looking at the mirror with even more interest as he slowly retrieved it for himself.
Staring at his own reflection, Sylas laughed.
“So this will help me find the Goddess’s scepter?”
He licked his lips, turning towards Lazarus, who stared at the mirror in his hands, his eyes shaking slightly.
This was all Sylas needed to see before smiling further.
“I guess I’ve got my answer.”
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