The Red Eyes started to go wild, as if they wanted to jump right this instant into the arms of their true owner.
'I don't know what will happen.'
I didn't know what kind of effect the Red Eyes had. It didn't even occur to me that it was an item that I could use to control the Shepherd Boy. I couldn't calculate all the pros and cons. I simply had to do what I could right now. I didn't want to regret anything in this life.
I took out the Red Eyes from my Inventory.
[The 'Shepherd Boy' asks for the 'Red Eyes'.]
[The 'Shepherd Boy' strongly demands the 'Red Eyes'.]
In his haste, the Shepherd Boy sent me two messages, and it didn't end there.
[The 'Shepherd Boy' expresses faint hostility towards you.]
[The 'Shepherd Boy' mentions that his hostility can become goodwill at any moment.]
He even warned me. He was telling me to leave the Red Eyes alone. The Shepherd Boy was a powerful Guardian. Things would become very tiresome if I made him my enemy. If possible, it was best to do as he wanted. Logically speaking, that is.
'No.'
But this wasn't the time for that.
'I'm a little more of an adult than her.'
I was an adult, and she was a child. As an adult, I should act a little more adult-like. There were occasionally times when I had to act with no regard for my personal gain. Why? Because I was a little more of an adult than her, and she was of the age to be protected. Because she couldn't die here. Because I had to do everything I could. While I was flicking the abacus beads and watching my own step, this child put her life on the line.
[The 'Shepherd Boy' wishes to freeze your actions.]
[Your movements are being dulled.]
The Guardian involved himself rather directly, going so far as to put a debuff on me. He wanted the Red Eyes that desperately. Just what was this thing?
My movements slowed visibly. I was a level 37 beginner Player. Even simple 'dulling' made my body feel as if it were 'restrained'.
'Seohye has completely stopped breathing.'
It took a long time for me to move my arm. Everything seemed to move in slow motion.
'Oh.'
But thanks to everything being slowed down, I could notice more things. It was natural to see details you hadn't noticed before when playing something in slow motion.
'Seohye… hasn't completely died.'
How could I put it? Her heart had stopped, as had her breathing. Scientifically speaking, she was dead. But what was this subtle feeling… that she was alive?
'There's some kind of flow connected to the Red Eyes.'
And these Red Eyes wanted to return to their owner. I had to give the Red Eyes back to her. The eyes I extracted with the Hand of Salvation had to be returned to their original place. I looked at Seohye's pale white face, wondering what kind of world she had wanted to protect.
Baseless belief and aspiration stirred within me.
'I'll save her.'
I could save her. No, I would definitely save her. Ahn Seohye hadn't died yet. Yeonseo snatched the Red Eyes out of my hand and lifted them.
"Boss Hyukjin. I have to give these Red Eyes to Seohye, right?"
I nodded. Time had slowed for me, so Yeonseo's movements seemed extremely fast. She rapidly brought the Red Eyes to Seohye's eyes.
"How do I do this? It's not working." Yeonseo looked like she was going to cry. "It says the power of an agreement is in effect."
The power of an agreement?
"It says she can't absorb the Red Eyes."
I realized what happened. The Shepherd Boy had played a cruel trick. No wonder he handed out a marble with such an incredible effect. The penalty of death had been set down from the start.
I bit my lips.
'Shepherd Boy.'
Was this a dead end?
'No.'
My desire to protect Seohye was as great as her desire to sacrifice her life to protect us. I wanted to revive her. Right now, right here, that was how I truly felt.
[The 'Shepherd Boy' breathes a sigh of relief.]
[The 'Whispering Devil' is having fun.]
[The 'Lady of the Scales' reproaches the 'Shepherd Boy'.]
[The 'Nameless Observer' observes.]
I focused on a certain fact.
'Only now is the Shepherd Boy relieved.'
The 'power of an agreement' should have been in place from the start, so why? Why was he relieved when I, a mere Player, shouldn't be able to breach that power?
'Considering how anxious he was earlier…'
A thought flashed through my mind.
[Your movements are no longer being dulled.]
Yeonseo looked at me, crying. "Boss Hyukjin. What do we do? What should we do? Seohye's not gonna die, is she? She can't die. She's not someone who can die here…!"
I was able to move my body like usual again.
"I'll save her."
I had already experienced 'false power' once, and I had also broken it before. The power to discern the true nature of things, the power of insight, were powers I possessed. I had eyes that could see through lies.
'Seohye's incantation earlier was distorted.'
It was different from the incantation I knew. I knew the correct incantation—it was just that I couldn't realize it properly. Still, the fact that I knew it was the important part.
'I'll correct that distortion first.'
One who trusts even without seeing shall die even in life.
That was wrong.
"One who trusts even without seeing shall live even in death."
This incantation was not an incantation to kill, but an incantation to save. I corrected it.
"Thy cry of agony and entreaty, I have heard."
"Thus shall I sublimate thy lacerating suffering into peace and joy."
It was the same as back then. I used the Incantation of Salvation on Ahn Seohye.
[You who have trust.]
[I command thee. Open thy eyes and face the world.]
[You have partially succeeded in uttering the Will Incantation.]
I didn't know what kind of meaning this incantation would have on me right now, or what I stood to gain from this incantation. I was simply driven by a gut sense that this was 'what I had to do'.
'No matter what it is, I have to do everything I can.'
Everything I could to shatter the Shepherd Boy's 'fabricated power'. I didn't know what kind of agreement the Shepherd Boy and Seohye made, but that agreement was a fabricated power. That was how the System saw it, and something the Shepherd Boy himself knew.
'I will shatter it.'
I had also experienced a strong wish. That experience told me that my wish right now was to save Seohye.
[The Guardian Tower is responding to the Guardian Tower Master's 'Guardian Will'.]
[The Guardian Tower acknowledges 'one with Guardian Will'.]
I immediately knew that the 'one with Guardian Will' was referring to Seohye. Her feelings had been acknowledged by Tintin as well.
The notices continued.
[The Guardian Tower adds its 'Guardian Will' to the 'Guardian Will'.]
My fervent wish to save Seohye was interpreted as Guardian Will, and the Guardian Tower bolstered me. It buffed me, so to speak.
Cracks began to appear in the fabricated power enveloping Seohye's body. Naturally, it wasn't something you could see with the eye. My Eye of Perception just sensed it.
'It's still not enough.'
There wasn't much time. A little longer, and Seohye would really die. I had to topple this power.
A thought shot into my head like an arrow.
'This power right now is my enemy.'
It was an enemy blocking my path. It might just be a false authority, but the person who put it in place was the Shepherd Boy, of all Guardians. A powerful enemy.
'If I use this right now, the Shepherd Boy will completely become my enemy.'
That was natural—a lowly Player would be regarding a Guardian's power as an 'enemy' and shattering it, after all.
'I was going to do that anyway.'
I immediately opened my mouth without a moment of further thought. My lips formed the incantation that I had experienced very briefly earlier as a mere shell.
'I will shatter it.'
That will took root firmly in my heart. This time, the incantation wasn't just a shell.
"The will to not flee in the face of a powerful foe."
"The fighting spirit to never waver, even when pushed to the breaking point."
In the end, the Shepherd Boy revealed his true colors.
[The 'Shepherd Boy' assumes a hostile attitude towards you.]
Hostility? He could bare his teeth as much as he wanted. Trash like him could see itself out the door.
"The ambition to topple without fail those who endanger all I hold dear."
"Those are the things I wish for."
It was an elementary incantation, an easy one belonging to the basics. That also meant it was an incantation that could act as a foundation.
I instantly heard a notice.
[You have partially succeeded in uttering the Will Incantation.]
[Manifesting will based on the grade of the Will Incantation.]
My Will Incantation wasn't complete. To begin with, it was an incantation I cobbled together from the words spoken by the Fight King. Vela wasn't an idiot; there was no way he would have publicized an excellent incantation of high grade. From Vela's point of view, the incantation he shared with the world was extremely low quality, and I was stealing and producing a mere imitation of that low quality incantation. Despite that, it was a definite fact that I successfully uttered the Will Incantation.
More cracks appeared in the fabricated power. And then, I was able to capture the correct timing for the last spurt.
To incantation and incantation, I added another incantation. They might just be elementary incantations from the beginner period, but stacking multiple incantations would surely produce a stronger effect than just one.
I wouldn't have known had I not experienced it, but the Incantation of Insight was familiar to me. All the experiences I had accumulated made me who I was today.
"Illusions and apparitions, distortions and lies, cannot covet me."
"No matter what ravine of evil in this world I must traverse."
"No evil power that seeks to harm me can violate me."
"Such is the power of intuition."
"The Eye of Insight that sees the true nature of things."
Having experienced the Eye of Insight before, my Will Incantation was further fortified. I once again manifested the Eye of Insight that had pushed the fabricated authority of the Yellow Charm Gate to its knees.
[May all lies.]
[Be shattered.]
The fabricated power wrapped around Seohye's body shattered entirely. I brought the Red Eyes to Seohye's eyes without delay.
[Consume the 'Red Eyes'?]
The current Red Eyes were a consumable item. I didn't know what would happen, but I decided to go ahead with it. I didn't weigh this and that. I also used another special skill that had come off of cooldown.
[Using the special skill (Courageous) Hunter's March.]
I did it unconsciously out of instinct, as naturally as breathing. Though I used it instinctively, I knew why I used the skill.
3. +40% increase in effect of consumable items in a solo battle
At this moment, the Red Eyes were a consumable item, and the skill gave a staggering +40% increase to its effect.
[The 'Lady of the Scales' holds your act of good in high regard.]
[The 'Lady of the Scales' sends you a 'Judgment of the Law' as a sponsorship.]
The Red Eyes melted down and flowed into Seohye's eyes.
'Please…!'
Red light began to whirl around Seohye's body. The wicked looking energy swelled before streaming into her body.
'Huh?'
And then, Seohye's body began to disappear, starting from her feet.
'What?'
Her body faded like dust scattering in the wind. Yeonseo and Sunhwa screamed at the same time.
"NO!!!"
Her feet, her knees, then past her thighs to her stomach. Her chest, her neck, even her face. She completely disintegrated, just like Lily.
'What is this…?'
I was struck with an incomprehensible sense of déjà vu. Seohye disappeared. And yet, she didn't disappear. She disappeared, but she didn't?
'I can definitely feel her presence.'
She was there, but her body wasn't.
'Where?'
The next moment, I could feel the energy around the Guardian Tower shimmer. Sunghyun apparently discovered it as well.
"Hyung. Look over there."
I observed a new flow in the Guardian Tower Tintin.
A red energy that could clearly be seen, even with the naked eye.
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