It was a dreamless state, like floating through an abyssal sea of nothingness.
Only the burn on his chest remained, but his mind was intact.
He wasn't upset, sad or overjoyed. He felt nothing.
But something lurked.
It felt like he was inside a house while something kept knocking on all the windows.
Something wanted to be let in, their strikes against the glass muted and distant.
It suddenly felt like something reeled him, rapidly bringing him back to the surface.
He opened his eyes.
His back was against the hard ground, while his head rested on Fae's thighs, a feeling he remembered.
He could feel the pain in his head, faint but still present.
His chest still felt like it was ablaze, the hot feeling shared by the various cuts his body sustained.
"You're still wearing it."
Fae was looking down at him, with the mask on.
She nodded.
Alexander frowned and blinked several times, before forcing himself to sit upright.
He used his hands and elbows as leverage, and turned toward her.
"You just… nodded?"
She did again.
Alexander smiled, instantly hugging her before quickly breaking away.
"Great! It's because of the mask?" he asked.
She nodded again.
"Don't you feel any downsides?"
She shook her head.
Despite her saying no, he felt uneasy about the mask, remembering the darkness he saw and felt inside.
"Are you sure?" he asked again.
She nodded once more.
Every movement she made was calm and measured. Her usual self. oddly, it almost felt like the mask was helping her
It was odd, however. Despite how she wore a mask with no eye holes, he could still clearly feel her gaze, as if she wore none.
Probably because of my class. I've been noticing her gaze quite easily, even without the mask.
Alexander took a deep breath, and got up.
One thing changed.
The wall, which signaled the end of the trail of platforms had two archways with an eye in each.
"Again…"
Text was written above them again, each pathway having its own reward.
"Last time, it was my class… it must be as important."
He looked at both words, jumping back and forth. Their meaning was clear, but translating them wasn't as easy.
Fae was intensely looking at him, he turned to her.
"One of them means strength, power. The other is harder to explain… It would be a mix between control, command and influence."
She nodded, her head turning back to the paths.
Alexander's gaze went to the ground, where the Will Breaker's corpse remained.
He walked over, slight pain at each step from the cuts he received earlier.
He kneeled down, and grabbed the robe with his hand.
I'll be using this.
Carefully, he took the robe off the man's cold body, a harder task considering the rigidity of the corpse.
The robe was quite interesting, it was in several layers. The top one, bright white with buttons to attach at the front. Once detached, it looked a lot more like a cloak with a normal, high collar.
Under it was a black layer, the undergarment was attached to the top layer at the collar, with a hidden thread that was in-between the two pieces of clothing.
He pulled on the thread, detaching the white cloak, and pulled it from under him.
He then grabbed the hat, looking inside it. It felt normal, despite how large it was.
He always avoided clothing that drew unnecessary attention, something he understood wouldn't be the same as a Dungeon Runner.
He put the cape and hat on, it didn't feel heavy at all. If anything he barely felt the cloak on his back.
He was about the walk past the Will Breaker, but something caught his attention.
Fae, who was following his movements, also stepped back.
"It's…"
She had removed one of the sickles from his eye, and had both of them at her belt.
The man's face now had a hole where one of his eyes should've been, a mess of blood, brain and other tissues.
The other eye was what caught his attention. A pulling sensation, similar to what he had felt with the mask.
He got closer, staring into the dead man's eye.
But there's nothing…
He inspected his body once more, then got back to his head. The feeling didn't lie, it was there.
Alexander frowned, before sighing.
I'll activate it for a moment.
His eyes turned into crosses as he activated [Witness of All Paths ].
The pull was even stronger, even his vision slightly distorted, as if reality was distorted around the man's eye.
He got closer, his head hovering a foot above the man's. As he looked into the blank, dead eye, his heart skipped a beat.
It was as if the man's eye had been looking at the back of his head, and that his iris came back down.
Only, instead of a normal iris, it was that cross.
It felt like gravity was suddenly stronger, as if time stopped. Nothing else existed, it was only the both of them.
As they locked eye, a connection formed. It looked like reality distorted through that link. The cross in the man's eye slowly shrunk as it seemingly left his eyes to go toward Alexander's.
As the connection snapped, the eye returned to a lifeless white. Alexander stumbled backward, grabbing his face.
"What was that?"
Fae walked up, offering a hand he took. Once back on his feet, he dusted himself.
"Maybe my profile can—"
He stopped mid-sentence, realizing he hadn't turned his sight off.
No headache?
He opened his profile.
[ Name : Veil ]
[ Level : 1 ]
[ Archetype : Specialist ]
[ Class : Beholder ]
[ Fate : — ]
[ Effects : Darkness, Will Breaker's set, — ]
He quickly opened the Will Breaker's set with a slight glitch as it popped above everything else.
[ Will Breaker's set 2/2 ]
[ Reality is woven around it, this is the thread that keeps it from unspooling. ]
He could feel Fae's gaze through her mask, as she stood before him waiting.
"I think these items allow me to use my sight a lot longer. It's still on, and I barely feel its effect. My eyes would already start fracturing, by now."
He turned around, scanning his surroundings, before coming back to her.
" I still can't properly process what I don't see, but being able to keep my gaze up without any consequences…"
It's… overpowered. Nothing will escape me.
Remembering why he opened his profile in the first place, he went to his spell list.
One thing he noticed right away, was how the level had changed.
[ Class level : 2 ]
[ Gaze ] — [ Fragments ] — [ Echoes ]
[ Witness of All Paths ]
Those eyes are not your own.
Every tremor, every breath unfolds in sequence. The world is split open for you—and you witness the paths beneath its gaze.
[ Will Breaker ]
There is no forward. No behind. Only the place where you stand—made still, made silent, made clear.
Alexander closed the floating windows, and after activating the Will Breaker's gaze, a series of eyes opened. On his cape and hat opened a dozen of eyes, erratically looking around.
His vision opened up.
He was at the center of it all.
No detail would escape him.