A silent moon floated above the ruins of what was once the Grand Library of Serathi. The wind was sharp tonight, whispering like a serpent through the cracked stones and scorched pillars. Amidst the wreckage stood a boy, unmoving, wrapped in shadow and moonlight—Laziel.
His silver eyes were half-lidded, but wide awake. He wasn't sleeping. He hadn't closed his eyes since the System had activated something terrifying.
[New System Feature Unlocked: All-Seeing Eye – "Watcher's Sight"]Your right eye has evolved. It can no longer blink.
"Can't even blink… what kind of curse is this gift?" Laziel muttered, his voice laced with sarcasm and awe.
The right side of his face pulsed faintly with golden veins. His pupil had stretched into a vertical slit, almost draconic, glowing faintly in the darkness. And the world looked... different now. Every movement, every heat signature, every magical ripple—even emotions—danced like flame patterns in his vision.
He could see through lies.He could see through walls.He could see truth.
But with it came pain—constant, slicing headaches like knives driven into his skull. A price for perception. A burden for genius.
Just then, the earth trembled. Not with magic—but with presence. Something ancient, something not quite alive, approached.
"System," Laziel whispered. "What now?"
[Danger Detected: Entity of Unknown Origin – Title: The Nameless Keeper]Do not engage. Level: ???
A black silhouette appeared atop a fallen spire. It wore no face, no armor—only a torn robe and a thousand staring eyes stitched into the cloth.
"The Eye... opens," it said in a voice that echoed into Laziel's bones.
Laziel didn't move, but his heart thudded. Even with his new sight, the figure had no form. It shouldn't exist, and yet it stood here, watching him as if it had always known him.
"You were chosen by the Eye," the Nameless Keeper rasped. "But can you survive its truth?"
With that, all the stitched eyes on the robe opened—blazing with different colors, different realities.
Laziel screamed silently as visions poured into him. Futures that hadn't happened. Wars not yet fought. Worlds dying. Himself—dying and surviving both.
[Warning: Conscious Overload Detected]Activate Emergency Mental Shielding?
"Yes!" he roared.
A pulse of dark-blue light exploded from his chest, flinging the Nameless Keeper back. Silence returned, but Laziel was gasping, his hands trembling, blood leaking from his nose and ears.
Still... he stood.
"I won't break," he whispered. "Not now. Not ever."
He looked up again. The Keeper was gone. But the world wasn't the same anymore.
He could feel it—the Eye had seen him, marked him, and worse...
It had opened something inside him.
[System Update Available: Dragon Core Awakening – Stage 1]Would you like to proceed?
Laziel wiped the blood from his face and grinned like a man losing his sanity.
"Proceed."