Window to the Soul

The line between living and dying is thin, and one can cross it in a mere moment.

A single moment is all one needs in a fight to the death.

Dark power welled in Goleil's body as his eyes glowed once more, thick trails of sen pouring from his pupils and radiance that seemed to bore into the Dead Knight.

Goleil didn't know if the creature had eyes, but he was sure he would be affected by an ability even Ty'Bral feared.

Mana welled in his eyes as he used his newfound power.

[Emperor's Eye]

A chill went down the spectator's backs as they felt the air thicken. It seemed as if they were breathing water.

The Dread Knight had been bored. It had expected more from a Godling, but he guessed he shouldn't have from a mere hatchling, even if it could use a little magic and had strange eyes.

How wrong it was.

One moment it was within the Colosseo, and the next, darkness was clinging to him as the Sun Guard's eyes pierced his soul.

In a matter of moments, only the empty abyss surrounded him.

A chill that affected even the dead settled on the knight. He glanced around him as he sighed.

[Why would a weakling show me his Soul? What a fool.]

He glanced behind him and saw a little boy staring at him. The boy had blurry features, and only his startling green eyes were clear.

The boy laughed playfully and ran away.

[How pathetic. I at least expected some resistance. This will be child's play,] it said as it chuckled.

It reached its ruined hand toward the boy when it felt a lurch, and it was suddenly no longer within the abyss.

It was dark but no longer featureless. He stood upon a rocky crag overlooking an endless plain of dark fog.

"You shouldn't have come here," He heard a voice behind him.

He could hear the sound of tentacles sliding over each other, a mass of flesh and moisture that made the knight uneasy. The Dread Knight could smell blood and death.

He turned around and beheld the pseudo-eldritch true form, a massive tangle of tentacles and eyes. They seemed to writhe and wriggle with no rhyme or reason.

[How is this possible? The should only be one ego within a Soul.]

He heard a chuckle from an unseen orifice.

"You haven't seen shit yet."

The scene melted away like fog, leaving only a featureless blackness. In the distance, he could see dark smoke rushing towards him from all sides until a moment later, it was everywhere around him.

The knight felt like chains wrapped around him and weighed him down as more smoke seemed to coil around him.

It struggled against the smoke, wrenching free of its influence until there was simply too much.

[What is this madness?! The Soul of a hatchling shall never make me yield!] It gargled but was forced to its knees as it held up the weight of a star.

A shiver went down its mangled spine, a feeling he shouldn't be able to feel. He looked up, and two golden eyes peered from behind the dark smoke.

They unnerved him in a way no gaze could ever, but it felt like an unfathomable distance separated them.

[Show yourself, coward! Face me if you dare!] It roared, the space reverberating around it.

The eyes disappeared as if they were two candles being blown out.

He shook his head.

[You may have trapped me for now, but how long can you do this? Time doesn't move within a Soul Realm. This changes nothing!] It shouted into the smoke.

The smoke seemed to freeze around him.

[Even this one was weak in the end. Too scared to show itself, or even get near me.]

An eye the size of a house opened merely a foot away from him, its pupil a raging inferno and its iris a radiant gold. The knight could see the individual blood vessels and the anger contained within.

He started to hear something. Screams. Breaking bones. Tearing flesh. Blood splattering.

He could smell it. The fear. The feces. The blood. It clogged his rotting nostrils as inky fluid oozed down its destroyed helmet.

Then he could feel it all. His body was torn limb from limb—cold iron and steel biting into his flesh. Blood was threatening to fill his lungs.

The weight never left. It only got heavier. The Dead Knight was being crushed, and he could feel his soul being compressed.

Then the weight was gone. The eye was no more, it was back in the Colosseo, and the hatchlings glaive had pulverized his torso from the waist up.

Sen collided with radiance and annihilated until only half of the mana construct's body remained, merely a pair of ownerless rotten legs.

Goleil chuckled as he deactivated Emperor's Eye. All it took to win a battle was a single second, and his ability had given him that in spades.

'I wonder what people see when they are affected by Emperor's Eye to make even a mana construct hesitate.'

Ty'Bral glanced at him before looking back at the rapidly disappearing construct.

"Is Emperor's Eye what you're calling your mana gaze? How pretentious. Though something it said made me curious."

Goleil panted as he sat on the ground. Such a high mana expenditure had affected him deeply, and he had even had to draw upon the Perennial Band to replenish his mana supply.

'What do you mean?'

"You see most of my memories, so it won't be a secret for long. However, I believe that your memories and mine aren't the only ones he saw. He saw a third being living within you."

Goleil's eyes narrowed. Even in his exhaustion, he knew the most likely cause of this.

'Sometimes, it feels as if there is another voice in my head besides yours and my own. Like a whisper in the deepest depths. Does that make sense?' He thought as he desperately tried to replenish his mana.

He hadn't a technique for it, so all he could do was hope the Perennial Band could help him until most of it had returned.

Ty'Bral nodded. Goleil, as he was now, was merely Vrea's tool to do with as she pleased. His theory on the Elder magic helping Goleil break away from her influence was not too far off.

"Goleil! Are you alright?!" Guyan shouted.

Goleil held up a hand. He was too tired to get up. "I am! I just need to replenish my mana!"

Guyan glanced at Sir Khalid bin Walid.

"That should be possible. Guardsman, the next fight only begins when thou art ready. Take thy time," the Adalian said.

Ty'Bral looked at Goleil's eyes, which were no longer trailing with radiance. 'I suppose he carried out Vrea's will by eliminating the construct,' He thought.