"Can you hear me?!" James shouted when he saw the eye wasn't responding to his call.
"Hello!" James shouted again.
James's cries pulled the artifact out of its memories of the past. It scrutinized James and said in a strange voice, "There is no need for that!" The voice of that gigantic pupil rang out in the sky.
"Huh? What do you mean?" asked James, confused.
"Because he's right behind you!" replied the pupil coldly.
"Oh my god! You truly deserve to be a Level Five artifact!" A voice rang out as a hand suddenly landed on James's shoulder.
'Since when has he been behind me?!' James retreated quickly and saw it was Xiaobing, floating in the sky in a shadowy form... 'This is impossible! He used one of the Abyss Pistol's abilities! But didn't he use the Black Bolt strike just minutes ago? How can this Bing handle the artifact so fluidly? This shows a contradiction compared to before! He couldn't even stabilize himself from the recoil! What are you really, Bing?!' James analyzed in his mind while looking at Xiaobing.
The artifact didn't acknowledge Xiaobing's compliment. Instead, it directed its gaze at him and asked in that strange voice, "What Path do you follow?"
'Wait! Is this what the entity in the café told me!? When he said: 'Artifacts hold a grudge against the killer of the person's body they emerged from? And they want to know the Path the killer followed! To find out if I'm from the same Path as the killer or from the same Path as the person whose body it came from? This is bad! I don't want to tell anyone my Path, especially James! If he knows my Path, it will restrict my potential in front of him... But if I don't tell, I'll be killed by this artifact! But if I'm from the same Path as the killer, I'm finished!.. I guess I have no choice.' Xiaobing analyzed in his mind before opening his mouth and saying, "I follow the Path of the Mystery Gazer."
"What? Xiaobing's Path is the Mystery Gazer!" James was astonished by what Xiaobing said.
"Mystery Gazer! Why would a bearer of such a Path be in this mundane world?" the gigantic pupil asked Xiaobing.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" replied Xiaobing.
"Of course! You wouldn't know because you are merely a mortal human... Listen, human, I didn't say you are walking on an ancient, obsolete Path, lost from the records of the Mythical Era," the pupil replied coldly, looking at Xiaobing.
'My Path is an obsolete one? And this Mythical Era is mentioned in front of me again! But does this mean the Path of the Mystery Gazer is an exceptional Path? But why is it a lost Path!?' Xiaobing thought to himself.
"You too!" The gigantic pupil looked at James and said, "The Path of the Supreme Mechanism is also lost! I think I underestimated the mundane world greatly!"
'What? My Path is also lost? But I don't believe that at all! But I don't think it's the same case as Bing's Path! That's why I've never heard of or known any Path called the Mystery Gazer? Is it a deviant Path, or is it truly a forgotten, obsolete Path?' James analyzed in his mind while saying, "Will you let us leave now?"
"That depends on your final answer! It will determine whether you two leave or die by my hand!" said the pupil while reapplying the intense pressure on James and Xiaobing.
"Ughhh!" Xiaobing groaned as the Abyss Pistol's black shadow-transition ability began to lose stability every second.
"Ugh!" James groaned slightly before saying, "And what is your question?"
"Who is the person you each love the most?" the pupil asked while slightly easing the pressure.
'What a ridiculous question? At least ask a question worthy of applying such terrifying pressure!' Xiaobing scoffed internally while looking at James in front of him, waiting for him to answer first.
'Damn, her and her silly questions! I thought she would ask about the partnership between me and Bing, but she...' James also scoffed internally, but he wanted to look at Xiaobing and found him looking back. So, he straightened his coat before saying, "The person I love most is Madeleine, to be fair!" James turned his gaze back towards Xiaobing. He desperately wanted to know who had won the devil's heart.
'This fool and his trivial love!' Xiaobing scoffed internally. Upon seeing the gazes of the gigantic pupil and James, he relaxed his body for a moment and said, "The person I love most? Hahaha, but I don't need anything like that!" Xiaobing's reply carried a demonic tone within it.
The eye automatically used its ability and saw that both people before it had spoken the honest truth and neither had lied... But it couldn't stop itself from asking Xiaobing, "And why don't you need something like that?"
"Simply, I don't want burdens on my shoulders!" Xiaobing replied flippantly.
"That's permissible! But I see nothing but contradiction in your actions!" said the gigantic pupil, which had already begun to fade gradually.
"You're the second person to ask about my contradictions today! But that's normal because contradiction is what makes me realize whether I'm still human or a demon!" replied Xiaobing, as his shadowy form also began to fade.
The pupil didn't respond to Xiaobing. Instead, it directed its gaze towards James and said, "Do you have any wish you want me to grant you?"
"Hmm... A wish! Let's see what I want?" James thought aloud, holding his chin. He looked towards Xiaobing, who was looking at him with an utterly exhausted expression, and said, "Bing! What happened to that person when you two were inside the explosion site?"
"Tsk! I would have definitely finished him off if not for the intervention of the artifact's effect called 'Pillaging Flame'!" Xiaobing grumbled loudly before continuing, "Just as I was about to finish him with my technique, an evil spirit appeared and blocked the attack! And before I knew where that bastard went—when he was grabbing my neck trying to finish me—he had disappeared! Damn it, this artifact is stronger than I thought! I underestimated it because it's from a lower level!" What Xiaobing said was half lies, but since the gigantic pupil didn't care about the matter, or it would have exposed his minor falsehoods.
"Whaaaaaat? You would have finished him off? But he's a person at the peak of the lower levels and also an immortal! So what makes you so sure you could kill him?!" James was shocked, ignoring everything Xiaobing said about the artifact's effect and focusing only on the words 'I would have definitely finished him off.' This made him tremble inside, as it was virtually impossible for a lower-level person to kill someone higher than him in levels, and let's not forget the tiers between levels.
"You might not know this... but I discovered he's nothing more than a puppet! Using my Path's abilities, I can see invisible connections in a different way from other Paths, I believe! And I found that there were bloody threads connected to that person's body!" replied Xiaobing, who was staggering in the air.
"Bing!" James spoke while quickly grabbing Xiaobing before he fell from the sky and said, "These Path abilities are truly amazing, I really envy you, man!" James said jokingly.
'Why didn't I notice such energy threads before? Does the Path of the Mystery Gazer that Bing follows see energy in a different form than other Paths? Is that why, before we started fighting that person who turned out to be a puppet manipulated by someone on the Path of the Changer, when he said, 'I see it, it's the thread of revenge!' But, I wonder, what are the drawbacks?' James thought to himself, bewildered.
'Amazing Path abilities? Hah, you have no idea how much pain I endured just from using them today!' Xiaobing laughed internally while his arm was around James's neck. He looked at the gigantic eye. His body was boiling from the inside, and he felt like he was being fried. There was a strange excess of energy in his body, different from when he used his level's abilities today; there was no sensation of energy even when he tried to sense it within himself. He was also surprised at the time that his energy was in a strange period of calm.
But looking at James, there seemed to be no limit to his energy, and he had been using it since morning! Xiaobing knew that fighting three Level Three individuals was no easy feat, and James had been using his abilities since morning, yet he showed nothing affecting his behavior in front of him, as if he suffered no side effects.
But Xiaobing knew that the side effects of using powers multiplied as the bearer rose in levels. He learned this when the entity told him about the side effects of the sixth level of the Path of the Mystery Gazer, 'Destiny Inverter'. And he knew that sooner or later, James would suffer the side effects of his ability.
"It seems you truly are a follower of the Path of the Mystery Gazer!" said the gigantic eye, then continued, addressing James: "And now, what is your wish?" It seemed more transparent now.
Upon hearing the words of the gigantic eye, James took a deep look at Xiaobing, who was leaning on him, and at the area devastated by the previous battle between the beast and that fleeing person, and at the explosion that had only seconds before its square dissipated, and said, "I know this city is not the real city of Freindenstream, and I also know all this is a plot to trap that serial killer behind the puppet being controlled. Therefore, my wish is for you to transport me and my partner, Bing, away from this location, before the official power-bearers arrive and also before you disappear!"
At that moment, James looked towards the devastated ground and saw a stone wall in the shape of a dome with a barrier on it. He was aware of that person's presence but didn't stop him because he was coming to help a colleague, not to arrest them, and also because he and Xiaobing owed a favor to one of their colleagues. Therefore, he hadn't killed him yet for fear of exposure.
Xiaobing looked with his exhausted eyes towards the gigantic eye and felt that something would happen, but he didn't know what. He just looked at it with concentration.
...
End of Chapter ~ To Be Continued