Chapter 192 - 189: The Frenzied Demon Eye
Brown was drenched in sweat.
He remembered the Master Sage once saying "never more than three times." He had originally planned to try bluffing twice more on their journey, his tone gradually shifting from contempt to agitation.
He never expected his first bluff to work, or that the Demon it revealed would be so far beyond his imagination.
’Is this really just an eye?’
’Can’t show fear, can’t show fear. I’d rather die than show fear right now.’
Luna was already terrified, clinging to Brown and hardly daring to breathe. Her heart hammered in her chest and wouldn’t slow down.
Taking the opportunity to comfort Luna, Brown quickly tried to calm his own nerves.
’I can’t let it get agitated.’
He didn’t know the Magic Language or understand Magic Resonance. Even the Magic Power in his body wasn’t his own, so he didn’t bother trying.
He answered its question directly in French.
"Have you been watching us ever since we first entered this place?"
It was a genuine question. He felt as if his every move was under the creature’s surveillance, which, given the circumstances, seemed highly likely.
But Brown’s words made the enormous, colorful pupil in the distance shrink slightly amidst its flickering.
The eye was so huge that it was impossible not to notice.
"How could you have possibly discovered me back then?"
The Eye of Void was suddenly overcome with the urge to devour Brown and Luna at all costs. ’Could it be that this monster wasn’t dragged in by a Demon Spirit at all, but came in here specifically to find me?’
To Brown, however, the statement sounded contradictory.
The Demon Eye had no mouth; its voice came from all directions. Its tone was still devoid of any emotion, yet within its indifference, one could sense a sharp edge of pressure and danger.
But its choice of words clearly betrayed one thing—surprise!
Apparently, it knew French, but only enough to speak it, not to use it fluently.
’Uh... this feels a little strange!’
Brown’s recently quickened heartbeat inexplicably began to slow down.
But then his heart sank again.
While size wasn’t necessarily the key measure of a Demon’s power, it was impossible for something this large not to be formidable. Still, this thing gave him a slightly strange feeling.
He was again reminded that this was only one of the Demon’s eyes.
Although Brown had considered the possibility of Magic Creatures dominated by their eyes, this eye was too pure. It seemed to be nothing *but* an eye, with no other tissue, which felt a bit too unnatural.
As unwilling as he was to admit it, he felt that even if the Master Sage himself were here, dealing with a Demon of this level would be no easy task. The association might even suffer considerable losses this time.
As for him and Luna, their chances of survival were grim.
In that short time, Brown could already feel a palpable malice.
’Looks like there’s no escape this time. But it would be a disgrace to face the heroic martyrs of Dawn without even having seen my enemy’s full form!’
’If you want to kill me, you’ll have to lose a piece of your cornea first!’
Two jets of hot steam shot from Brown’s nostrils. His body temperature rose another notch, and his stiff expression twisted into one of ferocity.
"Those people outside the mirror... you’re the one who turned them into that, aren’t you?"
He recalled the masses of emaciated, humanoid monsters he had seen earlier. There were far more than just the Ruby Couple—at least several hundred of them.
This caused his anger to surge, and his emotions began to spin out of control, turning into raw fury.
"Do you think Earth is your personal hunting ground for souls and flesh?"
"ROAR—"
The roar was low and suppressed, yet it seemed longer than before. His blood and Magic Power churned as if boiling, and the dark red blood behind him gathered to form two massive, bloody wings.
The Eye of Void sensed the rising fury and rage from him. His faint Magic Power and blood actually felt like they were surging and burning, which made its spirit slightly uncomfortable.
Then it realized that this little monster hadn’t directly answered any of its questions. Just as it was contemplating whether to rip out one of their souls first, Brown’s next words shot out.
"Where’s your real body? Don’t tell me you’re just a single eye? HAHAHAHAHAHA..."
A being with sufficient Magic Power would never ask such a question. A being with sufficient knowledge, one who had heard the legends of the Eye of Void, would also never ask such a question.
But the one standing before the Demon Eye was Brown. And the Demon Eye’s current physical and spiritual state was crippled from its last injury, making its psyche extremely volatile.
Brown’s wild laughter, a release of his inner fear and anger, didn’t even last for two seconds.
Within the giant, colorful eye, the pupil contracted violently in an instant, shrinking to the size of a tire as if it had teleported.
BOOM! The surrounding space rumbled. A fleeting sense of weightlessness made them feel as if they had dangled a foot over a bottomless Abyss.
A shriek—sharper, louder, and filled with absolute terror—erupted from the eyeball.
"What in the world are you? Who are you people? How could you know? How could you possibly know...!!"
The sheer volume of the outburst made Luna clap her hands over her ears in pain, but it was no use. Brown, too, felt a stinging pain from the sound that pierced him from body to soul.
But his eyes weren’t deceiving him. The eyeball had shot back at least several hundred meters away from them and was vibrating constantly—no, it was trembling!
It’s hard to describe the feeling of seeing an eye tremble, but that was indeed the gut impression.
’This eye... what’s wrong with it? What did I just say?’
Far greater than Brown’s astonishment was the terror that erupted uncontrollably from the depths of the Eye of Void’s soul.
This little monster... and this strange world!
What were they? How could they possibly know about its true body?
How could they know it was the only remaining eye of its true body?
The Demon Eye understood. Because it was the only eye left, it couldn’t think things through completely. That was why it had to be cautious, so very cautious, with every move. It acted by extending the residual sensory methods of its true body, supplementing them with its powerful Magic Power to slowly accumulate strength.
Even after suffering severe injuries in several dangerous worlds, it had always remained the "Eye of Void."
But now!
’Thinking back on how the Magic Mirror mysteriously fell into that world... was it really an accident?’
From the moment he entered this place, everything about this little monster’s behavior screamed ’bizarre’!
The unknown is the most terrifying thing of all. This applies not only to humans but to all living beings capable of feeling fear.
The Eye of Void felt it had fallen into a massive trap. The entity behind it all was aiming directly for the very source of its existential fear.
Then an even more horrifying reality presented itself.
’The... the Magic Mirror! The Magic Mirror is in their hands!’
At this moment, the Demon Eye was filled with immense regret. Why hadn’t it destroyed the Magic Mirror the instant Brown entered?
It was one of the few Magic Mirrors it had left, but it could always weave new ones. But now, that Magic Space had solidified the Magic Mirror in place.
It had felt something was off about this little monster from the very beginning. It had its doubts several times along the way. It clearly had enough time to destroy the Magic Mirror!
"AHHHH....."
Brown filled his and Luna’s ears with Demon Blood Crystal, then gritted his teeth and endured the stinging pain at the soul level.
From the way things were going, it seemed he had unintentionally tricked it into revealing something extraordinary.
But this Demon was probably a lunatic. Now it had started screaming again. Although it didn’t seem to have any immediate intention of killing them, in Brown’s eyes, he and Luna were in even greater danger.
Humans are undoubtedly terrified of being around lunatics, and the same principle should apply to Demons.
He had never before imagined that a Demon could go mad, but wasn’t there a suspected case right in front of him?!
Brown shot Luna a look. They both slowed their breathing and remained silent, trying not to provoke the creature any further. They did their best to become invisible.