Page 1560 -- CLXVIII.

Immediately, the entire world around him shifted.

At first, he thought it was Malast teleporting him again, but when he saw the raw vortex around Seyos suddenly grow to ten times its previous intensity, Royo realized this was the work of the Piercing Eye.


Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Eight: ‘Look erstwhile and take heed...’
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Seyos’ body barely had the opportunity to go limp before time itself seemed to slow. The body caught in midair, scarcely falling at all, and Royo simply watched.

His own movements were slowed as well, apparently, though his mind was not.

What was the Eye doing? He’d tucked it into the belt around his waist earlier and now would’ve liked to remove it, but at the speed his hand was going, it seemed like it would take a good ten minutes to make the journey.

Was it trying to show him something? To help him understand something?

He had just killed a man. It was not likely that the timing of this was coincidental.

He tried to observe Seyos more closely. The dying Hun’Sho man was like a volcano. And not because of his magma body. Rather, because of the enormous output of raw emotion and information. There was so much of it there now, shooting out of his body in all directions.

Perhaps the Piercing Eye was trying to give him time to observe it all.

Yes, that must have been it, Royo figured. The Eye hadn’t actually slowed time itself, merely his perception of it.

Wonderful. Now he was going to be stuck here, watching this bastard die in slow motion while he waited for his own hand to remove the Piercing Eye and free himself.

Royo didn’t care about anything he was seeing. He didn’t want to know more about Seyos.

But there wasn’t much else to do.

Ah. The glove. The object that was responsible for killing Seyos. Royo still didn’t even know if it had a name, as he had yet to examine it with the Eye.

The Demon’s Grip, the Eye told him. A gloved artifact capable of increasing the wearer’s strength by a factor of up to one hundred thousand. Crafted 122 years ago by Morgunov.

Royo’s eyes might have widened if he could move them that quickly. He pressed the Eye for greater detail.

An object which requires precision training in order to bring out its full potential.

That was all the information the Eye had for him. He would’ve liked to know more about Morgunov, as he certainly recognized the name, but the Piercing Eye didn’t work that way, it seemed.

So he’d finally begun to discover its limitations. He had started to wonder if the Eye simply didn’t have any.

Royo observed the progress of his hand toward the Eye.

Still about nine-tenths of the way to go.

He wanted to sigh.

He also wanted to look around and check up on the Box of Perdition, but that would’ve required turning his head.

Fine.

He observed the still-falling Seyos.