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Chapter 606: Seeing Is Not Believing

The Compendium had made it seem like its actions were a harmless blunder with nothing but beneficial consequences, but the current state of his teammates told him otherwise.

Their emotional agony was so great it had to manifest as a physical condition. That was typically found in the later stages of something like grief, where a grief-stricken individual fell ill after a while.

The mind is powerful, and it shouldn\'t be underestimated.

There was ample power in thoughts - Kieran\'s Subclass was proof of that concept, but there was even more power nested in emotions. Kieran\'s Class was evidence of that idea.

"What exactly did you do?" Kieran asked after somehow acquiring his bearings. He still wore his contrite grimace, feeling wholeheartedly responsible for the affliction his companions were enduring.

[Well, you said you wanted to convey your experiences to images that captured the essence of your struggles and triumphs. I did precisely that... only my efforts were driven purely by the mastered forms of the Supreme Letters.]

It didn\'t take much imagination or comprehension on Kieran\'s part to understand what the Compendium was suggesting.

"Let me take a wild guess here. The mind of an Adept was not meant to endure the Mind Construct you created to funnel the images into their minds, and the Supreme Letters used were... more than overkill."

[Yes, precisely. I reckon it should feel like someone rammed their heads into a resilient piece of rock. Oh, if said rock embodied a condensation of dread, terror, hope, resignation, and death. Indeed, a tormented rock if I had to say so.]

Kieran\'s jaw was unhinged, and his shoulders drooped.

The Compendium\'s joking tone bewildered him, but he also didn\'t doubt the knowledge it commanded.

It was a compilation of truths known and unknown to many, gathered and structured by Eni in a way Kieran had zero knowledge of. The Compendium\'s birth was beyond him, but he possessed it. So, if the Compendium said they were in no peril, that was likely the truth.

Despite them being safe from peril, Kieran still worried about other things.

"Book... what did you show them? The whole limitation of a Myth thing is new to me, but I doubt the Old Myths and the Watcher in the Sky will appreciate me sharing potentially secret information."

[Secret information? There is not much information in this world meant to be a secret. You must simply look in the right place and know the correct questions to ask. But worry not; I am aware of the power knowledge holds. What they\'re experiencing... is an abridged version born from what you perceived of the Testament of Dying Blood.]

\'What I perceived? What are you insinuating by that wording?\'

[What am I insinuating? Simple. There was much more to the Age the Testament of Dying Blood was ripped from. Do you think the birth of Argexes was so sudden? Impossible. Not even a Fallen God can manipulate the Way of Ascension because they are a product of it. The strings that weave the Trial\'s history were purposely tampered with. Your eyes do not always tell you the truth.]n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Kieran blinked, staring into the space ahead.

He speculated the Trial was incomplete because he was forcibly ejected after a certain point in time. However, the Trial had molded Kieran\'s impression of the Flame, believing it to be omnipotent, immortal, and demented, yet he was now being told not to believe everything he had seen?

The Compendium had sparked a series of questions in Kieran\'s mind, and he couldn\'t keep them from bubbling out of his head.

\'Are you telling me I can\'t trust my eyes as a Mystic Runemaster?\'

[Not at all. But you must understand that as a Runemaster, Holder of the Seeking Eyes, you will see far before you understand. Therefore, you can not accept what is first seen as truth. Do you not remember? Always question. That includes your own eyes.]

Kieran mulled over the Compendium\'s words.

He hadn\'t considered that school of thought before. Because of Eni\'s dominion and how helpful the tenets were within the Trial, Kieran had unwittingly cultivated a seed of blind faith in the techniques Eni perfected.

Only now did it dawn on him that even if Eni held a perfected version... it carried no weight in his life. What Eni possessed was his alone. If Kieran wanted to reach that level, an absurd, perhaps endless, amount of toiling awaited.

\'So then, are you telling me that the final battle I witnessed never happened?\'

[No, child. I am not telling you that at all. I\'m suggesting you not believe all of what you see. Every event was very much real, however, it is their originality that I\'m calling into question. Like you, there were other anomalies in the Trial. That mere fact alone calls for an extensive line of questioning. I could walk you through the history of that Age, but I won\'t. I shan\'t deprive you of the luxury of Truthseeking. Fragments of a treacherous past are strewn across the world. Find them, collect them, question them.]

\'Fragments of history...\'

Kieran repeated the phrase in his mind.

The thought made him feel uneasy, like a lump was rising in his throat, and his stomach was becoming unsettled. Did he want to grow any closer to Argexes? Did he want to know where that incarnate of pure carnage had been sealed?

No... but he did want to know the truth. And something told him this was not something he could avoid. He was already attached to Argexes more than he would have liked to be. And that started with the message the Zenith Frequency had delivered.

The Bath of Carnage had coalesced into a nascent Imprint, which Kieran didn\'t think possible. Yet it had happened. Inside his Realm existed the chains forged of the very blood he bathed in.

Those chains kept him bound, linked him to the essence of an entity responsible for countless deaths and an obscene amount of destruction... but it strengthened him too.

Kieran extended a palm, calling upon Fiend\'s Carnage [Bloodletting] Ability. The Mark of the Maddened marring Kieran\'s palm and forearm glimmered with crimson light. A menacing feeling engulfed the room as his viscid blood poured onto the floor before him.

It spread, forming a large pool until Kieran switched to employing the [Vampiric Hardening] Ability. It shaped the blood according to the image in Kieran\'s mind. As he guided the blood to form a blade identical to Crimson Ashrune, Kieran noticed a stark difference between the one he had created and the actual weapon.

It was heavier and imbalanced, but more importantly, the blood seemed starved and ravenous, ready to bite into its opponent and drain its blood. This sensation was more potent than ever before. So much so that Refined Blood almost did nothing to combat the voracious

desire it was displaying toward Kieran.

\'Oh... that is not ideal at all.\'

Kieran hadn\'t experienced this in his spar against Scar, but he believed it had something to do with the lingering thrill of having just Advanced tiding him over. Without that rush of fulfillment to curb the blood\'s innate desires, he was introduced to the predation slumbering

in his blood.

Gripping the blade\'s hilt, Kieran absorbed the blood while grimly regarding the process.

A thought came to mind as he remained wary of these new abilities.

\'How deeply has my Unique Path affected all of my abilities?\'