Ch. 55 - The All-Seeing Eye

The stone slab was Paladin's main goal. It was not until he saw the slab with his own eyes could Paladin confirm that this was the thing he searched for, the very thing that created a hollow space devoid of magic elements amidst the ocean of magic elements. To Paladin, this thing was akin to a torch in the darkness. It was too conspicuous.

Paladin gently grabbed the slab, quietly left the room, and slowly closed the wooden He then hurried up the stairs to the attic. Closing the door with a swing of his hand, Paladin immediately drew the curtains and gently untied the cotton cloth wrapping the slab. A black and purple colored slate was revealed in front of his eyes.

"Hmm?"

Paladin frowned. The stone slab was originally hollow, but after opening the cloth, a large number of magic elements were absorbed into it. Paladin was too stunned to let go of the stone slab because of the astonishing scene only he could see. He watched the magic elements fly into the stone plate. Then, the elements fused, twisted, deformed inside. Forming a strange and unfamiliar word.

Paladin could guarantee that, although he wasn’t fluent, he could recognize about hundreds of languages that were available in the continent. He might be unable to read it, but he could identify one when he saw it. This word, however, Paladin swore he had never seen this kind of character.

Suddenly, Paladin's vision blurred. He was shocked to find that the word was reflected and now inside his mind. But, as soon as he focused his mind on the word, he forgot all about it, as if he had never seen it before!

"What's going on?! What the hell is this bizarre thing?"

No matter how many times Paladin tried to make the word reappear in his mind, it would be instantly forgotten after. Paladin wandered inside his mind while sharpening all of his senses, trying to carefully take a look at the word. The moment he lowered his head, something changed.

The text suddenly lurched and turned into a huge mouth that swallowed Paladin. Amidst the shock, an unparalleled and intense stabbing pain erupted from his mind.

"AHHHHH!"

Paladin covered his head with both hands, screaming in pain. The three hundred magic elements around him went ballistic, colliding all around without order. In his trance, Paladin felt as if he was in the middle of a torrent, a huge and endless torrent. A powerful power dragged Paladin's entire body under the fierce raging water.

"AHHH! It hurts!" Paladin couldn't stop himself from crying out and violently opened his eyes. How shocked he was to see that he had no body. Yes, there was no body.Furthermore, his eyes could no longer only see ahead, but could now see in all directions. Suddenly, Paladin recalled studying about a dangerous and miraculous state when he was studying by himself in the past.

"Soul state!"

Paladin was shocked that now he was left with only his soul. However, he abruptly realized that the rumbling water flowing around him wasn’t made of water droplets. Rather, it was made of a myriad of images. Paladin looked around with his vision that immediately spread in all directions. It was a bit terrifying.

The countless images flashing on his eyes were all about the human world. The images depicted soldiers fighting on the battlefield, assassins hiding in the shadows to kill, merchants selling fruits, the king standing in front of the palace, and there were even images about grass blown by the breeze, tall trees, uneven stones, drops of water falling to the ground, etc. This torrent of images was made of everything that was happening in the human world.

"Mother, where is my candy?"

"Your Majesty, this battle must be fought!"

"Three silver coins for one big pumpkin!"

"Brother, don't you die!"

"You bitch, you belong to me!"

"Kill all the humans, for the glory of the orcs!"

"Yo, it's a nice day."

The voices from the images suddenly got greatly amplified, and it all drilled into Paladin's ears at the same time. There was a mixture of the sound of wind blowing, sword fighting, shouting, cursing, and many more. These made blood rush into his ears.

Before such a loud mammoth sound, Paladin only lasted less than a second before collapsing.

"Ahhhhhhhhh! Quiet, quiet, QUIET! AHHHHH!"

Just when Paladin’s soul was about to collapse, a grand and tranquil voice suddenly came from the endless bottom of the torrent. Obliterating the sounds that were amplifying and coming from the picture.

"God's light, God's darkness. The eyes of God, the words of God. Runes..."

As soon as the voice finished speaking, Paladin saw the exact same words spoken appeared on the tablet before his eyes. However, it seemed Paladin no longer had short-term memory amnesia. The words were rooted deep in his brain. So deep that Paladin couldn't forget even if he wanted to!

Whoosh. The words suddenly turned into a stream of light, rushing straight to Paladin's eyes like lightning. It entered Paladin's eyes in a fraction of a second.

Paladin's body, which was covered in cold sweat, could sense the ground’s pronounced texture of the grainy wood. He eventually got a grip of himself after looking around for a while. Finally, let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm back, I'm truly back now."

Paladin reluctantly stood up. Soothing his non-stop trembling feet, he looked at the stone slab with lingering fear. Fortunately, the slate never formed words again like before. Paladin, who still couldn't figure out what happened, was about to sit down and sort out his thoughts when he felt another stabbing pain in his head.

"Ah... ah…."

Paladin’s body trembled all over. Resisting the stabbing pain, he was trying to make as little noise as possible. But at the moment, he had no idea how to deal with it. All he could think about was this strange stone slab.

"Ah! Ahhh…."

The stabbing pain became more and more intense. Paladin moved towards the stone slab on the table with steps that became increasingly weaker. He wished he could just wave his hand over it and smash it. He didn't want to bear this excruciating pain for even a second longer.

Suddenly, Paladin came to a halt. He froze in place, genuinely shocked. Even the pain couldn't hide his shock. Paladin slowly turned around and watched the long mirror placed next to a wardrobe specifically used for organizing clothing. Inside the mirror was, without surprise, Paladin dressed in a black priest's robe with super messy hair. But, but-!

Paladin’s eyes emanated dazzling golden light that even obscured his eyes and eyeballs. It looked as if two golden magic lamps replaced his eyes. However, the thing Paladin was most shocked about, the one that made Paladin almost fall to the ground in shock, was a golden eye floating above his forehead! The eye was floating horizontally in front of his forehead. It had a light trail around it that swayed like the sun's afterglow. It looked like the sun was inside a circle that made it akin to an eye. It was both sacred and glorious.

When Paladin came back to his senses, the sharp pain had disappeared. His new third eye that emerged on his forehead, too, disappeared. Along with his golden glowing eyes that gradually dimmed. Paladin hurriedly turned over a large pile of ancient records, frantically looking for information about it. In his mind, he knew this occurrence wasn’t simple. The tablet was definitely not simple either!

He turned everything all over because it was just that hard to find. In the ancient literature of alchemy, a large part of it was recorded by carving it on a huge slab of stone. He finally found one that had nothing written on it. However, on the top of the slab, an eye was carved there. It was an eye drawn horizontally that emitted sun-like light. The same with the one that had appeared on Paladin’s forehead. It was exactly the same!

"My God, what the hell is going on here."

The corners of Paladin's mouth gradually went up, forming an excited smile. He looked at the documentation about the stone slab and read it word for word, "The Tablet of Grace. Legend has it that it existed when the world was first formed. It is a divine object cast into the world by the gods. It contains the language of the gods, the writing of the gods, which was reverently called the Ruini script. Unfortunately, through the ages, the writing on the tablets has long since disappeared. It is fated that humans can not communicate with the Great God. People reverently call the eye that is carved high on the stone slab as The All-Seeing Eye."

After reading it, Paladin threw away the book with a low sardonic laugh. The smile on his face grew even more vicious and excited.

"This is incorrect. It's not that the words have disappeared, but you simply can't see them at all!"

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