Kieran's eyes brimmed with critical power as they gained a mystical depth that sought to uncover what lay hidden from him.
A dull aching started in his eyes and slowly connected to his mind, which typically happened when using the True Unveiling Eyes and Eyes of Profound Discerning in tandem.
Alone, they were powerful, but together… they were incredible.
Simultaneous usage went against how Kieran generally used the eyes and how he was advised to approach unknown knowledge, but his current situation was unforgiving. Using his improved eyes to first discern and then unveil wasted too much time — precious time he already sorely lacked.
After suffering the bite of the Bloodwight, he understood how dangerous idling in thought was. Thus, his only foreseeable option was to brave the consequences of concurrent usages of both ocular abilities.
Though Eni's words were vague, he cautioned Kieran against attempting to learn too much before his time. Knowledge was power, but the truth and understanding that came with it was an inescapable burden.
Many had tried stepping beyond the limits of a Master of Knowledge, but few had succeeded in shattering that restriction. Those who failed had either learned how petrifying truth could be or realized they were unfit to know what hid beneath the veil of Ascension.
In the end, Eni was forced to father a lineage who inherently adhered to the precepts of his path. Kieran did not come from that lineage but earned the right to bear their legacy.
'I have until the pain becomes searing and white-hot. Hopefully, that is long enough…'
Fortunately, the body of Valdu, which Kieran had inhabited, was many times more resilient than his actual body. It could handle the toll of simultaneous usage better than his original body. His main concern was how it'd all end up affecting his mind in the end.
The initial burden took a toll on the eyes, but the ultimate cost was an immense strain on the mind.
At his current level, Kieran's eyes took in every bit of information all the same, and it was usually overwhelming. He was a storage device that lacked filtration — in this case, the Mind of a Master — which meant it was easy for him to experience a "jam."
Kieran tried his best to ignore the unimportant things he learned about the Wailing Sierra — the deathly miasma that loomed around it, the eerie tendrils that sprouted from within the Screaming Night — and tried to focus on the encroaching, imminent threat.
But his eyes were burning. And it was not a burn that blinking could assuage.
'Come on… come on…'
Kieran's mind churned alongside his eyes, working to sift through the massive influx of information streams. His thoughts were growing sluggish, weighed down, and inhibited by the sheer volume of information.
Muffled grunts escaped his mutilated throat.
The veins around his neck and temples thickened and distended while Kieran gasped for air in ragged breaths. For a moment, it seemed like his assumption had been a terrible underestimation of how much knowledge remained hidden behind veils throughout the Wailing Sierra.
But that wasn't his focus.
They couldn't offer a solution to his problems right now.
He needed the weakness of the Bloodwights, and that was all. Soon, the pressure plateaued, but it was an absurd plateau. The countless streams of information were like fibrous twine rubbing together briskly. The friction led to that pain Kieran was wary of.
It was becoming red-hot, which wasn't good. But as the pain grew red, so did his vision. It was faint enough to be a hallucination, but Kieran's current eyes didn't discard even the tiniest detail.
It was a red gleam with burgeoning clarity.
Then, Kieran unveiled the nature of that gleam.
Ignoring the red-hot pain flowing from his eyes to mind and vice versa, Kieran saw a vermilion glow inside mounds of ash-gray flesh wriggling, shambling, or rushing him.
The Blood Core.
However, Kieran noticed every Blood Core was different. Some seemed sleek and round, resembling an imperfect sphere; some were crude and unrefined, appearing almost brittle, and the rest were fragile shards that kept splintering and fusing back together.
These strange cores' ability to arbitrarily shift throughout the Bloodwights' ghastly form was unique to all.
If the state of the Blood Core had anything to do with an accumulation of power, then the more complete meant it was more robust and closer to attaining a higher level of power.
But, to Kieran, all the Bloodwights seemed roughly the same regarding their strength. He could knock them back with a swing of his blade, but they would always return.
After glimpsing a relationship between the Blood Core condition and the Bloodwights' shape, it took a second to understand. Those with sharper, more definitive forms bore the superior-quality Blood Cores.
'So their form indicates how well realized their power is. And the walking nightmares are the strongest of the Bloodwights. Of course…'
Now that he had a firm grasp of the situation at hand, Kieran vanquished his hold over the Eyes of Profound Discerning. Only the True Unveiling Eyes held any value now that he had obtained the needed information.
'Anything to lessen this burn!'
The pain had not grown unbearable yet, remaining red-hot and tolerable. However, keeping up with that increased expenditure would accelerate how fast the change occurred. It had no noticeable adverse effects on his vision, focus, or reason, which Kieran rejoiced over.
With the information in his mind, Kieran had one thing left to do — determine how hard he needed to strike the Blood Core to shatter it beyond repair. Considering physical might was his only ability in spades, that was his methodical approach.
There was also his blood. It listened slowly without a Blood Rune, but it reacted nonetheless.
The coating of the crimson blade gradually thickened as Kieran flickered his wrist. A razor-sharp thread of blood lanced through the air, quickly cutting through a few Bloodwights.
Those with feeble, fragmented Blood Cores received fatal wounds, dissolving into a puddle of noxious blood and rapidly rotting flesh. But, once those Bloodwights fell, they became nutrients for their living kin.
Kieran watched in horror as the Blood Cores of the nightmarish Bloodwights continued growing more complete. More importantly, his earlier attack had proved to be incapable of damaging their Blood Cores.
"Focus on the ones that inspire a deeper sense of dread, Condemned Fiend."
Kieran spared the Cardinal of War and Flame a wry smile.
'What does it look like I'm doing? The damned things ate my attack… and shook it off.'
Internally groaning, Kieran called out to the Flame.
'Flame, how much more power can you give me? Can you empower my blood itself?'
"My child, you… are on your own. I am completely occupied here. My only advice? Get angry…"
Kieran grimaced, which eventually turned into a somber scowl. He understood what the Flame was hinting at.
Let the corruption of his Realm spread further, giving him greater access to the power of a consummate Fiend, which seemed impervious to the attacks of a Bloodwight. Almost as if…
'Don't tell me a Fiend comes from the same place a Bloodwight does.'
"BINGO! The Place of Bane is home to a consummate Fiend."
The Flame laughed maniacally at Kieran's felicitous realization.
However, Kieran had a different idea.
'I… I don't have to be the main character here. There's someone far stronger.'
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