The Last Paragon in the Apocalypse

“Senior, what’s happening?” Klaus asked again, panic creeping into his voice. Around him, the space in his soul sea continues to tremble violently. The once calm, multicolored sea beneath him now boiled like a raging tsunami. He stood frozen in the middle of it all, completely unsure of what was going on.

“Listen carefully, Klaus,” the senior’s voice came through again, more urgent than before. “You’re about to awaken a third eye, and when I say ‘third eye,’ I mean a spirit eye—but this isn’t the real thing. This is a type of spirit eye that should never have existed in this world, not in this life.”

Klaus blinked, trying to make sense of the words, but the panic in the senior’s voice only made things worse. It was rare for the senior to sound this rattled, which made the whole situation even more unsettling.

“Senior, tell me what’s really happening. Forget karma and all that,” Klaus insisted, his voice sharp with urgency.

The senior sighed deeply. “I can’t tell you much, trust me. If I reveal anything forbidden, your next tribulation will be your last.” His tone was grim, and Klaus gulped, his heart pounding as he listened.

“You’re awakening a spirit eye, but not just any spirit eye. This one shouldn’t be possible for a human. It’s called the Eye of Malevolence, and like its name, it’s an evil eye.”

Klaus’s breath caught in his throat. “An evil eye? What does that even mean?”

“Awakening this eye is like inviting torment and torture into your life. Yes, it grants powerful abilities, but it comes with a heavy cost. Your mind will be filled with dark thoughts—constantly. It will corrupt your peace, Klaus. After today, you won’t be able to have a peaceful moment with anyone, not even your mother,” the senior warned.

Klaus swallowed hard again. Panic gnawed at the edges of his mind, but he forced himself to stay calm. “Senior, is there no way to stop this? Anything you can do?” he asked, his voice betraying his desperation.

“I wish there was, but this is beyond my control now. Once it begins, there’s no stopping it.”

Suddenly, the soul sea parted. From beneath, a dark green, menacing eye began to rise slowly. Klaus felt a strange heat in his eyes as the eye emerged from the depths of the soul sea. It rose ominously from beneath the sea and stopped when it was just a few meters away from Klaus.

The eye hovered a few meters away from Klaus, its presence foreboding. He raised his head and locked eyes with it. Though the eye looked real, something about it was deeply unsettling. It wasn’t just that it was blinking—it was the way it blinked as if it was alive.

The moment their eyes met, Klaus’s vision instantly darkened. After a brief pause, he opened his eyes again, only to find they were no longer golden. His eyes had turned a terrifying, blood-red. The change was sudden, but it was real, and looking at Klaus, one could tell he had changed. He is still him, but he isn’t him.

“Tsk, who would have thought I’d panic over this greenhouse eye?” Klaus spoke suddenly. But his voice wasn’t his own. It sounded more mature, darker, yet strangely commanding—a bizarre mix of tones.

“I didn’t expect you to awaken this early,” the voice continued, “but it’s for the best. The sooner I take control, the faster I can grow.” Klaus’s voice, or what sounded like his voice, clapped his hands together, looking amused instead of scared.

Clapping his hands together, Klaus started to chant. It wasn’t calm like before the bead awakens. This one is more chaotic and dark. Listening to it sounded eerie.

As the Chanting filled the turbulent soul sea, the green eye, with its terrifying veins, started to shudder, as if it were afraid. It began to retreat into the multicolored sea again. It’s both bizarre and amazing for some reason.

However, it didn’t have time to escape. Just as it was descending, golden strings, formed from runes shot out of Klaus’s eyes. Countless glowing golden strings moved swiftly and bound the eye.

The eye of malevolence shuddered, trying to break free, but the strings were too strong and seemed to be hurting it. The more it shuddered, the more painful it appeared. The strings look sturdy and bind the eye like a chain.

“Tsk, all bark, and no bite,” Klaus spoke in his strange voice as he formed a hand seal.

Suddenly, the Pentaface bead spun, revealing its first face. From this face, a bell emerged. The bell grew larger until it was large enough. It moved and, in one gulp, swallowed the green eye.

Klaus formed another hand seal and from the bell, a ringing sound filled the air. Immediately the bell rang out the raging soul sea calmed instantly. The only sound now was Klaus’s continuous chanting. The eye, swallowed by the bell, stayed inside like an obedient child.

Slowly, the dark aura around the eye began to fade into the bell. It took over thirty minutes, but eventually, the only thing left was the green eye. This time, however, it no longer looked just terrifying; it had an alluring quality to it that made it both attractive and dangerous.

Suddenly, the eye shuddered and transformed into runes. The bell rose, and the runes flew into Klaus’s eyes. As they entered, the first door within his soul sea opened slightly, revealing a red star. It was visible only for a moment, but when Klaus gazed into it, his eyes, which had been turning green, shifted back to a deep red.

Then, beside the Pentaface bead, a menacing red eye appeared, hovering with a sinister presence. It looked more real and terrifying. But looking closely, it appeared projected yet real at the same time. However, the sinister air around the green eyes wasn’t there. It looks oval with dark red pupils looking back at Klaus with an emotionless expression.

“That’s more like it,” Klaus muttered with a smirk. Then, he vanished from his soul sea. Back in his training room, he fell backward and passed out.

After five hours, Klaus woke up with a splitting headache. “Damn, my head hurts,” he muttered. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and drank it, then slumped back down.

“I passed out, huh?” he said with a blank expression.

“Wait, why isn’t my head filled with tormenting thoughts like the senior said?” Klaus wondered and then reentered his soul sea.

“What the…?” Immediately he appeared back inside his soul sea, he was greeted with a terrifying sight.

“Brat, are you okay?” Before Klaus could react to the terrifying red eyes inside his soul sea, the senior spoke.

“Senior, what is that thing?” Klaus asked, pointing at the eye, still not fully grasping the connection between him and it.

“You tell me. Somehow, you’ve managed to purify the Eye of Malevolence into something new,” the senior said, causing Klaus to raise an eyebrow.

“This is great, I guess,” Klaus muttered, now sensing the connection between himself and the eye. He blacked out when the eye appeared but now woke up to a sudden connection to what was meant to torment him for the rest of his life, one would tend to want to get to the button of it all, but not Klaus who knew exactly what happened.

‘Was it Fruity…or some other bastard from my past’ He just doesn’t want to get into it now.

He then turned his attention to the Pentaface bead.

“Senior, what can you tell me about this eye and the bead?” Klaus asked, hoping for more information. Yet again, the senior did not provide a concrete answer.

“Just don’t focus on what isn’t there. Your existence is a special case. Even if you don’t sense it yet, the more you grow, the hungrier the heavens become in their attempts to kill you. Don’t ask for what isn’t there.”

“But what I can tell you is that these two objects are your strongest abilities. Use them wisely and try not to show off too much,” the senior added, making Klaus smile.

Klaus had seen what the bead could do in Fruity’s memories, but he knew he had unlocked something deeper. Inside Fruity’s soul sea, there were no beads or doors. For him, they were present, and he could feel their terrifying power. After admiring his new dark powers for a while, he joked,

“Senior, you don’t happen to be a monk from many years ago, do you?”