One-Eyed Monster

Igor had no way out. The more the Dark Force accumulated power, the stronger it became, and the more they delayed, the less favorable the situation grew for them. Arnold’s Timeline might offer help, and Igor had to try it.

The Timeline was a tricky thing. Even Arnold couldn’t fully control it; he could only create a leaping Timeline within the Illusionary Realm. This was quite similar to the Inner World of Igor and the others, working on a similar principle.

At this moment, Igor had already entered Arnold’s Timeline. Everyone was supporting him, because he was the only one who had found a method to deal with the Dark Force. The Timeline was leaping, so Igor was going against it, trying to revisit a specific point in time. He wanted to confirm one thing: a detail from the moment the remnant of Wizard Reed’s consciousness appeared. Igor needed to confirm this detail. Once he did, he could make his move...

The Dark Force was housed within a skeleton. Igor needed to confirm details about this skeleton. He wanted to know if defeating this skeleton would annihilate the Dark Force. Because of this hosting relationship, Igor was uncertain of the final effect.

The skeleton was merely a shell. The real power was that remnant of Wizard Reed’s consciousness. This Dark Force was power Reed had obtained by sacrificing his own life, leaving behind only a fragment of his consciousness. This wisp of consciousness retained nothing but hatred for his enemies. Therefore, it wasn’t Reed himself battling them now. It was purely the Dark Force, seizing an opportunity to crush them.

Whether their opponent was Wizard Reed himself was of little concern to Igor. He wasn’t familiar with the person he had to fight. The only reason he’d joined this resistance was because the invader was affecting all of Guru Mountain. Since all of Guru Mountain was affected, so was Kadi. Kadi was Igor’s friend and his guide on Guru Mountain. If Kadi was affected, Igor would lose his guide. Losing his guide meant his entire exploration plan would be put on hold.

Although his original reason for coming to Guru Mountain had changed—it was no longer as simple as when he first arrived. He had originally come seeking courage, but now, this journey had completely become an exploration of Guru Mountain... The experience of it all was quite interesting, in its own way.

However, the Dark Force had interrupted this entire exploration, which made Igor very unhappy. Moreover, there was a period when Igor had almost lost himself. That feeling nearly made him break down.

Get up where you fall. It was a simple truth. With Kadi’s help, Igor had found himself again. Now, he had to strive on his own to overcome the current predicament...

No one will tell you why the world is unfair; all you can do is hold your head high and keep moving forward. Igor didn’t hesitate. He knew that at this moment, they had no path of retreat. If they backed down, everyone would become Slaves of Darkness, just like Reed.

Without freedom, what’s the point of exploration? This was the most intolerable thing. Even if he had to bleed and suffer, he would choose glorious freedom. Igor didn’t understand many grand principles, but he was very clear about this simple truth: an Adventurer needs freedom. Without freedom, an Adventurer couldn’t go where they wanted to go. If that were the case, then being an Adventurer would be meaningless.

Igor’s thoughts multiplied as he leaped through the Timeline. In Arnold’s Timeline, backward was memory, and forward was premonition. What he needed to do now was find that detail. This point in memory was backward on the Timeline, so Igor could only leap backward desperately. He also wanted to leap forward to see what the future held. But while the future could be deduced and judged, it had its limitations; the future would change as people changed. No one remains unchanged, which is why the future holds multiple possibilities.

Igor didn’t think he could change everyone’s future, nor did he ever harbor such extravagant hopes. Even Arnold, who possessed the Timeline, didn’t dare hope for a predetermined future. Predicting the future, to put it bluntly, was merely a form of deduction. And judging by their current situation, the entire process was unfavorable to them; any deduced future would certainly not be a good outcome.

Igor desperately leaped backward. Whether it was the future or not, he no longer had much time to think about it. Time was precious, and he had to find that detail. However, the scenes of the past unfolded in vast swathes, making it difficult to find.

At this moment, Igor was completely focused, not relaxing in the slightest. He knew that everyone outside the Timeline was fighting hard, their individual acts of resistance buying him time. Perhaps it was only a few Gudu Times, but this time was incredibly precious. Igor was now unwilling to miss a single detail; he had to find what he was looking for.

He vaguely remembered that when he attacked the skeleton with wooden planks, the skeleton had shown a slight change. Although he wasn’t sure if that change was what he was looking for, he still needed to confirm it. Just like that other matter he was worried about, this was also extremely important.

If Reed’s remnant consciousness merely resided in this skeleton, then all their immense effort to bring it down would be for nothing. The skeleton was just a shell, and shells were everywhere. What they ultimately defeated would just be an ordinary skeleton. That wisp of consciousness could simply find another shell and return to attack them again. So, defeating this skeleton might also mean they would achieve nothing... Igor’s worry was not entirely baseless, but it was unlikely they could find a solution right now. Igor could only search for that detail from the past. A guess would have to guide their final course of action.

Igor recalled that when he attacked the skeleton with a wooden plank, he had seen a crack on its skull. Although it was a detail, it was an incredibly important one. This crack wasn’t an ordinary one; otherwise, Igor wouldn’t have paid attention to it. This crack was a mark; only certain individuals would possess such a mark. To have such a crack on one’s skull meant they must have suffered a severe blow in life.

This crack had made Igor feel very surprised at the time. The more he recalled it later, the stranger it seemed. He kept feeling as if he had seen such a crack somewhere before... That sense of familiarity made him feel it was necessary to see it again. This was because he had a theory, a theory closely related to their subsequent plan.

With no way out, he could only choose to take this gamble...

This was also the reason Igor needed to leap through the Timeline!