One-Eyed Monster

”This…” With the help of the flames, Igor finally managed to see those fragments clearly, but he was still a bit hesitant, because that pile of fragments looked way too ordinary.

The fragments looked a bit like wood shavings, a bit like coal cinders, and a bit like dust… They seemed just like the sort of stuff you’d see in everyday life, plain and unremarkable.

In no time, the flame in Igor’s palm started flickering, then with a whoosh, it went out.

Igor initially thought it had burned through the gas or run out of Energy and thus extinguished, since this place wasn’t exactly open and ventilated, so the gas flow could easily have gotten blocked somewhere.

So Igor once again condensed, collided, and produced a flame.

The flame shone for a short while, then went out again with a soft puff.

He tried it several times in a row, over and over, and without exception, it failed.

”Hey, this isn’t Devouring Power, yet it still goes out. Looks like these ’ordinary’ fragments aren’t all that ordinary!” Igor sighed. After all, he’d tried several times and every flame ended in failure, to the point he was starting to doubt himself.

”This is a bit strange. Why do all the flames go out? Could the fire actually be afraid of these things or something?”

”Maybe that’s exactly what’s going on!” Igor picked up the topic, clearly very invested in the matter.

”I felt those things looked kind of familiar just now!” Kadi said.

”Of course they’re familiar. They’re the kind of stuff we see all the time in daily life, and they’re not worth anything…”

Wait—Igor suddenly seemed to think of something.

What he’d just seen might all be common things, easy to come across, but they shared one trait. Whether it was wood shavings or coal cinders, all of them were flammable materials!

Flammables naturally make a flame burn even stronger, no wonder the fire had been so eager and restless!

”So that’s what it is!” Igor said thoughtfully, feeling like someone who catches on late, having taken this long to understand such a simple point.

”What is it?” Over on his side, Kadi was still totally confused. Seeing Igor’s suddenly enlightened look, he felt a bit out of sync.

”Here’s how it is…” Igor explained his understanding to Kadi without leaving anything out. Clearly he was quite pleased with his own idea and figured Kadi would accept it easily.

”What you said kind of makes sense, but then, why do these flames go out so quickly? And why is my Blue Flame so scared of them?” There was no way Kadi wouldn’t have questions; he was not about to just accept Igor’s theory that fast.

”That’s a good question. Let me tell you, flames can’t burn forever, right? These flammables burn easily, which also means one thing: flammables get consumed very quickly. The faster they burn, the faster the flame dies out. Do you get what I mean?” Igor spoke like a patient lecturer, slowly laying it out.

Kadi scratched his head. After mulling it over, he managed to figure out the logic behind it.

But as for why the Blue Flame on his body was afraid of these fragments, he still held reservations.

After all, that thing on him couldn’t really be counted as a proper flame!

”Finally figured out what this stuff is!” Igor was quite excited, but soon after, he fell silent again.

Kadi was used to Igor’s mood swings by now; he didn’t even find it strange anymore. He knew Igor must have thought of something else—something that made him think hard, so much so that he didn’t say a word.

Bottom line, they had come to this test field to rescue Xiso, yet now they were being blocked by a bunch of fragments, with no idea which way to go next. That really wasn’t a good sign.

What do these fragments have to do with Xiso? Why are they here? Does the Alchemy Workshop intend to use them to stop the two of them from moving forward? That doesn’t seem very likely.

The Alchemy Workshop piling up a bunch of combustibles here just to stop them advancing felt off; it definitely wasn’t that simple.

This question was exactly what Igor was fretting over. He couldn’t figure out why this pile of fragments was here, or why these fragments specifically had to be flammable.

Mysteries have to be solved one by one. For now, all they could do was carefully observe. These things weren’t as simple as they looked, but they couldn’t be so complicated that the two of them had no way to start.

They needed to think quietly, find the connections hidden inside, and only then draw a conclusion in the end.

The more you think about something, the more complicated it can get. Appearances can fool people, but not all appearances are like that. Some are very simple and don’t carry much meaning; they don’t require such deep analysis or overthinking.

Igor was stuck in that very spot now. He felt these flammables couldn’t be just simple things; there had to be a secret hidden in them, some major significance.

Maybe he wasn’t wrong to think that, but it didn’t have much to do with their search for Xiso.

Compared to Igor, Kadi was the complete opposite. He never thought that far ahead; he just looked at whatever was in front of him and refused to bother with all that messy overthinking.

”Can you summon another flame so I can see more clearly? I don’t think these things are what you say they are!” Kadi suggested.

”Whatever they are, they’re still a bunch of flammables!” Igor dismissed it. He felt a little unhappy, probably because of Kadi. Kadi wanting another look at this stuff felt like he didn’t trust him!

Of course, Igor didn’t show any impatience. He still complied with Kadi’s request, colliding to spark a flame and letting Kadi take a good look.

”This looks like tree bark, piece by piece, and also like lumps of mud, like layers of soil flaking off from dried-up ground!” Kadi exclaimed again as he looked at them.

”Yeah, and all of them flammables…” Igor shrugged, thinking, I already told you that, and you still had to take another look.

”They look like something else too. Didn’t you notice?” Kadi turned his head and asked. His eyes were blinking expectantly at Igor.

Igor wasn’t interested in the question and simply let out a sigh. ”I can’t think of anything.”

”Heh heh, don’t these things look like Xiso’s face? Like his skin that’s about to peel off?” Kadi chuckled; he really thought the resemblance was strong.

That line instantly put Igor on alert. He suddenly realized these flammables really did resemble the skin on Xiso’s pale face…

All at once, he seemed to have found a connection!