XLVIII: Gun and Eye.

In his hand was a standard all-black flintlock, made of a tough, unfamiliar material. The gun had a few lines in red and gold, giving it a delicate yet beautiful appearance. The gun was quite heavy and fit Seone's hand perfectly. The fit with Seone went beyond mere grip.

The weapon seemed to be connected to the boy in an exoteric way, as if it were part of his body, even his energy unconsciously flowed into the weapon and then back into his body, creating a cycle. He was excited not only because it was a weapon, but because it was 'the weapon' for him.

He had been complaining for a long time that he didn't have many opportunities to use his spinning balls, to the point where he had developed the therapeutic capabilities of this energy and barely had any forays into the war aspect. So, this flintlock pistol is like a gift from heaven, and considering that he got it for participating in a strange game on the moon, it made some sense.

He took the gun in his left hand and pointed it at the sky, obviously not at the city, but at a distant mountain. Then his energy transformed strangely until it condensed into a spherical bullet inside the gun. With his sixth sense, he felt that this bullet was exaggeratedly spherical, too perfect, something that should not be in nature.

This made Seone hesitate for a moment before simply dismissing that detail, literally a manipulative being gave him an object that could easily serve as a custom-made artifact, he wasn't going to complain too much about that. Knowing what to do, he spun the orb inside the weapon, coating it in the golden glow of the spin.

It wasn't a perfect spin, not even the imperfect version he had achieved against those terrible slimes, but the basic, weak version because he couldn't apply his current knowledge of this technique to such an unknown medium as his weapon, which he decided to christen 'Hope' because he hoped to use it to overcome in the toughest of battles. 

"So, let's test the power that Hope can give me... Why do I sound so American?" joked Seone before pulling the trigger of his weapon.

The roar caused by the shot alarmed the entire city, especially the powerful people in it. Everyone could see a point of golden light flying across the sky at an incredible speed. Even though it was daylight, that golden point was quite obvious, and the people who knew Seone knew that he was back.

The spin-imbued bullet flew towards the mountain and hit it, there was no magnificent explosion or anything like that, but using the energy in his eyes to see further, Seone could see that the bullet went all the way through the mountain and continued its path for several hundred meters before disintegrating. 

After that attack, Seone felt tired, he put too much spin energy into that shot and a lot of it was dissipated, besides, even if his vitality was full, the tiredness from the spin was more mental than anything else. So he sat down on the grass where he had picnicked with his friends before being invited to the Masked Woman's game. 

"Wow, something else to practice with, I guess I can do that during the war, I could practice on those pesky elves... yeah, that's a good idea," just as Seone was saying his thoughts out loud, a familiar presence appeared in his senses, it was quite close and it was as if it came out of nowhere.

It was only because he felt this vitality he was so used to that he didn't swing his sword with the urge to cut him down. Seone smiled and stood up, looking back. There he was, the first person to come to him wasn't Marie or any of his friends, it was someone who was probably more concerned about his condition than anyone else.

His father, at least his father in this short life on this disturbed continent, was the first person to find him. The old man was breathing heavily, perhaps from too much energy to get to him as quickly as possible. Purple vitality covered him like a cloak, and Matt, after pulling himself together, saw his son smiling at him. 

He, a titled executioner, cold, ruthless, without an ounce of compassion... was trembling. Three days ago, things had gone crazy, and when she learned that her son had been forced to participate in something strange done by an unfathomable existence, she became very worried, so much so that even her body, strengthened by 7 broken boundaries and unblocked instincts, couldn't stand the stress.

His hair, which had been a mixture of gray and black, had turned white, his strong body was a bit thin, and he had dark circles under his eyes, something unbelievable for someone as powerful as he was, but any stress, fear or worry he had before seeing Seone disappeared when he felt that special energy rippling the sky.

He knew it, his son had returned and was unharmed, and upon realizing this, he ran with all his might to that place, a place he now knew like the back of his hand from all the times he had visited and scanned it with his domain. As he made his way there, a hint of anger appeared in his heart.

That wanker boy is getting more and more presumptuous, instead of seeing me when he arrived, he wasted his energy in this stupid way," the old man thought as he left Seone's companions behind, whom he had seen and even passed without any courtesy. 

But any discomfort he felt disappeared the moment he saw him, safe and sound, looking at him with a smile, then without saying much, he approached his son.

"Hey Dad, you don't know the things that..." Before he could finish, a fist wrapped in purple vitality hit him in the face, causing Seone to slide backward. 

But instead of getting angry with his old man, Seone looked up at him, and with a bloodied grin that showed off his red-stained teeth, he snapped his fingers, and his body was covered in crimson energy.

"Old man, your hand looks itchy, do you want a fight?" asked Seone, but it was more of a statement than anything else.

...

Seone stood in a conference room, telling and explaining to a diverse audience the things that had happened during his stay on the moon; he told them about the masked woman and her apparent ability to alter reality, about Damien, about Fenrir, and about the space rift that would lead to an invasion of another world.

It was this last point that interested the diverse audience, which consisted of the city's highest-ranking knights, the city's lord, Princess Rolanda, the city's mage leaders, alchemist leaders, hunter leaders, and even an envoy from the capital. There was also a dragoness listening from the comfort of her 'home', but that's something for the future. 

They were all somewhat related, as Seone's team members had an apprentice/master/descendant relationship with these people, except a few of these people. 

Also gathered were the members of Monic's group, who were also interested in this situation, besides the fact that their group and Marie's group were getting closer and closer, and it was even possible that they would merge in the future. So while Seone continued to explain the various strategies they had devised against Fenrir and how strangely easy the fight was, both groups took notes on what our protagonist was saying. 

After several hours of conversation, questions, and even suggestions, Seone found himself in Violet's lab next to Marie, looking at the girl with a strong magic-punk vibe about her. 

"My God, that's Juri Han's feng shui machine, isn't it? The one you took from the Suture Monster?" said Violet excitedly as she examined the object on her workbench with various devices.

"Yes, and I think it suits me very well, although I would like to make some changes, I don't want it to be something implanted, I want it to be a part of me," Seone answered her while trying to ignore the fierce look Marie was giving him. 

The blonde was a bit annoyed with Seone for not going to her when he came back, but she was quite understanding, what she didn't like was that the guy wanted to have an operation right after she had him all to herself. She had enough stress with an annoying dragoness pretending to be her mother and claiming her house as her own.

"Oh, sure, but you know it won't have those crazy functions, nor will it have the ability to absorb energy from the world, but I can keep its energy boosting ability and add the ability for it to store your energy, giving you a second chance to bounce back. 

That, and you'll look good with one eye flashing red, Cool! You don't know how much I've wanted to throw tentacles at your beautiful body," Violet's voice didn't sound at all sensual compared to her words, the woman looked greedily at Seone's body, conveying a crazy idea to cut it up and add mechanical or magical parts. 

Seone and Marie were used to it, not that she wanted to do it, it was just things that escaped her due to the influence of what she was doing, it was like Seone's recent obsession with 'cutting' people or Marie's obsession with stealing people's gold and making a bed out of the treasures she collects. 

"Is the surgery safe? He won't go crazy or anything, right?" asked Marie in time to catch Violet's attention, who thought for a few seconds before clicking her tongue and nodding.

"I won't do anything that would maliciously affect the user. I will integrate it into your eye, and maybe give you some minor abilities... I have to take into account the compatibility with your body, as well as the available weight of your soul" Monic then made a phantom keyboard appear in front of her, and after typing a few things, a 'list' of light was generated in her right hand.

She gave the list to Seone, on it were all of Seone's physical, energetic, and spiritual data, as well as the available minor abilities he was most compatible with. She could only choose one, so as not to overload the new eye; besides, having many abilities wasn't a good thing if you weren't able to integrate them into your style.

"That's a good one," Marie pointed out one of the available abilities, perhaps the only one that could help Seone, as the path he was following already had a sensory ability that far surpassed many of the listed abilities.

This ability was called "Astral Sight", it was quite rare as it allowed Seone to project his vision to places he had been or had a visual reference to. This ability was not very useful in combat, but for Seone, a pure fighter, having a remote scouting ability was quite good. 

Even with the limitations he possessed, he could gradually improve it, even to the point of 'tagging' his enemies and seeing what they saw, although if the enemy was very sensitive, he might pick up on Seone's spying.

There were already many similar spells, and even Seone had a hunting technique to mark his enemies, which he learned from Belmont's book and studied with Axel, who had similar and even more complex abilities, but the interesting thing was that this ability could be mixed with the techniques he possessed, as well as his future mastery.

Seone's goal in seeing this ability is to use it to project his future domain, making it even more incredible than it is now. So he chose this ability, which would increase the value of the eye he would receive even more. Not only would he have extra energy storage or a temporarily enhanced state, but with Astral Sight, he would have a new method of doing things. 

"The three eye abilities need to be trained and developed by you, really integrated into your combat system and developed much further. I can already imagine when you get your 'fire', it'll be a strange analogy between the Eye of Ra and the Serpent Apophis... it's fun to think of it that way!" exclaimed Monic in excitement as he imagined the amazing things his new teammate could accomplish.

His words made Seone pause for a moment, realizing that he was going down a somewhat greedy path, but as someone capable of having a snake as a representation of his vitality, Seone was greedy enough as it was. 

"

Then let's do mythological cosplay," Seone declared, her words echoing through the lab. 

Unbeknownst to her, the resident dragoness in Marie's house glanced in the direction her daughter was standing, sensing something interesting was about to begin. She licked her lips and continued to eat the food Marie had bought her.

"Looks like a greedy little snake is about to make his first big move, I need to talk to him, it seems my dear daughter hasn't told me all about her interesting partner," Minerva whispered as she concentrated on eating.

While Seone's operation was going on, the final preparations for the war between the Sunflower City and the elves of the Emerald Kingdom in the Forest of Death were being made. In addition, the stories told by Seone and the other participants in the Masked Woman's Game spread across the continent with astonishing speed.

Now there was some interest in the world beyond the rift, but it would be some time before the great kingdoms discussed it.

In the meantime, let us turn our attention to the coming war.

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AN: And, the last one of this week! Enjoy~