The Eye

Uh, maybe I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. I freaked the hell out of this rabbit that it straight up lost consciousness. It probably doesn't help that I was holding a dead rabbit in my other hand, too.

Well, you can't exactly blame me. The only other rabbit I had met tried to kill me. Still, to think he'll actually fall unconscious from the shock...

I poked the rabbit once more with my sword, but it only let out a few muffled groans, foam still coming out of his mouth.

I hope he doesn't die. If he isn't trying to kill me, then he might be helpful.

After staring at the rabbit for a few more moments, I turned my attention to the door he was about to enter before I gave him a heart attack. The door looked like any other door in this hall, and it was quite shorter than me in terms of height, by at least two feet or so. This rabbit was quite taller than Albert, after all, at least when he was in a normal rabbit form.

It was half opened, and since I'd much rather explore than stare at a rabbit in shock, I gripped the door handle. Not yet opening the door fully, I peeked at the inside of the room, and was instantly met with a rather disgusting smell.

The aroma that was coming from this room was mixed with the scent of medicine, herbs, etc... and I didn't really like it.

The room was rather large and seemed to be a lab. It had a good deal of medical tools, jars, bottles, and machines that I have never seen before.

Hmm, that's odd. A lab... I have vague recollections of what it is, but I don't think it looked like this. This looks advanced.

Regardless, I kept examining the inside of the room, until I eventually laid my eyes on one of the jars.

There, on the table in the middle of the room, was a jar filled with a spherical, slimy dark object, similar to Albert's body's material. I squinted my eyes, and I noticed the thing slightly moving.

After observing it for a few more moments, the object suddenly jolted, and I could vaguely tell it spun around. Then suddenly, something appeared from inside the thing.

It was an eye.

It didn't really shock me that much. After seeing the wonders of this world, and seeing talking rabbits that can transform into freakish beings, this wasn't that surprising.

Its pupil was shaking and hazy as if it wasn't fully formed yet, but after a moment, it stopped shaking.

And immediately turned its attention toward me.

[You have been inflicted with level 1 Madness!]

[You have adapted instantly and managed to successfully resist the Madness status effect with no repercussions!]

...?

The floating panel suddenly appeared in front of me and told me I was afflicted with something. Thankfully, I managed to resist it, somehow.

Still, Madness? Despite my foggy memory, I can tell the definition of this word. Was this supposed to make me turn insane, or what? And how did I even get affected by it?

No- I got inflicted by it the moment that weird thing looked at me. If so, then... can it really affect me with just a stare?

That's a problem.

Still, since it obviously tried to bring me harm, then...

---

Third-Person POV

The eye was surprised, to say the least. This human in front of it was supposed to turn insane by merely looking at it in the eye- or, well, the pupil. And yet, nothing happened. From what it could tell, the human didn't have any outstanding quality in terms of soul, it just seemed average- no, even below average.

So, how?

The eye didn't know. It thought that, perhaps; it hadn't fully looked at the human.

The eye wasn't one bit nervous, and with another stare, it looked at the human in the eye.

...Nothing.

The eye started feeling anxious. What was going on? Although its madness effect wasn't effective against people with extraordinary souls, average people are an entirely different story! Just looking at it can cause one to turn insane, to experience such severe horror that their brains cannot function normally. The brain itself will actively shut off and kill itself just because of how severe it is! People with slightly stronger souls will instead just turn insane and mutate into a beast.

So, based on the eye's speculation on the human's soul, this human should just be an ordinary human!

The eye tried again and again and again.

But nothing happened. And with repeated failures, the eye started feeling more and more nervous. Despite it being an eye, it had full consciousness and is relatively intelligible, capable of understanding human speech, regardless of the language.

It was the eye of a Madness beast- beasts who were born to inflict madness, their bodies pure black, and bending in horrifying angles. Something that the human mind cannot comprehend. These beings are hard to kill. Even if you destroyed the entirety of their body and just kept a single part of them, such as an eye or the brain, or even a finger, their consciousness won't disappear. Instead, its consciousness will be transferred to that individual part that was separated. Such was the case as this Eye, which that White Rabbit had kept in order to examine it and experiment on it, after destroying the rest of its body. Additionally, Madness beasts were different from other beasts who simply turned insane and mutated. Madness beasts had a disgustingly strong regenerative ability. Although it takes quite a bit of their stamina, these beasts could regenerate their entire body even if their entire body turned into a puddle In just a few minutes!

But- The eye couldn't regenerate. The White Rabbit has specifically used a type of magic that significantly reduces its regenerating speed, making a process that would usually take a few minutes instead take a few months! Matter of fact, the reason how the White Rabbit was capable of capturing the eye was because of the rabbit's magic. It had many tricks up its sleeve to deal with monsters, many of which either reduce or outright negate the effect of their regeneration. This jar it was in, for example, had many magical properties added to it, most of which being regeneration slowing effects, and another was a type of defense magic that specifically worked only against Madness beasts.

The eye kept looking at the human, its pupil slightly shaking in disbelief.

'What is going on?' The eye thought anxiously, 'Why isn't that human becoming insane? I've looked at it a few times now, but nothing happened! D-Did that White Rabbit do something to me?'

Don't be mistaken, the eye isn't afraid of the human, or the harm that it will bring. Rather, it's afraid of what the White Rabbit might have done. Slowing its regenerative abilities is one thing, but how did the Rabbit stop its madness ability from taking effect? What kind of magic did he use? It just made little sense. It didn't think the rabbit had this kind of magic.

*Step*

'...!' The eye 'heard' the sound of something- despite not having ears, the eye is still capable of hearing, proof of Madness Beasts' nonsensical existence that is filled with contradictions- and it realized that the man had fully opened the door, and started slowly walking towards the eye. His head was a few inches away from the ceiling due to his height.

Despite the fact that the eye was nervous its madness ability wasn't working, he actually felt a bit relieved when he noticed the man walking towards him. This human might just be the key to getting it out of this damn forsaken jar.

Regardless of what the human does, it won't be able to do anything against the eye. Don't let its small size trick you, for it had many tricks up its sleeve, and its strength was extraordinary. Furthermore, the human cannot ever kill him due to its regenerative abilities- at least, once it gets out of this jar.

The eye slowly filled up with joy with every step the man took. When it glanced at his right hand, it laughed in its mind. Even his sword was laughable, to think he could actually kill the eye with a sword like that already showed that this person was an amateur.

But when it glanced at his left hand, the eye's thoughts immediately shut down, and it felt like it was spilled with cold water.

A rabbit was in the human's left hand. Its upper half was cut in half from the middle, and all of its organs were showing. The eye at first thought it was the White Rabbit that entrapped him here, but that thought quickly disappeared with a simple look at the door to the lab. There, it saw the rabbit lying unconscious.

Additionally, the eye noticed a strange energy source coming from the stomach of that rabbit, something strong, and powerful. And finally, he felt a strange connection to that rabbit, a connection that signaled Madness. This rabbit was previously afflicted with Madness and turned insane, and yet, it was dead.

'Did that human kill it?' The eye thought curiously. It seemed impossible. The man's soul was nothing noteworthy, and from what the eye could sense, that rabbit was quite powerful. 'Perhaps he teamed up with other people? People who had powerful souls?'

That was the only logical conclusion the eye could come up with, but it had many holes, even the eye admitted it. Regardless, as long as that rabbit is unconscious, it doesn't matter how many humans come here. It was confident in its ability to ward off anyone who isn't a highly skilled magician like the White Rabbit.

'Even if it did kill that monster by himself, this human cannot tear through my regenerative abilities. If it somehow did, then worst-case scenario, I'll escape.'

The eye promised itself to not make the same mistake again. When he first fought that White Rabbit, it underestimated him. Even when the White Rabbit showed its magic, the eye refused to run away like a coward.

But alas, it learned. No longer will that be the case. Sometimes, retreating is the correct choice.

So, the eye looked at the human straight in the eye, confident this human will not be able to do anything to it. But, it will be a lie to say it didn't have some lingering anxiety. This situation just seemed nonsensical to it.

When the human was just a few steps away from the jar, he stopped and looked at the eye. The eye suddenly raised its nonexistent "eyebrow" at the human.

"You're an odd one." The man said calmly, his voice oddly empty, just like his eyes.

'Nonsense! You're one to talk! You are butt-naked, have a sword in your hand, and a dead rabbit in the other. That's not even mentioning your creepy expression!' The eye criticized in its mind, but didn't show it in its "expression"

"How did you do it?"

"...?"

"You have inflicted me with something called 'Madness', how did you do it?"

"...!"

'So my ability did indeed work! Wait, but then... how? How did this human manage to bypass it?' The eye's thoughts suddenly became frantic, its anxiety slowly increasing by the second. If its ability does indeed work and the White Rabbit didn't do anything to it, then that just opens another can of worms. A person who resists a madness effect are people with extraordinarily strong souls, but he felt nothing from this human.

"And..." The human trailed off, "With each step I took, your ink twitches by the slightest amount. And I could see a trace of something from your gaze, a killing intent."

"...?!" The eye's mind suddenly stopped for a moment.

"You were planning on attacking me the moment I opened the lid, didn't you?"

Despite the man's calm voice, the eye suddenly felt a sudden shiver. It noticed its body, or, well, eye's substance twitching by the most minuscule amount, and could even sense killing intent?

How did that make sense? People who can sense killing intent are either magicians with specific magic to detect any ill intent or...

A person with a massive amount of experience, a warrior who was constantly in a life-or-death situation.

Either of these options was a problem for the eye. It might have regenerative abilities, but it's not immortal. Every time it regenerates, it takes away a section of its stamina. This means that if the creature was constantly regenerating, it will eventually fall unconscious due to its limited stamina and massive consumption of it.

The former was terrifying because it would imply this person was a magician, but the latter is equally horrifying. Only a fool would think a truly experienced warrior was not a threat. They could immediately spot a weakness the moment the fight starts and could analyze your entire fighting style and moves from just a glance.

"I like that way of thinking," The man suddenly said, a small smile on his face. Although it was just a smile, the eye felt an indescribable fear, that smile didn't bode well. It was as if a monster that didn't know how to smile tried to mimic it by copying other humans.

"You seem powerful, and that is a good enough reason for me to fight you." The man suddenly lifted his sword, "You didn't answer my question, and I don't know if you could actually speak or not, but-"

The sword suddenly came towards the jar at a frightening speed.

"I'll make sure you'll answer me, one way or another."

*Crack!*

*Crash!*