Vision

A strange detail about the photo was that for some reason, it had three small holes whose edges were tainted with a red ink, two holes right in the husband's eyes, and a large hole in the part of the wife's chest.

This made an unpleasant feeling appear inside him, but at the same time his curiosity increased, with Noah wanting to know what had happened in this bedroom.

But before searching any further, there was one question he felt he had to contemplate for the time being.

And that was, what exactly was the mirror world?

From what he had seen so far, it was a world almost identical to his own.

Emphasizing the word almost, since not everything was the same, starting with the inhabitants of the mirror world, and ending with details that while not noticeable at first glance, were evident if one looked enough.

Still, the similarity was too much to be mere coincidence, so what was the relationship between the two worlds?

With the picture in front of him, it was clear that the mirror world knew of the other world, but as to whether this was the same the other way around, he did not know.

Thus, there were too many questions to which Noah did not have his answers, only being able to resort to finding out on his own or asking someone who did know, the woman with the roses being his best chance.

However, in addition to preferring the first option, he did not feel that the second was a viable option as the "person" in question was unpredictable.

Deciding that he would try to investigate more about whether his world knew about the mirror world and what was the relationship between the two when he returned, Noah put the photo back on the nightstand, or at least, he tried to before he noticed anything else.

Looking at the wife, the hole in her chest was similar to the one the corpse on the bed had.

"..."

Though Noah said nothing, his mind was hard at work tying knots over what he was seeing.

Putting the portrait in front of him and looking at the corpse on the bed, slowly the young man realized the connection between the two.

"...Is it her?" He wondered as he looked at the picture and the similarities it shared with the corpse on the bed.

Although the features of the corpse were long gone, the more he looked at the photo, the harder it became for him to think that they were not the same person.

His emotions at this moment were in turmoil, feeling that he was about to get an answer that would make him understand this world a little more.

SHCK!

"!"

However, at that moment, just as Noah felt he had the answer on the tip of his tongue, a small electric arc originated from his left eye, which began to glow a light gray.

And as happened every time he encountered something strange, a system notification appeared on his arm.

__________________________

[Notice: The object exchanged with the "???? of the Roses", the [Prophetic Left Eye] has been completely assimilated].

__________________________

"Ah."

The next moment, two different visions overtook Noah, one showing him the same dusty room with the corpse on the bed, but another showing him the exact moment of death.

On top of the bed, a tall, thin creature with dried skin was tearing at the body of another, smaller, weaker creature similar to it, right at the torso.

The vision changed and time passed, showing the larger creature kneeling beside the bed, its long arms placed at the sides of its head, which was buried in the bed, right next to the corpse of the smaller creature, apparently in agony before the sight.

Suddenly, bringing its hands up to its eyes, the creature began to tear with all its might, purposely blinding itself so that it would no longer have to witness what it had done.

Switching back, the vision then showed him the creature standing in the middle of the room, its height being such that it touched the ceiling, having to twist its neck in an unnatural way to stay standing, clutching the picture frame on the nightstand and using its claws to paint.

Then, with great care, it placed the picture frame on the nightstand before starting to walk down the hallway.

Moving to see where he was going, Noah stood directly in front of the hallway, a place where he could watch as the creature, sometimes walking normally, sometimes its body becoming ethereal, moved in and out of rooms.

Until finally, the vision changed to show how the creature was at the end of the hallway, facing Noah directly, walking slowly.

"!"

By this point, the young man didn't know if it was part of the vision or if it was truly there, but he placed his weapon in front of him anyway.

However, with its body becoming ethereal and about to reach Noah, the creature did not enter the main room. Instead, it went through the door he had tried to open earlier, the one that was locked, never to come out again.

At that moment, the vision ended, and Noah's sight returned to normal.

"Argh..."

Placing a hand over his left eye, Noah was feeling an intense pain in that part of his body, as if a hot needle had pierced his eyeball.

And just as the system had said, this was nothing more than the result of his new left eye finally being assimilated and activating itself.

It really had been a timely coincidence that it activated just at this moment, when his curiosity had been running high.

After all, it wasn't as if he had done it consciously either, but more like it happened suddenly.

Either way, the one who had to deal with the consequences of this was no one else but him, so there was no point in wasting time thinking about this anymore.

For a couple of minutes, Noah tried to open his left eye, but every time he did, he could feel how even the faint light from the mirror world was burning his retina.

He didn't know if it had been because of the degree to which he used it, or the length of time he kept it active, but what was clear was that that alone had been too much for him.

Giving up on this, Noah, still keeping his left eye closed, opened his backpack and pulled a roll of bandages from inside.

After his previous visits, the young man had learned that he had to be prepared for several things, including the almost certain possibility of getting hurt.

Therefore, this time he had come a bit more prepared than before, his backpack no longer being filled with just a paintbrush and his bottles of monster blood, but also pain pills, a bottle of water and a couple of rolls of bandages along with a pair of scissors to cut them.

Cutting the bandages, he wrapped them around his head, covering his left eye well before hooking the bandages behind.

Since he wasn't confident he could keep his left eye closed on his own, this was his other best option, which seemed to be working as it didn't hurt as much as before.

With that done, Noah put his backpack back on and headed down the hallway, walking until he was right in front of the door the creature had walked through.

This was a dangerous move on his part, especially considering that he himself had seen that the monster in question seemed to have some sort of ability that allowed it to become translucent.

That meant that if he went in and the monster attacked him, he would undoubtedly have an incredibly difficult time dealing with it, that was if he could do so in the first place.

However, this was under the assumption that the monster was alive, something Noah seriously doubted thanks to the fact that his vision seemed to have been quite some time ago.

Raising his weapon, Noah then was ready to smash the doorknob, wanting to know what lurked behind it even if it brought risk to him.

"Are you sure you want to enter, child?"

"!"

At that moment, the voice of the woman rang in his head, interrupting him.

"What do you mean?" Noah asked.

"For the first time in your life, you went against the natural order, seeing something that your human body could not, it was just a simple glimpse into the past of one of the vermin of this world, but already with that alone, you have exceeded your limits." Said the woman with a slight tone of pleasant surprise in her voice, "Still, you have already suffered damage that will only heal with at least a day of rest, did you even stop to think that if just by seeing that vermin, your eyesight was hurt, what would happen to you if you interact directly with it?"

With the woman's words, the young man, who still had his weapon raised, lowered it, beginning to think about what she had brought up.

He couldn't deny that from the moment he began to have the vision about the past of the two creatures in the mirror world, the burning sensation in his eye had been increasing particularly when focusing on the larger creature.

By the final, the only thing that kept him being able to endure the pain and not close his sight was nothing but his curiosity.

Watching as Noah fell silent and was lost in thought, the woman smiled slightly and spoke.

"I would hate to see you die so soon, so here's some free advice from me. Now that you have shed your human protection of ignorance, you are at the mercy of falling to rituals of inhabitants of this world, imbued with forbidden and ancient knowledge whose effects far outweigh what the 'Crookedteeth' you call can do, so you can no longer afford to be so careless."

This time, though the woman's voice sounded as it always did, the young man could sense the seriousness with which she was addressing him.

"Your left eye is sensitive to these things now, so if it senses that something strange is nearby, whether it's a ritual or a source of forbidden knowledge, it will activate unless you suppress it, and it's at that point that you'll have to decide how to act."

"Whether you ignore it or decide to investigate it, the results may vary, with you gaining something from it, dying, or more likely, taking damage that is not physical. Now, it's up to you human child, I've said what I had to say."

With those final words, the woman's voice, as well as her presence, faded from Noah's surroundings, leaving him alone again.

Now, his urge to enter the room had diminished, already getting an idea of what might be in there after the warning from the woman of the roses.

Thanks to that, he was now sure that what was behind the door was not the creature he saw, or at least, that that was not the most dangerous thing in the room.

But in addition to that, unexpectedly, he had also gained more information about the mirror world.

Now the terms "rituals" and "forbidden and ancient knowledge" were stuck in his head, both being things Noah wanted to investigate as soon as possible.

The opportunity was right in front of him, but before making a decision, he had to keep in mind that there were risks, with the worst outcome according to the woman of the roses being death.

By all means, Noah wanted to avoid the latter, so even though his curiosity was enough to enter the room as soon as possible, he took his time to think.

"...I have to go in."

He hadn't given up, but as the woman of the roses had said, he couldn't be so careless.

He needed something that could protect him, and since the woman had said that he would most likely take damage that wasn't physical, he doubted that only using his weapon would be enough.

Quickly, his mind began to go over several ideas, such as perhaps making himself armor or looking for a shield, but for the same reason that using his weapon seemed like a bad idea, he rejected them both.

"...Ah!"

To his luck, as he was thinking about how to defend himself, the rituals he himself had listed as defensive in his notebook popped into his head.

"I could use that..." Noah said as he thought about whether this would be suitable for his current situation.

If there was something from the mirror world that would harm him with unconventional methods, then he would also use unconventional methods to defend himself.