Third Eye

There are countless ways how a guardian fragment can be hidden from the heavens guardian. But the guardians selected 3 ways to hide their fragment right before their death.

The first effective way was the object seal. The guardians used various types of objects to seal their fragments, such as books, vases, accessories, mana stones and so much more. 

The second way was trees and flowers. Some guardians related to earth and nature used trees, flowers and sometimes fruits or seeds to keep their fragments safe before their death.

And the third way was magical scrolls. It was the hardest seal to make and it's nearly impossible for a normal human to gather all the spells and break the seal of the hidden fragment.

This is how millions of guardians seal their fragments before the moment of their death in order to keep the world tree alive.

But some guardians related to small organisms made unusual ways of sealing their fragments.

They used parasites as their fragment seal and injected them into living animals and human bodies. The parasites become immortal and they switch bodies from generation to generation when their host dies.

All the humans Viktor sees in his daily life have green books above their heads. But if that person has any connection with any guardian fragment, the colour of their book changes.

So, the person Viktor was gazing at had a silver book floating above his head. And the silver colour indicates a parasite fragment.

The person inside the cell looked at Viktor and saw two bright silver eyes. He became a little frightened at first, but his gaze wasn't murderous. It was filled with curiosity.

"Young master, do you want to ask something?" The man inside the cell asked.

Viktor opened the locked cell without any key and went inside without saying anything.

"Young mma..master?"

"Hey, how old are you?"

"I'm 378 years old."

   I guess I was right. The living beings who carry guardian fragments inside their bodies tend to live a long life like 9th-class high magicians. But their body doesn't show any symptoms of carrying the fragment. It's like HIV sleeping inside the human body.

"I see. Are you a human? Or a mixed elf?" 

"I'm a pure human, young master."

"I see. So, what crime did you commit that dragged you here? Did you kill someone, perhaps you stole something really important?"

"I tried to steal some files from the duke's office but I got caught. It's been 50 years."

   Wow, the duke is really strict about punishing criminals.

"Will you exchange something for freedom?"

Viktor's words made the prisoner confused. So he asked what was the thing he needed from him.

"Your organ," Viktor answered.

Adonis came inside the cell after wiping the blood stain on his hand and said, "Master, what are you doing inside here?"

The human blood full of aura was so tasty that his original appearance became more appealing.

"Oh, I've found someone very interesting. Can you see it in his aura?"

Adonis looked at the man and said his body was leaking out silver aura from everywhere. He told Viktor that there was something really powerful hidden inside his body.

Viktor agreed to his words and told him to teleport both of them to his laboratory immediately. The prisoner became more confused.

   It's been a long time since I've found a powerful guardian fragment. The last fragment I found when I went on vacation 7 years ago. After the vacation, I collected more than 50 low fragments from so many natural sources. 

But I've never spotted a parasite fragment before. Not only that but a stronger one too!

Adonis took them inside Viktor's laboratory and he immediately cast cleaning and healing magic on that prisoner. Viktor was excited because this will be his first surgical experiment on a human.

"You should take off your clothes. I will guarantee your freedom after I take something out of your body."

But the prisoner was so scared to see Viktor taking out a small sharp knife from a box. So he put him to sleep and Adonis removed the dirty clothes from his body.

"Master. Is this human sick?"

"Yes."

"Then why can't you use holy magic to heal them?"

"You got a point. But some sicknesses need to be treated by surgical procedures. The healing magic works to point out the odd inside a body and fix it. What if the body doesn't count it as odd? When that happens, healing magic becomes useless."

"Is it related to blindness and healed holes or missing fingers that priests can't heal?"

"Precisely. If the body doesn't find it odd, healing magic won't work. The same case happened to this man."

He's a clever demon. But I didn't think that he'd caught straight up to the point. He's really the demon of destruction. 

Adonis was seeing everything what his master was doing. But he becomes too shocked to see Viktor putting his hand inside the chest so casually right beside the beating heart.

    I can feel where the roots of that parasite are. It's a meal lump-type parasite that keeps the human heart alive. I can't wait to take its seal as a crest on my body.

But the prisoner's situation became worse after Viktor touched the parasite inside his chest. So, he cast holy magic inside his body and the lump of meat came out easily.

The effect of Viktor's holy magic slowly closed all the wounds on his chest and the lump of meat stayed on his hand.

"This is a parasite that lived inside his ancestors bodies from generation to generation. And it's finally in my hands. Now it's time for the moment of truth."

The crest of record started to glow and the meat on his hand formed a link to connect all the information that was stored inside. The fragment was slowly entering Viktor's body with tons of information inside his head that showed more than thousands of years of memories of all the ancestor hosts. 

He witnessed countless births of babies, ancient knowledge, war, natural disasters, human emotions, and even the end of many talented human-like beings such as Teiko, Urahi, Half ghost, Alahika, Raimos and more. He witnessed how those human-like intelligent beings went extinct by one asteroid.

The ancient knowledge from the fragment created a whole new section of records inside his library of records in a second. So, he witnessed the end of the planet, the beginning after the planet's end, and the end of every beginning in ten seconds. 

He was left speechless.

"Master, are you alright?" Adonis was trying to shake his master back to his senses after he took over the guardian's fragment. He was worried to see his master staring at his empty hand.

"Master, is everything alright?"

"Oh, Adonis. Sorry, I spaced out a bit. But I'm not disappointed with the result."

   I thought it was a simple but powerful parasite fragment. But it turned out to be the fragment of the third eye guardian who had the basic ability to see through everything.

No wonder the creator killed him without any reason. Just like how I was killed mercilessly when I was only a 3 thousand years old baby guardian who just wandered around the flower field with my elder brother.

Hah! I guess I can count myself lucky to find this. This crest is really convenient.

The fragment formed into an eye tattoo and it appeared under Viktor's eyelids. So, Viktor found another useful crest after a long time.

The prisoner was finally free from the parasite. So, he became a normal human and finally, his body became dust. A normal human lives up to 70 to 80 years. But the prisoner passed the natural length for the parasite. After the parasite was removed, his body realized that it's been too long. So, it quickly became dry and turned into dust. 

He was finally free.

 Does that make me a scammer? I wanted to let him see the world one more time, but I guess death is better than being alive sometimes. I can relate.

"Master. Should I clean the dust?"

"Yes."

Viktor took off his black gloves and poured a glass of wine to calm his mind. And at that moment, his father came in.

"You're here just as I thought you would be."

"Hello, father. What are you doing here at this hour?"

"I received a letter from the crown prince. It says that you hurt his dear friend. She's demanding an apology from you."

   Bold of her to send a letter to my father. But, she will start to face tragedies tomorrow. The pink guy is already on the move.

Viktor smirked at his wine glass and said, "Don't worry father. One day, she'll be licking my shoes and begging for her life."

The night became a shiny day very quickly, but there was no news from the imperial knights who were ordered to escort Elena to Harvort's residence.

Instead, an invitation from the imperial temple came.

  I guess I should get going. That pink guy is waiting with a big surprise.