Read Novel Full Chapter 203: Puppeted Master Vale
Chapter 203: Puppeted Master Vale
’What the...’
In all of Mias’s years, he’d never seen something so monstrous. So horrific.
It took a lot to scare the Reaper, but whatever that thing was, it was doing it.
Far off in the distance, looming over the ashy knolls and shrouded by dust storms, an abomination crawled across the land at a slow pace, its body as wide as the gorge.
If it stood up, its head would no doubt breach the clouds.
An amalgamation of multiple human and bestial limbs compressed and tied together into a carapace upon its back.
Its liquid black head took the shape of a star-nosed mole, while a multitude of black tendrils writhed from beneath the shell, dragging it along and displacing mountains of ash.
It didn’t just look dangerous.
Mias was spared from the full brunt of its presence by the weird force containing the Lost Expanse, but he could easily tell a fallacy he’d committed...
’Hope and Despair.’
The beast way off in the distance, shrouded by the ashen haze, was as strong as those two.
Mias had told Vale they’d know if one of those two were on Pandora because they’d disrupt the world’s balance.
’I was wrong.’
If they were here, they’d fit right in.
Mias didn’t know if it had noticed him, but he didn’t dare to find out.
***
Vale picked up where he left off before he got distracted by [Stay Safe] and, subsequently, by Akkuron showing up.
He was by no means calm or at peace with his situation, though it wasn’t as if he could do much at the moment.
First and foremost, he spent his time looking over the Items he hadn’t. Plus the rest of the [Dawn’s Eye].
[Dawn’s Eye] - [Immutable, unchangeable, death saves corruption.]
[Dawn’s Eye] - [Incinerated by fire, he patiently waits.]
[Dawn’s Eye] - [Scorn for the girl whose fault had made him forget the light of day]
[Dawn’s Eye] - [And when it smolders, it awakes]
[Dawn’s Eye] - [Audit the flame and resume temperance.]
[Dawn’s Eye] - [Pray the net is strong enough to hold back Despair.]
[Dawn’s Eye] - [A man’s will forged by fate.]
[Dawn’s Eye] - [Weave the web of silk and strand.]
[Dawn’s Eye] - [Still, your path leads to defeat.]
Vale, as he read through the descriptions, found little sense to be made; however, some lines were starting to draw parallels and intersections.
A web or net had been mentioned. Despair had been mentioned again.
’Is "he" also Despair?’
Vale continued to read through the descriptions of each Dawn’s Eye until he happened upon one that stole his entire train of thought.
[Dawn’s Eye] - [It’s your choice, Valentin.]
’That’s...’
It was directed to him.
It had to be.
There’s no way another Valentin would see this.
’But how?!’
’Why?!’
He’d been mightily curious before about finding out the secret of the Dawn’s Eye, but now it seemed more like a necessity.
Who’d made the Item? How was it made?
Who’s Dawn? Or is it dawn as in time of day?
Is this spider real? Where are the rest of the Dawn’s Eye?
’And why? Why is my name in the damned description?!’
Vale gripped his head as he rested on the Wingback Chair.
Greed gave him a confused look, studying his consternation for only a moment, then went back to reading a book she’d summoned.
Vale was so shellshocked, he turned to the brazen woman for help.
"Greed?"
"Yes?"
Vale held up the orb.
"Care to look at this?"
Greed’s eyes widened.
’So, you can see it without the glasses.’
Vale would question her about it, but it was the last thing on his mind at the moment.
Greed shoved her book into her subspace and sat up, crumbs falling from her chest.
"Oh my..." A dark smile crept on her face. "Someone has plans for you."
Vale was frozen as Greed took the orb from his hand and glanced at the one in the ceiling.
Vale muttered:
"What...? Huh?"
Greed laughed lightly, then said:
"Item descriptions are not random by any means. They are created by the engineer, enchanter, and/or the Item itself. They usually detail the process of creation — the story behind the Item. But if the crafter is skilled and so wishes it... they can make the description whatever they want."
Greed sat down with a plastic smile on her face.
"It is no mere coincidence this ended up in your hands."
Greed tossed the orb in the air, then snatched it.
"Someone orchestrated it. That someone most likely Sloth."
Greed chuckled as she tossed the orb back to the baffled Vale.
Vale absentmindedly caught it, then thought to himself:
’The mysterious oracle or Sloth.’
One of the two had meant for him to not only receive multiple [Dawn’s Eye], but also for him to read their descriptions.
’But why?!’
What was the point?
Vale sighed deeply.
He knew that if either of them were involved, whatever they wanted from him most definitely wasn’t following a path of sunshine and rainbows.
’Wait a second...’
Vale’s face paled as he thought back to the description.
’It’s your choice, Valentin.’
It sounded eerily similar to something in the prophecy Sloth had given him in the initial gathering.
’You must follow the destined Strait. Whether to life or death, your choice to make.’
The prophecy...
It wasn’t something he’d ignored, but he thought it was something that would only matter later.
Vale recalled the words, which seemed ingrained in his memory. As if even if he wanted to forget, he wouldn’t be allowed.
’Call upon the dawn of time.’
Dawn. There was a mention of dawn.
Would that mean [Dawn’s Eye] is in relation to time?
’The eye of time’s dawn?’
It didn’t make much sense.
Not that there was much sense to be made.
Then there was the part about Wrath.
’Where Wrath slings fire.’
And the line that followed.
’And Patience waits.’
Two more lines that seemed reflected in the Dawn’s Eye descriptions.
Vale’s head lowered as he fell further into contemplation, seeking the implications.
Maybe this would be important only in the future, but if he could understand it now, there was no reason not to.
Though he tried as he might, he failed to draw a bottom line; other than Sloth probably being the culprit.
Greed cracked her knuckles and neck before sitting back down on the couch.
"Seems like I wasn’t wrong to keep an eye on you. If Sloth is interested in you, that means you’ll do great things."
Vale spoke evenly, too shocked to add any sort of inflection.
"While I’d love to be happy. I doubt those great things are all that great for me."
Greed’s smile widened as her glare tightened.
"You really are a sharp one, Lust."
***
A few hours passed, and Vale had gone back to reading the rest of his Items descriptions and Enchantments.
’Seriously! What is going on?!’
Vale looked at Calumma’s spear in his hand.
[Iron plea] - [ Lust, when a tide of blood surges in a sea of iron, you must save Envy.]
Simple, yet so loaded.
’And so, so damn confusing!’
He’d gotten the spear so long ago, and this entire time that’s what the ’plea’ meant?!
’Is my life mine to live anymore?’
Or were these oracles just puppeteering him?
At this point, Vale was starting to doubt his own mind and will.
Had every choice he’d made been truly his? Or were they choices of another?
Vale had thought he only had Lust to worry about invading his mind, but now he had Sloth and a mystery seer as well.
It was frustrating.
Everything was so frustrating.
His life would be much simpler if it amounted to fighting the beasts in front of him, not those in his own head.
’What about Greed?’
There was no way that if Sloth was messing with his life, she hadn’t invaded Greed’s — or the other Vice, for that matter.
’Even if Sloth did...’
How would Greed be able to handle it any differently than him?
Vale didn’t know much about Greed’s circumstances or her time before he’d been summoned, but if Sloth was a major presence then as she is now...
’Are all of the Vice Sloth’s minions?’
That didn’t seem to be the case, but at the very least, they were being guided by her will.
Mias had explained the stings of fate to Vale before, and from that, he learned that an oracle’s job is to guide a future toward their intended conclusion.
If Vale had indeed surmised correctly, then he was somehow integral to Sloth’s or the other oracle’s future. Possibly both.
’Or maybe even the opposite.’
Vale’s existence may be a throwaway one in the grand scheme.
’But if it is...’
Vale didn’t know what the hell to do.
If that situation arose, there was only one man to look to.
The man who claimed to be able to fight fate better than any other.
’Reaper of Knowledge.’
It was time for the scholar to cook up one dastardly scheme.
A scheme so large it would shake the heavens.
Perhaps even bring them down.