NOVEL WEB Chapter 99: Prying Eyes
Adam's body moved before his mind could catch up.
CLANG!
Steel met steel as he brought up his blade, an ordinary iron longsword, just in time to block the sudden attack.
The impact rattled through his bones, the vibration biting into his muscles as both he and Cael slid across the thick, wet earth of the swamp.
Muck splattered up from the ground as their boots tore into it.
Adam gritted his teeth, arms tensed as he steadied himself.
"What the hell are you doing?"
He snapped, voice cold and edged with quiet, dangerous clarity.
Behind him, Xel'Shaar, crouched, as though ready to launch himself towards Cael who had attacked his Lord.
But before he could pounce, Adam raised his left arm with an open palm held out.
"Don't."
Xel'Shaar stopped instantly.
Cael didn't respond.
His breath hitched as he raised his broadsword again.
Hands trembling, but hiding it behind movement.
With a low grunt, flames burst from the muddy ground beneath his boots, propelling him forward in a zigzag pattern.
His body blurred for a moment, dashing side to side in extremely fast movement as the swamp hissed under the heat.
He wasn't slow.
The fire-enhanced mobility made his movements unpredictable...
Moving from left to right in a blur, coming in fast.
But Adam didn't flinch.
He could definitely kill Cael in one ago, but he couldn't just do that without finding the reason for the sudden attack...
He remained grounded, holding nothing but a standard-issue sword, slightly afraid that he wouldn't be able to control his strength and accidentally kill Cael.
He pivoted low, dragging the flat of the blade across the wet ground before swinging upward in a sharp arc, meeting Cael's blade mid-strike.
CLANG!
Again, sparks flew. Adam's blade groaned from the force, but held.
'He's fast… but his swings are hesitant and unfocused.'
Adam's eyes narrowed.
Cael disengaged, flipping backward and landing in a crouch.
But Adam had already noticed something odd.
His eyes...
For the briefest second...
Hidden beneath the fury and panic, Cael had looked directly at him with wide, desperate eyes...
Help me.
Something was wrong with Cael!
Adam's stance immediately halted.
His breath slowed as he lowered his sword slightly, no longer focused solely on the clash of blades.
He activated the [Authority of Disconnection].
At once, his perception expanded...
Warping the world into a network of invisible threads.
Threads that wove through Cael's body, outlining his presence in shimmering lines of pale gold and red crimson.
Each string glowed faintly with meaning...
With Adam's authority, he understood the importance of each string.
One was tied to memory, another attached with emotional energy, and others drifting like loose strands, unanchored and frayed.
Then he saw it...
A string that did not belong!
It stretched out from Cael's chest, taut and unnatural...
Stretching toward some distant point in space.
It shone faintly, like oil on water... unnerving and alien.
Adam narrowed his eyes, focusing his gaze along the thread, following its trajectory.
And there, at the far edge of perception—
He saw them.
A pair of dark blue eyes...
Detached and curious as they watched Cael.
The eyes narrowed.
Then, suddenly, they shifted.
Their gaze adjusted.... locking onto Adam!
A cold wave rushed through Adam's spine.
Every hair on his body rose as he felt a pressure pressing into him... Not physically, but deeper, more invasive.
As if someone were peeling open his thoughts, dissecting his soul!
His body clenched instinctively.
The Eyes had noticed Adam's prying!
Adam gritted his teeth and immediately severed his own end of the connection, slicing through the probing thread with [Authority of Disconnection].
The sensation vanished at once, like slamming a door in the face of a silent intruder!
But the other thread, the one linking Cael to those eyes, remained intact!
Adam's fingers twitched.
He raised his hand again, pinching two fingers together as he aimed at the tether.
'Cut it…'
He focused, pouring intent into the Authority, trying to cleave it clean...
But it resisted!
The thread tensed, flickering with dark energy.
It felt like trying to snap a steel cable... reinforced, protected by something beyond his understanding!
In the real world, Cael moved again.
Flames erupted beneath his boots as he launched forward with another frenzied dash, his broadsword screaming through the air.
But this time—
CLANG!
A massive shield intercepted the attack with a thunderous crack.
Kristoff stood firm, braced behind his tower shield, the sheer force of Cael's strike reverberating through his arm.
With a grunt, Kristoff shoved forward, sending Cael stumbling back through the mud.
"You psycho..."
He growled, stepping between them.
"What the hell are you doing…"
His eyes scanned Cael's disheveled looks... Face pale, eyes wide, the flames around him sputtering like a candle in the wind.
Kristoff didn't lower his shield.
"Are you trying to die, or just lose your damn mind?"
Cael said nothing.
He stood hunched, shoulders twitching, fists clenched as if trying to hold himself together.
Not bothering to defend himself in the real world knowing his teammates were there, Adam gritted his teeth.
His jaw locked, and the veins along his neck tensed.
'Disconnection...'
The thought echoed through him like a mantra.
'I have to embody disconnection...'
He stared at the thread linking Cael to the distant presence.
It pulsed with dark light, like a parasite embedded in a vein...
Still resistant and still refusing to be severed...
Adam inhaled sharply... and memories flooded in.
Memories of a different life...
A different timeline...
Adam drew in a sharp breath—
And then the memories came...
A life that didn't belong to this world.
Laughter crackling around a bonfire...
The warmth of familiar voices...
The sight of his siblings...
But that world was gone.
Burned into ash by time itself...
And this world… this world was just a reflection.
They looked the same here.
Spoke the same.
Smiled the same.
But they weren't the same.
Not to him...
Adam felt it every time he remembered them..
Like trying to hold onto smoke.
The connection he once had with them was severed.
Rewritten and forgotten by the world, but not by him.
He didn't belong here...
They didn't exist here...
He was alone in a timeline that had moved on without him.
And no matter how many times he told himself these versions were still his family and friends…
He knew they weren't.
Not truly.
He was a shard from another life... one that shouldn't have survived.
And maybe that was what disconnection really was.
Not just distance... Not just loss...
But being the only one who remembers what's already been erased.
Of course, there were still pieces of him that didn't want to let go.
Parts that longed to believe they could be the same again.
But that hope hurt more than the truth ever could.
The ache in his chest swelled. Pressed inward. Hollowed him out.
But this time, he didn't resist.
He embraced it—
The emptiness, the dissonance, the isolation...
All the broken fragments he carried from lives that no longer existed.
This was what it meant to be disconnected.
The thread sparked.
Then—
SNAP.
The connection between Cael and the watching eyes broke... cut clean, like a guillotine through silk.
The string dissolved into smoke.
Cael's body jolted.
A gasp escaped his lips, and his knees buckled as if the weight of the world had just been ripped off his shoulders.
He staggered, caught himself, and slowly raised his eyes.
For the first time since the fight began, he looked... aware.
And a bit confused...
Cael blinked.
"Huh?"
Adam lowered his hand.