Chapter 690: Noticed Him

Clyde had only one thing occupying his mind, which was the symbols and the strange energy that kept pulling him deeper into them.

His mind no longer felt entirely his own. The otherworldly power surrounding him seeped into his consciousness, distorting his perception, narrowing his thoughts, until almost everything else faded into irrelevance.

Even the existence of his own body had become distant and insignificant. Only the symbols clear in his mind, along with the incomprehensible presence waiting beyond them.

He knew that the symbols represented a bridge. He couldn’t explain how he knew but the certainty was absolute.

They were not just symbols meant to activate a spell or open a passage between two places. They were the foundation of a connection, a bridge stretching from his world toward something that existed beyond its boundaries.

But what lay beyond that bridge was still shrouded in mystery.

Clyde could sense it, or perhaps he could only sense the emptiness where something should have been.

His thoughts reached toward that unknown destination, but every attempt to comprehend it ended in confusion. It was like trying to see through an endless fog, knowing that something waited on the other side without being able to distinguish its shape.

The harder he tried to understand it, the more his mind struggled, and the more his mind struggled, the stronger his desire to continue became.

Something was drawing him toward the other side. Whatever the cause, he could not stop. He needed to know what existed beyond the bridge.

So he continued.

The incantation flowed from his lips in a low, unfamiliar murmur. Each syllable felt heavier. He stumbled occasionally, his tongue struggling to reproduce the sounds Seff had taught him, but the moment he faltered, her voice returned inside his mind.

Again. You missed the third sound. Start from the beginning.

Clyde obeyed.

"Ng’ah thu’vak... kwo’rath en’kai..."

No. Your rhythm is wrong. Don’t force the words. Let them follow one another.

The words echoed through his mind, overlapping with his own murmuring. Every repetition brought a subtle change to the symbols beneath him.

The blood seemed darker than before, the strange marks shifted whenever his attention wandered across them. Their shapes remained the same yet also different, as if they were responding to him. Or maybe they were responding to something that had begun to notice the connection.

Clyde continued reciting the incantation, his voice growing steadier as the unfamiliar rhythm settled into his memory.

Something happened. The fog beyond the bridge stirred. For the first time, something emerged from that obscurity.

He saw an eye.

No, not an entire eye. Only a fragment of an eye.

Clyde couldn’t determine its size or shape or its outline through the endless fog, yet the glimpse was enough to make his thoughts falter. Something vast had moved on the other side of the bridge, revealing a sliver of its gaze.

The visible portion resembled a pupil surrounded by an irregular ring. Its surface seemed to contain layers upon layers of darkness. Flecks of pale light drifted within it like distant stars suspended in a bottomless abyss.

He felt it looking at him.

A cold sensation swept through his consciousness, so profound that for an instant, he forgot the incantation entirely.

His thoughts scattered.

Something on the other side had noticed him. The realization struck him and shocked his mind.

Clyde had spent so long searching for traces of the Ancient One again after his resurrection, following fragments of memories and rumors that led nowhere.

Seff had offered him a glimpse of a hidden dimension, a place that had energy belonging to no known God, Angel, or Demon. He had expected answers, or at least a clue that might guide him closer to the truth.

He had not expected to attract the attention of something this great and unknown that might be watching from beyond the boundaries of his world.

Suddenly, Clyde felt the eye move. It was a movement so subtle that Clyde might have mistaken it for an illusion if not for the sudden pressure crushing his consciousness.

The fog rippled outward and the symbols beneath him resonated with a force that made his soul tremble.

For a fraction of a second, Clyde felt as though the entity had turned its attention toward him with greater precision, moving its gaze from the bridge itself to the tiny presence standing at its entrance, which was him.

His instincts screamed at him to stop. The rational part of his mind warned him that continuing the ritual could be a mistake.

He didn’t know what the entity was, whether it was hostile, or whether it even cared.

He had no idea what would happen if the connection became stronger.

But beneath that fear, something else stirred, a desperate, almost painful yearning to understand.

He had been brought back from death by the Ancient One’s power. He spent his second life gathering strength and searching for answers, knowing that the beings who destroyed him before would eventually have to face him again.

If the presence beyond the bridge was connected to that power, then this might be the closest he had ever come to discovering the truth about the Ancient One. He couldn’t afford to turn away now.

Again. Seff’s voice whispered inside his mind, faint but insistent. Continue the incantation. Don’t lose the rhythm.

Her voice sounded different this time. Beneath her usual composure, he sensed an uneasiness. Perhaps she had felt the presence as well.

Clyde swallowed and forced his attention back toward the symbols. His lips began moving again, slowly at first, then with increasing steadiness as he repeated the ancient words.

"Ng’ah thu’vak... kwo’rath en’kai... vhul na’eth, shaa’koth..."

The connection responded.

The symbols glimmered faintly beneath the blood, and the fog beyond the bridge began to move once more.

The fragment of the eye remained visible, its gaze fixed upon him with an incomprehensible stillness.

Clyde continued reciting the incantation.

He had reached out into the unknown, and something had finally looked back.

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