"Two months? Are you serious?!"
Rey's eyes were wide open as he heard those words from Ater. He had expected a few days—perhaps one or two weeks tops—but this new revelation was a complete subversion of his expectations.
"Well, two months and about three weeks, but yes…" Ater added, a strained smile planted on his face.
The seated boy's eyes turned even more bloodshot as his Familiar added more fuel to the fire.
'That means I've spent over six months in H'Trae, and… wait, that's not the most important thing right now!'
He didn't have a sense of urgency before, since he wanted to take his time to fully unpack and process everything that had happened to him, but now?
Now he could feel his heart racing like crazy.
Jumping to his feet in an instant, he didn't waste any time before activating all of his Passive Skills in order to gear up for what would come next.
The moment he did so, though—
"A-ah…"
—Everything around and about him changed forever.
At first, it felt like something was surging through his body, like currents of electricity, fused into his very being. He soon found those to be the cells within his body.
He was connected to every last one.
His mind expanded beyond what he previously perceived as normal, and he was perfectly with sync with every facet of his body.
Not only did he feel much stronger than before, but his perspective on everything within and without was completely altered.
Rey could see the world from a 360 degrees angle, having complete awareness of his surroundings—and this was without his Domain Skill activated.
He felt everything—from the tension of the air, to the particles that floated around him. Every detail in the room was burned into his memory and perfectly registered, and he processed everything within a tiny fraction of a moment.
The further away things were, the less details he had of them, but everything within the room was completely assimilated into his mind.
It felt like a whole stream of knowledge was imparted into him, and that was only the beginning.
'These particles in the air… they're Mana?'
He could not only detect every strand of Mana, as if they were visible elements of reality, but he could also detect their flow, trajectory, and origin.
Even when he closed his eyes, he perceived a completely different world—one where there was blackness, but the outline of everything around him still remained. He could perfectly sense things, but it felt different.
It wasn't worse… just different.
The difference between his two senses were like night and day—sort of like infrared and normal vision. The contrast that they both offered gave him a new and different perspective of the room around him.
'I should get used to them somehow…'
"Master… if I may speak, could you perhaps be in need of something like this?" Upon hearing Ater's voice, Rey raised his head.
He realized he was holding onto his forehead while constantly narrowing his gaze—as if trying to find a balance between both aspects of his senses.
Upon looking at Ater, however, he was presented with a solution.
'T-that is…!' Rey's eyes slightly spasmed as he looked at the item that Ater gracefully presented to him.
It was an eyepatch—a well-made one at that.
The eyepatch was jet black in color, but what was strange about this item was the way its color remained constant in Rey's confused eyes.
Anytime he blinked, the colors around would contrast and clash, driving his senses into a constant state of confusion. The reason was due to the contrasting nature of both kinds of senses, and also due to his inexperience in managing them.
Having everything all at once wasn't particularly ideal for him, and he found it difficult to strike a balance.
But, out of everything around, the eyepatch was the only thing that had a constant color.
"What is that?" Rey asked, slightly wincing as he grabbed the item.
"Something I happened to find somewhere. It has no Mana at all, and it's made of a completely different material from what you should be able to see through."
According to Ater, the eyepatch would block one eye from being able to see through anything, which would render it into a constant state of the no-sight sense.
His open eyes would then take on the present-sight sense.
"Master can augment his body so he doesn't need to blink in his right or left eye. As for your other eye, you can use this eyepatch to cover it, so it constantly remains in dark mode."
"Dark mode, huh? I see what you did there…" Rey muttered as he stared at the eyepatch again.
Dark Mode and Light Mode—referring to when he shut his eyes and when he opened them respectively—would coexist at the same time, according to what Ater proposed.
"But wouldn't that make things worse? They'll clash, won't they?"
"Why don't you try it out first?" Ater said with a knowing smile, almost as if he wanted to surprise Rey.
Ignoring his surprise at the fact that Ater knew about the specifics of his Skills and how they affected him, Rey decided to trust his Familiar.
So… he wore the eyepatch.
"W-whoah…!"
Much to his surprise, the clashing problem was gone. Not only could he see the world in Dark Mode, but strangely enough, he could also see it in Light Mode.
It was a perfect blend between the two.
It made no sense to Rey, so he looked at his Familiar for an explanation.
"You're still very inexperienced when it comes to adjusting your Divine Senses to this world, so the best thing is to mitigate the effects of both by allowing them to overlap."
As a result, Rey's sight had returned to what would be deemed 'normal' for the most part.
"You can take your time to slowly acclimate to this state of things. Then, at moments, you can alternate between Light and Dark Mode by shutting off your vision or ensuring both your eyes do not need to blink."
Once again, the level of detail by which Ater spoke showed some expertise in the matter.
"How do you know so much?"
"Pardon my impudence, Master. But, I genuinely do not remember." Ater replied. "I must have had the experience in a previous world."
"Eh?" Rey slightly tensed his gaze on Ater as he heard this explanation.
It did seem a little odd, but after recognizing all that he had done to explain and even solve Rey's ailment, it made no sense for Ater to be lying.
Plus, they were connected by the Soul, so there was no doubt about how genuine he was being.
"Alright. I believe you." He sighed, shrugging a little as he smiled. "There's a bunch of stuff I don't understand and I would like to know, but let's take it one step at a time."
"Thank you, Master." Ater bowed his head even lower.
After shaking his head a little, heaving a little sigh, he walked past Ater and tapped his shoulder.
"Enough with that. I really should get down to business."
His dark hair swayed ever so slightly as clothing began to appear all over his body. He instantly donned a long dark coat, with a black attire and matching trousers. His shoes were of the same color, perfectly blending well with his dark hair while contracting his slightly paler skin.
His outfit had traces of red lined around them, however, and this intricate design made both dominant colors pop out.
"Where do we start?"
"Well… I left a certain friend behind in a particular Dungeon for nearly three months…" Rey said as he turned back to see Ater smiling at him.
"Let's hope she doesn't skin me alive for the delay."
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Thanks for reading!
Well, at the very least he remembers Esme. I wonder if you've all noticed anything strange about Rey yet…
