Chapter 299: Sin Beyond Measure
Chapter 299: Sin Beyond Measure
"Sh-shit," the words barely escaped Zaroth's mouth. He felt like he was on the verge of passing out.
His muscles tensed, trying to keep him in an upright position. His bones ached, his tendons felt like they were about to snap, a devastating headache assaulted his mind, and his entire body was drenched in sweat within mere seconds.
And all of this was because of the mysterious eye that appeared right above Eldros head.
'I understand why so many of the spectators in the fight left the arena in such a hurry… this must not be the first time this person has fought and used the eye,' Zaroth thought.
Whatever that eye was, Zaroth had to admit it was strong, so he asked the most knowledgeable person he knew. 'What's the deal with this eye, Luna? It just appeared above the man's head and the next moment I feel like I'm about to be crushed by some kind of invisible force.'
Luna was silent for a few seconds, most likely in thought. 'I can't say for sure, but one thing stands out—this thing is connected to divinity in some way.'
Zaroth clenched his jaw. 'Then does that mean I have to kill Eldros?'
'No,' Luna immediately replied. 'I want you to kill the gods, not everything with a spark of divinity. You can let this one be.'
Relief washed over Zaroth's body, knowing that he didn't have to battle Eldros. He might be confident he wouldn't lose, but it was going to be a tough battle—that was for sure.
The eye was devastating, to say the least, but Zaroth still wanted to see how Eldros fought. So he managed to force his eyes on the man and watched.
*****
As soon as the eye appeared above Eldros' head, he began to scan the surroundings. It didn't take him long to come to a simple conclusion:
"Sinners, sinners all around…" he muttered, his voice filled with regret and sadness.
When was the last time he had met somebody not affected by the Judgmental Gaze? He honestly struggled to remember a single instance.
Opening his mouth once again, Eldros spoke—this time with no trace of emotion in his voice. "If possible, I would have liked to not kill anyone… but I am left with no choice. For the crimes you have committed, I sentence you to death."
Before the men could understand what was happening to their bodies, Eldros was already before his first target, with his two curved greatswords in his hands.
Tensing his muscles to an unbelievable degree, he slashed horizontally, splitting the man in two. His torso fell to the ground lifelessly, while his legs continued to stand.
"You fuck!" the closest opponent to Eldros cursed at him as he swung his swords diagonally. At the same time, another, who had managed to recover some composure, attacked from the other side with a spear.
But neither understood why their movements felt so heavy—why their limbs were slow, why the air seemed too thick to breathe.
"Before the Judgmental Gaze, you are nothing but souls laid bare to see."
As soon as the words left Eldros's mouth, the two men that were charging at him dropped to the ground, dead. His swords had moved so fast, despite their giant size, that the men had died without even realizing it.
The eye shifted its pupil again, focusing on the next person. Eldros, as always, already knew where the eye was looking.
"So this is the next one for judgment, huh?" he exhaled, only to kill his next enemy a second later.
The few people who had remained to watch the fight had only a single thought in their minds: This wasn't a fight. This was a bloodbath.
Eldros' enemies stood no chance from the beginning. He was taller, faster, stronger, smarter, and more experienced than them. They weren't able to overcome that hurdle even with their numerical advantage.
And this was before factoring in the eye that Eldros had summoned above his head. With it, he was basically unbeatable.
Especially when he was up against people with sins as great as those before him.
Three minutes after the bloodbath began, it came to a halt. Eldros was the only man standing on his two feet. All the others had been killed cleanly with a single strike.
Wiping the blood off his two swords on one of the corpses on the ground, Eldros spoke, "Well, that is done. I shall call you when the time comes again."
He was addressing the eye—but for the first time in a long while, it seemed the eye wasn't listening to him. Instead, it was focused solely on one of the spectators of the fight.
That piqued Eldros' interest. Why was the eye looking solely at one person?
Wanting to make sure the eye was really locking onto a specific spot, Eldros gazed at it—only for his body to shiver.
The reason was that not only was the eye's pupil focused on one individual, but red lines had begun to appear on its surface. This was the first time Eldros had seen something like this—the eye, the Judgmental Gaze, was angry at someone.
'How is this possible?' Eldros asked himself as he focused on the person the eye was watching.
It looked like an ordinary bandit with goggles and a black mask hiding his features. The only things visible were the person's white hair and the empty popcorn bag in his hand.
'For the eye to get angry… what kind of sin could this person have committed?' Eldros asked himself. 'The eye has seen everything—lawbreakers, killers, rapists, mass murderers, scientists who performed human experiments… and yet it never showed anger until now.'
Eldros felt it in his bones. He had to kill this person. This one was dangerous.
But alas, he couldn't. He was nothing but a slave and couldn't go against his owner's orders.
With a face full of regret, he managed to convince the eye to disappear and left the arena's ring with a solemn expression.
As the eye vanished and Eldros exited, Zaroth felt the pressure lift. He could breathe freely once again, and his eyes sparkled as he gazed at the door Eldros had exited through.
He had found the slave he was going to buy.
*****
Back in his prison cell, Eldros sat on the ground.
The room he was positioned in was simple. He was the only one here. It smelled—who knew how many other slaves had used this place and for what.
But the worst thing was that it was dark—impossible to see anything at all, devoid of any kind of light. Enough to drive any person insane eventually.
It was a pitiful state to find himself in, sitting there in silence. He knew he shouldn't have ended up here—not like this. But deep down, he also knew it was no one's fault but his own. A failure of judgment, a moment of weakness. He had no right to complain… so he didn't.
An unknown amount of time passed for him before the door to the room finally opened once again.
For that, there could only be two reasons—either he was going to fight again, or food had arrived.
That was what he thought, until he heard the words of his owner.
"A potential buyer has come."