Chapter 705: Devil’s Eye (2)

Third Person’s POV

If he continued pouring in more mana, the sphere would undoubtedly reach its limit.

The thought sent a chill through him.

Given the amount of energy already compressed within the sphere, its collapse would not be a simple loss of control.

The accumulated power could erupt in a violent explosion, obliterating his entire hand despite the exceptional toughness of his body.

Ethan’s gaze sharpened as he quickly reconsidered his options.

He had reached the limit of what he could safely achieve by merely increasing the amount of mana.

If he wanted to take the spell any further, he would have to focus on the other aspect of its construction, i.e., the underlying principle of twisting governing it.

Without adding more mana, he redirected his attention inward and concentrated on the twisting currents already contained within the sphere.

His soul power continued to guide them, but rather than trying to increase their number or force more energy into the structure, he focused on understanding their movements and refining the principles that governed them.

His crimson eyes gazed into the murky sphere, and for the first time, he seemed to perceive something beyond the dark surface.

Deep within the swirling mana, countless currents twisted and rotated through space according to a strange, unnatural principle.

They did not merely circulate around a central point as ordinary vortices would.

Instead, their movements appeared to follow an intricate pattern in which each stream influenced the others, forcing the surrounding mana to bend and coil along paths that seemed to defy the ordinary laws governing its movement.

The longer Ethan observed them, the more deeply his attention sank into their depths.

Gradually, the distinction between observing the sphere and comprehending the twisting principle behind it began to blur.

His soul seemed to follow the currents into the depths of the swirling darkness, tracing their paths as though he were attempting to understand an unfamiliar structure hidden within an endless abyss.

Then, a strange sense of dissonance suddenly emerged in his perception.

At the very center of the swirling darkness, the turbulent currents seemed to converge into a single point.

The space surrounding it appeared to bend inward, creating the illusion of a dark hole suspended within the sphere.

It resembled the pupil of a devil staring at him from the depths of an unfathomable abyss, silent and motionless despite the countless currents twisting around it.

For a fleeting moment, Ethan felt as though that dark pupil were looking directly back at him.

Yet the other half of his consciousness remained sober, allowing him to continue observing the structure without being entirely consumed by the strange sensation.

Through that clearer perception, he noticed another detail that had previously escaped his attention.

Faint grayish light had begun to emerge around the dark center.

Thin, curved spokes of light extended outward from the central point, their shapes following the same unnatural patterns as the twisting currents.

They were barely visible against the dark mana, but as Ethan concentrated more deeply, their arrangement gradually became clearer, revealing a structure that surrounded the central void like an intricate web.

He stared at the sphere, his expression slowly changing as the pieces began to fall into place.

The dark center resembled the pupil of an eye, while the swirling mana surrounding it formed something strikingly similar to a human iris.

The faint grayish spokes, meanwhile, appeared to constitute the force field that maintained the structure around that terrifying central point.

It was an extraordinary sight, and the more Ethan understood what he was seeing, the more astonished he became.

The twisting principle had not simply compressed the dark mana into a denser mass.

Under his control, the currents had formed a rudimentary structure that appeared to distort the surrounding space, creating something resembling an extremely miniature and primitive black hole.

The grayish curved spokes served as the surrounding force field, holding the structure together while containing the immense energy concentrated within it.

Although the sphere was still far from a complete manifestation of such a phenomenon, the underlying principle was already apparent to him.

And once he understood the structure, Ethan finally realized what he had been attempting to create.

His pupils contracted as a wave of disbelief washed over him.

He had conceived the spell during his state of enlightenment, but until this moment, he had never fully understood just how terrifying its completed form could be.

He had been so focused on controlling the mana and preventing the sphere from collapsing that he had overlooked the true destructive potential of the structure he was forming.

If even this rudimentary version possessed such a dangerous foundation, then the power it could unleash once fully developed would be difficult to imagine.

A name suddenly surfaced in his mind, arriving so naturally that he barely had time to question where it had come from.

’Devil’s Eye...’

The instant Ethan settled on the name, his perception of the spell shifted for a brief moment, as though the scattered pieces of his understanding had finally aligned into a more complete picture.

The dark sphere remained suspended in his hand, its swirling currents continuing to follow the principles of the Aspect of Twisting, but Ethan could no longer see it as a mere accumulation of compressed dark mana.

He was looking at the rudimentary form of Devil’s Eye.

The moment he named it, something seemed to awaken in his understanding.

At the same time, the dull blade in Ethan’s hand suddenly began to emit a faint glow.

The light was dim at first, barely illuminating the surface of the seemingly ordinary weapon, but it quickly grew more noticeable as strange fluctuations spread through the blade.

Before Ethan could determine what was happening, a dark maw suddenly emerged from the hilt, revealing rows of sharp white teeth that looked as though they belonged to some sinister creature lurking in the depths of an abyss.

Ethan’s eyes widened in surprise.

The next instant, the dark mass of the swirling destruction hovering above his palm was abruptly pulled toward the gaping maw and swallowed whole without a peep, as if such a terrifying spell manifestation had never existed in the first place.