Chapter 429: More secrets (3)
— Frey Starlight’s Pov —
After night had fallen, I found myself standing there like a fool, facing the Engineer.
That damned man was still expanding the sect, building it larger and larger with every passing moment.
I had thought he would disappear the moment I woke up, but once again, he shattered my expectations.
Since the day I reincarnated as Frey Starlight, this was the longest time I had ever spent with that cursed Engineer.
Yet despite that, he didn’t pay me much attention. He simply continued to build the sect with some strange power I couldn’t begin to comprehend.
"What are you trying to create here?"
I asked without even thinking.
The Engineer, fully aware of my presence, answered calmly.
"It’s for the future."
The future...
Staring at his back, I realized then .. those blue eyes of his were playing some kind of game with me again.
Usually, it took going through hell itself just to get a single answer from him after endless suffering.
But here he was now, answering my questions out of nowhere.
Of course, there were still things he refused to answer. And even when he did, I couldn’t be sure whether what he told me was the truth.
After all, he could lie at any moment if it served his own interests.
Still, I decided to set my emotions aside for now and extract as much information from him as possible.
"Do you really know the future?"
That was a question that had haunted me for some time. I could never escape the Engineer’s grasp because of that cursed ability of his .. to predict everything I knew.
"That’s right," the Engineer confirmed.
"Is that why you showed parts of it to my sister Ada? And to others as well?"
The Engineer nodded again.
"That’s also true."
"Why are you doing this?"
"To create the future I desire."
"And what kind of future is that?"
"I won’t answer."
Another dead end.
I sat down on the ground, lost in thought, searching for the right question to ask next.
Then, after a brief silence, I simply voiced the question that had been weighing on my mind.
"What am I to you? Am I just a vessel for the king you serve? Is that your goal? To resurrect your so-called king?"
Upon hearing that, the Engineer turned his head slightly, locking eyes with me for a second ... then turned away .
"I won’t answer."
Another roadblock.
Frustration welled up inside me, but I knew. I knew I couldn’t force him to reveal anything he didn’t want to.
The Engineer was a cunning being who never did anything unless it served his own selfish goals.
His appearance before me now, allowing me to ask these questions, was probably part of his preparation for some future event.
He knew I wouldn’t be able to resist the chance to clear away some of the mystery surrounding him .. and he was using that against me, as always.
So I decided to use him in return, as much as I could.
"You said before that saving Danzo has many possible answers. What did you mean by that?"
I shifted the conversation back to my friend, who was still on the verge of death. He was the reason I had come here in the first place.
This time, the Engineer gave me an answer.
"A complete Devil Seed is like a cursed object that fuses with its host’s body. To deal with something like that, you’ll need abilities far beyond human comprehension .. something that can be obtained from several sources."
I already knew that much.
"It’s for those very abilities that I was planning to leave this planet. Humans simply aren’t capable of reaching them."
As I stared at his back, something clicked in my mind.
"You’re not going to let me leave, are you?"
"That’s right," he answered calmly.
My expression darkened.
So that’s why he was here.
In that moment, I remembered the obstacle the system’s direct advice always warned me about.
Perhaps this time, the obstacle... was the Engineer himself.
He turned to face me once more.
"There’s no need for you to leave. The knowledge you seek is already within your grasp."
I knew exactly what he meant by that.
I slowly extended my hand, and a black metallic mask appeared in my palm.
The Nameless Mask, its hollow eye sockets staring back at me like the eyes of a hawk.
"What kind of trick are you trying to pull now?"
I had avoided putting on this mask, partly out of fear of the will that once took control of me..
And partly because I was unable to comprehend what lay inside it.
I still remembered what happened when I wore it in Londor .. the flood of information that tore through my mind at that time.
Knowledge as vast as the universe itself.
I would’ve died right then if he hadn’t stepped in and forcibly removed the mask from me.
But he simply shook his head.
"You won’t suffer any harm if you put it on now. Your body has already adapted to it. Though... how much knowledge you gain from it will depend entirely on you."
"What the hell do you mean? Explain yourself, damn it!"
I asked again, impatience creeping into my voice, still uneasy about the Nameless Mask.
This time, the Engineer continued, satisfying my curiosity for once.
"Shadow Adaptation."
He spoke the name of my strongest ability, shedding light on something I hadn’t even thought to ask about until now.
I wanted to question him about the origin of that overwhelming power, but he began speaking on his own, leaving no room for interruption.
"In this vast universe, there are countless mysterious laws that bind it .. laws like causality, inevitability , life and death, chaos... and many more. You won’t even perceive their existence until you reach a certain level of power and understanding. But there are special abilities that transcend those laws. These are the powers that break the world’s fundamental laws."
Continuing his explanation, the Engineer delved deeper.
"Abilities like my foresight. The future I see is absolute, inevitable. That is inevitability. Then there are other abilities, like one possessed by your friend... the Last Survivor."
"That one reshapes the causes and effects of reality itself, creating sharp turning points that ensure his survival no matter what. That is causality. Abilities of this caliber do not simply appear out of nowhere. They are either inherited, bestowed, or created by the individual."
Listening to him, I felt my mind expanding involuntarily.
Of course, I already knew about the existence of such laws, though my understanding of them was still vague—this realm of power was far beyond anything I could fully grasp.
And as for Dawn’s ability, I was aware of it as well. I had written about it once before.
It had been given to him by ..
In that moment, just as I was about to speak the name...
A sharp wave of pain shot through my skull, forcing me to clutch my head in agony as my eyes widened in shock.
’Who gave that power to Dawn?’
I questioned myself, unable to recall the answer no matter how hard I tried.
I knew I had known it.
I was certain I knew it just seconds ago... but now, no matter how much I searched my mind, I couldn’t find it—and the harder I tried, the worse the pain became.
"What the hell is happening?!"
I screamed unconsciously as the migraine tore through my mind. I felt as though I was just a breath away from seeing that being’s face, whoever they were .. but every time I got closer to remembering, a strange fog blanketed the image, hiding their features behind a mysterious smile.
"Forget it," the Engineer spoke, his voice low, an uncharacteristic fear in his tone. "That’s one of his powers. When you forget him, you’ll remember. And when you try to remember, you’ll forget. A filthy creature, as always."
He spoke of someone.
Someone terrifying enough to unsettle even him.
But it wasn’t Agaroth.
I knew the abilities of the Demon King all too well.
Even though he possessed more law-breaking abilities than anyone else, this wasn’t one of them.
And that drove me to ask:
"Who is this being?"
Who gave Dawn the Last Survivor?
At that moment, the Engineer’s eyes lit up, and he opened his mouth once more.
"I won’t answer."
With those words, I realized that the fog surrounding that person’s face would remain for a long, long time.