Chapter 167: Time Stop
Two eyes appeared in the darkness. Massive, glowing red eyes, far larger than anything Ash had ever encountered in his life. They stared directly at him, steady and unblinking, fully aware of his presence.
What... is this?
For the first time in a long while, Ash genuinely surprised seeing that.
But instead of fear tightening his chest, a slow smile formed on his lips, one that carried a strange sense of thrill.
"This is getting interesting. Is it an illusion? Or maybe some kind of projection?" he murmured, more to himself than anyone else.
Then, without any warning, everything around him froze. The entire space turned eerily silent, almost as if the world itself had taken a breath and refused to exhale.
The air grew unbearably heavy, the surrounding mana trembled in agitation, and every instinct inside his body screamed at him to prepare for something worse than death.
Only three meters remained between him and the heart.
And then it happened.
The heart began to pulse with a deeper, more violent rhythm, almost as if it had awoken completely—and time stopped.
What the...?