Chapter 85: Easily Handled
This ’antique’ shop looked anything but professional. Lloyd found no trace of an Orbit inside, nor did he see anyone.
He reined in his inspiration, preparing to activate [Twisted Realm] at a moment’s notice, and slowly walked inside.
Inside were various tools for carving and processing. Raw materials like clay and wooden blocks were piled in a corner. Against one wall stood a display case containing a few artificially aged ’antiques.’ They were all just dilapidated pots and jars, likely samples.
Even more numerous were the half-finished products scattered carelessly on the floor. Lloyd gave them a passing glance. Some were clay sculptures, some were wood carvings, and they all seemed to share a common theme: human faces with exaggerated expressions and abstract features, possessing a very postmodern art vibe.
However, none of them were carved into a complete face. Some were missing eyeballs, leaving only a blank, numb surface. Others lacked a forehead or mouth, featuring only a pair of wide, staring eyes that gave off an indescribably eerie feeling.
’Looking at things like this for too long will lower your aesthetic standards...’
Lloyd shook his head and looked away.
He looked around but didn’t find anything particularly conspicuous. Just as he was debating whether to activate his Spiritual Vision for a second look, the kitten on his head suddenly meowed twice.
"MEOW, MEOW!"
Then it waved its little paws at a display case.
Lloyd hurried over for a closer look and, to his surprise, found that the display case had casters installed underneath.
He quickly tried to push it aside, revealing a grimy wooden door behind it.
The door wasn’t locked, nor was there any need for one. It was so rotted and dilapidated that drafts blew right through it, and it was covered in various ochre-colored handprints.
"This... looks like the kind of small closet you find in every room, right? My sister has a storage room just like this in her editorial office. But why go out of your way to block it off?"
Lloyd muttered to himself and reached out to push the door.
As if it could no longer bear its own weight, the entire door shattered with a crash. It broke into a pile of wooden chunks that then exploded outward, spraying hair-like slivers of wood that tried to latch onto Lloyd.
Fortunately, Lloyd was faster. He took a step back and activated [Twisted Realm] without hesitation as Spiritual Power surged from his body.
The countless wood slivers froze in mid-air. Then, they violently twisted and spun, shattering into even finer particles that scattered to the ground, no longer a threat.
This was the new function [Twisted Realm] gained at LV4—the ability to Twist another person’s Extraordinary Abilities.
It didn’t require a face-to-face confrontation; it even worked on traces left behind by others. It also required no special knowledge or understanding. As long as his Spiritual Power was stronger than his opponent’s, it would work.
’As overbearing and unfair as ever...’
Having dealt with the little trap on the door, Lloyd stepped inside.
Inside was a narrow compartment with a workbench. Ventilation and lighting were extremely poor; the only source of light was a single kerosene lamp on the workbench.
A middle-aged man in his thirties sat at the desk, head bowed low and completely motionless, utterly unaware of Lloyd’s presence.
Lloyd approached without disturbing him and glanced over.
The man’s eye sockets were nothing but a pair of empty, bloody holes. Two streams of bloody tears trickled down his cheeks, dripping onto the floor. His hands hung limply at his sides. In his palms, he clutched two gory eyeballs, from which a few strands of blood vessels and nerves still dangled.
He had stopped breathing, but his lips were curved into a smile of relief, revealing a few blood-flecked teeth.
The workbench was piled high with clay and wood, all carved into eyes of every shape and size. They expressed a myriad of gazes and were crammed densely together.
Although they were all looking in different directions, Lloyd felt as if every single one was staring at him. The feeling made his skin crawl.
So he drew his Short Sword and, with a single sweep, helped clear the table.
The eyes, some of clay and some of wood, scattered across the floor and vanished into the darkness. Yet they continued to project their gazes, sizing up the rude intruder, as if trying to sear Lloyd’s image onto their retinas.
"Who do you think you’re scaring?"
Lloyd sneered, took another Half-Step forward to get closer to the workbench, and looked down at a pattern carved on its surface—
A giant eyeball took up almost the entire surface. Its lines and composition were simple, little more than a symbolic sketch, yet it seemed alive, staring up at Lloyd’s face.
Lloyd poured more Spiritual Power into his Short Sword and scraped it across the surface without a hint of politeness.
The lines on the tabletop immediately began to twist and tremble. He could even faintly hear a shrill scream.
After a few seconds, the deeply carved lines mysteriously vanished, leaving only a series of fresh scratches on the tabletop.
The eyeballs scattered on the floor instantly grew dim and lifeless, and the feeling of being watched was gone.
Lloyd carefully sent out a sliver of his inspiration to check the atmosphere.
’Safe!’
"All done."
Lloyd deactivated [Twisted Realm] and walked out of the small room, just in time to hear a series of yawns and confused voices drifting from the adjacent office:
"*Yaaawn*... That was a nice nap. Hehe, I even dreamed about her..."
"Huh? So that was a dream? I really thought the typewriter had learned to write proposals by itself..."
"Damn it! I was dreaming I’d finally paid off my loan. Why’d I have to wake up?"
Lloyd passed by the other offices, using [Inspect] as he went.
’Their Attributes are normal, and their mental states are healthy.’
’Looks like this incident didn’t have much of an impact?’
’The people who were affected just took an afternoon nap, and they all happened to have pleasant dreams?’
Just then, he heard a commotion from the street below. He could pick out his sister’s voice from the noise:
"Priest, Officer, please hurry! I’m worried my brother is in danger."
Evelor had brought help, just as she’d promised. They were just a little late.
’No, that’s not right. It’s only been ten minutes or so. I was just too fast.’
What followed was chaos in the small building. The police evacuated all uninvolved personnel and set up a cordon. Only two Priests and Lloyd remained inside. While they waited for the ’specialists’ who handled such cases to arrive, the three of them discussed the situation.
Lloyd briefly recounted his experience and his theory. The Priest across from him frowned.
"Er... It’s not that I question your judgment, sir, but looking at the scene here... surely the situation isn’t as simple as you make it sound? You just walked straight in, used a Spiritual Blade to destroy the Orbit, and the problem was solved?"