"Ah? Yes! Of course! Why wouldn't I?"
Eros snapped out of his trance, overwhelmed with joy. If the only catch is that she wants to observe me, that’s barely a price at all. "But... how do we do it?"
"Give me your hand!"
Eros obediently reached out. The black-haired girl pressed her fair, slender palm against his, weaving her fingers through his. She began to whisper a low, rhythmic chant:
"By my body, I become your eye."
As the words left her lips, her entire form began to shimmer with a soft radiance. Suddenly, Eros’s left eye socket flared with a searing heat.
A sharp, stabbing pain followed, jolting him awake in his bed. He gasped, clenching his hand over his left eye.
If anyone had been watching at that moment, they would have seen his crystalline, sapphire-blue eye transform into a void of absolute, light-swallowing black. It was a darkness so pure that even the surrounding lamplight seemed to be sucked into it.
The pain vanished as quickly as it had arrived. The deep void receded, and the sapphire-blue iris returned to its gem-like brilliance. Simultaneously, the girl’s crisp, melodic voice echoed in his mind:
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"I'm going to sleep for a bit."
Then, silence. Eros focused on his left eye; it felt different now, heavy with a latent power he couldn't yet name. However, he didn't dare test it. His body still felt "hollowed out" from his earlier stunt with the healing spell.
He glanced toward the window. The sun had already dipped below the horizon, leaving behind a lingering trail of crimson and gold that painted the potted plants on the windowsill in shades of bronze.
Dinner time, he realized. He was starving, but the exhaustion was so profound that even sitting up felt like a monumental task. Forget it... I'll just eat tomorrow.
Right then, the door creaked open. Estelle entered, followed by two maids carrying trays of exquisitely prepared dishes. Eros’s eyes lit up. The lethargy vanished instantly as he cheered, "I swear, you are the best mother in the entire world!"
Estelle smiled warmly. She was long since used to her son’s occasional, eccentric outbursts.
That night, as Eros lay in bed with Estelle sitting beside him, he whispered, "Estelle, I had a dream today. For a moment, I thought I was going to leave you forever."
He didn't call her "Mama." He used her name, a slip that revealed just how shaken he truly was.
He was thinking of the tentacle monster. That moment of encounter had been the closest he had ever felt to the precipice of death. The sheer scale of the creature—the way it loomed over the ocean with its twisted tentacles and thousands of eyes—had left a scar on his psyche.
Even though he knew it hadn't attacked him, the primal terror was real. In his past life, he was just an ordinary human. In this life, he was still just a child who had only recently touched the hem of the supernatural. To be thrust in front of a being that could stand toe-to-toe with a Goddess was enough to break anyone's spirit.
Estelle reached out, gently patting the back of his hand. "Don't be afraid," she whispered. "Mama is here."
With her steady, rhythmic tapping, it didn't take long for Eros to drift off. Between the ritual, the spirit depletion, and the contract, his mind had finally reached its limit.