Ferris blinked.
Although extremely useful, essence gazes weren't meant to be used at the 9th layer.
It felt as if his ocular blood vessels were exploding in a painful manner. Even his vision was struggling to stay coherent.
Paralyzing essence gaze works by drawing essence from your storage and pushing it to the optic nerves, or eyes.
Then once locking sight onto the target, the user seeks to resonate their own essence to the foreign essence of the target before imparting it.
So as long as the target isn't mentally aware, resonating with them was a breeze for Ferris.
All he had to do was implant whatever will he had onto the target body.
But that was for resonating with their physical body.
Order essence gaze makes the target do what you wish at the level of the mind.
But compared to resonating with their physical body, resonating with a mind is ten times as difficult.
In terms of performing it, Ferris's base knowledge was enough, but due to the low layer requirement of such techniques, his 9th layer body was bottlenecking itself.
And that led to a sort of overheating or overload on the eyes which were the conduits.
Rainbow Man had a blank look on his face, as if he was in a momentary trance-like state but then blinked to life.
"Yeah... I understand, I shouldn't intrude on this personal mission." Rainbow Man signaled his squad to make their way towards the mall.
Before he was about to set off, Rainbow Man turned around to see Ferris one last time before nodding.
In but a moment, the colorful fighters had finally left them alone.
In an instant, Ferris walked to Judas. "Can you check the bag, there might be eye drops in the medical kits." Ferris blocked off his eyes from the world using his hand.
Despite the literal burning sensation, he did not dare to rub his eyes. That would've only made things even worse for him.
Judas quickly rummaged through the bag they'd been given. His face brightened when he finally found the eye drops.
But Ferris still had his hands over his eyes. "Put it in my hand."
"Oh, right." Judas unscrewed the cap and placed the container into Ferris's palm.
One drop wasn't enough. It took three before the burning eased even a little.
Ferris let out a low groan of relief as he finished treating the other eye. Then, with a grateful nod, he handed the drops back to Judas.
That's enough essence gaze for today, one more and I might as well gouge my eyes out, Ferris darkly joked to himself.
Ferris checked his phone to see the time. It was about to hit noon in a few minutes.
Before Judas could close the bag, Ferris stopped him.
"Let's eat lunch first before continuing." He pointed at an abandoned restaurant with an hungry face.
Inside, the duo settled at a small table with two chairs by the window, where the view of the abandoned streets stretched out before them.
Judas unpacked the bag and found a few metal containers. He pulled out two, handing one to Ferris. Then in sync, they popped them open at the same time.
Pop!
Ferris almost choked to death.
Fresh food!
Oh my god... He gawked at the pleasant assortment of carbohydrates, protein, and other essentials.
But what was most surprising was that the steel container still felt very hot as if the food was just placed inside a second ago.
A blessing that imbues heat? Ferris assumed that someone from their faction had a similar blessing.
And these fresh ingredients...
Ferris remembered how there were people with healing blessings that could be applied to inanimate things.
A food box, made with the culmination of unique blessings and professional chefs.
The creed kicked in hard, he had no choice but to accept the fact that he owed a favor to Queen Elizabeth.
But regardless of such an amazing act of consideration, Ferris had much more important obligations.
While Judas was eating he stared at Ferris in confusion. "Why aren't you touching your food?"
Clap.
Judas almost choked when he saw a flash of light appear.
A glowing and translucent quill and paper descended onto Ferris's hand.
It should be fine for Judas to know. Ferris held the quill tight while trying to form a sentence in his mind.
"Sorry, I forgot to tell you about this," Ferris smirked as he began writing down.
{We've run into the new heroes being transported into the city. The Hero Association is actively tracking our location, so we'll need to stay alert. When will you be heading out to the water park?}
Ferris paused, wondering if the report was detailed enough. Still, with time on his hands, he figured he could always refine it once a reply came through.
Letting go, the paper flew into the air and disappeared into nothingness.
Then he settled the quill on the table.
"Is that your gift?" Judas asked in astonishment.
. . .
Ferris set the quill aside and immediately started devouring the food laid out in front of him.
. . .
Judas twitched but held back, waiting.
Finally, after finishing half the meal, Ferris answered, "No."
As soon as he said it, a translucent sheet of paper appeared in the air.
Catching the paper, he carefully read the reply.
{I received the same report. Have you scouted the water park yet? We're moving out now—ETA is about 3 hours.}
Ferris obviously couldn't say that they were eating right now and were lost.
Letting the paper go, he clapped once to summon a fresh paper to begin writing on.
{We encountered some issues, it'll take us another hour to reach the water park.}
Ferris sent the paper and finished eating.
"Finish up quickly." He said to Judas while he cleaned up after himself.
Flash.
The reply came quickly.
{It's fine if you can't make it, but Asmadeas told me that you'll succeed in her vision. I recommend trusting her.}
Ferris sighed when Elizabeth mentioned Asmadeas and her prophecies.
***
Regardless of whether Ferris trusted her or not, her visions were indeed true.
Not only did they not encounter any villains on the way to the water park, but they even made it in under an hour!
"The front entrance should be a few blocks that way." Judas squinted his eyes to see the tiny details of the map while pointing at the direction he thought was right.
Ferris nodded. "Let's park nearby and get the high ground." He suddenly turned his bike and entered a tall building's parking lot.
After that, they carefully ascended the stairs and kept a lookout for any villains that might've noticed their presence.
Once at the top, they were on an observation deck with conventionally placed binoculars.
Only then did he start believing in the good vision of Asmadeas. Is his presence alone so important that helpful things just seem to come his way?
Ferris chuckled and walked toward the binoculars.
. . .
They're not locked? Ferris was surprised that they were free to use.
Then he thought of something dirty.
A water park...
And a convenient location of telescopes that allowed someone to view the water park from up high...
Oh my! Ferris blushed. He instinctively unsheathed his longsword and destroyed the poles that supported the binoculars.
And now, he fulfilled his duty as a knight.
Judas was a little shocked by the sudden decapitation of the binoculars, but he didn't question it as Ferris handed him one of the binoculars.
Now let's see what the villains are up to... Ferris placed his eyes on the lenses.