Ten Lucky Draws: I Became OP - Chapter 567: Old Friends (2) (Read 569 First)
[A/N: Sorry for the Chapters being uploaded out of order. It’s really just a NovelFire scheduling issue—they tend to mix up the order every now and then.]
“Yes… this is the final selection,” the white watcher spoke, his golden eyes fixed on Klaus with clear caution, his snowy feathers still slightly ruffled from the earlier scare.
He shifted on his talons, glancing down at the coliseum below where the participants were gathering for the beginning of events.
The darker watcher — his sister — tilted her head, her voice steadier but still laced with suspicion as she studied Klaus.
“As… beings on our level of existence,” she said, her golden eyes narrowing slightly. “I doubt there’s any reason to hide behind lies or play petty games. So, tell us—why are you here?”
Klaus leaned back, propping himself up with his hands, his pure white hair and eyes nearly blending into the crystalline outcrop behind him.
A casual, almost lazy smile tugged at his lips.
Since she’d asked so directly, he figured he might as well return the courtesy in kind.
“Well… I’m here to kill Male and the Merchant,” he said plainly, lifting a hand to point toward Male, who sat among the spectators in the coliseum below.
“Those two, right there.”
The darker owl’s eyes narrowed in a sharp, deliberate motion, her gaze briefly dropping to the arena before snapping back to Klaus. Inside, she was taken aback.
’Hmm, he’s here for the son?’
She clearly knew that Male was not just any other participant—just as the Watcher from existence was aware that Ash was the “son” of the Mother, she too knew the reverse to be true.
Still, the implications of such a thing… they would stir up far more trouble and complications than Klaus likely realized, especially with how nonchalantly he seemed to be treating the matter.
She asked directly, her voice low and serious.
“Why? You’re being pretty blunt about this as it’s nothing,” she said, tilting her head slightly.
“You do realize that Male is the Father’s champion, right? Taking him out here—or anywhere, really—would be like declaring war on an entirely different scale.”
Klaus just shrugged.
“Honestly, I couldn’t care less about all that… I’m just following orders from my old man.”
His grin stayed firmly in place as he glanced at the white owl, tossing it a playful wink.
“You of all people should understand a thing or two about orders from the top of the Pantheon, right?”
The white owl ruffled his feathers again, clearly uncomfortable, while his sister stared at Klaus with a mix of wariness and reluctant understanding.
The white owl hooted softly, his golden eyes narrowing as he spoke, a hint of hesitation in his voice.
“Your father… where is he right now?” he asked, having been searching for Ash all along.
’As the mother’s son, he should know about this place by now, shouldn’t he?’ he thought, confident he wasn’t mistaken.
If things went as expected, Ash would be among the last to arrive.
Klaus shrugged again, his easygoing smile firmly in place, and spoke in a laid-back tone.
“Well, if you’re expecting him to show up here… you’re out of luck,” he said, aware that Ash was tied up with other matters.
Exactly what those were? Not his concern.
“He’s probably with one of my mothers right now. You know how it is—family time and all that.” The darker owl let out a low, almost skeptical hoot, but didn’t press further.
After a moment of silence, Klaus tilted his head slightly, his pure white eyes glinting with curiosity as he looked at both of them.
“So… what are your names? You’ve been watching this existence for a long time. You must have something to call yourselves.”
The white owl shifted on his talons, glancing at his sister before answering.
“We don’t have names,” he said simply. “We are simply the Watchers. That is enough.”
The darker owl nodded in agreement, her voice calm.
“Names are for those who need identity. We are the eyes of the boundary. Nothing more.”
Klaus nodded at the information, taking it in without hesitation.
Tilting his head, a thoughtful look crossed his face as he voiced a question that had clearly lingered in his mind for a while.
Though framed as hypothetical, it was in fact unfolding right now.
“What would happen to everything… if every True Reality on both sides simply vanished?”
Hearing those words, the two owls froze, a rare stillness settling over them. It wasn’t something they had ever truly considered before.
After all, the only times they had ever known or witnessed Realities being destroyed were at the hands of the Mother, Father, or the Ineffable Pantheon.
And with everything that had unfolded in recent months, neither of the Watchers had found the time to actually “watch” as their Realities were slowly erased from existence.
On top of that, as mentioned before, the Ineffable Pantheon existed far beyond their usual scope of perception.
There was simply no way they could sense anything at all—unless, of course, the Pantheon chose to make itself known.
The white owl’s golden eyes widened, his feathers fluffing up in clear alarm.
The darker owl’s voice was low and grave as she answered.
“I’m not sure,” she said, pausing as she gave Klaus a careful look, her golden eyes narrowing.
“But if something like that happened… the first and most obvious result would be the entire lower framework vanishing.
No mortal worlds, no universes, no multiverses—nothing.
And the worst part might be that the whole Prime Expanse could end up weakened and set on a countdown to damnation.”
Hearing that word — “damnation” — Klaus tilted his head, his pure white eyes glinting with quiet interest.
“Damnation, huh?” he remarked, his tone easygoing but laced with something heavier beneath the surface.
“Maybe that’s what Father was talking about when he said he’s putting everyone on a countdown to it… and not just these simple realities.”
The darker owl missed the meaning entirely, but the white watcher’s eyes flew wide as the realization struck him.
His feathers bristled in clear unease, and a soft, troubled hoot escaped him.
“…No…. he… he wouldn’t.”
