Volume 5 Chapter 24 Hidden Truth
Here's the revised story with italic emphasis on certain words to enhance the situation and UPPERCASE used in dialogue lines where appropriate to reflect intensity or emphasis:
Against Amou's serious move, Frederica and I are both stuck.
That guy wasn't serious at all until now.
It was the teamwork with Frederica that cornered him, triggering Amou's real power.
"AGH...!"
Frederica gets smacked by Amou's palm and goes flying.
I try to catch her... but.
"WHAT are you LOOKING at?"
Amou turns around and kicks me in the back.
"GUH...!"
Frederica and I collide in mid-air.
For a moment, I lose sight of him.
By the time I'm looking for him, we're both on the ground.
"You guys fought WELL, but it's TOO bad. I can make TIME DISAPPEAR."
"DISAPPEAR... you MEAN?"
Frederica trembles in fear as Amou nods calmly.
"That's RIGHT. I can CUT out the TIME that flows for you. You WON'T perceive ANYTHING that happens in that time. Meanwhile, I CAN."
"WHAT are you SAYING...?"
Frederica tries to get up.
But both of us are at our limit.
"In other words, it's like a PSEUDO-TIME STOP. Even with TIME manipulation abilities, you CAN'T do ANYTHING in the time I ERASE. Which means..."
Again, we're sent flying.
"While I'm PSEUDO-STOPPING time, you CAN'T defend against ATTACKS."
...Certainly, I can pseudo-stop time too.
If he's just stopping time, I can sense it (with future vision) and stop time to counter.
But if he uses his ability to cut time, our consciousness gets cut too, so we can't do anything.
"GAME OVER, Act. Frederica. You're... FINISHED HERE."
Amou walks over to us.
He's already certain of his victory.
We've lost our will to fight.
Both me... and Frederica, we're completely screwed.
I don't have the strength to get up.
"Ah, RIGHT. Let's talk about THAT. Act, you were TRANSPLANTED with the EYE of the TIME KING from ME."
"......"
"You got TRICKED by your PARTY MEMBERS and fell down to the BOTTOM. You were BARELY alive. Do you REMEMBER what you WANTED then? You said you DIDN'T want to DIE yet."
Amou kneels in front of me.
"I ASKED you. Did you want to get REVENGE on those who BETRAYED you? And then... you said you wanted to STOP people who would be TRICKED and SUFFER the same way..."
Amou says it like he remembers the old days.
But, I don't remember any of that.
"I THOUGHT. I found a FUN toy. So I GAVE you a PIECE of my POWER. The EYE of the TIME KING. That's it. It's MY power... MY eyes."
Amou touches my eyes.
"In other words, I GAVE you POWER. You DIDN'T have ANY talent at ALL. You were SUPPOSED to DIE then. You're ALIVE now because of ME."
Amou slowly takes his hand away from me.
"UGH...AGH...!"
My eyes suddenly start to burn.
What...what's happening....
The pain only lasted a moment.
"!?! M-MASTER...! Your EYES... your EYE COLOR...!"
Amou uses magic to make a mirror in front of me.
My eyes... the eyes that should have been shining gold...
Were black, changed color.
No, that's not right....
"I GOT it BACK, your eyes... no, well, MY eyes, I GUESS."
"That CAN'T be..."
...I see.
If he could give me power, that means he can also take it away.
He took the Eye of the Time King from me, my only way to turn things around.
"Now, you GIVE UP, right, ACT?"
Amou laughs coldly.
"You were a NORMAL person from the START, and EVERYONE praised you because this EYE of the TIME KING... had eyes that could SEE the FUTURE. You have NO value without it. You're JUST a NORMAL guy, a WORTHLESS man."
His words try to break my heart.
...It's true.
It might be true.
It was all because of those eyes that I was able to create the Gem of Heavenly Gift and find diamonds in the rough like Lawrence.
Because of that gaze, I can stand here now.
As the Guildmaster.
Now that the Eye of the Time King has been taken...
I... can't...
'NOT YET! It's TOO EARLY to GIVE UP! RIGHT... ACT AGE!!!'
At that moment, I heard a voice echo in my mind.
It was a voice I recognized.
It was....
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