The world continued its course.
But Enoc was no longer Enoc.
The mental seals he had placed upon himself shattered like glass. The layers of memories sealed deep within his subconscious emerged in an overwhelming wave. His true identity, his name, his purpose, his powers… everything returned in an instant.
Noah.
He was Noah.
And Noah was not a weak child. Noah was a being who had traveled between worlds, who had amassed immense powers, who had planned every step of this game.
His disguise dissipated. His body returned to its original form, his golden wings still present, but now with full awareness of who he was. All the physical seals he had used to limit himself fell away, and his chakra, his Chaos Force, his Void energy, all returned like a torrent held back for too long.
He vanished from the window.
An instant later, he stood before Dacian.
The old man didn't even have time to be surprised. Noah's hand grabbed his head with superhuman strength. The traitor's eyes widened, terror reflected in them.
—What…?
Noah clenched his fist.
Dacian's skull burst like ripe fruit. Blood, bones, and brains splattered the stone tablets, the shelves, the floor. The body collapsed lifeless.
Silence.
Noah looked down.
Avelia was on the ground, gasping, confused. Dacian's grip had vanished, and she had fallen, not understanding what had happened. She looked around, saw the elder's decapitated body, then looked up at the figure before her.
She did not recognize him.
He was not Enoc. He was someone different. Someone with an overwhelming presence, with eyes that contained universes.
—Enoc? —she whispered, confused.
Noah did not answer. He knelt slowly before her and looked at her in silence for long seconds.
Avelia. The young woman from the archives. The one who had died smiling at him, one second before he rewrote time.
—Live well —he said finally, his voice devoid of emotion—. Do not remember me.
He extended two fingers and placed them on her forehead.
A gentle spell erased all her memories of him. The archives. The afternoons of tablets. The conversations. The smiles. Everything vanished, replaced by a clean void that would never know it had once been full.
Avelia slumped softly, as if she had simply fainted.
Noah stood up. He was about to spread his wings to leave, but then he remembered Dacian's words.
"The Sacred Flame scroll."
He activated his Byakugan.
Bulging veins appeared around his right eye as X-ray vision penetrated the walls, floors, and shelves. He scanned the archive building in an instant and found what he was looking for: a secret compartment under one of the shelves, hidden behind a stone slab.
He moved there, pushed the shelf aside with one hand, and lifted the slab with the other. Inside, a worn, aged beast-hide scroll rested on a silk cloth.
He took it and examined it briefly. It was a map. A map of something he did not recognize, but he stored it in his 4D pocket anyway.
Then, without looking back, he spread his wings and leaped out the window.
The city was still burning. Screams of death and destruction filled the air. Below, the Dark Feather were slaughtering his people. Orkus, the chosen of the moon gods, led the attack with a fanatical smile.
It was all his fault.
Noah knew it. He had planted the seed in Orkus. He had unleashed this chaos. He had used an entire city, an entire civilization, as pawns in his game.
And he felt no regret.
—All of this is behind me —he murmured, rising toward the sky—. For me, it was just a means to an end.
He thought of Avelia, unconscious in the archives, empty of memories. He thought of Jiron, dead at Orkus's hands. He thought of the hundreds of citizens who had perished in fire and sword.
And he felt… nothing.
Or perhaps he did feel something. A cold emptiness in his chest that he could not identify. But he ignored it.
Noah had never been a saint. He was selfish. He was cruel. And he had done all of this, planned all of this, executed all of this, for a single goal: to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan.
And he had succeeded.
The star-shaped pattern in his left eye was the proof. A power that few Uchiha had achieved. A power that brought him one step closer to his ultimate goal of invincibility.
—The Sacred Flame scroll —he murmured, as the burning city of Spring shrank beneath him—. Another mystery to solve.
Taking out the magic door, he entered his laboratory and stopped before the genetic synthesis machine, where an injector prepared weeks ago rested.
The genetic serum it contained was Orkus's Darkness Release Kekkei Genkai.
He injected it into his arm, and his body began to tremble, shaken by intense spasms. Cells rearranged themselves, genes were rewritten, and a new layer of power was added to his already vast repertoire. Long minutes passed, during which Noah stood still, motionless, enduring the process in silence.
Finally, the trembling ceased.
He opened his eyes and looked at his hands. Then, with a thought, he spread his wings.
The feathers on his left wing began to fall, one by one, as if an invisible wind were plucking them. And from the empty follicles, new black feathers began to sprout.
They grew slowly, covering the left wing, while the right one kept its original gold.
—Perfect —Noah murmured after accelerating the growth of the new feathers with the time tablecloth, flapping both wings.
He collapsed into his chair as he counted his chakra natures.
After integrating Enoc's genes, he gained access to all basic chakra natures:
· Water
· Wind
· Fire
· Earth
· Lightning
· Yin
· Yang
And now, after integrating Orkus's genes, he possessed five derivative natures:
· Wood Release (Water + Earth)
· Lava Release (Fire + Earth)
· Ice Release (Water + Wind)
· Darkness Release (Yin + Fire)
· Light Release (Yang + Lightning)
Noah opened his palm and, with a thought, seven small spheres began to form above it. One of water, translucent and dancing. One of wind, nearly invisible, spinning like a tiny tornado. One of fire, red and blazing. One of earth, dense and brown. One of lightning, blue and crackling. One black, absorbing the light around it. One golden, radiating a warm glow.
The seven floated for an instant, a miniature microcosm of power.
Then he closed his fist, and they dissipated.
—Enough for now —he said.
He took the Sacred Flame scroll from his 4D pocket and unrolled it on the table.
After leafing through it for a while, he rolled it up again before leaving the laboratory.