After reading for hours, Noctis tried to truly internalize what was standing on these pages.At some point, Noctis came to a passage about the visualization of one's Authority, or to be more precise, entering the place called the Soulsea.
To do this, he had to meditate, visualize the symbolism, and, from there, the process varied depending on the Authority and its source.
Not seeing anything wrong with the steps, Noctis tried it with eager anticipation, his heart pounding with a nervous excitement—this new experience sounded both fascinating and exciting.
He had always been someone bored by the predictability of life, so such new experiences were something he had always striven for, gambling being a thing he did to fill the void left by the vacuum of these.
Jumping out of bed, he sat down and crossed his legs. Closing his eyes, darkness slowly engulfed him.
He tried to visualize the symbolism in the form of strings he had seen before. In his mind's eye, a white collarless thread appeared—first one, then two, then three. With each thread, anticipation tangled with uncertainty.
As he imagined countless fine threads connecting into thicker Strings, a sudden, stirring feeling emerged, making his breath catch.
Trying to reach for that feeling, Nox noticed it growing fainter. He stopped and began thinking about what might have been the problem. Forceful?Did I go about it too forcefully?
The biggest difference Noctis noticed was that, compared to when the feeling was strong, he didn't interfere with it. Maybe the symbolism strives in freedom and slowly withers when stripped of it?
Not seeing any other way, he simply imagined more and more strings, wanting to let them choose their own path. Engaging with each other. When Noctis noticed that they were no longer replicating themselves, he tried again, reaching for the powerful feeling that had reemerged. This time, hope and anxiety battled in his chest.
Yet as soon as he grasped for it, dread flooded him, watching the sensation fade at an alarming rate. This won't work. Trying another approach, he reached for the strings floating around him. Not resisting, he placed them tightly in his grasp, not letting a single one escape. Looking at his hand, which now held hundreds of long, colorless strings, Noctis noticed that they were slowly dissolving. Not certain what was happening, he tried reaching out towards the feeling once more.
This time, the reaction was different; instead of growing fainter, it was being pulled towards him at an increasing speed.
Slowly opening his eyes. He was no longer in his room. He was standing on a golden string, connected to many others. Losing his balance immediately, as these strings were merely a finger's breadth, he fell off the web spun by golden strings.
Falling, panic gripped Noctis's chest, rising and falling as he took deep breaths. Fear surged through his veins as he desperately tried to assess the situation.
Chanting internally: "This is only in my head. This is only in my head..."
As he slowly fell, awe and bewilderment mixed within him, finally allowing him to appreciate the scale and beauty of what he had stood upon mere moments ago.
It is breathtaking. There were thousands of golden, shimmering strings of varying sizes expanding from the center. Some so fine that one could barely see them with the bare eye, others the breadth of an arm, hard to overlook.
As he was watching the web grow in distance, Noctis collided with something."Blub"Feeling what was beneath him, he averted his eyes from the beautiful sight above. His clothes were drenched, yet he felt no cold; he felt no pain from the fall—just surreal numbness and confusion, the rules of reality slipping away.
Lying on the dark surface of the water. The water was dark, mirroring the ground beneath, yet it had a golden shimmer, illuminated by the golden strings high above, creating a blurred imitation of the golden web.
Is this the so-called see of soul "Soulsea"?
The water was not deep, merely drenching some of his back and his somewhat short hair. Slowly sitting up, he watched the disturbance of his movement slowly grow distant.Watching this speechlessly, he looked up once more. There was a giant web floating, not connected to the sea's surface.
This web was disorganized in shape, not built two-dimensionally as one would expect from a spider web. It was expanding upwards and downwards, with strings connected at seemingly random points.
Watching the unchanging strings mesmerizedly, Noctis felt an unexplainable feeling, a feeling he had never felt before. Was it wonder, interest, or something else entirely? He could tell only one thing for certain, that he had found a certain meaning in his life for the first time.
Riving in this unexplainable sensation for a few more moments, Noctis roughly estimated that the Web spanned about half a kilometer. This guess did not come from seeing it; it was more of a feeling than anything. Standing up and starting to walk along the sea, with each step causing tiny ripples.
He walked and walked, not knowing how long he had been walking, until he reached the end of his sea. While walking, checking himself out, he noticed his clothes had changed, from the gray T-shirt to a darker, buttoned-up shirt he used to wear often. A bit of interest, flaring up at the change, he redirected his attention to what lay in front.
There, an endless abyss was waiting for him to plummet into. A chill of dread crept up his spine; something inside warned him that staring into it would be a grave mistake. He forced himself to look up instead, at the few strings that had reached the edges of his soulsea, brushing the water. What is the meaning of this?
The web above seemed to descend lower the closer he got to the edge, serving as a gondola of sorts, for the golden dark sea of his soul.Wondering if he should try climbing the strings, try ascending, following his exploratory urges. However, Noctis gave up on this Idea soon, after all the strings that connected the web to his soul numbered in the dozens and were all very fine and feeble. Ignoring his physical limitations, it was far too soon to try such a daring attempt. Slowly wandering back towards the center of his Soulsea, he pondered.
The web above had to be the fragment of Authority that had wreaked havoc in his room. Considering the form it materialized, it had to be either fate or destiny—yet the uncertainty gnawed at him. But this brought up a question: if Authority had to do with fate, shouldn't his Attraction force be overwhelming? The fate realm was so close, the lack of pressure left him tense and uneasy. Given the similarity between how the concept is physically expressed, it should be very close to the original concept.
In the book, it was clearly stated that if one's concept originates from the primordial concepts, also known as concepts with a realm, the physical manifestation will show greater similarity to the source.
Concept fragments have been graded into different ranks, and the lower the rank of one's concept fragment, the closer the similarity will be between it and the source of the fragment.
Typically, this was good and bad at the same time: the higher the rank, the greater the Concept holders' power potential, yet the fragments' attraction force grew proportionally as well.
Meaning it is a double-edged sword. But he felt almost nothing, even with the strong similarities to the fate realm.
This only left three options.
The fragment was not from the fate realm and was some convoluted concept like spider silk, or so-
Another option was that his concept originated from destiny, yet this seemed unlikely, as the realm was pretty close to, so he should feel the Call at least to a stronger extent than he was feeling it now.
Third, something was blocking the attraction force or possibilities in that direction...
The first guess seemed too unlikely as the golden silk was very specific, yet he was not too well-learned in this field, so he couldn't completely rule it out. And the third was weird in its own way as he was way too inexperienced in this feald to even make guesses on it.
Sighing lightly and going back to analyzing the giant web, as it seemed a waste of time to throw around some random theories. He would explore more educated theories as he learned more.
Watching attentively, he felt that some of the strings that were up there had differing colors from the rest. The difference was subtle, yet noticeable. What is this? They had a less colorful appearance; the golden shine they emitted was feeble, as if a mere replica of the original. Looking for more such strings, Noctis discovered about 16 of them. What is their meaning?
Finding no way to follow up this train of thought, he redirected his attention.
Is the web slowly descending and fusing with my soulsea?
There were small threads connecting very slowly towards the edge of Soulsea.
Isn't something like that supposed to happen only after reaching the first true stage?
The first stage, called the Authority Holder, was supposedly a stage in which one used the concept fragment as something in one's body, yet not truly part of it. Not yet connected.
Yet what Noctis was observing seemed more connected than it should be; the change was barely perceptible with the eye, and yet there was definitely something.
If this change were to continue at this pace, it would take at least a decade or two to fully assimilate. But that was not the problem, if it could even be called a problem, the problem was that Noctis couldn't explain this change to himself.
He was by no means someone who desired control and understanding over every small detail in his life, far from it. In truth, he desired unexplainable, random occurrences, but he simply had a very analytical mind, easily understanding and predicting many things without truly wanting to. It was simply how his brain worked.
But in this case, interest and self-preservation were compelling him onward, as he knew that it was a serious matter on which he could not idle, as long as he had the desire to live and preserve himself like all other living beings did.
He would read up on this topic later; maybe he would find a better explanation then.
Finding nothing more to do, he stared at the convergence point of all the strings in the sky. He could not see what was on the other side of this spot, yet he had an unexplainable desire to know what was hiding from his sight. Watching the web, lost in thought, it seemed to have a somewhat oval shape, making the convergence point, if he had enough imagination, into a pupil.
Musing silently on whether he should not try climbing up those strings, Noctis sighed and shook his head.
Well, this is disappointing. Frustration simmered inside. I couldn't even clearly identify the origin of my concept fragment, let alone the exact concepts it embodied. The puzzle seemed out of reach, leaving me without the needed pieces to solve it, making a hollow ache of uncertainty echo through his mind.
Closing his eyes, he started repeatedly chanting in his heart's mind
"Returne, returne..."
Feeling a force tugging at his back, he did not resist. Resignation and longing mingled in him as he let himself fall back, throwing one last, wistful look toward the reflection of the web's center. Darkness surged in, swallowing him completely.
"Splat"