After that day, time went on as if nothing had ever happened.
The duel with Reinhard had been postponed to an undetermined date, the incident having happened exactly when the fight should have been held.
If Noctis' plan went uninterrupted, he would never need to fight this overeager foe of his.
Hopefully.
The plague doctor, whom Nox later learned was named Laurence, was said to remain at the facility for a few more weeks in search of the abnormality. Whatever abnormality he was in search of.
Day after day came and left, their planned date to leave moving closer and closer.
Oruborus, sitting in Nox soulsea, was acting calmly, if a bit overly clumsily, with every suggestion of his having its flaws. At the very least, he seemed to be learning, even if he seemed more like an overgrown toddler.
He had his uses at least. For one, he could take over the tedious process of soul assimilation. Connecting the fragment of fate to Nox's soul by weaving and strengthening threads. Even better, this version of himself and the fragment of fate seemed to be able to directly pull notium out of the fragment, making it so that he could almost constantly further the assimilation process.
On a not-so-great note, Noctis found out what his younger double did in his free time.
While making a small routine check-up, Nox noticed the silver-haired, youthful version of him sitting at the center of the soul sea, reading a book.
Its coverage was pristine, with golden and white textures intertwined to form a variety of beautiful patterns.
How did he get a book in here?
After a short inquiry into his doppelganger, he simply answered. "Isnt this the soul sea? I imagined it, so it appeared."
Ignoring the statement for now, Nox was more interested in the book's contents than the book itself, and what he saw horrified him!
In there, his entire life was on constant repeat, put simply. Every one of his thoughts was put into words written down in that book. Every singular musing, every desire for all to see!
It was his fate in book form.
The guy was using his life as a reality show. The only things missing were popcorn and a nice chair to get the full experience.
Giving it not much more thought, Noctis forbade Oruborus from touching the book ever again, to Oruborus ' great dismay.
Sitting in the training hall, Noctis let out an exausted grunt, his body drenched in sweat.
Throwing a quick glance at the dummy that lay in shambles, his accuracy with his converter had increased dramatically. It was unbelievable, really. But he just felt like he had trained this skill hundreds of times, his movements precise and exact. This change occurred right after Elisa's fate was read.
So the overlap in their lives might not have brought only bad things. The memories of training the skill were now ingrained in his movements.
Glancing to his side, Noctis's eyes wandered to a few students sparing and training on the other half of the hall. They seemed so normal, not the slightest sign of being influenced by Raef.
Something was off, however. Ever since the day the plague doctor showed up, the very air in the facility seemed to shift. The familiar halls, once filled with echoing chatter and lively footsteps, grew oddly subdued. Shadows in the corners stretched longer, and the lights overhead flickered with an unsteady glow that hadn't been there before. The distant scent of antiseptic now carried a sharper, almost metallic tang, and conversations between students dropped to hushed murmurs the moment Nox drew near. Even the temperature felt colder in the evenings, as if the building itself was holding its breath. It was nothing obvious, but every sense whispered that something beneath the surface had changed.
Staring at the unblemished sealing for a moment too long, Nox let out a sigh, jumping up and landing on his feet in one fluent motion. Planning to shower and eat something, maybe check on Oruborus to make sure he isnt doing something he shouldn't.
Giving the three students who had sparred a moment ago another quick glance.
What met him were three motionless youths, staring back. Their eyes had a silent green glimmer inherent to their gazes.
Staying silent for a few moments, Nox rubbed the back of his neck in discomfort.
What is it with them?
He was not willing to ask them.
The back of his mind was screaming at him to leave. If horror movies taught him one thing, it was not to close in on such scenes.
The golden string, signifying his future, led directly out of the room as well.
Not planning to tempt fate, Nox left, under the creepy stares, heading directly to his room.
Nothing happened. Yet for some reason, he couldn't shake those silent stares of theirs.
Time went on, the assimilation of his soul progressing smoothly, the golden web above closing in more and more, its center drooping down more than the rest.
It was weird, really. Back when he first entered the soulsea, he was pulled towards that center for some reason. A deep desire within was leading him on. But now, now it seemed completely gone. At some point in time, it simply disappeared snuthed out.
A bit ironic, truly. Back when he lacked the power to reach it, he desired it greatly. Now that he had it, his interest was gone.
Exiting the soulsea once more, to attend to his duties.
While reading up on differing rituals, Nox's mind was not in it.
He could not rid his mind of the students' weird behavior, a feeling of being watched encompassing every step. A shadow looming over him, growing with every waking second.
He felt observed whenever he was in class. Like prey before its predator.
He did not see such obviously abnormal behavior again, yet whenever he looked through the corner of his eye, something changed, hid before he could confirm any of his suspicions.
Paranoia nawing at him, fear bubbling up. Nox had never considered himself such a fearful person, but he could be wrong. It was difficult to see oneself objectively, after all.
_
Sitting in his soul sea on a random day, Nox stared at the golden web above, which was malformed, no longer a dome of golden strings.
The center of the golden web was extended downward, just short of reaching the center of his soul, breaking its tranquil waters.
It would soon form a true and steady bridge between the two.
Glancing over to the man standing beside him, Nox let out a sigh. Oroborus was staring at the change of the web with a distant expression, his silver hair drooping down his face. In his one hand was another book, with no title, quite similar to the one of horrors he had created before.
As a whole, the web had fallen considerably, far faster than Noctis had expected. Well, Oruborus had the unique gift to directly pull power from the fragment because of their special relationship. Unlike Noctis, who had only a little access to the entirety of its Notium reserves.
"Didn't I tell you to never read that book again?"
Averting his gaze from the golden threads descending in the center. The threads, no more than ten meters above.
"It's not the same book."
A bit confused, yet intrigued all the same, Nox shook his head and decided to shelve the matter for now, more urgent matters on the agenda.
"It's about time we create our humane core, isnt it?"
Looking up from his book, Oruborus smiled and replied in a happy tone.
"Yep, I already did my research. Just as you told me to."
When did I tell him to research?
At most, maybe that he should get less gullible, in a subtle manner, but nothing about research. How did he come to that conclusion?!
Noticing an incoherency in the matter, Nox asked in reply.
"How did you research? Isnt the knowledge I amassed all that you have access to?"
Hearing a chuckle in return, a light smugness hid in it. The guy has been acting like that ever since reading through my memories.
"What is it? Spit it out already!"
"Hm, hm, hm. While you were running around in your world, sweating and frightening yourself to death. I have been productive."
"And what productive discovery did you make?" Nox replied in a sarcastic tone, making the pore Oroborus visibly flinch, before composing himself, propping himself up.
"In this book stands our future!"
"Future?"
"Yes, future!"
"Oh, not interested."
"Yep, that's exactly right, praise me for my brilliant…. Wait what.
Why aren't you enthusiastic?
Do you not believe me?
Here I can show you."
Opening the book he was holding, Oruborus attempted to show Nox what lay within, before being shut down by Nox, his hand pressing down on Oruborus's book.
"I do not want to know the future."
Looking Nox confusedly in the eye, Oruborus started flipping through the pages frantically, the book open to see for Noctis.
"But there are so many things to be learned to be experienced… There is so much interesting stuff!"
"Things that I want to experience myself."
Oruborus fell silent, confusion clear on display.
"I do not wish to know the future, since that would take away all the magic it upholds.
Bonds that I would build reduced to an emotionless formality, a husk of what they could have been.
What ending it brings should be a culmination of my own decisions, uninfluenced by some cosmic force telling me how to live or what to do.
Even if I am scared, right now, not knowing what Raef is planning. I will accept it nonetheless. After all, this is what I always craved for, a life filled with unpredictability and surprises."
Not saying a word, Oruborus' eyes were slightly narrowed, very unlike him before returning to their original state, as if quickly covered up.
"Then can I take information and use it to our advantage at the very least?"
Hearing the grumbling childish pleas of Oruborus, not wanting his discovery to go to waste.
Nox sighed lightly, not able to muster the strength to shut the child down.
"What did you have in mind?"
"I-I can use information like what you'll learn in the future. For example, what methods are there to create a humane core, and which are best suited?"
Now thoroughly intrigued, Nox's ears perked up, clearly showing his interest. He might have been vehemently against learning about the future, making it as monotonous and boring as the past, but getting some benefits through his connection to fate was not that bad, right?
"Well, I have read of three methods to build up a humane core…"
In its essence, forming a humane core was half of the accession process. After all, who wanted to lose all of one's humanity?
Ascending the early ranks, like Assimilator, was based on two concepts. One was the assimilation with the fragment of authority, and the other kept part of oneself intact, untainted by the pull of divinity.
Maintaining one's humanity involved building a so-called human core.
One typically did this just before fully assimilating the soul, since this was the latest possible moment to do so while impeding the assimilation process as little as possible.
From what Oruborus said, there were many different types of humane cores. Some span across the entirety of the soulsea, while others were condensed on a singular point, and then others again take the middle ground between both.
From Oruboruses ' explanation, condensing the core on a singular point was the most suitable approach for them to take, creating a sort of soul core at the center of the sea. In this core, all of Nox's humanity would be safely stored and cared for.
This method had the advantage of being better protected from external interference and more stable and effective in holding one's humanity together.
Agreeing to the method proposed by Oruborus after a bit of further discussion.
They parted ways, Nox planning to attend to his duties while Oruborus prepared everything in the Soulsea, for the creation of the soul core.
Exiting the soul sea, time went by. Invisible gazes followed him wherever he went.
A feeling of being watched accompanied him day by day.
Whenever he saw his classmates talk, he felt a bit creeped out by them. They seemed so unnaturally coherent, every word placed with purpose, as if putting on a show. Sometimes, their laughter would erupt at odd moments, just a beat too late, the sound strange and hollow. In the halls, he caught whispers that cut off the instant he approached, students blinking one after another in perfect unison, eyes tracking him as if rehearsed. Fingers tapped on desks in steady, synchronized patterns that stopped the second he looked their way. A few called each other by the wrong names, correcting themselves with blank smiles, then returning to conversations without missing a beat. Something seemed to have changed in them, but Nox could not tell what.
After days of observation, Nox noticed that most of his classmates had a particularly strong string symbolizing their relationship with Raef, similar to the connection with the plague doctor, just far stronger.
Going on, unsure what to do with the information, Nox noticed Trisha's connection, which was quite thick but somehow different, still substantially less pronounced than that of the other students.
Feeling the tension grow with each day, Noctis tried to stay as unnoticed as possible, every interaction held mostly profunctoraly as the date of his departure moved closer.
Drifting through the class, Nox's gaze landed on Siana for a few seconds, a bit concerned for the girl whose past somehow mirrored Elisa's.
She was one of the few who had a particularly weak connection to Raef.
His gaze felt a bit heavy the last few days. Noctis rested his head on his hand for a moment.
Taking another quick glance around the class, Nox suddenly saw almost every student wearing that emotionless stare once more.
But something was different.
It was not directed towards him this time, a lone blond girl he had been looking at a moment before was not the subject of their pursuit.
Shit.
Blinking repeatedly at the sight, everything returned to normal the next moment, as if merely in his head.
What was that? Is she in danger?
Nawing at his nail, clearly stressed and sleep-deprived, Nox had a lot on his mind.
Should he let this go?
Was she in danger?
"Whatcha thingking about?"
Hearing a female voice coming from his left, breaking through his contemplations, a light press felt of a hand on his shoulder.
Nox flinched back, looking to the side the next moment; a feeling of relief quickly replaced his wariness.
He smiled weakly and responded to the concerned-looking Trisha, who seemed as untouched as ever.
"Weighing whether I should warn a fellow classmate of ours, or if it's too risky."
In response, Trish put on a thoughtful expression for a few seconds. Before she answered in a lighter tone.
"Simply do what you desire most, the consequences be damed."
***
Throwing a small slip of paper through a slip in the door of a student, Nox wandered through the corridors that seemed once so pristine, now shrouded by a dark atmosphere.
Fiddling with his entrance key to his room a bit, a glove with a sickle shape on his palm, draped over his hand.
Did I forget to take it off after training?
His hand-eye coordination was clearly affected by his lack of sleep, so it wouldn't be surprising if his memory did the same.
Opening the door sluggishly, Nox planned on simply slamming it the next moment.
Bam.
The familiar sound of the door clicking whenever it closed could not be heard. Looking back in confusion, something was clamped between the door.
It was a foot!
As Nox watched, the door slowly open, an emotionless expression on his face, hiding the great fear bubbling up beneath.
A cyan-haired boy pressed it open, despite the meager resistance of Nox trying to press it shut. No, it was no boy anymore. He had grown to the same size as Noctis at an unnatural pace.
Speaking in a polite, but now tinged with a sinister undertone. He opened the door fully. Nox's strength was insignificant in comparison, and he fell back as the flung-open door almost threw him to the ground.
"May I come in?"