"Wwwwhat, iiiiss, thhhe point of this?
THhhe moment thhhe rituals affffects wear off. Yourrr both done for!"
Weakly looking up, Noctis tried to muster the strength to speak , but failed miserably.
Every part of his body felt sore, his skin was developing a dark rash his wounds from before were worsening by the minute.
What kind of hateful sorcery this is.
Weakly to the side, a bunch of immobilized bodies fell into his eye, every one of them groaning, showing similar symptoms to the ones he himself was having.
A vindictive glea arising within.
Even if they were being controlled, Noctis had a grudge against the group after what they put him through.
"Why… didn't… we prepare… something…less… painful!"
Trisha, who was lying further away, groaned in a similar state as the rest.
"Shut… up!… You… said…. most… effective… methode."
The ritual she used to immobilize them, obviously, was affecting her as well.
There were two types of rituals. One, pulling strength from oneself. The other pulling strength came from something else. To use one's own connection to higher beings and ask for their support in exchange for something else, the most commonly used resource for this was Notium.
Unable to move, all of his fralles, completely motionless. Raef slowly turned his arm, his palm now visible. A minuscule wound opened at the tip of his finger. What flowed out was no red, bloody liquid. No, it was a dark blue mist rising up. Converging and breaking, decaying.
Raef was trying to create something, some moments horrendous abominations showed themselves, before they fell in on themselves, their flimsy forms not able to withstand the sorcery cast over this space, another time a girl, her neck broken and distorted, manifested her form more physical than all the others, and yet it still started falling in on itself, her already bloody, distorted visage breacking down melting awey looking like a spilled paint a few moments later.
More and more horrendous scenes appeared, some clear and terrifying monsters, others more abstract displays of scenery.
In the end, it all fell in on itself, the mist forming all kinds of entities before dispersing and turning into a puddle below, which grew with every new entity's death.
Then Noctis noticed that the slow decay of his muscles was slowing, and the spreading rash on his skin was slowing.
Others might have thought this was a good thing, since their suffering was lessening.
Those people would be fools, after all, if the effects on Noctis were lessening, didn't that mean Raef was in the same predicament?
Seeing the surrounding students starting to struggle under the force of decay, a cold shudder ran down Noctis's back. This won't hold them long enough.
Whatever Raef was doing was working.
Everyone was slowly starting to prop themselves up at different speeds.
Peculiarly, Noctis was the first to stand up. A second later, Raef did the same, and slowly, his muscles still strained.
This was no coincidence, since Trisha's spell pulled power from the Authority of change, so Individuales of the change domain would be most affected, while the neighbors of the change, hearth and death, were second up.
So these two were more prone to influence from this authority. It just so happened that emotion, to be precise, the emotion of fear, was of the heart family and so was more prone to the effects of change.
Noctis eyes met Raefs for a moment. They both stood still in an unmoving standoff.
Jumping back, Noctis started his run for safety, but Raef, however, did not follow.
At this moment, his gaze was unusually clear, the clouds obscuring his thoughts fully lifting.
Analyzing his surroundings, a dissatisfied expression appeared on his face before being replaced by a ruthless flash of brilliance.
"Are you really going to leave her here?
I did not take you for such a calculative individual."
Of course, Raef was talking about Trisha, who, ironically enough, had been hit hardest by the spell she herself activated.
Stopping in his tracks, taking a quick look back, the silhouette of Raef, closing in on Trisha's limp body, slowly crawls away.
"Everything has pros and cons. That's why I prefer to work alone."
Noctis knew that he wouldn't kill her for the same reason that he did not do so with him, and still, he felt extremely hesitant.
What should he do?
Leave?
Stay?
Taking a deep breath, Noctis turned around, not closing in, holding his distance.
"What do you plan on doing now?"
Raef stopped approaching Trisha, who was slowly crawling away, a smile appearing on his lips.
"Just to make it clear, if you dare to bring a third party into this, I will kill both of you. At that point, the mission is already compromised to a point where killing the two of you won't make a difference.
So you should be able to guess what happens to the two of you."
Narrowing his eyes slightly, Nox understood the underlying message.
Raef would kill Trisha regardless of the consequences if he ran and got Laurence.
Runcless appeared on his forehead, as Noctis contemplated the thought of running, fully overshadowed by the fear of him killing Trisha. If the fear originated from him or was artificially implanted by Raef, Noctis could not tell.
"Then what do you propose?"
Seeing Raefs's annoying smile further light up, Noctis suppressed scowling, the thought of him playing into Raefs's hands all too present.
"As I see it, we have two ways to go, one mutual destruction, or two, silent harmony."
"I won't let you brainwash me!" Noctis interjected immediately.
"Oh no, no, since it has come this far, I won't do such a thing.
I'd propose a contract."
"Contract, you want me to get paper to draft something?" Noctis asked in ridicule.
"Ha, humor, such a boring way of hiding one's fear.
No dimwit! I mean the ritualistic kind. One where none of us can ever reveal anything about the other."
Noctis stayed silent for a few long moments before he asked bluntly.
"What would be the terms?"
Thinking for a few moments, he spoke in a casual tone, completely unfitting to the situation.
"Let's keep it simple. We dont have that much time.
Neither party is to interact with or harm the other in any conceivable way.
Neither party is to reveal anything about the other that could potentially harm the other.
We will simply stay away from each other, and if one of us breaks this contract… well, depending on the severity of the breach, you'll be subject to the other party's authority.
Do you agree to these terms?" His hand, still far away, stretched out in the position of shaking hands. The image overlapped in Nox's mind with the one of them shaking hands, as Nox relived Elisa's memories.
A memory that hung strongly with him, since it was the day the mental torture of Elisa ended.
Noctis mumbled over every word, searching for any traps, but it was true. It was kept simple, and there seemed to be no loopholes to exploit.
"I have conditions," Noctis said in a tone that did not leave room for negotiations.
In Raef's eyes, there was an amused spark, a spark of seeing a child trying to negotiate with an adult.
"Oh, do tell."
"Let me think about this for a bit…"
Hearing this, Raef showed a bit of annoyance as he spoke out loud.
"5 minutes a minute longer, and I'll kill her." He said ruthlessly. One could feel that he meant it as well; he seemed to have no qualms about killing. Life was worth as little as dirt in his eyes.
Five minutes passed in silence.
"It's time, speak your conditions!" Raef said with an expectant expression.
The thrawls lying around them at this point were mostly in a stable state, already standing once more. Yet none of them started walking towards them. Clearly, Raef had given them the command to stand down.
"Hm, am, hm," Nox mumbled out, clearly mulling over his words. After a few moments of this, Raef couldn't take it anymore. His more erratic state was slowly returning.
"Spit it out!" He shouted angrily.
"Ahm, yeah, sorry for that. Could you give me 5 more minutes?"
At this point, Raef was steaming with anger, doing his best to suppress it.
"5… more… minouts than." He said with gritted teeth.
Five minutes passed in silence. Raef could not really deny him the request, considering the only thing chip he had in hand was Trisha, while Nox had his life in hand. Of course, he would accept such terms as long as it meant keeping the hope of survival alive.
"Before you say anything, you can't have another five minutes!" Raef said venom infused his words.
"Oh no, no, I would never.
First, we should discuss how we can ensure Trisha's safety throughout the transaction.
Then we can…"
Listening to him prattle on, Raef's eyes slowly narrowed. Something was off!
After a few moments of intense observation for any suspicious points, he found nothing. But there was something weird. What is he looking at?
Noctis eyes were flickering to some seemingly random direction from time to time, a single golden line seen in his eye.
What is that? What aspect of fate is he in possession of?
Seeing the place, his eyes wandered from time to time, slowly growing closer to Raef…
"What are you stalling for?"
Noctis seemed startled for a moment, yet before he could say a word…
tap
A loud echoing footstep came from behind Raef.
tap
Than another.
Not turning his head, Raef sprang into a sprint, all of his thrawls running in the opposite direction.
Raef was running towards Noctis.
Far behind him, a man in black livery attire, crowned with a crow's mask, slowly walked towards them, an army of students running towards him.