Noroi

Chapter 9: Christmas Day (New Beginning Arc)

Noctis had finished analyzing the castle and began exploring the structures outside the castle walls for more information on any history that Magic Council haven't discovered yet.

He did find it strange. He knew the Magic Council didn't trust him fully but still sent him on a mission to learn details which could possibly be detrimental to them and their whole projects.

Halline decided to not follow Noctis, thinking to herself that it would most likely be a bad idea and that he would be better off alone instead of having her around. She went ahead and initiated a conversation with one of the few people that live there.

"Excuse me. Any chance you can tell us what you know about this place? Any historical fights? People? Background of the castle perhaps?"

The man ignored her and kept on walking, holding up two boxes in his arms. Halline stopped after that. Making her way back to the castle to take a look at the wooden doors that form the gate.

They were given strict permission to not destroy anything inside the castle and the buildings around it so blowing straight through the wooden doors wouldn't work well. The only imaginable way of entrance would be through the crenelations, but instead of going on ahead, she thought it would be best to wait on Noctis.

With Noctis

He was casually walking around, not really drawing much attention to himself, taking quick glances at the structures. Most were statues of people who were primarily known as heroes back in their era of existence. People like Ryota Ryuma, Xe Laa, Mikami Shusui and Hacksaw Hawk.

Noctis stopped at a certain statue of an unknown person. No writing was underneath which made Noctis more curious than he hoped to admit. He couldn't do much else apart from closely taking in the appearance of the statue and then notifying Magic Council about it later.

He turned back around and made his way to the castle, hoping Halline didn't cause too much trouble for them both.

With Noctis and Halline

Halline had seen Noctis walking towards her. She didn't know why she asked the higher-ups for Noctis specifically. It was more like she just felt that out of everyone, his Zen was the purest.

Noctis finally arrived, standing next to Halline, looking up at the wooden doors. "That's a shame." He let out. His face still has that calm and collected look. Halline had wondered if anything worried him at all.

"Yeah. If only we had someone who could throw something all the way up there and teleport us both." She dramatically said, moving her body every inch closer to Noctis.

"I get it." Noctis had summoned a kunai using his Spiritual Zen. The kunai was your typical kunai apart from the fact that the whole kunai was covered in this glowing pitch-black colour. Noctis gripped the kunai tightly in his hand and with most of his power, he threw the kunai forty-five feet in the air as it landed back down somewhere in the castle. "Not my best work."

Halline was impressed at the sight. Not even she could throw something that high into the air with pure muscle alone and she was the strongest woman in Asrale. "That's some strength you have. Have you been practising or was that just royal talent?"

Noctis had enough of her calling him royal and that everything he has is just royalty. "Enough with the royal crap and only then might I answer."

Halline nodded, accepting his wish. She only kept on doing it so that when he finally complains, she could ask questions about it without making it seem like she only cares about him being Royalty. "Sure. Why do you feel so much hostility toward being called royalty in the first place? You are royal, correct?"

Noctis closed his eyes. He wanted to say something but knew that it wasn't the right time to speak of that matter. "I just don't like being called Royalty. I barely associate with my real parents. I grew up with two brothers and someone kindly gave us a home. Ever since then, I still owe them so much. My brothers and my parents."

He had opened his eyes to see Halline crying her eyes out - endless tears falling down her face. "That's soooooooo sad! How sad! Very sad!"

"Do you ever stop being annoying?" Noctis said, letting himself get teleported away into the castle.

Inside Yaegresea Castle

Noctis looked around as he picked up his kunai. It appeared he landed on a path somewhere on the roof. He looked over the edge and saw how small Halline looked. She waved up at him. Noctis just walked away, taking in his surroundings. "This place is beautiful. Such an old castle as well." He looked to his left to see a suspicious-looking door. "On the entrance?" He said, walking ever so closer towards it.

He tried to open it by pushing against it since there was no handle or anything to hold on to. "Fine then." He took a few steps back.

"Ryūjin no ken wo kūrae!"

A huge green dragon appeared behind him as it soared right through the door doing no damage. "Huh?" Noctis shook his head, wondering what he just thought about. What does that even mean?

Noctis kicked the door open as it fell a couple of stairs down. A huge amount of dust flew into his face, instinctively used his hands to clear it away. He took some steps down the stairs with every foot that landed would develop some sort of cracking sound.

He eventually reached the end after what felt like hours thanks to his idea of being careful. He was now in a room filled with paintings of the same girl in different positions and fancy dresses suited perfectly for a girl back in her time.

Noctis had heard a loud crash coming from downstairs. Almost as if the gate had just been blown down. Halline wouldn't do that though. Someone else? Who would be powerful enough to defeat her if she was guarding the place?

Noctis teleported outside to where Halline should be standing, but she wasn't in sight. The next thing was the fact that the castle entrance had been completely obliterated. A figure slowly rose from the rubble. It was a man, somewhere in his mid-twenties most likely. From what could be seen, he has long straight hair that reaches his waist with loose spikes in some portions and is parted in the middle of his face. The colour of his hair's left side is amaranth and the right side is white.

The man slowly got up and walked towards Noctis without even looking at him. The way he walked was so mellow, even more so than himself. Almost as if nothing could harm him.

As he got closer, it appeared he was wearing a clean black suit with a purple-striped tie. The odd part was was his lower half as he walked around with nothing but his boxers. Noctis prepared himself as he got into his fighting stance with his left arm up and his right arm behind his back, his left leg spread slightly at the front while his right leg stayed where it was. He also twisted his hip sideways, so that it wasn't directly facing the man.

The man didn't respond. He reached into his suit's front pocket and pulled out a 9mm Handgun, pointing it straight at Noctis.

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Noctis Warp Magic
Level ?

Halline Magnetism Magic
Level 6.1