"Are those the only options I have?" Cecilia asked, glancing between the two.
"You want to let him go free?" Arthur asked, baffled.
"Yeah, that's not a good idea." Regis added, "I mean have you seen what this guy has done?"
Fayden remained silent.
"What..." She turned to Fayden, "What if he had blocks like me?"
"Doubt it," Fayden said, "That little fucker has so much hate in him that Agrona won't need to resort to such measures for him."
"Still, check his mind, please."
Fayden sighed, "Fine,"
Nico struggled to move, away from Fayden as he approached, thrashing against the ground as dark vines rose up to bind him in place.
He shook with rage even as Fayden grabbed his head, probing into his mind. But he found no blocks in his memory, no alterations to it.
Yet, as he was about to leave, something caught his attention. A dark flame residing in the recesses of his mind, corrupting part of his brain, specifically the hypothalamus.
Fayden narrowed his eyes and minuscule tendrils of nacht penetrated into Nico's head, devouring the plague within seconds.
Slowly, Nico stopped struggling, and Fayden walked away, dispelling the vines, and the muzzle.
"This calmness," Nico said, glaring at Fayden, "What did you do?"
"Agrona had corrupted your hypothalamus, making you more susceptible to emotions, dialing the anger and hatred that you have to a whole another level." Fayden explained, "Although I can still see that fire of anger in you."
"You expect me to not be angry at him for killing Cecilia?" Nico growled, jerking his head towards Arthur.
"Nico," Cecilia said, "Grey did not kill me."
"I saw it happen!" He yelled back, "You were fighting, and then he..."
She shook her head, "Don't blame him, I let down my defenses, I fell on his sword. He has held that burden since that day."
Nico narrowed his eyes, "How can I be sure he," he glared at Fayden, "didn't brainwash you?"
"Oh yeah?" Cecilia said, anger seeping into her words, "Like how Agrona did? Like how you never found the need to tell me the truth?!"
For once, Nico looked down with shame, it was true he could have told her the truth any time, but he didn't. His selfish desires stopped him from doing that.
Cecilia sighed, it was no use getting wound up, they were both used by Agrona. "Get up, Nico."
Nico didn't move, even as the shackles binding him dissipated to nothingness.
"Get up," She repeated, kneeling down to his level and staring him in the eyes. Reluctantly, Nico stood up, "Make your choice." He said, trying his best to keep a neutral face.
Cecilia looked up and down at him once, before turning to Fayden, "Is there any place he could be of help, but not be a threat to?"
Fayden narrowed his eyes, "Define 'help'."
"As in inventing new machines, like he used to do in our old world."
[One place does come to mind.]
Fayden didn't reply to that and chose instead to raise his hand towards Nico, imprisoning him in a solid black cube.
"Follow me," He said, flying off into the sky, Arthur and Cecilia following soon after.
It did not take long for the floating kingdom to come to view, the majestic futuristic country blanketed by hexagonal shields. The guardsmen at the main gate didn't hesitate to open it up for them, and they flew straight to the hovering palace.
Noctis was already waiting for them as if he knew they would come. "I assume your multiversal adventure is at an end?"
"Yeah," Fayden said, "I made it back a few hours ago. Anyways, I need your help on something."
"Go on."
Fayden proceeded to explain their situation, releasing Nico from his prison in the meanwhile. Noctis nodded in understanding, studying the lessuran before him.
"With our technology, he could be useful as, what do you call them? Ah yes, artificers." Noctis said, "As for being a threat, I doubt he could go toe to toe against the strongest of the Marchosias."
He turned back to Fayden, "And we will keep an eye on what he creates, so as to make sure he doesn't attack us."
"I have no quarrel with your people," Nico said, "I only wish to get payback at Agrona."
"We will see about that." Noctis said, "Come with me."
As he turned back and began walking, Cecilia grabbed Nico's shoulders one last time, "This is your only chance at redemption Nico, please don't mess it up."
Nico nodded with a new fire in his eyes, "While I do not care what those two think about me, I will do it for you, Cecilia."
Arthur sighed, "What now?"
"Now," Fayden began, walking to the edge of the palace, "we find Nathan."
Arthur blinked in surprise, "Nathan? The same one from Xyrus?"
Fayden nodded solemnly, "He was reincarnated in Losvillion as a pure blooded asura."
"Where is he?"
Fayden sighed, "I don't know, last I met him, he was talking about a capital city on the surface. We could start our search from there."
"I'm afraid that will have to wait."
.
.
.
"You know, normally I would be surprised, but after seeing you literally turn from wolf to man, I don't think anything will surprise me anymore." Reynolds said, looking at the Teenage boy in front of him.
"Honestly, I didn't think it would work either," Zeke said, "I mean changing size as a wolf is one thing, but as a human?"
Reynolds nodded sagely, "Normally people can't do that."
"Last I checked I was far from normal, you know being a member of a fallen race of asuras and all that."
"I see Fayden's sarcasm imprinted on you." Reynolds deadpanned.
"Of course," Zeke grinned.
Reynolds sighed, walking to the gate for the next zone. "Why is there a sword stuck on the ground?"
Zeke walked around it, observing it with Shadowsoul on, but it wasn't particularly spectacular in any way.
"The door doesn't have a visible lock either," Reynolds said, "How do we get past it?"
"Let me see if I can find any clues." Zeke said, walking up to the door. The door itself was nothing special, a slab of titanium, built in such a way that they'd have to destroy the entire wall to brute force their way through.
He was thinking of prying it open, when the room began shaking, and the door screamed open.
He stared at Reynolds, who held the broken handle of the sword, the blade having shattered to pieces.
"Uh, oops?" Reynolds said, chuckling nervously.
"..." Zeke deadpanned at him. "I can see where Fayden gets his recklessness from."
"What can I say, like father like son?"
Zeke sighed, and walked through the exit and onto the next floor, Reynolds following silently.
"We're close to the surface," He said, "I'd say we have one or two more floors before we're done."
"That's a good thing, right?" Reynolds asked hopefully.
"Perhaps," Zeke mused, "We don't know what's waiting for us up there."
Reynolds sighed, "Yeah, you're right."
"Let's go." Zeke said, they hadn't been forced to fight anyone too strong yet, but he didn't want to risk saying it out loud.
Reynolds followed with his gauntlets on, he didn't want to be taken by surprise. Fortunately for them, this time there were no monsters.
After walking for an hour, however, they faced a dilemma. At the end of the room, instead of a mechanized gate, there were two stone arches. Zeke activated his runes and was almost blinded by the sheer concentration of magic in either of them.
"What do we do now?" Reynolds asked, rubbing his chin.
"Well, there's no sword for you to pull out this time," Zeke joked.
"Hehe," Reynolds chuckled.
"This is clearly meant to split us up." Zeke said.
"That's a bad idea, even I know that."
Zeke nodded, "Yes."
"So, should we just choose one door and stick with it?"
"Hmmm," Zeke glanced between the two. He did not know what lay behind either of them, and he did not want to take the risk.
"We need to choose one." Reynolds said, "Or else we're stuck here."
"I know," Zeke said, tapping his foot in agitation. "You know what? Screw it, we go with the left one."
"You're not risking our lives on a wild guess are you?"
Zeke did not answer, and walked through the gate.
"Hey!" Reynolds yelled, following behind him. "What the-?" He ran into an invisible wall, preventing him from going further. "Zeke!"
But no one replied. Reynolds sighed, What do I do now?
Maybe I go through the other gate? A voice in the back of his said.
He had no other choice, so he gave himself up to his intrusive thoughts and walked through the other gate.
And Reynolds saw.
.
.
.
Golden flames flickered into existence above Nathan's palms, they stayed for seconds before fizzling out. Nathan sighed dejectedly, he had tried recreating what Mordain had shown him dozens of times, but he seemed to be getting no closer.
"Do not be disheartened." Mordain said walking up to him, "Most asuras of my clan, took years before manifesting their first ember."
"I don't have years." Nathan said, "I barely have weeks left."
Mordain shook his head, "The end shall not begin so soon, a war takes much preparation and thought."
"Are you sure there's going to be a war?"
"Absolutely," he replied in a heartbeat, "Kezess will not wait much longer before launching a full on assault at Agrona, especially if he catches a whiff of what he is planning."
"And we will be the third party?"
"Precisely, they are both our enemies, and need to be destroyed before the world can prosper." He said, "Although, I might be a bit biased."
Nathan sighed, "Even then if I can't use this to fight, there's no use trying to improve."
"Don't give up so easily, padawan," he said, putting an arm over Nathan's shoulder, "Those golden flames are an immense power, capable of both defence and offence, it is a formidable force."
"I mean, if what you told me about the heat death is true, I don't know if I want to hold the burden of that much power when a single mistake could result disaster."
Mordain laughed, "No, those flames are far from it. We Asclepius tried to replicate the absolute equilibrium, to contain heat death in the form of a flame. But we never did reach it. It was for the best that we didn't, if Kezess came to know of it and mastered such an ability, I shudder to think what he would be capable of."
"So it's not the incarnation of an apocalypse?"
"No," Mordain said, "Its purpose is to negate all forms of energy. If a projective hits the flame, it will stop mid-air, robbed of its kinetic energy. If a spell of mana or aether hits it, however, it will negate the mana and aether in it, temporarily turning it off."
"Even aether?"
Mordain shrugged, "We tried to replicate the end of time, where all of reality is at a standstill. Aether is nothing but the fabric of reality, it can be stopped with sufficient means, but it will always rise back again."
"So if I cover myself with these flames-"
"Nothing will be able to harm you, that is if someone doesn't throw spells fo pure destruction at you."
Nathan looked at his palms, where golden embers sparked to life once again, "That's a lot of power for one person to have."
"You'll need all the help you can get if you hope to beat Agrona."
And the fire fizzled out.