- "Firstly, can you confirm you are affiliated with the outlawed organization known as the church of the Eternal Night?" Agnes asks Regulus, a black raven manifesting on her shoulder.
- "Yes." The latter answers without hesitation.
- "Outlawed?" Julian observes. "That's weird, I've never heard of them before."
- "I had to do some digging yesterday, but this church existed up until a few hundred years ago." Agnes replies. "Lord Solomon allows free practice of any religion you believe in even if it strays from his teachings, but this is one of the only ones he had to ban in the kingdom."
- "Why? I've seen people freely worshipping spirits that preached reducing the population of humanoids through any means necessary, so the bar's pretty high."
- "They essentially planned to destroy the sun to bring about an unending night. Apparently, Lord Solomon had to step in since their divinity, some kind of cosmic spirit, apparently somehow had the means to do so."
- "The entire sun?... That's insane…"
- "I think the only one who could do that is me." Nyx comments. "I put a lot of my light into making the sun, so your galaxy would probably be gone first if you had enough power to destroy it." She looks up at the ceiling. "I guess Serafim or Calypso also could? Maybe. But they wouldn't."
- "You're bringing up a good point." Agnes replies. "The Sun is the highest existence after the Earth, so destroying it is no easy feat. Which gives me enough evidence to believe the divinity they were worshipping was Lady Night. Given how old she is, and her ties to you and the cosmos, it lines up well enough."
- "...Why would she want to destroy our work? That doesn't make sense."
- "That's what I want to find out." Agnes turns back to Regulus. "Who is the divinity you're worshipping?"
- "..." Regulus silently stares back at her.
- "I guess that's as far as cooperation goes." Agnes sighs. "You know, if you help us your prison sentence will be much lighter. It's not like you've actually killed anybody. If you don't, we'll have to assume the worst and you might end up staying here for the next few centuries."
- "...Do with me what you want."
- "Regulus." Julian calls out. "I know you at least care about your other children. You know as well as I do that while Lord Solomon allows many things, he's ruthless in punishing and destroying what he doesn't. You might be stripped of your possessions, your titles, and even your magic if the church of Solomon decides to pay you a visit. Do the responsible thing for once in your damn life."
- "...That is precisely what I am doing."
- "Shouldn't we threaten him then, if he doesn't want to say anything?" Nyx chimes in. "I can do that if that helps!"
- "That's not how we… normally do things." Agnes replies, shaking her head at Nyx.
- "Hmmm… then how about the box you talked about earlier? Maybe there's something inside that could tell us something."
- "I guess we can try opening it now." Agnes reaches inside one of the folds of her cloak, and pulls out a small, jet black metal box. It was ornate with white star symbols faintly glittering in contrast to the box's color, and featured a tiny golden keyhole at its front. She turns to Regulus. "I'll ask one last time, do you know what's in there?"
- "...I already told you. Do not open it, for even I am unaware what would happen. That is all." Regulus replies, his eyes fixated on the box. While the rest of his face remained completely neutral, they were widened in an expression that resembled a mix of fear and desire.
- "Well, they can't say I didn't give you a chance." Agnes places the box on the table. "Our experts could at least tell us that there wasn't enough magical energy in this thing for it to be a bomb, so it should be safe to open. Just for safety, everyone stay behind me. You never know what could happen with magic items that complex."
- "Should I do it?" Beatrice asks as she positions herself right behind Agnes, along with Nyx and Julian. "I think I'll need to touch the box though, I can tell it's really tightly locked."
- "Go for it." Julian replies. "I'll stand right next to you, if anything happens I'll probably be able to react fast enough."
Beatrice and Julian both step towards the box under Agnes' concerned gaze, and Beatrice places her hand on it. Nyx can see her close her eyes as a light veil of crimson colored magical energy surrounds her hand.
- "One, two, three, four…" She counts, the energy around her hand rising in intensity and taking an appearance more akin to a violent flame than a veil. "Five, six, seven, eight? Nine?..."
- "What are you counting?" Nyx asks, tilting her head to the side.
- "The number of layers of protection on the lock… The dimensional barrier I opened a few minutes ago only had two, but the box has at least ten… I don't know if I can do it…"
- "You can do it! Well, I don't know about that, but humans say it a lot. But it would be great if you could actually do it!"
- "...If I do it, can I get an allowance then?"
- "Like, weekly money? Sure! Balthazar said he was going to pay me, so I can give you some."
- "What would you even spend it on?..." Agnes asks.
- "I… erm… exercise my right to silent remains!"
- "It's your right to remain silent…" She sighs. "Why are you being so secretive?"
- "You're a big detective! If I tell you anything you'll just know all my secrets!"
- "I'm not THAT good, but I'll take the compliment!" Agnes smiles. "Guess I shouldn't be prying too much."
- "Thanks!" Beatrice turns her attention back to the box. "Nineteen, twenty, twenty… one! Unlock!" At first, nothing happens, and she frowns in frustration. She then quietly whispers: "...Seriously? Okay, Break Seal..."
The flame-like aura around her hand converges towards the center of her palm, and rushes into the lock. She violently flinches, falling to her knees, and Julian quickly helps her up.
- "Was it that taxing?" He asks as he steps away from the box with her. "Take it easy, we don't want you developing necrosis."
- "Yup! It was much harder than opening p-" She pauses.
- "Opening what?"
- "P… pickles! Pickle jars. Some of them have one layer of protection on them, you know?"
- "...You-" Julian's ears suddenly perk up slightly, and he whips around to face the box.
- "Julian?"
- "What are you sensing?" Agnes immediately enquires.
- "He can sense stuff?" Nyx asks her.
- "The ears of an elf are very sensitive to magical energy. Some can even sense souls, and they describe it as hearing a more or less powerful noise when they pay close attention. Julian is one of them."
- "...This is bad news." Julian whispers. "Agnes, we need to seal the box again. Quickly."
- "Just tell me what you're sensing!" Agnes replies, five ravens manifesting around her and quickly flying towards the box to surround it. "We don't have the key anyways!"
- "Nyx is in the box."
- "What?"
- "Huh?" Nyx adds.
- "You heard me! Her soul is in the box! I don't know what that means either, so we should just close this again!" Julian shouts.
- "Lady Night…" Regulus says from the other side of the table, his eyes staring at the closed box with wonder. His ears were perked up just like Julian's.
- "I'll just-" Agnes starts as she raises her arm to the side in a protective motion, stepping in front of the three of them.
She is interrupted by the box bursting open, and releasing a sound akin to a muffled explosion. A soft violet light fills the room, and they could now see the contents of the box. It looked like a piece of the night sky, ripped straight from the heavens and placed in a container, the numerous white, purple and yellow stars within it shining brightly and seemingly producing the glow.
- "Everyone, to the door!" Agnes yells. "I'll get Julian's father, we can't stay her-"
- "Alert. Alert." A disembodied voice resonates around them. "Dimensional ramparts Alpha to Omega have been breached. To all combat ready personnel, prepare to counter the intrusion. Alert level: Red. To all visitors, this is the highest alert level. Immediately proceed to the nearest magic-proof shelter. Multiple invasions from the Void have been detected."
- "So you have succeeded in your trial, Regulus Leventis." A gentle male voice declares from the box. "Congratulations."
They all turn simultaneously to the miniature cosmos in the box expanding outside of it, and forming a large vertical circle on the table. A man walks through it. He was wearing a simple white cloak, with the hood off. The content of the box seemed to stick to his clothes as he passed through it, texturing the fabric with clouds of cosmic dust and shimmering stars. His skin was a light brown, and he was standing around Nyx's height. His short hair was completely white, with long black tips, and his irises were a deep purple color. The sclera of his eyes was completely black.
- "Lord Radiance!" Regulus exclaims as he respectfully bows his head.
- "No need for formalities. We are brothers in faith after all." The man called Radiance replies before turning towards the group. "It was very bothersome to get here, and I did have to cause significant damage to this realm's defenses against intruders. I do hope you can forgive me for this."
- "...Who are you?" Agnes asks.
- "First Apostle Radiance, pleased to make your acquaintance." He performs a graceful but respectful bow. "I am here on behalf of the Eternal Night."
- "What are your goals?"
- "I am afraid the Eternal Night would not be pleased if I answered that question. And I certainly do not want to sit through another hour-long divine scolding. However, I can tell you that we sincerely wish to bring peace for all."
- "And how do you plan to do that?"
- "I apologize, but I cannot engage in philosophical debate at the moment even if I would love to. I do have a task to complete, and a reward to bestow upon the one who bested the Eternal Night's challenge." He extends his right hand towards Regulus, and the cosmos surrounding him separates into a multitude of streams that rush into the latter's eyes.
The moment that happens, another cosmic portal opens under Radiance's feet, and he falls through the table. Regulus starts violently spasming after the streams fully disappear into his head, and he closes his eyes. His white gold handcuffs glow brightly, cracks forming in the metal as they slowly shatter under the immense amount of magical energy emanating from his body. His mouth starts distorting into a wide smile, and when he opens his eyes they reveal windows to the cosmos, having turned entirely black with hundreds of stars flickering in the distance.
- "He's turning Night Touched?..." Julian comments, incredulous. "I think the entire prison realm's doomed. That phenomenon multiplies magical energy by god knows what, and Regulus is already an insanely powerful mage."
- "That's way too much raw light." Nyx adds. "This definitely isn't something for humans to handle." She steps in front of Agnes, calmly walking around the table.
- "Nyx?!" Agnes yells. "Stop, you're not brute forcing your way through this!"
- "Hm? That's not what I'm going to do." She puts her hand on Regulus' face and closes her eyes.
- "What do you mean?... Whatever you're trying to do, just stop! Let's evacuate!"
A powerful white light bursts from Nyx's hand, and Regulus entirely stops moving, as if frozen in time. Nyx blinks, and silently turns back towards Agnes. The white stars in her eyes were completely gone.
- "Come on, Nyx!" Agnes runs towards her and grabs her wrist. She doesn't feel the slightest bit of resistance.
- "I'm…" Nyx blurts. "I'm not Nyx…"
- "What?"
- "What's going on?..." Beatrice says as she walks up to Nyx, a concerned look on her face. She takes her trembling hand. "Oh. You're right."
- "I'm…" Nyx hesitantly replies. "I'm Vanessa. Nyx is… gone."