Closing in on the source of it all, Noctis asked, too exausted to put emotions into it, "Is this place safe for the next few hours?"
Getting an affirmative answer, the tone was now mostly composed and relaxed. He stared down at the bear, the only creature inhabiting the place he would temporarily make his home base.
The bear slept peacefully, not a care in the world, unbeknownst to it, a few almost invisible threads had made their way along its body, crawling up its front paw, then traveling along its shoulder, which was rising and falling with every breath, loosely circling around its neck once, then twice, then thrice… then splat!
Pulling with a sudden, strong force as the man jumped down from the tree, holding the threads tightly in his grasp, the bear, hit completely unaware, was pulled upward, its paws leaving the ground.
It started, struggling, panic settled in as its movements built up friction between the threads and the bear's neck, cutting in as the pain enraged the bear even more, making the bear struggle ever more fiercely, letting the threads cut even deeper.
"Roooaagaga.."
As it let out a hushed roar, the threads cut into its vocal cords, blood spurring out of its mouth, a gurgling sound now incomposing its dying breaths.
Now, a far weaker struggle began, the beast's air having been cut off for too long, the threads starting to sever the spinal cord, but before this came to be, the weight of its body started tearing as the cut flesh could no longer support the weight below its head. The body fell to the ground, its life was extinguished from its eyes, the spinal cord ripping out of the bear's corpse, with a resounding snap.
The head now hung on the blood-soaked threads that had become visible after the bear cut its paws on them. Its decapitated head swaying with the wind, a silent testimony to its death, for better or worse.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Noctis let go of the threads that had bitten into his hand, drawing a delicate line of blood, as the taunt strings loosened, letting the bodyless head crash onto the floor with a resounding thud, the spine breaking as it collided with the stony flore where the creature had peacfuly slept before, now resting once more next to the rest of its remains.
The golden light shone upon Noctis's back, his shadow looming above the slaughtered bear. He sighed inwardly, relief washing over him. Looking at the bloody scene, no thought of regret or empathy entered his mind, only pondering about ways to clean up the mess, not wanting to attract any wandering beasts with the smell of blood.
The pack that had hunted him earlier seemed to have given up on him after all of its losses, but wrath was a strong emotion—he could attest to that. So he was unsure if he was still being stalked, especially since the beasts had been very adept at hiding.
Throwing the thought to the back of his mind, he wanted to first achieve his goal of scouting before making any further plans.
Bathing in the now stronger and fuller golden light as he had closed in on the golden tree considerably, reaching a cliff's edge, the bear's corpse only a few meters behind him.
He stared downward at a steep drop of hundreds of meters, at the very least, the giant golden line, now much clearer in view, every small thread it was built from, perceivable to the eye, the scope of it all hard to put into words.
A string of the massive realm of fate lay there, descended into this world, cut out of the near-infinite tapestry by some unimaginable force.
What could have done this? A demiegod, or a god even? Certainly, no one with whom he had business.
Scouting out the location was his main goal for this journey; now, having reached the string, a frown creased his forehead as he knitted his brows together.
There, surrounding the golden thread, a sea of some kind of black, tarry liquid spanned a kilometer, and fully surrounded the thread on all sides, steadily growing as more tar-like liquid streamed in through the crack in the sky, which the string of fate created when it descended.
The shattered sky seemed to slowly heal as the rift grew smaller by the moment, with the golden string hindering the recovery process, serving as a bridge for the black, thickish liquid to invade.
The void or nothingness was what the source of the black liquid was called, seeping through the damaged realm barrier.
The substance that existed between the singular realms, or the realms themselves, existed within the void, which was truly the case—no one knew.
But one thing was for certain: it was the reason traversal between realms was truly a harrowing task, and the contact between them was so limited.
Noctis's frown deepened as he started to analyze the situation.
Stroking his mostly hairless chin, a few stubble hairs had formed. He thought out loud, in a grave tone, maybe to inform his invisible companion of the happenings.
"Judging from the size, the realm will soon retaliate."
As he placed a few threads around the sight, wrapping them around branches and trees, making sure nothing would approach unbeknownst to him, he sat down cross-legged.
Sitting near the edge of the cliff, he closed his eyes. The last thing reflected in them was that ginormous golden string.
***
In the far distance, a creature resembling a featherless bipedal bird seemed to close in on the sea of void, not entirely sure what to make of it. It had strong muscular legs with a few blue runs engraved on them, signifying its greatness.
Stopping right before the Voidsea, nothing seemed to happen, and yet the creature seemed to have a deep dislike of this substance as it started screeching at the sea, in a high-pitched tone and frantically waving its featherless, small wings, as if attempting to intimidate a great foe.
"Chhhhaaaaa"
"Chhhhaaaaa"
"Chhhhaaaaaaaa"
Nothing happened for a second or two. It was an attempt at intimidation, but it seemed to have had no effect whatsoever.
Of course it wouldn't, it was a sea, not a living being.
Turning around, the flightless bird planned on leaving, its back turned to the void, not having a clue what to do about the invader.
"Blub"
"Blab"
"Blub"
Behind the bird, the sound of bubbles popping could be heard; a small part of the sea surface started bubbling. First, just one or two at a time, then five or six, thirty to sixty,… and suddenly, then there was nothing.
Turning its head, its long, thick beak pointing towards the sea of tar, the flightless bird let out another scream, the bubbling stopping in the next moment.
"Chhhhaaaaa"
Seeming proud of itself, it puffed up its chest, having defeated the evil enemy with its mighty featherless wings and well-built tiny arms that were hidden beneath those wings.
"Blub"
Hearing another sound of a bubble popping, the bird turned its head once more, annoyed that it could not enjoy its moment of triumph and did not have time to gloat at its brethren, who were too scared to approach this location.
As it prepared to once again defeat its adversary, there were no more bubbles, but in their place was a propped-up small mound of the tarish substance, its form clearing as it faintly began to resemble a human, eyes hollow, devoid of anything that would make a human, human, its features could have come from a man or a woman quit hard to tell, everything being mushed together being a proper mess.
Boom
A bit intimidated by the change, the bird prepared to let out another roar.
The bird opened its mouth, confidence running deep. Before it could, however, let out a sound, a streak of tar hit it in the face, enveloping the lower part of its beak.
The streak of tar was so fast that the bird did not even realize what hit it until the moist sensation at its beak arrived.
Surprised by the sudden attack, the bird tried to frantically free itself from the hollow creature's grasp.
Where now a line of tar was connecting the figure to the bird, it scratched at the tar layer with its small claws and tried to bite where the tar was connected to no avail, only to have it pass through, seemingly having no effect.
On the other side, the parts that made contact were covered in a layer of black liquid as well—its spread seemed unstoppable.
Its attempts were for naught. The tar began to recede, being reclaimed, slowly pulling the bird towards the void sea while simultaneously spreading across its entire body. At this rate, the bird would be enveloped completely.
Now, in an even more frantic and desperate attempt, it jumped back with its strong legs—the symbols on its legs strangely lost their luster, turning lifeless and brittle. Waving its feverless wings, it was so proud of it won ground for a split second, only to be pulled back with more momentum in the next moment, flying over its original position straight into the sea of void.
Half-buried in the void, gone were its loud screams and attempts to escape, gone was its proud stare, and in its place, silence returned to the lake as the flightless birds' eyes lost all their luster as they were submerged into the sea of the void, never to be seen again, never able to gloat again, swallowed whole.
Nothing was left in its wake.
***
Opening his eyes, Noctis' expression had darkened to an extreme level. He felt nauseous, and a headache was coming up.
A formless seems to have slipped through the realm barrier, and one who is about to evolve, nevertheless.
In the hierarchy of the creatures of nothingness, the formless were of the lowest echelon of void creatures. This did not mean they were weak. The opposite was the case, especially for Authority wielders like him. These beings were the antithesis of them.
He might have had a chance to sneak by the formless, but if it were to evolve, a problem would most definitely arise.
Unlike the formless, who were inactive most of the time, only reacting to disturbances, the Hollows were a different kind of bread.
"I might have to move up the timetable."
Making up his mind, he started wrapping up the gruesomely mangled bear in a thick layer of silk, making it resemble a sack, while at the same time strengthening the fortifications around the cliff's edge.
He then strung up the wrapped bear corpse on a tree a bit farther from the makeshift camp, diverting the attention of the beasts lured by the smell of fresh blood. He was preparing to stay here for a long time.
After hours of work, he finally finished weaving three layers of thread barricades, each thicker and more intricate than the last.
These weren't supposed to stop or even trap approaching beasts, no, they had the job of slowing down any threat and informing him of danger. Creating a web that was not connected to him, capable of seriously harming someone, was near impossible in this… less-than-ideal condition.
Not to speak of the energy he would use up, which he so desperately needed at the moment, especially after the fight with the scavenger wolves.
Making himself a simple silk blanket, as freeing himself from a cocoon, would be far too time-consuming in case of emergencies, even if it was more comfortable.
He lay down near a tree, far away from the edge. He had many ways to build barricades in the woods, where many places were at which he could place his thread. He could not build a barrier in the air, however, making the cliffside almost unprotected, inviting visitors.
Letting his eyes wander one last time, the bright light of the string of fate shone upon him. There was almost no snow in sight, a truly uncommon occurrence in the space realm. Well, it was also the first time Noctis had heard of a warmth-emitting string of fate falling into another realm, especially a realm that had so little light to begin with.
As he let sleep take hold of him, the exhaustion and pain that had built up slowly subsided, and the memories of the past started to invade his mind.
Noctis did not allow himself to see them as more than that… mere memories, echoes of the past.
A past he would never find again.