Coming from above, he first saw a small tree far in the distance, then a bigger one, then a massive one, expanding before him, taking in all as far as the eye could reach.
For a brief moment, his mostly apathetic heart started racing, pumping in his chest wildly, though he would have denied it.
And how could it not, even if his view on life had grown less enthusiastic. With the threat of being squashed by a tree as large as a mountain, or swallowed by a liquid bird, an incarnation of the void itself, his instinct to survive could not help but flare up.
An instinct endowed in every living being, well, how could it not? Those species that didn't have it would promptly go extinct, similarly to those that had little reproductive desire. There were little more effective ways to wipe out one's own species than being suicidal or not having any offspring.
With little time to react, the pool of void rapidly closed in, its gravity intensifying and making escape even harder.
Watching the strained, white threads pulled down by the enhanced gravity, no longer connected to him.
No hesitation. Noctis grabbed one of the thicker downward-pulling strings connected to the tree above, his connection promptly rebuilding. Mustering all his strength, he thought against the gravitational pull, pulling himself up with strained movements.
Unlike inhabitants of this realm or the void sea, he had not been affected greatly by the ever-pulling gravity, which made it a possible yet truly straining task.
Feeling beads of sweat rolling down his forehead, quickly drenching his entire body, his Notium reserves more than half-empty, he pulled up, his muscles screaming in protest.
Feeling a light smile bloom on his face, a memory of the past flashed by, a few old words coming to mind.
"What luck that I have yet to fully assimilate my body! ha ha"
Closing in on the tree, Noctis noticed the strain on him weakening. Confused for a second, he noticed all around the formless gaining ground.
The gravitational anomaly was weakening.
Feeling relieved for a short moment, his exausted body on the brink of collapse, getting a moment of reprieve. Noctis's relief was short-lived, quickly replaced by caution, his gaze wandering below. There, a strongly deformed liquid bird waited, similar to him, having noticed the change in the atmosphere. Its shell had not withstood the crushing without damage. However, as a formless being, the damage was not substantial from the get-go; its body quickly began to regather, its murderous gaze resettling once more. Finding Noctis, the perpetrator of the chaos.
"Fuck!"
Cursing, internally maybe externally as well, Noctis started his ascent once more, climbing higher and higher, his exhaustion forgotten in the face of the abomination below.
But was he quick enough? The tree was falling, and the bird was about ready to start its own assault. Taking a deep breath, a metallic taste lingered on his tongue, as he started gazing at a few of the threads falling from above, connected to the stem racing with ever more intensity; the enhanced gravity was still partially there.
Using the bundle of threads he used to climb up, Noctis swung himself to a branch, digging into it with his finger in a heartbeat. Resetting his position, jumping off with a resounding explosion of sound, the already brittle branch cracked and broke under the great force.
Shooting downward like a comet, a white streak left behind, all of his progress from before undone, Noctis strained his muscles, holding onto the thick bundle of string, his body closing in on the liquified bird, which opened its half-formed beak in response, planning to lunge at him.
Just a few meters away from the giant bird, Noctis felt a change, the bird's beak flying towards him with terrible speed, the body staying where it was, half buried, with the head flying forward, leaving a streak of black behind it, and… missing Noctis by a hair's breadth.
Noctis swung past it at a speed, even surpassing the bird's own, his trajectory having changed at the last moment, making the bird miss by a hair's breadth before starting his ascent upward once more.
Watching Noctis escape with emotionless eyes, one of them not even fully formed, the abomination, noticed for the first time, breaking through the layer of light fog, a ginormous trunk falling towards its position. Reacting in the most fitting and logical manner, it opened its tiny in comparison maw and…
"Chhhhaaaaa"
Splat
***
Two giant waves expanded on both sides of the wooden bridge, spanning from one side of the sea to the other.
The fog obscuring the humongous string of fate all but dispersed the vast ´wasteland of black liquid bared open for all to see.
A clear path to the string had opened for Noctis to discover.
Charging into a sprint, the wonderful feeling of solid ground encompasses every step. For the first time, he felt truly thankful for having been born in the space realm instead of others, mostly consisting of water.
The gravitational pull slowed him somewhat, though it had weakened considerably. His body had weakened as well.
So close, only a few meters away from his goal. The golden light, sizeling on his skin, was stronger than ever before, his body growing under its embrace at considerable speeds.
He had done it, just a few steps away from his long-awaited goal.
He would have cried if his tears hadn't run dry long ago.
Splat
Stopping in his tracks, Noctis felt a stinging pain in his abdomen.
Looking down, Noctis discovered a hole in his stomach, a black substance spilling out of it, connected to the sea surrounding him.
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, he tried taking a step forward, taking two back in response, trying again, and he fell back two more, closing in on the edge of the trunk.
Feeling the golden light wash over him, Noctis glanced at the tapestry of fate, with dozens of strings leading him to different places, an ocean of darkening strings drifting off into the sludge surrounding him.
In that ocean of possibilities, one stood out, one led forward, one reached the destination he desired.
Feeling his body being pulled back, despite repeated attempts, Noctis reached out with his two hands to the one golden thread that glowed brightest, grabbing it and passing through.
His mind was too strained and delirious at this moment to realize he couldn't touch strings of fate directly.
This was pointless, and yet he endured and grabbed again, half delirious, half desperate, and above all, driven.
Again and again, he took steps forward, and again and again, he was pulled back every time a step closer to the abyss.
Then, without warning, the pain threatened to swallow every coherent thought.
His hand no longer phased through, grabbing the thick golden thread tightly, first with one, then both hands cutting into them in response, drawing a line of blood, a flash of inspiration hitting him in the very next moment.
He took one more step forward, a determined step, and suddenly, he was no longer being pulled back.
Then he took another.
Then another.
Staring downward, the power to look up all but gone, each step igniting a new hope, driving him to take another.
His hand reaches forward, pulling at the golden string as a pillar of support.
A pillar cutting deep into his flesh.
A terrible tearing sound reverberated throughout the surroundings, encompassing every step.
He took another step and another and another.
And another and another….
Lifting his gaze weakly. A new sight met him, his lower lip smeared with a thick layer of blood still flowing freely.
Bam.
He collapsed to his knees.
Parts of his stomach were hanging out, grasping them after a second's hesitation. Noctis stuffed some back. Tons of threads were already at work stitching the torn flesh back together.
Hearing the all too familiar voice of his eternal companion, pictures of a woman running by his vision, broken and shattered yet persistent, not letting him go.
Was this because of the vision?
"I should go look for her."
He fell to the ground, his face met with the warm embrace of a golden sting, the black line connecting him to the void long disconnected.
Behind him, a few big pieces of flesh the size of the hole in his stomach.