Staring at or through the slightly murky waters from which this kneeling sculpture of sorts was built, its arms laid bare, mesmerized. He himself could not quite tell which of the two was the case.
The image of myriad threads, some golden, others pale at their cores, seemed to reach for this unmoving piece of art, reflected in the silent, unrippling waters. Ready to embrace, wrap, and constrict it.
Only that it was no mere very skillfully crafted statue, and these threads were no mere reflection. It was his humanity, in physical or more metaphysical form, condensed to a single point. After all, this was the soulsea, and nothing in here could truly be considered physical. And the threads were something else, something that used not to belong in this most sacred of places.
There was something truly peculiar about helping this process progress assimilation or fusing, however one wanted to see it.
Creating this humane core, as it was called, a truly vital step of an Authority Wielder… was less difficult and grueling than a tedious and exhausting process of gathering and condensing his emotions over and over until they became stable.
He had to simply take control over the surrounding waters, as he had done whenever creating connections between his soul and the fragment of fate hanging above. Then he would use that connection and take this human-like shape for prolonged periods, letting thoughts and emotions run through him until they reached his yet-to-be-created core.
And as thanks to all of Noctis and Ouroboros' efforts, their assimilation speed had been more than halved.
Noctis was aware that this would happen, yet it still felt like a punch in the face when it finally did.
Ignoring the negative effect of slowing the previously quick assimilation, there were a few other effects he had noticed.
For one, now whenever Noctis entered the soulsea, he would crawl out of the human core. It took some time getting used to, but Noctis had mostly gotten accustomed to it. Before, he would simply appear where he last exited, now he had to enter through the human core.
The other thing he had noticed was that his control over the soulsea would grow depending on the proximity to the core.
This had yet to show any explicit use, but the implications were interessting.
Had he given up parts of the control over his soul to make it more centered on the core?
Noctis was quite interested in the effects of these kinds of transformations.
After all, now more than ever, he felt the need to progress the assimilation, considering how near he came to death just a day ago, and he had the sneaking suspicion this would not be the last time he'd get in such situations.
One could only strive to see higher sights when one's personal progress matched the speed at which one moved forward.
And this city and the service he was under were pushing Noctis forward quicker than he could progress.
It was a source of great excitement for him, yet at the same time great worry.
Well, it wasn't like everything would start changing just because he had entered this world. So narcissistic and self-centered he was not.
"So what brings you to my humble abode?" A few lighthearted words pulled him back to reality.
He had long accepted that this space no longer belonged only to him, but it was still uncomfortable to be pulled out of his own thoughts like that, within the space that should be the quietest of them all.
Amused by his own greed, Noctis looked over to Ouroboros.
Mulling over his words for a moment, Noctis spoke resolutely.
"How's the assimilation progressing?"
Looking between the obviously drooping golden web at the center and Noctis a few times in an exaggerated manner.
"Ahm… Isnt it obvious?" He asked, confusedly.
Getting an annoyed stare from Noctis, Ouroboros lost his hesitation and began explaining, ignoring his preconceptions. Ouroboros' hand quickly wandered to his head in a salute, as he spoke in a strained manner.
"It's going very well. The process should continue smoothly. It had slowed down initially after the creation of the core, but it has sped up once more, almost reaching the original speed of fusing…"
Nodding once, not interrupting, as his gaze traveled along a thread after the other. A bit annoyed at himself, Nocits did his best not to think negatively about Ouroboros' military-style report.
A thought nevertheless emerged: I shouldn't have read those books.
On a more serious note. Their number had truly increased.
Why was it that most of the threads were with a pale core now? At the beginning, there had barely been a single pale-cored thread, but ever since getting the fragment, the pure golden strings had slowly been replaced by their pale-cored counterpart.
Ignoring the question for which no one he knew of would have an answer.
Noctis' gaze traveled back to the more immediate issues.
What was he to do now? Maybe concentrate on learning more about fate. He was already doing his best in that department, preparing for the assimilation of the mind. Go more in-depth into investigating the man in robes. That was a dead end aswell.
Noctis had already checked the reports on the date he had met him and found nothing. He had expected a few things when starting to travel along that path of thought, but that had not been one of them.
No, to be more precise, he had hoped it wouldn't be a possibility.
What it could mean was frightening him deeply.
Either this person and everything connected to him were highly classified, and he had no clearance to even know about the incidents a person such as him had created.
A more frightening possibility, however, was that the man had entered the city, achieving whatever he was out to do without ever being noticed. That was no small feat, especially considering that the city entrance was being supervised by multiple Authority Wielders, who might let a few small fish swim through the cracks, but definitely no one of such power.
Noctis had done his research rather meticulously, uncharacteristically even. After all, this was part of his job, and, more importantly, that man was one of the only people who could make him fear so thoroughly.
His first and hopefully last meeting had been engraved within his mind. Incomparable to any other individual he had met in his half year of service. Darron, the first Authority Wielder he had ever met officially, had a certain oppressive presence to him when he wanted to be oppressive. It made Noctis feel small and submissive.
But when he met that nameless figure, it was completely different. He felt truly insignificant, like a mere insect in front of the man. To add on, the atmosphere he emitted was so very different, almost something that came naturally to him.
The wall of the city might have been 50 meters high, a truly impossible thing to scale for any normal human, but its size had not been the most impressive part of the colossal design. Ingrained in its every crevice were multiple ritual circles and large, complex converters that could, if not stop, at the very least warn of the intrusion of beasts… or men.
And he had somehow gotten through it without notice?
Of course, the shield had its flaws, considering beasts like black bloods had somehow repeatedly started appearing within the city without warning of any kind for the past half year.
No spatial fluctuations, no breakthrough in the barrier. They had simply appeared.
These cases, however, were isolated and very unusual, with the black bloods, who were quite weak, being the first beasts to ever enter repeatedly without setting off any sort of warning.
Certainly, nothing of the strength of that man would have been able to enter the city without notice. The stronger one was, the easier the barrier would notice. It was like smaller creatures sometimes simply slithering through a large spider's web, while the bigger ones couldn't fit through the small crevices, and would have to break through, creating all sorts of commotion.
And that man was most definitely a larger creature.
Shaking his head slightly, attracting the attention of Ouroboros, who was still rattling on, Noctis plopped to the ground.
"Oh, are we creating another layer?" Ouroboros asked as if enlightened, his tone a bit smug even.
"But isnt this a bit sudden? Before you prepare for an hour before working on it?" He added on, his expression overly perplexed.
Not deeming it worth his time to answer that waste of air, Noctis took in a deep breath.
Lifting his right arm, a single thread ran down his pointed index finger, the others balled up to a fist.
Right now he simply had to do one thing: pour all of the accumulated emotions into creating another layer to his core.
Today he had no need of meditating for a prolonged time, as he accumulated strong emotions. Right now he was already filled to the brim, about to bubble over from them even.
A near-death experience after all had its effects, and… that memory was one deeply engraved in him. It was only logical that a large, complex bundle of emotional threads was tangling up within him.
With his grumblings over his unachieved goals, he was almost at his maximum capacity.
A truly perfect moment to create a new layer for a core built of humanity, to build it out of the deepest facets of himself. It was supposed to anchor him to earth someday, so of course it needed to be filled with his truest emotions, morals, and ethics.
In total, he would create five layers to complete the core, and this one would be his third.
Sadly, back when he started the process, shortly after leaving the academy, he and Ouroboros had been a bit overeager when creating the human core. A bit overeager to become strong.
The first layer had been quite good after pushing the raw emotions of the conflict with Raef into its creation. While creating the second one, however… he might have become overconfident and had not properly accumulated emotions, which created its more blank-faced, lifeless expression.
This one would be different.
As Noctis felt his connection deepen with the soulsea, his eyes slowly falling shut, the thread leading out of his finger to the surface of the sea slowly turned a shining gold.
Noctis pictured the tangled-up mess of his emotions in his head, his focus splitting equally between the emotionless statue and his projected self. At the same time, Ouroboros watched from the side, his expression hidden from Noctis's sight. The light sound of steps plopping through water rang out until it stopped a meter in front of Noctis.
In the same moment, a watery lump slowly rose between Noctis and Ouroboros.
One of his eyes fully closed to see only what he wanted, his head tilted back.
The other's eyes opened to see all, as his eyes landed on the defenseless young man in front, a small sphere of water floating between, obstructing and blurring his view.
Looking down from above, Ouroboros saw a small droplet of the head-sized watery sphere drift off as it floated towards the expressionless kneeling statue.
When it finally met it, it spread out in a restless race around its form, unable to even barely encase it.
Tilting his head slightly at the sight, as another droplet began its journey towards the statue to join its brethren.
Noctis, meanwhile, was beaded with sweat.
Seeing this, Ouroboros quickly started his part of the job, as his hands extended into the sphere of water floating in front of Noctis, his hands moving through it as if forming and molding it into shape.
First, it seemed to have little effect, as the formless water simply returned to its bubble of a form after every stroke, but when a new droplet was supposed to drift off, it moved no longer in the shape of a single droplet.
In its stead, a thread-thin line extended out of the sphere of water, as it drifted and collided with the statue in a continuous stream.
The process was slow at first, then it became faster as more threads of water appeared.
Gradually, the sphere of water no longer resembled a mere bubble, as droplet after droplet were transformed into strings.
First the sphere resembled a bubble, then as more strings appeared it looked like tiny veins were scattered throughout the body of water. When they became more pronounced in quantity, the watery bubble became a mere casing for the ball of threads it surrounded, with threads emerging and flying off everywhere.
Finally, nothing more than a shrinking ball of threads was left, Ouroboros' hands slowly extracting themselves from the endeavor.
His part of the task was over, taking a glance at Noctis, whose eyes were tightly shut, his mind under immense pressure. The surroundings seemed a bit restless compared to their usual silence.
Observing a tremble of his brow travel down his body, developing into a shiver that then ran along his back and eventually transitioned to the sea in the form of a ripple.
A memory was resurfacing in Noctis' mind at this moment, as it slowly grew distant until it finally settled down.
The statue's second skin-like layer now almost completely enveloped its old shell, looking more complete by the moment.
An hour later, Noctis lay on the soulseas surface. Heavy, labored breaths escaped his lips, Ouroboros standing to the side, watching without showing any emotion on his face.
Not moving for a few more moments, Noctis finally mustered the strength to stand up to truly see his creation.
Its watery texture had grown a bit clearer, and it had grown a bit larger overall, giving off a more robust feeling. The kneeling posture, its arms slackly hanging to the ground meanwhile, had stayed the same.
The biggest difference was the head. Its gaze had wandered upward, its expression a peculiar mixture of happiness and sadness.
It was truly a weird, contradictory sight.