CHAPTER 42: MUCH ADO ABOUT..

As the thought came, so did a peculiar feeling in his chest.

A strange warmth that was warm yet cold at the same time. Noctis opened his eyes instinctively as he lifted his head toward his chest to examine it.

He found that he was emitting a brilliant white light at the moment, that was increasing in intensity every second.

Soon it was so bright, Noctis had to close his eyes to stop looking at his own body.

It didn’t pain him however, in fact it actually helped him recover from all the exhaustion.

So he just laid there, deciding to let nature take its course, without even knowing about the said nature.

Soon after he had recovered he felt the warmth in his chest suddenly shoot up towards his brain and as he opened his eyes, it shot up once again towards the sky, the void to be precise, out of his brain.

As Noctis looked towards it without getting up, he looked at the rather familiar scene.

Just as he had felt some time ago, a pure white spherical object was shooting in the void, albeit it was going further from him this time.

After travelling till he could barely see the concentrated point of white in the void, it suddenly blasted; scattering its brilliant white light all through the void plane.

Noctis saw as everything in the void changed into the same brilliant white colour and soon took on a faint bluish hue.

Huge snowstorms started blizzering around the plane as the atmosphere changed into a snowy landscape.

The giant ice hill beneath him added to the effect and even the water remaining on the plane started freezing rapidly without his control whatsoever.

Soon the whole plane along with its newly found sky, lands and terrain; everything was starting to get buried under the towering ice hill and piling snow.

The blizzard only stopped after the place had truly transformed into a snowscape.

It felt as if someone had just changed the setting of the void to contrast, as the pure black plane now had turned a brilliant white.

The weirdest thing about this was that Noctis actually was quite familiar with this place.

The makeup had been upturned entirely, but he innately remembered this place.

How could he not? This was literally inside him.

This was the place where the ephemeral plane of clouds, pink and creamy, flowed about and the plant where his internal energy came out was situated.

Thinking thus far Noctis willed himself to teleport above at a height to see the plane in bird eye view, and lo and behold he was teleported.

Looking up at the sky he found in the distance an enchanting globe of silver light mixed in with icy blue texture.

Below was the similar scheme of pure white with icy blue mixed here and there.

’What’s going on here? Where did that plant go?’

As Noctis looked around the snowy landscape, he suddenly felt a movement in the area just below his feet.

At the same time, winds actually started moving about the whole plane.

Soon he discovered a little stem growing out of the snow.

Soon it became a small plant.

’Oh there it is.’

Just as Noctis was about to go towards the plant he felt himself thrown out of the plane as he opened his eyes once again all while being fully conscious.

•••

Noctis felt a bit impatient and annoyed at being thrown out of his own supposed space but it soon took a back seat as after an eternity he gazed upon, Real world.

He took a deep breath in as he took in the fresh smell of forest as well as wind brushing his skin.

The planes he was struck till now all had air but he was keenly aware of the artificiality of it all.

This was different.

Finally he could run around, not in illusion or a torture chamber but on very real soil, a land with life and soul.

Basking in this exhilaration Noctis tried standing up to let his whole body feel the breath of the real when he noticed that he was surrounded with a web of vines.

He looked around to find himself snuggled in a bed made of soft leaves and branches secured with roots and vines with flowers all around it.

’Is it.. like some consolation prize or something? Can’t say I don’t like it. Nice!’

Krrr~

Hearing the sudden whistle Noctis looked towards the direction remembering the very familiar presence of a certain critter.

"Owl!"

Finding the critter perched a little further from his bed, Noctis extended his arms and took the little owl in his bosom.

The owl blinked her big eyes as it was encased in a warm hug but did not resist.

"I’m very glad you’re fine. Whatever would I have said to your family had something happened to you."

Hoot-hoot

"Huh what was that? What do you mean I left you to starve?"

Krr~

"Four full moon cycles!? You’re saying I was out for four full moon cycles?"

The critter only nodded her head ever so slightly.

"Just to be clear, the full moon cycle is the number of nights between one full moon to another?"

Hoot~

Noctis just sat there with various thoughts in his head.

With all the time in illusion and this forest, how long has it been exactly?

Noctis was genuinely horrified now.

"We’ve got to get out of here now!"

Noctis stood up as he dusted himself off and took off in a certain direction before stopping in his tracks.

"But how?"

*Sigh*

"Did you just sighed on me?"

A long string of whistles sounded in his ears as Noctis himself realised that his mind wasn’t working too well just as of now.

’Must be the effect of sleeping for so long.’

"Well at least we should let your family know you’re fine. No, wait you must’ve done that already for how long it has been already right? What has gotten into me seriously?"

Krook-kook-koo~

"They’ve left?"