The tearing agony in Noctis's abdomen vanished entirely. The freezing mud, the smell of copper blood, the Stalker's guttural hiss—all wiped completely clean.
He opened his eyes and stood in absolute nothingness.
An infinite expanse of gray smoke stretched in every direction. No ground rested beneath his boots. No sky loomed above his head. He looked down quickly at his stomach.
The massive laceration was gone. His cheap linen shirt remained perfectly intact, devoid of any bloodstains.
"Am I dead?"
"Yes."
The voice hit him violently from every direction. It echoed like a hundred people speaking in perfect unison. It carried no emotion. It held no absolute mercy.
Noctis spun around, raising his bare fists defensively.
A towering figure materialized from the heavy gray mist. It stood ten feet tall. A thick, pitch-black robe draped heavily over its form, absorbing the faint ambient light. An empty, gaping void sat entirely beneath the hood. Where hands should have been, clusters of tiny, dying stars shifted and burned in the darkness.
Noctis dug his boots into the invisible floor. It felt solid, like cold iron.
"Where am I? What is this place?"
"The Void Sea," the hooded figure replied. Dead stars flared brightly at the cuffs of its sleeves. "The staging ground of the lost. The harbor for souls that fail the cycle of reincarnation."
The Warden waved a hand of stars. The gray mist parted slightly, revealing a floating, translucent window looking down into the physical world.
Noctis saw his own body lying lifeless on the bloody stone floor of the cave. His intestines spilled out from the horrific gash in his stomach. The Shadow Stalker sniffed his corpse once, lost interest, and bounded away into the dark forest.
Noctis scowled. He remembered Lord Alistair's cold eyes watching the guards drag him away. Bastian's arrogant laughter echoed sharply in his memory.
"So it's over," Noctis said flatly. "I die in the dirt. They keep the mansion. They keep their titles."
"Everything has its time," the Warden's layered voices vibrated through the air. "You died forcefully in the physical realm. Your hollow nature—your complete lack of a mana core—drew you straight through the barrier. You are an anomaly."
Noctis lowered his fists slowly. "An anomaly?"
"You have absolutely no creation magic," the Warden stated. "You cannot tame modern beasts. But your blood carries the absolute void. This makes you a perfect conduit for things much older than your modern civilization."
The Warden stepped backward, merging seamlessly with the gray smoke.
"You are not alone in this current. The balance demands a choice."
The mist rolled back aggressively beneath Noctis's boots. The invisible floor hardened instantly into dark, polished stone.
A wide circular platform formed in the infinite expanse. A solitary man stood directly at the center.
He wore thick, charcoal-colored academic robes. Streaks of gray lined his short, messy black hair. A vicious, vertical scar ran down his left jawline. His eyes held a sharp, calculating glint that immediately put Noctis on edge.
"Who the hell are you?" Noctis demanded.
"Aris Thorne. Professor of Primordial History at the Arcanum University." The man spoke with crisp, academic authority.
Noctis kept his distance. "Never heard of you."
"You wouldn't have. The Luminos Church murdered me before I could publish my findings." Aris paced slowly across the stone platform. His rigid boots clicked sharply against the rocks. "They slit my throat and burned my entire laboratory to the ground. I discovered the absolute truth about the Catalyst of Ruin. It wasn't a natural disaster that ended the ancient era. It was a targeted weapon deployed by the early human civilized factions."
Noctis tracked the man's relentless pacing. "What does a dead scholar want with me?"
"You are the perfect vessel." Aris stopped and pointed a steady, accusatory finger at Noctis's chest. "You spent sixteen years being beaten and called a defect. A failure without a core. Your noble family discarded you immediately when they realized you couldn't bond with their precious wolves."
Noctis's jaw tightened. His right hand twitched. "Get to the point."
"The modern taming system is built on a lie," Aris explained rapidly. "The Church profits from the ignorance of nobles like your father. Modern tamers dominate the minds of degraded beasts. They forcefully create a master-servant bond using the mana core. You have no core because your blood carries the void. You are an empty cup."
Aris stepped aggressively closer to Noctis. His voice dropped entirely, turning low and urgent.
"I have the ancient knowledge. You have the empty physical vessel. Standard magic rejects you. But together, we can hold the primordial spirits directly within your flesh."
Noctis examined the dead professor carefully. A bitter, pragmatic realization settled heavy into his chest. They were precisely the same. Both outcasts. Both murdered by a corrupt system that demanded absolute perfection and submission.
"You want to merge our souls."
"I want to finish my work and tear the Church down to its foundations. You want bloody revenge against the House of Umbra." Aris held out his right hand, keeping his gaze violently locked on Noctis. "We give each other a second chance. My knowledge. Your body. Together, we carve our way through the Vanguard."
Noctis stared hard at the offered hand. The violent prospect of returning to the Umbra mansion and aggressively breaking Bastian's spine flashed vividly in his mind. He wanted his father to beg on his knees in the training yard.
"What's the cost?" Noctis asked.
"Your life will no longer be solely your own," Aris said flatly. "You become the direct bridge between the Void Sea and the physical world. Your right eye will turn silver to match mine. You will experience my memories constantly. And the moment we manifest a spirit, the Church will hunt us down permanently."
Before Noctis could answer, the stone platform cracked loudly beneath their boots.
Thick, freezing black mist erupted violently from the deep fissures. The stone shifted rapidly, rising and restructuring itself into a massive, bloodstained altar.
The gray sky above tore completely open. Absolute darkness bled quickly down into the void.
A colossal shape descended rapidly from the tear.
It was a cosmic whale of incomprehensible size. Six massive, crystalline wings stretched outward from its sides, casting a heavy, physical pressure that drove Noctis instantly to one knee. Its body consisted entirely of dense black nebula and swirling purple gasses. Two dead, glowing stars burned intensely where its eyes should be.
A deep rumble vibrated straight through Noctis's teeth and rattled his ribs.
"I am Xerath."
The voice did not enter Noctis's ears. It manifested directly inside his skull, loud and authoritative.
"A primordial spirit," Aris stated calmly. He remained standing despite the crushing gravity pushing down on them.
Noctis forced his head up. The sheer weight of the Leviathan's presence made it incredibly hard to inhale. "What do you want from me?"
"The Catalyst of Ruin destroyed our era," Xerath's mental voice echoed violently, carrying the weight of millions of years. "The ancient humans targeted our souls. They forced my kin into the degraded, physical shells you now call modern monsters. They stripped our sentience. They entirely forgot our names and caged us in flesh."
The void Leviathan lowered its massive head over the altar. The dead stars bored straight into Noctis's eyes.
"Become the Void Tamer. Carry my absolute power to the surface. Set my brethren free from their physical prisons."
Noctis pushed his hands hard against the rough stone. He forced himself to stand upright under the immense pressure. His thigh muscles burned fiercely with the effort. He refused to kneel again to anyone.
"You are a god of a dead world. I am a castaway bastard." Noctis glared aggressively up into the dead stars. "Why should I trust you? Why not just steal my body entirely?"
"Because you were discarded too," Xerath rumbled. The pressure in the air spiked drastically, making Noctis's ears pop. "You know the exact cruelty of those who claim superiority. You understand the absolute coldness of being entirely forgotten. A thief steals what has value to the world. We take what the world threw away."
Noctis visualized the cold, polished stone of the Umbra mansion. He remembered the smell of his mother coughing black blood into a dirty rag while the head servants ignored her. He recalled the mocking, arrogant faces of the Vanguard elite tamers during the trials.
He wanted to eradicate them all. He wanted to watch their entire rigid hierarchy burn to ash.
"I'll take your power," Noctis said. His voice cut sharply through the heavy, oppressive air. "I will become the vessel. I will help you hunt down and free the ancient spirits."
Xerath's six wings expanded further, completely swallowing the remaining gray light of the Void Sea.
"But I set the terms," Noctis yelled aggressively over the rising hum of void energy. "I am not your puppet. I am not an obedient dog like the beasts my family tames. I choose for myself. When we fight, we fight purely on my command."
"Incredible boldness for a dead boy," Aris noted from the side.
Xerath's massive jaw parted. A sound like a collapsing galaxy ripped violently through the space. "A true vessel must master the ocean, not drown in it. I accept your terms, Noctis Umbra. Prepare your physical flesh for the ancient burden."
The cosmic whale lunged violently downward.
It transformed rapidly into a highly condensed stream of blinding black light. The raw energy slammed directly into Noctis's chest and passed cleanly through his physical form.
Scorching heat exploded immediately across his entire back.
Noctis fell forward instantly, slamming his bare hands onto the rough stone altar. The sickening smell of burning flesh instantly filled the air around him.
Ink-black lines carved themselves violently into his pale skin. The searing pain spread rapidly from his upper shoulder blades down to his lower waist. It felt exactly like rusted iron hooks dragging mercilessly through his spine.
"Endure it," Xerath's voice boomed inside his mind. "My form maps to your nervous system. If you break now, your mind shatters."
Noctis ground his teeth together forcefully. The sharp metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. He gripped the edges of the altar until his fingernails cracked.
Aris dissolved rapidly into a thick mist of silver light. The entire cloud of energy rushed forward and plunged straight into Noctis's right eye.
The left side of his vision remained completely dark. The right side fractured violently into brilliant, agonizing silver light. Memories of an ancient laboratory, a burning library, and a blade across the throat flooded violently into Noctis's brain.
The massive tattoo of the six-winged cosmic whale locked permanently into his back muscles. The void energy flooded his veins seamlessly, igniting his dead nerve endings with violent, explosive power.