"What an interesting story," a voice from behind interrupted Skye and dread immediately appeared on her face.

Slowly, Nox looked towards the sound coming to face with Grans and virtually everyone in the settlement.

But for some reason, their eyes looked completely blank as they looked at both him and Skye who's form was quickly falling apart.

"Why don't you kids come back?" She muttered again with a smile on her face, "I prepared tea."

Nox's frown got deeper, but he didn't move, Skye on the other hand, slowly stood up and stepped forward.

Soon enough she was back into the barrier and her body stopped falling apart, she turned to him and he watched her expression go blank.

Grans then turned to Nox, still maintaining the smile on her face as she said, "why don't you join us?"

"I've figured it out," he muttered.

"Hmm?" The old lady tilted her head as if asking what he meant by his words.

"You didn't put a barrier in this part of the forest because you sensed a bigger threat," Nox explained, "but after that threat disappeared, you got even more cautious, so you summoned your undead to protect you."

The old lady seemed even more confused now, as if she had no idea what he was referring to, but Nox wasn't fooled.

"I'm guessing your abilities only extend as far as the barrier does," he continued, "hence the reason she started falling apart and recalling when she stepped out of it."

At this point, the 'old lady's had gone completely silent, there was a small frown on her face.

"That means as long as I don't step within, " Nox took a few steps back, "you're completely powerless."

There was silence between the two for a short while, before a low chuckle suddenly broke it.

The old lady's shoulders trembled as she started chuckling before it became a full blown laughter.

She went on for a while before calming down and looking directly into Nox's golden pupils, "what an amusing child you are."

"Normally," Grans continued, "anything with in my barrier will slowly lose their memories and the need to leave, until I decide to feast on them....but you,"

She paused, her face taking on a darker look, "you were somehow able to not only sense the barrier but also get out of it."

"Is it because of the ridiculous amount of energy flowing within you?" She asked, "or maybe it's because 'that' exists within your heart."

Nox still refused to say anything, he was on high alert, completely ready for any sudden movements the creature might make.

"But no matter, tonight's dinner hasn't changed," Grans said, "you're still on the menu."

With her words, he suddenly felt a burning pain with in his stomach which forced him to his knees.

It felt as if something was crawling within, aiming directly for his heart, causing Nox to puke out large amounts of blood.

"You see, my abilities do not only target humans I kill," she explained, "they also affect my kind and you just happened to have willingly drank one."

The pain got worse by the second and all sound soon started to fade as Nox threw up even more blood.

His ears ring as whatever was within him continued moving, he could feel it, if that thing reached his heart he'd die....this time, permanently.

In a state of panicked desperation, he moved all the SE he could muster toward the creature crawling within.

The effects were immediate.

The burning intensified to an unbearable degree, as if his veins had been filled with molten metal.

Nox let out a scream of pain, the sound forcing itself out of his throat before being drowned by another wave of blood spilling from his mouth.

Grans' smile faltered do a bit.

"Oh?" she murmured, genuine surprise slipping into her voice, "you have access to it? How surprising."

Nox didn't answer or rather, couldn't hear what she was saying, as he was busy drowning in a wave of pain as his SE clashed with the creature with in him.

At first, it seemed like it did nothing, only adding to the pain as the creature wormed its way into his heart, but as he pumped more SE, the weaker the creature got .

And soon enough, it stopped moving.

But that didn't mean no damage was done, if Nox could see his heart right now, he would realize something strange.

Apart from the fact that it seemed to have writings similar to the ones he had whenever his hair started glowing, there was also a new text,

σφραγίζω

This one let out a dark purple miasma and it's damage, although minimal, might cost his life.

His SE moved the creature away from the heart and ejected it out through his mouth. Nox puked out a mouthful of blood, but this time, it carried what seemed like a worm.

Which it was.

The creature that had been crawling within him was a tier 1 worm Eclipsed, but one capable of funneling whatever Grans wanted.

What she wanted this time was Nox's heart....and not in the romantic sense.

Nox, still plagued by the pain and the fact that he had vomited more blood than what was safe for the human body, slowly stood up, shakily.

There was barely any strength left in his body but he still forced himself up, only to realize a little too late that Flint's hammer was before him.

All he could do was weakly put up his arms in hopes of blocking the attack, but when it landed, he still took the full burnt of it.

His body was barrelled backwards at blinding speeds before he slammed into a tree and his body fell to the floor.

"You see," Grans spoke up, "while you might be right about my barrier, there's still the fact that I can extend it whenever I want, child."

Nox, with trembling hands tried pushing himself off the floor only for Flint to appear above him again and slam the hammer downwards.

The attack kicked up a cloud of dust, but it was more than assured that Nox had been crushed beneath the hammer's weight.

***

[The Solar Academy]

Ayla calmly stood a distance away from the rifts, her face, completely expressionless as usual.

It had been a whole month now since the rift assessment, and most, if not all, of the students had returned or had been rescued out of the rifts.

Except, Nox's team.

Usually, when something like this happened, academy instructors would enter the rift and confirm whether or not the kids were safe.

But this time, the rift wasn't allowing anyone through.

Most of the other instructors and students had concluded that the four had died in there, but both Ayla and Astra knew that wasn't the case.

Why they were so confident, especially in Nox's return was unknown, but neither has panicked.

The headmistress was mostly the same, she looked a bit tired the past few days, but she hadn't mentioned a single thing about Nox.

Though, Ayla could feel how tired she was from time to time, but she never brought it up.

The Academy's activities resumed as usual with most of the students having forgotten even with his reputation as the crazy hoarder.

Though, there were quite a few who always returned to the rift everyday, one of which was a girl in wheelchair.

Ayla looked at her calmly waiting by the rift, as she had been for the past few days. Everyday, she sat close to it, waiting expectantly but even when no one came out, she didn't seem disappointed.

Instead, she returned with even more hope the next day.

Though, she wasn't the only one that visited the rift, Devon and Cass stood with her, waiting for a change in the rift.

Ayla didn't approach them since she was completely uninterested in humans that were not Nox or the headmistress.

"Are you worried about him?" Astra, who was standing by her side, asked.

She still thought the kid was a weird one, but she wasn't one to judge, after all, she was the one who spoke to imaginary voices in her head.

Ayla looked at her the back at the rift before shaking her head, "he'll be fine."

Astra also nodded in response before turning to the rift, she wouldn't admit, but she was a bit worried about her lab rat.

After all, he was the only shot she had at figuring out a question she never seemed to have an answer to.

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