"Yeah, this is probably a bad idea," Nox muttered as he looked at the bony mask before him.

The moment it was out of his inventory, the air had dropped multiple degrees. It was so bad that he was sure fog would start forming in just a few minutes.

Similar to when rifts open.

Yet, his curiosity got the best of him and he didn't send it back to his inventory.

He was glad no one else was around to see this else, they'd be undeniably spooked at the mask releasing such cold aura.

He ran his fingers through the object.

His intrusive thoughts told him to put it on, but he wasn't about to do that. He was more than a hundred percent sure that something bad would happen if he did.

But that's when he realized, within the inner part of the mask, there were dark lines similar to the ones on some solar techs which gave him an idea.

What if he tried injecting his SE within?

Hence the reason he said it was a bad idea...which it was.

There were a couple of things that could possibly happen if he did that. One, either the mask would crumble, which was the most preferred option.

Two, the Eclipsed gets revived a lot stronger due to him basically feeding it his SE.

Or three, nothing happens and it doesn't work in the first place.

"Well then," Nox muttered, "here goes nothing."

He was so nervous that he could feel every bit of SE moving within his body, from his heart, through his SE pathways and towards his hands.

What he wasn't prepared for, was for him to black out the moment his SE came into contact with the mask.

If he could see himself, he would realize that his eyes had gone completely white, with even the golden pupils disappearing.

But even in his unconscious state, he was still filling the mask with SE, and soon enough, the pathways on it started glowing golden.

***

Nox, meanwhile, opened his eyes above the skies.... Wait, sky? Wasn't he just in the warehouse at the academy?

He looked down to notice that the world below him was completely unrecognizable.

It was a scene he hadn't seen before which either meant this was some kind of dream or he had somehow teleported to the sky in a place he didn't even know.

He tried moving, and that's when he realized that he couldn't.

No matter how much he willed it, his body refused to respond. It wasn't paralysis exactly, it felt more like he didn't have a body to move in the first place.

And in his view was only downwards, towards a massive clearing with rocks that made up both mountain and caves.

For a long while, nothing else seemed to be happening.

Nox didn't know exactly how long he had been up there staring below but he had watched the rocks weather, and saw creatures eerily similar to Eclipsed prowling below.

He had also realized that this place had eternal night, and not once through the time he hung above did the sun appear.

That meant only one thing, he was in the Eclipsed realm... But why, what was he supposed to do.

And like that, more time passed, he didn't known how much, it could've been a few days or maybe even years, but not once did he feel tired.

Everything playing below him seemed to be in fast motion and yet, he was sure it wasn't.

He understood nothing of what was happening, so he just continued watching, more and more events happening below with every passage of time.

The Eclipsed like creatures got stronger and stronger, but still, Nox had no idea what was going on or what exactly he was supposed to do.

But he did know one thing, if this went on for any longer, he would lose his mind, for real this time.

Fortunately and without warning, the scene before him blurred before switching and he immediately realized that he wasn't in the sky anymore.

Or rather, he wasn't the sky anymore.

He was now in what seemed like a cave, one kept lit by some type of glowing rocks.

Nox looked down, realizing that there was a trail of blood beneath his feet.... Which he now realized he had.

He was now back in a body he could full control.

Anyway, the trail of blood seemed as if something that was bleeding had been dragged into the deeper parts of the cave.

So he followed.

Normally, this would've been a dumb decision, but he was sure that whatever this was, he needed to see.

That was his only clue to getting out of this place... besides, he had no idea what he would meet out there, so he might as well continue forward.

He continued walking for a while, observing cracks and marks on the cave walls.

Some were fresh, others ancient, layered atop one another as if countless things had clawed their way through this place over the years.

The deeper he went, the colder it became, until even his breath began to fog.

Then he heard a what sounded like a pained cough, the owner of it seemed to be barely alive.

Nox slowed his steps.

The trail of blood thickened as he moved forward, no longer just smeared along the ground but pooling in places.

The glow from the rocks flickered strangely here, their light seemed afraid to linger for long.

At the end of the trail, the cave widened into a hollow chamber and on one of the cave walls was a man.

He seemed on the verge of death right now, as his stomach seemed to have been cut open by three sharp gashes.

From within the cuts flowed blood, a lot more than was safe for the human body.

He tried his hardest to keep the blood from flowing out with his hand, but it was all useless, after all, his vision was barely clear.

"I'm going to die here aren't I?"

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