Limited time

"I saw it," Blaise mutters, sweat trickling down his face as he slides his fingers through his hair, an anxious gesture that speaks volumes of his fraying nerves. "We're…" He struggles to find the right words, the fear pooling in his stomach, a cold knot tightening.

"What?" Noctis asks, her brow furrowing in confusion, concern flickering across her face. 

"We're in danger." His voice drops to a whisper, each syllable feeling heavy on his tongue. "Legion… he's not who we thought he was."

The room falls silent, the weight of his words settling over them like a thick fog. Cinder glances between them, his eyes wide, the gravity of Blaise's revelation hanging in the air. "What is he going on about?"

"Yeah, take a breath to calm down." Legion says moving closer to him. "Who are you talking about?" 

Blaise takes a breath, his heart pounding in his chest. "The man, the son of the woman!" He steps closer grabbing onto Legion's hands, he goes on to tell them everything and shock slowly but surely spreads on all of their faces. 

"Legion…I know you were there, did the man seem weird?" Noctis asks, but Legion stays silent knowing everything that Blaise was saying is true, and the pink haired man was undoubtedly No-name. 

Why would no-name do this? Is it to have some fun? Can't be, maybe too…Make me stronger. It's all happening because of me. 

"I believe him." He says at once. 

He has to believe him, he says No-name, he knows him, and The way Blaise looks at this very moment now shows every bit of his fright on his face. 

"How can you believe just like that?" Noctis says dumbfounded. 

Taking Blaise closer to Noctis, he points at his frantic state "Look at him. Does Blaise, a person who does anything to keep his mother alive, will lie about this?" 

Noctis stares at Blaise's fidgeting figure, her heart sinking as she realizes just how scared he truly is. The raw vulnerability etched across his face tugs at her heartstrings. Sighing softly, she adjusts her glasses, a familiar gesture she often resorts to when faced with overwhelming emotions. "I believe him too," she says, her voice steady but gentle.

As if the weight of her words snapped him from a trance, Blaise glances at her, surprise flickering in his eyes. "You do?" he manages, his voice trembling slightly.

"Yes," she affirms, her gaze unwavering

Without waiting for further discussion, Noctis moves away from behind the desk, passing through boards and strides over to the door, locking it with a firm click. "Then what do we do? We have a ticking time bomb in our village, we don't have a single clue what it would turn into." 

I have no clue. I am barely powerful enough to do anything, muchless stop a monster No-name created , so if it does awaken I would probably die and If I die, my siblings die and so does everyone else, and I doubt the orc's would help weak humans. Cinder, have any ideas? 

"No." Cinder flies over. "This is all new to me too, I didn't even sense that monarch here, and how did he even get in?" 

I have no clue. Since you can't just walk in, but most of all how was the monarch of sacrifices going to retrieve that sacrifice in the first place? It was a doomed plan from the start. 

He tightens his fist. 

He killed his mother for nothing. 

"How can someone do that so heartlessly?" Cinder mumbles. "Shouldn't those humans stick together against the bigger threat?" 

That's true, But humans never cease to stop sprouting hatred among themselves.

Legion reflects on his past, but stops it and focuses back on what's happening now. 

Even if we do find a loophole I'm sure with No-name's control he isn't going to let me leave until I fight it. 

"But his eyes did change, which means he had already succeeded in contacting the monarch of sacrifices." Cinder relays. 

He may be placed that deal with the monarch before coming to this place.

"What now? What is the plan going forward?" Noctis finally breaks the silence. "From your display of magic and our death coming at any moment, what is the plan?" 

"Magic?" Blaise turns to Legion. 

"Yes." Noctis answers for him. "Magic." 

"I guess you were speaking some truths." He says, even causing Noctis to nod with his words. 

"Before anything else." He stops them. "I need at least 50% of your trust, we need to believe in others for plans to go smoothly, if we do come up with a good one." Legions sets his eyes on both of them, his voice serious. "Even if I turn a monster I-" 

"You have all of mine." Blaise stops him before he continues. "I should have never questioned a friend, I've reflected and I'm sorry." 

"And you'll have my fifty, but only if you promise we get my brother out of those dungeons." Noctis says, her tone unwavering. 

"Yes." He says putting his hands out and she reciprocates by grabbing onto it and so does Blaise. "From now on we trust in each other's actions, no matter what it is." 

Standing around the desktop, they begin with the plan. "So I'm able to create duplicates, but it's not as proficient as the original which I have to destroy to gain. And I think I only have enough rounds for two more times." 

No, I know I only have enough for two more.

"So you don't have a way of gaining more mana?" Noctis askes a reasonable question. 

"Yes, but I plan on giving my next mana potion to you guys well after I use my ability to duplicate them." They're eyes seem to sparkle upon hearing this. And I'm not sure if I'm gaining another one after that." 

Heck, I'm not even sure if I'm getting another one tomorrow. 

"Alright but what do we do about the threat?" Blaise cuts in. 

"Noctis, I need you to craft that power boosting potion, I'll use my two times on that and the mana potion. But we'll only take those booting potions when the time is right, when we truly need them. Considering the threat we need a way to take down the barrier." Legion had no idea what the barrier device was. 

"That is the hard problem, mostly the orc's are hiding it. I can spy when I go to check on my brother tomorrow. " She suggests. 

"Great." 

But that doesn't stop the fact that there is still a monster waiting on No-name's orders to go berserk. I guess I'll just have to become stronger and take it down when the right time comes.

Yet that doesn't excuse the orcs, and for that, we need allies to help us.

"But guys, we can't do this alone, even if we take the monster down somehow and barrier, they'll still be orc hunting us down as we go down the snowy mountains." Blaise speaks up first before Legion gets the time too. 

"Then we just need some allies to help us, that should be easy." Nocits says sarcastically. 

I need some type of hint, a way to know when no-name would release that thing for us. 

"I guess we should just go see it for ourselves." Cinder says as if it was nothing, but it made sense, maybe he'll be able to communicate with him somehow. 

Yeah, let's do that.