Awaken - Part 4

Meanwhile, as Chris got the situation under control…

Noctis stood in the sky as he surveyed the city beneath him, searching for the ark rupture his noisy disciple entered. After disappearing from terminal 1 and reappearing somewhere in the outer ring, following the incident beforehand.

'Tsk, just why must kids be so inquisitive nowadays? If it weren't for the fact, I have to play dumb to make it seems as if I wasn't just here a while ago... none of this would have been happening,' Noctis sighed as he thought back to what led him to come back here, '... but no Fate just had to screw me over and make me come clean up my mess.'

"Sigh, just why must things never go as planned when all I want to do is spend my precious time lazing around." He muttered before lifting his head and rolling his eyes as he glanced at the mysterious fellow slowly walking toward him.

Who was shrouded in a starry-like mist reminiscent of a night sky as they wore an oversized cloak engraved with blue and red celestial bodies? That shined in the sunlight of the midday sun as if it had a life of its own as they shifted and moved along the cloak like butterflies seeking freedom.

"So, what do you want, Dime?" Noctis asked curiously with a bit of weariness in his voice, after the figure stopped a meter away from him and pulled down his cloak.

"Nothing much just came to say, hello and stop you from interfering with a little incident your disciple got into. But besides that, how have you been considering the last time I saw you… you were still locked up in Purgatory." Dime asked with a chuckle as he summoned a scepter crafted from burnt wood that had a reddish turquoise stone embedded within it.

That was surrounded by three golden orbs coated in purple sigils, which swirled around the stone like planets revolving around a sun.

"Hmm, while I would love to entertain your antics, Dime, right now isn't the time for such shenanigans. So please move out of my way or else I can promise you, that you won't be the only one to die today." Noctis stated even though his mind worked overtime to understand the reason behind Dime's sudden appearance.

'Surely, he could not have been camping here waiting for me to arrive. Scratch that for he would have tried to stop me from killing that receptionist and even that whole situation from escalating to such a level. But then again… tsk, just why cannot life just be 1+1=2 and not 1+1=3,' He thought before disregarding the reason behind Dime's appearance and focusing back on how to hinder his discipline from waking up Rin.

"Relax, old timer, I'm not here to fight or argue with you, however, an order is an order. So while I may not be able to defeat you, I cannot let you move any further until the ark rupture has been cleared. Which should not take too long, so surely you can sit still for a few minutes," Dime asked with a smile as his once cyan eyes turned darker as a flickering symbol of a teardrop.

Manifested within his pupils as the sky above the outer ring grew darker as if someone had suddenly flipped a switch, turning day into night. Following the sudden appearance of an aurora borealis, which caused numerous citizens throughout Dreamworld to glance at the sky with amazement and wonder.

…

"Mommy, what's that?" A kid not older than ten asked with curiosity as they pointed at the sky with awe in their eyes.

"Hmm? Oh, it would seem your distant uncle has some business to handle, Kyle. But while it would be fun to watch you have school tomorrow, so let's hurry home before your father starts panicking." His mother replied as they resumed their walk home even though Kyle constantly kept looking at the sky.

'Sigh, hopefully whatever is going on gets taken care of quickly as Creators don't usually resort to a domain expansion unless they want to minimize the damage of their fight or contain an entity that could potentially cause mass destruction. Fortunately, it seems to be the former as the domain has not yet flickered or began to shudder since its emergence.'

Kyle's mother thought before picking up the pace as while that might be the case for now anything can happen, so it is better to be safe than sorry.

…

"While that sounds fantastic, Dime… you sadly don't have the power to keep me here forever. So please move out my way so I can retrieve my disciple before your brother gets him killed," Noctis laughed after examining Dime's domain as he walked toward him and patted his shoulder.

However, before he could move further, Dime swiftly gripped his scepter and swung it downward causing the cloud below him to make a ding sound like he had hit a solid surface as time was reversed with Noctis finding himself back to where he was before he approached Dime.

"Sorry, but I can't allow you to do such a thing so, you can try but you're not getting past me." He stated confidently as Noctis squinted his eyes before smiling and summoning a pair of bloodstained ash-blue chained swords.

"Tsk, while admirable borrowed powers won't suffice to trap me, so once again either move out of my way or I will be forced to resort to violence, Dime."

"Hmm, now just what could be within that ark rupture for an entity such as yourself to be so worried about the safety of your disciple?" he asked curiously as this was unlike the individual he meant all those years ago.

"None of your fucking business, Dime! However, with how things are moving let's hope and pray all hell doesn't break loose and your brother doesn't anger the beast dwelling within," Noctis shivered as he thought back to the last time something like this happened and the person who had the bear the brunt of Ezekiel's anger following his abrupt awakening.

"Well, then let's just hope nothing like that happens for~," Dime was saying before his domain suddenly shattered following the appearance of an explosion of grayish light.

Which seemed to originate from the location of the ark rupture in Zone 5 codenamed AX75O, just as the sound of someone cracking their knuckles could be heard from the crater left behind from the destruction of an ark rupture.

"Now just what do we have here?!" Rin wondered as he glanced at his surroundings curiously before unleashing his aura causing the entire Dreamworld to quake and rumble.