Pure dark, lonesome silence, disrupted only by a singular tremor.
bom
A tremor that ran through one thread, then jumped over to another, and another, traveling up a tapestry of white threads one by one, closing in on the center of the finely woven silken threads.
boom
Within a flash, Noctis' eyes opened a golden spark, quickly growing fainter in the iris of the left eye.
Moving his arm upward, partially constricted within the silky cocoon in which he was lying. Not bothering with unthreading the tightly sewn shut exit, he extended a particularly sharp thread connected to his index finger and thumb, cleanly cutting through the threads closing the exit.
Maybe this could be called unthreading as well, simply of a different nature.
Chuckling silently, he emerged from his cocoon, a yawn escaped his lips, containing a sort of bored annoyance.
First, sitting, then simply halfheartedly lying on a particularly thick thread, he looked down, his eyes unable to pierce the darkness, and still he could tell something was moving towards him, disturbing the threads he had so carefully laid out beforehand.
Judging from the strength and consistency and where the vibrations came from, he could guess the size, weight, and speed of the creature's approach.
It seemed to wander on four legs, with some kind of fur covering its body, judging from the many smaller ripples combined with the larger, stronger ones, its size barely allowing it to enter the cave.
With a hint of apathy and laziness, the man stretched out a hand, touching a triangular-shaped root that seemed to grow out of the seeling, and broke it off.
Turning most of his attention downwards as the creature continuously approached, simultaneously weaving a few threads into the broken root.
As a bluish luster began to illuminate the cave's entrance, the beast closed in before fully falling into sight, looking towards a motionless, mangled centipede carcass, clearly a bit bigger than the new arrival.
It seemed to be a huge Ape, with giant white tusks growing from its lower jaw, two large muscular arms in front, and a dark, silvery pelt overgrowing its body, with a few star-shaped glowing symbols covering its pelt.
"Raaaaagh"
Boom Boom Boom
Making itself tall, it started growling and drumming on its chest, clearly trying to probe out if its contender was still alive or if it had truly already fallen.
Seeing this, a slight smile graced Noctis's scarred lips as he extended a hand forward, resting his head on it, his bored expression ever remaining, a spark of interest finding its way into his eyes.
Moving the fingers of his outstretched hand, he felt pain flare up from his unhealed wounds. The fingers moved as if pulling something, veins bulging, clearly straining to move his fingers.
Beneath the motionless centipede's body lay not the slightest spark of life visible in its chitin-covered body. Now, a slight tremor could be felt in all the threads surrounding him, growing tougher by the second, straining under a great force. The head of the giant long centipede slowly lifted one lifeless eye after the other, opening, as two long pincers met, creating a clicking sound.
The ape, in response, took a step back. A clear surprise could be read in its eyes, yet as it stared at its competitor's body, wounds covering every inch, confidence seemed to bubble up once more.
Watching this with a detached expression as if the conflict had nothing to do with him, an inaudible sigh escaped his lips. He sat up, placing the branch that had now changed form to a certain extent, ten threads strung up in the middle of it, forming a sort of improvised harp. Placing it into his lap, he extended a second hand forward, his ten fingers making differing tugging motions. A few breaths later, starting to pull at something, the corpse of the centipede first shakily, then with more confidence, stood up.
Each segment of its long body was propping itself up one by one.
Now that the centipede stood in all of its glory, its true size could finally be seen as it lifted the first few of its legs off the floor, propelling itself up even more, making it seem larger than it truly was, dwarfing the ape by a few heads.
The lightless eyes and exoskeleton stood in sharp contrast to the Apeish creature awash in a stary glow; both parties seemed to make themselves ready for battle, neither planning to submit or show any hesitation.
The spectator above moved his left arm carefully, not wanting to disturb the illusion below, towards the harp clenched in between his legs. At the same time, his right hand made some small, precise movements, the mouth of the centipede opening as a result of them. A tremble now in his arms, he used all his might to prop up the beast even further, scratching over the harp simultaneously mimicking a beast's intimidating scream, which came out a bit too melodious for his liking.
"Scaraaaaaatchaaa"
Quickly reacting, the ape seemed intimidated, yet it still threw a punch, not fully convinced by the facade.
"Fuck"
The beast was clearly too far to reach the centipede properly, yet the punch landed with a loud crash. One of the markings on the beast's fur lit up even more than before, giving off a bright, starry light, before extinguishing, reduced to a mere ember.
Bracing for the impact, the man above connected the Centipede at multiple points in the cave, lessening his control to some extent but also taking off the burden of holding the beast's ginormous corpse in place.
Boom.
The fist had not come from in front but from the back, through a starry rift. It made contact with the centipede's hard skull almost immediately.
By luck—or foresight—the threads were perfectly set up to take this hit, the centipede's head barely moving.
The Ape pulled back its fist from the rift, not giving the centipede a chance to counterattack, the fist that had appeared from nowhere, safely placed into a defensive stance. It looked at its fist, which wore little of the centipede's blood, while its own was flowing out of microscoping cuts spread over its fist, then at the centipede with its hard, metal-like armor, which had barely moved. The once glowing mark on its fur now looked dim and lifeless.
Scraaaatschatcha"
Letting out another loud screeching sound, the Ape this time truly seemed intimidated, most likely considering retreat. Seeing this, the spectator's forehead now beaded with sweat, made the Centipede walk forward slowly, imitating the stance it had taken to attack before its demise, wanting to make his puppet look more real and deceptive.
Seeing this, the Ape who had already contemplated retreat no longer hesitated, as it made itself big, stretching out its chest as if driven by pride, not wanting to back down.
"Shit"
"Dont worry"
Hearing a voice in his head, he watched with bated breath, ready to abandon the current strategy for a more combat-oriented approach, letting the cave collapse by using the ape's strength.
Yet to his delight, a rift opened behind the Ape in the next moment, jumping backward, leaving visible cracks in the floor.
"Told you so."
Hearing the voice once more, he replied half-heartedly.
"Sure, sure, you were right."
It was gone, just like that, nowhere to be found, the fight averted, before it even truly began.
Relinquishing control over the threads holding the coloss below, finally having a reprieve, waving his fingers, letting them rest for a moment, all of the connections cut.
"Is it a good day to go out?"
Getting silence as a response, he waited for a few more moments until his patience ran out.
"Helloo!!"
"Yes—yes, I understood. You know how difficult it is to read it. Stop being so hectic. From the looks of it, it should be fine to at least scout it out, should be."
Nodding in understanding, the man took out a cup of blue liquid. He had pulled it up before the ape's arrival. Looking at the blood he had drained from the centipede, which had convinced the beast that its strikes were of little use.
He gulped it down in one go. It did not really quench his hunger, but at least it made it more bearable.
"I truly do not envy that job of yours."
Frowning slightly at the voice's words that sounded just like his own.
He jumped down the web, slowing down his descent with a few threads he held in an attempt to soften the fall.
Throwing a glance at the centipede, which once more lay there lifeless as it was. Well, looking would have been an overstatement, as with the ape's departure, the light that it brought had gone as well.
Stroking the centipede's head where the ape's hit landed, he felt a few cracks in the chitinous armor with a slight cave in where the ape's hit landed.
Not particularly surprised, as he knew that the Notium that had once made the armor so indestructible had already been mostly drained by his own hand. Placing the cup below the new wound, where a blue liquid was flowing out, letting it slowly fill once more, he turned his back as he intended to leave for the cave's exit.
Following the threads that functioned as an extension of his senses in the lightless cave. Step by step, he followed them; the lightless abyss slowly gave way to a golden luster as light shone through the cave's entrance.
Taking his first step out of the cave, a familiar lightless sky greeted him, with a black hole, a red halo surrounding it, but now with another color partially finding its way into its luster, a light gold, but this was not the origin of the golden light that was now illuminating this part of the world, no, far from it.
Averting his eyes from the sky, as they wondered towards an endless expanse of lustrous forest sourounding him for miles to come, shades of blue starry light emitted from many of the plants, creating an image of a sea of stars, and far in the distance beyond all the plant liefe, most striking for the eye, there was a gigantic long golden line eminating a golden luster, thery similar to a tree having been cleanly cut at its base, now spliting into many more golden lines, as the main strand of it all extanded up to the heavens into something that could only be described as a rip in reality, looking like a shatered window, shatering the sky, as pieces of crystalised space brock of the crack decending twords the earth.
As he watched the wondrous sight, a primordial hunger slowly arose from deep within, a smile gracing his lips.
He muttered, the first true emotions finding their way into his voice in a while. "Truly beautiful"