Noctis[1]

"...…"

A young boy stared at a spell formula, struggling to comprehend it as his fingers clenched the edges of the book.

His eyes were glued to the pages as he murmured, "How many times has it been?"

His faint voice faded into the quiet room.

Setting the book down, he paced around the room looking for something and stopped before a mirror, staring at his reflection.

Short black hair reached till his neck, faint blue streaks at the tip, and deep blue eyes gazed back at him.

He glared at the mirror.

"This is all my fault."

Raising his frail hand, he smashed the mirror, shattering it.

Blood dripped from his fist as he felt the pain of glass shards digging into his skin.

Staring at his bloodied fist, "It's gonna be alright." he murmured.

Leaning his head back, he reminisced about the life he had before awakening his resonance element.

Noctis was his name, the second son of the Nightryn family.

His father was a duke of the Starborne Empire, He had a small but loving family- both of his parents were S-rank.

And his sister was a genius, she had reached B-rank at age of 18, nearing A-rank.

He lived an ordinary life, day after day.

But at some point, his family began to change.

A year before he awakened his resonance element, his father started acting strange, always stressed about something.

Ignoring his duties as family head, he ventured deep into the Drewrath Continent, also known as the Monster Continent, a place filled with fractured mana.

Prolonged stays there could corrupt one's mana core and turn them into a fractured monster.

His father's ventures were long; he returned once a month, sometimes only every three months.

His mother shouldered the family head's responsibilities, with his sister helping to ease the burden.

One month before his awakening at age 12, his father was found dead at the edge of the Drewrath Continent.

The family felt their world collapse. His mother remained strong to care for her children, officially taking the duchess position and the family head's responsibilities.

Noctis awakened his mana core and resonance elements—Zephyr and Umbra. His family was known for Zephyr, while Umbra came from his mother's side.

His mother and sister had the Aether element, and his sister also had Nethyrs.

The next few months passed, and Noctis thought they were gradually recovering from the loss.

But fate seemed to toy with their family, No matter how many times we try to rebuild our family, fate laughs and cuts us down again.

Ethereon University, the continents best university, it was the place where his sister had been studying.

She had been preparing for her graduation exams.

During one of her practice, her mana core deviated showing signs of becoming corrupted.

She tried to purify herself, but it was said that it backfired and she became corrupted, that was what we were informed off from the university.

On the verge of transforming into a fractured monster, she vanished.

All his mother managed to learn from other sources was that a rift had appeared near the student dorms during the incident.

This was another blow to their family; leaving only Noctis and his mother in their family.

The next few months were a struggle, and his practice was delayed due to his unstable mental health fluctuating very once in a while.

He managed to reach the 1st stage, F-rank after linking his heart to his mana core, nearly two years after awakening.

In the past year, his mother worked tirelessly to grow their family's influence and manage assets.Noctis didn't know why she pushed so hard but shrugged it off.

He couldn't move on from his sister's disappearance, though he tried to stay strong for his mother's sake.

And th—

"Master, I heard a glass shattering. Is everything alright?" an aged voice interrupted his thoughts, snapping him out of his reverie.

Noctis glanced at the door sighing as he spoke casually, "Everything's fine, Brad. I'm busy."

After a moment of silence, the voice spoke again. "My lord, please don't blame the head. She must have had a reason to leave so abru—"

"Stop!" Noctis frowned as he heard his butler speaking of his mom and in the next instant he cut him off coarsely.

"How many times have I told you not to bring that up? Leave Now!" Noctis roared towards the door.

He heard the footsteps of his butler retreating as he steadied his ragged breathing.

"I already know why she did it, I just wanted her to take me with her," he whimpered softly, tears streaming down his face.

He tried to control his emotions but he couldn't, the pain was clawing deeper into his heart. His mana surged as his emotions grew unstable.

"Why, Mom, why did you leave me?" Noctis smashed the ground angrily, venting his anguish for the nth time.

As tears cascaded down his cheeks, making his heart a torrent of grief, he surveyed his partially destroyed room, the result of weeks of venting.

The mana in his body had began to distort, a surge of black mana enveloping him. Glancing at his reflection in the broken mirror, he saw the black mana rioting around him, threatening to corrupt him.

He snickered at fate, a illusionary thing, law, mystery of the world, yet once again toying with their lives.

His eyes flashed as he stared at his hand.

"...…" Reaching for a mirror shard, he placed it against his chest.

"I'm not strong enough to keep going, Mom," he murmured, piercing his heart with the shard.

A sharp pain shot through him as his eyes turned red, and he plunged the shard deeper.

Blood poured from his chest, his face paled within seconds, feeling the sharp shard in heart.

He wanted to scream out, but held it in, His hand gripped the shard as he twisted it, intensifying the excruciating pain.

He felt his hands weakened.

Falling to his knees, falling backward.

His eyes lost their color, staring at the ceiling as his vision blurred and darkened.

His lips moved faintly. "i…" His voice fading

Noctis felt the darkness consuming him.

He felt body growing cold, and the room fell silent.

The second son of the Nightryn family was dead.

The surge of mana around him began to dissipate as the host died. Just as the last traces faded, a crack appeared above the body.

A bright light flashed, and a blue orb emerged as it darted towards the cold body laying on the floor.

As the orb approached Noctis, the surrounding space cracked due to its presence. It landed on his head, absorbing nearby mana and healing his injuries.

The crack above sealed itself the next instant, and the orb vanished into his body after restoring him.

Silence lingered for a few minutes until Noctis's body jolted upright, gasping heavily.

"Fuuuck…"

Noah looked at his bloodied fist, trying to calm his heavy breathing.

"How am I still alive?" he said through ragged breaths, frantically checking his chest for the wound he got pierced by that black tendril.

"There's no hole!" Shocked, he calmed himself and scanned his surroundings.

"This isn't my room." Looking at his body, he realized it was much smaller than expected.

Panic set in as a realization hit him.

"No, please don't tell me that happened. No, no, no!" He searched for a mirror, finding the cracked one, and ran to it, praying his fear wasn't true.

Staring at the reflection despite the cracks, he could make out his face. His face paled, confirming his situation.

"How? Why me?" He touched his face, desperate to disprove it.

"Noooo! Why this guy? Of all characters, why Noctis?" Noah cried out, echoing a scream worthy of a betrayed hero.

After what felt like an eternity, he calmed down and surveyed the damaged room again.

"Damn, what happened here to cause this mess?" he said, checking his new body.

"This body is around 12 or 13, I guess." Leaning closer to the mirror, he examined his face.

"At very least he's got a pretty decent face," Noah smirked, forcing the panic in his heart threatening to drown him.

He searched his mind for Noctis's memories, finding only his own.

"This could be troublesome. I thought I'd get Noctis's background, since the game barely explained anything about him," he said, his mood sinking.

In the game, players knew only that Noctis was from a duke's family, with no mention of his parents.

The players expected that they could try to use the household's assets, but Noctis refused and player were to earn the money at the university.

"Anyway, I need to plan my survival in this world. Is this Story Mode or Abyss Mode?" Noah pondered.

Considering his abilities based on the game mode, he tested something.

"Status?"

he said aloud, hoping for the game's status window.

A familiar notification sound rang in his head, like the one from the game he was obsessed with

[Status Initializing]

The window appeared—the same sound, same design.

Noah didn't wait for it to load, heading to the room's restroom to clean the blood off his body.

"From now on, I'm the extra character—Noctis Nightryn," he sighed, massaging his forehead, thinking of the events awaiting him in this world.