The play begins

Noctis' eyes widened as he immediately reeled himself in and moved his body once again with all his remaining strength.

'What in the name… name of is all… is she doing..?'

Feeling the urgency, Noctis moved once again.

Moving a little forward and down, Noctis pivoted his body and went straight toward the surface, steeling his heart and desperately controlling his body to not move on reflex.

To his immense relief his thinking was proven true as with a splash of water, this time Noctis finally came out of water as he landed upon the very surface of the water, hard and ice-cold as he took large breaths as if his lungs were on fire.

In between he coughed out the icy water as he trembled and quivered intensely.

Teeths chattering his body fell upon the surface in a fetal position, his hands between his thighs and head arched towards his chest, as he tried to search for some warmth to alleviate his pain.

All to no avail as the freezing surface and the air kept cutting into his body.

His vision blurred as his ears kept ringing. Exhaling cold air Noctis tried to run his hands together to generate some heat.

Despite being able to move, his hands refuse to cooperate with his commands.

'I-i… ne-need to move. The shadow… moving… again…. Haah… haah… cold… too cold…'

Noctis tightened his jaws, plating his numb palms on the surface and forced his body up.

It was only after he sat up and looked ahead that he noticed the owl holding onto his arms with her wings enveloping and body strapped with his arms.

Noctis felt a strange pain in his heart as felt her thoughtfulness but took a sharp breath as he tried to pry away the bird.

"Y-your… haah…only going… hurt yourself.. haah…stop it…"

Half pleading, half admonishing her, Noctis pried her away and looked up towards the sky and the bridge.

Immediately he noticed the change in the scenery.

Above head, apart from the moderately huge black body moving slowly he noticed that the singular white bridge had now turned into multiple interconnected ones.

Focusing ahead with some difficulty he could also see the dense network extending above and beyond inhabited by peculiar objects silently moving about.

Dozens, maybe hundreds of silver strands tangled and connected together, disorderly at some place, clean and tidy at another.

The sudden change jarred his senses as he took deep breaths to collect himself.

When he looked down to stop the overwhelming influx of strangeness, only to realise that he was back on the bridge instead of down at the strange sea surface.

There really was no end to this.

Shaking his head, Noctis stopped thinking about it entirely and looked back towards just the large black object above him.

It was the shape of a big oval disk extending a few meters in each direction. From its circumference extended long narrow wires that went down and connected it to the bridges on either side of his.

Unable to come to any conclusion, as his brain still felt numb, Noctis just moved ahead as the shadow did, so as to not get exposed to the moon again.

He didn't think he could survive going in the cursed liquid once again.

With such resolve and fear Noctis started moving ahead.

While moving ahead he also took note of the numerous giant arachnids all around him. After looking at them and the scene once again he finally reconnected the white bridges to the spiders.

The new information however failed to kindle any motivation in him as he still couldn't see any way to move out of this space.

At this moment it inspired more anxiety than awe in him.

Just as he had reached one of 'crossroads' in the interlinked web bridges his feet stopped as he looked at the creature hindering his path.

The horrific creature with a wasp's body and a half eaten face and torn wings laid ahead. Despite its appearance the creature was still alive staring at him.

Noctis looked at the creature ahead and the shadow extending behind him, constantly getting shorter, and debated what to do.

By far his body wasn't at his peak despite recovering somewhat in a little time he has had available. Could he jump above and beyond the giant wasp with a step.

He wasn't sure.

But there was little choice available to him as the giant body kept moving.

Noctis took a step ahead intending to at least try jumping past when he heard a voice.

No rather than one it felt like multiple voices speaking the same thing at the same time.

"You seem distressed."

Noctis took a deep breath once again and kept walking ahead.

"In a hurry too. Alas, we can't let you go, for we need the help of a great thought bearer. Help us."

Just as the words were spoken the surroundings changed as he was transported into the centre of a colosseum.

"Greetings, traveler. We stand at the heart of the arena, where all directions begin. My companion stands at its edge, watching the stars which we must meet.

A straight road binds us, a path drawn from end to end, cutting through the centre stone beneath our feet.

Another crosses it, stretching from rim to rim. Meeting our path at the orthi gonia (right angle), going equal cubits in each direction; a perfect meeting, upright and clean.

They say it measures eight cubits across.

We have been along my own path to reach the meeting place, where the two roads kiss, measuring it to be three cubits.

Tell me this; how much do we have to walk before meeting my friend?

Help us; traveler for We must know before they leave."

Noctis frowned deeply at the situation. He could hear and see properly yet felt as if all his senses had been deprived of any stimulus. He felt like drowning again all of a sudden.

But he focused on the more pressing problems. Likely it was just an illusion, which meant he was still on the bridge, still at a position while the black shadow kept moving.

He couldn't move right now so he had to get rid of this illusion.

The riddle he had been presented likely held the key to it.