"You make my actions sound so malicious," he said with a chuckle, "after all, you're the one who let the game play out, lady Oracle."

The headmistress sighed, he wasn't wrong, but he wasn't right either. Unlike him, she needed Nox to tap into that little spark within him.

If he had died, then he really wasn't the being in her vision.

Though, she wouldn't tell him all that or even attempt to explain herself to a psychopath.

"But I guess in your case," the being borrowing the technician's body, "you must've seen something to allow your beloved kids to still remain in the test."

The being slowly walked forward, stopping just a small distance away from her desk, "would you mind telling me what you saw?"

The tone in which he asked made it seemed as if he was her long time buddy asking a favor, a simple favor...which was far from the case.

"No," the headmistress simply said.

"Fine," the being said with a small chuckle before stepping back, "I've already confirmed what I needed to anyway."

He then moved the technician's body back to a sitting position before adding,

"You can do whatever you desire to this body," he said as he leaned back, "after all, it has already served its purpose perfectly."

"And one more thing," he paused, "be expecting regular gifts from me every now and then."

With his words, the cold in the room suddenly receded and the technician's body went limp for a second and his head slumped forward.

Then as if his soul had returned, he slowly lifted his head, revealing his eyes that had gone back to normal.

He knew exactly what had just happened, well not exactly everything, but he knew that their master had chosen to use his body.

Slowly a blush appeared on his cheeks as he repeated the words in his head, the master had actually chosen HIS body to enter.

The technician wasn't worried about the headmistress finding out who he was anymore.

Why would he?

After all, right now he felt honored, elevated and sanctified.

He lifted his head fully, an almost worshipful smile stretching across his trembling lips before he suddenly froz..

Headmistress Aurielle was still sitting exactly as before, her leg was crossed over the other and her hands were calmly folded on her lap.

She looked at him like a disappointed parent, even though her eyes were not visible to him.

And that was when it hit him, the Master had abandoned him.

He was no longer under the veil of his master and he was no longer protected.

He was just… an abandoned piece.

But then again, a smile slowly crawled into his lips. Even to the very end, he had been of use to the master.

The technician started chuckling which soon became a full blown laughter as he changed with all the joy he could muster.

"Praise the Black Sun, praise the shadow that devours light."

He repeated over and over again with a blush on his cheeks, causing the headmistress to just sigh in disappointment.

Slowly, her fingers moved to her blindfold as she removed it, revealing her eyes again, an action which the technician hadn't noticed.

She closed them for a few seconds and the next time she opened them, they were glowing.

All around them, strings appeared each branching out to different locations but the one she was interested in was the one connected to the technician before her.

Aurielle grabbed it and the technician immediately froze, his eyes widening as he felt a great pressure descend on him.

"W-wh—"

SNAP!

He didn't even get the chance to finish his words before the headmistress suddenly snapped the string and he immediately went limp.

There was no cry of pain or any struggle, just one moment he was laughing and chanting, the next, he was completely unresponsive.

What had happened was that his string of fate had been cut, meaning that the world had no more use for him.

Though the cost for doing this wasn't exactly small, but the drawback depended on how much impact that person would have in the world.

And the technician?

He had none, he was only a puppet controlled by a much larger force, so Aurielle felt almost nothing from cutting his string of fate.

"Gifts, huh?" She muttered as she leaned back, "I hope you're ready for the challenges ahead, little light, after all, your journey has only just begun."

***

Nox let out a gasp as he shot up from the bed, his guard was completely up until he realized that he was out of the simulation and in what looked like a hospital or maybe, medbay...

"You good man?" A familiar voice spoke from his right causing him to turn and spot Devon laying on the bed opposite him.

"Yeah," Nox nodded as he slowly lay back down, relaxing on the bed and turning to him, "why are you here?"

"Well, turns out," Devon started with a chuckle, "fighting tier 3s ain't no joke, I managed to take down a few but my arm's all busted up."

He lifted his arm to show the cast that had been put on it, though the academy had top notch healing tech, his arm still needed a few days to completely heal, to avoid some kind of trauma or phantom pain.

Speaking of arms, Nox turned to the one the wolf-like Eclipsed had chomped on, expecting it to also be in a cast, but to his surprise, it wasn't.

If he wasn't laying in a hospital bed right now, he'd have thought it was all a bad dream because of how normal his arm looked.

Though, after taking down the Eclipsed he was sure a couple more were coming, so how the hell had he made it out safe?

Did Ayla protect him?

"Speak of injuries," Devon interrupted his thoughts with a smile on his face, "pretty boy over there thought he could square up with some tier twos. Shit did not go his way."

That was when Nox turned to his right and spotted Cassian peacefully asleep, he didn't seem as hurt as Devon was, so that meant nothing bad had happened.

"How bout you?" Devon asked, "what you doin' in here? You don't look beat up like the rest of us."

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