>Deep Within the Labyrinth
Noct stumbled forward, soaked in blood, until he reached the sealed gate.
Its cold stone thrummed with energy.
He pushed—groaning with effort—and the door creaked open.
Inside,a vast chamber glowing with pale light. Broken pillars floated midair. Glyphs shimmered along the walls, shifting like living code. At the center was a cracked pedestal, and above it, suspended in a glasslike cube, hovered a strange obsidian tablet.
As Noct took it.
It pulsed once.
Then shattered.
The fragments didn't fall.
They spiraled toward Noct like drawn by magnetic force—burning with formulas, symbols, equations that etched themselves into the air.
[SYSTEM INTERFACE: TRIAL INITIATED]
Tablet Detected: ???
Compatibility Test: Commencing.
Noct didn't have time to react.
A new version of himself appeared—a perfect, merciless doppelgänger,and lunged forward with inhuman speed.
He dodged, barely.
Noct scrambled through the scattered weapons in the chamber, picking up a battered sword.
"Not this again"he said with baited breath.
The fight that followed wasn't clean. He bled. He screamed. His body was battered and broken.
But his mind never quit.
He analyzed patterns, angles—where the doppelgänger stepped, how it twisted its wrist, the arc of every blow.
Each movement was a number. Each breath a variable.
His head throbbed. Symbols flashed in his vision unbidden.
And suddenly… he understood.
[SYSTEM WARNING: Cognitive Stress Threshold Exceeded]
Override Approved. Veil Ill Tablet Manifested – NUMBERS
"Reality is a formula. Solve it."
The air cracked.
A translucent geometric ring materialized around Noct, spinning with equations and flickering runes.
His body responded before he could think.
> Multiplier Edge: x3.4
Vector Strike: (120°, 60°, -15°)
He lashed out—one swing becoming three at once, angled with perfect precision.
The doppelgänger's chest was torn open.
But it didn't fall.
It exploded, releasing a cascade of formula fragments into the air that collapsed into the grid around Noct.
His legs buckled.
Blood dripped from his nose.
[SYSTEM ALERT: MENTAL STRAIN REACHED STAGE 2]
Recommended: Rest. Further use may cause neural degradation.
Noct collapsed, gasping.
But he was alive.
And in his mind now danced something new—a web of equations waiting to be solved, wielded, and unleashed.
A power not born of brute strength.
But of understanding.
Noct lay on the cold stone, heart pounding. Lines of glowing math still spiraled around his fingers like smoke that hadn't decided whether to burn or bless.
He exhaled slowly and rose to his knees.
Initiating Field Calibration…
[Basic Formula Constructs Accessible]
Instinctively, he raised his hand. Equations flickered in the air.
A translucent grid expanded around him like a dome of ghostly glass. Inside it, calculations floated—simple, elegant.
He focused.
Sequence Dash: Fib(1,1,2,3,5)
He stepped forward—and shot across the chamber in a blur, each stride faster than the last, landing with a staggered breath.
His eyes widened.
Another thought.
Multiplier Edge: x2
He slashed at the air with his sword.
The impact cratered the nearby wall. Dust rained down.
He stared at his own trembling hands.
"This isn't just power…" he whispered. "It's… precision."
Another construct flickered,a glowing circle of numerals and symbols: the beginnings of an Array. He tried forming a second one—and immediately winced as a sharp pain stabbed through his skull.
[SYSTEM ALERT: Neural Load Rising]
Further use not recommended.
He grit his teeth and dismissed the array, panting.
One step at a time.
As he turned to the sealed exit, the grid faded behind him—but the numbers, the calculations, the potential—they stayed in his mind.
Noct wasn't just a survivor anymore.
He was a variable.
And the world?
Just one long equation waiting to be solved.