Chapter 3: Light in the Sky


A figure stayed in the shadows as they looked around the barren area. Taking out a device, they analyzed the number on it before nodding. "Dulled increased." They mused. "Better send it to Firion for Queen Hilda to know and announce it to the rest." They looked up. "Shinryu lives here but...Where is he?"

They heard a roar before a slash, causing them to gasp and hide behind a rock. They held their breath before looking out of the rock to find a fallen dragon with a figure standing on top of it.

This new figure was donned in armor painted in darkest night. However, their abdomen and lower body isn't covered in such armor, revealing deep red skin bearing resemblance to living muscles. The figure had two large white-feathered wings-no, wait... the right one... is an arm. This right arm wielded a black scimitar-like blade with a dark green hilt except for their black-skinned hand. The figure wears an ornate black helmet covering their face with a long spike at the top. At their abdomen, there is... a dark-furred face of a wolf with green glowing eyes and a mouth that appeared open the entire time.

They stayed silent as the figure looked down at the majestic beast, now a squirming worm beneath their feet. They watched as they rose their scimitar over the fallen dragon.

The figure brings their scimitar down and stabs the chest of the dragon, sinking deep into the body. Black blood made their mark over the blade of the figure, spreading over the dragon's body until it covered it entirely.

The figure then brings the scimitar back and stabs again, but the dragon completely disintegrates into black smoke, leaving no traces of it's physical body behind.

That one... They thought, knowing that speaking will give them their position. The Manifestation of Pride, Lucifer.

They then hid some more as two more appeared. Looking out a bit, there were a young woman and a towering giant that walked up to Lucifer.

The giant lets out some metallic groaning.

"My, over already?" The winged girl ontop of the giant's shoulder remarks. "As expected of you, you handled that Shinryu like any battle you faced."

"This one, in particular, was like a parasite." The armored figure says. "Observing a cycle of conflict from behind the scenes, and when one faction fell, he revives all of the fallen warriors, and takes their memories as 'payment'. This continued on for quite long before the thirteenth cycle, ending in his 'vessel's destruction and taking his power before escaping."

The giant has a furnace-like head. On where his face is supposed to be, there are several openings that shape like a pair of eyes and a mouth appearing like a visor with many openings. Fire can be seen from behind those openings and at the top of his head. The sides of his metallic head has a pair of horns pointing downward. The giant has two pairs of arms beside each other, wearing red and silver armbands on each arm. He doesn't have much clothing on, exposing his muscular chest and abs. The only things he's wearing are a long leather scarf-like clothing that covers his left upper body and touches the ground behind him, and around his waist a brown kilt-like loincloth held in place by a green belt. He wears a necklace of golden beads around his neck and red round tattoos are around his body: one on each side of his chest; one at each shoulder; three at each wrist and two by the sides of his knees. Around his knees, spiky appendages point upwards around them.

The girl on the dark-skinned giant's shoulder has a slim build. She appears to wear a large round fur hat on the top of her head with two pointed ears sticking out at the top. A small gold crown is worn at above her facial area. She wears a pale green top baring her midriff and has a diamond-like cutting with black linings at the chest, baring her fairly-sized cleavage, pale green gauntlets covering her entire arms that are styled like spiky feathers, and a long black skirt longer than her barefooted legs with red inside. The white wings on her back are tipped with red at the end. She casually spins a long brown scepter with a golden bladed shaft at the base and a golden diamond-shaped head with a diamond spacing and two gold tips below it.

Mammon...Manifestation of Greed. Satan...Manifestation of Wrath. They thought. Three of the Seven Deadly Sins here and Lucifer just defeated and absorbed Shinryu.

"So... Satan, Mammon. What brings you here?" the angel inquires.

Satan groans out loudly. Lucifer turned to the side. "Yes, dear friend. Perhaps it is due time which I begin to inform the others of my departures."

"Of course, it is rather bothersome for us to look around and see where you have gone. Belphegor knows where; but he leaves it to us as usual." Mammon muses. She twirled her staff playfully before pointing it at the angel's weapon. "And that Shinryu is now part of the many others which you have... vanquished."

Lucifer smiled (if that could be inferred from his helmed head), brandishing his scimitar in front of her, displaying the power it now held from countless battles he faced and prevailed. A power to decimate a thousand armies.

"They certainly gave their all into those fights... Just... not enough to satisfy me fully. However... Judicium feels quite appeased with this prey. I pray that the name, Lucifer Morningstar, shall be remembered as one who rightfully passes judgment." He speaks.

"Morningstar..." Mammon chuckled. "That was your true name until you were exiled from the heavenly realm. Because they claimed you have 'sinned'."

Satan groans rather spitefully.

"Those 'gods' up there are too weak to embrace power. Too unwilling to do what they are to truly do." Lucifer said. "For banishing me and Satan to the depths of hell, they have truly shown how weak they are. How... fearful they are of us, those who know what to do with the power bequeathed upon us."

Mammon smiled. "Now then... Let us return back. We can't keep them waiting, can't we?" She spins her staff and points to a direction. A portal opens up at a quick instant, at best to head off to some other place...

Lucifer folds his wing in front of himself. "...Then, return, we shall." Satan began making his way back to the portal along with Mammon first. Lucifer takes a few steps before the sound of sabatons touching the ground came to a halt.

The figure hid more and held their breath, not wanting to give this fallen angel their position.

The figure hears a quick groan from Satan. Seconds of decisive outcome passed by, the stillness ominously chilling. Will they be found out? And likely be slain? Facing them right this instant, and with three of them, is already asking for a death sentence. Finally, silence came to an end. "...It's nothing. Let us return." Lucifer's voice speaks before the footsteps resumed and there was a whirling sound before it was all silent again.

It took the figure a couple of minutes to gain their bearings and let out a loud exhale before looking back at the field where the Deadly Sins were.

Good, they were no longer there, back to the place where they came from. But they weren't relieved, no. Now that Lucifer had gained the power of Shinryu, they'll be facing him again with a power they never witnessed before. Not only Shinryu, but other powerful beings slain by Lucifer's blade. They needed to know. Looking around some more to spot any Dulled around, they sprinted away, making their way back to Unita to deliver the frightening news.


Back at Unita, Firion just finished his report to Queen Hilda.

"That is all." He concluded.

"I see... Thank you for the information, Firion." Hilda nods, her hand stopping with it's writing after finishing the last letter in the document. "The Dulleds are ever increasing so..." she mutters.

"Indeed, and..." Firion started before getting cut off by a ringtone.

He then reached out and took out a phone. He read the lines of who texted him.

"Dragonblaze?" Firion exclaimed, causing Stella to look at him.

"What is it?" Stella asks Firion. Hilda looked over as well. A text message from Dragonblaze? Did something happen?

She saw how pale Firion looked when he read it. He turned to them and announced...

"Lucifer has slain Shinryu." The two gasped in shock. "He absorbed his power and we should be ready if we were to face Lucifer himself."

Queen Hilda looked at Stella. "To have fell a living legend such as Shinryu..." Queen Hilda says. "The situation is growing grim by the passing moments..."

"We could use all the help we can get." Stella suggests. "I know that you didn't want to allow him to fight, but..." she puts a finger under her chin. "I have such a feeling... that Noctis will be able to help the cause. Queen Hilda, give him a chance to prove himself."

"...I..." Hilda still bore uncertainty in her eyes, allowing someone with little to no experience in combat into such a war... "...Please, allow me to think this through for the night." She finalized. "I need to know that I won't be sending someone new to their graves in a second."

"Understood, Queen Hilda and...I hope that you are right about Noctis' skills." Firion sighed. "But you're right, we need all the help we could get. I don't want to taste the Hallowed Father's coffee again in every visits I made."

That statement sent a chill down their spine, both of them knew the nightmares of the Hallowed Father's coffee brought about the first time they tasted it.

"...I'll make duehaste for him." Stella quickly says before she leaves. Hopefully, Locke and Vivi managed to keep him nearby.


With the others, Noctis groaned in annoyance when Queen Hilda didn't let him join the Organization. Locke and Vivi were close behind him as he walked pass some members of the Organization. They stared at his sour look while the other two apologized for his behavior.

"What's his problem?"

"Rude..."

"Hey, watch it!"

"We're so sorry..." Vivi bowed down apologetically to the recent passer-by for the... the... lost count of how many times they had apologized.

Locke then went forward and grabbed Noctis, but he just shrugged it away.

"Hey, come on. Don't be such a grouch..." Locke tells Noctis. "It's not like, you're that bad in combat. But that said, I've never actually seen you fight just then. You didn't draw your sword because you were aware you could hit Stella by accident, right?"

"I'm sorry about casting Blind on you..." Vivi adds.

He looked at the little Black Mage. He was young but he was a member of the Organization. He was chosen to be one, and not him. What was the problem he had?

The youth could feel a surge of frustration hit him. What was he missing that Hilda didn't allow him to join? He... definitely didn't want to be the ones who twiddle their thumbs doing nothing. He had to be someone who can act.

If these worlds are in danger, then there needs to be those who can help, right?

"Oh, there you are, Locke." A voice called out, Noctis felt a motherly tone from that.

Locke turned around with a smile just as Noctis turned to see who called the "treasure hunter".

They were a young woman with a pale complexion and violet eyes. She looked pretty thin but Noctis knew that she was pretty fit underneath that red dress she wore. She had long blonde hair, tied into a high ponytail with a pink ribbon on it with some jewelry around it. Around her neck was a pale pink cape with golden accents. Her red dress left her shoulders exposed while having long arm gloved that reached the back of her hands and having the same floral patterns around them. He looked at her waist, it had several sashes around them, with a pale pink sash hanging beside her and a dagger sheathed on her right thigh. Her legs were covered by cream leggings and having chocolate floral designs around them. She wore red heeled boots with golden accents.

She gave a warm smile at Locke as she held a lunch box on her.

"How are you today?" She asked.

"I'm doing good. It's still morning, though. You know, anything can happen in here." Locke raises a hand up to her. "How about you, Terra?"

"I've been great." She replied. "The children were getting well along and seems like they are learning with the lessons I've been teaching them a while now and they are starting to know the basics of White Magics." She looked at Noctis and realized his expression. "Oh, is there a problem?"

"Oh, it's just... you know..." Locke moves his arms. "...Grouchy new guy who just arrived here recently!" He tried to chuckle a bit, but the sourness on the black-haired youth didn't even change.

"...Okay." he sighs. "We brought him over to the Organization, but Queen Hilda said no."

"Oh...She refused it." Terra's smile faded. "That's too bad but maybe he could do other stuff, like the orphanage I run. Ma-"

There was a major blackout.

"Oh...not again." Terra sighed.

"...Yeah, again." Locke nodded in agreement.

"Yes..." Vivi nods too.

"...Are you all saying... blackouts are common here?" Noctis asks. They didn't seem shaken about this. Wait, actually, none of the people around them are affected that much by the blackout.

"You see...You know anything about Eidolons?" Terra asked.

"Ei-what?"

"I think we need to go easy on him, for sure." Locke tells Terra. "Found him with barely any memories from him other than his name."

"I see...Just like how you first found me." She mused. "Okay. You see, I am half-Eidolon."

"...Half-Eidolon?" Noctis asks.

"To put it simply..." Locke says. "She got Eidolon blood and human blood."

"Indeed, what's different is that Eidolons are powerful beings that come from another world called the Feymarch. Lead by two Eidolons and my father was an Eidolon who served the king before he retired and married a human woman who made her to that world. That was the start of the relationship of Eidolons with this world and we try to make it work well. Which is why there are those who call upon their aid are called Summoners. The Summoners help in strengthening our relationship with them so that we can continue to co-exist and help one another."

"Take your time to digest all that." Locke says. "It's a bit of plenty from the start. But after that, it's... a lot more to memorize in your head."

"...Got it." Noctis nods slowly. "...So, about this blackout..."

"It was caused because of another delivery made by the Eidolon, Quezatcoatl, was destroyed." Terra answered as the power returned.

"Que...zackcoatle?" Noctis said.

"Ah... Que...zat...coa...tl." Vivi said. "He's known as the Eidolon of Storms, and uh, he handles deliveries around Unita. But..."

"He has quite the temper." Terra finished as she turned to Locke. "By the way, Celes was on a hurry to get on a mission and couldn't get the time to deliver this to you so I promised her that I'll do it for her."

She used some Fire magic on the lunch box and then an Blizzard magic to cool it down so that to keep the food inside warm. She then gave it to Locke.

"I hope you're eating well, she was worried about you."

"Oh... Right." Noctis could have sworn he saw Locke's face briefly show vulnerability before the light brown-haired man faced Terra. "I can tell Celes I'm doing fine, too."

"I better check up on Quez since Al was visiting Etro today." She then made her way to a direction. "I'll see you later."

"Alright, be seeing you." Locke waves Terra farewell. Vivi did the same too with both hands. "Bye, Ms. Terra." Noctis looked at them before he waved without any words coming out of his mouth.

When she was gone, Noctis looked around some more and spotted some of the more non-human beings around him. Now that he thought about it, he remembered Terra saying, "Co-existence." Was this she was talking about? Vivi noticed him staring around the members.

"Um, M-I mean... Noctis?" Vivi calls out.

Noctis was snapped back to reality and looked at the boy.

"What? Yeah?" He asks in a blur.

Vivi looked and saw that he was looking at the non-humans around the area.

"O...Oh..." The little boy takes another round look.

Noctis stared at the monkey.

"That would be... an Infernape." Locke replies, taking a look at the monkey spoken about.

It had a flame-like hair over the head and white fur below it and two pointed ears at the sides. Below the white fur was a red ridge which was below were its eyes, yellow with blue irises. Infernape was overall reddish-brown but had white fur on the torso, part of the head, and feet. It had black fingers and toes and golden swirls on its shoulders, knees, and hands. Like the others, they wore the same uniform.

A pause before Noctis clcked onto it. "...Is his head on fire?" A few seconds before Locke replies with a neutral "Yes".

He wondered...Was that an Eidolon?

"Oh... That... that's be a... Pokémon." Vivi says, fixing his cap a bit.

"...What?" Noctis said. What did Vivi just say?

Pokémon? For some reason, it sounded like Pocket Monsters. What did he mean and what were the difference between the two? This was getting confusing...

"...Um..." Vivi starts to say.

"You just got here, take your time to remember everything, right, Noct?" Locke tells him. A nod before a pause.

"...Noct?"

"Well, yeah." Locke replied. "Figure you could have a nickname. And it's easy to say." He turned to Vivi. "Wouldn't you agree, Vi?"

"Oh! That... It sounds short and quick to say..." Vivi said. "Noct... Noct... Okay, Noct."

A nickname? Huh, he felt something warm hit his chest. This feeling...something he wanted, some companionship to help him learn more about the world, er worlds, around him. The young man looked at them and nodded, he then smiled, even when Queen Hilda denied him to join the Organization, he had his friends, even though he gave them some trouble when he was grumpy.

"Sure... Noct would do." He said.

Locke looked and nodded. "First time since we saw you just smile."

Noct released an "Oh" before nodding. Just then, he heard Stella call out to them.

"Huh?" He turns to see the long blond-haired woman walking over to the group. "There you are, Noctis." She said. "I've given deep thought about it. Oh?" She looks around them. "Have you been learning about things just now?"

"I'd say Noct is just starting." Locke comments.

The woman looked before nodding with a smile. Well this is a start. "Well... We'd make small steps, one at a time." She says. She looks to Noct. "...Say, Noct. Would you like to meet me at around... night time?"

He gulped, night time? Why did that... sound so weird? He heard her giggle. "Head up to the 20th floor of the Condominiums. It'd be the garden in there, you can see a cylindrical aquarium part of it, too."

She was always that cheerful and now that he looked at her, she actually very pretty. He nodded as Stella debriefed them about what she heard.

"...That's... bad news, isn't it?" Noct said.

"Yes." Stella replied.

Seven Deadly Sins? What were those?

"We'd put it brief first." Stella tells him. "The Seven Deadly Sins are a powerful group of beings that... you can say, is cooperating with the Dulled to destroy worlds."

"But still, being able to... erase Shinryu?" Locke crossed his arms.

Noct looked at how serious and grim they looked when the news got out. He never seen them deep in thought like this and just what were they facing now? While he wondered about this, Stella looked at him and presented him a badge.

"Wait, what is this?" He asks, looking at the badge on her palm.

"This is the badge which signifies you're part of the Organization." Stella answers. "In a best sense, others will know you're here to help out."

He was taken aback. Did Hilda really changed her mind about him and let him join? He looked at it and Stella repeatedly.

"Truth be told, Queen Hilda is contemplating about it." She tells Noct. "Tomorrow, you're going to show just how ready you are to help protect the worlds. All you need is a strong will. I'll need to be able to know it once night comes here, so..."

She took the collar of his jacket and pinned the badge there.

"...that's why, you should really come up by the Condominiums at night. I want to tell you more about some things." She said. "But it can really be only seen in night."

He looked at her before a nod as he was given some small device. It looked small and thin enough for him to put it inside his pocket and it looked like the Nintendo DS but styled black to his liking. There was a ball-shaped capsule symbol on it.

"Say... what's this?" Noct questions.

He opened it and then, he pointed it at the Infernape and there was a beep.

"Infernape, the Flame Pokémon and the evolved form of Monferno. Infernape has a crown of flames on its head to show its fiery nature. It uses its limbs to use a unique style of fighting and its beaten by none for its agility." The device spoke out the info about the Pokémon.

"What? Hey?" That was the first thing that came out of his mouth. "What just... I pointed it over to that Infernape, and..."

Stella nodded. "That is what you call a Pokédex." She tells him. "A hi-tech device that serves as an encyclopaedia to various Pokémon seen, recorded and known. It helps to memorize some effects should you be around them."

Noct was in awe before looking at it. This could be helpful when understanding some of the species here.


That night, Noct was messing around with the Pokédex as he rode the elevator to the 20th floor of the Condominium. He wondered about what Stella wanted him to see. To kill some time, he read the entries his Pokédex has.

"Huh..." he looks up as the elevator comes to a stop. "Floor 20." He says as the doors slide open and he heads out. Yep. A large garden... Aquarium that can be seen over there...

He looked around the area, admiring the beauty and variety of flowers and plant life around and the aquatic life forms around it. He walked around it until he found a bench where Stella sat, waiting for him.

"Oh, good to see you here." The woman says warmly as she turned her head from looking up to him. Noct nods and he heads over to beside her. "...So..." he asks. "What're you looking at?"

"Oh, it's just..." she looks up through the glass panels surrounding the garden, up in the night sky with stars scattered all about the tranquil night. Noct follows her view and he looks himself.

He looked with her and spotted something...

"...A light?" He says, pointing to a glowing light through the vastness of the night. He could see it. This light...

"...So, you can see the light, too?" Stella tells him while keeping her gaze upwards.

He nodded while he looked at her with a confused look. He didn't know anything about this, maybe she knew something about it.

"This light... it's called Etro's Gate." She continues. Etro's Gate? Terra mentioned Etro earlier.

"I should tell you about the legend which revolves around Etro's Gate..." she breathes before she recites it. "It's said that the goddess Etro will open the gate, to welcome the souls of the departed. When that happens, a bright light is said to shine down from the land of the dead. Any who witness that light, are rumoured to receive great power..."

She turned to him. "Well, that's how the legend goes for many."

Great power? What did it even mean, those with great power? Was that Shinryu or someone else? Who just passed on?

"...Souls of the departed?" Noct said. "So... this light, if what you're saying..."

She looked back at him with a nod.

"Oh..." he nods slowly.

He heard a beeping on his badge. "What? What?" He nearly jumped. That took him by surprise. "Hey, how do I...?"

She looked at the badge and pressed it. He saw some details about this mission and he'll be accompanied by someone named Alexander Pulse. A basic and simple training mission and all and seemed he won't be accompanied by Erik, who ditched him later on to find someone.

"Well, you're quite lucky for this." She smiled. "Being accompanied by him." Huh? What did she mean, "lucky?" Who is this Alexander Pulse? What can he actually do?

"It's not every day that you'd first start off a first mission with an Eidolon as your companion."

Wait...Eidolon!? So this Alexander Pulse is an Eidolon? Stella laughed upon seeing the look Noct made when she said this. She heard that Terra told him about the basic understandings of Eidolon recently and he was about to meet a full-blood Eidolon, not a half like Terra. She knew he'll be in a shock if he were to meet Alexander tomorrow.

"Look at you..." She comments.

"Huh?"

"Well, I can definitely say that you'll be alright as long as you follow instructions."

He nodded before standing up to leave. He needed the rest he could get so it was wise to call in for the night early. If they were looking up, a dark speck appeared and fell down. Someone watched that speck fall before looking down at Noct and Stella. Nobody seemed to spot them as they observed them.

"...Your journey begins." This figure says.


The next day, Noct looked around the area he was supposed to meet this Alexander Pulse at this time. He looked at his watch and saw that he was five minutes earlier than the prescribed time. To kill off some time, he looked around his Pokèdex again to know more about anything about the Pokémon around him. He looked at that pink balloon singing around as their partner fell asleep, causing them to puff and pull out a marker to draw on their face.

"Jigglypuff..." Noct reads from the recordings of this... living balloon. "...inflate its lungs and begin to sing a soothing and mysterious lullaby. This melody can cause anyone who listens to become sleepy... It is able to adjust the wavelength of its voice to match the brain waves of someone in a deep sleep. This helps ensure drowsiness in its opponents..."

Singing to make them sleep...That was when Noct realized that someone's shadow covered his entire body. He was surprised that someone this large was able to overshadow him and when he looked, he released a surprised scream and fell down to his rear when he saw red glowing eyes looking down at him.

"Who... who are you?" He asks in a quick and hasty manner.

The giant looked at him with the same expression, Noct looked around the giant's body...

It got some shine around, his appearance... wait... a machine? Or... He wasn't able to really tell. But this giant... uh... robotic giant... ah...

"You must be Noctis Xer, correct?" A deep voice rang out, it was somehow calming when he heard it.

"Uh... Yes?" After a brief silence passing did Noct respond.

The giant nodded, his face didn't change as he spoke. Must be because of this being's mechanical nature that his face didn't have any form of facial muscles to express any emotions. Because of this, he only had this terrifying face with glowing red eyes.

"I see. I am Alexander Pulse, I shall accompany you on this mission." He introduced. "Please follow my instructions and don't stray away from me so that I could protect you from danger. Even if this is a training mission and I know several forms of White Magic, don't be too reckless for this mission may be easy but not safe as you think as you might lose your life in this mission so keep that in mind."

Noct was silent as he stared at him. Despite his appearance, he's actually pretty gentle. But that face still frightened him every time he looked at it.

"...Yeah... Sure... Okay, got it." Noct said.

Alexander nodded and looked at the portal opened before them.

"That's our way of transport between worlds." He described. "At times, we change our forms to match the inhabitants of that world or at other times, we remain the same. Now, let's go."

So this was how Eidolons are like.

"...Right." Noct nods and he looks at the golden giant once more before he looks at the portal and heads in.