The whitehaired girl tossed Noct a half-dried fruit.
It tasted like ash and metal. But it was food.
They were camped near the cracked remains of what might have once been a temple, overgrown with creeping vines and glowing moss. Faint light spilled from the walls—enough to keep the deeper shadows at bay. For now.
"So," the whitehaired girl said between bites, "what's a student like you doing this deep without a weapon or an ability?"
Noct hesitated. "I… fell."
"Clearly."
The raven-haired girl glanced at him again. "You don't remember?"
He shook his head slowly. "Bits and pieces. I remember training… a monster… a fall."
And a face.
Eira.
He looked down at his hands. They were scraped, bloodied, shaking. He couldn't tell if it was from the pain… or the truth trying to claw its way back in.
"I'm Noct," he said. "Who are you two?"
The whitehaired girl grinned. "Name's Mia. She's Ellen. We've been down here for a while."
"How long?"
Ellen's eyes flicked toward the shadows. "Too long."
Mia leaned back against a half-toppled pillar. "This labyrinth's not on any registry. That's why your people thought it was a low-tier. It's a layered-type. Adaptive. Shifts with Ather currents. Worse the deeper you go, along with the fact that you have to complete two conditions the even clear it"
Noct confused asks what those conditions are.
" The first condition will allow us to be able to get out of the labyrinth without beating it but we need to beat the boss monster called the Imitator. The second condition is that after beating the bottom floor boss we have to climb up the labyrinth to the top floor and beat that boss but we have no idea what's up there"
"How do you know all this?"
Mia smirked. "Because we've survived. Barely. We were on a trip like you, a year ago. Only we didn't make it out."
Noct's stomach sank. "You mean…"
Ellen's voice was hollow. "Everyone else died. The system didn't even log it or warn us. We were written off. Forgotten."
Mia stood and dusted off her pants. "But hey, you're here now. Maybe we've got better odds."
Noct looked at them both, heart pounding. "You're not trying to leave?"
Mia shook her head. "We tried. The labyrinth wouldn't let us. Once you go past a certain floor… it changes. Starts watching."
Ellen's whisper echoed. "Starts listening."
"That's why we need to find the boss."
Elsewhere, in a quiet office above ground
Instructor Vern sat alone at his desk.
The room was dim, save for the pale glow of an Ather lamp humming softly in the corner. Papers were scattered across the surface—student lists, field clearance records, maps of the labyrinth region.
He rubbed his forehead, frustration gnawing at him.
"Something doesn't add up…"
Eira's story played over and over in his head—the way she hesitated just enough, how she looked him in the eyes too directly. Polished. Rehearsed.
He'd seen students lie before. But this… this had been smooth. Too smooth.
He clenched his fists.
"What are you hiding, Eira?"
Back in the lower levels
Mia and Ellen dozed lightly, weapons near their sides.
Noct lay awake, staring at the ceiling, when sleep finally crept over him—and with it, memories.
In his dream
It was raining. Cold, heavy drops on broken concrete.
He was young, maybe six. His mother clutched them tightly, shielding him and his sister from the wind. His father stood before them, sword drawn. The nexus pouring monstrosities into the streets.
"Noct, don't look," his mother whispered.
But he did.
His father faced the beast—a hulking thing with blood-red fur and black, dripping eyes. No tablet, no ability. Just steel and courage.
The clash was brutal. His father fought like a man possessed, striking faster than Noct had ever seen.
But courage had limits.
The creature's claw pierced clean through his chest.
Noct screamed.
His father turned, eyes full of pain—but also pride.
Then he fell.
Back in the present
Noct woke gasping, a tremor in his chest.
His hands balled into fists.
"I won't die here," he whispered. "Not like that, Not forgotten."
Elsewhere, in a small home lit only by moonlight
Noct's mother sat silently at the kitchen table, the comm-stone resting in her hand.
She stared at it, thumb trembling just above the activation rune.
On the wall beside her hung a dusty plaque:
"Aris Valen, Captain of the Vanguard."
She bit her lip.
Her heart screamed not to do it—not to drag her daughter into this.
But she pressed the rune.
The crystal pulsed.
"…Selene," she said softly, voice cracking. "It's your brother. Something's happened."