?1352 Dark Reminder
"D-did you feel that?"
Neron's ears suddenly perked up as he felt a sudden change in the atmosphere,
It was ominous—having a certain feel of darkness that made his skin tingle.
He didn't like the sensation as it made him feel fear; an emotion he had grown numb to over the years.
Serah kept talking like all was well, so he wanted to know if she could hear—or perceive—what he could.
Her response was a confused stare.
"Feel what?"
The moment she said this, Neron realized what was going on.
'A disturbance in Mana! Something is going on!'
He didn't know what in particular it was, but he knew it within himself—and from experience interacting with Mana—that something was wrong.
He had to know what it was.
"Let's stop talking, Serah. I feel something is happening."
The moment he said this, Serah fell silent.
Over the years, these two had grown accustomed to each other. They probably understood each other more than their parents could ever come close to.
That was why, the moment she saw the look in Neron's eyes, Serah fell quiet and nodded.
She knew he was being dead serious.
"What do you think it is?" She whispered, staring intently at him with her ruby-like eyes.
"I don't know. Maybe investigate?"
The best course of action would be to call upon the Butler, but Neron wasn't sure if the situation was as intense as that.
As he struggled to pick an option, he felt yet another intense wave of Mana.
But this feeling… it felt oddly familiar, but strangely darker.
Far more perverse than the Mana he was used to.
'I've felt this somewhere before. Where…?'
Neron didn't know.
He couldn't remember—almost as if a fog covered his mind—but it felt so close.
'I have to know what it is!' He could feel his heart racing as he felt strangely agitated.
As Neron clutched his chest, feeling his pounding internal organ beat faster and faster, his eyes widened.
"… Ron…"
He could hear a faint feminine voice, but he was too stuck in his reverie to fully grasp it.
"… NERON!"
A hot sensation spread throughout his cheek as the sound of a hot slap echoed across the room.
Neron's hand reflexively went to his cheek as his widened eyes looked at the girl who sat opposite him.
She looked worried for some reason.
"Se…rah? Why did you hit me?"
"You were behaving weird. You spaced and out didn't answer me when I called you. I had to do something!"
Once he heard this, he slowly snapped to reality.
"How long was I out for?"
"U-um… maybe a minute or two?"
Neron couldn't believe he had zoned out for that long when it felt like just a few seconds to him.
"I… see. Thanks for bringing me back."
The faint Mana he had sensed earlier was now more intense than ever, and it seemed to have surrounded the entire compound.
At this point, Neron knew it was serious.
"We need to wake Aldred." Neron decided, not feeling the usual confidence that often remained with him no matter what.
Something about the situation felt too scary to confront alone
—even if he had Serah by his side.
"O-okay!"
Both kids left the bed, and Serah rushed to the door while Neron struggled to find his footing.
The moment she twisted the doorknob, Neron felt something rush into him.
His senses screamed at him as an ominous energy converged behind the door.
"Serah, no—!"
Before he could reach out and stop her, she successfully opened the door, revealing the source of the darkness.
It was a man.
"Oho…!"
The man appeared pale, with a cleanly shaven head and bulging eyes that seemed like they would drop out of their sockets at any time.
He was dressed in a hooded black gown, though the hood rested on his back.
"… Looks like the kids were awake."
His broad grin felt inhuman—monstrous even. Both Neron and Serah felt paralyzed from their waist down.
They could only watch in fear and shock as the man took a step forward, barely a few inches from Serah, and a couple more steps from Neron who stood behind her.
He had a crimson orb on his wrinkled old hand, which pulsated as if it had life.
While Serah was scared to death by the appearance of the stranger, Neron's eyes were only focused on the red orb.
The moment he saw it—and felt its perverse Mana—he remembered the horrors that were buried deep in his mind.
This orb bore an uncanny resemblance to the one that killed his friends.
"A Blood Stone!" Neron grunted, his vacant eyes showing nothing but sheer malice.
"Ohhh! You know about the Bloo—?"
Before the man could complete his words, he felt himself unable to speak again.
'E-eh…?' His face seemed to display as his bulging eyeballs looked around while his vision blurred.
He could feel his head falling from where his body was, with splashes of blood decorating his line of sight.
'What just… happen…ed…'
The man's head rolled on the floor and his body soon followed.
Red liquid stained the area of impact around his corpse, and blood sprayed all over the area.
"AHHHHHHHH!" Serah screamed, now drenched in the blood of the man as his body lay lifeless beside her.
She had never seen anything like this before.
It frightened her beyond what mere words could describe.
However, perhaps what scared her the most was the boy who now stood beside her, holding the very orb the man had held a second earlier.
His previously black eyes now glowed bright blue as he stood imposingly above the corpse.
No one needed to tell Serah who had just killed the scary man just now.
The cold gaze he had, and the entire demeanor he exuded was nothing like the Neron she knew.
This boy had become something else.
"I can't believe I have to deal with this again…" Neron's whisper rang hollow as he looked at the red pulsating orb in his hand.
The stone got crushed in an instant, its crimson particles crashing on the ground as if they were nothing but glass.
And then, his eyes flickered with brighter blue.
"Where's the next one?"
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Thanks for reading!
Yeah… looks like Neron snapped; and I'm loving it.
