@onewholives ;; continued because bby no we’re leaving-
And this kid clearly didn’t understand the dangers of being out somewhere like this at night. No natural light, no unnatural light- somewhere like this was just begging for daemon-induced catastrophe. Noctis wasn’t going to let a child become another victim as long as he had something to do with it.
Much less when he could hear the hissing, the tell-tale eerie bubbling just a few hundred paces behind them. From where he was kneeling, it was just barely visible; they only had a few more minutes. He glowered behind the boy with a hand on his shoulder. “No time. Gotta be quick.”
His weapons were thankfully handy. Noctis held out his free hand, conjuring one of his cutlasses with a flippant ease as he wound around the boy’s waist. Good thing this was a squirt; it was like picking up a sack of potatoes. He hefted him up, then reared his arm back. “Hang out, bud!”
The other side of the crevasse bore the start of a forest, trees shooting up to the sky like an invitation to him. His aim had yet to fail him. With a grunt of effort, Noctis let the cutlass fly, feeling a familiar tug as his weapon sailed. Follow the line-! Noctis was as accustomed to warping as he was breathing, and the process was subconscious as the two of them zipped nearly instantly beyond the gap.
He clung to the cutlass for a moment to steel himself, then retracted the weapon entirely, dropping the four or so feet to the ground. With a smirk, he deposited the child on his feet. “Ready for a run? We gotta make tracks, just for now!” He needed to keep his eyes peeled for some runes or something out here...