Striding towards the throne, Nuriel, with a swift singular motion, snatched the untainted scepter and brought it close to his face.
He knew it wasn't a visual bug; there was certainly a white orb sitting in his throne just now, reading a book!
Nuriel had his doubts about the responses given to him by the scepter. For him, it sometimes responded vaguely, sometimes very detailed. Or perhaps it was him asking vague questions that led to vague answers.
But regardless of his opinion, the answers lay inside the untainted scepter.
He inspected the metallic cube with a keen eye. Unsurprisingly, there was nothing new to it. And so he had an idea. Why not ask the scepter system?
"I think there's something wrong with the untainted scepter. What do you think?" Nuriel looked upwards to see the flickering stars in the distance.
. . .
[There is no issue found in the untainted scepter fragment that you are holding...]
'...That's clearly a lie! I saw it move inside!' Nuriel looked back at the cube in his hands. He then did the next best thing to solve a problem.
Shake. Shake. Shake.
Nuriel began a jerking motion with his hand to shake the scepter up and down multiple times, until something happened.
Shake. Shake. Shake.
[There is no issue found in the untainted scepter fragment that you are holding...]
Shake. Shake.
[There is no issue...
Shake.
[Stop!]
The untainted scepter shone for a split second, halting Nuriel from moving his hands before a slimy texture engulfed the metallic cube, then condensed into a certain spot in front of Nuriel to create the same shiny white orb he saw before.
"Don't hurt me, don't hurt me, please!" The white orb reverberated its exterior, making water-like ripples as a result.
Despite being a sphere, it could still showcase emotions via two tendrils appearing and extending from its left and right, then proceeding to press the tips of them together to make a praying gesture.
At first glance, it didn't seem harmful, and the fact that its voice sounded high-pitched wasn't helping it in the slightest when it came to the fear factor.
'Could this be the untainted scepter?' Nuriel reached out his hand to touch the orb, to which it reluctantly allowed him to.
It felt like dipping his hands into a pool of cold water, but his hands didn't get wet at all. He tried pressing his hand further inside, but the density of the water-like texture increased with depth, and so his hand stopped at a certain point where he couldn't push any deeper.
Nuriel removed his hand to find that it didn't get hurt in any way.
All of a sudden, the white orb bounced up and down, its exterior being stretched as it moved, then returning to its sphere shape when it stopped.
"You're so mean! I can't believe you would put your hand so deep inside—
Nuriel flinched and extended his palm towards it in a stopping gesture.
"Wait a minute, first things first... who and what are you?"
. . .
The orb bobbed up and down and side to side, then retracted its tendrils back.
[Insufficient data to provide an answer]
. . .
After a bit of silence, the orb reverberated in embarrassment. "Oh right... I don't know."
The orb stared at Nuriel in silence.
Now that there was something to direct his gaze at, Nuriel simply crossed his arms and stared back at the orb with a stern expression.
The orb reverberated slightly. A single tendril popped up from its surface as it began scratching itself. The strange and almost humorous sight almost made Nuriel twitch.
"I... um, uh. I really don't know. I just woke up here and I, um... can't even remember anything that happened before I got here," the orb squeezed a little as it said that.
Nuriel grew a disappointed look from the response and sighed. The orb reverberated again from his silent treatment.
'It doesn't know what it is. Could it be the AI of the system?' Nuriel walked past the orb, then took a seat on his lavish throne.
As he sat down, the orb remained quiet.
Despite its pure white appearance, Nuriel could somewhat tell that it was looking at him with a fearful expression.
Looking at it closer, he had a growing doubt that it was actually the AI operating system. But without much knowledge regarding how it even worked, he also doubted his doubts.
One thing was for sure—the orb entity is a sentient being with a personality to boot. And it also seemed to be harmless and friendly.
Nuriel leaned back and rested his chin on the palm of his hands.
If the orb was too shy and scared to think properly, then he needed to open up to it to get it comfortable.
The first step was to question what he was to it. After all, when he first got into contact with the untainted scepter, it recognized him as a mother.
"What am I to you?" Nuriel asked calmly.
The orb bopped up and down.
"Aren't you my mommy?" it reverberated.
Nuriel was speechless at the response. Although he expected that to be the answer, the way it was worded sounded so strange for him.
"I'm talking to a white orb that thinks I'm its "mommy." Dear witch... you should've kept me alive." He muttered to himself
The orb reverberated as usual. "Please don't say of that word."
Nuriel raised his concern. He could now safely ask about that specific word and why it was such a concern for it.
"That word? Why?" he asked.
The orb shook left and right. "Uurgh, you can say witch but not that other word that makes it dangerous!" Two tendrils popped up and made an "X" shape to show its concern.
. . .
The orb reverberated. "You can do it in the waking world, but not here, okay? please... or else something bad might happen."
...might.
Even if Nuriel didn't fully understand why, it was clear that even the orb wasn't sure of the consequences.
When he retrieved data regarding the Steel Witch, an unknown entity tried entering the space, which led to a shutdown. The unknown entity that suddenly appeared at the spire was sure to be dead from that dragon's strange actions, and yet the orb was still afraid.
He could now cut off the possibility that the unknown entity at the spire and the other unknown entity were the same.
Nuriel remembered the old name of the Saint's Scepter [Tainted Scepter Fragment of ???]. Comparing names with the untainted scepter, these two might've been opposite sides of the same coin—where one side feared the other.
"Untainted and tainted... what makes you untainted?" he asked with a bright expression.
The orb twirled around in confusion. "Untainted... what do you mean?"
Nuriel retracted his chin from his palm in surprise. He looked at the untainted scepter fragment that was still in his other hand and showed it to the orb. "Aren't you the untainted scepter?"
The orb froze in silence.
"Where did you get that idea, Mom? Of course not."