He strode down the hallway toward the kitchen, the floor cool beneath his bare feet, the silence pressing in around him. His thoughts felt thick, tangled, unreal.
He needed water. Something cold to wash all of this down. Just before he reached the doorway, he heard it, a faint murmur threading through the silence in low whisper. And it belonged to Grey.
Nova's froze he looked confused he heard his name just now or was he now imagining things. He slowly pressed his ear against the wall. He did not approach the door because he knew it would open automatically. He listened.
"What the hell where you thinking? You would have left him that way. But no, you had to place another seal on him. On top the other one." Grey whispered, barely restraining himself from yelling.
Nova's eyes widened. The image from the dream replayed in his mind, vivid and unmistakable. Then Grey spoke again.
"What?!" Grey suddenly blurted out, unable to suppress his shock "What do mean the tabernacle gave you that? Why didn't you considered your own life? What if you died?"
Bit by bit a creeping dread settled into Nova's heart. "No..." He muttered under his breath his tone in denial.
"Noah... You should have at least placed only the Nexus Lock in him. Maybe he might have awaken the Mark. I know you only did it for Nova's good, but you know how much he looks up to you Those determine gaze to be like his Uncle.... So what happens when he finds out what you did?"
Nova's legs gave way. One hand slid down the wall as he slowly sank to the floor, the revelation shaking him to his core. His eyes were wide. His body trembled.
"No! "
He had brushed it off moments ago as just a dream. But this had happened and through the conservation he knew it was that night Noah came home. "How? Why? What did I do wrong Uncle Noah? What seal?"
Then suddenly the scene from when he was at the God's Ruins flooded his mind. The whisper echoed again inside his skull. As he failed to awaken the mark.
Tzzz.
Like a glitch the scene shifted then he saw it again. The vast mass of Cosmic Energy, bounded and restrained, pulsing like a living heart. The pieces seemed to click in place.
Nova gritted his teeth so hard his jaw trembled. His teeth clattered faintly against each other. His eyes burned with a rage he had never known before. He stood up abruptly the thirsty was gone. It was now filled with something dangerous. Something reckless.
He didn't scream, lash out or tear down the walls. He didn't punch anything like an angry youth might. Instead, he calmly removed the band from his wrist, disabling all tracking and contact signals.
He walked to the side of the room and pressed against the wall. With a low hum, a hidden compartment rose from the floor and hovered open. He pulled out a black hoodie and slipped it over his blue T-shirt and put on his shoes. He grabbed his wallet from the study table His gaze shifted to his mother's photo. He paused for bit. He wanted to take it. But after a moment, he left it where it was. Some things shouldn't be dragged into what he was about to do.
He hacked the security system disabling every alarm and locked his room from the inside and shut down the power.
The room fell into darkness. Then he walked over to the window and pried it open. He turned back taking one final glance.
"Goodbye" Nova said, his voice was empty and distant.
Swoosh
And in one sift motion he jumped out.
•••
Inside the kitchen, Grey was still on the phone. "Noah, we need to tell him about his origin. He needs to know who he truly is. His powers. His destiny."
"You think I don't know that?" Noah's voice came from the other end. "Out of wanting to protect him from the division leader and MPU, I ended up sealing his powers. And I don't think he'll be able to use it."
"Noah, you really messed up. Big time." Grey rubbed his temples. "You love him so much, and you went and acted recklessly. Now you both are paying the price. Yet you still act so cold. *Sigh* What do I do with you?"
"Right now we..."
*Beep* *Beep*
A sudden alarm rang out sharply. Grey looked confused then grabbed the pad from the kitchen counter, his fingers flying across the screen as his eyes scanned the display.
"Grey, is something wrong?" Noah asked, worry creeping into his voice seeing Grey's expression.
"The backup security system is online... How?" Grey muttered. "But no one can access this house. It uses grade-three security. No one can access it except those inside. That means me and..."
"Grey?"
"Noah, I'll call you back."
"Wait, what's the matter?"
"I'll inform you later." He said abruptly then ended the call and bolted toward Nova's room. The door didn't open automatically as he approached. His heart dropped. He unlocked it manually with the pad in his hand. The door slid open with a soft hiss. The room was plunged in darkness, so grey manually turned back on the power in the room. Then his eyes immediately fell on the pried-open window.
Nova was long gone. He thought Nova kidnapped, but from the looks of it.. "He hacked the security to avoid the alarm ls going out and ran away?" Grey whispered in disbelief. As he staggered towards Nova's bed.
Nova had never done something like this. Even when teenagers acted impulsively, Nova had always been composed.
"What happened?" Grey sat on the edge of the bed, confusion clouding his face as questions flooded his mind. Then something clicked.
"Did he perhaps... overhear our conversation?" It sounded impossible. Nova would never do something like that.
What Grey didn't know was that Nova had come into contact with something ancient and sealed the power within him was slowly awakening a primal instinct buried in the deepest darkest part of him.
•••
Nova weaved through the bustling crowds as the evening breeze swept past him. His hands were tucked deep inside the pockets of his hoodie. His face was hidden beneath the hood, yet something about him made people instinctively step aside.
It wasn't his appearance. It was the aura around him was heavy, cold and unapproachable. He made his way to the STT train station on foot. Taking a cab would mean being traced, located, dragged back. He didn't want that. He just wanted distance. Distance from those d*mn people he once believed valued him.
At the station, he paid for a ticket and boarded the train without drawing attention. He didn't look at anyone. Didn't speak. Didn't move more than necessary. When he arrived at his destination, he stepped off calmly.
The moment he exited the station, he snapped the STT card in half and tossed it into a trash bin. Leaving no trail.
Morning sunlight in this region of planet Alabama spilled across his face, but strangely, even in daylight, his expression remained obscured beneath the shadow of his hood.
He walked at a steady pace, not too fast, not too slow, juust normal. Ahead, from several meters away, a large neon glowing hovering signboard came into view.
Kate Public Beach Resort.
He walked passed it. He wasn't here for the waves. He wasn't here for the crowd. He wasn't here for anything improper or careless, so he kept waking. After what felt like a few hours, he reached a hill not far from the shoreline.
He climbed it without hesitation and made his way to the top. The grass bent gently beneath the ocean wind. He sat down. In front of him stretched the vast ocean, endless and indifferent, connected seamlessly to the waters near the beach below. Sigh. Nova slowly pulled the hood off his head. His face looked calmer than his mind.
"How long has it been?" he murmured quietly, staring at the horizon.
Nova stared blankly at the grassland in front of him as memories flooded his head without permission. The scent of salt in the air under the warmth of sunlight.
A smaller voice surfaced from the past.
"Uncle Noah, where are we going? This is not the beach. I want to go to the beach and play, see the big salty water and build sand castle planet!"
The memory sharpened. A four-year-old boy stood on a grassy hill, long silky emerald hair tied into a tiny ponytail. His green eyes shimmered like they carried a miniature universe within them, stars trapped in innocence and brimming with endless energy. Swim clothes slightly oversized his feet bare.
Noah chuckled. "What do you mean by castle planet?"
"There are huge sand castles!" Little Nova declared, stretching his arms wide to demonstrate size. "So big they touch the sky!"
Noah crouched, patting the boy's head. "Would the sand at one beach be enough?"
Little Nova frowned seriously. "If it's not, then we'll travel to all the beaches. Collect sand from everywhere."
Noah couldn't help but laugh. Then his expression shifted, soft, but curious. "Nova, do you want to see something cool?"
Little Nova's eyes widened instantly. "Yes, yes show me!"
Noah raised a single finger, his index. At first, nothing happened.
AThen a faint crimson-red streak of light formed in the air, spiraling downward like a thread being pulled from the sky itself. It condensed at the tip of his finger.
Heat followed.
A small sphere of red-hot energy bloomed into existence, swirling gently, controlled perfectly. It was like it was coming out of his hands. No actuslly it was not, If one looked closely, it sliver-white light emanating from his hand then immediately changing an spiralling into the crismon-red ball. It wasn't simply fire, it was something purer... something refined.
"Wow… Uncle Noah, what is that?" Little Nova asked, voice trembling with awe.
"It's called a skill," Noah replied calmly. "This one belongs to the fire element."
The boy's mouth fell open. "That's so cool! I want to use a skill too!"
"When you get older," Noah said, lowering his hand as the flame vanished into nothingness, "and when you receive a Mark like this..." He showed little Nova his arm. A glowing tattoo-like symbol etched across his it, faintly pulsing with inner light. "...you'll be able to use as many skills as want."
"Really?" Little Nova asked, as if the world had just expanded.
"Yes. Really. But you are you to trained hard,"
"No problem. Hehe I'm going to get a skill!" he shouted, running across the grassy hill recklessly. "I'm going to get a skill!"
Noah watched him with a gaze far deeper than a child could understand. "
Nova," he called gently. The little boy stopped mid-run and turned.
"When you get older… make me a promise." Little Nova tilted his head. Question marks practically floated above him.
"When you gain power," Noah continued, "Use it to unite the universe."
Silence.
"You see how peaceful it is here?" Noah gestured around them the calm sea, the open sky, the people on the beach some miles away. "In some parts of the universe, it's not like this. There are wars. Division. People who never see peace." The boy listened carefully.
"So I want you to help those people," Noah said softly. "Bring them together. Unite the universe."
Little Nova didn't fully understand the weight of those words. But he nodded anyway. "I promise."
The memory shattered like glass meeting stone. The ocean roared softly below the cliff. Present day Nova blinked. His emerald eyes no longer held childish stars, they carried distance.
"Unite the universe…" he repeated under his breath. The wind tugged at his hair. Back then, the promise felt heroic, simple and bright. Now it felt heavy. He looked down at his hands. Hands that had trained, bled, bruised and endured. He stood up slowly.
"Things aren't peaceful everywhere," he murmured. "Well screw you! You didn't know that when you sealled me uh?!" Noah yelled to the sky, venting out all his frustratios.
The waves crashed harder against the rocks below, spraying white foam into the air. The horizon stretched endlessly forward.
Nova exhaled slowly, he thought he was getting too work up. But within him like earlier reality seemed to glitch.
*Thump. Thump*
As the Cosmic Energy again. But Nova saw it sensed nothing.
Then he what Noah said echoed in his head again.
"If I get a skill…?" Nova muttered quietly, eyes sharpening. He clenched his fists. "Get a skill my ass. That chance is gone. I didn't awaken the Mark." His jaw tightened. "But… if I somehow have a skill I can use without being a Channeler… I'll decide what to do with it."
Anger burned inside him. But beneath it a small voice still whispered. I will.