Clack.
Aries placed down his lunch tray on the table while Roanna did the same with her packed lunch. They had sat with Emmet once again. Since it was close and pretty much empty besides Emment, they chose to sit with him again.
Aries looked over to Roanna, who had opened her lunch and was now beginning to eat. His gaze lingered, as thoughts began to drift through his mind.
'Why didn't the others come?'
He had expected the other girls to join them for lunch, but just like yesterday, they didn't, and instead found their own table to have lunch.
He wondered why they left him with Roanna at lunch all the time— there had only been two instances, but that was quite a lot, especially considering the fact that they seemed to never want to leave him alone, using every chance they got to get close to him. Every chance except lunch. He didn't quite understand why.
His gaze wandered over to Emmet.
Emmet… was strange to say the least, at least in the eyes of Aries. Ever since his life as Aries began— even before his consciousness awoke— he had never seen someone like him.
There was Roanna. She, like the other girls, seemed obsessed with being close to him, but unlike the other girls, whom he knew next to nothing about, he knew that Roanna was extremely fond of her brother and was not afraid to show him off.
Apart from that, she was a kind and friendly girl, one who seemed to be able to get along with almost anyone.
There was also Noel. He was a tough and wild personality, even though he became quite tame after attending school for some reason. Maybe the time he was spending with Nina was taming him.
Anyway, when it came to complete strangers, he was quite aggressive and unfriendly, but once he confirmed the person was safe to be around or he was friends with them, he was cheerful and trusting. It was to a troubling degree.
And then there was Alice. She had a major shift in personality, so she could count for two people, even though she was technically only one.
The original Alice—the one from before Sharon awakened— was a shy and withdrawn girl. She always kept to herself and rarely interacted with others. Even with her friends, she usually watched from the sidelines and kept quiet until she was spoken to.
Even with her parents, she seemed to always have a look guilt ridden look on her face.
However, since recently— likely due to her constitution getting better— she began opening up more and became more talkative, interacting with others more, and being overall more confident.
That was until she fainted, and once she awoke, Sharon's memories awakened in her. Ever since then, she became more laid back and withdrawn, less than the original Alice but more than the Alice after her change. Unlike the original Alice, however, her withdrawn nature was only around strangers, and was quite comfortable with her friends.
He had also met many other less memorable people with many varying personalities.
Emmet, however, was not like anyone he had ever met. Everyone he's met so far has been just the same core personality trait, with both similar and differing traits mixed into it. While everyone thought Emmet was just shy, Aries saw it differently. To him, Emmet looked to be simply scared of everyone and everything around him.
This made Aries unconsciously drawn to him, as this was a completely new core trait to him. He knew of emotions and that people could feel them, but this was his first time seeing one as a personality trait. To him, Emmet was more like a small animal than a human.
Tap. Tap.
He was brought from his thoughts as Roanna tapped his shoulder.
"Are you okay? Why are you not eating?"
"..?"
Aries looked at his tray and realized that he was simply picking at his food and not actually eating.
"Oh… Sorry, I spaced out."
"Oh, alright."
As Aries began eating, his gaze wandered, eventually landing upon Emmet once again. Emment was watching his every move, watching what he would do. It was as if something had triggered him to be cautious of Aries.
'Did he notice my gaze?'
That was the likely answer, as he was staring at Emmet for a good portion of the time that he had spaced out, so he probably thought Aries was going to try doing something to him.
Aries's stare lingered for a moment too long, and their eyes locked with each other. The world seemed to slow down, but Aries already knew that it was his mind playing tricks. What caught his attention, though, was not Emmet or his eyes, but what was reflected in them.
He saw his own golden eyes staring back at him. It was as if liquid gold was being held within them.
At their center, his pupils resided, like inky black abysses within the golden ocean. Aries saw himself being dragged into that abyss, falling through it like an endless pit. The longer he fell within the abyss, the more the world behind him twisted and distorted.
He eventually landed on a gray rock, his body striking its surface gently. When he stood up, there was only gray rock for as far as the eye could see. All along the bottom half of the horizon was gray rock.
The top half of the horizon— The Sky— was black, dotted with many twinkling stars. Aries studied the area around him for a while. Eventually, Aries's gaze paused, staring at something in the vast black sky, unlike anything present on earth.
It was a blue marble in the sky, with swirling white patterns and brown and green splotches along its surface. From where he was standing, the blue marble was slightly bigger than the sun would have been on Earth.
The sight made Aries purse his lips, realizing where he was. The revelation confused him, but it didn't take long before he regained his bearings.
The revelation also brought along the whisper of a familiar but distant voice.
Understanding what he had to do, Aries turned in a specific direction and began walking. As it seemed he didn't appear far from the location, it didn't take long for him to reach.
Aries stopped before a massive crater, which led to a shallow cave entrance-like opening, where a large silver heart floated within. He slid down the edge of the crater and approached the opening.
He walked forward steadily, but with each step his heart beat louder. He eventually began to feel unbearable pain as he approached, as if his heart would explode. When this happened, Aries stumbled, his body unable to bear the torture. Ignoring it, Aries continued…
At least, he tried to. When he moved forward, he was met with a barrier that prevented him from moving forward. This also snapped him out of the trance-like state that forced him to move forward.
It was a lucky draw for him to snap out of it here, as if he had moved any further, he might have simply exploded right then and there.
'I shouldn't need to move any further anyway.'
At the same time, A blueish-silver light flowed from the silver heart, moving across the gray earth like a river, eventually stopping before Aries, on the other side of the barrier.
The light coagulated into a tall man who towered over the young Aries. His Silver hair cascaded down his shoulders, ending at his waist, extenuating his elegant aura along with his white robes and bluish-silver cloak with golden edges.
His golden eyes looked as if they held two liquid suns within them, the inky black which was supposed to be at their center, replaced by a blinding white, staring down at Aries with an indifferent look.
His throat, which was wrapped with a collar of glowing, blueish-silver symbols, moved as his mouth opened and closed, the indifference never once leaving his face. He seemed to be saying something, but the sound refused to reach Aries, blocked by the barrier.
Aries stared at the man who was speaking without sound, mirroring his indifferent expression. He looked as if he were a younger version of the man.
Throughout the entire time the man was speaking, no sound reached Aries, but that did not matter, as he already knew what he was saying— The meaning of it at least.
'Hurry and complete our goal and get stronger so you can return.'
Knowing this, Aries nodded.
The man responded in kind, and the world around them cracked and shattered, returning Aries to where he should be.
*
Clack! Clack!—
Aries stopped himself before he could make another strike and frowned.
'Why am I at home, training, when I didn't even have control over my body?'