Chapter 210 - 210)Nyctophobia

Blurry lenses. His vision was clear and perfect, but everything felt off. It was like a door wasn't fully closed, or a mat not properly aligned. It was a drastic and unusual change for someone who never cared for such a thing.

Alignment and whatnot were the last of his worries but when he opened his eyes and the bright light entered his frame, it was crystal clear, as if he had been given a new pair of eyes. However, it felt weird, was it a matter of adjustment? Regardless of how his vision felt, Luke's entire body was light. Almost a little too light.

'I'm dead? Is that it?' he thought as he blinked a few times to get used to his surroundings. When he looked to his left, he saw his best friend sleeping without a care in the world, Nate's left hand was on his eyes, which he must've done in his sleep to reduce the effect of the sunlight. 

Luke in his groggy mood, noticed something that reminded him of everything that had happened so far. A tattoo. A tattoo that didn't belong to this world, a tattoo from Genesis. Did this mean that everything that happens in Genesis happens in reality?

Memories, faint ones, where he conversed with the voice in his head. What he found weird was the fact that he was called the prince of darkness, and that was a title only Luke along with his clanmates knew. How did someone who he never met but weirdly recognize the voice of, know what to call him?

'…..Can I still see through the dark?' at that moment, the thought of a particular skill popped up in his head. It was a bloodline skill, something he had received when he ascended. "Night vision", it was a passive skill that saved him from his biggest and only weakness. Darkness. It was one of the perks of being someone that carried Nyx's bloodline.

'I wonder…..'

Was it a huge coincidence? Was the reason he felt so weird because of his ability to see through the dark. However, he never had such luck, all Luke could trust was the consequences of his actions, which is how he had a feeling something was coming.

Unfortunately for him, the magnitude of this something was out of his league. He couldn't imagine the worst-case scenario, not properly at least. But there was someone who could, and that someone was right next to him, casually wasting his time.

"Oy….." Luke's rather dry voice called out to his friend. Nate removed the hand from his eyes and sat up straight, he looked at Luke with his eyes wide. Luke knew for a fact that Nate was curious about the tattoo on his hand, and this was the best time to talk about it.

"Luke! You're up! Let me get the doctors!!" Nate said as he got down from the bed, he was in casual clothing, which for him was his nightwear. He wore pajamas that had a giant orange cat and a hoodie that had the word "food" written across the chest.

"Calm down jeez," Luke said as he pushed himself to sit up straight. He looked to his right and found a glass of water, he had no idea how long he was unconscious for, but the one thing he was sure of was that he was thirsty, and one glass wouldn't be enough. "I'm alright, and before you call the doctors, there's something we need to talk about. Oh get me some water since you're already near the table," he smiled cheekily. The color on Luke's face was back to normal, however, he had a different glow this time. It was weird, he got more charming.

"O-okay….bastard," Nate smiled as he took the bottle and threw it at his friend. "Hey! I'm still hurt you know?" Luke cried as he caught the bottle without even looking at it, he was too busy putting back the glass of water he had just finished.

"At least say it when you behave like someone who's hurt," Nate grumbled as he went back and sat on his bed, except this time, he sat on the edge that was close to Luke's bed. "What's so important that the doctors will have to wait?" Nate asked with a raised eyebrow.

What Luke didn't know, was that it had been over a week since the incident, and since then the doctors had moved their base from outside the glass room to a bigger room somewhere in the hospital.

"It's about the tattoo…" Luke said. By the way Nate's expression changed, Luke knew that those were some words that he had never expected to hear. "You want to know how you got that right? Especially because there are only a few people who know you have that," Luke continued, "you're not going to believe this, but you need to trust me," he smiled dryly.

"…..Always," Nate replied with a deep look on his face, his thoughts were racing. Initially, when he had first discovered it, he blamed it on his family, but after calming down, it made no sense for them to know anything about it. Meaning, this was given by someone he knew, and it must've been recent. So when Nate heard Luke talk about it, he was confused, after all, the latter had been unconscious for the better part of a week.

"Okay then…..here goes…." Luke said before taking a deep breath. He was about to talk about something that most people wouldn't believe. Luke needed someone he could trust and at the same time, help him break down the facts of the recent events into something easy to understand, fortunately for him, that was Nate.

Without wasting any more time, Luke began telling him everything from the beginning, from infiltrating the warehouse to the voice convincing him, to beating the absolute shit out of anyone that stopped him, he even mentioned his fight with Basile and Elena, and finally Luke spoke about the dream he had where the voice spoke to him and referred to him as "prince of darkness."

"...So you're telling me, Virtual reality is shifting towards reality?" Nate asked slowly. He was taking some time to process everything that Luke said which was understandable considering it isn't every day that someone mentions that skill from a game randomly appeared into reality.

"Or what if reality is shifting into Virtual reality?" Luke countered Nate. He had no idea the number of people that were in their shoes, but one thing was for sure, that it couldn't be too many.

"Then we can sue someone, anyway jokes apart. Luke…I have a serious question…" Nate said as he moved around in his place. He leaned a little in front and said, "So like can you fly and shit? Wait can I manipulate mana or whatever. I have this symbol or tattoo, right? Meaning I should have some skill that's related to Hecate right?"

"….That makes sense…" Luke stuttered with his eyes wide open, "try it out, what if you can…I don't know…."

"Wait. The voice said you need a weapon right? Why? Wouldn't that mean you need to fight something that needs a weapon to fight against? Something like-"

"Monsters…..?" Luke finished Nate's sentence and looked up at his friend. Both of them gulped together at the thought of fighting averaged size green sexual assaulters with long noses and crooked teeth.

"It can't be, right? Maybe we're overthinking this…let's slow down, first things first. Does this mean your Nyctophobia is gone?" Nate asked Luke as he tried to change the topic.

"My Nyxowhat?? What about Nyx?" Luke asked with a blank expression on his face. He had no idea what the word meant.

"No. I don't believe it. I refuse. I deny your existence. You're not a real person. You're an anime character or something. No. I don't care," Nate got up and continued blabbering as he paced around the room.

"Wait what'd I do?? I don't get it? Also being an anime character is a compliment so," Luke said as he looked at his friend walking back and forth muttering random things and denying them the next second.

"LUKE! You're afraid of the dark right?" Nate asked with a shiver in his voice.

"Yeah and?"

"Did you ever go see someone about it?"

"No?"

"So what one day you switched off the lights in your room and you just screamed?" Nate asked as he massaged his eyebrows.

"..."

"...Remind me to kill you later okay?" Nate said as he let out a sigh and sat down on his bed. "Nyctophobia is the fear of the dark or the night….and that is what you have, no?"

"Yes…but I had no idea it was called Nyctophobia..."

"Well now you know, the word's origin comes from….Nyx….." Nate's eyes widen as he had only just realized. "Quickly, tell me everything the voice told you, word to word, as much as you can remember,"