Rise of the Devourer
Book 3: Chapter 13 — Catching Up

Every inch of Noah's body was in pain. By the time night had rolled around, even his powerful regeneration abilities could not keep up with the training as Kaelan left him a sore mess. He could barely remember what he had eaten and suspected that Tony was running his body to make sure he got enough food before he passed out.

Unfortunately for Noah, passing out was exactly the opposite of what happened. He lay down in his room, waiting for his mind to drift away, yet instead, it kept replaying moments from his spar with Kaelan today, going through every little mistake he had made and what he could have done better.

Kaelan felt different from Raesar, even though the two of them shared a lot of similarities. But in Raesar’s case, he was so far ahead in both sheer strength and technique that Noah could barely glimpse at his strength. Even the training he had done after his Path evolution had only been a recreation of his memory, and undoubtedly, the man had a lot more to show.

But Kaelan? Kaelan was just strong enough to be better and more skillful, but not enough to be unfathomable. He could see the difference, and he could see how he could reach the Dragon warrior's strength. The gap between them was just barely out of his reach. And that sensation, that frustration, lit a fire in Noah’s chest to sprint forward as fast as possible and shrink the gap between them.

He sighed, getting up as he teleported out using arcane step, realizing he was not going to get any sleep. The airship was lit up with crystal lights, a form of mana stones with runes carved on them to produce light, covering the hallways in an unnatural white glow.

Walking around, he felt the even breaths of the many people sleeping through the night, but many others, like him, were still awake. Making his way around, Noah used one more arcane step to teleport himself out to the deck of the ship as he stood under the open sky. A full moon was out, glowing gently in the night sky as it lit up the clouds drifting below him like a foggy sea.

Noah watched the sight, marveling at its beauty as he saw a landscape he doubted many others ever had. He looked to the stars above him, wondering if any of them were his former home, and if the light from them had managed to reach this far. He doubted it. Magic did not seem to be a thing in his former reality, and if it really was, then he was certainly too far away to see the light from all the way there.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Aurelia asked, as she stepped out onto the deck. Noah glanced back to look at her, noticing the simple white dress she wore instead of her usual battle-ready attire.

“Yeah. What about you?” Noah asked.

“Couldn’t sleep. Too many people nearby. I’m just glad they have noise-suppressing wards on each room,” Aurelia said, leaning against the hand railing of the ship as the wind gently brushed her hair. “I saw you walking and thought I would follow before you vanished. Surprised you didn’t fall off the ship by teleporting since it’s moving fairly quickly.”

“Huh, now that you mention it. I’m surprised I didn’t either. Certainly didn’t feel any different from teleporting on steady ground,” Noah replied.

“Weird. Your magic is weird, just like you.”

“Space stuff is always weird. Your eyes would start spinning if I could explain relativity to you — unfortunately, I’m not that smart. Never paid much attention in school,” Noah said.

“You went to school? I’m surprised. You don’t seem the type,” Aurelia said.

“Everyone did. It was mandatory… I think. Some kids got homeschooled, but you need money for that. Not something my mom could afford; she was barely paying rent with two jobs while also taking care of me. So I went to a local public school that accepts anybody and everybody.”

"Curious, your world is an interesting place to have schools like that. I’ve heard of some places trying to make schooling available for everybody, but I’m not sure if that’s a thing yet or not. The schools I know only take in noble kids or the children of wealthy merchants. I never went to one; everything I learned was taught to me by my dad. And some of his friends, sometimes. They mostly taught me how to get in a brawl, how to take down a guy if he ever tried to push me around by kicking him between the legs, and also how to run from the guards," Aurelia said, as a smile formed on her lips. "I was going to say that was all useless but honestly, it helped me more than learning the numbers did."

Noah laughed at her words. "Sounds like your dad had some good friends."

Aurelia hummed in reply, leaning her head onto the railing as she let the breeze gently flow by. For a moment neither of them spoke, simply watching the clouds fly by, lit by the light of the moon shining upon them.

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"You’ve been looking at the sky. Trying to see something?" Aurelia asked.

"Not really. Well, I was wondering if one of those stars might be my world. But I doubt it. Magic wasn’t a thing, though perhaps it is and we just don’t know. But with how good the telescopes and stuff got, I doubt it’s close enough to be visible."

"The stars? Your world was among the stars?"

"Sure, I mean, one star. The sun, we have one. Unlike the two you have. It’s kind of weird that you have two suns but one moon."

"That’s not- I’m confused. How can your world be among the stars, stars don’t have worlds. They're just glowing lights in the sky," Aurelia said.

Noah laughed, but instead of seeing Aurelia be amused, he only saw her confusion grow. "Oh, you weren’t joking. Umm, how do I explain this. The sun is a star - or suns in this case. And planets move around them. And all those stars out there have their own planets, some of them might even have life."

"That’s not… Noah. None of that makes any sense. The sun moves around the world, and so do the stars. It’s how day and night happens. You can’t have worlds around glowing lights in the sky," Aurelia said.

"People used to think that actually, that’s not…" Noah paused, realizing something. He currently stood on a flying airship, on a mystical magical planet with dragons, and gods. Slowly he looked back up at the sky. "Tell me this. If I could fly straight up towards the sky, what will happen?"

"You’ll die. There is no air up there."

"Assuming I won’t die because there is no air. What then?"

"Well. If you don’t go mad from the watcher’s eye, and you don’t get pulled by the void, eventually… you will reach the sky."

Noah turned to look at Aurelia, trying to wrap his mind around the concept. "The sky… you mean I can touch it?"

"I don’t know anyone who has. But I assume you can," Aurelia said. "Sounds a little silly though. Trying to touch the sky. But maybe you could grab a star if you can go that far."

Noah looked back up at the sky, the world suddenly feeling vastly different than it had moments ago.

"You said it was weird that we had two suns not two moons. I just remembered a story my dad told me when I was a kid. Well, in short, apparently we had two moons as well. But one day it vanished," Aurelia said.

"What happened to it?" Noah asked.

"No one knows. It just vanished.”

“I wonder what can just vanish a moon like that,” Noah said.

“Who knows. It’s probably a good thing that we don’t know. Best not to draw the attention of something that can make a moon vanish," Aurelia said.

Noah hummed to himself as he looked at the sky. "I’m curious why you've decided to stick around - which I'm happy about, just wondering I guess. You could totally have just stuck around Heartillia. Unlike Erwest, the guild doesn't want you to keep tabs on me and make sure I don't go corrupt or something."

“I wonder too,” Aurelia said, laughing to herself.

“Surely because of how handsome I am,” Noah said, holding his chin as he winked at her. Aurelia rolled her eyes.

“It’s probably because I have grown stronger in the last six months since I met you than in the previous two years combined. It’s also because... I avoided teams for a long time. I avoided them because I was afraid of losing people. And so, I only did solo jobs, which locked me out of a lot of quests. I pushed myself occasionally, working with some teams if they didn’t have enough members. Not all of it was bad, but it was primarily just survival. I would work to earn enough money to get by, then try to save up so that I could buy better gear and get stronger. Then I’d lose it if I got too injured, and the cycle would repeat. It was… dull,” Aurelia said, glancing towards Noah as she met his eyes. “Being with you is exciting. You’re quirky, but it’s also the things and events surrounding you. Something is always happening; it’s not always easy, but it’s never dull. Even if I were blind, I would be able to tell that you’re going to go far - if you don’t die, anyway. And I want to travel along as you do. I want to go to different places, see new sights, explore new places, fight new challenges. And trying to make sure you don’t surpass me too quickly is a nice challenge that lets me push myself.”

“That’s… not what I had expected,” Noah said.

“What about you? Why are you doing all this? Why keep going? With Zax around, it really wouldn’t be too difficult to find the magic to send you back home,” Aurelia asked.

“I don’t know. I have to. And it’s fun. Magic, adventuring, it's all like a dream. It feels like if I stopped, I’d wake up, and I don’t want to,” Noah replied.

“That makes no sense,” Aurelia said.

Noah looked at her and smiled. “Yeah, it doesn’t.”

Leaning away from the handrail Noah turned around. “Anyway, since we are both up and sleep doesn’t seem like it’s happening, why don’t we go spar a little bit? We can’t just sit around doing nothing if you want to get strong enough for the trials in time.”

Aurelia nodded, as the two of them made their way back in. Just as Noah and Aurelia stepped into the training hall, they heard noises coming from within. As they opened the door, both of them were surprised to see Erwest already there.

The paladin looked towards the two of them momentarily in surprise.

“Why’re you here, Erwest?” Aurelia asked.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Erwest replied.

Aurelia glanced at Noah, the two of them sharing a smile as they walked inside.

“Seems like all of us had the same idea, more or less. Might as well train together,” Noah said.

Heading in, the three of them began to train.