"I guess I did it," Darius said with a grin the moment he spotted Adrian standing before him.

{What the hell is that?} A voice suddenly appeared in his head and the next second, what seemed to be a small red lizard with wings.

"Hmm?" Darius turned to his dragon before turning towards Adrian, whom it was referring to and replying, "That’s Adrian, my rival."

Well, it was self-proclaimed, but since Adrian seemed to have no intention of correcting him, he just went with it.

{No,} the dragon shook its head, looking directly at Adrian, {that thing doesn’t feel like a human in the slightest.}

"..." Darius squinted, trying to spot the inhuman part of Adrian that his newly contracted dragon was referring to, only to spot none.

{Not physically, you idiot,} it said, {look at its mana.}

With the dragon’s words, his eyes suddenly transformed, his vertical pupils returning and that’s when he spotted exactly what the dragon was referring to.

The mana around Adrian was so dark that even light refused to pass through, even lesser spirits known for latching on to mana were actively avoiding him.

But that wasn’t all, because even his form had completely transformed, and although he still had a humanoid form,

No feature on him was visible.

It was as if he were made of complete darkness, with the only light on his form being his eyes, which were just two glowing white orbs.

{The Void,} the dragon muttered, its voice sounding terrified.

"..."

"Are you two done?" Adrian suddenly spoke up causing the dragon to freeze.

{Y-yes sir,} without even realizing it, the dragon let out in panic.

"..." Darius’s eyes went to normal and he immediately turned to his dragon in surprise, "Sir?"

Wasn’t it supposed to be a prideful one that stood above every single species? One that wasn’t scared of anything or anyone?

Then what the hell was this?

{You idiot,} the dragon muttered, {do you want to get—}

«He’s not the void,» a voice suddenly interrupted, pulling the dragon’s attention above Adrian’s head, causing it to freeze all over again.

{T-two of them?} It looked absolutely mortified by the idea that both Adrian and this cat had the same mana.

«As I said, he’s not the Void,» Noctis repeated, «I am.»

{...I...} the red dragon started only to pause, a bit hesitant, but it still said it anyway, {I... am a fan.}

«What?» of all the things Noctis expected it to say, being a fan was definitely not one of them.

Adrian, on the other hand, was a bit surprised about the information that Noctis was the void itself, instead of a darkness spirit as he initially thought.

But then again, that thought had been proven wrong from the moment he was able to tap into that form even for a moment.

All he felt in that moment was an endless vastness, he didn’t know how, but he somehow felt as if he was the end of everything in that single moment.

Especially when he spread his awareness through most of Avera, selecting what would cease to exist from that moment.

More shocking than the fact that Noctis was the [Void], was the fact that it had a fan at all.

{Yes,} the dragon nodded, its tail wagging behind it, {in our lands we are told tales of the four shards of Avera and the origin shard, the void.}

{According to the elder dragons, this world wouldn’t exist without you splitting into four others, the time shard, the space shard, the reality shard, and the shard of fate.}

{Those four... are what shaped everything that exists within Avera. Time governs flow, space gives form, reality stabilizes existence and fate guides it all.}

It paused briefly before lowering its head slightly.

{But all of them... came from you.}

«....» Noctis looked at the dragon for a while wondering how the creature knew so much.

There was also the fact that it knew almost nothing about its own existence, only that it had suddenly woken up in a vast empty void and spent years alone with nothing changing.

Until one day, when a strange little soul suddenly appeared in its dimension.

Curious and seeing a chance to escape this boredom, it tried granting its power to the soul only to have it break in the next second.

Convinced that the soul was about to be erased, it was prepared to go back to its days of boredom, only for it to suddenly start adapting and actively start molding itself to handle Noctis’ power.

Aside from that, it knew nothing about itself, though there was always this nagging feeling that it wasn’t whole,

And it definitely wasn’t because it was in the form of a cat.

Yet, this dragon seemed to know a lot more about it than it did.

Adrian on the other hand, just placed a hand on his chin as he thought, ’Is the four shards what Avera was referring to?’

[Did you figure something out?] Renelle mentally asked, seeing him thinking.

[Hmm,] Adrian nodded, [but I’m not completely sure just yet.]

Darius was the only one lost, he was completely confused about why his dragon, previously prideful, was suddenly fanboying over Adrian’s contracted spirit.

«What’s your name?» Noctis asked, referring to the dragon.

{T-this human suggested Bob but I find it demeaning,} the dragon answered.

"...."

«.....»

Both Adrian and Noctis looked at Darius with a blank expression, wondering the same thing.

Who the hell names their dragon Bob?

"What?" Darius asked in confusion, "I think it’s a great name, I even got it from a story book in our library."

«You truly are an idiot,» Noctis said before turning back to the dragon, «Does that mean you are nameless?»

{Y-yes,}

«Names hold weight,» it said calmly, «especially for beings like us.»

And that was exactly why its true name was unknown to even Adrian, its contractor, not until he fully awakened to that.

{The elders always say that, but I don’t quite understand what it means.}

«Of course you don’t,» Noctis replied, though there was no mockery in its tone this time, «you’re young.»

"If you’re about to rename my dragon, at least include me in the conversation," Darius suddenly muttered but Noctis ignored him causing his frown to get deeper.

"You’re not trying to steal it from me, right?"

According to his contract with Adrian, any dragon he contracted belonged to both him and Renelle. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

He didn’t think much about that before, but right now, he definitely hoped his only use wasn’t just to contract a dragon and have it taken from him.

Adrian let out a quiet chuckle at the look on his face, immediately guessing his line of thought.

"No," he said calmly, "if anything, this benefits you."

Darius frowned and asked, "How?"

«Your concern is irrelevant.» Noctis suddenly cut in.

"Oi—"

«Be silent.»

"Tch."

With that, Noctis hopped off Adrian’s head to the platform before saying, «Come.»

Without question, the dragon floated to it, respectfully lowering its head.

Noctis’s presence seemed greater than its cat form at this very moment as it looked at the dragon for a short while.

«From this moment,» it said quietly, «you will be known as...»

It then paused, carefully trying to come up with something before finally saying,

«Inanis.»