Golden-Eyed Reaper: Transmigrated As The Forgotten One

Chapter 15 - An empty husk.

Noir lifted his eyelids, the world seemed blurry at first but then, it really needed blurring.

In the midst of the village, Noir was lying on the ground, his clothes dusty, hair messy. In Front of him were countless dead humans, villagers as well as hunters to be precise. Some looked like they were killed by the ryus while the rest by-

'Sharp amethyst shards. I feel off.'

Something felt empty, this feeling was similar to when he sacrificed his emotion of 'sympathy' however unlike before when he felt something was missing, this time it felt empty, like it was never there to begin with.

'The person who looked just like me, he took the third-eye, it could be because of that.'

The third-eye does not exist physically, the reason why Noir was even able to use it in the first place was because of The Demon's Blessing. Unlike other skills and abilities in this world, the third goldeneye had the least information available about it.

Of Course the book didn't dive too deep into an ability that ceased to exist along with the Ravenlocks, which is another reason as well.

As Noir got up from the ground, he realized not a single soul had survived.

'Evelyn. I didn't see her even before entering the patch.'

What had happened while he was away? He did not know, but he could do a rough estimation, 'Things have changed.'

There was no way that another Noir existed in the novel nor was there any mention of additional mages aiding the mad ryus, so why did they exist now?

His eyes wandered what once was a 'village' but now just the aftermath of a massacre. He looked at the place where once Iris was fending off the ryus as well as the place he had seen her the last time.

Walking towards it, slowly, each step weighing on him like everest.

A pale white hand, barely outside the pile of stones. The whole body was still under the pile of stones. Noir immediately started removing the stones with his bare hands, he didn't even bother to try using his threads or any other abilities because he knew, during the fight he had exhausted all his noctis.

With each stone removed, the person's appearance became more visible, however it was still hard to identify whether it was Evelyn or Iris.

Another, another, one more and, it was Iris. Noir didn't get to know this from the face but from the hair colour, why? A long amethyst shard which was the largest one Noir had seen on the battlefield so far, went into one of her eyes, the skin around it was also deformed possibly due to the amethyst's magic.

The area near her left eye was ruined—flesh torn, crystal buried deep. A jagged amethyst shard had pierced through, its glow faint against the blackened, warped skin. Veins curled outward, seared by magic.

However, she wasn't dead, placing his hand on her wrist, "Good thing, I wasn't too late."

With what little noctis Noir had, he chanted, "Empreinte Mystique"

This time there were only traces of amethyst magic, no life could be seen all around. Noir had confirmed that Evelyn wasn't here, even if she was, she was dead.

He had already braced himself for the worst, but feeling the confirmation was different. His jaw clenched. No anger, no sorrow—just emptiness.

Cough.

Noir coughed blood, this was probably due to using the skill despite not having enough noctis. His eyes widened, they caught something.

A mage with long flowing white hair, red eyes like ruby, walking towards him, the cloak that the mage was wearing, had lavender engravings and a lily on the right-side of it. It was a mage from the kingdom of Amperium.

"Are you okay?" The mage asked.

Not meeting the mage's eyes, Noir feared that if the mage saw his golden eyes then he would not be able to handle the backlash.

But he had no other choice, he needed immediate help, raising his head slowly he looked at the mage.

The mage's eye widened as he saw Noir, not because of his golden eyes but because his eyes were complete black, devoid of any soul.

However Noir did not know it and proceeded, "We can talk about other things later, my companion over here needs instant help."

Shooting a glance at Iris, the mage realized the urgency of the situation, he came forward and placed his hand over her face, "Guéris"

A white light fell on Iris' face, a relief spread over her face, the face which was in agony not long ago, now calm.

"Will she be able to recover?." His voice devoid of any emotions yet his words filled with it.

"Hard to say, but she will surely survive." the mage chanted, "Parchemin, plume, écris." a paper appeared along with a quill that had ink on its tip, it then started to write something on the paper.

Noticing Noir looking at the paper, the mage added, "Don't word, I am merely bringing my companions here." he added, "To find other survivors that is."

Of course, Noir had no intention of revealing that no one had survived.

"What is your name?" the mage said with a gentle smile.

"Nero." Noir replied shortly, his tone implying that he did not care about having conversations at the moment.

"I am Zephyr Quilero."

What Noir did not know is that in the paper, Zephyr did not call his companions but rather wrote, 'I have found a suspicious person, his appearance suggests that he might had a major role in the massacre, along with him is an injured woman, I do not have much information on the situation currently. ~From Zephyr Quilero.'

...

Noir was resting in a bed, the room was elegant and luxurious yet he wasn't at peace, the constant feeling of emptiness was gnawing at him like a monster.

Zephyr had told him that Iris would be taken care of in the infirmary, Noir had double-thoughts related to this but it's not like he could heal her by himself.

To begin with, there were a lot of mysteries surrounding Iris, she had told him that she will explain everything later, but... now she wasn't in the shape for it. And now there's a person who looked exactly like himself, who had stole his third-eye.

'The person who looked like me or at least like Noir, why did he take away my third-eye?'

There were more questions than there were answers.

"You'll thank yourself later." The last words of the other Noir echoed in his head.

Why would someone thank a person who very likely stole 'everything' from him? Noir right now was nothing more than an empty husk of his previous self, he could feel emotions but not express them, even as of now, he knew his situation wasn't the best but he could not feel it.

For instance, someone hits a nail in your hand with a hammer, you know it is painful, but for some reason you don't feel the pain.

A cup of water was kept on the table next to his bed, he got up and looked at it.

'Is this...'

He saw something wrong with his reflection, something that he didn't know.

...