Noctis Noir

"Tank?"

"Tank!"

The Knights Alliance guildmaster could hear faint voices calling his name. His vision was an incapacitating blur. He wasn't sure if he was dead or alive, but he was too dizzy to think properly. Gradually, his vision was beginning to recover. When it did, he saw Luna and Garth beside him. They were in some sort of courtyard in a temple ruin. He was glad to be alive.

"He's awake!" Luna was relieved.

"Where are the others?" Tank asked as he slowly stood up.

"We seem to have been separated from them," Garth replied. "I don't see them anywhere nearby."

"Where are we?"

"I have no clue. In the meantime, we need to go find shelter to spend the night. It looks like there might be more monsters here when it gets dark. I think there is a hut nearby."

The three of them moved to an abandoned NPC shelter. It was a simple home complete with a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Garth recognized it as the former dwelling of a hidden witch NPC.

"This place is pretty nice," Luna commented as she examined all the alchemy ingredients lying around.

"There are crafting stations here too." Garth began using up the alchemy ingredients to make potions.

"There should be a map tool included in that app Frisk was working on," said Tank.

He summoned his modified menu tablet and launched the app. Fashion runway music started playing and Frisk's photo of him posing in a fancy suit appeared onscreen. "Welcome to Frisk Apps!" announced Frisk's voice. Sparkles started appearing on the screen.

"What the hell," Tank said while cringing.

The menu appeared with the different tools and an additional quiz 'Are you Frisk's Type?'

"Ok, someone should have rechecked the app before we left," Tank hit the map tool button. "What's with all these unnecessary extras?"

Garth and Luna gave the quiz a try while Tank was busy checking out the map.

"I'm not Frisk's type," Garth said as he held up his quiz results.

"I got the Frisk seal of approval," said Luna.

"What the hell, guys. You're actually trying the quiz?" Tank was appalled.

"Try it, Tank!"

Tank hesitated before opening the quiz. He braced himself and answered all the questions. When the results appeared, Frisk's voice boomed from the menu tablet, "Congratulations! You are definitely my type!"

"Ooh!" Luna smirked.

"Congratulations," Garth followed.

"I regret taking this quiz," Tank said. He immediately closed his menu tablet. "The map tool is a bit strange."

"Is it not working properly?" Garth asked.

"It works, but there are areas that are just plain black patches. What does that mean?"

Garth had a look at the map through his menu tablet. Tank cringed once more when the runway music started playing again. Garth stared hard at the map. There were indeed parts of the map that were just huge black patches. "It's either our map isn't working properly, or... there's nothing there."

"It's just a hole in the ground?"

"Possibly." Garth switched the map to an area known for cliffs. "Look at this map. The holes here are shown as black." He switched to another map, this time it was one at the edge of the world. Aries wasn't exactly a full globe yet like the Earth. Traveling to one direction did not put you in an endless loop. Only a small percentage of the world was completed. "The areas beyond the edge are also shown as black."

Tank was a little worried. "This map isn't known for having death holes."

"We'd better investigate that tomorrow when it's daytime. For now, let's rest." Garth put away his menu tablet.

That night, Tank had a dream. The exact same fashion runway music from the Frisk App played from the room speakers as Frisk entered the room. He was dressed lavishly in a white suit and striped dress shirt. He posed confidently at the doorway with a rose in his mouth as he said with a seductive voice, "So, you're my type, huh?"

"Hell no." Tank's face turned sour as soon as his eyes laid upon his flirty co-worker. He found himself tied to a pink heart-shaped bed with red gift ribbons. No matter how much he struggled, he couldn't break free.

"It's no use struggling, Tank." Frisk ballet danced to his side and threw the rose.

"Get me out of here, dammit!" Tank demanded.

"Shh, patience." Frisk placed a finger to his mouth. "You'll be free once it's over." He climbed onto the bed.

"I'm calling the police!"

Frisk unbuttoned his outer garment and threw it to the side like an unwanted ragdoll.

"I'm going to punch you when I get out of here."

Frisk leaned in closer. Their faces were dangerously close when Tank finally woke up sweating excessively. No dream had ever scared him that much since the day he was born.

"Are you alright, Tank?" Luna was worried. She hurried to his side.

"I just woke up from a nightmare," Tank was relieved to be awake. He wiped the sweat off his face.

"You're still in one though," Garth said.

"Compared to my dream, this is nothing."

The three of them left the hut to investigate the mysterious dark patches. They went for the nearest one, which was just a five minute walk away. Upon arriving at the scene, a wave of anxiety swept through them. The black patch on the map was indeed a hole. Rather than a regular hole, it was like a game glitch. The trees surrounding the hole were only silhouettes.

Garth looked down at the hole. Pure white. Just like the blank slate the world was written on. "This is interesting."

"What in the world happened here?" Luna was unsettled by the scene.

"Probably the hackers' doing."

"Are they trying to destroy the world?"

"Either that or they were trying to reform it."

"We need to find that reset button fast," said Tank.

"For now, our first priority is rescuing survivors and relocating the others." Garth attempted to contact Frisk. The signal was too terrible to establish a connection. He sighed.

"Which way do we go?"

"Let's check the area around where we landed."