"I said that you were made for great things, but this is certainly more than I was expecting."

A gentle, soothing yet masculine voice echoed throughout Seth's mind. Reverberating within the room and gently tickling his ears. It was a voice so soft, that every word sounded like it was spoken like a whisper, yet somehow had the perfect volume, as if he was speaking directly before Seth.

The voice was comforting to Seth, it made him want to snuggle up in bed more and simply relax, let himself fall into a deeper slumber that he never wanted to wake up from. However, despite that growing urge, Seth snapped his eyes open and immediately sat up, quickly looking around to find out where he was. It didn't take him long to figure it out, after all he was exactly where he had been just moments before, just on the floor instead of standing up.

Yet, the colours of his lab were completely drained and muted, turned to the grey scale of the soul realm. Fog of unknown origin curled around Seth's figure as he lay there, instead of drifting through him like it usually did.

Anything beyond a few metres from Seth was shrouded in an impenetrable veil of absolute darkness. But Seth didn't care about that, instead his gaze was locked forward, his eyes wide and staring at the owner of the voice with a mixture of confusion and shock.

Not because he didn't recognise this man, who had somehow entered into his private sanctuary of science and magic. But because he did.

"I told you that we would meet again, although admittedly I was expecting a bit longer of a wait than this."

Sat on a stool, leaning back against the worktop of one of his workstations, was a dashingly handsome man with ghostly pale skin. Perfect, high cheek bones and a rounded, slightly pointed jawline combined with his skin tone made him seem like he was carved out of porcelain, or the finest marble in existence. Neatly trimmed, raven black hair topped this gorgeous head, adding to his dazzling look and pure, glowing silver eyes - pupil, iris and sclera - gazed at Seth with a hint of warmth and amusement as a gently smile played upon his lips.

He was clad in a pristine, Victorian style suit of lustrous black silk. From the tailed smoking jacket, to the shirt, to the tie and even the waist coat. All of it was black, but each piece stood out, a slightly different shade as if the thought blending in was a sin of the highest order. He even had a cane in one hand, so all he was missing was a fancy top hat to complete the look.

Just by looking at his face, it was actually difficult to tell that he was a man. The rest of him gave that away, but his face was truly androgenous and yet still the most beautiful face Seth had even seen in his life. None of his companions, nor even the Draconic Lady, could compare to his radiant, angelic beauty.

He was the type that made you feel utterly disgusted in yourself, as if his mere presence brought out even the tiniest flaw in your own appearance and yet, you couldn't hate him for it. It wasn't his fault. Where jealousy and hatred should lie there was only tranquillity and comfort, as if he was looking at his closest friend or most deeply held lover.

It was thoroughly strange and yet... it didn't feel unnatural or forced. Not like Tiff's perception alteration. It wasn't a spell he was casting it was just... as if his beauty was a law of nature itself. It was like being made at gravity.

"You... I thought you were a hallucination. Just my brain comforting me as I was dying."

"Who's to say you're not hallucinating now?"

"I don't know... Am I?"

"You tell me. If I were a figment of your imagination, would it even matter what I said? If a hallucination demands it is not one, does that make it real? Would you believe it even if it did say as such?"

The stranger laughed softly, a gentle laugh that was like a gentle summer breeze brushing against wind chimes, before standing up straight and slowly walking over to Seth.

Last time Seth had seen this man, he had been on his death's bed. Metaphorically speaking at least. It was just after he lost his arm and his soul shattered apart, he had been piecing it back together and was struggling with one last piece.

He was going to die if he didn't change his methods. It was the appearance of this man, this figment of his subconscious given Angelically beautiful form, that gave him the idea of wrapping his threads around the fragment.

Come to think of it... Was that not just an incredibly crude, heavy handed method of weaving around a soul? That event did lead to him birthing Bob and his first Spirit Animal. Could it be that his secondary mutation recognised what he was doing and simply completed the process for him?

However, if the last time he saw this figure was when he was about to die, from his soul being shattered, it didn't take much of a guess to figure out why he was seeing him once again. His mind must have manifested this familiar face once more.

"So am I..."

"Dead? No. Not quite yet. But if you keep treading this path without caution, you will be. You have a powerful soul Sephtis. Incredibly so, and indeed you are made for greatness. But this... you are tearing yourself apart. Literally.

You're not ready for this. Not yet at least."

"Not yet... Meaning I will one day?"

The stranger didn't answer, simply raising his chin slightly as the corner of his lips twitched into a smile.

"If you're supposed to be my subconscious guiding me, then what should I do if I can't continue with this work? How can I protect my people from these gateways and these foreign invaders from god knows where?"

The stranger simply chuckled, leaning on his cane as he crouched down in front of Seth, gazing into his eyes with those enchanting pools of molten silver.

"If I'm supposed to be your subconscious guiding you, then shouldn't you already know the answer?"

"...The dragon's coordinates. She said there would be consequences for disobeying. I thought that was a threat. Perhaps instead, she was warning me of this instead. Hell of a way to do it though.

sigh Guess I can't delay the inevitable anymore. I was enjoying my life of solitude too, but I guess this too shall pass."

The stranger nodded softly, standing up tall and walking away without another word. He was just about to pass through the veil of inpenetrable darkness when he stopped and glanced at Seth over his shoulder.

"If you want to do that, you'll need to do something first."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

He smirked slightly, holding out his hand and grasping the air, as a top hat manifested itself out of the darkness already in the grip of his hand. He flipped it once, before sitting it on top of his head and tilting the edge down so it covered his eyes in shadow.

"You need to wake up."

Without another word, he lifted his cane before tapping it against the ground. Where it impacted, a blinding light emanated and a thunderous boom echoed outwards. Seth shielded his face with his hands, however one second he was shielding himself from the light, the next he was gasping for air as he snapped awake.

Standing above him, looking down at their Father with a confused expression on their faces, was his wonderful creations. Titus, and his newly created unnamed brother. While he was still laying on the ground, Seth tilted his head and took in the curious sight of the being previously known as his spider.

It had two sets of pure black eyes, one on top of the other, and slitted nostrils like that of a serpent. It's ears were pointed, like one would expect from an elf, but the most curious feature was its mouth. Mainly the fact that, it didn't seem to have one. Not that Seth could see at least.

Yet before he could even wonder how he could speak, words formed themselves in the air beside his head. The words were black, formed one by one as if they were painted by a brush, the appearance of the letters even had a the appearance of brushstrokes on them.

The words that appeared read as followed,

"Are you alright, Father? I hope I did not cause you harm."

"No no, it is my own fault. I'm glad you are here though, I need you to prepare something for me. I'm going to be leaving the city to deal with an issue, but first I need your help taking care of something."

Seth groaned and he clambered to his feet, brushing himself clean of the dirt that had gathered on his clothes before facing his pair of Anima.

"I relish the chance to use my skills to help you Father. What do you have for us?"

"I'll tell you in a moment, but first. You need a name my boy. And there is no better name I can think of, than the name of a great man. You are the gift that he gave to me. I named your Brother the same."

The Anima seemed giddy with excitement as he knelt on the ground, but even kneeling his head was higher than Seth's. The boy was just too damned lanky.

Even still, Seth looked the Anima in his eyes, the lower set of them, as he placed his hand on his shoulder. The highest shoulder that he had, since he had four sets of arms.

"I name you, Julius Arachnis."