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[For just stating the basics, Nox has to blink for a long moment as Moriarty lists off what else having such a system entails for Kaisou. He's well aware of who Moriarty actually is, but seeing him put things together lightning quick still is definitely different compared to reading about it.

He exhales and laughs, grinning.]

Shit, yeah- you got that in one. It's kind of like... Zodiac's called Kaisou a home for refugees, I think? From other timelines. Sometimes people's lives end abruptly, in terrible moments- sometimes they die of old age. Some timelines even end in weird ways with no explanation. In some ways, I feel like it's a second chance for a lot of people.

[A pause.] If that makes any sense, I mean. There's no demons here clamoring to take over the human realm, but that doesn't stop me from trying to live a somewhat normal life between the two lives I now know as Nero and Nox.

Interesting. I suppose I just narrowly avoided that fate myself!

[ He briefly tries to imagine being reborn under a different name, to a normal family. A life as someone other than James Moriarty? ...No, sorry, he can't do it.

He's technically an incomplete existence, centered solely around this particular moment in his own personal timeline. He doesn't remember his human childhood, or what it was like to have parents, so he can't even begin to project himself into another hypothetical timeline where he would have those things. ]

By which I mean I was pulled from my world shortly before my own inevitable demise.

If I ever go back, I expect I'll expire soon after my return.

Ehhhhh... jury's still out on that.

[Nox actually wiggles a hand at this, frowning a little.] No one really knows how or why they end up here, some people think it's something to do with the Spirit Realm, but...

[He shrugs, unsure of what else to really add to that.]

Also, you're basically saying you're dead back home, yeah? [Considering Moriarty is who he is... it's not exactly unusual for Nox to hear this. But it's not exactly something he likes to hear all the same.]

If you're aware of the contract I've made with your uncle, then you must know I am a Servant.

[ If Vergil, Nox's not-dad, is also the Master of a Servant, surely he has some idea of what that means. But just in case he doesn't, Moriarty continues. ]

I require magical energy to maintain my existence. If I completely exhaust my mana reserves, I will disappear. Those are the facts of my existence.

There are several ways to supply a Servant with magical energy—but the most relevant method to our current discussion is probably the Master-Servant contract.

Your uncle is my Master, which means I rely on him to replenish the mana I burn simply by existing.

However, in the world I came from, I have no Master.

Instead, I was bolstered by the specific circumstances under which I was summoned—but that time was rapidly coming to an end. In fact, I was called away in the midst of our final battle.

Granted, my fellow Servants and I all agreed to fight knowing we would expend the last of our energy on the battlefield, myself included.

That's why I can tell you, with absolute certainty, that going back will mean my death. I'd accepted it.

Coming here was the factor I hadn't accounted for.

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