Trap After A Trap 1

"...Why?"

With a shocked look on his face, Athan stared at the fallen bodies of the Professors, that from the academy, scattered around forest.

It was truly a gore scene.

The professors' were lying in their own pool of blood, with some of their body parts decapitated and were scattered around; while the other people, that were wearing a white cloak that had a crest on it's back symbolizing the Church of the Sun, were was hanging from a tree had their intestines pulled out, there were some stuck on the same tree, or was visibly coming out of their stomachs; the others' who tried to escape had been cut in half, they had visibly big holes from their chest, stomach, heads and other body parts like their legs, arms and many more.

Athan tried to cover his mouth with both hands when he suddenly noticed some reddish thick liquid dripping from his fingers.

It was blood...

...Their blood.

Upon noticing this, he started breathing frantically, as though he was being suffocated by some invisible force, and strongly shaked his hands to remove the blood.

That was then...

'ጎፕ ሠልነ ቻሁክ, ጎነክ'ፕ ጎፕ?'

He suddenly heard a voice from his head, abruptly making him stop and stare at the empty space in front of him.

"Who...?"

Although the voice had some slight similarities, he was sure that the one who was talking in his head wasn't Deus. Because the person who was talking in his head... He knew that Deus' voice was clearly different from the voices he heard just now.

'ጎፕ ሠልነ ቻሁክ, ጎነክ'ፕ ጎፕ?'

The voice repeated it's sentence.

ሃዐሁ ቿክጋዐሃቿዕ ቿሀቿዪሃ ነቿርዐክዕ ልክዕ ቿሀቿዪሃ ጠጎክሁፕቿ ሃዐሁ ፕዐዪፕሁዪቿዕ ፕዘቿጠ ጌቿቻዐዪቿ ርዪሁቿረሃ ጕጎረረጎክኗ ፕዘቿጠ.

"Fun?! I..."

Athan grabbed the side of his head with his bloody hands and started pulling them roughly, hoping for the voice to disappear.

ሃዐሁ ርልክ'ፕ ርዘልክኗቿ ቻልርፕነ.

'ቻልርቿ ጎፕ. ሃዐሁ ቿክጋዐሃቿዕ ቿሀቿዪሃፕዘጎክኗ, ዕጎዕክ'ፕ ሃዐሁ?'

"No... I..."

He wanted to deny everything that happened just now, but he couldn't.

He killed them.

And worse of all... He enjoyed it.

He knows that deeply in his heart.

Because he was laughing the moment he did all those things to them.

"I..."

He turned his head towards the Academy's direction.

When he saw the flame rising from one of it's building and the severe-looking bodies of each students, staffs and teachers he came across earlier, he took a step back.

"Is this the consequences of me trying to save everyone...?"

ዘል ዘልዘል ዘልዘልዘል..!

He started questioning himself, as the voice inside his head began to laugh...

All this time, he had taken this new life for granted.

He may have suffered, but he knew that it wasn't enough to cover up for the sins he committed in each of his past lives.

He was the lead and cause of everything.

Many had suffered for him.

He knew that it would be better if he wasn't born in the first place.

But...

He can never disappear even if he wanted to.

Because...

Their curse will never cease to disappear.

"Is this really the only answer...?"

He wanted to ask questions to his choices, for he wasn't sure if it was really the right answer.

{[YES]}

The voice from earlier became clear as it's tone changed from being playful to becoming serious all of the sudden.

{[ACCEPT IT... ACCEPT ME... ACCEPT US.]}

He knew that he should be feeling sad, aggrieved, or angry at himself right now for doing this, but for some reason, he didn't felt any of those things.

Turning his head to the side, Athan saw the reflection of his face from the sharp blade of the sword that was currently stabbed on one of the professor's heart.

"Why...?"

He wanted to ask himself...

Touching his face, his mouth opened slightly as he spoke.

About why...

"Why am I still smiling?"

[ Timer left : 00M : 01D : 14H : 30M : 09S ]

.....

....

...

4 days earlier before the massacre...

[ Timer left : 00M : 05D : 14H : 30M : 09S ]

Staring at the remaining time he had left, Deus heaved out a short, but deep exasperated sigh before placing his phone back to his pocket.

"It's already getting near..." Mumbling to himself, Deus sat up from his bed and lightly scratched the back of his head before standing up.

He went inside the bathroom and walked towards the mirror to look at his reflection.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯...

Deus stood there silently as he looked at his face from the reflection of the mirror with an annoyed expression.

Seeing that sclera in his right eye turned black and his pupil turned crimson-red, that released a small spark of red lightning, Deus shaked his head lightly and spoke, "Damn, can you just give me a few moments? I've been stressing out lately because of you again, you fucking psycho!"

Just right after he said this, his eyes released more spark of lightning that it ended up hitting one of the towel that was on the corner, setting it up on fire.

Clicking his tongue, Deus rolled his eyes elsewhere and went on to pick the flaming towel up. Using his dark magic, he swallowed the flame with darkness, leaving only the torn towel.

When that's done, he took out a potion from inside his [Pocket Ring] and opened the lid up.

"Hmm... I'm already running low on potions, I should probably order Olivia to contact Chief and ask him to buy me these potions in the black market."

The potion he was talking about is the same potions Athan used to disguise himself to look older when he visited the palace.

Heaving out a sigh, Deus put on a black cloak and emptied the whole bottle by drinking it. "Fuuu..." He took a deep breath and exhaled from his mouth, as he let the potion do it's thing.

Since his Stigma is not strong enough to alter his age, he had no choice but to drink those potions once again to hide his identity. He already learned something from his mistake when he saved Charlotte and his sister, Mila, from the bandits.

After a few minutes, Deus' height finally grew.

Looking at the reflection from the mirror, he smiled slightly. Currently, he had a beautiful appearance. He was tall, lean, and had a nice body balance.

Combined with his hairstyle, that was shortened up until his shoulder and tied neatly, Deus right now looked more handsome than Arthur.

𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘯, 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘩𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬. He touched his chin and nodded at his own words with a proud smug.

Putting on his fox mask, Deus took his [Gluttonous Devourer] out of it's scabbard and raised it before slicing it downward.

*Zuuuuuup-!*

He entered the portal he created and disappeared.

***

2 hours later.

"I'm back!"

After he got back to his room, the cloak Deus was currently wearing has now been covered with blood.

Removing his mask, he threw it back inside his [Pocket Ring]. His abnormal-looking eyes from earlier had finally turned back to normal, making him nod at himself while looking at the mirror with a satisfied look on his face.

"Ah.... I can finally take a re-"

*Tock! Tock!*

Before he could even lay down to his bed, Deus suddenly heard a knock from the door, promoting him to stand up with a frown.

"Athan! We're going on a shopping for equipments for the upcoming Tournament after tomorrow. Wanna come with us?" He heard Arthur's voice outside his room. Because of this, he walked towards the door and opened it slightly to peek at Arthur suspiciously.

"No." He replied, closing the door before heading back to his bed.

"You're sister is coming too. I'm sure that she'll be sad and disappointed if she finds out that you won't come with us, ya know?"

Again, just when he was about to lay down, Arthur said something that piqued his interest, making him turn around and walk towards the door once again.

Quickly, Deus swallowed back every words that came out from his mouth from earlier and said, "I'm just messing with you... I'll be coming with you guys after I'm done changing my clothes."

"Okay~ Let's meet at the entrance." Arthur teased, "We'll be waiting for you for a few minutes there. If you don't show up, Athena said that she'll be the one to drag you out there..." For some unknown reason, the side of Arthur's lips curled up, giving Deus an uncomfortable feeling.

With a carefree expression, Arthur left the dormitory and decided to wait for Deus on the academy's entrance.

"..."

Deus stood still at the door for a couple of moments as he watches Arthur's figure move far away from his direction. When he couldn't finally see his back, Deus went inside his room back again without second thoughts as he scrolled around his drawer to find some clothes.