No Longer Human

I descended.

The weight of Silver Lining resting in my grip as I leaped off the podium, reaching a monstrous height.

My figure sealed the flare of a spotlight, making my shadow appear massive, encompassing the entire hall.

"WHA?!"

The student body was confused, some startled, some shaken but none showed fear...at least not until...the system spoke.

[Skill: Terror Inducement has been activated.]

The moment I leaked my bloodlust, the entire audience went cold, freezing. The temperature which was already at a chilling degree, dropped to absolute zero.

SHEEN!

Silver Lining glinted as gravity settled in, forcing me to plummet downwards.

"WAI-"

A male student right below me took a frightened step back, his eyes widening as my figure expanded on his pupils.

"STO-"

But before he could utter another word...

SHLK!

A silver blade embedded its length in his heart.

"AH-"

He's frame staggered for a moment, blood blossoming from the stab and staining his gray waistcoat. He raised his shaky hand weakly, his eyes struck with disbelief and horror.

"A-"

THUD!

His body crashed to the ground with a sickening sound, his face frozen in a silent scream.

The light died in his eyes as a pool of crimson formed below him.

SHIFF.

I gripped the hilt of Silver Lining and slowly pulled it out, the feeling of the steel exiting flesh – human flesh – was chilling but also...liberating.

"I-is this what it feels like to kill a human being?"

I said, looking at my trembling hand.

It...it feels so...

"No."

I clenched my fist, banishing the thought.

A smile stretched across my face, all teeth no warmth.

The student body shifted as my gaze rose.

And with one last breath, I advanced.

Plunging the scene into chaos.

...

"What is a memory's worth if the one who holds them ceases to exist?"

It was a simple question, yet one that twisted at the edges of reason.

The teacher stood atop the podium; eyes fixed on the macabre scene unfolding before her.

Her voice, smooth and measured, carried through the crumbling dreamscape.

"Memories are fickle concepts."

She mused, watching as the Fool wove through the student body like a phantom,

"Living things like to believe memories define them, that their experiences form a continuous thread, stitching together the fragile thing they call identity."

The woman walked up to a folding chair and opened it, taking a seat.

"But I wonder...when the thread frays, when the holder of those memories ceases to be...what remains?"

She brought her hand to her chin, taking the philosopher's pose.

"KYAAAHHH!!"

A student screamed, bright red blood smearing his face as his severed right hand fell to the ground. The boy fell back to his hind, his bloodied face a mask of primal fear. He opened his mouth to let out another scream but the Fool did not agree.

SHLK!

A silver blur flashed forward, impaling the boy's temple and protruding his brain.

The scream died in his throat as the light left his eyes.

The teacher saw the Fool reap another soul without hesitation, without mercy, without pause.

And yet...

She merely watched.

"HIEEK!!"

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!!"

"SOMEONE HELP!!"

"STOP HIM!! SOMEONE STOP HIM!!"

"HELP!! HLEP!!"

The students scrambled, shoving and clawing over one another in their desperate bid to escape, but there was no exit. The doors led nowhere and the large hall lacked any windows.

The once tranquil atmosphere had decayed into maddening bedlam.

Fearful screams filled the air, crimson blood dyed the rows, dismembered bodies lay sprawled across the floor and an aura of inevitability hung across the space.

The Fool carved through the student body like a ruthless omen, sowing death and destruction in his wake. Everywhere his foil of silver spawned, life ceased.

His movements were neither reckless or erratic, neither hurried nor wasteful, he seemed to dance to an unheard tempo, flowing from one combat technique to another.

Although his skill was subpar compared to the several seekers that had come before, it was still impressive for someone of his age.

"His fighting technique though...its ruthless...it's like it was made for fighting monsters not humans...", the teacher let out an exhale,

"There's something strange about him now though..."

In his memories, the boy had frequently smiled whenever he slaughtered monsters and combatted humans but now...

The Fool wasn't smiling.

SHIFF.

The teacher watched this all with a mask of detachment, her eyes taking in the harrowing slaughter without blinking.

...

SWISH!

Silver Lining flashed through the air, as I cut down a senior student. His screams wavering into the background as his arm fell to the ground with a wet slap.

My dark gaze fell on the student as he collapsed to the floor, he wanted to let out a scream but I silenced him before he could.

The feeling of his flesh and bone caving to the steel of Silver Lining sent ripples through me, forming goosebumps through my skin.

But I wasn't shaken by his death nor bothered by the act of killing him, instead, I felt unburdened.

Like one of the several chains that bound me to humanity was suddenly severed.

Trevor...

My eyes lingered on his body for but a moment before I dove for my next victim.

"HIEEK!!"

"W-WA-"

"HEL-"

The shrill cries of the student body faded into the background as I continued to move, continued hack and slash my way through them.

The system didn't announce any of my kills.

Maybe it didn't acknowledge them as learning or maybe it couldn't reward me for something so inhumane.

But I wasn't bothered.

I didn't stop.

I continued to carve through them with cold, ruthless precision.

The crunch of shattered bone and the wet, inevitable silence of another victim mingled with the eerie, continuous chime of a distant, haunting melody.

Blood stained my face and wet the blade of Silver Lining, the blood of the scores of students I had massacred.

I didn't know how many students existed within the hall but that didn't matter because in the end, I was going to kill everyone.

I had to.

If I wanted to escape this place, I had to.

But what if you're wrong?

A thought pounded at the back of my skull, as I gutted another student.

What if this isn't the answer?

What if you're just playing into Wyrtweard's hands?

What if you're wrong?

The thoughts clawed at my psyche, threatening to overwhelm me but I paid them no mind.

I let them flow without restriction, without judgement, without disgust, without reproach. I simply let them exist as I continued to slaughter.

"WAIT! ALEX PLEASE WAIT!"

I reached a group of female students clustered at a corner of the room; their eyes wide with a final, silent plea. My shadow loomed large, blanket their frail forms. My eyes glinted with recognition; they were my classmates.

Bells, Zara, Marilyn, Remi and Fiona.

All girls I had sat in the same classroom with, as well as laughed with on a few occasions.

And yet...

An unhinged smile stretched across my face, my eyes taking in their quivering forms with a spark of dark glee.

I didn't relent.

"NO-AH!"

"HIEE-!!"

I spun around them with a swift arc of my blade, severing limbs and splintering bodies. The echoes of their final moments; their screams, gasps, the staccato clatter of falling bodies all faded into noise.

It was all so beautiful in its nihilism, so exquisitely final.

Blood splattered across the walls and floor as I cut them down before moving off to another group.

...

The teacher watched this all with a stoic mask, seemingly unbothered, before slowly the mask cracked, replaced by one of confusion and... slight revulsion.

"B-but why...? How can one so young commit such violent acts...? How can he slaughter his comrades without so much as batting an eye?"

Even though the students were 'actors' conjured by the Elder of Oblivion's Unraveling Ritual, they played their parts to near-perfection. They were almost indistinguishable from the original, only lacking due to the erroneous nature of memories.

In other words, the actors played their roles exactly as the subject of the ritual remembered them.

This was the reason why thousands of seekers had failed to pass the ritual and ended up as a seed to be planted in the Garden.

Those who become seeds blossom into oblivion and become one of us, the Forgotten.

The teacher's face turned into a mask of a grimace, as she watched.

I, one of the Forgotten, had witnessed countless rituals. Many had failed, only a few had passed and then again many of those few had done so only after so long...

And again, those few were living beings with cycles of experience.

So... how?

The Fool, the current subject of the ritual, was the youngest seeker to ever enter the second layer of the Abyss.

It was supposed to be impossible for him to even realize that he was in a dreamscape, talk less of clearing the ritual and yet...

The teacher's face contorted into a dark expression as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat, she seemed confused for a moment before turning back to the scene.

The dreamscape was already unraveling.

Her eyes reflecting the Fool violently slaughter a group of females without pause.

"Humanity might have made a mistake..."