If I Had Lived a Better Life

The stench of blood had seeped into every corner of the castle. The air itself seemed rotten—heavy, suffocating, nauseating.

Yosukez had collapsed onto the stone floor. He was the only one left. The other guards lay in silence, their bodies torn apart. Yosukez's own body was drenched in blood from head to toe.

His skin was riddled with hundreds of tiny holes—some burrowed deep into his muscles. A massive bruise, shifting between shades of purple and black, swelled on his abdomen. It had formed from the blow that still burned in his lungs.

His breaths were shallow and rasping. The sounds from his chest were the silent screams of a body long past its limits.

He wanted to stand. But he was no longer there. His body wouldn't respond, and even his mind could no longer muster the strength to stay upright. Echoing through every cell was a single whisper: "Give up."

Before him, Asogi stood atop a rock. He looked down at him—not like a hunter, but like a judge. His gaze wasn't directed at Yosukez as a man, but at a bug.

Slowly, Yosukez bent his knees. The sound of his cracking bones echoed like the final prayer of a dying man.

Their eyes met.

And without moving, Asogi asked:

"You… looked at my father with those eyes. Didn't you?"

Yosukez felt hollow inside. These words carried more than anger—they held obsession, madness, jealousy. In Asogi's eyes was a darkness Yosukez had never seen before.

For the first time… he felt fear.

Not fear of battle. Not fear of death.

It was a fear that pierced the very core of his being, one that shook his soul. His breath caught in his throat.

He tried to gather the last fragments of his strength. To activate the remaining veins of power in his body—just to stay standing one second longer…

But nothing happened.

His mind, body, and soul surrendered all at once.

Asogi tilted his head to the side. He raised his right hand. On his palm, thin, wormlike strands of flesh wriggled—stretching, contracting, moving on their own.

"You don't need those eyes anymore."

Yosukez wanted to say something. Maybe a word, maybe just a breath.

But his vocal cords failed him.

And then—

SPLAT.

The thin, wet tendrils launched toward his eye sockets.

The first contact was a tingling sensation, which quickly turned to burning… then to explosive pain.

"AAAHHHHHH—!!"

His scream reached the heavens. But there was no one left to help.

The tendrils wrapped around his eyes. They pierced through the skin, then filled the eyeballs from within. Yosukez could only tremble as his eyes were torn from their sockets—he couldn't even flinch.

The fleshy strands enveloped the eyeballs and gently pulled.

They bloomed like flowers around the orbs and then—

PLUP.

Two eyes were torn from their roots.

Yosukez's head dropped backward, dark blood dribbling from the corners of his mouth.

Asogi looked at the wet, eye-shaped tissues in his hand. He crushed them in his palm. Warm fluid oozed between his fingers.

He took a step forward.

He looked into Yosukez's empty eye sockets.

And he smiled.

"Heh. That's… better. Now I can kill you properly."

Yosukez was clutching at his hollow sockets.

What he felt wasn't pain—it was absence. A warm, slippery nothingness.

His eyes were gone. Only dark holes remained.

He was on his knees, folded forward.

He could no longer cry, but his body wept.

Asogi spoke slowly. His voice wasn't a song—it was a soft, yet razor-sharp butchery:

"I don't want to kill you... No, that's not it.

I want to taste you."

With those words, Asogi's body began to transform again.

First, a vertical slit opened down the middle of his abdomen. From within, a slimy, veined mass slithered outward. It breathed—each ripple made the veins more visible, pulsing like a wet heart.

His ribs parted. Each bone curved outward from the flesh, accompanied by steaming, viscous fluids.

Between the ribs, a massive mouth emerged—surrounded by irregular, overlapping teeth.

Teeth that didn't belong to any human.

Teeth made not for chewing, but for tearing.

From the depths, a tongue slid out.

But it wasn't just a lump of flesh—it was alive. Tiny yellow eyes opened and closed along its surface, twitching like a parasite. From the tongue's fibers, thin hair-like tendrils extended into the air, tasting it and retracting.

The tongue slithered toward Yosukez, wrapping around his helpless body like a serpent. When its cold, moist surface touched his bare skin, a shiver ran through him.

A voice came from within Asogi:

"Don't resist. Stay sweet."

The tongue lifted him into the air. His feet dangled.

Yosukez no longer moved.

"This… is my end."

A voice not his own whispered in his ear:

"What have you accomplished? What did you live for?"

He had been abandoned as a child.

An orphan.

He had fought in the streets to survive.

When he grew strong, he became the bodyguard of a merchant named Fauriel. But he had never stood up to Fauriel's cruelty.

"Maybe I was guilty too..." he thought.

"Maybe… that's why I'm here."

The tongue pulled him toward the teeth.

Slowly...

He did not resist.

"If I'd lived a better life… if I'd been a good person, would I still be here?"

The mouth narrowed. The teeth spread open. Acid-like fluid dripped from each tip, hissing on the stone floor.

The eyes on the tongue focused on Yosukez's faceless head.

One final thought crossed his mind:

"Maybe… in another life… I could've been a better man."

And then...

CRUNCH.

The first tooth crushed his left rib. Something inside burst—probably his spleen.

The second tooth shattered his leg.

Then his shoulder.

The sounds of bones breaking mingled with the tearing of muscle fibers.

Yosukez's body became a single mouthful.

His flesh was chewed into bits. Fibers dangling from the teeth crackled with each bite. His skull spun around the mouth as the final piece and then—

KRAK.

Everything fell silent.

Asogi's body slowly returned to human form. His jawbones realigned. The flesh folded back. Pale skin tightened once more. His eyes were blank.

In his palm lay something.

Two wet, brownish human eyes.

Yosukez's eyes.