Special Thanks To SpartanLoki for editting my terrible mistakes~

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This… guy’s a fucking maniac!”

I couldn’t help but mutter softly so no one could hear. Not that anyone at the time was willingly to hear it. After all nearly everyone had already thought their death was certain. But I was not about to kick the bucket so easily, as I truthfully enjoy my peaceful times as it is right now.

‘What can I do?’

I couldn’t help but ponder over the situation, even while I was thinking for a fraction of a second people were being killed. I didn’t have the luxury of time and I didn’t even have the right state of mind either. It was already an incredible strain on my brain just to muster the courage to even think straight, not to mention thinking of a method of escaping.

‘There’s one door and that man is making sure to cover it while killing people. So unless someone lures him over…..ah fuck I don’t like this but this might be the only way out.’

After I finally managed to figure out a plan, I realized how incredibly vicious of a person I was under stress. But I didn’t have time for that. I had to save myself and as many people, including my best friends, as possible. Therefore, I mustered up my courage and yelled at the top of my lungs!

“Everyone! Listen… I have a way to escape… But only half of us will be saved at a maximum. If you want the chance to at least live. Split up into two groups and stand on either sides of the middle of the walls farthest away from the door! Quickly!”

As Sasha was a mischievous young girl, she was naturally the first one who figured out the truth behind my plan. I could only shake my head when she gave me a worried look, and as I did she called out to help split the groups.

During this time, the masked man thought of it as a game for the students to struggle for their lives. He stopped killing at the moment and only watched as we set our plan into motion. Even though it might be obvious, I’ll say this now. One group was definitely not getting out of here alive. As the masked man would definitely not sit and wait till we starved to death. The masked man was on a time limit after all and if he wanted to escape there’s no way other people wouldn’t have heard the screams by now.

Naturally I was with Leo and Sasha, at one corner of the room, while it might be selfish, I was still hoping we weren’t the group chosen for a death sentence. Staring at the masked man blood was dripping from his weapon, and I finally realized where the red stains had come from. In fact it was an even more terrifying realisation now that I knew it was a common occurrence to him.

Finally, the moment the masked man move came. Unfortunately, even after trying my best to come up with a plan, he decided with my group in the end. I could only bitterly smile, while I did Sasha came up and hugged my arm before consoling me softly.

“It’s okay… You saved at least half the people…”

“Thanks..”

Everyone in our group started to have complicated feelings and tears welled up in their eyes. It was not completely over for them. The opposite happened for the other group of people. The life in their eyes lit up and they all rushed towards the door when, the masked man neared us. The smiles on their faces grew more evident and just as they were about to reach the doorway, the masked man started to laugh coldly.

I didn’t know why at the moment, but I soon found out. As the students rushed towards the door and turned the knob, they found that the door knob wouldn’t turn. Maybe it was more accurate to say they couldn’t turn it. But this was the moment the masked man was hoping for and he started laughing for the very depths of his soul.

“HAHAHAHA. Foolish children, do you think any of you are going to leave alive?”

It was over. I tried my best to think of a solution and even when I knew I wasn’t going to be saved I thought at the very least I could save others. The impact was like a huge waterfall crushing me down and drowning me under the intense pressure. I fell to my knees, as I couldn’t help but feel responsible for their deaths as well as my groups deaths. After all it was my plan and it failed miserably.

The impact to the group fleeing was even greater. The moment they knew they couldn’t escape they turned lifeless and mumbled incognizable things. The masked man didn’t even bother with us anymore, as we fully knew we could only await our deaths.

“Hey… Ryker.. Do you think we could take that guy down?”

“Nope, but I suppose it’s a better way to go then waiting right?”

As I picked myself up to recover I looked at the serious eyes of Leo. He knew the situation was grim but even now he still didn’t give up. Might be the attitude of an ace quarterback that always believes in that winning throw but personally I couldn’t say any words of encouragement to him this time. I was without a doubt sure we were goners. For whatever reason the door wasn’t able to be opened and watching three guys attempt to hold him down and be easily thrown off wasn’t exactly hopeful.

I mean you might think it was possible to send the remainder of the guys at the masked man, but we were still in a classroom and the desks were in the way. It wasn’t like we could charge at him all at once. Only on the side of the classrooms was there enough room to gather a large group. But the masked man wasn’t an idiot either, he purposely stayed within the desks to avoid being ganged up on like that.

To me it felt like caution from experience, but I could also tell even if we did gang up on him, it wouldn’t work. It might be because of the door not opening, but something here was clearly strange. After all his attire was too weird, his mask was particularly strange. A mask sure, but why a gas mask? Clearly it would be cheaper to use another alternative, not to mention that the lights from the eyes were strange as well. What was the purpose for those lights? Especially that weapon. That weapon is beyond weird, as a saw that spins attached to a rod. What was the point of making such a difficult weapon? He could just use a blade, or gun. There was no need to go through all this extra work even if you were a maniac psycho.

To me a unknown factors led to higher risk, and with all the unknowns laid in front of me I could not help but think that this was all strange. As if the masked man knew what I was thinking, the reason I felt uneasy was soon answered.

A gust of wind, which should have been impossible as the windows were all closed, could be felt. The source of this wind was coming from that masked man. I didn’t know what was happening but I didn’t even have time to question it and nor did anyone else. As the masked man raised his off-hand and pointed it towards the cowering group, they lost their hope as the wind started to concentrate in his palm.

The moment felt like I was in a dream, except this dream was a nightmare and everything went well for the murderer and nothing went right for the victim. There was no happy ending for us as i stared at the aftermath of the wind being concentrated shot out towards the group of students.

As it was shot out it turned into a visible blade of wind and pierced straight through all the students. The next moment they were looking around as if wondering what happened. But from our point of view, we could see it clearly. Around the waist level of each student hit, was a red line and as a few seconds passed by, this red line grew more apparent.

It was only after a solid minute of the students not knowing what happened did their bodies split apart. I’m not sure about everyone else but this scene was to grotesque for even me and I quickly shut my eyes to avoid seeing their pleading faces while they died not knowing what happened.

“Haha, killing those who have seen hope is still the best way to kill after all.”

At this point in time Leo was unable to hold back any longer. Seeing the group of mutilated students he walked in front of the group trying his best to hide his trembling. Even though he might be able to fool everyone else he could not fool me. I’ve known him since we were kids and could clearly see when he was nervous, he would unconsciously pinch the side of his leg with his left hand. It wasn’t a noticeable trait to anyone but Sasha and I. It was then, even though he was scared himself, that he spoke up.

“If I willingly give myself up will you be able to spare a few of us?”

“Oh? How noble giving yourself up when I can kill you easily anyways.”

“But you like torture right? If you torture me, will you let some go?”

“That’s a good idea…”

“What are you doing Leo!”

‘How can you do this’

Is what I wanted to say at the time but only Sasha was able to get her words out. I stood there dumbstruck at his resolve. I knew he was a person who’d sacrifice everything for his friends but to even willingly take torture was another thing entirely. However we weren’t left with much time to discuss as the masked man finally made his decision.

“....good idea but unfortunately, orders are to kill you all!”

It was first time that masked man charged forward. It would seem that even the masked man was impatient to delay this any longer. But now the bigger problem arose and the man was charging straight towards Leo. It might have been a useless attempt of defending but Leo still positioned himself in a defensive posture.

During this time, it was as if my body wasn’t even my own. Before I even noticed what I was doing. I had already been struck down by the masked man. Leo was looking at me with guilt filling his eyes and Sasha was crying while screaming my name. Why were they?

Because when my body acted on it’s own I rushed to my best friend. Even if I’m a coward I still couldn’t watch my best friend die without doing anything. But it was a foolish attempt while I threw myself in front of the saw It was deeply imbedded into my back. The shredding of the muscles was unbearable and it was then that I finally noticed my own actions. I didn’t regret it though. It might have been a pointless action as they would probably die anyways. I felt slightly happy to increase their life by even a few seconds longer.

‘Ah my eyes…. they feel so heavy..’

With each passing second the sounds of screams started to drift away, and I could no longer hear the screams of Sasha or Leo. My eyes started to feel droopy and I couldn’t remain awake any longer. Just as death approached me, a echo appeared in my head.

“Do you want a second chance? If so are you prepared to live a second echo? Life is but an echo that ripples through the calm waters. When a larger rock drops it can simply vanish without a trace. However if you’re willing to take that chance, and let your own echo return to be heard once more, we can give you life again.”

“Huh? What… does that all mean? Does that mean I can live?”

As if the voice saw through my confusion it answered back in a calm voice.

“Yes… but once you agree your life will change forever!”

“Will I see my friends again? My family?”

“All will depend on your actions…”

Finally the voice drifted away. With no choice but to accept, I nodded my head. The moment I agreed a bright light flashed and blinded me. I was unable to see anything and suddenly I felt tired and unable to deny my bodies wishes I fell and passed out.

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‘Urgh… Why does my body feel so heavy?’

I woke up with cramps and pains all over my body. My head was hazy and I couldn’t think clearly. But as my mind started to wake up the memories that I had just experienced flowed through my head. As the painful memories resurfaced, I was unable to hold back my gastric fluids as I puked up everything. It wasn’t until that my stomach was empty that i finally wiped my mouth of the remains. After staring at my gastric fluids, I noticed something strange. No there was nothing strange with my puke, it was where my puke was. I noticed that the place I was currently at was outside. Finally I managed to gather enough strength to stand up.

To my surprise, I noticed that I was definitely no longer in my old world. Why? Because there was no way the world I lived in previously was able to have such a decayed city. The buildings were cracking and toppling over, the windows were smashed or completely dirtied to the point you couldn't even see through them. The pavement was cracked and some unknown plants could be seen growing about. And for whatever reason in the distance some of the buildings were completely submerged by sand. Although the sand was the only normal looking part of this world, it was still weird to think of. After all I lived in a city without sand my whole life, and for me to suddenly be in a desert like environment like this was completely inconceivable. Thus I came to the quick conclusion, this was no longer my own world.

As I finally managed to turn around I noticed something. There were also other people here! They were also people I knew, specifically from my class and even Sasha and Leo! As they were both looking around endlessly in worry I rushed over and called out to them.

“Sasha! Leo!”

As I called out they could easily recognize my voice and turned instantly towards my direction. Leo smirked with a happy expression while running over, while Sasha started to tear up bringing her hands towards her mouth.

“You asshole!”

“wha?!”

As Leo finally reached me he grabbed me into a rear naked choke and cussed at me.

“How could you jump in like that?!”

“I’m… sorry… It was my bad okay!”

As I apologized the gripped lessened and I was able to clearly speak without a hinderance. As I couldn’t be bothered to explain, as I didn’t even know how I managed to jump in front of him. While complicated feelings arose in Leo’s eyes he didn’t bother saying anything more and only stuck out his fist. Naturally, I responded with my own fist and our secret handshake erupted out of nowhere.

After completing the secret handshake I rushed to the still quietly crying Sasha. I felt terrible as I watched how pained she looked. I couldn’t help but pat her head and ask her softly.

“Are you okay?”

“....yeah… I am now!”

As the tears started to fall at a faster rate she jumped into my embrace. As Leo and I could only continue to watch as her tears were absorbed by my shirt. However, our fateful reunion was cut short by a loud noise that appeared from behind us.

Bang!

As all the students and teachers and myself included looked towards the source of the noise. We all couldn’t help but shudder as we saw a familiar figure. It was the masked man who had killed us all! But before any of us were able to give a word of complaint the masked figure spoke out in a loud deafening roar.

“Greetings to you all! You all must be very angry, but control yourselves or I’ll kill you right now. There’s no harm in listening to what I say first.”

“Are you the one who attacked us?!”

As one of the teachers spoke up in anger the masked man only glanced at the man before turning away to continue his monologue.

“Now, I will answer that question, and the answer is no! But, I am the one who ordered for you to be killed!”

“Huh! You **cker! how dare you attack us!”

The teacher spoke out in rage, but this time the masked man stared directly at the teacher and did not turn away. Then he brought out a device that looked like a phone, and pressed the screen a few times. As he finally pressed the last button, an inconceivable thing happened.

The teacher that spoke up blew up. His body entirely blew up and there was nothing left of him. We could all only stare dumbfounded. We had no idea what happened but if you put one piece together it was obvious that the same thing could easily happen to us.

“Okay.. Because you guys are so impatient I’ll cut straight to the point. Inside your head exists a nanobots nest. We call them Aether bots. These Aether bots will allow you to receive powers. But there’s a catch, your powers will only grow the more you die. And you only get 9 lives. Well that’s not counting your baptism. As you die you’ll grow stronger and your powers will evolve. If you wish to leave this world, you must find the escape point marked by your PDA’s in your pockets.”

As the man explained, everyone was unable to understand a single thing. However after mentioning the PDA, I immediately dug into my pocket and pulled out a phone like device. On it was a map with a dot marking my location, and another dot marked with “escape point”. As the rest of the conversation was gibberish to me I was unable to understand it.

“There’s no need to worry about understanding it. After your baptism you will naturally come to know of your abilities. Now awaken yourselves and embark on your journey by becoming a [Beginner] in this world!”

As he called out he pressed a few more buttons on his PDA. Just then a massive headache appeared out of nowhere. I was unable to control my bodily functions and immediately fell to the ground. The pain was so great it felt like a thousand needles were individually scrapping my muscles asunder. As the only thing I was capable of was moving my eyes I could see everyone was dropped to the ground and in a similar situation. We weren’t even able to hold our hands to our heads in attempts to lessen the pain.

I could only see Sasha in front of me as she was no longer able to cry and her body twitched uncontrollably in front of me. I imagined that Leo was going through the same sort of pain and because I was experiencing it personally I could imagine how they felt. Our bodies weren’t even able to move and the only thing that could be felt was an indescribable pain until I could only blackout to release me from my torture.