"Oh, so you've finally decided to wake up from your nap" Henry says gleefully, Roses eyes blink slowly barley able to move, "what did you do to me" the boy mutters weakly, "Well I saw you were fighting 2 other girls and won, but what if you were caught like that everyone would assume you attacked them, but now it looked like a fairer fight" Henry said.

Rose could finally open his left eye properly, but for some reason he couldn't open right one, "you got pretty banged up in that fight huh" Henry stands leaning over Rose.

Rose looks at his snakish smile, "if a devil truly exists then they would appear a charismatic and trusting fellow and not the monster he is" Rose says trying to feel his right eye with his hand.

Yet all he felt was familiar touch of bandages wrapped around the right side of his face, Rose grabs the edge of it and rips it off revealing a lot of spiralling spots pulling in skin to cover up the wound.

"You are definitely not the average person are you, I mean you did all that asleep” Henry says, “I have some business to settle with that abhorrent noble snob” Rose says rising out of the bed, he looks around to see an open room with many beds around him each with worse and worse injuries.

“Where are those two” Rose commands, “well it depends what you plan on doing” Henry says chuckling, “well isn’t that obvious, I’m gonna squeeze every penny out of that pampered noble” Rose gives a devilish smile walking off.

Rose closes his eyes and focuses his aura on finding the purple head and March, “twenty four paces left turn and turn left” Rose mumbles following his own instructions.

He gets to a private hospital room, Rose opens the door but suddenly he felt great amounts malicious aura, his immediate instincts kick in heightening his senses and w, ‘from the left’ Rose grabs the blonde heads fist in the nick of time, “what a warm greeting” Rose snarls, his eyes flickering between different shapes and colours before settling back to normal.

“You must die, you are a wolf in sheep's clothing” March snaps leaning in for another punch, ‘Kill, consume, multiply, and conquer’ rings loudly through Rose's head echoing repeatedly, “shut up, you are nothing but a parasite” Rose says angrily his eyes filled with the wrath of all-consuming cancer.

“Tell me, when we met, your first instinct was to label me an enemy without a second thought, is what I said true” Roses fury silently boiling, “yes of coarse b-”, “and I tried to reason with you while fighting but it was only to buy time so you and purple head would tag team me” March is cut off by Rose, “that isn’t true” March remarks.

“You weren’t fighting to protect, no, you fought to kill” Rose’s brilliant emerald eyes shake uncontrollably unable to maintain its form, “If I had fought to kill, you would have died a hundred times over” Rose says barely holding himself together, “you accused me of being a creep and lying about who I am but you never bothered to question, what if I was not lying” Rose tries to calm himself down.

Rose’s eyes begin to drift off of the stunned in gritting anger, he notices Teseji watching from a corner with the purple head laying in a clinic bed, “I have no idea whats going on at this point but you are all my friends so just try to work this out on your own without killing anyone, I’ll be gone to train for a while so yeah” Teseji walks out clearly stressed and confused just wanting a break.

‘She really was never good with emotional conflicts’ Rose thinks to himself, “so how long will you pretend to sleep purple head” Rose says in a chipper voice, “I have a name you know its May Asuka” she says sitting up revealing her scars completely healed, “this is the kind of treatment you get from top notch healers” she boasts looking at Rose’s marks spiralling ever so slightly.

“Oh but it sure would be a shame if your schoolmates knew what you did” Rose says mockingly, “well who would they believe a slums person or the hare to the most powerful noble in the capital, sir King Asuka”, She boasts with March nodding on every word that May says.

“I have at least two people who would side with me Henry and Seok-ji, who are some of the most powerful powerful and charismatic people in this school so who would they believe now” Rose says smugly looking at the shock and defeat on her face, “how should I believe you” she snaps as if she’s won anything, ‘this is my favorite part right as it looked like she won, I crush her pride’ Rose relishes in the moment.

“I know you’re watching us Geo Seok-ji” Rose says looking down at his shadow, “your aura may be invisible but no human can hide their own spiritual intent” but he is only met with defining silence, after a few moments of silence Rose takes a deep breath and draws his dagger hidden in his tattered grey cloak as fast as he could and in that same moment tries to stab the hard wooden ground but his hands are stopped, he feels something squeezing his wrist before letting go.

Geo Seok-ji climbs out of Rose's shadow with thick black ink dripping off of him and immediately dissipating, “you have an affinity for darkness” Rose comments, “there is no such thing as affinity” Geo Soak-ji says coldly.

“Nah nevermind that” Rose says waving his statement off, “what did you mean by spiritual presence” Geo Soak-ji questions ignoring everyone other than Rose, when Seok-ji looked at Rose though it felt like he wasn’t seeing Rose, the human being in front of him but instead something else, this makes Rose’s hands shiver.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Your gaze is cold and heartless,” Rose mumbles, “oh no it's nothing you should know” Rose turns to March and May, their faces morphing into fleeting shadows with each passing second, “so what do you think, you ready to negotiate Rose says taping Seok-ji behind him, “fine I can negotiate on two conditions, we talk at my manor, and he would have to leave” May points to Seok-ji with a repulsing sneer that unravels into a cascade of liquid colors blending with her surrounding environment.

“Alright sure and make sure you have a scholar with you because” Rose pauses, gazing at the moon. It swells into a colossal orb of iridescent memories, humming with the whispers of bygone galaxies. Suddenly, the moon begins to pirouette away, twirling into the infinite void until it's engulfed by the cosmic silence.

I want to run to it, the only thing tangible in the intangible darkness, a light of hope, yet I could not move, I wanted to scream but I couldn’t, it was only nothing that existed in that moment even I am not there, Everything dissolves into nothingness, and I question my existence in the vast emptiness. I rattle and struggle in my shell but nothing happens I can not change anything.

What am I, Who am I talking to, Why am I, “who are you” the abyss chuckles, “you are a human” the abyss remarks, but what is a human, “a human is a creature that wants to understand what it is” the abyss echoes, but what if a human does understand what it is, what would it realise what would they be after accomplishing the action that keeps them human.

“Once one sees what a human is they see nothing with the potential of everything and nothing, once one truly experiences this they fade to obscurity until the cycle repeats again” Teseji says.

Rose finds himself reaching out to her on the fork of a road in and endless meadow but when he tries to feel the warmth of life, he finds a billow of cold unfeeling, uncaring nothing. Rose blinks to see the moon before him again its large body in his whole view.

“Mr. Moon tell us about the sky” Lilith asks, “The sky is deep and dark and eternally high beyond everything on earth, many people think that's where you go when you ◗ █ █☰ “ the moon says its deep smooth voice could say nothing but the truth, “what do you believe” Lilith asks.

“Well, I think you return to obscure or wherever you were before you were but I won't let you lose yourself in the rain” the moon says with a misplaced sincerity, “oh I see, then you have fulfilled” Lilith smiles, she points to the moon, a white plasma comes from her finger that gravitate a few inches away from her forming a tiny undulating sphere of white rotating around and within itself rotating faster and faster until the small mass of plasma bends the surrounding light creating a ring with a magnificent warm colours all spinning around the black nothing.

“Bang!” Lilith shouts swinging her arm as if shooting a gun, the small mass of energy disappears and so does the moon, it append so fast it was like the moon had never been there. “It seems Adam was wrong I’m not only three people, no I’m every being that was, is , and will be in the cycle” Lilith pronounces to the infinite void, “who said that” Rose shouts in the utter silence of nothing.

The sent of baking chicken wafs into my noses the moment I open the door to the woody living room the fireplace burning bright, I step in, “welcome home honey” my wife says from the kitchen, “George is on a school field trip right now, “thanks sweetie” I say walking to the kitchen looking at the apple pie and a weeks worth of chile, I go to kiss her on the cheek, “did the paper come yet” Iask on my way to the fridge.

I grab a slice of peanut brownie from the fidge as well as a small plate and a spoon, “oh yes I kept it on the coffee table for you” she says never taking her eyes off the stove.

To think this was just a month ago, before I got drafted, striped from my family and now I’m sent so far from home to flanders. When we arrived troops from allied countries had alredy settled in. The atmosphere was dreadful, just being there you could feel the looming presens of death weighing on the soldirs shoulders.

I sit on the couch eyeing at the paper headline, the great war, I scoff as I pick up the paper, I mean it seems dumb that America and many countries outside Europe are interfering in European affairs, to think this is what american soldiers are dying for. I open the paper to see some government propaganda on what we can and can’t buy in the war, what does this accomplish for america.

I snap back to the helscape reality a commanding shout from a colonel, his eyes were wide and looked hollow his skin so pale you could see the colour of his veins, he looked like he would die of starvation at any momment, “Soldires in advanced bragaide A, you will be our first line of attack in enemy teritory” his shout lacked any emotion other than a hollow dread of war, what he said was basicaly a ◗ █ █☰ command, and I was in that very bagraide.

Fear took over my body, I was scared, in war there are many horrible ways to ◗ █ █☰, and even more to live, if I die here I never see my family again and I would likley ◗ █ █☰ a horible ◗ █ █☰, and if I live I could get dissabled, or shuned and assulted back in America by those who oppose the war.

An image appeared in my head, an old wooden chair and a rope knote just above it hanging from up high, it could be the best option, I mean I would be shamed for being weak and giving up on fighting for the american people, but this fight isn’t for America and what does a Deadman care about shame.

Suzie and george, they still need me, what kind of man would I be if I die here when I still need to provide for them. I want to fight not for this god forsaken country, no for survival so I can live for my family.

What a fool, to think whis were my thoughts going into battle.

When we arrived to the battle location I saw a Ǥꗞᗫ, it fluttered high above the ground, it looked almost human except for it's three pairs of jet black wings, goat horns potruding from it's head, black donkey legs and 2 sets of beutifuly terifying eyes, one pair fire red and the other pair nature green.

And in that moment I could feel my head severe and drop to the ground, the Ǥꗞᗫ looked down at us with a wide smile plastered on it's face. To think such power could ever exist.

“Just to clarify, the deal is I give you a magic mask that can change shape as well as your voice, full access to my family library, and high quality monster corpses, in exchange for you keeping your mouth shut and copies of all your spirit research journals” May mumble disgruntled that she had to give Rose so much.

‘What happened I don’t remember negotiating’ Rose thinks to himself, he tries to say something but he can’t, it's like he’s an observer of his own body, ‘I negotiated for you’ a voice echoed in his head.

“Yes that is the deal, and you know what how about I add something extra, I can teach you the six foundations of the way of the world” Rose cues in with a charismatic smile.