POV: Akir
Atlas was dead.
I stood up, a horrible feeling overcoming me. The smell of the corpses in the preparation room was awful, and the pain in my shoulder was even worse than before.
'I need to treat my shoulder before it gets even worse,' I thought.
The adrenaline was starting to fade, causing the pain to worsen.
I walked over to the clothing rack, where there was a clean set of clothes meant for me. After, taking the shirt that was on the table and throwing it onto the floor, I put my right leg onto the shirt to stabilize it and proceeded to rip it apart. After that, I grabbed the bolt from my shoulder.
I inhaled deeply through my teeth and ripped the bolt out of my shoulder. It was a painful process, but my expression remained calm through the whole process.
After the removal of the bolt, I took a couple of pieces of the clean shirt I had ripped up, folded them and tied them tightly around my shoulder.
'That should do,' I thought with a sigh after finishing the process.
I wasn't sure how long it would take until it healed completely, since my capabilities were boosted, but I was sure that it wouldn't take too long.
I walked over to a couch and laid down. The moment I relaxed, it felt like the couch swallowed me whole and all my pain was wiped away.
***
I slowly rose up into a sitting position and felt sharp pain coming from my shoulder. My teeth gritted against each other, and my expression twisted slightly, but shortly after, my expression turned indifferent once again.
I looked at my right shoulder and discovered that the pieces of fabric were soaked in blood. Then I stood up and walked over to the clothing rack where the pieces of the shirt I had ripped up were before replacing the bloody fabric with clean fabric.
Afterward, I walked over to the dining table. The corpses stunk. I dragged both of the corpses ten or so meters away from the table, but unfortunately, most of the food was eaten or had blood on it. Ingesting small amounts of human blood wasn't dangerous, but I was sure it wouldn't be a pleasant experience either.
Without wasting any more time, I sat down, took some meat that smelled terrible, shoved it into my mouth, and chewed. Immediately after, my gag reflex kicked in. I tried to ignore it and kept chewing, but shortly after...
"Bleeergh." I threw up onto the ground.
I hadn't eaten in over a day, so most of the vomit was just saliva.
I spat out some hot saliva that had formed in my mouth and stood up. I needed some clean water, so I walked over to one of the large white cubes that had doors on them and entered it.
Inside the cube was a regular bathroom with white walls. I walked over to a sink and opened the faucet before putting my mouth below it, drinking some water, spitting some out, and washing my face.
Lastly, I wiped my face with a towel that felt a little damp.
I would have used the towel to bandage the wound, but Atlas and his group members had already used it, and I needed clean fabric.
After turning, I looked at myself in the mirror and styled my hair into a middle part. It would most likely get messed up again, but I couldn't stand it being in front of my forehead.
Exiting the bathroom, I walked back over to the table and continued eating.
The food tasted horrid, but it wasn't indigestible, and I wasn't going to die because I could eat food that had a little blood on it.
***
After eating what I could, I replaced my clothes and got on my way into the next ruin with my dagger in hand.
The walk in the tunnel felt serene. The darkness didn't bother me, and I believed it to be safe. After about ten minutes, I made it to the large door. There was one change, however, and that was the symbol on the door. This time, there was a drawn bow on it.
When I was about to walk up to the door and push it open, the door opened instantly, and I was sucked in.
***
Suddenly, I found myself in a strange, completely dark area. I felt comfortable and didn't even feel the need to breathe.
"Hello," a soothing, strangely familiar voice, that sounded like it belonged to a 30-year-old female, echoed in the dark.
I looked around but saw nothing and no one. Since I didn't sense any danger, I let my guard down and opened my mouth to speak.
"Hello," I answered.
A while went by, but no answer came.
"Hello," I repeated louder.
"For someone who wants others to be quiet, you sure do make a lot of noise," the voice said, as if holding back laughter.
"Huh?" I let out a sound of confusion.
'Does she know who I am?'
"Do you?" The female voice asked amicably.
"Do I what?" I asked.
'Did it read my mind?'
"Yes, I did. I hope it doesn't bother you too much."
'So you can read my thoughts, huh? Can you explore my memories too?' I asked inside my mind.
"Oh, so we've already started communicating with our minds? Do you not like talking out loud?" The voice asked.
"Answer the question," I said, making sure to put weight on every word.
"Where are your manners, young man?" the voice asked with a pretentious gasp.
'Would you please answer the question?' I thought.
"Oh, but of course," the voice said joyfully in its natural exaggerated manner. "I can read your mind, and I have already explored your memories. I must say such behavior and thoughts are not suitable for a good-natured young man such as yourself."
"Tch. He can't hear you."
"Oh, but I was talking to you."
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"Then your efforts are wasted." I said, not batting an eye.
"You will never change with an attitude like that."
"Who said I wanted to change?"
"Didn't you?" The voice asked, sounding confused.
"You're confusing me with him. He wanted to change, and I am the change."
"You've separated yourself into two parts, but you are still the same whole, and the will to change still lives within you."
"Pfft. Shut up. What's the point of this? Is this ruin just a therapy session?" I ignored the voice's supposed words of wisdom and changed the subject.
"No, I am just welcoming you. The point of this ruin is to dive a bit deeper into your mind. A kind of reflection."
"Well then, let's get on with it. I don't need your advice."
"Very well," the voice said, and then everything around me started rapidly changing.
Suddenly, I found myself on a cliff in front of a beautiful sunset. There were small cottages nearby and some sailboats in a distant body of water ahead. The sun was going down on the horizon behind an evergreen forest, but the sky was still light blue.
"So, are you excited about the upcoming competition?"
I was startled by the sudden voice that broke the silence and turned around to see a pair sitting on camping chairs.
On the chairs, there sat a middle-aged man in shabby clothes with a pair of round glasses and a beard, accompanied by a familiar-looking girl.
"Yeah, I'm confident in securing first place," answered the girl with blonde hair.
That usual unpleasant expression of Windy's was nowhere to be seen.
"That's great, but always remember that the most important thing is to keep having fun. Don't let your mother influence you too much with that sharpness of hers. You can worry about winning once you're an adult. While you're young, you should just focus on having as much fun as you can," the middle-aged man said, his back straight and his index finger pointed up.
"Dad, I'm already 16," Windy responded, crossing her arms.
"You're a child for as long as you're under 18. Enjoy your youth," the father said, pointing his index finger all over.
"What is the point of this?" I turned to look up at the sky and asked.
In the next moment, everything froze. Windy and his father went completely still, and the trees behind them were no longer swayed by the light winds.
"Didn't you listen to me?" the voice asked.
"If this is your attempt at trying to get me to feel remorse, it is a poor one. Besides, Windy and I spoke for maybe a few minutes in total, so why didn't you show me Faris with his family instead?"
"Well, because Faris wasn't a good person. Usually, people feel remorse for good-hearted people more easily," the voice explained.
"Are you following some kind of routine?" I asked, confused about how stupid the voice really was. "Do you really think that I'm going to feel remorse for these people, especially when it's clear that Atlas would have killed them, even if I didn't?"
"This is what I usually do to the people who pass by here. I guess you could say that it's a routine. But now I see that the same routine won't work on you."
"So you're going to let me get to the third ruin?"
"No, of course not. You still have emotions. Even though you didn't feel any remorse, I could still sense an emotion that burned within you, as you watched this scene."
"And what might that emotion be?" I asked, entertaining the voice's stupidities for the sake of it.
"Envy," the voice answered with a tone of simple sincerity, as if stating just another mundane fact.
"Hah, what are you talking about?" I asked, curling my upper lip unconsciously.
"You may be able to suppress your emotions and lie to yourself, but you're not able to lie to me," the voice said gently.
This time, the voice sounded familiar to the point that it was uncomfortable. Just who did that voice belong to?
'Wait a minute. Is it... my... mother's?' As such a thought passed through my head, unwanted memories emerged in my mind, and I clenched my hands into fists unconsciously.
"Just what the hell is the point of this?!" I yelled out into the dark emptiness.
"You were right about conventional means not working on you. I think I should try something a little unorthodox," the voice echoed in my mind before I felt my consciousness being sucked inside itself.
***
It was a familiar room, and a familiar body, but it was all so uncomfortable.
My consciousness had shifted into the body of a mere child that was sobbing in front of a stack of papers. I ordered the body I was in to turn its head and look around, but instead the body wiped the tears from its eyes with the sleeve of the orange shirt it was wearing. I had been made into a mere spectator.
The body then got off the chair, and I noticed that there was a luxurious-looking white ceiling lamp that matched the color of the walls, which had multiple beautiful paintings on them. The room was like a cage of sophistication, going so far as to not even have a single window.
This was the place where I spent most of my early years on earth.
The body I was in proceeded to walk over to a large mirror that had golden frames akin to those of the paintings'.
The body seemed to observe itself, and I couldn't help but do the same.
I had an idea of what was going on, but I still couldn't help but be shocked as I gazed at the frail 8-year-old boy looking at himself through his gray eyes, which were hard to see because the boy's black hair that covered his forehead got in the way.