I struggled for breath, as I sprinted as fast as my body would physically allow me, towards my classroom. Blood was splattered over me, some of it my own, most of it my opponents’.

What the fuck happened?

This question kept plaguing my brain. I hated it purely because I had no answer for it. One second, everything was perfectly normal; I was training in one of Fraycroft Peake’s training halls. Then, the next, the sky was pitch black, as if it was a light and someone had just flipped its switch. Waves upon waves of Zeds ambushed me, each one desperately trying to kill me.

…

That was the very first time that I had killed anyone. I mean, of course I knew that it was necessary, but still…

I tried to push those thoughts from my mind as best I could, but unfortunately it was impossible to completely rid myself of them.

I can’t think about that right now. I have to focus on saving my class… if any of them are still left.

I kept sprinting, ignoring my growing stitch and the numbness spreading through my legs. Eventually, I came to the crossroad that was just a corner away from my classroom, but unfortunately I couldn’t celebrate just yet.

The room was on the path to my right, but to my left, two of the Zeds who invaded the school rounded the corner.

I clenched my jaw and narrowed my eyes, focusing only on them.

Then, I sprinted around the corner and ambushed them. I threw one of them against the wall without touching him, before picking up a discarded piece of glass that was littering the floor with my mind, and stabbing it through the other one’s chest. I then snapped the one I had pinned against the wall’s neck with my mind.

This was my Soul - Telekinesis; the ability to affect anything within the physical world without physical contact.

Now that that had been dealt with, I turned around and continued my way towards my classroom. Finally, I rounded the last corner and it was within sight… but from the little I managed to glimpse from the small window into the classroom, I didn’t like what I saw.

I pushed through the pain of my stitch once more, reaching the classroom door. Yet, I hesitated.

Why am I hesitating now? It’s perfectly fine, I’m going to open this door and everyone inside will be perfectly fine. They’ll be scared, sure, but unharmed.

My hand shook once more, before I forced it onto the handle and pushed it open with all my might - causing a slight crack in the wall that it slammed into.

My features twitched in agony.

Everyone- all of my friends, the people I barely knew, even the people I despised- were all dead. The floor was soaked with blood and littered with bodies. Bodies of people who didn’t deserve to die yet.

I wanted to scream out, cry, fall onto my knees, but I couldn’t quite yet.

The perpetrators were still here.

Three people stood above the wreckage. I didn’t recognize any of them, but I could tell from their clothes that they were all teachers. Teachers at this school.

Teachers who had murdered an entire schools-worth of students.

Teachers who didn’t deserve to be called teachers.

Teachers who didn’t deserve to be called humans.

My eyes began to glow once more, as I activated my Soul. My opponents began to activate theirs’ too, but before they could finish, I slammed one of them into the floor with my mind. A sick crack and squelch echoed out, as their body went limp.

Another one charged at me, a dagger in hand. The second they got slightly close, they slashed their blade at me, despite me not being within their range. Then, from the tip of their blade, a purple line began to be emitted, following the blade’s trajectory, but slicing significantly further. I dodged out of the way just in time, but the shadow-slash still continued past me, speeding into the wall and slicing through it as if it were butter.

The second I dodged out of the way, I used my telekinesis to push the man backwards, sending him to the floor a few feet back, but I kept the dagger held midair where he had previously been, before spinning it around and sending it speeding through his neck.

The last air in his lungs was used to cry out in pain as best he could with a metal blade sticking through his throat, before he, too, went limp.

The last of the three cursed me, before she summoned some ice and sent it flying towards me. I froze the icicles midair and cracked them all, falling to the ground, shattered. Truthfully, I could have just spun them around too and killed her quicker, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to finish the last one off with my bare hands.

I sped towards her, skillfully dodging and weaving my way past all of the ice she summoned, as if it were some kind of dance. When I was close enough, I leaped towards her and stuck my hand out, grabbing her face and eliciting a scream of pure terror, before I smashed her head into the wall.

I let go and allowed her body to join the ocean of blood gathered on the floor.

I was slightly confused, as if it was just these three, they shouldn’t have been able to defeat the entire class. Hell, even Zayne alone would’ve been enough to handle these three without even breaking a sweat. However, once I scanned the floor, I noticed that there were far more than just three opponents originally.

The number seemed to near 40, yet the class had managed to whittle it down to just three before I arrived. I’m sure they’d all be proud of that.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

I wanted to cry, but the adrenaline coursing through my veins from the conflict earlier still didn’t allow me to.

Through my look over of the bodies, I had discovered something - there were three people missing; Mr. Acantha, Terass Everdeene, and Atlas Raylix.

That’s good. Maybe they managed to escape. Even Atlas… I may hate him, but… I don’t want him dead.

That was a lie and even I knew it. Sure, I didn’t want him dead, but I would’ve much preferred for him to die than anyone else in the class.

After I finished my investigation of the bodies, I went over to a window to stare out across the school field that was just behind our class. However, when I did, I noticed something peculiar in the sky.

Some kind of massive, glowing white orb was headed towards Earth. I couldn’t tell what it was. An asteroid? The Sun?

But what I did know was that it was a threat to humanity. It just gave off this feeling of complete dread. But… I also couldn’t do anything.

I may be strong, but I’m only human. Perhaps if I sacrificed my life, I’d be able to achieve a final level of strength great enough to stop a meteor with my telekinesis. But this thing wasn’t any normal meteor.

From what I could sense, it almost felt like a Soul. But it definitely wasn’t a Soul. If anything, its presence felt more like it was coming from something that was composed of every single Soul in existence mashed into one.

But despite knowing that the end of the world was approaching, I didn’t feel even the slightest hint of fear. If anything, I just felt regret. I felt regret that the people in my class couldn’t be around to watch it with me, because, even if it was the thing that would cause the destruction of humanity, it was still so very beautiful.

I tore my gaze from the sight outside the window, and slowly stepped towards the classroom’s backdoor. I wondered why they didn’t just escape through the backdoor, before I approached it and sensed the remnants of some Wave. I heightened my Spirituality - the sixth sense used to detect Wave, closing my eyes and focusing on the Wave, trying to piece together what the actual Soul it was powering was. Finally, I managed to piece enough together to find out that it was a barrier Soul.

So they were trapped inside…

I imagined that by the time they actually defeated the attacker with the barrier Soul, a few of them had already died, and so they were no longer even thinking about retreating, wanting to avenge their fallen classmates.

That’s just how most of them were.

I pulled the backdoor open and stepped out onto the small concrete path separating the classroom from the field. The orb was bigger now, Earth’s demise closer.

I looked away from the orb and scanned the area. I didn’t find anyone until I looked to my right.

Standing there, leaning against the classroom’s wall was a completely unharmed Atlas Raylix.

Immediately, I was pissed off. There was only one way for him to be unharmed despite this conflict, and that was if he had completely ditched all of the fights.

But I tried to calm myself. There was a large possibility that one of our other classmates realized that he would just make the fight harder and so they kicked him out of the backdoor before the barrier was put on it.

I took a couple of deep breaths, before sitting down at the base of the wall, staring at the breathtaking sight in the sky.

I never thought that my life would end alongside the person I despise more than anything. I suppose it’s poetic in a way.

The silence beside him was surprisingly comfortable. He was always a very calm and relaxed person, so it made sense. I had just never been around him in a moment where he didn’t seem like he felt superior to everyone else.

I looked over at him and was a bit shocked to find that his face didn’t show any hint of fear or even just slight nervousness. It was still as serious and stoic as ever, not revealing a hint of emotion.

“Beautiful, don’t you think?” He asked, gazing at the sky.

I blushed a little, before realizing that he didn’t know I was looking at him.

“Uh…” I turned my attention back towards the sky. An uncountable number of stars illuminated the dark canvas; the moon seemed as if it was emitting its own light with how bright it was; and dwarfing everything else, releasing a light so powerful that it seemed to trace everything from the trees to the buildings in the far distance, and even the horizon line itself, was the meteor, its beauty almost intoxicating.

“Yes,” I answered. “Probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

I heard a small, innocently light breath of a laugh, before he finished, “Yeah… It always is.”

I looked back over at him and saw a small smile tracing his lips. My blush that had disappeared deepened slightly.

Wow. In this light… he looks kind of beauti- Wait. Did he just say ‘It always is’?

“What do you mean by ‘It always is’?” I questioned, unable to think of any good reason as to why he would say this.

…

Nothing. Silence. He completely ignored my question.

Despite that, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I mean, this is the end of the world, he’s probably got a lot on his mind and just didn’t hear me.

“Hey! Soulless!” I shouted over to him. ‘Soulless’ was a nickname some of the other students had given him. They used it to insult and make fun of him, so I had never actually used it before, but I decided to this time, as it seemed like sometimes he responded to it quicker than his actual name, and we didn’t exactly have all the time in the world.

He sighed before replying, “Listen, there’s not really any point in me telling you. You’ll forget soon enough anyway. So, can we please just not make a big scene out of it this time. I’m trying to enjoy myself.”

So he did hear me!

“What will I be forgetting?!” I questioned again, more aggressive this time, as my anger rose. “And what do you mean by ‘not make a big scene out of it this time’?!”

“As I said,” He started. “There’s no point in telling you something that there’s no chance you’ll remember. So, can you please just be quiet?”

“No, I’m not going to be quiet! How could you expect me to be quiet in this situation?!”

I stood up and pulled him by his shirt’s collar. I was completely enraged by this point. Whatever it was that he was hiding might be able to help everyone, yet he was still keeping it a secret.

Soon after I had grabbed his collar, I began feeling strange. There was this sense in the air, this subconscious instinct in my mind, screaming at me to back off.

He held up his right hand and pushed my arms away. His strength wasn’t anything special, it wasn’t oppressively powerful or anything, but my body gladly accepted it and let him go, before backing up slightly. It was as if my body itself was naturally accepting that it doesn’t deserve to be near him.

“Alright,” He started, once more. “If you want to know this bad, I might as well tell you, I suppose. You’ve already interrupted my relaxing reset, after all. But let me ask you, are you sure you truly want to know?”

I wasn’t quite so sure anymore, but I had to stick to my original decision. I pulled in a deep breath. “Yes.”

He began walking towards me. “I have a Soul.”

“W- What?”

“That’s right, I have a Soul. But it’s not just your average Soul, no. It’s unbelievably powerful. However, despite this, I hate it.” His face twisted into a slight grimace. “I consider it more of a curse than anything. Wanna know why?”

I remained silent. The closer he got to me, the colder the air felt against my skin. It was as if his presence alone was scaring the environment itself.

“I consider it a curse, because it doesn’t allow me to die.”

What…

“Or, to be more accurate, it brings me back after death.”

There’s no way… That’s impossible…

He backed off slightly, clearly noticing that I was terrified. He returned to his position, leaning against the wall.

“You’re free to believe whatever you want. I mean, you won’t even remember this soon enough. But… there’s your answer.”

I began to feel warm, but didn’t know why, until I looked up at the sky. The orb was here.

“Goodbye, Irene Nashley. I’ll be seeing you again soon, I’m sure.”

The orb crashed.

…

But then I woke up. I was in some white bed in a completely black room.

Where am I?