I laughed haughtily as I watched the light from Mr. Gray’s eyes fade completely.

I did it.

I killed two people.

I murdered two people.

But I didn’t feel anything.

No regret, no anger, nothing someone might feel after taking someone’s life.

If anything I felt a bit of disgust.

Like someone might feel after crushing the bug that crawled into their food.

‘Actually, that’s perfect. Mr. Bob and Mr. Gary’s lives were as important as a bug’s. I felt rage for the things that they did, but now I’m just irritated with the  nuisance they left me with.’

Not that I thought of the poor girls as a nuisance, but rather the state that had been left in…as they should have never have been like this in the first place.

Shoving those thoughts aside, I took another look around the room.

The smell was putrid. The walls, floor, and ceiling were extremely dirty. The girls were in terrible shape. Each one had lacerations all over their bodies. Bodies that were scantily clad in any clothing, despite the frigid temperature of the room.

Some had their limbs twisted at unnatural angles, and others had bones visible protruding from them.

The worst part was their eyes. They had no light. They looked as if their souls had left, leaving a husk shell of the girl. 

Looking at them, I sighed.  My brain warped back to that day. The day when my heart broke for the second time. 

I saw her in each and every one of the girls in front of me.

“Hey,” I said to the girls. “The bad guys are gone.”

I pointed at the dead Gary for emphasis.

“Come on, I’ll lead you all out of here and to somewhere you’ll be safe.”

The girls didn’t react at all.

‘It’s like I thought. They’re already gone…maybe it would be best for me to put them out of their misery.’

I forced my blade out of my hand and made my way to the girl nearest to the door. 

I gently placed it to her neck, hoping that she would respond as the cold metal brushed against her skin.

To my despair, she did not.

I sighed again and began to put more pressure on the blade when a voice halted me.

WAIT!

Startled, I took away the blade from the girl's neck and took a step back, trying to locate who screamed at me.

“Huh? Oh, Cute-Ex-Machina… it's been a while…can you wait for a second, I need to do something.”

I took in a breath and brought my blade towards the girl.

No. You need to take a closer look before you do that.

“Mhm? A closer look? What’s that mean?” I asked the voice.

…

‘Ah, that’s the Cute-Ex-Machina I know and love…guess I’m on my own here. Closer look…closer look.’

I paced the room as I tried to digest the hint that I was bestowed by the great cute voice in my head.

Buttering me up won’t help you…figure it out yourself.

“...”

After a couple of minutes of walking in a circle, both mentally and physically, an idea struck me.

‘Ah, I got it!’

I quickly test out my theory, closing my eyes and activating the soul sense that I spent a lot of time during training honing in.

Master said I had a natural affinity for the ability, to which I credit my time as a seed and my dirt sense. However, she wasn’t satisfied and made me train profusely until I couldn’t only see my own soul core and those nearby, but those several feet away.

The fruits of my labor showed as I became aware of each of the girl’s soul cores from my spot at the front of the room.

I was expecting them to be dim and de-saturated, like a light bulb that’s dying.  Much like that of a certain Mr. Gary…who was very much dead.

Instead, each of them burned with a vibrant fire, shining so brightly it made it hard to see.

Do you see now?

‘Yeah, I see that their souls’ will to live is still there…but how can I help them? Their bodies don’t seem to have gotten the memo.’

I can help with that…just do what I tell you to.

‘Okay…is it just me or are you a lot more expressive than usual?’

….Anyways. Bite into your thumb hard enough for blood to come out.

‘Hey! You just avoided that question…well whatever. Bite into my thumb? You got it.’

I raised my thumb to my mouth, which now sports a pair of adorable pair of fangs, and chomped on it.

“Ouch!” 

I take a look at the blood seeping from the puncture in my left thumb…it’s black. 

‘Interesting. Black blood…I wonder why. But I can figure that out later. What’s the next step?’

Take your blood and place a little bit on each one of the girls' foreheads.

‘And then I have to bring them to the top of Pride Rock and show them off to the world?’

…

‘Tough crowd? Fine…I’ll get to it.’

I quickly went around, rubbing a bit of blood on all their foreheads.

Now we need the soul cores of those pieces of trash.

‘Okay!’

I waltzed over to the corpse of Gary and flipped his body over. With two strokes of my snake blade, I gouged his chest open and took the all but depleted core from the cavity. 

‘Err…a bit of a problem. I have Mr. Gary’s…but I kind of crushed Mr. Bob’s…’

Ask your snake, they absorbed it.

“Iscari?” I waited as the snake in question emerged from my palm. 

Iscari unhinged their jaw and I watched as an orb appeared on my fingertips. 

Place those in the middle of the room and then go back to the entrance. 

I did what I was told, dropping the cores and then proceeding to the doorway.

Good now…pay close attention to the words I’m about to tell you. Sharida demoandi rescediam Malacodia Bologia tortutia. 

“Charida demoandi rescediam Malacodia Bologia tortutua?”

Its Sharida. Sh-a. And tortu-Tia. But the rest is right.

“Sharida and tortutia. Got it. Now what?”

Announce it to the world of course…that is how you cast magic is it not?

“Magic? This is one of those spells? Or techniques or whatever? That’s awesome! …but I can’t do magic…”

Just trust me.

“Fine. It’s not like there's any problem if it doesn’t work…”

Okay, in three, two, one…

“Sharida demoandi rescediam Malacodia Bologia tortutia! “ I shout, noticing that the voice in my head was saying it with me.

As the words left my mouth, the room enveloped in bright light, temporarily blinding me.

When I could see again, the room was empty. Other than the dead snail man corpse…but the girls were gone.

“Whoa! It worked… wait, what happened to them? Did it actually work? Now that I think about it, probably should have asked what it did first…”

Yes, it worked…and you’ll see soon…

“That’s not ominous at all…”

My comment was met with silence.

“And they’re gone… so skittish. Well, that’s fine… now I just have to get out of here.”

As I turned to walk back down the hallway I heard a muffled shout.

“RIOT!”

‘Ah…looks like they’ve arrived.’

Lulla

Clean up, clean up. Everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up everybody do you share! Hey guys! Don't have much to say today...I didn't expect this to take a whole chapter but I think that it came out pretty well, considering that. School's still hitting hard but I got struck with some inspiration so I had to...speaking of inspiration...new book in the works! So look forward to that in the future as well as more chapters as school relaxes...other than that thanks for reading!