POV: Akir
After killing Atlas, I stood up and a horrible feeling overcame 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 started to fade, and the pain got worse.
I walked over to the clothing rack where there was a clean set of clothes meant for me. I took the shirt that were on the table and threw it onto the floor. I, then, put my right leg onto the shirt to stabilize them and proceeded to rip them apart. After having ripped them apart, I grabbed the bolt in my shoulder.
"Haaa." I breathed in 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, after I finished 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 sitting position and felt sharp pain coming from my shoulder. My teeth grit against each other and my expression twisted, 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 where and replaced the bloody fabric with clean fabric.
After having replaced the fabric, I walked over to the dining table. The corpses stunk horribly. I dragged both of the corpses 10 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 and shoved it into my mouth and chewed. Immediately afterwards, 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 throw up was just saliva.
"Ptui." I spit 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. I drank some water and spat some out, and then washed my face.
"Haah." I breathed in and 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 them and I needed clean fabric.
After turning, I looked at my self 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.
After walking out of the bathroom, I walked back over to the table and continued eating.
The food tasted like 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 shoes, socks, and pants and got on my way into the next ruin with my dagger in my left hand.
The tunnel was dark, and I couldn't see the end, but I kept walking and after a while I arrived at a large door that had a bow on it.
I waited for a while and then suddenly 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 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 loves the quiet, you sure do make a lot of noise." The voice said like he was making fun of me.
"Huh?" I let out a sound of confusion. 'Does she know who I am?' I thought.
"Do you?" The female voice asked amicably.
"Do I what?" I asked. 'Did it read my mind?' I thought.
"Yes, I did. I hope it doesn't bother you too much." The voice replied straight forwardly.
'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 firmly.
"Where are your manners, young man?" The voice asked in an offended manner.
'Would you please answer the question?' I thought.
"Oh, but of course." The voice said joyfully. "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." The voice criticized me.
"He can't hear you." I said in an annoyed manner.
"Oh, but I was talking to you." The voice said.
"Then your efforts are wasted." I said indifferently.
"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." I explained.
"You've separated yourself into two parts, but you are still the same whole and the will to change still lives within you."
"What is the point of this? Is this ruin just a therapy session?" I ignored the voice's words of wisdom and changed the subject.
"No, I am just welcoming you. The point of this ruin is to mess with your mind a little." The voice said.
"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 was in a dining room of a house that looked pretty regular. There was a wooden table on a red mat in the middle of the room. In front of the table, there were five people who sat on black chairs that had cushions on them.
"So, are you excited about the upcoming competition?" A middle-aged man with glasses and a beard asked a familiar looking young man with.
"Yeah, I'm confident in securing 1st place." Answered the young man with blond hair and green eyes.
"That's great, but always remember that the most important thing is to keep having fun. You can worry about winning more when you're an adult. You should just have as much fun as you can." The middle-aged man said, with his back straight and his index finger pointed up.
"Dad, I'm already 16." The young man reminded his father.
"You're a child for as long as you live under this roof." The father said, and then turned to his other two sons. "The same goes for you two." He said.
"What is the point of this?" I turned to look up at the roof and asked, and suddenly, everything in the dining room froze.
"Didn't you listen to me?" The voice asked.
"If this is your attempt at trying to get me to feel remorse, then it is a poor one. Besides, Devon and spoke for a few minutes in total, so why didn't you show me Faris with his family instead?" I asked.
"Well, because Faris wasn't a good person, while Devon was. 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 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?"
"Oh 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." The voice said.
"And what might that emotion be?" I asked in doubt.
"Envy." The voice answered sincerely.
"What are you talking about?" I asked with an expression of displeasure.
"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 this 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 in anger.
"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 and I felt my consciousness being sucked inside itself.
***
Suddenly, I found myself in a room in a body that was sobbing in front of a paper that had numerous equations on it. I ordered the body I was in to turn my head and look around, but instead the body wiped the tears from its eyes with the sleeve of the orange shirt it was wearing. It seemed like I was just a spectator in the body. The body I was in then got off the chair and I noticed that there was a luxurious looking white ceiling lamp that matched the color of the walls that had multiple beautiful paintings on them.
The room was windowless and extremely familiar.
It was understandable why it felt like that, it was the place where I had spent most of my early years on earth, after all.
The body I was in proceeded to walk over to a large mirror that had golden frames, just like the ones that the paintings had.
The body seemed to observe itself, and I couldn't help but to do the same.
I had an idea of what was going on but still couldn't help but to 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 into the way.
