Going Insane

Lord Kaiser and Atsuo agreed to stay a little longer to see whether Drezore can help them learn something more about themselves, however some questions, specifically regarding their friends, were still in the air.

“What are you guys going to do?” Atsuo asked seriously.

“Huh?... Oh, all of us have long decided that we are staying,” Rivia said still feeling uneasy.

The thought of him asking about the placements again could not escape her mind. She had mixed feelings about whether she should bring it up.

He’s already suffering from the blackouts, and yet he might have potential memory loss on top of that. The whole thing made the friends extremely concerned.

“Kaiser just didn’t want to decide for the both of you…” Eskasa added out of nowhere.

She knew what was on Rivia’s mind and shook her head, implying that it would be best not to bring it up.

“I see…” Atsuo said, glancing at Rivia.

She had a perturbed expression on her face as she stared down at the ground pitifully.

“…Is something wrong?” Atsuo asked, worriedly.

Rivia flinched, quickly looking up at him with her eyes widened.

“It’s nothing…” she said, looking back down at the ground.

Atsuo stared at her, unconvinced.

“It’s nothing… really…” she tried to reassure him, as he watched her clearly troubled state.

“Okay…” he said, deciding not to pry any further, “you guys helped me so much… just know that I’m there… if you need to talk, or anything…”

Atsuo’s heart sank as he saw tears form in Rivia’s amber eyes. Without others noticing, she quickly wiped them away and turned to Lord Kaiser.

“Well… now that you’d agreed to stay, all of us can be together for a little while longer!” Lord Kaiser said, slapping him on the back.

The friends chuckled and Rivia decided to take this opportunity to change the setting.

“It’s already getting late,” she said quickly, “should we go eat?”

Suddenly, the hunger caught up to the group of friends as they nodded in perfect sync.

They got up and went straight to the Minae cafeteria.

***

Surprisingly, there were not as many people as they had expected. It seemed like most of them ate right after the competition.

‘Was everyone that hungry?’ Atsuo thought, looking at the empty dining hall.

Once again, they chose a spot near one of the large windows.

After such a long day, they were excited to finally relax and enjoy their food.

The group of friends sat down at the dinner table, while discussing what to try this time.

Suddenly, everything went dark and quiet.

‘Hmm?’ Atsuo thought to himself.

He found himself, back at the table from the tea party, in his old seat, under the darkness of the night.

His heart dropped.

Hyperventilating, he looked around finding his friends sitting next to him at the same table, staring off into space, completely silent and motionless.

Of the six seats, only one was left unoccupied. Atsuo’s nervous gaze was drawn to the empty chair directly across from him.

Suddenly, winds began to howl around the academy grounds and Atsuo caught an unpleasantly familiar scent.

His eyes widened.

‘It couldn’t be…’ he tried to delude himself.

‘We’re not in–’

His breath hitched as he watched the scenery change in front of himself.

He no longer sat at the table from the tea party.

Instead, he found himself at the one place he would not mistake for any other.

The entrance to the Boundless Forest.

Atsuo was visibly shaken. He was too horrified to breathe, let alone move as he diverted his gaze to the ground.

His ears clogged, Atsuo could hear his breathing and pulsating heart throughout his entire body.

‘NO…’

Out of nowhere, red vines and undergrowth started spreading along the ground. Atsuo looked up quickly finding himself back at the table from the tea party. The academy walls and campus grounds were being covered whole in bloody-red. The creepy plants intertwined at a rapid speed, making the crimson scenery look straight out of hell under the moonlight of the night.

As Atsuo looked around nervously at the encroaching vines, the friends turned to him, staring menacingly as blood sullied their clothes.

Their blood spread everywhere, spilling onto the ground as they mouthed something to Atsuo who was glancing at all of them with each heavy breath.

Overwhelmed with terror, Atsuo shot up from his chair, knocking up the table with his body.

“Sleeper, what are you doing?”

Atsuo jerked his neck towards Lord Kaiser, then towards his friends, and around himself.

He was back at the dining hall.

Alarmed, the friends were asking Atsuo what’s going on, but he didn’t hear. With each heavy breath reverberating in his head, the walls of the dining hall warped and twisted as he shook on the spot.

He would not dare try sitting down again.

In a frenzy, he quickly turned around, stumbling upon one of the tables and knocking over some of the plates and glasses. He quickly got everyone’s attention in the cafeteria, while the friends watched in dread, petrified and unable to do anything as they witnessed his alarmed state.

Atsuo hurried out of the cafeteria, his steps getting louder and louder in his head.

He went out into the corridor, heading back to the dorm.

The red vines reappeared on the corridor walls with every other step he took, slowly spreading towards him. He broke into a run.

The corridors were endless. He felt as if he was going insane.

He ran for a couple more seconds, before feeling a big impact right to his forehead.

Everything went blurry as he lay on his back. He heard indistinct muttering from a bunch of people as the vines spread all over his body.

Everything went dark.

His consciousness faded and the weariness from this morning prevailed as he fell into a deep slumber.

***

Atsuo was walking along railway tracks on a narrow road covered by trees from both sides, as if leading him somewhere.

Through dense fog, he dragged his bare feet for miles without questioning where he was heading.

After what felt like an hour, the road started suddenly sloping downwards.

Atsuo broke into a run as the slope continued decreasing.

Gradually increasing his speed, the trees began to blur.

The previous setting disappeared as he felt himself falling down an endless abyss.

But the abyss was not pitch black, filled with darkness. Instead Atsuo was plunging past walls covered in many shades of red.

Not long after, he saw something approaching from the bottom.

The floor.