Chapter Four: Piercing Betrayal (R-18)

Chapter Four: Piercing Betrayal (R-18)

“Hmmm... Mmmmm....”

A female voice moaning in pleasure fluttered into my ears as my eyes opened. It was morning; that much was clear by the sun flickering in through the balcony windows. I wasn’t in my assigned closet, so I must’ve not woken up from this nightmare.

I was still in this new world.

A sigh escaped my lips as I leaned up and swung my legs off my bed. Since my sight was still hazy and not at all adjusted, I didn’t immediately notice the woman standing over me. I was eye to eye with her bare stomach as she erotically touched herself. I looked up, my eyes going past her naked breasts to a face flushed red with heat, finally stopping at the pair of fluffy, pointy ears on her brown hair. A tail danced around her backside, swaying side to side as she licked her lips. A hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder, and that’s when I realized I was naked myself.

Did it matter?

The masturbating girl looked at me expectantly, but I had no intention of doing anything. It was never possible for me to get an erection in my old world. Even when Will had printed out some of his favorite vintage magazines and shared them around, I didn’t see the appeal of it.

I didn’t know what it was. But the more I looked at it, the less I felt. Even after taking it home, I tried to touch myself. I tried for hours, but it was like I was incapable of feeling anything even resembling pleasure. Even spitting on my penis and rubbing it that way just ended in me simply touching something that was a part of me.

In my world, I was broken. In this world, I’m broken. It seems like I’m destined to be broken no matter where I go...

When I stood up, the Beastfolk grabbed my penis and threw me to the bed. I bounced up, remaining frozen as she hungrily licked her lips and kissed my stomach, her head traveling down my scarred body until coming to my flaccid penis.

“Lord Meruria paid me to make you a man, Lord Shuuta. Let me bring you to heaven. Even with a pathetic dick like that, you’ll blossom into a beautiful flower.”

I remained silent and totally still.

Maybe she’ll go away... I hope she’ll go—

I didn’t have time to finish my thoughts before she used me like a pleasure doll. I was frozen and terrified, and the fear only increased when she used my body as a toy, growing increasingly angrier when I showed no signs of reacting. Maybe she thought the cold embrace of death would do something, so she wrapped her hands around my throat and squeezed.

The HP bar... It’s...draining...

Right when suffocation was about to take me, the girl quivered, moaned, and rolled off me while furiously fingering herself.

I curled into a small ball, released the anguish from my soul, wailed until my very soul started to tremble and quiver, and darkness found fit to take me once again when I heard footsteps stomp right outside my door.

“SHUUTA!!!!” Greggie screamed after Quella used [Fireball] to burn down the locked door. They didn’t have the key, so breaking it down was the only option. He smashed through the smoldering remains to find his close friend curled into a small ball with a damp blanket covering his body. A strange woman with animal features was humping his weeping face. “GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

Elly and Ami were frozen solid by the sexual assault happening in front of them. Before Ms. Mary or Quella could act, their summoner materialized in front of the bed, preventing Greggie from getting any closer after she wrapped his arms and legs with a binding spell. Calling the beastfolk, she skipped to Meruria's side after getting her clothes and dressed without any shame.

“It seems to me that he does not have the qualifications to achieve Soul Evolution. Therefore, I have decided his future,” Meruria said. Upon hearing words of protest from the seven that wanted to save Shuuta, Meruria slammed her staff into the circle and used a mass teleportation spell to summon all of Class 2-F, barring Lori and Ann since they had left the church, to Shuuta’s room. It was certainly large enough to handle the number of bodies. Besides, she hadn’t had a chance to set up the courtroom.

“What? This trial thing is happening already?” Damon asked, raising his arms up to stretch. He was shirtless because he was in the middle of working out. A layer of sweat dripped down his toned, muscular body.

“Lord Meruria, why is he like that? Who is that woman? What did she do to him?!” Quella demanded, showing a fiery passion. She tried to move, but magical bindings appeared on her and the rest of Team Quella.

“She is Shuuta’s trial. He must conquer his trauma if he wishes to achieve Soul Evolution. I expected you to figure this out, but I am disappointed you didn’t,” Meruria said.

Meruria channeled a telekinesis spell through her staff. She tightly wound the damp blanket around Shuuta's body, then lifted him into the air. Only his head was visible.

"I will uphold the rules of a trial and allow you all the chance to speak about him. You will answer two questions. ‘Will Shuuta Fenton be useful to me in his current state as it pertains to the defense of Cridia?’ ‘Does Shuuta Fenton deserve to be sacrificed so that I may summon another warrior?’ Use this inability to conquer his trauma as a basis for your answer," Meruria added. She summoned a little bell and explained that it made a noise when a lie was spoken. She proved it worked by saying that her name was Molly, and it rang. When she said Meruria, the bell remained silent.

One by one, the students who didn’t know of Shuuta’s existence prior to the events on the plane decided his future. A large majority believed he wouldn’t be useful at all, and those that shared this belief wanted him to be gone. They really spared no time going for the jugular and wished for someone stronger to take his place.

After all, the weak were devoured by the strong, and everyone attending Mekka Academy had the instinct of a vicious, bloodthirsty wolf. They fought, clawed, and trampled over those that were too feeble to have the drive they had.

When it was Damon’s turn, he spoke from the heart and didn’t allow what happened on the plane to influence his judgement.

“Just think of him like a toy, yeah? When you buy something and it turns out to be defective, you don’t try to fix it. You go and get your money back or exchange it for something that actually works. Oh, he’s awake?”

A feeling of being weightless overcame my body as the realization I was stuck in this hell shocked me into consciousness. I had awoken as Damon was comparing me to some sort of broken toy. I looked down at the bed I was raped on, then towards the shocked expressions of the seven that wanted me to remain alive. They found it hard to keep eye contact. The damp blanket wrapped around me restricted my movements. I could only really turn my head.

I don’t blame them... Why...can’t I die...?

Greggie called my name so many times, but I couldn’t formulate enough energy to reply.

To me, it seemed the trial was going on ahead of schedule... Or was it?

Did it matter?

A short girl with black curly hair named Renata was called to speak. She said she didn’t want to see anyone sacrificed while agreeing I wouldn’t be useful. Benedict, a bald student with thick arms that barely fit his gray t-shirt, was called after her, and his answers were the same.

Next was Shiku, who spoke plainly and hastily that I would not be helpful. On the topic of recycling, he mentioned that if there was a way that wouldn’t end in the loss of life, we should go that way because it would mean there would be at least one more body at the ready to protect Cridia.

“Let us take care of Shuuta. We don’t have to sacrifice him. I’ll work twice as hard—we'll all work to make up for—” Quella started to say.

“That is something I cannot allow,” Tokko replied. “Being responsible for someone that, in metaphorical terms, cannot even walk by himself is a tremendous drain on resources. Every decision you make would be delayed, and that could lead to catastrophic consequences because we had to consider someone that cannot fight. In addition, it isn’t fair to the others. We all worked hard—using our blood, sweat, and tears to accomplish our goals. Shuuta, you have not achieved anything of note.” He spoke of how Mia had spent nearly a hundred hours a week bettering her archery and performing research before she was even ten years old. “Everyone but Shuuta has spent countless hours carving out our destiny to attend Mekka Academy, which stands as proof of our determination. It is pathetic that you want to coast through this new world on our coattails.”

I just want to live my own life. Why is that so wrong?

“But that’s not true! He—"

“Look at him,” Tokko cut off Quella’s rebuttal. “Willpower cannot be forged to the degree we need in just three days. If it could, I would be instructing him because I knew I could lead him past his trauma and become a better man.”

Better man? Trauma?

Meruria asked two specific questions to Tokko and Mia, but their opinions on me were well known, so she moved on to Quella.

"Do you believe Shuuta deserves to be sacrificed?” asked Meruria.

“No.” Quella’s reply came swiftly.

“Then will he be useful?”

“Yes, he will. I guarantee it.”

Ring!

“What?! No, that’s not a lie!”

Ring!

“I know he can be useful!”

Ring!

“A lie...” I croaked; my voice extremely hoarse. “It’s all...a lie...?”

“Shuuta, you can be useful! I know you can!” Quella’s voice grew even more aggressive, yet that little bell continued to ring.

One by one, Ms. Mary, Elly, Greggie, Keeth, Ami, and Will answered Meruria’s question, and it seemed neither of them had any faith in me. Every time the bell rang, they called out my name, but the pain was inflicted too deeply for me to do anything. I didn’t even have the strength to close my eyes or stop them from wandering around. The one that raped me seemed to be smitten with Meruria because she was petting and scratching her behind the ears.

Mia grinned and started to talk to a distraught Quella. “Did you want to save him?”

“I did.”

“Why? Before the incident on the plane, you had the pleasure of not knowing his existence.”

“Because I don’t want to see him die.”

Ring!

The irritating cry of a bell had the same effect as a bombshell.

“Qutie...?” Elly whispered, her arms quivering against her bindings as unfathomable sadness darkened her expression. “You were the first—”

“That bell is broken! It’s true!”

Alert: Barrier coherency is weakening.

Alert: Taking effective action. Entity, doest thou wish to survive?

What? Why could I see words in a void where everything was broken down to its simplest form? Wishing to live... Did my mind want to abandon me at my lowest point?

The final sparks of my red-hot fury flashed bright and true, giving me the final ounce of willpower to focus on four little words before the nothingness devoured me.

I...want...to...live...

I want to live.

Alert: Mental acknowledgement confirmed. Granting Divine Skill: [Wrath, Flames of Inexhaustible Indignation.]

New Divine Skill: [Wrath, Flames of Inexhaustible Indignation.]

Within this blackened void, a spark of crimson filled my soul. Its light regathered the emotions I sacrificed to keep my wrathful fury, bringing them back to me... I wasn’t completely whole, and it felt like it would take some time to put me back together since I was hanging on by something even less than a thread.

Alert: Doest thou wish for a second chance?

I do...

Alert: Will thou rescind thy humanity?

I will... I’ll throw it all away to kill that goddamn bitch... Warm fury flowed through me like blood. With every passing second, a thousand variations of Meruria’s death filled this void with a slice of my violently vivid imagination.

Alert: Granting skill: [Lesser Chimera.]

Alert: Attempt failed.

Alert: Sacrificing [Soul Armatization] and [Soul Warrior] to grant Divine Skill: [Chimeric Mastery.]

New Divine Skill: [Chimeric Mastery.]

Alert: Granting **** Skill: [Hermes Trismegistus]

New **** Skill: [Hermes Trismegistus]

Alert: Could not finalize [Hermes Trismegistus.] Alerting the Conduit for final initialization.

Alert: Granting Title: [Lesser Chimera.]

New Title: [Lesser Chimera]

Alert: Will thee endure the vast reaches of the infinite void? Will thy cling fast to life? Will thee remain firm in thine anger?

I will... This won’t be the end of me... IT WON’T BE THE END OF ME!!!

At some point, the words became something that was always there. You wouldn’t look twice at a rock you see on your everyday journey. Even the most observant wouldn’t notice a tiny change in size or shape here and there, especially in a place where the common rules of the world didn’t apply.

On top of that, this unyielding rage made it impossible to read what must’ve been a figment of my imagination.

I didn’t care how long it would take...but I would always channel this rage and imagine the horrifyingly violent deaths for those damn traitors...

Kill them...

They must die...

If they live, the mission is over...

If they survive, revenge is considered a failure...

I must make them bleed....

I need to see their deaths...

If I’m not the one that kills them...

Then what has all of this been for...?

DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!!!!!!!!!!

DON’TFORGET

DON’TFORGET

DON’TFORGET

DON’TFORGET

DON’TFORGET

DON’TFORGET

DON’TFORGET

DON’TFORGET

Revenge...?

Yes, my revenge...

They have to die...

Focus... Focus on their deaths... Focus on the sweet, sweet relief you’d feel once they’ve passed into the afterlife...

Focus...

Count.

Focus.

Count.

Focus.

Don’t lose your way..

How...do I count? Numbers? Wan...won...one... 1...2... Yes, I remember now...

Count...

1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 8... 20... 34... 234... 567... 1,284... 2,342.... 384,723... 2,678,400...

Just...how long was a second? Or a minute? What determined an hour? Why was an hour an hour? Why... Explain...

As I debated about time and its rules of classification, a colorless speck surrounded a tiny spot in this nether-like void of space and nothingness. I felt compelled to will my anger towards this foreign entity since I had nothing better to do.

Entity? Why...is that familiar? Words? Alert? No, it doesn’t matter. Focus this anger and send it to the speck...

Alert: Assisting in the summoning initiated by the Dark Lord of Tyranny...

Alert: Summoning successful...

Alert: Seek out and restore the balance.