Secretary Kim placed the latest report on the Section Chief's desk.
"They've entered the school."
Johansberg's eyes remained on the document in front of him.
"They've already arrived?"
"Yes. Claude's team arrived approximately seven minutes ago. Kyle and Zoey surrendered the documents without any problems."
A faint smile appeared across Johansberg's face.
"Good."
Secretary Kim adjusted his glasses.
"You don't seem particularly concerned."
"Should I be?"
"The anomaly hasn't been properly identified yet. Kyle's report suggests that whatever happened at Valmere Municipal School may be separate from VILE-303."
"Which is exactly why I sent Claude."
Johansberg finally lifted his head.
There wasn't the slightest hint of doubt in his expression.
"The Guild wastes too much time treating every little case with such caution. It wastes our resources and personnel. Sometimes you simply need people capable enough to walk in and deal with whatever is waiting."
Secretary Kim remained quiet.
Johansberg leaned back in his chair, casually tapping one finger against the report.
"Claude, Rena, Markus, and the others aren't ordinary members either. They're some of the best recruits we've acquired in years. Give them enough time, and they'll probably surpass most of the current department heads. They might not be at the very top just yet, but there's no doubt in my mind they'll be amongst the best very soon."
His smile deepened slightly.
"Seth included."
Secretary Kim's gaze shifted.
"That's quite a statement."
"It's an accurate one."
Johansberg looked towards the window.
"Seth is talented. I'm not denying that. But talent isn't particularly rare in the Guild. But a lot of his achievements have been artificially inflated by the previous Guild Master. His true capabilities lie below what people truly think of him. I won't stoop low enough to artificially create a star. We won't be a star-driven Guild. My vision is to have a Guild made up of multiple elite teams that can compete with the very best out there."
There was a slight pause.
"Just like Claude's team."
Secretary Kim picked up the empty folder.
"So you expect them to contain whatever is inside?"
"I expect them to clean up the mess."
Johansberg's expression relaxed.
"That's what they're good at."
***
"This place is supposed to be dangerous?"
Markus stepped over a broken chair lying in the corridor and looked around with open disappointment. Claude walked several meters ahead of him, carrying the documents Kyle had handed over, sifting through them carefully.
"So far, apparently."
Rena ran a finger across the brick walls before looking at the dust left against her glove.
"Three days."
"Hm?"
"That's how long those two spent investigating this."
Markus stared down the corridor.
"...Doing what?"
A few members of the crew laughed.
Claude smiled without turning around.
"Some people enjoy making their jobs difficult. It's obvious that they've wasted time trying to look for whatever clues they wanted. This is just the usual from the Containment Department. They like to waste time on this stuff."
"Kek."
They continued walking through the school without slowing.
Holding onto a certain device, Claude walked without needing to look at any of the rooms.
Kyle and Zoey had already explained the basic layout before they entered, although Claude hadn't paid particular attention beyond the location of Class 3-C and the basement passage.
The rest could be figured out as they went.
It wasn't as though they were amateurs.
They'd encountered anomalies that were far more terrifying than this. One of the members near the back stopped beside a classroom window.
"There's something written in here."
Claude glanced over.
Several desks had been arranged inside, including one near the rear with the number 27 carved into its surface.
"Probably what they were investigating."
"Want me to check?"
"There's no need. I've already looked through their stuff. It's a waste of time."
Claude kept walking.
The others followed.
Rena remained behind for another second, looking through the dusty glass. Something about the classroom felt slightly wrong, although she couldn't immediately explain why.
The desks were empty.
The board was blank.
...And nothing moved.
Still, her eyes remained near the back.
"...Rena?"
She turned.
Claude was already halfway down the corridor.
"Coming."
By the time she looked back, nothing had changed.
At least, she didn't think so.
They reached the staircase several minutes later.
Claude sifted through the document one more time while Markus checked the lower floor. Most of what Kyle and Zoey had written concerned a certain Mara Balle, Mrs. Vale, and something involving copies or replacements.
Claude skimmed several pages before closing the folder again.
"Anything useful?" Rena asked.
"Not particularly."
"You didn't read half of it."
"I read enough."
Claude passed the documents towards one of the others.
"They think whatever happened here is somehow copying people."
Markus laughed from further down the staircase.
"That's it?"
"Apparently."
"Then why didn't they just destroy the copy?"
Claude shrugged.
"Ask them."
Rena didn't laugh.
She looked towards the wall beside the staircase, where several sections of newer paint had already been torn away.
The exposed plaster underneath was burned black.
"...There was a fire here."
Claude followed her gaze.
"So?"
"Nothing in the Guild report mentions one."
"They likely didn't fill it in. I'll bring this issue up with the Section Chief."
Rena crouched and looked closer at one of the darker marks, where four streaks formed the unmistakable shape of a palm, before slowly straightening.
"These look like handprints."
Markus looked over.
"You're getting nervous over handprints?"
"You think so?"
"Sounds like it."
Rena stared at him before moving on.
"Alright, keep talking. Maybe whatever's down there will hear you."
"Hopefully."
That drew another laugh.
They reached the basement.
The opening Kyle and Zoey had created was hard to miss. Broken bricks covered the floor, revealing the passage behind what had once been a solid wall.
Claude stepped through first.
The others followed without hesitation.
The atmosphere changed almost immediately.
The stale basement air became noticeably colder beyond the wall, carrying the faint smell of burned wood despite the fire having happened decades ago.
Markus sniffed.
"Still smells."
"This place has been closed for quite some time. I wouldn't be that surprised," Claude replied.
Their lights moved across the corridor, passing over burned plaster, collapsed shelving, and several more handprints as one of the younger members slowed beside them.
Claude didn't respond, his attention once again on the documents handed over to him by Zoey and Kyle.
His pace slowed as his eyes passed over one of Mrs. Vale's diary entries.
I saw Mara.
His brows drew together.
"Claude."
Rena's voice made him stop, and he looked ahead to find her standing there, her attention fixed not on him, but on the wall.
"What?"
"...Was that there before?"
Claude followed her gaze towards a narrow classroom door set into the passage wall, but when he checked the crude map Kyle had provided, there was no door marked there, and Markus was already walking towards it.
"Looks like they missed this one too. Seriously... These people from the Containment Department are really incompetent. No wonder the Section Chief doesn't like them."
"Wait."
Markus ignored Rena and reached for the handle.
The moment his hand touched it—
Click.
The corridor lights went out, plunging them into darkness for several silent seconds before Markus suddenly laughed.
"...Seriously? It's always the same patterns."
His voice echoed strangely through the corridor, not once but twice, the second following a fraction of a second later as Claude's expression changed.
"Turn the lights back on."
"We're trying."
Despite her words, nothing happened.
Their equipment still worked, but the corridor simply refused to brighten, forcing Rena to summon a pale light from her palm that slowly spread across the darkness and illuminated the doorway, where Markus was no longer standing.
"...Markus?"
No response came as the light expanded, revealing Markus standing three meters farther down the corridor with his back towards them, and Claude frowned.
"When did you move?"
Markus slowly looked over his shoulder.
"I didn't."
Nobody said a thing this time as the corridor fell quiet, only for a faint sound to reach them from somewhere farther ahead.
Tak. Tak. Tak.
Claude raised his hand to silence everyone as the noise continued. This time, they could all hear it well.
They weren't footsteps...
No.
They were...
'Typing?'
Tak! Tak! Tak!
Rena's face tightened.
"What the hell is that?"
Claude looked around.
The corridor was changing.
At first, the change was subtle enough that he mistook it for the light distorting the corridor, but the burned plaster along the walls was slowly disappearing beneath something darker as smooth black walls took their place.
The ceiling stretched higher, and the narrow passage widened several feet in either direction, swallowing sections of the old school at the same time.
Markus finally moved.
"Claude..."
He was looking behind them.
The hole leading back into the basement was gone.
In its place stood a tall black door. Claude immediately reached for his communicator, only to be met with a static sound.
"Did you do anything?"
Markus's expression darkened.
"I didn't do anything."
The typing suddenly stopped.
A silence heavier than anything before settled over the corridor before a notification suddenly appeared across every Guild device at once.
———
[Foreign Gate Manifestation Detected]
———
Claude stared at the words.
"What?"
The floor beneath them trembled.
Rena stumbled sideways and caught herself against the wall as the black corridor continued expanding, swallowing the basement, the school, and everything beyond it.
Claude's communicator started flashing rapidly.
The detection numbers climbed.
Then climbed again.
His expression slowly changed.
"This scale..."
The walls disappeared.
For a brief moment, Claude saw the outside world through the collapsing school.
The coastline, the trees, and Kyle and Zoey standing beyond the entrance all remained visible as something vast began spreading across the sky.
An enormous translucent boundary unfolded above Valmere Island, stretching outward faster than Claude could follow.
Rena stared upward.
"...That's a Gate?"
Claude didn't answer, his expression solemn as he looked around him.
The boundary passed over the entire school, and the moment it touched them, a deep pressure tore through his body, strong enough to nearly buckle his knees as every light vanished.
"Fuck."
The last thing he heard was Markus's curse.
Then—
Everything disappeared.
***
Outside the school, Kyle watched as the enormous boundary swallowed the building whole.
Zoey stood beside him, completely speechless as the black vehicles disappeared next, followed by the road and then the trees.
The Gate continued to expand.
Kyle slowly tilted his head back, watching the boundary climb higher into the sky until he could no longer see where it ended.
His phone vibrated.
Trrr! Trrr—!
Then again.
Trrr!
It was non-stop.
Emergency channels across the Guild were already exploding with messages.
"...Kyle."
Zoey's voice came out hoarse as she looked up.
Kyle didn't reply. He just stared.
He stared at the massive dome that formed before his eyes.
Three million.
Apparently...
That was how much this cost.
-x-X-x-
The first thing Claude felt was the pressure against his knees.
His vision returned a moment later, but before he could properly understand what he was seeing, his body had already moved.
A chair scraped against the floor beneath him.
"What the—"
Claude tried to stand.
Nothing happened.
His arms rested neatly against an old wooden desk, fingers placed beside an open exercise book as though he'd been sitting there for hours. No matter how much force he put into his legs, they refused to move.
Around him, the others were in the exact same situation.
Rena sat two rows ahead, her expression noticeably tense as she tried to turn around. Markus was farther to the left, jaw clenched while his hands remained completely still against the desk despite the veins standing out along his forearms.
But most importantly, they weren't alone.
Children sat near them. Every seat occupied.
"...I can't move."
"Neither can I."
Rena replied a moment later.
Claude's eyes moved around the room, his eyes glossing over the children sitting on their desk and the room.
The smooth black corridor was gone.
In its place was an old classroom.
Faded walls surrounded them, several sections darkened, while rows of desks stretched towards a chalkboard at the front. The room looked disturbingly similar to the photographs Kyle and Zoey had included in their investigation.
Class 3-C.
Claude's expression gradually hardened.
"So this is the Gate? How did...? I didn't get warned about a Gate."
"That's because it wasn't there before."
Claude answered a moment later, his expression grim.
"This is a naturally forming Gate."
There was something wrong with the silence that settled right after his words.
Despite six adults suddenly appearing inside the room, none of the children sitting among them seemed remotely disturbed. They continued facing forward, backs straight and hands resting quietly over their books.
Almost as though the newcomers had always been part of the class.
Claude tried to feel for his nodes.
They were fine, but...
'I still can't move my body.'
Krrr⎯
Then a chair scraped somewhere behind him.
⎯⎯!
The movement startled Claude.
Slowly, he found his head turning in the direction of where the noise came from.
That was when he caught sight of it.
Another figure.
At first, he could only see the side of the figure's face.
Then the person looked towards him.
Claude's eyes widened slightly.
"...You?"
A familiar face appeared before him. One that startled him and the others.
He wasn't someone that he wouldn't know.
There was practically no one in the Guild that didn't know him.
He was⎯
"Class is about to start."
Seth's voice echoed quietly across the room as he took his seat. Hands on the desk, he looked ahead whilst Claude and the others continued to look at me.
"You..."
The words barely left Claude's lips when Seth opened his mouth again.
"...Stuck is what I was."
Huh?
The faces of everyone froze.
"Stuck is what I still am."
"...."
"...."
What?
Claude blinked his eyes a couple of times. What the hell was this guy on about? Then again, thinking about how he behaved back in the Congress, he wouldn't say that he was normal in the head.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm himself down.
"Do you know what's going on? Are you the reason why this Gate has formed? What were you investigating, and⎯"
"A stuck man is a man that knows little."
Seth suddenly brushed his hair back, his eyes glossing over everyone in the room.
"...That is what a stuck man is."
Is he making fun of us, or has he completely lost it? Claude's jaw tightened as he stared in Seth's direction, only for Seth not to even look at him, but rather at the front of the classroom.
Claude continued staring at him, waiting for him to stop messing around and explain to them what was going on.
And yet⎯
Seth remained seated with both hands resting against the desk, his expression looking strangely peaceful compared to everyone else in the room. If anything, the dark circles beneath his eyes and the faint smile on his face made him look like someone who was trying to relax.
"You've been inside this place this entire time?"
"Inside, outside..."
Seth tilted his head slightly.
"These things have become rather difficult to define lately."
Claude's expression darkened.
"I'm asking you a serious question."
"And I'm giving you a serious answer."
"Then stop talking nonsense."
Seth finally looked at him.
For a moment, his expression became strangely thoughtful.
"Nonsense?"
He seemed genuinely offended by the accusation.
"I'll have you know that I've become a considerably more reasonable person over these past few days."
Markus stared at him from several desks away.
"You look fucking insane."
"That's because you don't know the old me."
"...What?"
"The old me would've already done something stupid."
Rena's gaze moved around the classroom before settling back on Seth.
"And the current you?"
Seth considered the question.
"The current me thinks about doing something stupid first."
Nobody said anything.
"Then I do it."
Markus's lips parted.
Claude slowly rubbed his tongue against the inside of his cheek, trying very hard not to lose his patience.
"Listen. We don't know what happened to you here, and quite frankly, I don't care right now. What I need to know is how we can leave this place. If you have any information about what is about to happen, let us know so that we can handle it. I'm not asking you to do anything. We alone are enough."
Seth's smile slowly faded.
"Leave?"
"Yes."
"Oh."
He glanced towards the classroom door.
"That's difficult."
"Why?"
"Because we're stuck."
"You've said that three times."
"Four, actually."
Claude's jaw tightened.
This guy...
Seth looked ahead again, seemingly satisfied with himself.
For someone who had apparently been trapped inside an anomaly for several days, he seemed remarkably relaxed about the situation. Then again, looking closer, Claude started noticing little things he hadn't before.
Seth's fingers were trembling.
It wasn't by much, but it was present.
His skin looked unusually pale beneath the classroom lights, and every so often, his eyes would turn hollow, as if his thoughts were drifting elsewhere.
Markus seemed to notice as well.
"You really have lost your mind."
Seth's head turned.
"Lost?"
He thought about it for a moment before nodding.
"Maybe a little."
Then, as though arriving at some profound conclusion, he straightened slightly.
"Some say I'm a lunatic. To that, I might agree."
Claude stared, and so did everyone else.
Seth raised one finger.
"But a changed one."
"..."
"A better lunatic. One that is now capable of containing his own lunacy and using it for the better."
Rena's expression became complicated.
"That's not reassuring."
"How so?"
Seth tried moving his chair.
It didn't budge.
He tried again, this time putting considerably more force into his legs, but whatever held everyone else in place seemed to be affecting him as well.
His smile twitched.
Then, he looked down at the chair.
"...You know."
Nobody interrupted him.
"I've spent several days trapped inside a room."
His fingers curled against the desk.
"Then I spent several nights being dragged through classrooms."
His voice remained calm, but Claude could hear something slowly changing beneath it.
"I've been chased by teachers, touched by ghosts, had something steal my voice, and apparently attempt to steal my face."
Claude's eyes narrowed.
That last part caught everyone's attention.
Seth looked towards the ceiling.
"And now, after all of that..."
He pulled against the chair again.
It still didn't budge.
His eyebrow twitched.
"I'm still stuck."
BANG!
His palm slammed against the desk hard enough to make everyone inside the classroom flinch.
"A lunatic who is stuck!"
The sound echoed through the room.
Then disappeared all at once. Seth was about to follow up with more words when⎯
Step!
A single step sounded, and everything in the classroom froze.
Claude noticed the change immediately.
The children lowered their hands against their desks, their backs straightening as the entire classroom fell into a silence so complete that Claude could suddenly hear his own breathing.
Seth stared at his hand.
"...Ah."
Markus looked towards him.
"What?"
Seth slowly removed his palm from the desk.
"That may have been one of the stupid things."
Claude was about to ask what he meant when a sound came from beyond the classroom.
Step.
Seth's expression turned completely still. His expression changed so quickly that Claude almost wondered whether he had imagined it.
Seth faced forward.
"Hands on the desk."
Claude frowned.
"What?"
"Put your hands on the desk."
There was no joking in his voice anymore.
Rena immediately obeyed.
Claude hesitated for only a moment before doing the same, though his hands had barely moved to begin with.
'He might be crazy, but I'm sure he has his reasons. For now, I'd better listen. I'll take care of him right after.'
Markus looked between them, but didn't say a word.
Step.
The footsteps approached at the same slow pace, each one sounding slightly louder than the last until they stopped directly outside the classroom.
Claude's attention remained fixed on the door.
The handle moved.
Slowly.
The door opened.
Something stepped inside.
Claude had gone against many anomalies in the past.
He'd fought things without faces, things with too many limbs, and things that could tear through trained Guild personnel before they realized what was happening.
The figure looked almost human from a distance, but the closer it moved towards the desks, the harder that illusion became to maintain. Its face was stretched and horribly burned, the ruined skin pulled smooth across features that should've been there, while its long arms hung awkwardly beside its body.
The smell reached them shortly afterward.
Rena's breathing changed.
Claude's expression shifted. Although the anomaly wasn't close, he could feel that it was quite strong. He wasn't confident in defeating it without a plan.
'Analyse before fighting.'
He made eye-contact with the others.
Step!
The teacher moved towards the front desk and placed the register down.
Nobody dared speak.
Even Markus had gone completely silent.
Seth, however, was staring at the desk with an expression that looked almost irritated.
The teacher slowly turned its head.
Towards him.
"Mara."
Seth closed his eyes.
"...Nope."
Claude's eyes widened, alongside those of everyone else. What? What was he thinking?!
The teacher started walking.
Each step seemed to stretch the silence even further as it passed between the desks, eventually stopping directly beside Seth.
He didn't look up.
For several seconds, nothing happened. The teacher just stared in Seth's direction as all attention seemingly fell on him.
Then⎯
Then the teacher spoke, its gravely voice drifting through the air.
"You disrupted the class."
Seth's fingers tightened against the desk, his head turning to face the teacher directly.
"I'd like to argue that the class hasn't technically started yet."
Claude's already wide eyes widened further.
What is he doing?Does he have a plan? He must have a plan.
Yes, there was no other reason he'd do something this stupid.
The teacher leaned closer.
Seth finally looked up at it.
There was something almost resigned in his expression.
"...Worth a try."
The teacher's arm moved.
Claude never saw the motion properly.
There was only a blur—
And then something punched through Seth's chest.
His entire body jerked.
Blood sprayed across the open exercise book and struck the desk in front of him.
Rena's face went white.
Markus stopped breathing.
Seth looked down.
The teacher's hand protruded from the other side of his body.
"...Ah."
Blood slipped from the corner of his mouth.
Then the arm withdrew.
Seth collapsed forward, his face striking the desk before his body slid sideways and hit the floor with a heavy thud.
The entire room froze like that.
Not only that Seth's last words drifted through the air.
"...S-tuck, I still am."
-x-X-x-
"....."
For several seconds after Seth hit the floor, nobody inside the classroom moved.
Claude's attention remained fixed on the body lying beside the desk, where blood continued spreading between the floorboards. It disappeared into the narrow gaps in thin, uneven streams, leaving the surrounding wood dark and slick.
He had seen people die before, including people considerably stronger than himself, but something about the death he'd just witnessed set something in his mind off.
'That's... That's...'
There had been no struggle and no opportunity for Seth to defend himself.
One moment he had been speaking as though the entire situation was of no concern, and the next the teacher's arm had passed through his chest before anyone could properly understand what was happening.
'This makes no sense... How is this possible?'
Who was the person who had just died?
He was one of the greatest talents within the Guild. Even though Claude believed he was overrated, and not as good as he was made out to be, he didn't think... he'd be this incompetent.
Unless...
Claude's gaze shifted to the teacher, his heart palpitating in his chest.
"...What the fuck?"
A soft whisper carried through the air, disrupting Claude's thoughts. He opened his mouth instinctively, intending to tell him to keep quiet, before catching himself and swallowing the words.
His attention remained on the teacher.
Its burned face remained angled towards Seth's body, and for several seconds it simply stood there, staring at the corpse as though deciding what to do with it. Beneath the harsh classroom lights, the blackened skin around its face seemed almost glossy in places, stretched tightly over what remained underneath.
Claude forced himself to focus.
His nodes were still responsive. Whatever was holding his body in place wasn't stopping him from using his nodes, which meant there was still a possibility that they could overwhelm the restriction if they worked together.
His eyes shifted towards Rena.
She noticed immediately.
Claude moved two fingers against the desk as much as the pressure allowed, giving the signal they had used dozens of times during previous operations.
'Get ready on my signal...'
The nodes inside his body began responding as he prepared to act.
But right as he was about to move⎯
The teacher moved, bending in Seth's direction.
Claude's concentration broke.
Especially as a wet tearing sound echoed through the surroundings, the teacher's long fingers disappearing into Seth's hair before slowly lifting his upper body from the floor. The movement dragged his clothes through the blood beneath him, leaving a broad smear across the floorboards. The other hand settled against the base of his neck, almost casually, before the teacher pulled.
Cra Crack!
A wet crack filled the classroom.
Rena's expression changed instantly, red spilling in all directions.
The teacher twisted once, and whatever remained connecting Seth's head to his body tore apart with a sound that made even Claude's stomach tighten.
Thump!
The corpse dropped back onto the floor while Seth's head remained hanging from the teacher's hand.
Drip! Drip!
Claude stopped preparing his nodes.
So did everyone else.
The teacher turned towards the front of the classroom and began walking, Seth's severed head swinging lightly from its grip while blood ran along its wrist and dripped onto the floor. Each drop struck the wood behind it, leaving a crooked trail leading towards the podium.
A deep sense of suffocation engulfed the room as the soft dripping continued to echo around them, almost rhythmically.
Drip!
When it reached the main desk, it placed Seth's head right on the podium.
Then it turned it, making it face their direction.
Claude found himself staring directly into Seth's half-open eyes. Blood slowly spread beneath the severed neck and ran across the wood, dripping over the edge of the table one drop at a time. His expression hadn't fully settled after death, leaving his mouth slightly parted as though he'd been interrupted halfway through saying something.
Something brushed against Claude's ankle.
"⎯!"
His entire body stiffened.
He lowered his gaze as far as the strange restriction allowed, expecting to see one of the children beneath his desk, but there was nothing there. Only the narrow darkness beneath the rows of desks stared back at him.
A moment later, something touched him again.
He felt it more clearly. It... almost felt like fingers.
They dragged slowly across the fabric around his calf before disappearing. The pressure was light enough that, had the room not been completely still, he might have convinced himself he'd imagined it.
Claude's breathing became shallower.
Across the room, Rena's chair shifted.
The wooden leg scraped faintly against the floor, and her eyes widened immediately because she hadn't moved it herself.
The teacher's head turned.
Rena froze.
For several seconds, the thing at the front simply stared in her direction before eventually looking back towards the register. Heavy tensions engulfed the entire room, each breath seeming harder and harder than the previous. Somewhere amongst the desks, one of the children slowly turned a page, the dry rustle of paper sounding unnaturally loud.
Claude found himself abandoning the previous plan.
'We... need to understand this anomaly better.'
There was no brute-forcing their way out of this. At least, not yet.
His thoughts still lingered in Seth's death.
"⎯!"
Suddenly, something tugged against Markus's chair.
Although Markus didn't turn or speak this time, Claude spotted the sudden tension in his shoulders as the chair he sat on moved again, moving a few centimeters before stopping.
Skrrr⎯!
A soft, yet ever present scraping sound echoed within the quiet classroom as all heads turned to the teacher, their breaths stopping at once. The sound seemed to travel beneath the desks before fading, leaving the classroom silent once more.
But things weren't over yet.
Skrr!
Markus's jaw tightened as he attempted to hold himself still, using what little parts of his body he could move to keep the chair from moving.
His expression tightened considerably, but the scraping sound remained.
It echoed across the quiet classroom, the sound louder than ever.
SKRRRR!
Claude felt his stomach tighten at the sight, his expression twisting as he wanted to stand up from the spot to help Markus, but regardless of how hard he tried, he remained fixed in place, his expression gradually worsening as the teacher's body slowly turned within the silence. The burned skin along its neck pulled with the movement, producing the faintest dry creak.
'No, no, no...!'
Step!
The teacher moved.
Claude barely registered the sight of the teacher moving before it appeared next to Markus, his face incredibly pale as he slowly turned to face the teacher. Up close, its featureless, burned face seemed even more unnatural beneath the classroom lights, with no eyes Claude could follow and nothing to tell him where it was looking.
His expression had only begun to change when the teacher's hand closed around the side of his head.
Rena's eyes widened.
Claude instinctively forced his nodes to respond, but just as they started working, a soft giggle whispered in his ears, pinning him harder against the chair and disrupting his nodes before they could properly function. The sound was close enough that warm breath seemed to brush the side of his neck, despite there being nobody beside him.
No! No⎯!
Markus tried the same.
His nodes flared as he attempted to force himself free, but the teacher simply pushed his head backwards until he found himself staring at Claude.
All fell silent in that moment.
For the last moments, all Markus could see was Claude's wide eyes.
Why is he...?
Thump!
His body immediately went limp, falling face-first against the floor.
-x-X-x-
"Tu~ Tu~ Tu~"
Leaning against the back of my chair, I stared at the large monitor ahead of me.
Several smaller feeds appeared within the screen, each showing several different classrooms at once.
One focused on Claude, who was sitting rigidly behind his desk with an expression that looked considerably less confident than when he'd first entered the school, while another showed the girl whose name I forgot ,carefully watching the teacher from the corner of her eye.
The remaining screens covered the others, including the area where dummy body had fallen.
Thing is...
None of them were in the same classroom.
They were all in different classrooms. Of course, their actions and thoughts were mimicked through each classroom. This made it easier for me since it'd be harder for them to figure out they weren't in the same classroom.
I rested one hand against my chin and stared at the feeds for a little longer.
"Good, but not quite good enough yet. I can do better."
My attention returned to Claude as he tried moving his fingers across the desk.
He was thinking.
'It's impressive he hasn't lost composure just yet.'
Claude's group was no doubt an elite group of the Guild. They were used to dealing with a lot of 'scary' scenarios. They were experienced, strong, and considerably less stupid than most people.
Simply having them enter a gate and fight against multiple teachers wouldn't exactly be ideal.
After all...
'They are stronger than the teacher.'
This much was true.
If they wanted to, they could likely defeat the teachers.
That's why I had to die.
They knew who I was, and they knew enough about my reputation. For me to die like that... it naturally was enough to create a sense of hesitation. More importantly, they knew I had apparently spent several days trapped inside this place before they arrived.
If someone capable of surviving that long could die in less than a second, then the question naturally followed.
'What about us?'
Fear didn't need to arrive all at once.
That'd be cheap fear.
One needed to implant a seed and slowly grow it from there. And the more the seed grew, the harder it became for them to think rationally.
"...I guess he isn't part of the Clean Up squad for nothing."
I nodded slightly at the monitor, staring at Claude as he forced himself to remain calm and figure out the next steps.
Their appearance was a little surprising. At first, I thought about using the Gate to leave, but the moment they entered, I understood instantly what was happening.
The Section Chief...
He was behind their appearance.
I gave up on the idea of leaving right after that.
"Have to give him a surprise, after all."
A transparent panel floated beside my screen, displaying several of the scenario parameters I'd put together from everything I'd experienced over the past few days.
One of them was simple.
[Remain in your assigned seat.]
This was one of the rules I had set for the Gate.
It cost me quite a bit of SP, but setting this rule made it so that they couldn't stand up and do anything more than force a few fingers and movements from their chairs.
"...I guess I should speed things up."
I leaned closer to the monitor as Claude communicated with Rena through small movements of his fingers. I didn't even bother changing what they were saying. I knew that they would quickly realise something was off if I did that.
Even now, they were adapting.
That was good.
Actually, it was better than good, because watching people panic immediately would've made the entire scenario boring. The interesting part came when competent people thought they were beginning to understand what was happening.
Then you changed something.
Claude's eyes shifted towards the teacher.
I smiled.
He seemed to have noticed a sort of pattern.
...A pattern I had purposely set up.
⎯It reacts to sound. As long as you follow the rules, we'll be fine. For now, don't do anything risky.
I could read all their signs without any issues. These were the typical sign rules the Guild used.
"Look at you."
My fingers moved across the controls.
If they continued at this pace, they'd probably survive the first sequence without too much trouble.
That was fine.
I had played and developed quite a few horror games in my time.
I knew things were moving exactly as they were supposed to. Real fear only came when someone finally convinced themselves they had figured out the rules, only to realize they were on the wrong track.
I stared at Claude for another few seconds before moving my hand towards the next control.
"Should I ramp things up?"
My lips pulled up.
"Of course, I should."
***
"...."
Claude kept his gaze fixed on the front of the classroom while forcing himself to ignore the blood around him.
Markus remained crumpled beside the broken desk, his head resting at an angle that made it obvious there was nothing left to save.
Seth's severed head, on the other hand, sat on the podium, blood continuing to drip from the bottom of the neck, each drop striking the wood with a faint, wet tap that seemed so incredibly loud within the silence.
'Ignore it. Ignore it.'
Claude calmed himself down.
He tried to piece everything together.
The teacher had yet to move after Markus's death, and as the silence around them grew even more oppressive, Claude replayed the scenario in his head.
'It reacted to the sound. So long as we don't make any sound...'
But that was easier said than done⎯
Claude looked up to see Rena's desk moving slightly as she tried her best to keep the desk still. The same happened to Claude as he forced his arms down against his desk, trying to keep it frozen in place.
Whatever was trying to move their chairs... didn't attack them yet.
All it tried to do was make sounds to alarm the teacher.
The wood beneath Claude's hands gave another tiny tremor, almost playful in how carefully it tested his grip.
Claude looked towards Rena, who met his gaze almost immediately before shifting two fingers against the surface of the desk.
'Sound. '
Claude answered with a single movement.
'Yes.'
They needed to avoid making any sound.
Claude slowly shifted his index finger across the desk twice before pointing towards the teacher and then towards the classroom door.
Rena's eyes narrowed for a second before she understood.
If the teacher was operating according to classroom rules, attacking it directly might not even be necessary. The better option was to survive long enough for the current sequence to end.
His attention moved towards the front.
'Right, that was what it was doing before it killed Seth.'
For now, the obvious thing they needed to do was wait for the teacher to do the attendance. That would be the only time they'd be allowed to talk.
It wasn't much of a plan, but Claude and his team needed time to properly analyse the situation before coming to a decision. In particular, Claude wanted to analyse the teacher better.
He wanted to understand just how strong it was.
'...I also can't afford to lose any more members.'
His fist clenched slowly.
The teacher finally lowered one finger towards the register.
"Rena Holt."
A name was called.
"Present."
And Rena answered right after.
"...."
A tense silence followed, the lack of noise making the air feel almost constricting. Even the quiet hum of the lights above seemed to have disappeared, leaving only the slow dripping of blood near the podium.
The teacher's eyes moved onto the next page, and Claude felt some of the pressure inside his chest loosen as the next name followed.
"Alric Voss."
"Present."
Silence followed once more, the pencil scraping against the register as his name was ticked off. The dry scratching continued for half a second longer than Claude expected, dragging across the paper before finally stopping.
But not for long as a new name was called right after that.
One after another, the surviving members answered when called, each of them keeping their voices controlled despite the blood and bodies surrounding them.
Eventually, the teacher reached him.
"Claude Vern."
"...Present."
The pencil scratched against the register.
For the first time since the Gate had swallowed them, Claude felt as though some degree of control had returned.
He briefly glanced towards Seth's severed head.
His face remained turned slightly towards the classroom, frozen in the same expression it had worn at the moment of death.
'You weren't careful enough.'
Whatever had happened during the days Seth spent trapped here, Claude wasn't going to repeat the same mistakes. He was confident he could do better.
No, he was better.
His thoughts drifted to what would happen once he left the place.
His heart palpitated at the thought.
He planned on making good use of his death.
But for now...
'Focus. Let's clear this.'
The teacher continued reading until eventually reaching the bottom of the page.
Then it stopped.
Every surviving member of Claude's team had already been called.
The classroom remained completely silent as the teacher stared down at the final section of the register.
Creaaaak!
A faint scratching sound came from somewhere near the back, loud enough that Claude could hear each uneven scrape against the floorboards, but Claude ignored it and kept his attention forward.
The teacher opened its mouth.
"Mara Balle."
Claude felt something inside him tighten.
That name again.
"Mara Balle."
Claude slowly moved his eyes towards the seat where Seth had been not long ago, and his expression changed amidst the silence.
"⎯!"
When?!
Seat 27 was occupied.
A little girl sat behind the desk with both hands folded neatly in front of her, dark hair hanging over part of her face. Her posture was perfectly straight, and unlike the other children, Claude couldn't remember hearing so much as the faintest movement from her direction.
Claude's breathing nearly stopped.
Rena and the others showed similar expressions of shock.
"Mara Balle."
The girl's head slowly lifted.
Her lips remained closed.
Another voice answered from somewhere else inside the classroom.
"Present."
Claude's gaze snapped towards the sound, but he couldn't determine where it had come from. The voice was young and feminine, though something about it sounded strangely layered, as if another voice had followed it almost perfectly underneath.
For the briefest moment, Claude could have sworn the second voice had come from much closer to him.
The teacher marked the register.
Mara continued staring at Claude.
Unlike the other children surrounding them, there was something unmistakably human in the way she looked at him.
Fear.
Not fear of the teacher standing at the front.
Her eyes suddenly shifted past him.
Towards the classroom door.
Claude immediately felt the pressure around his body changing.
His fingers moved more easily against the desk, followed by his shoulders as the force keeping him seated gradually weakened.
Rena noticed it too.
Claude slowly raised one hand and gave the signal.
'Prepare.'
The others responded without hesitation.
Their nodes activated quietly as they waited for the restriction to disappear completely, and Claude felt the tension inside his chest turn into focus.
They had survived the attendance.
The restrictions on them had weakened as a result. This meant that the next part was about to begin.
His leg moved beneath the desk.
Rena managed to shift her chair several centimeters without much trouble.
Another few seconds and they would be free.
Claude prepared himself to move the moment the classroom released him.
But then⎯
Step.
Another step echoed.
One... that came from right outside the door.
Claude's attention immediately shifted towards the door, while Mara's fingers tightened around the edge of her desk hard enough for her small knuckles to pale.
Step! Step!
Claude felt his mouth go dry as another footstep approached.
The teacher at the front lifted its head, turning its attention to the door.
Step! Step Step...!
The footsteps reached the classroom, stopping directly outside.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then a shadow slowly appeared beneath the gap of the door.
It stretched across the floorboards before widening as something moved closer to the other side.
The handle slowly turned.
Mara lowered her head immediately, her dark hair falling forward until Claude could no longer see her face.
The teacher already standing at the front remained completely still as the door slowly opened and another tall figure stepped through.
Claude's body stiffened.
Burned skin stretched across its featureless face, the surface split in several places where blackened flesh pulled tightly against the shape of the skull, while two unnaturally long arms hung loosely beside the same old-fashioned uniform.
Same height, body, and... appearance.
Even the pattern of the burns looked the same.
Claude's gaze slowly shifted back towards the front of the classroom. Towards the teacher standing before them.
Neither figure reacted to the other.
They simply stood there.
One at the front.
One beside the door.
Claude felt the small sense of certainty he'd managed to rebuild begin slipping away as the second teacher entered and quietly closed the door behind itself.
Clank!
Clank!
The classroom door closed behind the second teacher.
Claude remained completely still as his gaze moved between the two identical figures, trying to understand the situation.
'A... another one?'
All of a sudden, his thoughts drifted back to the documents he had skimmed through.
[Elon Ward had once claimed he'd followed Mrs. Vale through the school despite the real Mrs. Vale being somewhere else at the time.]
[There had also been conflicting accounts surrounding her death, including witnesses who claimed to have heard her voice giving instructions after her body had supposedly already been found.]
At the time, Claude hadn't thought much of it.
Looking at the two teachers now, he found everything clicking together in his mind.
'Right... of course.'
Rena and the others seemed to reach the same conclusion. Her eyes briefly met his before moving towards the teacher beside the door, then towards the identical figure standing near the podium.
Claude carefully moved two fingers against the desk.
'Wait.'
Nobody acted.
That was the first thing they needed to establish.
The second teacher had entered without immediately attacking, and neither of the figures seemed interested in the other. Whatever they were, they appeared to operate under the same classroom rules.
Claude watched them carefully as the restriction around his body continued weakening.
His right leg could move now.
So could his shoulders.
The others were recovering at approximately the same rate, which meant the effect keeping them seated was probably tied to the scenario's progress rather than the teachers themselves.
That was useful.
More importantly, both teachers were strong, but Claude no longer believed they were overwhelmingly so.
Seth's death had distorted his initial assessment.
He had watched someone known throughout the Guild die before even lifting a hand, and for several minutes after that, he had assumed the teacher was incredibly strong as a result.
Now that he had time to observe it, however, something didn't add up.
Its movements were fast.
Extremely fast.
But Claude felt that he could still handle it.
He and Rena were both in the Fifth Order, with nodes suited to close combat. With his Sentinel nodes reinforcing his body, he didn't need to avoid every blow.
Moreover, he also understood that so long as he followed the rules, the teacher wouldn't act.
'In that case, I can ambush it when it gets near me. So what if I don't follow the rules then?'
In the end, Seth's death had been a meaningless one. The same went for Markus.
Claude's expression turned cold.
He had been in this business long enough to shut down his emotions on the fly.
He moved his fingers again, this time giving a more complicated set of instructions to the others.
Rena understood immediately.
The others followed.
'Two targets.'
'Simultaneous engagement.'
'We split.'
'All at once at my signal.'
Once the restriction disappeared, Claude and Rena would take the teachers separately while the remaining three supported whichever side required it. If they could incapacitate both long enough to reach the door, they could leave the classroom and reassess from somewhere outside of the classroom.
It wasn't a particularly complicated plan.
Rather easy to follow.
Claude felt the pressure around his chest loosen further.
Rena's chair moved.
This time, she was able to move it back on her own, no sound following her actions.
'It's a pity we don't have anyone of the Sonorous Decree.'
Would've been incredibly useful in their circumstances. Since the teachers reacted to sound, if they were able to remove all sound, things would've progressed much more smoothly.
It was just that they hadn't come to this place with the thought of entering a Gate.
Claude waited until the second teacher had moved several steps away from the door and the other teacher moved near them.
His nodes reacted immediately.
[Body Lightening], as the name suggested, made his body lighter whilst [Reinforcement] tightened a thin protective layer over his skin, concentrating around his fist as his back started to tense.
The floor beneath his chair cracked.
Crack!
Claude disappeared from his seat and crossed the classroom in an instant, his fist driving into the side of the second teacher before it could properly turn towards him.
BANG!
The impact sent the creature through two rows of desks.
At almost the exact same moment, Rena reached the teacher near the podium.
Her hand closed around its arm while the energy from her nodes flared beneath her skin, allowing her to twist the limb behind its back and drive the teacher face-first into the wooden desk.
Pale light tightened around its elbow, her [Light Binding] node turning the light of her Elemental Decree into a narrow restraint that held the joint bent.
The podium broke beneath it.
BANG!
Seth's severed head rolled across the surface before dropping to the floor. It stopped with one cheek against a desk leg, its eyes still open.
Claude paused for a moment, his gaze drifting to the head before he looked away.
"Now!"
He dashed to the teacher once more.
The remaining members followed, one helping Rena restrain the first teacher while Alric joined Claude.
For the first time since entering the Gate, the situation started to turn in their favour.
BANG!
Claude struck the second teacher again, forcing its burned body backwards as Alric attacked from the opposite side. Those from the Hoarding Department were combat specialists, with their Decrees more suited for close combat.
Alric's [Motion Reading] node followed the turn of its shoulders, letting the Fourth Order recruit drive his elbow into its exposed side between Claude's strikes.
The teacher tried reaching for him, but Claude caught the wrist before it could complete the attack. Burned skin moved beneath his fingers, loose enough that he felt it slide against the bone.
His expression changed.
'We can do this. It's easy...'
He felt a sudden surge of confidence.
Whatever had happened to Seth, it was all due to his lack of skills rather than the teacher's skills.
He was simply not good enough.
'Right, he... means nothing when compared to us.'
Claude tightened his grip.
Then someone giggled.
It was soft, but it rang loud inside his ears as his expression changed.
That laugh...!
"Hehe..."
It was as if his strength sapped away. The moment the giggle sounded, his nodes stopped responding and his strength vanished.
For the briefest instant, he couldn't feel his nodes at all.
His body suddenly became heavy, and the strength reinforcing his grip vanished so completely that the teacher tore its arm free without resistance. Both the lightness in his limbs and the protection over his chest were gone before he could pull back.
Claude's eyes widened.
"What—"
The back of the teacher's hand struck him across the chest.
"Ukeh!"
He flew through a desk and rolled against the floor.
BANG!
Across the classroom, Rena suffered the same problem. Her expression changed as her nodes abruptly stopped responding, and the teacher beneath her immediately twisted free. The pale restraint had vanished from between her fingers.
One of the other members wasn't fast enough.
A long hand drove into his shoulder and tore through the flesh before he could start using his nodes.
SPURT!
"Uekh!"
He managed to pull away before the teacher could grab his neck, staggering towards Rena while blood ran down his arm.
Then...
As if nothing had happened, they all felt their nodes once more.
Claude's expression stiffened.
He pushed himself upright, breathing harder now as he stared at the teacher, who remained still, not even looking at them.
'What happened?'
The others looked equally confused. Claude forced himself to think through it despite the sharp pain running across his ribs.
Their nodes had failed simultaneously.
Only for a moment.
That meant the teachers possessed some form of interference ability, or there was another entity inside the classroom capable of affecting them.
'Right, that laugh...'
Claude looked around, his gaze shifting across the room. More specifically towards the children.
It hadn't been the first time he had heard that laugh.
Each time, the same thing.
His eyes narrowed as he continued to look at the children. They remained seated, their hands resting on their books as though nothing had interrupted the lesson.
Staring at each of the children, Claude's breathing grew heavier and heavier as the air around suddenly felt colder. The more he looked at the children, the less he felt at ease.
And soon, a thought struck his mind.
'What if...'
What if... there was another anomaly?
Claude raised his hand, stopping the others from pursuing. Taking several deep breaths, he stared at the two teachers.
Neither teacher moved.
This bothered Claude, but he didn't have the time to think too much about them.
But soon⎯
Step! Step!
The teacher began to move again, forcing everyone's body to tense, their nodes ready to engage at any given moment.
But just when they thought the teacher was about to fight them, they unexpectedly watched as it reached for Seth's head, blood dripping to the ground, and brought it back to the desk.
The teacher turned the severed head, Seth's head facing their direction. It adjusted the angle twice before letting go, arranging him with the same care it had given the attendance register.
In that moment, everyone lost their breath.
No sound filtered across the room.
Until⎯
Seth's lips slowly pulled into a smile.
Claude's gaze lingered over Seth's lips, his expression stiffening slowly as he blinked a couple of times to make sure he was seeing right.
The head remained where the teacher had placed it, blood gathering beneath the neck while its half-open eyes faced the room.
Claude couldn't tell whether he had imagined the smile or whether the teacher's handling had shifted something beneath the skin of his head.
Still, he knew that he couldn't waste time thinking about such things.
'Go.'
He signalled towards the door, then pointed at himself.
Rena's expression tightened when she understood, her gaze moving between the two teachers before returning to him.
Claude repeated the instruction while checking that the wounded member could still walk.
'Get them out. I'll follow.'
The teachers hadn't moved since returning Seth's head to the podium. Both were close enough to reach the doorway before the others could get through, but their attention could still be drawn elsewhere.
Claude picked up a broken desk leg and activated [Body Lightening] before crossing towards the windows, keeping the teachers between himself and the exit.
Neither followed until he swung the wood against the wall, striking hard enough to split it in his hand.
BANG!
Both burned faces turned towards him, and Claude was already moving when the nearest teacher reached out.
Its fingers caught his sleeve before he twisted away, [Reinforcement] tightening over his forearm as he drove it against the creature's wrist and forced its hand away.
Through the gap between them, he saw Rena push her way through the door with the others.
Alric followed, keeping his attention on Claude until the last member had cleared the entrance.
'Good. Now I just need to—Shit!'
A hand swept past his face, close enough that a nail caught his cheek.
"——!"
Claude ducked beneath the arm and drove his shoulder into the teacher's chest, sending it stumbling into the other creature before slipping between the desks.
As he passed the podium, his gaze caught Seth's head again.
The face seemed to be turned towards him now, and for a brief moment, a thought struck him.
'Was it turned like this before?'
He didn't have much time to dwell over it as he looked away and pulled the door shut behind himself.
BANG!
The door slammed against his back almost immediately. Claude planted himself against it, only for another heavy bang to strike from the other side, making the hinges creak under the force.
Clenching his teeth, he planted his feet against the floor and kept his weight against the door.
Bang! Bang!
Each impact shook through his body, the door jerking against his back as the teachers continued trying to force their way through.
Claude remained rooted in place, keeping the door shut until, several seconds later, the banging suddenly stopped.
He didn't move as a tense silence followed.
In the meantime, he turned his attention towards the others.
They were waiting farther down the corridor, where Rena was tightening a strip of cloth around the injured shoulder of their member while Alric kept watch over opposite ends of the hall.
"...Is everything okay?"
Rena asked, looking at the door behind Claude.
Claude waited another moment before moving away, his body tense as he looked back.
"For now... It seems to be all good."
The door remained locked.
Alric lowered his hand slightly, his eyes scanning the surroundings.
"We checked ahead. There's several similar classrooms."
Claude nodded and moved towards them. His ribs hurt whenever he breathed too deeply, but everyone who had left the classroom was still standing, which was enough for now.
Rena caught his wrist when she noticed him favouring one side.
"Let me see. You took that hit without your protection."
Claude's brow raised the moment he felt her touch.
It was hot.
It felt as though she was running a fever.
"Squad Leader? Is something wrong?"
"No, it's⎯!"
Claude was just about to shake his head when he recalled something from the documents Kyle and Zoey had shared with him.
[Elon had spoken to Mara near the treeline after she'd disappeared, and her skin had felt remarkably warm.]
Claude's eyes widened slightly as he looked at Rena and the others.
What if...?
'No, let's relax. This could be just due to their node usage.'
He was still considering how to check when a loud creaking sound echoed across the surroundings, forcing Claude to turn his attention.
"⎯⎯!"
Creaaak!
A woman stepped out, her movements incredibly slow.
"Huh?"
"Rena?"
Claude's expression changed at the sight. It wasn't just him. The same went for the others as Claude's hand slowly curled at his side.
Behind the second Rena, Alric appeared, followed by another member of the team.
As if sensing their presence too, they also stopped.
"⎯⎯!"
For several seconds, both groups stared at each other without speaking.
"...Claude?"
The Rena near the doorway looked directly at him, her expression changing as her attention moved towards the woman standing beside him.
"What?"
Her eyes constricted.
Claude's nodes flared as he immediately made a signal with his hands.
It was a verification signal that the Guild granted them in situations such as these.
He didn't give either of them time to think.
And⎯
'...She doesn't know it.'
As expected, only the Rena behind him knew the signal.
Not even a second later, a burned hand curled around the doorway behind the second group.
"Get ready!"
Claude immediately tensed as his nodes flared, a bright light closing around his wrist while the other Rena on the opposite side rushed at them with the same expression.
The group behind her followed quickly.
In an instant, both sides collided.
Claude stepped into Rena's attack and struck her across the side hard enough to send her crashing against the wall, but a second figure crossed his vision before he could follow up, forcing him to turn and block.
Several more clues from the documents crossed his mind, and soon a new realization struck him.
'Copies... They're making copies of us.'
That explained the second Mrs. Vale and Mara Bell.
They were copies!
BANG!
His fist drove through one of his 'team members,' and as expected, their bodies simply faded the moment he killed them.
'As expected, they're fakes!'
"No!"
The fake Rena's expression shifted at the sight, her face turning fierce.
Rena came at him again, catching his arm before he could strike. Claude immediately twisted his wrist free, grabbed hers instead, and pulled her towards him.
His fist buried itself in her stomach.
"Uekh!"
Her body folded forward.
Claude didn't let her fall. He kept hold of her wrist and dragged her back upright before she could recover.
Even though she was talented, at the end of the day, Claude was the Squad Leader for a reason. His combat experience was the greatest, and his nodes made sure that there was no one that could go toe to toe with him in that regard.
Before the fake Rena could regain her footing, he drove another punch into her stomach.
BANG!
"Uekh!"
A scream followed.
Claude didn't stop, his nodes churning.
'I can't waste time.'
She tried to pull away, but Claude tightened his grip and stepped forward with her.
Without wasting another second, he punched one more time.
SPURT!
This time, his fist drove straight through the fake Rena's stomach. Warmth enveloped his hand as blood sprayed across the surroundings.
Her body went limp against his arm.
A small smirk played at his lips as he tore his hand free, tossed the body aside, and turned to help his group.
But right as he did⎯
His expression froze.
Standing not far from him, the 'real' Rena stared back at him with a smile.
Claude's breath caught.
For a moment, he simply stared at her.
That smile...
His stomach dropped.
"O-oh."
His head snapped towards the body beneath him.
The Rena he'd just killed lay crumpled against the floor, blood spreading beneath her while steam-like warmth still clung to his hand.
Claude's eyes shook.
"T-that's..."
No.
No, no...
But the warmth.
She also didn't know the signal.
He had checked.
He made sure.
So how...?
His gaze dropped towards the blood coating his hand.
What?
Wha...
CLANK!
A door opened abruptly, and Claude's head turned.
Through the open doorway, he could see the classroom podium. Seth's severed head rested in its centre, facing the corridor with the same faint curve to its lips.
Claude stared at it.
Then slowly looked back towards Rena.
The smile continued to linger in his mind.
His lips began to shake.
"T-that's..."
-x-X-x-
"You!"
Claude's thoughts were shattered by a sudden shout. The moment he turned around, he found Alric dashing in his direction.
"⎯!"
His elbow shot towards Claude's face, forcing Claude to raise his arm at the last possible moment.
Bang!
A dull impact echoed across the corridor as Claude staggered sideways, his jaw tightening from the force of the blow.
"Stop! That was⎯!"
Alric didn't listen.
[Motion Reading] activated almost immediately, his eyes following every subtle movement of Claude's body as he moved forward for another strike.
"There's been a misunderstanding!"
Claude twisted his body, narrowly avoiding the fist heading towards his chin before grabbing Alric's wrist.
"Look around you! There are copies everywhere!"
"Let go of me!"
Alric pulled against him and drove his knee towards Claude's abdomen. Claude managed to shift his body before the strike connected properly, but pain still spread across his ribs.
His expression immediately darkened.
"I told you to stop!"
This time, Claude didn't hold back.
He activated his node; [Reinforcement] tightened around his arm as he caught Alric's next attack, pulling him closer before driving his fist directly into his chest.
BANG!
Alric's body struck the wall behind him.
Cracks spread through the plaster.
Claude thought that would finally make him understand, but Alric pushed himself away from the wall almost immediately.
"He's lost it!"
"Alric—"
"He's killing us!"
Claude's pupils contracted, especially when he noticed the others rushing in his direction.
"What?"
Alric rushed forward first.
Claude stared at him, noticing the blood running from his mouth, the anger in his eyes, and the familiar way he moved his feet before activating [Motion Reading].
Claude's breathing became slightly heavier. Looking back, he could see the other Alric fighting the others.
His jaw clenched.
'Right... This must be a trick. A trick!'
The Alric he knew wasn't this careless.
Alric swung, his fist driving through the air rapidly.
Claude ducked beneath the attack and drove his elbow directly into his throat.
Crack!
A sharp crack echoed.
Alric's eyes widened.
Neither moved.
His hand slowly reached towards Claude's shoulder before losing strength, and his body gradually fell forward.
Claude caught him instinctively.
"...I told you there was a misunderstanding."
Alric didn't respond.
Claude looked down at him.
His eyes were still open.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth before falling against Claude's sleeve.
Claude remained like that, staring at the body in his arms before slowly letting it drop.
Thump.
A tense silence followed.
Then a certain voice spoke.
"...Claude."
He turned towards his other members.
They all had pale faces, their hands clean, unlike his, which were covered in blood.
"What?"
"What did you just do?"
Claude frowned.
"What did I do?"
His attention shifted towards Alric's body before returning to them.
"That's not Alric."
"No... look at the blood. That's him."
"No."
Claude shook his head.
"No, I didn't. I didn't kill them. They were fake."
The words left his lips quickly. But as he opened his mouth again, his attention fell on Rena and Alric lying on the ground beside the others, their bodies squirming against the floor.
Unlike the ones he'd killed, however, there was no blood.
T-that's...
He bit his lip and forced the words out.
"You saw it too... I was being attacked by them. I had no other choice."
"Claude..."
"Don't."
His hand rose immediately.
"Don't come closer."
His members stopped as they looked at him.
There was something in the way they looked at him that irritated him more than it should have.
Pity...?
No, it seemed closer to fear.
Claude couldn't tell which one it was anymore.
"I know what I saw."
"I didn't say you didn't."
"Then stop looking at me like that!"
Claude's words reverberated loudly across the surroundings. His attention moved across the group before abruptly stopping.
One of the remaining members had taken a step forward.
"Claude, listen to me. Something is clearly messing with what we're seeing. If we keep attacking each other, we're doing exactly what it wants."
"...What we're seeing?"
Claude looked towards Alric's body beside him, blood still running from the corner of his mouth, before turning towards the other Alric lying farther away.
Yet again, there was no blood.
The difference was obvious.
That... was very likely the fake.
His teeth clenched.
'No, it's a trick!'
"Then which one is real?"
The team member opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
Claude laughed, finding the situation amusing.
"Exactly."
"Claude, that's not what I meant."
"Then tell me."
His voice grew louder.
"Which one is real?"
Nobody answered.
Their hesitation irritated him more than it should have.
They'd worked together before, fought together before, and yet now they were standing several meters away from him as though he were the anomaly they needed to deal with.
One of them slowly raised his hands.
"We don't know."
Claude stared.
"But that's exactly why we need to stop attacking until we figure this out."
"...Right."
He nodded slowly.
"That makes sense."
The tension never eased. Claude took a step closer, followed by another.
"What... are you doing?"
"I'm coming closer to analyze the bodies. Is that not okay?"
"Claude..."
"What?"
"...Do not come any closer."
Claude stopped, staring at his team member. In these sorts of situations, they were trained to perform several key signals, but the thought never crossed Claude's mind.
All he thought about was the small curl of the headless face.
His jaw tightened.
Neither of them moved.
That was all it took.
'He's afraid of me.'
Why?
Because Claude would notice something?
Because his skin would be warm?
Because he'd realize that the thing standing before him wasn't actually one of his teammates?
The member seemed to notice the change in Claude's expression.
"Claude, wait—"
Claude moved.
[Body Lightening] activated beneath his feet as he crossed the distance almost instantly. The member reacted quickly, throwing his arm up to protect his face, but Claude changed direction halfway through and drove his fist into his stomach instead.
Bang!
The member's body folded.
"Claude!"
Another member rushed forward.
Claude turned immediately, catching the incoming arm before twisting his body and throwing him over his shoulder. His back struck the ground hard enough to crack the floorboards beneath him.
"Stop!"
"Why?"
Claude's breathing grew heavier as he looked between them.
"Why should I stop?"
"They're copies."
His voice trembled slightly.
"They're all copies."
The first member tried standing again.
Claude kicked him across the face before he could.
Blood scattered across the floor.
This time, there was blood.
Claude's movement slowed.
His eyes followed the red droplets before returning to the member lying beneath him.
"..."
Doubt briefly appeared across his face.
Then he remembered Alric.
He remembered Rena.
Blood didn't prove anything.
Why would it?
If something could perfectly copy someone's face, voice, movements and nodes, why wouldn't it be able to copy their blood?
'Right.'
Claude's breathing steadied slightly.
That explanation made sense.
It had to.
The member beneath him coughed, blood spilling between his lips.
"Claude... please..."
Claude's fist tightened.
"Stop talking with his voice."
He struck cleanly, then followed with another attack.
The body stopped moving after the third blow.
Claude slowly straightened, only for another presence to appear at the edge of his vision.
A burned figure stepped out from one of the classrooms.
The teacher.
Claude turned towards it.
For some reason, the sight almost came as a relief.
At least he knew what that was.
"You."
The teacher moved.
Its long arm swept towards Claude's head, but he ducked underneath it and drove [Reinforcement] through his fist, striking directly beneath its ribs.
BANG!
The teacher crashed into the wall.
Claude followed before it could recover, grabbing its shoulder and slamming it back against the plaster before striking its burned face.
Again.
BANG!
And again.
BANG!
Each impact sent fragments of its skin scattering across the floor, but Claude continued until the creature's head sagged unnaturally to one side and its arms finally stopped reaching for him.
Only then did he let go.
Thump!
The body collapsed.
"Haa... Haa..."
Claude stared down at it as his chest rose and fell heavily.
Nobody approached him. Slowly, the silence around him became noticeable.
Claude gradually turned.
Bodies covered the corridor.
Some belonged to the people he'd entered the school with. Others belonged to things that looked exactly like them, while the teacher remained crumpled against the wall behind him.
Blood covered his hands, his clothes, and parts of his face.
He couldn't tell how much belonged to him anymore.
"...Copies."
The word came out softly.
Claude looked towards Alric's body.
"They were copies."
He swallowed before nodding to himself.
"Obviously."
That had to be it.
Otherwise...
He looked away before the thought could finish.
Something inside one of the classrooms caught his attention.
Claude slowly turned his head.
Seth's severed head remained on the podium.
Still facing him.
The same faint smile remained stretched across its lips.
Claude's face stiffened.
"What?"
The head didn't move.
Claude stepped towards the doorway.
"What are you looking at?!"
His voice shook through the surroundings.
His jaw tightened as he entered the classroom, the blood on his shoes leaving faint prints behind him.
"Even when you're dead, you're pissing me off!"
Claude reached the podium and stretched his hand towards Seth's hair.
Before his fingers could touch it, the lips slowly parted.
"Is that so?"
Claude froze.
His eyes widened as a cold sensation spread through every part of his body.
Then something pressed against his back.
A hand.
Five cold fingers slowly spread between his shoulder blades.
Claude's body jerked violently as a scream tore from his throat.
"Haaa!"