Arya sat in silence beneath the campus building's pillar. His body was still trembling violently. His breath came in ragged gasps, while his mind kept replaying the events he had just experienced.
The classroom filled with strange people. Bloody hands at the window. A woman jumping from the seventh floor.
It all spun around in his head like fragments of a nightmare that shouldn't be real. His sanity felt as if it was slowly slipping from his own grasp. Arya gripped his head tightly, trying to convince himself that it was all just an illusion. A hallucination from lack of sleep. Nothing more.
But the cold air enveloping his body felt too real. So did the eerie atmosphere surrounding him.
In the midst of the silence, a man's voice suddenly broke through.
"You're human, right?"
Arya flinched. He immediately turned toward the voice.
In front of him stood a man. He looked ordinary, wearing casual clothes like any typical student. But his gaze was sharp, as if he were examining Arya from head to toe. There was nothing particularly strange about his appearance, yet his stare was intense.
The man looked Arya up and down, as if confirming something. Arya, still confused and trapped in fear, could only manage a nervous smile.
"Of course I'm human. What else would I be?" Arya replied in a defensive tone.
There was no look of relief on the man's face. No smile either. He just kept staring at Arya with a serious expression.
"Get out of here quickly. Run straight ahead until you find a tree with glowing jasmine flowers," he said, pointing toward the campus gate.
Arya's eyes followed the direction of his finger. The campus gate was slowly being shrouded in thick fog. He looked back at the man, his expression growing more confused.
"What do you mean? Who are you?" he asked, trying to get an explanation.
The man let out a sigh before answering.
"Calm down. I'm just like you."
That answer only made Arya even more confused. He stared at the man with a face full of question marks. Just like you? What did that mean?
"What do you mean? Am I dead now?" Arya asked.
His voice began to tremble.
The man shook his head slowly.
"I don't have much time to explain. Get out of here quickly. Something more troublesome is about to come."
His tone sounded urgent. The look in his eyes showed a seriousness that couldn't be ignored.
Arya didn't truly understand what was happening. He didn't even know whether the man was helping him, warning him, or setting him up. But there was something in the man's words that made him not dare to stay there any longer. Without a second thought, Arya got up. He began running toward the campus gate, hoping the place would take him back to the real world.
Meanwhile, the man remained standing where he was. He just watched Arya's back slowly disappear into the fog. After a few moments, he let out a long sigh.
Then he spoke in a soft voice, as if addressing an unseen presence.
"Nagini, it seems our guest this time is going to be quite troublesome."
From his waist, a keris with a faint gleam could be seen hanging. His hand slowly formed a seal with his fingers, and his stance was already set in combat readiness. He braced himself for something he seemed to have anticipated long before.