SHAMAN PROTOCOL
Chapter 114: The Blasphemy

Chapter 114: The Blasphemy

"Everest!" Mister Nocty shouted as he skidded to a halt before the burning boy’s dormitory.

The flames reflected in his wide eyes, his breath hitching. Students and faculty members had already rushed and gathered around the building, many of them still wearing their pajamas.

His eyes shook as he looked at all the familiar faces around. Everest was nowhere in sight. Knowing what had happened tonight, Mister Nocty should have known that no matter what he did, it wouldn’t change the situation. His actions wouldn’t alter the present.

Everest, Sabel... they were gone in the present time. Yet, a bigger part of Mister Nocty wanted to try to save his friends. The people who had bright futures, only to be cut short by this wicked fire that took the lives of seven students, including his friends.

Glaring at the building, Mister Nocty clenched his teeth and turned on his heel. He ran and ran, heading for the back entrance of the dormitory, where no one was. Without a second thought, he jumped through a broken window, crashing onto the floor, the shards piercing his skin without mercy.

"Ugh..." he groaned, propping himself up on his elbow.

A cough escaped him as the scent of burnt flesh and wood filled his nostrils, choking him from the inside out. He covered his nose with his arm, knowing that fighting off the scent was foolish.

"Everest!" he shouted and coughed, looking ahead before pushing himself to move.

With that, the young Mister Nocty pushed forward to save his friends... and perhaps, himself as well. After all, this was all his fault.

If not for him, this wouldn’t have happened.

If only... Mister Nocty, at this time, had chosen to go to the trial and hadn’t cowered... Everest and everyone wouldn’t be in this fire. They wouldn’t have to die so young, so early.

****

[GYMNASIUM]

CLANG!

Mikel gasped as he felt the air get knocked out of his lungs, hitting the wall with his back as he was kicked in the gut. Across from him, a haze of smoke marked where Sabel had crashed, more violently than him.

"Damn... no wonder she won against him," he muttered, clutching his side as he rose to his feet. The chains in his hand clanged faintly with his movement.

Yet, Everest, who stood in that bloody ritual circle, didn’t move. Instead, he chanted and chanted, hands spread wide, head cocked back, eyes white, staring at the ceiling.

It’s him.

Without thinking twice, Mikel propelled himself in Everest’s direction, knowing full well that whatever was happening—the fire, that naked Sabel—was this guy’s doing. Or rather... those scriptures crawling around Everest’s body and eyes.

But just as Mikel whipped the Blood Chain, its other end morphing into a sharp piece of metal, Sabel suddenly appeared before Everest. The sharp end of the chain pierced through her arm and even inches of her chest, but she showed no reaction.

Instead, she allowed the pressure from the Blood Chain to whip her to the side until another crushing blow made her land on the ground.

Clang...

As the chain moved back to where Mikel stood, his eyes widened upon seeing Sabel stand on her feet once more. Her arm severed, the hole left by the Blood Chain seemingly burning and eating her from the wound until it grew bigger by the second.

Yet, Sabel wordlessly snapped her arm and tossed it to the side as if it were something to discard. Armless, she gazed at Mikel with blank eyes. There was no longer any life in them, just hollow, dead eyes.

[Master.]

Doom’s screen glowed at the edge of Mikel’s vision, but the latter kept his eyes on the severed arm. After a breath, the rough end of Sabel’s severed arm throbbed and swelled, and in a snap, her arm grew back like nothing had happened.

Doom was right, he thought. It’s a damn homunculus.

Although he kept his gaze on Sabel, knowing she would attack if he even looked away for a second, he studied Everest from the corner of his eyes. He had met Sabel just a few minutes ago and even watched her fight with Everest.

Since time was warped in this dimension, and Mikel had no idea how many months had passed since that fight and tonight’s occurrence, one thing was for sure:

Sabel was once human.

Not just born to be the monster she was.

And the culprit...

This time, Mikel turned his head in Everest’s direction and the satanic ritual that damn guy was doing. But the moment Mikel turned his head, Sabel suddenly disappeared from her spot and reappeared inches above the ground within his reach.

"Doom," he whispered, unfazed by the attack that was inches from his head. "Those homunculi... are they... created by shamans?"

BOOM!

The second those words rolled out of his tongue, the space beside Mikel’s head split open. At the same time, the Book of the Dead emerged with a page already opened, letting out a silent shockwave that blew Sabel away like she was a piece of paper.

[Those you fought were different, Master. However, shamans are indeed capable of summoning or creating new life through forbidden rituals or what others call Black Magic.]

Blasphemy.

Mikel whispered in his head, recalling Doom’s message log when he first encountered the same type of enemy before. Although those two—the tank top and the blind woman—were obviously of a different caliber.

Still, this was news to him.

"And yet, even the academy doesn’t disclose these things," he whispered, his eyes sharpening as he faced Everest squarely, ignoring Sabel, who had once again appeared behind him. But like previously, the Book of the Dead and his ghost index could keep her busy.

Why?

Why does it feel like the longer Mikel stays in this so-called academy and the more he gets into these types of situations, the more questions fill his head than answers?

Why does it feel like the more he sees what a shaman is capable of... the more worried he is for himself?

No. The thought of fighting a shaman wasn’t what concerned him, but rather... a shaman’s fate.

A fate that the very thing that supplied them with power to fight those who were crawling quietly into their world would eventually consume him. Just like how it had consumed Everest.

Again, the question that had never truly left him reemerged in his mind:

What would become of him and this protocol in the future?

And once again, the only answer he got was... nothing. Despite the lack of an answer to that very question, he wasn’t sure whether or not he was ready for the answer. What mattered most right now was what was in front of him.

Mikel drew a deep breath as he briefly closed his eyes. When he reopened them, he took a step forward, just in time for the surface he stepped on to exude darkness underneath his foot.

"Anima."

And in that instant, the entire gymnasium was engulfed in nothing but darkness, as if the lights had been turned off, and not even the sun could cast light on it.