Whoosh! The sound of the wind howling like a wolf carried the scent of fresh iron blood. A knight clad in bone armor with a tail on its back stood in the massive tree.
He was fighting dozens of cultists. The tail whipped around, like a blade, killing countless cultists. They fell like flies, their bodies were sliced in half, and were scattered around him.
The bone knight was drenched in blood, and his tail wagged around. Half of the cultists remained, completely unfazed. The cultists used their mutated power.
One by one, the cultists transformed into all kinds of forms. A humanoid lion shot forward, and the tree branch cracked as he jumped forward like a cannonball.
With one big swing, he hit the bone knight, and the trees shook, but the bone knight remained unharmed. The knight looked at the lion, and a shiver ran down through his body.
It was overwhelming; there was no killing intent or fancy way to intimidate someone. But when the knight glanced at him, he couldn't help but see an ancient beast gazing at him.
His legs buckled, and he could not help but kneel to the knight. A bone dragon head appeared beneath the lion and bit down on him. The lion died, its head rolled on the massive tree branch.
He was one of the executives of the Sun cult. For the first time, the cultists trembled from fear, a sensation that they had forgotten. All the closest range fighters shot forward like bullets, their figures so blurry that you could barely see them.
The other cultist fired a fireball, lightning, wind- all kinds of attacks rained down upon him.
He just stood there, taking all the attacks. As the attacks rained down on him, the armor changed from a knight's armor to dragon-scale armor. The scale spread silently everywhere, with a silent command from the bone knight.
The dragon scales gathered around him like a swarm, spinning slowly around the knight. As a second part, the scales spun even faster, and the surroundings started to get sucked in.
As if a whirlpool had formed around the area, it became a barrier. Those who were nearby were drowned by the scales, and closed their eyes. Then the scales spread outwards, as it consumed every soul in its path.
One cultist remained, observing the bone knight, waiting for the bone knight to let its guard down. Behind, a white liquid slowly took shape into a bone knight. The cultist, who was unaware, was impaled by a bone gauntlet.
Slowly, he looked behind, and blood started to drip from his mouth. He muttered at the bone knight, who was behind him. "You can't escape. The more you run, the worse it will get."
The knight flicked his hand. For a few moments, there was silence, then a thud came from below. The cultist's body was splattered all around the ground.
The bone knight was deep in thought about what the cultist said. "Hmmm? What a familiar word." Then something clicked in his mind, and he glanced at the massive leaves above.
"Ah! Right before this all happened, I dreamed of something."
The bone knight recalled the past before this all happened. The sky was as clear as the ocean, clouds floating and birds flying freely; they chirped happily. It was a peaceful day, people bustling all around the world, talking and laughing.
Amidst all that in the dorm, there was a guy who was sleeping soundly. His name was Zero, and this was the white bone knight in his younger days. Zero's mouth was open enough for a fly to enter, and drool flowed from it.
He was dreaming, chasing a black butterfly; no matter what he did, he couldn't catch up to it. He started to get anxious when suddenly the butterfly stopped in front of the woman's finger.
Who suddenly appeared in his dreams, and the surroundings changed. Her hair was as dark as night, and her eyes were as red as crimson blood. She looked like a goddess of death, for some reason. She looked familiar and glanced at the spider lilies all around her.
The spider lilies were pulsing and glowing bright red. It was strange that they were enchanting and beautiful. The ground was soaked with blood that every time he tried to move, it rippled like water.
At those ripples, he saw his reflection; under those, he saw the sun. He looked up and noticed the sun crying blood; those tears flowed through this place. The sky was red-orange as he gazed at the place.
He noticed a girl slowly approaching him. The flowers started to glow even more as she walked toward him. Zero's gaze was drawn to her; even if he wanted to, he would be stuck in place.
As she walked, her voice rippled all around. It was ethereal and clean.
"The world will change"
"Disaster descends upon this world, causing great chaos,
Then blood will flow all around the world."
That blood will nourish the earth, and birth new life."
She paused and stopped in her tracks, and was so close that he could feel her breath on him.
She looked Zero in the eyes. Zero felt a chill running down through his spine, like he was in the face of death. He gulped so hard, like he was drinking water. She chuckled and leaned to his right ear.
"Cute" She then patted his head and continued.
"In the change that will come,
You must not run but face it head-on, although it's tiring and new for you."
But it will be worth it, Zero."
Zero was confused when she said that, and the girl looked at him amidst his questioning gaze.
She backed away and smoothly turned gracefully as she tiptoed around. Blood rippled as she went, she said one last time.
"The more you run, the worse it gets." He wanted to ask a question, but the alarm clock rang.
As the dream faded, Zero was deep in thought until he noticed the time. He immediately got up, as he was going to be late. He made it in time and sat at his seat. Noticing him, his friend poked his back and said
"You overslept again, Zero." His friend looked at him with a mischievous smile and continued.
"What dream did you see? " Zero looked at him as he leaned in, and he said with a serious tone.
"I saw a woman, and the blood was all around her; flowers of death bloomed amidst that place,
and said to me that a disaster would come to this world.
Blood would flow across the earth, nourishing the new life.
You must not run, and face the change, or it will get worse."
His friend, upon hearing it, went pale, hair stood on end, like a frightened cat. Zero chuckled upon seeing it and said, "Just kidding, Zhou Lie," and patted his shoulder.
Zhou Lie wanted to say something, but then the bell rang. The class started, the history teacher walked in, and then talked.
"Today is the anniversary of when the perpetual machine was invented.
As a history teacher, I will discuss the origin of those inventions, in order to honor those great founders of humanity."
The teacher glanced at the student; it seemed nobody was interested. So he decided to make it short. " Let's skip a few things, so as not to bore you, my dear student."
The student straightened when they heard those words, and the teacher continued.
"The war started in the year 2106 and ended in 2140.
World hunger skyrocketed, transportation became limited, and radiation spread.
And the world entered total darkness.
Amidst the darkness, a genius made a machine.
A theory that was deemed a myth, the genius made it so that there would be no need for consumable resources to generate electricity;
And the device he made generated electricity by using the perpetual motion theory.
It was a miracle, turning the impossible into possible.
As the year passed by, the world's governments launched a joint operation to create the unified University School.
It was on January 16, 2161.
The school became a symbol of harmony for the whole country.
As you know, more than 500k students are admitted here.
The school structure is a pentagon, with each edge.
There are five houses: dragon, phoenix, tiger, fox, and wolf."
The student wondered why the teacher suddenly talked about the school.
Knowing their bewilderment, the teacher looked at them and said
"Why am I saying this? When is it not related to the discussion?
It's because there is a perpetual machine in this school."
After hearing it, everyone murmured that there was a perpetual machine below the school.
One student raised his hand and said, "What does it look like?" The eyes of the people sparkled, and the teacher laughed and said,
" It's a secret, but I'll guide you all today to see the perpetual machine, so better prepare this afternoon and take pictures."
Everyone erupted in cheers, the bell rang, and it was snack time. Zhou Lie poked Zero, and, caught off guard, he jolted and gasped.
Everyone looked at him weirdly, and Zero shot a glare at him and said, "Look at what you did!"
Zhou Lie laughed and then said seriously, "Can you tell me the details of your dream?"
His expression was anxious, and he spoke with an urgent tone. Zero just rolled his eyes and tried to recollect his dream, but he had forgotten it; it had never happened before.
The only thing that remained was 'the more you run, the worse it will get.' Zero then asked Zhou Lie. "What was it again?" Zhou Lie went pale as a white sheet.
Zero was confused by his reaction, but he didn't mind him and left to buy a snack.
Zero arrived, and another class began. Time passed, and now
it was lunchtime.
Zhou Lie was silent the whole time, so Zero looked at him and said,
"Bruh! Bro, chill, you don't have to think that hard, it's not like my dream is gonna come true."
When Zhou Lie heard that, it became certain. His body went limp, he smacked Zero and said,
"You jinxed it." Zero never knew that his dreams were kinda prophetic.
When he forgot, The Dream became somewhat real, and bad things started to happen.
Only Zhou Lie knew about it. Zero patted his shoulder and said, "wanna grab a bite in the cafeteria?"
Zhou Lie nodded. Although he was scared of what would happen, he was hungry, so he pushed those thoughts aside and ate first. After lunch, they went to the cafeteria and ate peacefully.
Suddenly, some students began crying blood and coughing, sending the cafeteria into mass panic. Someone rushed to check a fallen student's pulse and shouted, "Call the nurse!"
But as people watched, the boy who collapsed started cracking like its body was mutating.
The flesh was bubbling as it turned into a monster. His shape was like a gorilla, the face of a human, and there was no hair on its body.
And at the same time, those who were crying blood also transformed. In a different form, it was like a demon descending upon this world.
The man who was beside the boy died first, as the monster swung its arm, the blood splattered on nearby people. Nothing remained on his body but a speck of blood mist.
At first, there was silence, then their faces gradually changed, and screams erupted everywhere. They shouted "RUN!"
Hearing those words, people immediately ran, causing a massive stampede. Those who were close to the monster met their end; some even lost their upper body,
And some were eaten alive; it was slow and painful. They were crying and screaming as they slowly lost consciousness.