A scene of uproar and confusion. When Bedlam erupted, it was entirely unexpected. Most nations fell into chaos almost instantaneously, as millennia long structures devolved. Almost no one could truly tell what had happened. It was like a dream, nonsensical and random.
However, all, who are still alive, can agree this is part of what made it so terrifying. Society fell in a matter of days.
The first wave was direct. Scores upon scores of people went mad and attacked those around them. Others suddenly fell ill while some simply collapsed in on themselves, imploding before bursting into a gory mess. Needless to say, hundreds of thousands died.
The second wave was roughly the same but with a new addition. The same conditions of madness, illness and the like, remained but some people 'changed.'
They could no longer be called humans. They were classified into several categories. Those whose mutations drastically altered their body would be called Bridles while those whose mutations drastically altered their minds and spirits would be called Deliri. This is not to say that they would be the only ones with a corrupted mind. Almost all mutated humans would lose all semblance of empathy, killing and eating those who they could.
They were both dangerous in their own right. Deliri are often difficult to detect due to their non physical mutation. However, Bridles were often more difficult to deal with as they usually didn't feel pain. Even worse, sometimes their mutations were internal or simply very subtle.
For example, a king of one notably warm nation mutated, removing his ability to sweat and turning him into a cold-blooded creature. By the time he had been stopped, hundreds had been consumed.
Possibly the most dangerous part of this wave would be the fact that animals also mutated. One's horse could randomly turn on and stab them with its hairs. Nature itself had irrevocably changed. Tens to hundreds of millions died in the oncoming years.
The third wave, the current one, saw the splitting of space, opening holes to somewhere else. What was in these holes, no one really knows, but what came out of them was the cause of millions of more deaths.
Chaos beasts came in all shapes and sizes, having all types of abilities. While they were generally less intelligent than mutated humans, their strength far outstripped the average human's. Their most dangerous overall feature was their consumption. While they consumed in different ways, once the process had begun, it was almost impossible to revert it as your soul would take damage too.
This was part of why Yuzo had chosen to die fighting rather than let the chaos beast touch her. While it was mostly because she wanted to make sure that it couldn't chase after Sho, she understood that if she was killed, not even her soul would survive and she wouldn't be able to reincarnate.
As she died, and her soul ascended, she couldn't help but think about everything that led to this situation. For her to die like this, wasn't it sad? Of course, millions had died just like her. But still, someone like her, die like that?
As her soul began condensing and entering the cycle of reincarnation, she sighed. 'If only I had my full strength. Heine must have been feeling the same when he lost. The two guards of Prince Sileon killed by some lower world trash.'
This was all she got the chance to think before her soul was completely wiped of memories and reincarnated somewhere off in the universe.
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Sho continued to run without thinking. He remained asleep, unaware of the changes happening to him.
When he finally woke up hours later, he realized he was still running. Tears streamed down his well-built face but he had no idea why.
'Why can't I stop? Why can't I remember anything?' Tears continued to stream down his face but this time, he could understand the reason why. The terror, of not knowing who he was, consumed him.
After continuing to run for a minute, he had managed to calm down. He could remember bits and pieces. He knew his name was Sho. He knew that someone had told him to keep running straight forward without stopping. He knew that he had to awaken his Path whatever that meant.
After organizing his thoughts, he decided to, first, stop running. Already he had scraped on a couple trees but had to dodge countless others. Curiously enough, he hadn't received any injuries from the scrape, just some minor discomfort.
He tried to angle his body into a tree, but he had only been taught a painful lesson as his legs simply continued to kick the tree.
At least that was something he would never forget. To his surprise, though, he had managed to send a couple of trees down by simply kicking them enough.
After wracking his mind for a few more minutes, he had only managed to cause himself more pain. There didn't seem to be anything in his bag to help him. He'd already dropped several items accidentally while running. The heartache from knowing he was losing things that could potentially help him remember everything hit him in waves every minute or so.
Suddenly, the hairs on his neck rose. In reality, he didn't simply want to stop just because he was running into things. He remembered that what he was doing, running blindly, was incredibly dangerous. He could get ambushed by any variety of dangers. In fact, he had already met with some enemy. He couldn't tell what it was but looking at the blood on his shoes, it seemed that the thing that attacked him was far too weak.
He looked around the best he could, trying to spot whatever was giving him the chills. However, nothing out of the ordinary filled his vision. It was as if whatever was tracking him managed to get out of the place he was going to look at before he looked at it. The speed required for that had to be terrifying.
Sho's ears suddenly picked up something. It was nearly impossible to hear but after hearing nothing but him running and the various sounds of the leaves and small insects, he could tell something was different.
He turned his head to the side, barely dodging a whizzing black object. He focused on it, realizing it was a bird.
He watched as it flew around to his side, trying to get out of his vision. Luckily, Sho had discovered something while experimenting with stopping. No matter how he ran, he would keep running in the same direction.
Sho turned around, running backwards now, and grabbed at the bird. Apparently, it hadn't expected the attack and Sho managed to grab one of the bird's wings. However, faster than he could even see, blood started spurting out of his hand and stabs of pain hit him.
Bits of flesh had been pecked out of his hand and he let go of the bird out of surprise and pain.
He faced back forward as the bird flew back behind him. At this point, he tried punching rather than grabbing the bird. However, the beast was on its guard now, flying out of range when it saw him winding up. This ordeal went on for almost 10 minutes.
By this time, both parties were tired. Sho had even tried grabbing things from his bag and using them as weapons against the beast. He'd only managed to injure its leg once. However, at this point, his arms were bloody, bits of meat missing.
Sho would've made a last ditch effort and tried to capture the bird with his bag when suddenly, another wave of danger overwhelmed him. He could tell it wasn't coming from the bird as even it was twitching in fear a little.
Still, despite all these circumstances, he couldn't manage to stop running. His legs had already gone numb a while ago but they didn't stop moving.
The bird, then, tried to fly away, zipping out of the area. However, before it could even get above the trees, an object came whizzing from a nearby tree, blowing the bird up into blood, bones and tissues.
Sho's heart turned cold at this sight. He could clearly feel this person's eyes on him now. He could feel them preparing to shoot.
"Wait! I'm human!" He shouted in desperation.
Regardless, an arrow came zipping out of the trees. Sho braced himself for death only to feel a pain beyond description in his leg. He looked down to see an arrow lodged in his right thigh before he fell down, angling so he'd fall on his back.
Even with these injuries, his legs didn't stop moving, only causing him more frustration and agony. However, at this point, he couldn't run anywhere. He simply waited for death to come yet, again, it didn't. A small group of people came out of the darkness in the forest, surrounding him.
"Don't hesitate when you shoot, Lia. Now I had to get him and I'm not close to as good as you so now he's still alive."
"He seems to be human though-"
"Yeah, a human that still has the energy to run with an arrow in their leg. Sure."
"Look into his eyes though, they don't feel fear but he does."
"Well-"
At this point, Sho had enough. He grabbed his left leg, holding it, willing it to stop moving. A splitting pain erupted in his right leg as it continued to move around. Under his dark hair, his eyes turned from black to a light shade of gray briefly. At the same time, both his legs stopped moving. Just as that happened, he fell unconscious.
The group of people around him remained quiet, staring down at his body.
"Well, I guess he's human. You never know though, he might be dangerous."
"Yeah, dangerous with an arrow in his leg. Sure."
After that, silence stood among the group until one of them decided to speak up again.
"Let's take him back to the sect."