Hello Minna!
Warning this chapter is quite sad.
Zeref
I remember that day as if were happening right in front of my eyes again. I remember all the pain and emotions I felt when my little brother was forcibly taken away from me.
It still hurts.
I felt so powerless in the situation. Who wouldn't? We were surrounded by a group of wizards sent from the head council. It sickened me to know that I didn't stand a chance. Now here I am, in this white room, I had been here for days, maybe weeks, I don't know. I stopped counting a while ago.
I lay my head on the dirty blanket they gave me and continue to stare at the white wall in front of me. Ever since I've been here it's been torture. The first day on arrival I woke up hooked up to machines. They implanted wires on my temples and the veins of my arms. I lied in a cold table with a bright light looking down on me. Somehow I silently hopped it was the sun but I was wrong.
They injected weird things into me and did weird test to me. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of Natsu. I silently wondered what they could be doing to him. He was still so young, seven to be exact..
Or maybe a year has already passed. I didn't know since I lost track of time being stuck in here.
The door to the room is opened but I still keep staring at the blank wall in front of me. A dull sound echoes throughout the room and the door closes. I slowly close my eyes and sit up. I open my eyes and turn to the tray of food not to far away from me. I swallow and turn back toward the wall.
I didn't know when it started but I began to not get hungry. Of course, when I was first brought here I ate whatever since they gave me little food and I needed it to survive off of. Now I no longer feel hunger, or gain an appetite. It scared me when I first realized I had gone days- maybe weeks, who knows- without the need of food. I was so frightened that I thought that one day I would just drop dead because my body didn't receive the proper nutrients from eating.
But the shock soon melted away.
Did I tell them I didn't need food? No, I kept it to myself, and ate enough to actually feel normal. But as time went on I slowly began to stuff all together. I thought they would have notices. Apparently not.
I look down to my hands and arms. They were now a ghost like color and my veins were showing. When had I gotten so skinny and pale? That was another thing I took note of.
There's a heavy knock on the door before it opens. I continue to stare at the wall as whoever it was takes the tray away. I expected the door to close afterwards but it doesn't. Instead I heard footsteps approaching me and I move my head to look over my shoulder to see a man with a reading something and mumbling. Every now and then he would glance at me after reading.
He finally stops before he broke out into a cold smile, I internally shivered but didn't show it.
"So you're the new type of wizard they're working on?" He asks, more to himself and I perk up at the new information. Wiizard? Is that what they're really doing to me. If so then for what purpose?
He looks me over before nodding. "From now on you're in my care. I'll tell you now when I'm done with you you'll be put on the front lines." He says while nodding as if satisfied with something. I stare at him confused and two other people come in. I can tell they were wizards, they always have this special outfit that separates them from the others. One of them mutters something and I instantly feel the weight of restraint on my wrists.
"Don't try running. Now come."
I don't put up a fight at all which slightly disappoints me. However, I know what will happen if I do, I learned from experience what they'll do to me if I'm difficult. Not to mention they don't hold back at all either.
I follow them, my barefeet walking against the cool floor. I keep my head down as we walk past the many door that hold other people like in them. We turn down corridors and it seems to me like it takes eternity for us to get there.
However when we do get to our destination I felt my heart drop into my stomach and I swallow thickly. These doors, I've seen them so many times. I've heard the pained cries from inside them as well. The man turns around toward me and grins once more.
"Congratulations Zeref Dragneel. You have been chosen to be what many others couldn't handle, Part of the Ultimate Magic Army." He says, it still didn't ease my conscience one bit, because those doors…
"We have chosen you.."
Those big double doors, whenever someone goes in…
"To be the host of The Black Arts."
Never comes back out.
Host
I let out a cough that shakes my whole body as I tumble to my knees. It was just too painful to bare. All the things they were drilling into my head. All the things they were injecting into my body. They hurt.
The tied me up by my wrist which were chained to a wall so I couldn't get far away. It was excruciating and try desperately to stand back up before I get penalized. I managed to push myself up using one of my feet and stumble forward, the cables catch me before I fall again.
I didn't know how long it lasted. All I knew was that they constantly crammed information in my head and it would send me a painful shock throughout my whole my whole body. Words and diagrams flashed in front of my eyes as I let out a choked sob.
"That's enough for today."
I came to realize why they would force all the information into our heads like that. They did it so we could learn it faster, and according to them the results were much better then slowly learning it like one was supposed to. Not only that but that's what made the wizards in the army they were building were so strong.
I now sit in the new room they put me in. It was far bigger than the cramped white room I was in, but I didn't care. Now I was lying down trying not to pass out from exhaustion. My body ached and I can probably feel the throbbing in my head from the headache I had. My hands would twitch every now and then. When I finally found peace the heavy door was opened, startling me awake.
"He managed to pass all the first level trials. He should be able to exercise it now." A feminine voice cuts through. I refocus my vision to see a woman looking at a clipboard and a man beside her. The same man who brought me in this department not to long ago.
I no longer counted the days I've been here.
"I see, no one's made it this far. They all died because of the strain. Well except the escaped one." He says, mumbling the last part, but somehow I was able to pick it up. The woman frowns and taps her pen on the clipboard, then she begins to write in the air with it. I recognized what she was using was one of those inventions they made. I think it was a light pen…
"At this rate he should be ready in a few years, if we're lucky months."
I was tired of being treated like I wasn't in the room so I sit up. I didn't know how long I truly was asleep. To me it felt as though I was sleep for a few seconds. Now, since my head and body no longer ached, I felt completely fine.
"He's recovered quickly for three hours."
Three hours. That's how long I've been asleep?
"Well since you're awake we can now begin the physical tests.
First Kill
I was in a different room this time. Even though there were no windows in the room I could tell I was being watched.
A mouse managed to scurry in when a hole in the wall appeared. I looked at the small brown animal as it run and looks around, scanning the area. It comes to a stop before looking my way. I didn't move as it cautiously made its way toward me.
The little thing stopped at my toe and began to sniff it before moving around toward my hands, which I was leaning on as I sat on the floor.
Curiosity overcame me and i extend a finger to touch it. I've played with mice before, they aren't that dangerous if you knew where to pet them.
My finger brushes against its furry head and I jerk it back when I hear the high pitched screech that came from it. It began to wiggle and writhe as someone were choking the life out of it. I began to panic and my heart starts to race for some odd reason unknown to me. The little animal lets out another loud squeal that made me wonder if it were actually human. Then its dark beady eyes turned red before it finally stilled.
My heart went back to normal instantly.
I went pale and felt my stomach churned. I didn't need to ask what happened. I know what happened. I know what caused it and ended the poor little creature.
And because of that the sound of that mouse dying by my own hands rang throughout my head continuously.
I stare at my hands to realize they're shaking, and soon my whole body is. There's a buzz and a person, a boy maybe my age, is shoved in. He's skinny and pale, just like me. He looks around frantically and his eyes land on me.
I swallow and began to step backward. No. I refuse to kill a person, the mouse was an accident, it was unintentional. But a person, living and breathing. I couldn't do it.
I wouldn't do it.
My back finally touches the wall and slide down it until I sat on my knees. I didn't want to kill this person, hell I didn't want to kill a person.
Of course that's not what happened. This thing that I dreaded the most happened.
I hunched over, taking my head into my hands once I felt the pain throbbing through my head. My breath hitched and I let out a yell as I feel something pulse away from my body. The white tile floor became blurry to me and the only thing I was able to see was white and a dark figure falling limp on the floor.
I fell into darkness.
I stare at the white wall again. I can no longer eat, I don't need water, I can't get hurt. If I do it instantly regenerates as if nothing happens. I don't need sleep either, but I do it. Why?
I guess because it's the only thing human about me.
I look at my pale hands since I had been staring at the wall for god knows how long. I swallow as I remember all the test subjects and people that have died because of me.
That's right, I killed them. I'm responsible since I'm not stable enough to control this power they forced into me.
No. My inner self says, the small amount of sanity I had left. You didn't do it, they forced you to do this. You had no choice, you can't control it. It pleaded for me. My mind was thrown into state of internal conflict as I continue to stare.
The door opens.
No more. I pleaded inside.
I hear the loud footsteps, well they were loud to me since my senses were enhanced. The familiar smell of the man that brought me here fills my senses and I stiffen.
"It's time to show the council what you're made of Zeref. We're putting you on the front lines."
Before I have time to react a wave of drowsiness overcomes me and I fall backwards.
Repent
When I wake up my senses were put to overload as I hear multiple screams and shouts. Where am I?
I hear screams of pain, cries, shouts amongst people and foreign words. I struggle to my feet and look around to realize I'm outside. It's been so long since I've seen the outside world but it wa horrifying now. Bodies lied on the ground, motionless, covered in crimson. Magic circles were appearing all over and a flurry of light, ice, fire, water- anything was being thrown across the battlefield.
A battlefield.
This is the perfect term for it.
I stand all the way up and looked down. I was no longer in those tattered white rags, I was in a black outfit, similar to most of the other wizards around. My breath hitches in my throat as I realize what I'm supposed to do.
But I didn't want to do it.
I look around frantically for any type of shelter or hiding spot I can occupy by I realize even if I do hide it would be futile because of the wizards in the air.
A strong force hits the side of my head and causes me to lean back a bit however it didn't bruise nor hurt me. Just caught me off guard. It was a man holding what looked like a piece of wood. An old man.
He was barely able to keep himself up yet he was out here fighting. As I stare at him he begins to shout. "Damn you wizards and Magic council!" I came to realize that this man along with many others didn't stand a chance out here.
This wasn't war.
It was manslaughter.
I say nothing as he begins to take another swing. Instead I reach forward and catch the wood and throw it to the side. There was no purpose in hurting people who were so defenseless against wizards- no experiments who were more superior to them. I open my mouth to speak but no words came out, when was the last time I actually said something?
I turn around and run instead, I couldn't take this. Since I was outside maybe I could run somewhere, somewhere they couldn't find me.
But that was futile as well.
I was greeted by a whole mob of ordinary people, screaming, shouting and trying their best to hurt me. I can hear shouts behind me, they were coming.
I sink to my knees and began to shake. I take my hands in my head and my breathing quickens. No not now.
It's their fault.
They made you like this.
It's their fault for starting this whole battle in the first place!
It's their fault for taking away you and your brother.
My eyes snap open. And i look forward at the people. I can feel my blood boiling and I grit my teeth and anger. They take a step back and stop their assaults. I shakingly stand up and I can hear the voices behind me shouting louder.
"Run." I tell all of them and turn toward the direction of the wizards they were supposed to be fighting. I walk forward and I can actually feel and see all the trees that weren't destroyed withering away, the grass was beginning to turn brown under my feet and I advanced forward.
This is my power this is what they wanted to see.
The death of people by my hands.
So I'll start by making them repent for all the sins they've done.
Wooow It was so hard writing this, because off all the sadness Zeref was feeling right there. Yep I sowwy!