Chaos

"Ba'al, we need to get to class by 2." A young man with short brown hair called down the hall. Turning, another young man looked down the hall with a dissatisfied look on his face.

"John, its 12:30, there is no need to leave yet. It only takes a couple of minutes to get to class from here, stop being ridiculous." Ba'al grumbled while combing his hair back, trying to blend the silver highlights in with the rest of his black hair. Walking into the bathroom, he shut the door and looked into the mirror. "This mirror is even dirtier than the one out there." He groaned, checking his hair again. Leaning on the counter, he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. Listening to the sound of his heart beat and the feel of his pulse throughout his body. After a few minutes, Ba'al noticed that while his heartbeat was slowing like he wished, it was also beating harder. After a few seconds, the strength of his heartbeat had increased to the point that it was painful. 'What is this? it feels like something is forcing my blood pressure up, if it continues like this, it will be dangerous!' Reaching for the door, Ba'al was hit with a wave of nausea and collapsed to his knees. Pulling the door open and looking down the hall, he could see John collapsed on the floor as well. Trying to reach him, Ba'al succumbed to the hammering of his heart and lost consciousness.

"Ughh, what the hell happened?" Ba'al pushed himself up, and saw that it was still daylight, not much time had passed. Down the hall, John groaned as well and started to get up. As he regained his bearings, he saw something in the corner of his eye. A wall of blue text appeared as he focused on it, and it read:

'Good day Ba'al Callisto, you have survived awakening! I am Akasha and I have awakened the innate Mana of your world. Now that the first Awakening has finished, all you need to do in order to begin the path of evolution is to slay another being. Should you choose that path, you will then learn more.'

Looking over at John, he called, "John, are you alright? Did you also see some weird text appear to you and tell you something about evolution?"

"Yeah, I got something like that also, do you have any idea what happened?" John said, scratching his head.

Suddenly, they were both violently shaken as they heard an explosion! Running over to the window, they saw that people were running and screaming as what could only be described as monsters chased them. Giant bees, wasps, and other insects would either swarm people or attack them from behind. Large wolf-like dogs attacked their owners, and slender cats clawed whoever came too close. Even more horrifying were the undead bodies of people that would trip up people running away, or tackle them to the ground and begin to eat them.

"My lord Ba'al, what is going on? This is chaos!" John turned, retching after seeing such a horrific sight.

"No John, I think this might be the Apocalypse." Ba'al whispered, his face paling. Running down the hall, Ba'al quickly went into his room. "John, grab what you can, we need to get somewhere safe. If this is just the beginning, think of how badly this is going to get over time."

Coming out of his room with a backpack, Ba'al looked at John, who was pulling on some gloves. "I looked outside and saw that someone who escaped from one of those zombie things died shortly after. I'm not sure if it was blood-loss or if they are infectious but it would be better to be careful."

Catching a pair of gloves thrown at him, Ba'al tossed John a pocket knife. "It's the only one I can spare, so don't lose it. Let's head over to the University's Athletic Center. The gym could be a good place to hold out in while we try to figure out more about what is happening."

Nodding, John pushed the door open. The hallway was empty, but loud shuffling and banging could be heard inside some of the rooms. There was a chilling lack of screaming coming from their floor, yet it could clearly be heard from both above and from below. Suddenly, as they made their way down the hall, a door in front of them broke down. Stumbling out of the room was a zombie, half of its face torn and hanging. Behind it came another, having large bites taken out of its face and chest. As Ba'al and John began to get ready for the zombies approaching, they heard more doors breaking down behind them. Turning, Ba'al saw another zombie stumble into the hall with them. "John, think you can clear out those 2? I'll keep any others from getting behind you and I'll also check if there's anyone else alive on this floor as long as you make sure the stairway is clear heading down."

Grunting, John pulled out the knife Ba'al gave him. "Fine, just be quick, we don't want to dawdle like you usually do."

"Fair enough." Pulling out two knives himself, Ba'al made his way to the zombie that was back behind his and John's dorm. Lunging at him, the zombie nearly startled Ba'al, who took one of the knives and stabbed it into the bottom of the zombie's jaw, pinning its mouth shut. It still pushed against him, and quickly overpowered Ba'al. Slipping past it's grip, Ba'al jammed the knife he had left into the back of its neck. Pushing the knife as hard as he could, he ripped it to the side, tearing right through the zombie's flesh. With its neck torn apart, it flopped to the floor and Ba'al quickly finished crushing its skull. A translucent orb of light flew into Ba'al's body as soon as he killed it.

'You have killed a lvl.2 zombie. You have levelled up!

'Status: Ba'al Callisto (Average Human in Parenthesis)

Race: Human

Lvl.1 Unspent Stat Points: 2

Health- 3 (5)

Stamina- 40 (50)

Mana- 30 (20)

Strength- 12 (10)

Agility- 9 (10)

Magic- 6 (5)

Perception- 10 (10)

'Congratulations Ba'al Callisto on beginning on the path of evolution. As you can see, killing another being grants you the power of their soul. The more soul you absorb, the purer your own soul will become. For your first kill, you will be granted a skill based upon your performance. As your world knew nothing of my arrival prior, I will grant you one question about your stats. Once you reach 1st Order, more information will be available.'

'For killing the lvl.2 zombie, you have gained Health+1, Stamina+3

'For killing the lvl.2 zombie, you have been granted the Skill "1st Order: Basic Mana Manipulation Lvl.1 (Passive)"

'1st Order: Basic Mana Manipulation Lvl.1- Gain a greater understanding of the basics of Mana Manipulation:

'Subskill 1- Physique enhancement: Use Mana to increase your physical strength

'Subskill 2- Mana Sense: Spread your Mana out like a web, detecting the Mana of other beings

'Subskill 3- Spell Conjuration: Learn how to manipulate Mana in order to conjure spells

'Subskill 4- Magus Code: Obtain the basic knowledge of how Magus train and control Mana

"Damn that wall of text!" Ba'al swore under his breath as he retrieved his knives. Looking at the body made him nauseous, so he turned away, checking on John. He worked out nearly every day, so he was in great shape and had dealt with both zombies in the time it took Ba'al to take one out. Although, he got sick again and was currently emptying his guts for the second time in the last few minutes,

Checking the rest of the rooms, Ba'al found a few broken windows and a few giant bees that had died after being cut open by glass or other sharp objects. Every person left on the floor was dead or gone besides John and Ba'al. "The staircase is clear from what I can tell Ba'al." John called after Ba'al checked the last room.

"Well, I guess we need to get a move on then."