- Lamentations

What am I supposed to do now? I have this stupid badge that is supposed to make me a Soldier. A nurse also came to my room last night to give me a uniform, the uniform those other kids were wearing. I have all this but I still don't want to fight. I can't fight. I just can't. What will it bring me anyway? Nothing. Nothing will come out of it. I think… I think today is my last day here. I don't feel like staying. I'll just go back to the Coliseum like Doc told me to. I really want to see how they will gain powers able to crush such monsters. But after that, I'm done. I've seen enough. I'm satisfied.

Well, more like tired. Tired of aimlessly walking around. Tired of consistently worrying all the time. I didn't stay for so long but I'm already ready to go. Nothing is waiting for me here. Nobody is waiting for me here. It'll be better for me to take my life with my own hands right here right now, while it's still early. I'd prefer that over dying at the hands of those demons. Probably way less painful and atrocious.

Don't know how I'll do it, though. I don't see anything sharp around here. I'll keep my eyes open while I'm on my way to the Coliseum. If anything, there has to be some sort of blade at the Blacksmith's place. Well anyway, gotta get going. I've been unconsciously staring at the meticulously folded uniform on my bed, guess it's time to try it on. 

I'm looking at that weirdo behind the glass and he looks morbid. The uniform is pretty basic. Mostly made with dark brown and dark green fabrics, which are actually pretty thick and solid. There's a sign sewn on the chest area, on the right. It's the same as the badge. Don't know what it represents. I can't figure out what it is. There are a ton of symbols I have never seen before. Doesn't really matter anyway. I just need to get going.

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I haven't found any blades or sharp tools on my way. Guess I'll head to the Blacksmith's house after I'm done here. The Coliseum is filled with the same people as last time. I don't see the group I usually encounter. They are most likely somewhere in that flood of people. The young Soldiers are all dressed up in their usual uniforms. They are casually talking to each other like they usually do. From what I remember, Doc said they trained together right? The training must have lasted for a while; they seem to know each other really well. It looks like the Soldiers have pretty good chemistry among themself, well, except for me of course.

I'm still stuck under a rain of vicious gazes. It has always appeared clear to me that I'm definitely not supposed to be here for some reason that I ignore. It has something to do with that damn bracelet. Why am I the only person wearing one? What is it hiding?

My deep investigation was prematurely stopped by a bunch of noises coming from the back of the Coliseum. A horde of scientists are coming our way. They are all pushing medical beds. Why do they have to roll those all the way here? Doc just came through the door, behind everybody. I've noticed by now that he always walks around with his hands in his pockets. Always wearing that smile. That weirdly odd smile.

"Soldiers, in formation!"

He didn't even need to speak those words. They were already forming tight and precise ranks just from the sight of his figure. I was just standing here alone, a bit to the side. I really don't feel the need to follow any orders. Yes, I guess I'm a Soldier now. But I won't be for long.

"Soldiers! Each of you is requested to pair with my subordinates. When everyone is in place, I'll communicate the instructions. March on!"

"Yes, Sir!"

After chanting these words in sync, they quickly broke from their ranks and swiftly moved towards the scientists. In only a brief instant, all have taken place next to a scientist, standing between them and their beds. I didn't even make the effort to see if there was a place left for me. I just stood where I was to be able to look at what was about to happen.

"Soldiers. Today is the day. The day you'll be granted the weapon necessary to compete against our enemy. Only you can wield such a weapon. No one else is capable of doing such. Today is the day. The day you'll be wielding in battle a deadly tool capable of slaying down any threat lying before you. Only you can manipulate such a dangerous tool for the good of our survival. Today is the day. The day you'll be given the chance to face the very reason who were making us turn back from fear. Only you can stand your ground in front of them and protect the people who cannot do so. Today is the day. The day you will become superhumans. Only you can have bodies exceeding any physical bonds humans have never even dreamed of surpassing. Today is the day."

Superhumans? That's all I could grab from his speech. What does that mean? Of course, I understand you have to be superhuman to be able to even lay a finger on them. Even I can understand that. But… Is it really possible? Surpassing any limits? What is he talking about?

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"But. You should have figured out by now that such power cannot be obtained for free. It has its costs. Like everything in life. Nothing is free. Everything is bound by the rule of trade. For something to be gained, you must be willing to lose something in exchange. This power is no exception. But this isn't the only rule attached to it. There's another rule. The most fearsome rule. Equality. The greater the gain, the bigger the loss. It's only logical. The more you are willing to give up, the more you'll receive in exchange. These rules form the law known as the Equal Trade. This is a universal law that applies to everything in life. Knowing this, you should be able to have a better grasp of what is about to happen. The power to defeat Hollows. Such a tremendous gain comes with a cost. A big cost."

The old man's face changed as soon as he let out those words. His smile was long gone, taken over by a fearsome stoic expression. Anyone could see that those words were to be taken seriously. From the sound of it, it appears they will face a fair amount of pain to be able to transform their bodies. And death was no stranger in this process.

"The time has come Soldiers. You'll be given an injection. This injection will force your body to morph. To evolve. You will no longer be the same person. There is no going back. I will see those who will survive after this operation is completed. For the others who couldn't make it through, you have proudly served the ranks of the Foundation to the best of your capacity. For that, you have my respect. And my farewell. That is all!"

Confusion and uncertainty were the only things preventing anarchy from unleashing. It seemed absurd that he would treat the possibility of their deaths so casually. As all the Soldiers were being attended by the medical corps, only one stood straight. Fear overtaking him, he began to slowly back away. However, one can not escape Doc's eyes. 

"Oh! Young man, I'm glad you came! You weren't thinking of going anywhere, were you son?"

The young man froze.

"Don't leave at a moment like that. You're about to miss everything."

The young man was standing still, locked in place, unable to move. All he could do was watch, even though that was the last thing he would have done if he knew. He was now a trapped witness. Every scientist armed themselves with their syringes. They brought it to the shoulders of those cursed Soldiers. Now the hundred needles were passively resting on the hundred Soldiers. Waiting for the right moment to strike.

All the scientists lifted their left arm, aiming their fingers toward the ceiling, tightening their right arm, and aiming their syringes toward their next victim. They all looked at each other from across the Coliseum. They nodded and started to count down from five, taking down one finger at a time. Once their last fingers completely closed their hand in a fist, they planted the needles and launched the injection. All at the same time.

Barely five seconds had passed when the atrocities began. The horror circus started with a chorus of painful screams. The screeching was followed by a commotion like no other. Some were vomiting, and some crying their lives away. That was all before the real show.

Ten seconds have passed. But not a single one here would agree with that. Every single one of them could swear on their lives that they had been suffering for hours. And they haven't even experienced real pain yet. Muffled under a cloud of death screams, the sound of hundreds of litres of blood flying everywhere.

Limbs were being detached and propelled, escorted by disturbing noises of broken bones and flesh tearing up. If it wasn't for the unbearable smell of the blood being sprayed around, anyone could catch on the striking odour of the bladders giving up on the already broken Soldiers, letting loose fear-filled urine. A fear echoed in their stomach, ordering them to vomit up everything it contained, painting the already soiled floor.

During that chaos, the small and low-tempered soldier got his left side severed. Alongside the unbearable pain from his insides, his left arm got torn apart, all the way from his shoulder. The left side of his face was also impacted, destroying his left eye on the way. At the same moment, the blond girl dropped to the floor. She shrieked and wailed in agony. Even though no one could hear it, she was hearing it just fine. The noises were coming from inside her. She didn't know what it was. She never heard such things before. What she was listening to was the chant of her bones cracking and her muscle tissues withering.

As for the young woman with the slightly tanner skin, she coughed out a river of blood. Her ears and nose were also leaking her red life energy. Her eyes were turning red. She fainted before understanding it, but all her organs were horribly damaged. The inner bleeding was catastrophic. In an isolated corner, the muscular young man was on his knees. He was holding what was left of his head in his hands. His howling was muffled by the blood streaming in his throat, as though he was gargling it. The liquid left at his knees was a mixture of blood, sweat, tears and liquified skin, where his severed eyeballs were drowning.

The young woman with the dark skin was crawling on the ground, squealing. Her skin was melting and showering off from her body. The skin was merging with the red fluid, rapidly leaving her body cold. Even the unlucky witness, someone as emotionless as him, couldn't be stoic in front of such a sight. He broke through his frozen state to fall on his knees. Tears were running down his face, but he didn't even notice it. That was before he completely snapped. At first, only a demonic smile could be seen. But then giggles were escaping from it. That was just a build-up to his uncontrollable laughter. A laugh that could be frequently heard in an asylum. A laugh that could possibly be more frightening than this whole nightmare.

''HAHAHAHAHAHAH! You've got to be fucking kidding me! Am I dreaming? This is pure madness! What kind of hell is this? This is… This is just… That's it. I'm fucking done''

After shouting his thoughts, he stood up and began to march towards the closest scientist. Thirty seconds had passed since the injection. Most of the medical technicians were already trying to take what was left of their assigned lab rats to put them on the bed. Some were already rushing through the door, pushing the beds in the hallway. The madman was completely spacing out. He was gone.

He was mindlessly walking in the direction of the nearest nurse. Once he arrived at his final destination, he bent towards her back, who was crouching to help her patient. He reached out his hand to her pocket, clinging to a scalpel. It's as though he already knew it was there His subconscious spotted it during this hellish show. In a final attempt to escape the hell before him, he brought the sharp tool to his throat. Even though he had no doubts in mind, and no second thought about taking his own life, he was shaking.

His fingers were desperately trying to hold this heavy threat. His emotions were working against him. It was commanding his body to stop this act, an act that would hurt him. But even though that act of self-harm was something a survival mindset would want to avoid at all costs, his body and mind didn't fear it, because they knew about the inefficiency of his actions. Something he was yet to realize. His vision was going dark as the steel of the lethal blade was now embracing his skin.

The nurse screamed in horror and rushed to his aid. Her reaction time was lacking. It was too late. The movement was engaged. His will to end this nightmare wouldn't let anyone intervene. He firmly and sharply ran the blade on his throat. At the end of his action, the scalpel continued its course, followed by a trail of sparkles.

No pain. At first, he just thought he grew numb from all this mess. But then, even through all this frightening fanfare, his ears caught up on the sound of iron hitting the ground. He instinctively aimed his vision at his feet, towards the noise. What he saw there would change his life forever. Pieces of a broken scalpel are scattered on the ground. He couldn't breathe anymore.

Surprisingly, he wasn't shocked by what just happened. The fact that his body was able to resist being cut and even going to the extent of completely dismantling an iron tool didn't bother him in the slightest. What shook him to the point of losing his breath came from a totally other realization. What just happened showed him a terrible fate. He just realized that he can't escape this hell.

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"James, I need you to bring me back the report of every doctor on this case. If they haven't finished it yet, please make them do so. Be as persuasive as you need. It's an order."

"Yes Sir!"

James, the short and bulky agent, left Adam, the taller and slender one, and Doc in the room before rushing to the doorway. It took the suited man a little while to be able to gather all the needed information. Every medical room he needed to enter was worse than the preceding one. He often needed to look away from the horrible sight he had of those patients, bringing his fist to his mouth to refrain from puking. After a long hour, he was able to come back to Doc's office with his mission completed.

"Here Sir! The hundred reports as you asked, Sir!"

"At ease young man, you did a good job. You're on break for now."

''Yes Sir! Thank you, Sir!''

As the tall man was leaving the room, he brought both his hands on his cheeks, breathing out a heavily loaded sigh. Doc took the device his subordinate just brought him and sat at his desk. He put the tool on a plate and the screen on his computer lit up. Precisely, a hundred reports popped up at the same time before him. Adam quickly drew closer to the screen from his curiosity.

"Well well well, what do we have this time? Hmmm… Oh? Only Seventy-Nine deaths? Hahaha! I guess I got lucky this year too. Haven't seen such good numbers in years. This truly looks promising."

While Doc was childishly smiling in front of the screen, Adam lost his balance and made a few recovery steps back.

''S- Sir! Pardon my questioning Sir! Bu- But when you say good…''

''Hahaha Adam, you are truly still a naive child, but a kind one. When you look at these numbers, you probably see this whole operation as a failure, don't you son? But that's where you are mistaken. This operation didn't cost us seventy-nine Soldiers. It didn't affect our manpower. No. The magic number to remember is twenty-one.''

Doc was grinning.

''Today, the Foundation just birthed twenty-one monsters.''

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Why is everything so unfair? All I wanted was to end it. All I wanted was to end this shit show, this absurdity. But I can't. I literally can't. I have had my head in this water-filled sink for a while now. Way too long for anyone to survive. A normal human would have drowned a long time ago. But me? No, it would've been too easy. I lifted my head out to breathe some unwanted air. What is the meaning of this? This has to be the most ironic thing to ever happen. Now that I've made up my mind to just die right here right now, I can't? This has to be a joke of some sort.

Someone, something, is depriving me of my freedom. I can't even do what I want in a place that I never wanted to live in in the first place. It seems this place has cursed me for good. I've been struggling this entire time just to find a reason to live, and now I'm struggling to find a way to die. The development isn't great. I wonder about the outcome. But for now, what do I do? I don't have a choice but to find something to live for, just something to do at the very least. Or else, it won't take long before this place drives me crazy. Haha. It already has, you dumbass.

So, what am I supposed to do? The only thing I can think about is the only thing I don't want to think about. The Foundation. That Blacksmith was right, I shouldn't have dwelled in their affairs. All those Soldiers, all those young people, they're dead, right? Yes, there's no doubt about it. From what I remember, from what I saw… Hurgh, I'm still shivering. I didn't get any sleep at all.

This image could be haunting me as much as the Hollow, maybe more. What was Doc thinking? He killed them. He murdered them all. What am I supposed to do about this? Maybe I should go tell someone? Who? The Blacksmith? He doesn't want to hear anything that has to do with them. But this is an exceptional situation…

Maybe I could try to run away somewhere? Maybe there's a hidden place somewhere? Maybe I could follow a tunnel outside the Lab to try to escape? Maybe I-... Here you go again with the maybes. There's no way I can just wander outside like that. If I do, a Hollow will find me and he will ki….... Ha Ha. I'm so stupid. Of course. The Hollows. Those could for sure kill me. I didn't want to get killed by those things because of the possible torture and horrible pain, but for now, that'll do. I just need to find a Hollow and let him attack me. Why didn't I think of that before?

But how? The only I found was locked up inside. There's probably no way for me to enter its cell. I've never seen or heard of any of those monsters being outside actually. Is there a way for me to get close? … The Foundation? It may actually be my best bet. In other words… I need to actually become a Soldier and join the ranks. I'm just gonna talk to that mad old man, he'll figure out a way. Plus, he seems to want me on his team. Yeah, now that I think of it… Special. Isn't that what he said to me?

I'm special. He must have been talking about that body of mine. Hmm, actually. I've always wanted to know how they are dealing with such a treat. But, maybe I'm capable of such things? What are the limits of this body? How did Doc know about this? Hughh. Now that I have found a way to die, I start to be even more curious. Where does that side of me come from? Must be explained by my actual past. That black hole in my mind, where does it come from?

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"#56: Left arm and eye completely gone.

#21: Atrophied muscles and weakened bones.

#88: Heart, lungs, stomach, liver and kidneys badly damaged.

#9: Nose, mouth and eyes destroyed or gone.

#47: Skin completely melted away.

#67: Paralyzed from the waist down.

#84: Numerous severe bone damage.

#35: Ligaments and tendons shred in pieces.

#91: Inner body partly destroyed.

#42: Bones, skin, muscles and every single organ drastically weakened

#16: Extreme deterioration in the mouth area.

#3: Memory capabilities inefficient

#26: Unstoppable heavy fever

#98: Severely damaged skin

#43: Unknown

#89: Damaged parietal lobe

#31: Deformed mouth and throat

#51: Dangerously low body temperature and frostbites

#2: Extreme case of Parkinson's Disease

#13: Severe muscle degeneration

#48: Unknown"

As Doc was reading the report, he couldn't help himself but let out sounds of excitement. Adam, on his part, was sitting in a chair, coffee in hand, body tilted forwards, right foot vigorously taping on the floor.

"Truly fascinating! The last time we had a roster that promising goes back to... Hahaha! I got lucky, haven't I? Now, I'll need to be sure they are trained properly. For that, I'll need to come up with a unique and unseen approach. Right then… Adam?"

"Y- Yes Sir!"

As Adam got scared and propelled from his chair, Doc clicked on a bunch of things on his screen with his finger. He then mimicked a grabbing movement with his hand, approached it to his bracelet, and released what was imaginatively in his hand onto it. He followed it with a bunch of clicks on his bracelet. After a couple of seconds, the bracelet on Adam's wrist lit up and rang. A hologram list was projected from it.

"Adam, you have a pretty peculiar mission to fulfill. You need to meet with every single one of them individually and gather them, all together here. Every single one of them, no exception. You are lucky, they are all on break from their respective missions."

"But Sir, it's almost impossible! Those are-"

"If you were to fail your mission, I won't have any other choice but to downgrade you. Did I make myself clear?"

"... Yes, Sir!"

Adam swiftly made his way to the door, accurately shooting his cup in the trash without looking. He is now rapidly going down the hallway. He's staring at the list of names coming from his bracelet. He still cannot believe his eyes.

"There's no mistake! Those are the Twelve Commanders! And he wants me to gather them all together? Has the old man lost it? Just convincing one will be nearly impossible! The Twelve Commanders! Are you kidding me? Damn it! I wish I could switch places with James! Damn it all!"

As the suited man was loosening the tie that was strangling him, all he was thinking about was the difficulty of his assignment, but he didn't realize the importance of it.