Chapter 49: Shadows of Conscience

Dune stood up and left, running as he wiped away his tears. He had gained a new ability, but at what cost? He had killed an innocent girl. The regret weighed heavily on him.

His tattoo was now clearly visible; anyone with strong Neba could notice it. He tried to hide and ran from the academy, desperately calling out, "Atlas, I need to run.

I had to use my Zeten. Do you hear me?" But there was no answer from Atlas. "What's going on? Is he okay?"

As Dune ran, he noticed a body on the ground. It was David. He was dead, his hands cut off, his chest open and still bleeding. Dune shook and stumbled backward.

"Damn it, where should I go?" He jumped out of a window, landing on one of the academy roofs. He ran, throwing his sword away. It got stuck in another, higher academy roof.

Using his new Lightstep ability, he appeared next to his sword, retrieving it.

He jumped down, breaking through the roof and landing inside the academy.

Dead bodies were everywhere, students, teachers, and Zetens. He ran to the classroom where he had been before and saw Beth lying unconscious.

A guy with a blue sword was approaching her, ready to finish her off. "Hey, spare her!" Dune shouted.

The Zeten guy turned around. "Why should we spare someone like her?"

"They don't know, they don't understand. Just leave, man. Come on," Dune pleaded.

The guy with the Blue Zeten sword laughed. "You're so naive."

Suddenly, someone appeared behind Dune, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Who knows about you?" a voice asked.

"Huh!?" Dune turned to see Cel.

"Guy in front of us... and I'm not sure about Professor Beth," Dune replied, still confused.

Cel instantly appeared in front of the guy with the Blue Zeten sword.

The guy swung his sword towards Cel, but Cel blocked it with one finger, then broke the sword and placed his hand on the Zeten's chest. "Weak," Cel said coldly.

The Zeten's upper body exploded, leaving only his legs as they fell to the ground.

Cel approached Beth, looking down at her as she just woke up. He sighed. "Seems like she doesn't know it yet," he thought. He then appeared next to Dune.

"Let's find your friend and leave this place as fast as possible."

Dune was still in shock. How did Cel manage to kill the Blue Zeten like it was nothing? This was too crazy, even for him.

Cel and Dune ran, searching many places. They finally found Atlas, who was unconscious and badly wounded, seemingly in the center of an explosion.

Dune put Atlas on his shoulders, carrying him. Cel cleared the way as they left the academy.

After they got out, Dune lost consciousness from exhaustion.

Dune's last conscious thought was a swirl of emotions: the weight of his guilt for killing Alice, the fear and chaos of the academy, and the awe and confusion at Cel's incredible power.

Dune found himself in a dark, twisted version of the academy. The once grand halls were now shadowy and oppressive, the walls dripping with an inky, black substance.

The air was thick with a suffocating silence, broken only by the distant echo of his footsteps.

He wandered through the corridors, his heart pounding with an inexplicable dread.

He turned a corner and froze. There she was, Alice, standing in the middle of the hallway.

Her red hair was matted with blood, her eyes wide with terror.

Her mouth opened to scream, but no sound came out. Instead, a crimson spear materialized in her hand, and she lunged at him.

Dune shouted, but his voice was swallowed by the darkness.

In a horrifying replay of their fight, he saw himself dodging and weaving, trying to avoid her attacks. Each thrust of her spear brought a new wave of pain, not just physical but emotional.

He could feel every wound, every cut she inflicted on him, as if reliving the agony all over again. Blood poured from his chest, his hands, his side.

But worse than the physical pain was the guilt that gnawed at his soul.

The spear plunged into his chest again, and he fell to his knees.

Blood poured from his wounds, soaking the ground beneath him. He looked up to see Alice standing over him, her face a mask of rage and sorrow.

Her hand reached out, and her fingers brushed against his face, a gesture almost tender in its finality.

Then, everything changed. In a swift, brutal motion,

he saw himself stabbing Alice in the heart. Her eyes widened in shock and pain, and she fell to the ground, blood pooling around her. Dune knelt beside her, tears streaming down his face.

"I'm sorry, Alice... I didn't want this to happen... I told you..." he whispered, his voice choked with regret.

Alice's lifeless eyes stared back at him, accusing and unyielding.

The scene around him began to warp and twist, the walls closing in, the darkness pressing down. He was suffocating in his guilt, his sorrow, his horror.

Suddenly, he was back in the academy, surrounded by the bodies of his classmates, teachers, and the Zetens. The smell of death and decay was overwhelming.

Everywhere he turned, he saw Alice's face, her eyes filled with that same accusing stare. "Why did you kill me?" her voice echoed, growing louder and more insistent.

He fell to his knees, the ground beneath him splitting open, swallowing him whole.

He was falling into an abyss, the darkness consuming him, the voices of the dead ringing in his ears. He could feel himself being pulled apart, piece by piece, by his own guilt and regret.

Dune woke with a start, his body drenched in sweat, his heart racing. He was in a room, the pale light of dawn filtering through a small window.

The room was simple but clean, a stark contrast to the nightmare he had just experienced. He could hear the distant sounds of the academy, muffled and far away, as if in another world.

He sat up, his hands trembling. The memory of Alice's lifeless eyes haunted him, her voice still echoing in his mind.

As he looked around the room, trying to ground himself in reality, he couldn't shake the feeling of guilt and regret.

The weight of his actions pressed heavily on him, a burden he feared he would carry for the rest of his life.

Dune sat on the edge of the narrow bed, the dim light of dawn casting long shadows across the room.

His heart still raced from the nightmare, the vivid images of Alice's death seared into his mind. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, to push the haunting memories away.

He ran his fingers through his hair, feeling the cold sweat on his forehead. "I had to do it,"

he muttered to himself, staring at his hands.

"I had no choice."

Dune stood up and began to pace the room, the weight of his actions bearing down on him. He had killed before.

Taking lives was not new to him. He remembered the faces of those who had fallen by his hand: enemies, Zetens from blessings ceremony, threats to his survival.

It was always in the heat of battle, always justified by the need to protect himself or others.

"This was no different," he whispered, his voice trembling slightly.

"She was going to expose me. I had to stop her."

He paused, looking at his reflection in the small mirror on the wall. His eyes were hollow, his face pale.

"Alice was... just another threat," he said, trying to sound convincing. "It was either her or me."

Dune clenched his fists, trying to quell the rising tide of guilt. "I had to protect myself," he reasoned. "And I had to protect Atlas.

If she had revealed what I was, everything would have been over.

I can't let my emotions get in the way. This is war, and in war, people die."

He remembered the countless times he had faced death, the enemies he had slain. Each time, he had felt a pang of regret, but he had learned to push it aside, to focus on survival.

"I survived because I did what needed to be done," he told himself firmly. "Alice... she was just another casualty.

I didn't want to kill her, but I had no choice."

As he spoke, a part of him rebelled against his own words. He had seen the fear in Alice's eyes, heard the desperation in her voice.

She wasn't an enemy soldier; she was a fellow student, an innocent girl caught in the chaos. But he couldn't afford to dwell on that.

He needed to stay strong, to keep moving forward.

"Stop it," he scolded himself, slamming his fist into the wall. "You did what you had to do. There's no time for regrets. If you let this get to you, it will destroy you."

Dune took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves. He thought of his family, the loved ones, the battles he had fought.

Each life he had taken was a step toward survival, a necessary act in a brutal world.

"Alice is no different," he repeated, more forcefully this time. "I did what I had to do. I can't let her death haunt me."

He closed his eyes, taking another deep breath. "I am a Zeten now. I have to survive.

I must do what needs to be done."

The room was silent, save for the faint sounds of the academy outside. Dune opened his eyes, his resolve hardening.

He couldn't change the past, couldn't undo what he had done.

All he could do was move forward, carrying the weight of his actions with him.

But deep down, a part of him knew that no matter how many times he repeated those words, the guilt would never truly go away.