Rotten Lab

'I got used to the weird ritual thing that they are doing to the flower. They do it all the time so I was kind of forced to get used to it.'

She thought as she walked around the rooms.

'I've been learning the language of this place by watching these guys do experiments and write down their results.'

'So I kind of needed to also learn all of this science stuff for me to actually understand the experiments and results.'

'All that studying only for me to be able to speak broken sentences. Without anyone's help, learning a language is pretty difficult.'

'But hey. At least I now know what the people here are talking about. Sort of.'

Walking up to a scientist that she constantly sees in this lab, she listened in on their conversation.

'Flower... Kyle... Mana... Tracking... Kill... Rot... Fail... Dead.'

'Uhh. Who is Flower Kyle and why does he want to track a rat to death?'

Feeling overwhelmed, she went back to study the talks of some other scientists who don't use long and fancy words as much as the main scientist.

'My main mission right now is to understand what that one guy talks about all the time. He never leaves and often mumbles to himself so he has some good material for me to practice.'

She entered the room where the flower was being kept and sat down while trying to figure out what the words she didn't understand yet could mean.

Sitting against the wall, she mumbled the words to herself.

Taking a glance at the flower while mumbling to herself, she noticed how the rot kept spreading.

'The flower is completely black now. It barely produces any light. I guess I don't have much time left.'

Closing her eyes, she rested her head.

'Sleeping is closely tied to studying. Maybe It'll help.'

Since dying for the second time, she has scarcely ever slept. The few times she has, she had immediately woken up due to a bad dream of her being ripped to shreds by a wolf.

...

Slowly opening her eyes, the surroundings were hazy.

Standing up, her head started hurting.

Grabbing onto it and leaning against a wall, she looked around.

As she was trying to make sense of the blurry surroundings, she was shocked to see a familiar figure.

She saw herself, it was almost like a mirror.

Surrounding the other her were corpses that littered the ground.

They all seemed decayed.

They were human corpses, that she was certain of. The white coats that they used to wear were now pitch black.

Only skeletons remained.

Besides the scientists' corpses, there were others.

A familiar party of annoying hero worshippers, what seemed to be a family wearing deteriorated yet high-quality clothing, tens upon hundreds of wolf corpses and lastly... the type of corpse that littered the ground the most. Fresh and still bleeding, taking a look at their faces, it was her. Her own corpses littered the lab.

Every time she looked at the walls around her, they seemed to grow further, yet further and the surroundings darker, yet darker.

She looked at the one person there besides her, her own reflection and found that she was bleeding from her mouth.

She blinked. Now the reflection had holes through their body.

She blinked. Now the reflection had dark pale skin.

She blinked. The reflection seemed hollow inside.

She blinked. The reflection stood there shaking. It was now no more than a skeleton.

She blinked. It was gone.

Fear gripped her heart as she narrowed her eyes and looked far into the distance.

Far behind the corpses that littered the earth, she saw a gigantic, black lotus bud.

Its petals slowly unwrapped in a spiral as she started feeling pressure and fear.

As a petal of the flower opened fully, she stole a glance at the insides of the flower.

There, where the core should be was instead two bright grey eyes that stared at her.

Stumbling back, the staring contest was interrupted by another petal moving in their way.

As the lotus was starting to bloom, it suddenly burst open.

One could call it blooming but it felt like an explosion.

A shockwave travelled throughout the lands.

As it reached her, it blew her hair away that was blocking one from viewing her facial features.

As she blocked her face from the shockwave of dust and corpses, she soon felt the power behind it lessen.

Sighing in relief, she was about to take another glance at the flower but stopped.

She felt someone breathing.

Breathing straight on her hand that she used to block the shockwave the best she could.

Slowly lowering her hand, she looked up to see a similar pair of glowing grey eyes staring at her.

Right in front of her.

...

She woke up in a cold sweat.

Looking at the pitch-black flower, she saw how the core was slowly turning grey.

She stood up in fear, too shocked to even think.

After a few minutes of hyperventilating in the corner, she slightly calmed down.

'What type of nightmare was that?'