Novel Full Chapter 261: Deaths
Chapter 261: Deaths
The tension was building again, commoners and Nobles squaring off despite the Imperial heirs’ attempt at peacekeeping.
Alexander Vance tried a different approach, his defensive nature making him focus on practical concerns.
“Think about this logically. We can remove these eight from the group. Let them survive on their own. That would be–”
“A death sentence,” Raymond Kingsley finished, his blonde hair whipping in wind that was picking up again. “Which is what you want, right? Justice through exile?”
William opened his mouth to respond, to argue that yes, that was exactly what he wanted–
Then… the screaming started.
****
The eight Nobles who’d used commoners as shields suddenly went rigid simultaneously.
Their eyes – all sixteen of them at once – simply went blank.
Not unconscious or stunned.
Just… empty.
Like someone had dragged their minds elsewhere.
The first one – the boy who’d thrown Sarah – began speaking in a monotone voice that sounded wrong and disconnected.
“I regret everything. I’m a coward. I deserve to die. I should die. I WANT to die.”
His hand moved to his chest, fingers digging into flesh through torn uniform, nails finding purchase between ribs.
“I killed her to save myself. I’m worthless. Less than worthless. A stain that needs to be removed.”
His fingers pushed deeper, parting skin and muscle, blood beginning to flow.
“NO! STOP!” Someone screamed, but the boy didn’t hear.
CRACK
His hand broke through his ribcage, fingers wrapping around his own beating heart, and he pulled.
RIP
The heart came out still beating, blood fountaining from the wound, the boy’s blank eyes staring at his own organ as it pulsed in his grip.
“T-This is what I deserve…”
Then he collapsed, dead before hitting the mud, his heart still beating weakly in his hand for three more seconds before finally stopping.
The second Noble – the girl with broken nose – was clawing at her own throat, her blank eyes showing no awareness of what her hands were doing.
“Guilty guilty guilty I’m so guilty I killed them I deserve this–”
Her fingers found her windpipe, squeezed and kept squeezing with strength that shouldn’t be possible.
CRACK
Her trachea collapsed, air cutting off, but her hands didn’t stop.
They kept crushing, kept destroying, fingers digging deeper until–
CRUNCH
–they broke through her throat completely, tearing it out from the front, blood spraying across students nearby.
She died choking on her own blood, hands still pulling at the ruin of her neck, her blank eyes never showing awareness or pain.
The third was beating his own head against a rock, over and over, the impacts creating wet sounds that made people vomit.
“Worthless Noble scum worthless Noble scum WORTHLESS–”
CRACK CRACK CRACK
His skull was fracturing, blood mixing with rain, brain matter beginning to leak.
“–NOBLE–”
CRUNCH
His head caved in completely on one side, the rock slick with gore, and he fell silent mid-word.
The fourth had grabbed a piece of broken metal from the ground and was stabbing himself repeatedly in the stomach, each thrust going deeper.
“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m so sorry please forgive me–”
Squelch Squelch Squelch
Intestines spilled out, the metal having found soft tissue, the boy’s blank expression never changing even as he disemboweled himself.
“–please I didn’t mean–”
He fell forward onto his own weapons, the metal punching through his back, pinning him to the ground where he twitched and bled out.
The fifth was pulling out his own eyes, fingers digging into sockets, blank face showing no reaction to the pain.
“Can’t see can’t see the faces of the people I killed can’t see their terror–”
Pop Pop
Both eyes came out with wet sounds, optic nerves stretching and snapping, blood running down his cheeks like tears.
Then he was biting his own tongue, severing it, choking on the blood and flesh.
CRUNCH!
He swallowed, still blank-eyed and empty-sockets weeping blood, and then simply stopped breathing, his body shutting down from shock.
The sixth was snapping his own fingers one by one, the cracks audible over the rain.
SNAP SNAP SNAP
“These hands grabbed her these hands threw her these hands killed–”
He moved to his wrists, twisting until–
CRACK
–both broke simultaneously.
Then his elbows.
CRACK CRACK
Then he fell on his own arms, the broken bones punching through skin, compound fractures creating spikes that pierced his chest and he bled out screaming about his guilt.
The seventh was clawing her own face off, nails tearing through skin and muscle, revealing bone and teeth.
“This face smiled while she died this face felt relief this FACE–”
Blood poured down as she destroyed herself, fingers removing her own cheeks, nose, eyelids.
She looked like something from a nightmare by the time she finished, a skull with torn flesh hanging off, and then she simply collapsed from blood loss.
The eighth – the last one – was the most horrifying.
He’d bitten through his own wrists, teeth grinding through flesh and tendon and bone, blood spraying with each heartbeat.
“Feed me to them let them eat me like they ate her–”
CRUNCH
His right hand came off completely, falling into mud.
“–let me suffer let me feel what she felt–”
CRUNCH
His left hand joined it, the boy now bleeding from both wrists in arterial spurts.
“–LET ME DIE THE WAY SHE DIED–”
He collapsed face-first into mud and drowned in his own blood, body convulsing, life leaving him in horrible wet gasps.
“…”
Silence.
Absolute and complete silence.
The kind that followed atrocities too horrible for immediate comprehension.
Gulp
The sound of hundreds of students swallowing simultaneously, throats clicking, bodies reacting to horror their minds couldn’t process.
Even the students who’d been broken by the battle – the ones sitting blankly, the ones who’d stopped fighting entirely – felt chills run down their spines.
This was different from the creatures eating people.
This was humans destroying themselves, choosing deaths more horrible than anything the monsters had inflicted.
Everyone’s attention was locked on the eight corpses, on the gore and blood and self-inflicted wounds that defied explanation.
Not being able to understand what the hell just happened!