Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

With renewed vigor, Yuri and Ash put aside their plans for the future of the world and began to focus on the immediate problems.

Thus, the plunderable resources related to people become self-evident.

"Human plundering?"

Intermittent 19 blood sources

Those who do not seek the truth may be able to live their daily lives in ignorance before disaster strikes, which is probably a kind of luck.

For most of the members of the Afterlife Front, they were among the lucky ones. They had a good commander who took the blame for the consequences of learning the truth, allowing them to still enjoy the tempura feast in the canteen as disaster approached.

For most of them, rebelling against the gods was probably just a way to ensure they wouldn't disappear, because they truly cherished their current lives. They all had regrets before they died, and these regrets made their youth imperfect. So, if they had the chance to enjoy a perfect youth again, no one would not cherish it.

They have a group of quirky yet lively companions; a leader with an incredibly imaginative mind who protects them; and every day they participate in nonsensical, impromptu, and absurd battles, yet each of them enjoys it immensely.

This is the afterlife, but to them it's like paradise.

But it's not paradise after all.

The tempura celebration party ended, and they made a ruckus in the cafeteria until the full moon was high in the sky before reluctantly returning to their respective resting places.

Not everyone goes to the dormitory to rest. Muscle idiots like Noda prefer to find an open space near the river at night and lie on the grass to sleep all night. As for Shiina the ninja, he usually stays in the sports warehouse when he has nothing to do.

So, at the entrance of the cafeteria, the oddballs of the execution team, completely oblivious to the crisis, went off to rest in different places.

The baby-faced boy with no personality and the bespectacled frontline staff officer were among the few who would obediently return to their dormitories to rest. They were walking back to their dormitory building together, but since it was so late, they had climbed over the wall from a secluded spot to get back to the dormitory area.

"Heave-ho... Phew, I really envy you people with good athletic ability, you can flip over so easily."

Da Shan struggled to climb down the wall and then complained to the bespectacled staff officer who was ostensibly an advisor but was actually a muscle-bound idiot.

"If you want to build muscle, all you need to do is run 10 kilometers every day! Do 100 push-ups! Do 100 sit-ups! Do 100 squats, that's all!"

The strategist adjusted his glasses, which gleamed white, and then, with unusual seriousness, began to impart the secrets of training to the unambitious youth.

"Haha, I think I'll pass. Anyway, I have no personality or special skills. This is my personality and special skills. Besides, I always feel that my hair will be in danger if I follow your training method."

The two chatted idly as they walked through the secluded part of the dormitory building back to their own rooms.

The dormitory area, bathed in the soft glow of the full moon, was silent, devoid of noise or commotion, awaiting the departed students in this quietude. Here, they had no home; those warm little nests under the lamplight were the only place they could return to, and the only place without their companions.

No, they have a home, the headquarters for fighting the angels, a home they can only return to at dawn.

"Hey, it's so late, why are you still wandering around outside?"

The two, who were walking back to their dormitory together, seemed to have run into another acquaintance on the way.

"You came specifically to see us? Can't we talk about it tomorrow?"

The other person remained silent as they approached. The clear moonlight shone obliquely from the dormitory building, obscuring half of the person's face in shadow.

"Wait, if you have something to say, just stand there and say it clearly."

The muscular idiot might have an innate sense of danger, or perhaps the bespectacled advisor had genuinely sensed something; he spoke up, intending to stop the intruder.

The footsteps in the shadows never stopped.

"Huh? There's no need to be so tense, after all, we're all members of the front line."

The baby-faced man smoothed things over, waving his hands as he walked between the two, approaching the newcomer without any warning.

"Big mountain, small..."

The face shrouded in shadow, something sharp, gleaming dangerously at the corner of its lips.

The staff officer's outstretched hand was a step too late; he could only watch helplessly as the peacemaker's smile on the baby's face froze completely after the dangerous sharp point pierced his neck.

The overflowing crimson was being sipped.

A bloody crisis spread in the shadows. Lifeless bodies were slowly pushed aside, and blood-stained sharp points, after being licked by tongues, began to gleam with a dangerous light again.

The staff officer was incredibly grateful to the commander for his decision to force everyone to carry a gun. Under the pressure of the crisis, he used the drawing motion he had honed in countless battles against the angels to point his sidearm, the Desert Eagle, directly at the dangerous assailant.

The large-caliber muzzle spat out flames; the Desert Eagle's firepower, comparable to a hand cannon, failed to take the enemy's life.

His head was slightly turned to the side, so the bullet only took away a few strands of hair.

The trigger was pulled repeatedly, and the well-trained body withstood the powerful recoil. However, the bullets fired in succession were dodged by the assailant.

It is said that you don't need to be faster than the bullet, but only faster than the gunman pulling the trigger to dodge it.

This "non-human" creature with sharp fangs naturally possesses an exaggerated speed far exceeding his reaction ability.

The gun barrel moved, and so did the footsteps; the footsteps could keep up with the movement of the gun barrel, but the gun barrel could not keep up with the movement of the footsteps.

The trigger was pulled again, but the "inhuman" creature that suddenly exerted force had already run out of his sight.

Before he could react, a cool breath brushed against his neck, and the next moment, even colder, sharper teeth pierced his artery.

Blood was flowing out, and the heart was cooling.

Darkness replaced crimson, flowing through the veins.

————————————————————————————————————————

The baby-faced boy woke up from a nightmare, wrapped tightly in the blanket, shivering uncontrollably.

It was a terrible nightmare. He dreamt that all the blood vessels in his body were freezing inch by inch. The congealed, viscous darkness, carrying the frozen blood, flowed to his heart. In an instant, before his life could even change, he stepped into death in this chilling cold.

What an absolutely horrible death experience! He had died so many times in the afterlife, but never in such agony, so agony that he wanted to forget the feeling altogether!

Forgetting? Wait, how did I die? Why can't I remember anything about it?

"You're awake?"

A cold voice came from beside the hospital bed, startling him so much that he almost rolled to the ground.

"Calm down, Dashan. Such a startling reaction is very rude to a beautiful girl."

The blue-haired boy reacted quickly and pulled him back onto the bed.

"I'm...sorry, I was just scared by the nightmare and I'm still a bit shaken."

The poor baby face slowly recovered from the chilling fear and looked around at its surroundings.

The ward, free of the smell of disinfectant, was probably the infirmary where almost no one came because no one would die. He was lying on one of the beds, surrounded by familiar SSS veteran Hinata, the lead singer of the new band Yui whom he wasn't very familiar with, and that expressionless, long-haired girl with black hair.

Am I... dead?

"That's right, that's right. Last night—or rather, early this morning—you and Takamatsu-senpai were found lying near the dormitory building by Akemi-san and her companions. By the time they arrived, you were already dead. By the way, Akemi-san, why were you patrolling the dormitory area so late at night?"

This energetic girl with pink hair, twin tails, ahoge, and a little devil headdress and tail immediately pushed aside the blue-haired boy next to her after hearing his question and explained the whole story to him.

"In order to defend against the invasion of the Dark Spirits... unfortunately, when we discovered the anomaly, it was still a step too late."

Yui had only recently joined the feint team and wasn't very clear about the Ashes' situation, so Xiaoyan took the opportunity to explain.

How did I die?

The baby-faced girl, however, was completely unaffected by the lead singer's energy and asked Xiaoyan for confirmation with some panic.

"Did he lose his memory? ...He died from massive blood loss and organ failure."

The cause of death is very strange. Generally speaking, blood loss does not cause organ failure, because the organs should die from blood loss before they fail. So she stayed here to try to get information about the deceased as soon as possible, but now it seems she probably won't be able to get much out of him.

"Blood loss? Organ failure? I... I only remember going back to the dormitory with Gao Song..."

"Well, don't think too much about it. Anyway, you've been resurrected. Put these things out of your mind, get some rest, and maybe you'll remember something."

Hinata finally acted like a veteran, putting his arm around the boy's shoulder and comforting the frightened boy.

"By the way, what about Gao Song? How is he?"

If he has lost his own memories, what about his companions? They must still remember them, right?

He didn't know why he was so anxious, but he had a vague feeling that if he didn't die, he would face something even more terrifying than death. Just thinking about those sticky, cold things filled him with dread.

The atmosphere in the room fell silent. Both the energetic lead singer and the veteran who had been comforting him just a minute ago wore solemn expressions.

"No way, could it be him..."

The nightmare returned, and he fearfully imagined the worst-case scenario.

"It's not that difficult, I'm perfectly fine."

The white glasses gleamed, shining from another hospital bed, illuminating his nightmare along with the calm voice.

"Hahahaha, senior, you saw that? The baby-faced guy's expression just now was like the sky had fallen~"

"Don't worry, don't worry, we just saw you were still a little dazed, so we were just joking with you to change your mood."

A ruthless elder and a ruthless young girl, under the guise of changing the boy's mood, played a wicked joke.

"What? You made me worry for nothing!"

He breathed a huge sigh of relief. Although the joke was inappropriate, after the initial shock, he really felt relieved.

"It's not like I was worried for nothing, since I've also lost some of my memories and don't know how we died either."

The two newly resurrected teenagers were talking, the elders and the lead singer were joking around, and only Ash remained silent.

Because they didn't elaborate, when the two were found, only one of them was actually dead.

The baby-faced man died, but the staff officer survived organ failure.

The lurking figures have struck again; she hopes to find clues from these two.

Intermittently, twenty years have passed, yet amidst the fleeting world, a celestial melody resounds

"Your school is really strange. Why are the exams scheduled after the ball skills competition?"

The teaching building, the examination hall, and all the other members of the executive group who were not in the infirmary, including the leader and Ash, were all gathered here.

"After all, it's the afterlife. It's not a big deal if things don't go according to normal rules."

For ordinary students, this is an agonizing examination hall, but for the group members, it is the battlefield of the "fall of angels" battle.

"Seriously, instead of properly investigating the attack on our members, we're here to carry out combat operations. Is that really the right thing to do?"

"You've been working on this all morning, but you still haven't been able to identify the murderer."

"Well... we did find some useful information. One of the victims is dead, and the other has amnesia. From the scene, there are only signs of a firearms fight, and the fatal wound is a bite mark on the neck. We can only conclude that they were attacked by Dead Apostles, which are vampires or something similar."

Do vampires really exist?