Chapter 276 Some memories are worse then the nightmares
"Rio"
"Rio"
"Wake up"
Katharine said when Rio didn't reply or opened his eyes after she called him a few times.
The speech from the professor was over and everyone was told to move towards the teleportation circle to leave this world, but he was still left asleep in a corner.
"Wake up" She said again, as she contemplated if she should just leave him here and go, just like his sister and that princess friend.
But looking at the now empty hall, she decided to give it a final try.
"It's not too late, wake up." She said and shouted at the end of her sentence as she shook his shoulders with her hands.
Yet her simple sentence triggered another piece of memory which appeared in Rio's mind at this time.
It was like someone tapped the fast forward button and stopped a movie right before the climax..
Kajal stood in front of him, tears flowing down her eyes as she grabbed his shoulders and begged him to stop.
"It's not too late, shiva. Please stop it. Wake up from this madness." Her words choked as she tried to speak. Her hands were shaking as she looked at the familiar face with teary eyes.
The room they were in was well decorated and spoke of its richness, but at this moment its walls were painted with blood, and bodies of several men were thrown here and there lifeless. The pungent smell of blood and heavy taste of iron was wafting her senses with every breath, making her nauseous.
Shiva hesitated for a moment as he met her crying gaze, but then his eyes landed on the large photo of a smiling young man behind her, and his heart turned cold again.
He looked at Kajal with cold eyes and then glanced at his bloodied hands holding a sharp dagger tightly.
"This isn't you, shiva. You can let go _ " Kajal tried to speak but he stopped her midway.
"It is too late for this one, Kaj. Maybe in the next life." Shiva said as he raised his hands and moved forward.
[Wake up.]
Rio finally got out of his dreams, as the system's voice echoed in his mind. Sending a wave of pain like a electric shock passed through all his nerves.
He opened his eyes to see Katherine struggling to break free from his hand which grabbed her neck and pinned her to a wall, while his other hand had a sword drawn near her neck. Just about to stab it through.
He took a deep breath to calm himself, and pulled his hands back. The dark sword in his hand turned to smoke and disappeared.
Katherine supported herself through the wall as she coughed and massaged her neck. While looking at him if he was finally sane or still out of it.
"Sorry" Rio said as he opened his eyes again after channeling his mana to control the pain from the migraine he started to get.
Katherine wanted to say something, but didn't know what. She was never good at small talk and not very social either. So her communication skills were pretty weak to ask cause or comfort from him.
"What happened?" Yet she still asked worriedly, as she felt something wrong .
"Nothing,(deep breaths) I'm fine." Rio said taking a deep breath once the feeling of his head bursting apart finally calmed down a little.
He massaged his head and furrowed his brows in pain, but since he couldn't use the blessings to heal himself, he could only try and channel the technique that numbed all his senses.
"Do you want me to call _"
"I'm fine." Rio said sternly as Katherine touched his shoulder and asked to call for help seeing him breathing heavily.
"Was it a nightmare?" She asked after seeing he calmed down a little and looked somewhat better.
Rio looked at her and thought about the girl he saw just now in his memories, their faces were so similar. Though not the eyes maybe. He just shook his head and replied back. "Something like that."
After saying it, he turned around to stop looking at her face and started walking towards the teleportation circle.
(The no blessing & empty hall were clear sign he was in VR, so he just followed the same path to exit.)
The images of kajal still lingered in his head and seeing the familiar yet unfamiliar face on Katherine, it only made it harder for him to calm down.
[Host, I wanted to _ ]
'Not a word.' Rio cursed his system and muted it.
Katherine too followed behind him closely, but kept a little distance. She could sense him speeding away but she just thought he was still not over his nightmare and needed some space.
[No one comes back after facing death and remains the same, mortal. I told you, that boy was a lost cause. If you want your revenge you can only rely on me.] A cold voice sounded in her ears but she just acted like she didn't hear it and ignored it.
Her goddess too scoffed seeing it and turned her attention away from her and then at the chosen of Nyx, whose figure looked shrouded in her darkness and smiled mysteriously. (How long can you hide him, Nyx. He's gonna break out of your cocoon very soon. And when he does _ hehehe) The goddess laughed and left as she felt a murderous gaze staring back at her.
Unaware of the intentions and games of gods he inadvertently became a part of, Rio just kept moving forward.
When he reached the teleportation circle most of his class was already teleported out, and only two or three groups were left.
One such group, which contained Saisha in it.
Rio looked at her for some time and then turned away and stood on the stage.
When he appeared outside again, it was the same academy and same environment. He wasn't in the mood to do anything, so he directly used his mana and entered the spatial portal that appeared in front of him.
"See, that guy left without even looking for us." Rebecca said as she looked at that disappearing figure. They've been waiting here for a while but he just ran away.
"Maybe he's angry that you two left him there sleeping and came out alone." Ayla said with a teasing tone.
"She was the one who dragged me. It's all your fault." Amelia said pointing at Rebecca and then blamed her.
Rebecca looked at this shady teampartner who was quite happy imagining the scene where Rio would wake an hour or two later and get scolded or something, but now blamed her for everything. "Let's go to the canteen, I'm hungry after all this time."
"Yeah, but you're paying." Amelia said with a smile and followed her. While Rebecca just shook her head seeing this stingy foodie.
On the other hand, Rio appeared inside a garden. (Same place where he last met with Lisa.)
"What's your excuse this time?" He coldly said.
[Host, I can't control your mind.] System spoke patiently, trying to calm this raging host. [They're your memories, I can't do anything if you remember them in your dreams.]
"What about her?" Rio said, mentioning Kajal "I had forgotten her. I didn't remember her. Then why? What happened?"
[As I told you before host, the memories about that girl were something you locked yourself and tried to forget subconsciously. Maybe something triggered it today or maybe your mind just thinks you're ready to handle them now.]
"But _ "
[It's just like a kid forgetting the pain of his fall down the stairs for weeks after his accident, and then remembering it years later and just smiling about it. It's natural host. And there's no potion or pill that can fix it.] System explained its understanding and tried to reason but Rio just kept silent hearing it.
'Useless as ever then..' He cursed in his heart and closed the system panel.
System too knew he didn't mean it and there wasn't any point in arguing with him for pride, as he'd himself calm down with some time and say sorry for his outburst. So it let this insult go.
'Kajal huh, my friend.' Rio muttered in his heart as scenes of him and kajal at the school and college life appeared in his mind again and he just sighed.
"Some memories really are worse than my nightmares." Rio said as the scenes of his happy life with Shweta at the beginning played in his mind, which ended up with the image of Nashi laughing at him.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢