Sigh... another boring day," Rein muttered to himself, leaning back in his chair.
The classroom was filled with the frantic scratching of pens. It was final exam day, a day that decided everyone's future. But for Rein, it was just another Tuesday. He glanced down at his blank exam paper, the questions looking like some ancient, unreadable language.
"Shit... I don't remember a single thing from the textbook," he whispered with a shrug. A small, reckless grin formed on his face. "Haha, whatever. Who cares anyway?"
Without a second thought, he handed in his blank paper and walked out of the classroom, leaving the stunned silence of his classmates behind.
"Man, I'm starving. What should I even eat?" he wondered as he wandered through the school gates. "Forget it. I'll just grab a Coke for now."
With a cold can in his hand, he took a shortcut through a narrow, shadowed alleyway on his way home. But halfway through, his feet froze. The cold condensation from the can dripped onto his hand, but he didn't feel it. His eyes were locked on the darkness ahead.
"What... what the hell is that?"
There, huddled in the shadows, was a creature—a monster. But it wasn't a normal one. Its body was flickering like a glitched video, covered in jagged, glowing cracks. It looked like it was about to burst into a million pieces.
This wasn't Rein's first time seeing something like this. This was the fourth time he had witnessed a "Soul Explosion."
The first time was when his pet dog passed away; he had watched its small soul distort and shatter into stardust. The other two times happened in desolate places where no one else was around. And now, the fourth one was happening right here, in this alley, right in front of him.
The monster let out a silent scream, the cracks on its body widening as a violent, purple light began to leak out.
"This one..." Rein gripped his Coke can until the metal dented. "This one looks a lot bigger than the others."