Awakening of the Weakest Slayer

Sezel pondered the thought for a stretched, silent moment, his gaze darting around, frantically, trying to collect evidences. And then, he saw Mari. She was wiping her tears with the dirty edge of her overcoat, her small shoulders still trembling with the aftershocks of her terror.

And next to her, sat the spectral Flesh Reaper, its form a protective, menacing shadow in the dim, ethereal light of the factory.

It was only then that he remembered that he had a puppet. It wasn't a conscious act of remembering, but rather the memory itself, long submerged in the strange, foggy depths of his mind, suddenly surfaced. How could he have forgotten about such a thing?

And now, the thought, the doubt, gnawed at him even more, an unwelcome whisper in the back of his mind, 'Am i really acting weird?'

But as he was about to go in depth about his thoughts, Vesta's voice cut through.

But as he was about to go deeper into the unsettling, labyrinthine corridors of his own thoughts, Vesta's voice cut through the silence.

"Gabriel, come here," she called to him, her voice filled with a strange, breathless enthusiasm.

Sezel looked towards her and saw that both she and Shiki had their faces lit up with an almost childlike excitement, as if they had just stumbled upon a treasure of unimaginable worth.

He left all else—the dead Flesh Reaper, the strange, protective behavior of his puppet, the unsettling, unanswered questions and walked towards them.

Mari, seeing this, was now completely, utterly convinced that they were not normal at all. Normally, Sezel would have focused on absorbing the corpse in front of him, the beast his puppet had slain. But he left it as it was, a forgotten, insignificant detail, and went to check out some other, less important thing.

Sezel reached Vesta and Shiki and joined in with their exciting discovery. Apparently, they had found an easy way to harvest the Spirit Essence, a new, more efficient technique that would allow them to be more productive, to harvest more for their Lord.

Sezel listened to the new technique carefully, his mind absorbing the information with a strange clarity, and then he went back to his spot, where he had been struggling to dig up the Spirit Essence crystals. He took out his katana, its sharp edge gleaming in the eerie, purple light.

The Spirit Essence crystal he had been attacking had already formed a slight crack, a small, hairline fracture in its otherwise perfect, crystalline surface. It was the perfect opportunity to test the new technique he had just learned.

He placed the tip of his katana inside the broken part and tried to imbue it with Spirit Energy.

As Vesta had demonstrated, as soon as he would cover the weapon with Spirit Energy, the crystal would repel it, and upon exerting a little force, it would automatically, cleanly, break apart.

But after trying it a few times, Sezel just threw the whole idea off.

After all, he was not able to use Spirit Energy, the memories of the classes flashed in his mind, a blurry memento, of when he tried using Spirit Energy and was not able to even in the slightest.

And somehow, in the strange, fervent haze of his devotion, he had completely forgotten about the corpse and his puppet once again.

'This is not gonna work, i will just do it the hard way.' Sezel sighed. He gave a sharp, envious look towards Vesta and Shiki, who were harvesting the crystals with an ease that was almost insulting. 'How easy it must be for people who can use Spirit Energy. But I also won't fall behind.'

With a new surge of determination, a grim, stubborn refusal to be left behind, he picked up his crude axe and once again went back to his work.

After a long, long time, Sezel stopped. He sighed, a long, weary exhalation of pure, bone-deep exhaustion, and slumped to the ground, wiping the sweat from his temple with the back of his grimy hand.

He looked at his haul, a small, pathetic pile of glowing purple crystals, and a tired, triumphant smile appeared on his face. He had collected a total of five Spirit essence crystals over the entirety of the night.

The first, faint rays of the sun pierced the gloom of the night, some discrete beams escaping through the holes and broken parts in the shed, their golden light illuminating the dusty, mote-filled air of the factory.

Mari's eyes flickered open. She had fallen asleep late at night, her small body finally succumbing to the overwhelming exhaustion of the day. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that the puppet was still sitting there, a obsidian guardian. Her gaze quickly ran over the place to find Sezel, and when it did, a fresh wave of disappointment washed over her, he was busy collecting the Spirit essence off the ground.

The Flesh Reapers had worked all night, harvesting the Spirit Essence from this place.

They all picked up their hauls, their movements a synchronized symphony, and walked in a neat, orderly line, just as they had done the night before.

Sezel, too, joined the march of the beasts, along with Vesta and Shiki. Mari, with a heavy, resigned heart, followed them. She had no other choice. They had even left their backpacks behind in the factory, their meager supplies, now a forgotten, insignificant detail.

All of the beasts and the humans followed the same path they had come from, and after going inside the underground Sanctuary, they all prostrated themselves before the stage once again, their heads bowed, keeping the Spirit Essence they had harvested in front of them as if it were an offering for some unseen god.

After a moment of silent, meditative reverence, the beasts moved again. They picked up all the Spirit Essence and took them to one of the largest machines in the vast chamber, and threw them inside a large, flask-like object, one by one.

While the beasts worked, Sezel, Vesta, and Shiki walked to the side and, without a word, without a single thought for the world around them, they slept. They slept soundly, their faces peaceful, their minds lost in a deep, dreamless slumber.

Mari, bored and scared didn't dare move from her safe place, besides the spectral Flesh Reaper, who had been protecting her for some strange reason.

Mari, scared, didn't dare move from her safe place, beside the spectral Flesh Reaper, who, for some strange, unfathomable reason, had been protecting her.

The day passed just like that. The Flesh Reapers worked all day long, their tireless, relentless efforts feeding the strange, humming machine.

Meanwhile, Sezel, Vesta, and Shiki slept, their bodies and minds recovering from their long, arduous night of labor. And when it was evening, when the sun had once again begun its slow descent, they all, as one, prostrated themselves in front of the stage once again.

They had no watch, no way of telling time, no connection to the outside world here in the depths of the underground Sanctuary. How did they all realize that it was the correct time, and all together? It was as if they were in some kind of hive mind.

Sezel once again followed along with the Flesh Reapers, though they went to a different factory today.

Vesta, her memory momentarily jogged by some lingering flicker of her old self, remembered their bags and created a commotion. How could they have forgotten something so important? But at the end of the day, none of them gave it much of a thought. Their priority was still focused on one thing, and one thing only.

To please their Lord.

The commotion died down pretty soon, and everything went back to being abnormal, as it had been yesterday.

But deep down, in the silent, forgotten corners of his mind, Sezel felt an unease creep through him, a strange, unsettling feeling that something was very, very wrong.