Arya sat in a daze beneath one of the campus building's pillars. His body was still trembling badly. His breath came in short, ragged gasps, while his mind kept replaying everything he had just been through.
A classroom full of strange people. Bloody hands on the window. A woman who jumped from the seventh floor.
It all spun through his head like fragments of a nightmare that had no right to be real. His sanity felt like it was slowly slipping from his own grasp.
Arya clutched his head tightly, trying to convince himself that all of it had been nothing but an illusion. A hallucination brought on by lack of sleep. Nothing more.
But the cold air wrapped around his body felt far too real. So did the eerie atmosphere that filled everything around him.
In the midst of that silence, a man's voice suddenly cut through.
"You're human, aren't you?"
Arya flinched. He spun toward the voice.
In front of him stood a man. He looked ordinary enough, dressed in casual clothes like any other student. But his eyes were sharp, as though he were examining Arya from head to toe.
Still dazed and trapped in fear, Arya could only manage a nervous smile.
"Of course I'm human. What else would I be?" he answered, his tone defensive.
There was no relief on the man's face. No smile either. He just kept staring at Arya with a serious expression.
"Get out of here. Now. Run that way until you find a tree with glowing jasmine flowers," he said, pointing toward the campus gate.
Arya's eyes followed the direction of his finger, and the gate slowly began to disappear behind a thick fog. He turned back to the man, his expression growing more confused.
"What do you mean? Who are you?" he asked, searching for an explanation.
The man let out a breath before answering.
"Relax. I'm the same as you."
That answer only confused Arya further. He stared at the man with a face full of questions.
The same as me? What does that mean?
"What do you mean? Am I dead?" Arya asked.
His voice began to tremble. The man shook his head slowly.
"I don't have much time to explain. Get out of here. Something far more troublesome is coming."
His tone was urgent. His eyes carried a seriousness that could not be ignored.
Arya didn't truly understand what was happening. He didn't even know whether this man was helping him, warning him, or setting a trap.
But there was something in the man's words that made him unwilling to stay. Without thinking twice, Arya got to his feet. He started running toward the campus gate, hoping it would lead him back to the real world.
Meanwhile, the man remained where he stood. He simply watched Arya's back as it slowly vanished into the fog.
After a moment, he let out a long breath.
Then he spoke in a low voice, as though addressing someone unseen.
"Nagini, this time it seems our guest is going to be very troublesome."
At his waist, a keris hung faintly gleaming. His hands slowly formed a seal with his fingers, and his stance had already shifted into a battle-ready posture. He was preparing to face something he had apparently predicted long before.