Chapter 7: Feast of Forgotten Faces
We found the door beneath the school.
It wasn't locked.
Just waiting.
Old wood, covered in hundreds of tiny carvings—names.
Some faded, some scratched out.
At the top: "Those who no longer exist."
Airi looked uneasy.
"This place... it feeds on the erased."
Ishigami nodded.
"Let's enter hungry. Let's leave full."
Suguru just said, "Sounds like a buffet. I brought soy sauce."
We ignored him.
The stairs spiraled down endlessly.
Walls pulsing like veins.
The air—thick with static.
Then, we reached it.
A cavern of faces.
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of human faces—
not attached to heads.
Just drifting in the air, whispering.
"Remember me."
"Say my name."
"Don't forget…"
At the center stood a throne.
A massive creature sat atop it, wearing a cloak made of stitched faces.
Its eyes were hollow.
Its voice—every voice, all at once.
"FEED ME YOUR SHAPE."
[Void Entity Detected: Alpha-Class — The Glutton of Names]
It moved like smoke.
Its fingers were mouths.
Its shadow devoured identity.
A single touch, and your name—your self—was gone.
I rushed forward, but it grinned.
"HIRAGI."
It knew me.
The moment it said my name, my knees buckled.
My memories flashed—
the night of the massacre, my brother's scream, Nolan's hand on my chest—
And then silence.
I forgot...
who I was.
But not for long.
Airi screamed.
"HIRAGI—REMEMBER ME!!"
Her voice hit me like a blade.
The seal on my palm cracked again.
My eyes burned.
Then, everything changed.
[Void Unlock: Level 3 – Void Pulse Eyes]
My eyes turned completely black.
Veins of darkness spread outward.
And suddenly—
I saw through the creature.
Not its body.
Its code.
Its pattern.
I moved before it could react.
One step. Blink. Reappear. Strike.
A pulse of black light fired from my gaze, burning through the beast's form.
It screamed in every voice it had stolen.
And I shouted:
"I REMEMBER WHO I AM!"
Slash.
Faces scattered.
Silence.
The Glutton crumbled into dust.
But not before whispering:
"You will forget again... all of you will."
Afterward, the cavern collapsed.
We escaped barely in time.
Back at the rooftop, I stood alone.
My eyes still glowed faintly.
From now on…
I could see truth through lies.
Identity through illusion.
But I feared it too.
Because when I looked at Airi...
Her form flickered.
And I realized—
there's more than one Airi.
To be continued