Hm mm hm mm hmmm hmmh mm~
"What's that tone?" a voice asked.
"Oh… that?" the voice laughed.
"Yes, you always hum that same tune. What's it about?"
"Hm? Hahaha… It's just too good. I find myself humming it most of the time," the voice replied with a satisfied edge.
"But what exactly is it?" the second voice insisted.
"Well… it's called the Melody of Death."
"Death?"
"Try killing a million people," the voice said, a gleeful chill dancing in each word. "The cries of anguish and pain, the screams, the begging... eventually, they blend together. And from that horror, a rhythm emerges. A melody. A beautiful melody."
"That's what I hum," the voice added, almost lovingly. "The symphony of pain."
....
....
"HAAAH!"
A young man's eyes snapped open. The first thing he saw was—a ceiling.
A white ceiling.
"Huh?" the man frowned.
"Where in the world… am I?" he groaned, blinking a couple of times.
There was no answer.
"Ugh…" he groaned again, trying to shift his weight, but it proved difficult. He gave up and instead sank deeper into the softness of the sheets, letting his mind return to clarity as he stared at the endless white overhead.
After what felt like hours of lying still, he sighed and made another attempt to sit up. But—
"What in the actual fuck is happening?"
Still no.
His body felt impossibly heavy.
At first, he dismissed it as exhaustion, though he still couldn't understand what was really happening. He groaned, irritated by the strange weight anchoring him to the bed. Then he tilted his neck painfully and realized something odd.
"Is it just me, or is this room endless?" he muttered.
The room was large.
Impossibly so. And the bed he was on? It felt like even if he stretched his arm as far as possible, he still wouldn't reach the edge. Focusing on the rest of the room, he noticed more peculiarities. There were three swords, elegantly placed as decorations. A bar area, filled with so many bottles of wine and alcohol that he lost count. A large bag sat near a wardrobe, as if someone had packed in a hurry.
Farther beyond, there was a door.
He sighed and turned his neck painstakingly to the other side.
His eyes landed on a window.
A window so tall it reached from the ceiling to the floor—a full-length French window. A sheer, lightweight curtain fluttered in front of it, allowing golden light to spill into the room, illuminating everything in a warm, luxurious glow.
He spotted two tables. One, a small bedside table, held a device and what looked like money. The other, a larger table, was cluttered with even more bottles of alcohol. Scattered items littered the surface, but nothing caught his attention as much as the furniture itself—two sofas, strangely designed for comfort and extravagance, perfectly fused in an oddly aesthetic blend.
"Haah," he sighed again, and tried to run a hand down his face.
Or he would have, if his hand hadn't startled him.
"Jesus Christ, what the fuck is this?"
A hand, perhaps. But he would strongly disagree with that assessment.
It was pudgy, chubby, thick with fat. He could barely clench his fist.
"What… the hell?" he muttered.
And then—
"...."
He blanked out.
Collapsed back onto the bed.
His eyes were wide and unseeing. It was as if his soul had just been pulled out of him.
[DING!]
[CONNECTION RE-ESTABLISHED]
[ANALYZING USER'S STATUS]
[USER COMPATIBILITY WITH BODY: 65% AND RISING]
[MEMORIES LINKED TO USER'S SOUL: FOUND]
[DING!]
[MEMORY RESTORATION INITIATED]
[PROCESSING...]
RESTORATION: 20%
RESTORATION: 40%
RESTORATION: 45%
RESTORATION: 50%
RESTORATION: 70%
RESTORATION: 85%
RESTORATION: 99%
[RESTORATION COMPLETE]
[ERROR!]
[A SECOND SOUL DETECTED IN SAME BODY]
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE]
[SOUL CLASSIFICATION: FOREIGN ENTITY]
[DING]
[SOUL POSSESSES HIGH COMPATIBILITY WITH USER'S SOUL]
[ANALYZING...]
MATCH: 99% IDENTICAL
[SOUL CLASSIFICATION: REPLICA]
[COMMENCING FUSION]
FUSION: 10%
FUSION: 20%
FUSION: 30%
FUSION: 40%
FUSION: 50%
FUSION: 60%
...
FUSION COMPLETE
[MEMORY FUSION INITIATED]
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
A soul-shattering scream erupted as the once-unmoving man shot up in the bed, clutching his head in unbearable agony.