Classroom of the Elite: Monster Academy

Vol. 1 Chapter 6.1 - The Path That We Must Take

The sound. What reached my ears was a gentle bubbling, a distant underwater murmur that enveloped my form. A transparent cocoon surrounds me, a sterile world of white liquid that dulled the senses and buffered the outside world.

That was my very first memory, my existence beginning in that confined space, where the concept of light and darkness held no meaning.

The cycle of time passed as a continuous monotone, marked only by the rhythmic rise and fall of the milky liquid around me. There was no warmth of touch, no tender caress or soothing voice. It was a detached existence.

My eyes, barely developed as they were, would sometimes catch distorted shapes and fleeting shadows beyond the translucent barrier of white. They held no significance; just fragments of a reality I had no means to comprehend.

I was an observer in a world I couldn't fathom, a passenger in a vessel that carried me forward without purpose...

The days and nights merged into an unbroken continuum, a relentless march that led to a destination I am unaware of at that time. Hunger and satiety were alien concepts, as the sustenance I required flowed into me from the solution that submerged my very being. There was no want, no longing, only a ceaseless existence.

In that world, I wasn't alone. There were others like me, encased in their own white sanctuaries. We drifted together in the same cosmic sea, silent observers of a world that remained distant and unknowable. But as the sands of time trickled onward, a change began to take shape. The others, my companions in solitude, started to falter.

One by one, they began to crumble. The bonds that held them together, the fragile threads of life itself, unraveled before my eyes. Their once-steady forms turned fragile, and they collapsed like withered leaves, dissolving into the very liquid that had sustained them. I could only watch, my detachment shielding me from the sorrow that such a sight should have stirred.

Yet, amid the fading company of souls, a subtle transformation was taking place within the cocoon, the glass tube that enveloped me. The very medium that had been my sanctuary, a barrier between myself and the world, was changing. The once-opaque fluid was gradually shedding its milky hue, becoming progressively more transparent.

The others continued to falter and fade, while the liquid around me transformed, no longer blurring the world beyond. It was as if an unseen force was pulling aside a veil, revealing a reality that had been obscured from view. The world outside, it was only a mere suggestion of distorted shapes and fleeting shadows, but now it beckoned with newfound clarity.

As time pressed on, the numbers dwindled. The space that had once been filled with others like me gradually emptied until I stood alone, the solitary occupant of a world that had grown even colder, even quieter. The rhythmic bubbling that had been my constant companion became a solemn dirge, as if it were a requiem for those who had faded away.

In this silent environment, time was but an abstract concept, one that haunted the edges of my perception. It was during one of these indistinct moments that the constant that I've known was abruptly shattered. A voice, alien yet strangely familiar, echoed through the now transparent fluid. The cadence of sound flowed in, carried by the currents that had sustained me from my earliest days.

"It only took 900 years, huh..."

The words were enigmatic. They hung in the air, lingering like the faintest whisper of a secret. I absorbed them without comprehension, their significance eluding my still-forming consciousness. To me, they were just sounds, disconnected from the world that I had known.

"We finally succeeded..."

The voice was one not of delight, nor satisfaction, nor fulfillment...nor did it bear the weight of disappointment or apprehension. It was empty, completely devoid of anything, like a singular void that echoed within the confines of its own existence.