The Butterfly Effect [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 1.08 ー Second Victim

❀✿

Hᴀʀᴜᴋᴀ

The scene I've foreshadowed doesn't come abruptly, but it comes soon.

As soon as I finished the new-weapon conundrum, I simply went back to what I was planning on accomplishing. Wood. I had stood stationary in front of the tree I had previously found. I flicked my wrist, summoning my blades once more. With a silent stance, I effortlessly swung at the tree.

Slice.

It was a clean cut, the same you'd see in a succulent fruit. The bark was as gentle as fabric to a flare. The thought of what I could do to flesh was satisfactory. If I could, I would probably feel proud of what I was capable of. I feel nothing- opposite to how humans presumably feel. My deepest desires are nothing but unobtainable wishes. The trunk plummeted to the ground with a thud causing some birds that once called it home to scamper, as if it were straight out of a wood-cutting scenario. I slashed a sufficient log off the trunk, and ended the task. I then gathered the logs in my arms.

I had began making my way back to the nearest heat signature, which indubitably had to be the Prince Tomoe and the other two. I would have to form a conclusion, perhaps later on, about what all that prattle was about.

'Indubitably', was erroneous.

Now-- describing a crime scene should be, as they say, right up my alley. After all, I was an Synth equipped with lethal weapons and the programming of an assassin. Yet, this was not my style of bloodshed. From what I can sparsely remember, I was usually superlatively swift and I always had the job finished without hesitation or and traces of falter in my actions. This scene was unlike what I had seen from anyone who had ever killed another. It was degenerate and unprincipled.

Firstly.. a corpse. A detached corpse. And.. a tree.

A massive, stout tree stood in the middle of the forest, with fluorescent, aeneous leaves that could almost be considered aesthetic in the eyes of those spare few who think abstractly. A torso from the corpse was disconnected from it's bearer, with the rib cage area dug out, as if a bite was taken out of it, with what was left of the ribs still in sight. The heart and lungs were missing, along with the sternum. Blood continued to drip from that branch of the tree, onto the twig-filled ground, despite the obvious signs that the corpse was already aged. Vines seemed to have spiraled around the legs and arms, that lay at the foot of the trunk. No insects, maggots, buzzed around the wreckage. And lastly, the head, was sitting in the tree hollow. Correction, it was a skull, with remnants of blood from where the scalp, skin, etc. was peeled off. The sight was enough to make the strongest gag.

The navy sky only complimented the monstrosity. There was no doubt that Tomoe would have something poetic to say about it.

>/_System overheating, for safety measures, please calm down

>/_Unknown specimen found, please proceed away from object

I diverted my gaze as my 'mind' filled with realization. Of course, anything unknown to the server- things that are not natural or manufactured plainly- are a result of sorcery, witchcraft, whatever you want to name it. To me, it was something that caused malfunctions in my system. Magic and electricity do not work hand in hand, unless you're the type to use those old-fashioned, gear-covered machinery that was everywhere except Evarthil, my productions origins. Those mechanisms were old-fashioned and only good for the benefit of humanity. I was glad to have remembered this, for had previously concluded that all my previous memory files were deleted. I seem to have a basic memory of details that aren't firsthand.