Chapter 5: Nihilist Strength

It didn't take a genius to figure out he was about to interrogate me.

I debated with myself whether to tell him the exact details of what happened, or lie to him. Then again what exactly was I trying to hide?

"I was sitting on the window seat and saw a giant red bird, the size of a bus with golden trails. That's all I remember. It ripped the left wing off the plane. Then I jumped off the plane. Sprained my ankle. That is about it.", I said, summarizing everything as best as I could.

"You fell from that high and ended up with just a sprained ankle?", he asked, sounding skeptical.

"… yeah I think so."

"I see. Did you have any prior encounters with remnants or gods?"

"No."

"Did you see anyone else jump off the plane?"

"No"

"Describe what happened after the left wing was bitten off and before you jumped off"

He kept on asking these types of questions, asking me to describe everything I said, and I kept answering these, to the best of my abilities. It felt like an hour went by. It was honestly exhausting

"Can you see your own nihilism?", he asked, breaking from the chain of descriptive type questions

"My own nihilism?", I said, pretending I didn't know a thing about it.

"So you cannot. It will be better for you to experience what nihilism is before leaving this room. It'll not only increase our credibility, but also give you some scope of the future. You still don't seem to trust us.", he said, getting up from his chair and heading out of the room.

"No no no... it is nothing like that", I said, trying to seem as cooperative as possible. Although he was right, I didn't trust them that much.

"Don't worry it is pretty normal for you not to trust us yet.", he said. It was clear he had experience dealing with people like me.

"Right… but I-", I said, before stopping myself.

"Stay right here, I'll go get something.", he said, calmly.

And I was alone in the room. I got up to look around the room. There were no shelves holding trophies, or anything cosmetic. Just a desk, and a shelf of documents behind it. The red carpet was the only thing here that was pleasing to the eyes.

I sat back down on my chair. A lot had happened over the course of the last few hours. First, my parents died to a giant bird. Second, I got to know gods exist. Third, I won't be allowed to get back home, not that I had one and the moment, but still. I really wanted to turn that giant red bird into fried chicken. That damn bird ruined my vacation and my family in just one bite.

On the one hand, I was furious, and wanted to rip apart that bird, limb by limb. On the other hand, I felt nothing. It still hadn't hit me yet, but I just felt nothing in relation to that, just disbelief. The fact I could no longer see my family didn't even sink in yet.

Just then, the director entered the room. I turned to see him and saw he was holding something.

He was holding an abomination. It had two heads, 4 hands, 4 wings, and tiny legs, along with a body the size of a 5-year-old's. It looked like a statue, with its entire body seemingly made of marble and the like. One of its hands even held a marble sword. The moment I saw it, it turned one of its two heads to look at me.

This looked like it was straight out of a horror movie. I got up from my chair immediately. There wasn't much evidence, but I was pretty sure the thing in his hand was alive. Was that a remnant? Whatever that thing was, remnant or not, some part of me knew that it was going to kill me.

It jumped from the director's hands and onto the ground. The thing looked like a murderous, creepy doll robot. It was looking at me with both its heads. Then, before I knew it, it jumped into the air, straight in front of my face

I just stood there, still in denial at the blatant threat against my life.

You know that moment when you see a basketball about to hit your face, and there is nothing you can do about it but stand there and get hit? Yeah, this was that in a nutshell. Except this time my nose wasn't on the line, my life was.

I don't know how I sidestepped that, but if I hadn't, my head would have been skewered. By a funny-looking marble doll thing.

"WHAT THE HELL!?", I shouted at the director. "ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!?"

"That depends on how you take it.", he said calmly, just standing there and looking like he was enjoying the situation.

The marble statue landed on the ground. It seemed to be recoiling from the jump it just made. I immediately darted towards it and grabbed the statue, before it could jump again. Then I tore apart the arm with a sword in it. It felt like tearing through a teddy bear, apart from the fact that it crumbled in my hand.

'That was really easy', I thought to myself. I thought this was marble or stone. I looked at my hand and noticed something quite peculiar. It wasn't the marble bits that were on my hand.

There was an aura surrounding my hand. I looked down to my body and noticed the same thing. I was surrounded by a glowing, water-like aura. What was this?

"The aura surrounding you, that's nihilism. It is your disbelief or hate of gods, personified in the form of energy.", I heard the director say. "Calm yourself down and try hitting the statue again"

I was still in awe as to what this thing around me was, so I obliged. I calmed myself down and noticed the aura dissipating.

The statue thing was flailing about on the ground, seemingly writhing in pain. It got up and tried jumping at me. I grabbed it again and tried crushing its legs this time.

It was hard as a rock. I couldn't do a thing.

"See the difference?", the director said. "Give me the remnant."

I tossed the remnant at him. He crushed its head and dropped it on the floor like it was nothing. It was dead.

"This energy you feel inside you is nihilism. It is also the only way for us to fight back against these gods. This was an extremely weak remnant, but many stronger remnants will have the ability to regenerate.", he said, while going back to his desk "The only way to circumvent this is with the use of nihilism."

I could still feel the nihilism on my skin. It felt like a surge of power, like I could crush an elephant under my foot. I could feel my body grow stronger, and the aura surrounding me felt like a blanket in the winter. It felt like I had become a god, one who could change things on a whim.

I wanted to feel it again. "How do I use this nihilism thing again?", I asked him.

"You will slowly learn how to in this place. But in short, the more you use nihilism and encounter remnants, the more your control of nihilism. It will soon feel as natural as flexing your muscles. After using nihilism the first time, it becomes significantly easier to use and see nihilism"

Suddenly, staying here actually started to sound interesting. "What exactly is this place? Is this like a school? A camp?", I asked

"It's a bit like a training facility. For those who haven't finished their studies, this place acts like a bit of a school. Although, our main focus is the research of nihilism, how to use nihilism, and elimination of remnants."

"I see…", I said, pretending I understood all of it. "Am I going to be living here? If not, then where am I going to live?", I asked, already knowing the answer to that question. I was just slightly excited at the thought of living in a dorm room.

"Yes. You will get your own dorm room. You will have to share it with one other person though.", he said.

"Is the interrogation over?", I asked. Was this really an interrogation? There was no lie detector. Just a dimly lit room, and an intimidating old dude asking questions. Granted, the atmosphere was heavy, but that wasn't due to the interrogation, it was due to the presence of the director.

Was there something I didn't know about? Well future me problem. I'll cross that road when it comes to it.

"Yes, and the interrogation is done. You can now leave the room. Daphne will be outside to escort you", he said, going back to scribbling.