“…..Hm…mh.”

When Sasha opened her eyes, she was laying on a grassy land, staring at the cloudless night sky.

“W-Where am I?”

She sat up and looked around.

“You’re in the Secundus world.”

She looked and saw Kimiko leaning on a tree, not too far away.

“Mama.”

She stood up and dusted herself off.

“What happened?”

“Think hard. You should be able to remember.”

Kimiko answered.

“Remember?”

It was then her encounter with Rihan flashed in her mind.

“That’s right! That bastard of brother knocked me out!”

She immediately got angry and roared.

“I’m going to teach that bastard a lesson.”

She tried to storm off, however she soon realized that her body was unusually heavy.

She looked down and saw that her feet were shackled to the ground.

“Mother, what is this?”

She asked with worry.

“It’s so that you won’t run away or do anything unnecessary.”

Kimiko answered with a cold look in her eye. Sasha noticed her gaze and became frightened.

“W-What is it?”

Kimiko didn’t answer and just kept looking at her.

“Hey, mama. What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Kimiko didn’t answer and just looked at her.

“W-What is this? Why do you and Rihan look at me like I’m a disappointment?”

“Because you are.”

Kimiko answered.

“Well, I’m a bigger disappointment than you anyway.”

She added.

“Sasha, do you remember what Rihan said to you before he knocked you out?”

Sasha nodded.

“And what are your thoughts on what he said?”

“……….”

“So you didn’t even bother to ponder them, huh?”

Kimono sighed.

“Sasha, I have failed you. Both as a mother and a mentor.”

She started walking towards Sasha.

“However, I can still fix my mistakes. I can still lead you off this path to self destruction that your own.”

“What are you talking about?”

Sasha asked with an anxious voice.

“Sasha, if Miko was to die here and now, what would you do?”

“I’ll kill myself and join him in the underworld.”

Sasha answered immediately.

“Why?”

“Why? Because I’m his mother.”

“I see. Then what about Kristen and Tessa? Aren’t you their mother as well?”

“Of course.”

“Really? You just said that you would take your life. You didn’t even stop to consider what would happen to them if you did so. Isn’t that abandonment? Is that the actions of a mother?”

“………”

Sasha couldn’t answer and remained silent.

“No comeback, huh? Well, whatever. I’ll answer it for you.”

Kimiko stood in front of her.

“Sasha, you’re a better mother than I am, but you’re a failure of a human.”

Kimiko said with a harsh tone.

"It's good that you love your children. But you love them so much that you have no love to spare for yourself.”

Kimiko shook her head.

“No, it’s not just your children. You put everyone over yourself. You cling to everyone else and discard yourself. You have no desires, no dream, no past, no future. Everything that’s defining about you has to do with someone else. Someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s mother. That’s all.”

At this point, kimiko’s eyes were so cold that it made Sasha started to subconsciously start crying. Even so, she continued.

“Sasha, you’re an empty shell without substance. As fickle as a dry leaf in the wind.”

It was here, that Sasha could see tears gathering in kimiko’s cold eyes. Soon a single tear ran down her cheek.

“A truly pathetic existence.”

“M-Mama.”

Kimiko wiped the tear off her cheek and the tears gathering in her eyes.

“Listen, Sasha. Everybody has desires, no matter how little or big, but why don’t I feel anything from you? It’s as if you’re a background character with no significance to the overall story.”

“………”

“I thought that it was because you lived a fairly easy life, but I was wrong. The problem is your mind, more specifically the way you view everything. Hence as your mother, I will fix you.”

Kimiko snapped her fingers and Sasha felt like she could move more freely.

“Follow me.”

Kimiko walked away after saying that. Sasha silently walked behind her.

“Sasha, everyone is born different. Some are naturally ambitious, while others are carefree and nonchalant. If I had to picked, I’ll say you’re the latter. While there’s nothing wrong with being carefree, there is something wrong with being empty.”

“You keep saying I’m empty, but I’m not.”

Sasha defended herself.

“I have my family, that’s more than enough for me.”

“No, it isn’t!”

Kimiko suddenly shouted, which startled Sasha.

“Sasha, all of your life you’ve cling onto others like a newborn. There was never a time you’ve ever done anything that benefits yourself. That’s not normal. You continued to cling onto a role that’s given to you, rather than searching for one on your own.”

Kimiko paused a little before continuing.

“If you continue the way you are, you’ll never truly experience life and will meet a sad end.”

“……..”

“I asked you earlier what would you do if your son was to die. You replied with suicide. How do you think that makes me feel as your mother? Who would want to hear their only daughter talk about suicide with such conviction as if it is something honorable?"

Kimiko looked back at Sasha.

“Sasha, you are a weak person; and I don’t mean physically. You’re weak-willed, and weak-willed people are destined to suffer in life. As your mother, I refuse to watch as you destroy yourself.”

What Kimiko is trying to relay to Sasha is this, if Sasha continues to live the way she’s living she will end up dead before long. And the cause of death would be suicide. And the trigger for her suicide would be the lost of a love one.

In her life, Sasha has never experience what it feels to lose someone. Because of this, she is ignorant to the pain that it causes. Let’s say that Kimiko was to drop dead now, Sasha’s reaction would be to join her mother in the underworld by committing suicide.

Reason? Because to Sasha that’s what a daughter should do. That’s the mindset she was born with. She believes that a daughter should live and die with her parent, a mother should live and die with their child, and a wife should live and die with her husband.

Because of this mindset, Sasha will never experience life the way she should.

To a stranger, this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but to those close to her this is a huge problem. Because this means that they’ll have a huge burden to bare. The burden of Sasha’s life. If they die, she dies. Not everyone can carry this burden.

Kimiko and most of Sasha’s family walk paths where death is at every corner. So it isn’t strange for them to suddenly die. And the people themselves accepts this risk with open arms. But Sasha is like shackles and chains to them. They can’t make certain moves because their life wasn’t theirs alone, it was tied with Sasha’s.

In most cases, that’s normal. Since from the moment someone becomes a parent, their life isn’t theirs anymore. However, with Sasha it’s completely different. It isn’t just her parents or love ones, it’s anyone close to her. Anyone who’s close to her will be weighed down by her life.

Like a Parasite.

Mother, daughter, wife, sister, aunt, cousin, friend. Sasha clings to these titles and tries to play these roles to the extreme, as if it’s the only thing that makes up her existence.

She uses her life to protect her children, because that’s her role as a mother.

She occasionally rebels against her parents and then lean on them in her time of need and let them spoil her, because that’s the role of a daughter.

She sticks with her husband through thick and thin, because that’s the role of a wife.

And the list goes on.

In the end, Sasha is just someone made up of her individual roles and nothing more. It’s like she was a support character with a shallow character description and no thought put into her character.

A disposable extra.

After a few minutes of silence, the two arrived in front of a valley.

“We’re here.”

Said Kimiko.

“Sasha, let me ask you this?”

Kimiko then spoke with a serious tone-

“Do you wish to change?”

“……..”

Sasha didn’t answer because she still couldn’t quite understand what was wrong with her.

“I see.”

Even so, Kimiko nodded.

“Then a different question. When was the last time you saw your daughter?”

“ A month ago, after Miko and Kristen fought each other. She said that she was going to consult you about something. I confirmed that you met with her and was training her.”

Sasha responded instantly.

“Good. Do you know what she consulted me about?”

Sasha shook her head.

“She felt powerless and weak. Her brothers tried to kill each other and she wasn’t able to do anything to stop them. That made her feel useless and caused her to feel true depression.”

“Tessa felt that way?”

Kimiko nodded.

“Do you know why she came to me, instead of you?”

Sasha shook her head.

“Because she knew that you would try to console her and tell her the things she wanted to her, not what she needed to hear.”

Kimiko gave Sasha a harsh look.

“The moment she came to me instead of you, you failed as her mother.”

“?!”

Sasha was visibly shaken to hear that.

This was what Kimiko wanted. She wanted Sasha, who was composition of various roles, to know that she failed to live up to one those roles. This would cause the foundation of her character to be shaken.

“I told her, that she was indeed weak and useless, but she could still change.”

Kimiko looked away.

“Unlike you, she took my words to heart and immediately asked me to change her. And so I did.”

She snapped her fingers and the entire valley started to shake.

Sasha then saw something raise up out of the valley. It was a floating piece of land. On it there was an iron post with something chained to it.

It looked like a shadowy monster with sharp fangs and claws. There was a pair of bone wings covered in blood sprouting out its back.

The spot where the monster laid was stained with blood.

“What’s that?”

Sasha asked.

“Tessa.”

“What?!”

Sasha looked at the monster again. It laid motionlessly on the piece of land, with its limbs covered in shackles and chains, connected to the post. There was blood flowing from every one of its pours like a faucet. If Sasha didn’t see its chest move every couple seconds or so, she would’ve thought it was a corpse.

“T-That is Tessa?”

Sasha asked in shock and fright.

“That’s right.”

“What did you do to my daughter?!”

Sasha grabbed Kimiko by her shoulders and shouted.

“She wanted strength, so I gave her the opportunity to evolve.”

Kimiko answered coldly.

“No, you’ve turned her into a monster!”

She pointed at Tessa.

“Look at her! That’s your granddaughter you have chained up!”

“I know.”

As if responding to Sasha’s voice, Tessa rose her bloodied upper body.

“M-Ma…ma..”

“Tessa! I’m here, Tessa! Your mother’s here!”

Sasha tried to approach the floating land Tessa was on, but her body suddenly felt heavy, and she became unable to move.

“Don’t disturb her.”

Kimiko said.

“What?!”

Kimiko waved her hand and Sasha’s voice was taken away.

She then looked towards Tessa and spoke.

“Tessa, you’ve successfully survived another phase. However, you were extremely close to dying. Do you wish to continue?”

“G-Grandma?”

Tessa slowly struggled to her feet. Her body trembled as it stood, while black tears flowed from her eyes. The current Tessa wasn’t able to see a thing. She was completely blinded by the pain.

“I-I wish to continue.”

She stood firm and said with a trembling voice.

“Very well.”

Kimiko snapped her fingers. Immediately after strange markings covered Tessa’s body.

And then-

“GGGGGGUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH?!”

Tessa released an earthshattering scream of pain.

Sasha could see her bones literally shifting around in her body. Her skin started to tear open and black blood rushed out. Inch-thick veins started appearing on her body. They moved as if they were worms under her skin.

*Bam!*

Tessa fell to her knees and slammed her head on the ground. She then began to bang her fists on the ground causing her bones to stick out. She then grabbed her neck as if trying to strangle herself.

Sasha watched in horror as Tessa suffered unimaginable pain. The screams were so heartbreaking, that she covered her ears with her hands to block them out.

“You might think that I’m just tormenting your daughter, but I’m not.”

Kimiko spoke while looking at Tessa.

“Tessa required strength. Strength that would rid her of that feeling of helplessness. I’m granting her that.”

She looked at Sasha.

“There’s a ritual that descendants of Hel must go through before they can use their full potential. It’s called Spectral Molting. Just like how animals shed their skin, hair, or shell, we shed our bodies and souls. In other words, our bodies are destroyed and repaired over and over again until we obtain the body most suitable to us.”

Kimiko explained.

“Normally, you experience this when you’ve reached to full potential of your original body, but there are ways to force the molting process, although it’s dangerous; especially since Tessa was nowhere near reaching her maximum potential.”

She then said with a straight face.

“There’s a 95% chance that she’ll die.”

“?!”

Sasha wanted to shout when she heard that, but her voice was taken away, so it was no use.

“Of course, I informed Tessa of the risks, but she was stubborn.”

Kimiko looked at Tessa as she said so.

“Well, if she succeeds Tessa will step into a new realm of power and the rate she’ll grow will skyrocket. Of course, she’ll die if she fails.”

She looked back at Sasha.

“This is the difference between you and your daughter.”

The floating land lowered back into the dark valley and disappeared.

Sasha looked like she wanted to jump in to chase after it.

“Instead of being worried about Tessa. You should worry about yourself.”

Said Kimiko.

“I said I was going to fix you and I will.”

Hear eyes shone a cold light which made Sasha retreated a couple steps.

“This valley is called The Valley Of Torment. It’s the Secundus World’s equivalent to the Illusionary Beast Valley in the Primus world. The major difference is that it doesn’t have any monsters inside, but that doesn’t mean that it isnt dangerous. Once inside, you’ll be constantly tortured by your inner demons until you overcome them. If you’re not able to in a certain amount of time, those inner demons will destroy you."

Kimiko moved her hand and Sasha’s voice returned.

“Wait, mother!”

“I will not. I’ve babied you for too long.”

Kimiko then popped beside Sasha. Before she could even react, Sasha was pushed inside the valley.

Kimiko looked down on her as she vanished in the darkness.

“The chances of her losing her mind are high, and the chances of her death are even higher."

She muttered to herself.

“Forgive me, Sasha. But this is for your own.”

She turned her back to the valley and walked away.

“But don’t worry, if you die I’m sure your father and son will kill me.”