Chapter 24: Rebirth

The last thing Cerise heard was the word ‘apprentice’ before slipping back into that red world. She was on the surface once again, the scarlet sky met with the blood red liquid in a horizon. The liquid was clear without ripple unlike the turbulence Cerise had seen before.

In front of her was a body, a body shriveled to the point where it can only be defined as a silhouette that lacked all distinctive features. It spoke to her, the very same voice that she had heard when she was first born, yet it was foreign to her.

‘Come to mother sweetheart.’

It said, a withered arm reaching out towards Cerise’s face, but before it had made contact, the blood red cross appeared on her face once again, flashing with its scarlet light and resonating with the world of blood that made up Cerise’s consciousness.

The cross gathered blood to form a body, the appearance of an old man far beyond his prime appeared between Cerise and the husk.

“Begone demon, this child is mine.”

The husk shrieked an awful laugh. It hunched over, its body writhing from underneath the skin, shifting and deforming. The gruesome transformation lasted what seemed like minutes. During that time, Cerise received a notification she had never seen before.

Warning! SP has dropped below 0 for a prolonged period of time

Status [Mental Corruption] has been gained

Skill [Twisted Fate] has been activated

‘The words of the forgotten lies unheard’

This went far beyond her capability to understand, maybe she couldn’t understand at all. The creature’s body broke and scattered, only to reform again.

WIS has permanently decreased by a total of 5 due to [Mental Corruption]

The mass of conjoined flesh, tentacles, and the eyeless heads that seemed to stare at her broke away at her sanity. It danced in her terror, growing and swelling as her mind continued to further estrange from the mortal world.

WIS has permanently decreased by a total of 10 due to [Mental Corruption]

‘Kusk!’

The mass was penetrated by several spears of blood from below, its wounds leaked something different from Mana, a black substance similar to smoke yet it was not. Nightmare. A force kept it from being broken by the countless spears penetrating its body, leaking Nightmare all the while.

The blood sea became dyed in the Nightmare, an Abyss where she couldn’t escape from. The man standing in front of her held her closely. His cold dead hands chilling even her bones to the marrow, but her blood. Her blood could feel it. She could feel a connection to the man.

He pointed at the demon with his right index and middle fingers, chains of blood emerged from the blood sea, trapping the demon in the link.

WIS has permanently decreased by a total of 15 due to [Mental Corruption]

However, the chains which held onto the demon also shot towards the man causing him to drop Cerise into the endless expanse below. The demon laughed again, its voice echoing out in the blood red world.

‘Not even a god can stop me! She will be mine, some way or another!’

“Even so, I am her guardian. A minor demon like you can never take her away from me.

The man was familiar. His golden hair and sea blue eyes looked like the man in Cerise’s memories, but she knew they were different. The man looked down at the still falling Cerise, leaving her with words that didn’t fit with his image, a gap in space appearing beneath Cerise.

“Flee child, for if you die then I will never get my revenge. This soul fragment can’t tie down this demon for longer than a year at best. Either become strong or find me. I will be waiting”

His words struck Cerise deeply. Her purpose hadn’t been her own? But what now? A strange force knocked her away from the hole followed by the hollow laugh of the demon. The man rushed to save her but the chains held him down.

She fell into the Abyss below. She stayed there for an eternity. No matter how hard she wanted to leave, she’d only end up back where she started.

Maybe she actually managed to move somewhat, but she couldn’t tell. The Nightmare that surrounded her prevented her from knowing.

WIS has permanently decreased by a total of 20 due to [Mental Corruption]

She felt strange, giddy even. The voices she heard only moments ago no longer mattered to her. The black Nightmare kept her from caring.

‘Wasn’t this what I felt at that time?’

It was. It was the same feeling that she felt when she was brought back. The Nightmare. She felt it before.

Skill [Demonic Vitality] has increased in Level (1)

Max SP has permanently decreased by a total of 5 due to [Demonic Vitality]

The skill which had painfully increased slowly before had leveled up before Cerise’s eyes. She felt a connection to the Nightmare now, it became stronger as more time passed. She burst out into an unceasing fit of laughter. Her mind had already collapsed, giving into the primal desires originating from the Nightmare.

Maybe she could kill them all. But who was them?

At this thought, she stopped her maniacal giggles. She didn’t actually remember anyone. Only herself.

Skill [Twisted Fate] has been activated

‘The path of the forgotten leads to the unknown’

She collected herself. Her twisted mind constantly seeking a definition for what she was. She remembered her first years. Her mother had taken care of her alone in a dark room. The velvet on the walls faded and full of dust. She was crying. No more than a mere toddler at that point.

“There there child. Everything will be alright.”

The woman took care of her, embracing her loved child to the last moments. A tall lean man walked into the room followed by lines of armored men.

“Burn the witch!”

Cerise’s eyes started tearing up. Mother and daughter were separated at that point. She knew nothing of what was to happen as she was too young, but now she knew what the words meant. She was taken to an underground place in a sack. Her body too weak to even resist.

She was thrown into a cage alongside other infants and toddlers. Each one injected with a needle filled with black sticky liquid.

She could remember the pain. It burned through her body as it did with every other child. All of their flesh ended up either mutated or deformed, swelling in size before bursting in a pile of black blood and wriggling flesh.

She herself was only one of three to survive the experiment. It wasn’t through special genetics or a special circumstance at all. It was just plain dumb luck.

It wasn’t good fortune however. The men started performing more horrific experiments on her and the other two. She didn’t know what they went through but she knew it was just as bad.

Entire limbs were cut off with jagged rusted blades, the joints were then burned by a fire before they forcibly try to reattach them. Her screams went unheard throughout the entire procedure. Her body severed and reattached backwards, her bones grinded and then replaced, even her entire head was crushed before regenerating just as it was before. These practices went on and on for years until she no longer thought. She only wanted to die, to escape from the pain. A broken doll to be used for nefarious purposes at only the age of four.

Her memories had stopped then. They didn’t hurt her. Not anymore. The Nightmare already changed her moral values. It had been slowly corrupting her before but now it accelerated, leaving only her bloodlust left. The Nightmare didn’t allow remorse. Its only purpose was to devour all.

Skill [Demonic Vitality] has changed to [Vitality of Nightm…

Process Interrupted

Skill [Blood Bound] has increased in Level (1)

Conclusion 404 :/

Skill [Demonic Vitality] does not exist

Purging

The voices rang out in her head, but mid-sentence it had stopped and was continued again. Only, this time, it read out in a completely different manner than she had wanted. How dare this person revoke her right to be a demon?

Immediately afterwards, red chains burst out from the darkness. They coiled around her arms and ankles keeping her from moving. She lashed out trying to escape but the chains simply held her tighter. She couldn’t move.

The chains rose towards the surface, pulling her out of the dark Abyss.

The moment she was above the surface, her mind became clearer. The dark thoughts which permeated her entire being couldn’t exist in the golden light above. The man was nearly transparent now, his body standing over the corpse of the demon. The blood ocean had irreversibly become an Abyss in Cerise’s soul but the demon was no more.

The man pulled her back, his ghostly hand barely keeping her up through the blood chains.

“You are more important than you think. Leave. This portion of my soul won’t last long.”

Golden ichor spilled from his corporeal body. It was only a mere fraction of his true soul but it held enough power to slay a minor demon, yet, it came at a price. He couldn’t protect the girl forever.

“Gods, Demons, and the Primordial will soon clash due to my brother. You must find him before it too late. Go!”

The man used the last vestiges of power in his soul to create another gap. He threw Cerise through it and she found herself in her own body. The blood red orb within her chest now half black.

She considered the man’s words. She wasn’t obliged to follow them, but if the demon she saw was only the beginning then there was worse to come.

Skill [Twisted Fate] has activated

‘The voice of the forgotten is truth’