The room she found herself in was a dilapidated library, metallic bookshelf thrown around on the floor, books missing pages, and in some cases dirty with blood.
The library's size was imposing, and the material of the bookshelves seemed to be of good quality. The lighting allowed good illumination all over the place, there were even some PC stations on the side for quick searches into the database of the library.
She was currently sitting in one of those, reading a very bland and insipid thesis about a theoretical metaspace inside the soul, [The Soulscape]. "This in turn means that if one can manipulate his own mana and form a consciousness body within it, he or she should be able to enter the [Soulscape]...." Whoever wrote this was a genius.
He also wouldn't be able to earn a living as a writer, the author had as much of a way of words as a Stone...In space...hurling towards the sun.
She wouldn't be reading this if not for the fact that her current theory was that this space she was in wasn't a physical place, but a metaphysical one. A holopad shouldn't be able to turn into motes of light and then into sand...Physics didn't work like that.
So she read about it, "So, in a nutshell, he doesn't know what the [Soulscape] is, but theorized that if one held the right frame of mind they should be able to visit." And summarised as much.
The thesis ended in a plea for more funding, and by the fact that this author didn't leave more thesis around, the poor man probably didn't get his funding. She doubted anyone else had read the whole thing, if not for her current predicament she wouldn't have done that either...
It had been a really boring month this one.
But that brought her closer to the truth...She wasn't getting hungry, a whole month in this building and she hadn't gotten any more hungry, the black flames had continued to fade away from the building, and now they were almost a block away from this building.
But she hadn't absorbed any more of them, neither in person nor with the use of Stabby, so this meant that she wasn't being nourished solely by them...Even though she was able to accelerate the disappearance of them if she went around as a black flame vacuum.
She had a handy notebook where she had started writing her summaries from the multiple books she had gone around while de de-stressing from the musings of that one author.
In a nutshell "The [Soulscape] is a theoretical fourth dimension nested within the [Soul], it should be a reflection of what we have lived, what we are and what we wish...A reflection of our greatest achievements...Or our biggest regrets." She had written at the end of her notes.
The whole thing seemed overly philosophical beyond a point, but in theory, if one could access that place they should be able to examine themselves and their abilities for what they were...
And yet...
"Do I need to meditate? But I don't know much about me...Besides that, I am a looker and it seems I was a brat in my past life..." Elizabeth was stunned at what to do.
On the one hand, she was sure she died as that brat before, she didn't know how nor why, but she had this feeling about [Not being him anymore].
Like that whole life had ended at some point and now she was Elizabeth Starbright...Whoever that girl was.
On the other hand...She wasn't sure what to think about the place she was in, so while leaving this place, and saved her notebook by throwing it into a shadow (She learned that her shadow seemed to work as some kind of backpack that could store things). She went to the top floor of the building.
From there she was able to look at the whole city without any problem, and as such it was easier to think about stuff, the office... Wasn't quite a comfortable place, whatever she had done as that brat didn't seem to bleed over to her current life, and she couldn't help but feel the place was stuffy.
As if someone had stuck everything they thought would look cool in what should be an apartment and then placed an expensive-looking desktop and an overly complex chair.
It was gaudy, it was weird, and it was still the only place she was sure no black flame had penetrated at any point, the place gave her this feeling of [Isolation].
And as such it was the place she went to think and sleep.
"The [Soulscape] is the reflection of what we are..." Mumbled Elizabeth while leaving herself to fall flat on her back.
Nothing hurt her in this place, after stumbling into a table without noticing she noticed how her feet hadn't been hurt, and in turn that brought her to experimentation, she couldn't be wounded unless she wanted. Or thought she should be.
This meant that she could be more liberal in her explorations...She still didn't jump off a building... No way to convince herself that it wouldn't hurt her...Not yet anyway.
But this meant that she could fall on her back without worrying about being hurt...And so it was easier to sleep...
"What am I...Who am I...I'm Elizabeth...But who is Elizabeth? What is Elizabeth?" This didn't help in her musings, so instead she tried to do what felt right.
She closed her eyes and focused inward, first on her breathing, how her chest went up and down with each breath. Then to her hands that were resting on her belly, the feeling of her blouse.
Then to her nose, the smell of the air, slightly tainted by ozone, as if lighting was falling...Every moment.
She had tried to do this several times across the week, but this time something clicked in place, she wasn't sure if it was because she had finally finished reading the damned book. Or if it was because this was the first time she tried to do this in this room instead of the library. Either way, she felt herself being pulled inward.
Soon enough she found herself in the middle of a spacious white room.
"Hello, Elizabeth." A voice said behind her.
She turned quickly and found a black-haired girl, the same one she had seen in the video that Alexanders showed her, the girl in the crystal pod.
The one that allegedly had ruined the plans of Alexanders and gave her hope to survive...At the cost of her life.
"You are okay?" Elizabeth asked, Alexanders had made it sound like she would die with him.
But then again, he survived long enough to leave a message...
"Yes...Well not really, but good enough." Answered the red-eyed girl. "I'm a [Vestige], the remnants of Chloe Ashcroft."
Oh...So she was another message in a bottle?
"I'm here to explain a few things, first of all...I...Wasn't alive before, so you don't need to feel guilty about me." Chloe started speaking, "I lived yes. But my family didn't care for me, my whole world surrounded the idea of trying to live up to some crazy standards and to try to fill an empty void in me."
Chloe raised a hand and a holographic projection showed a black-haired woman with blue eyes surrounded by hundreds of people with red eyes. "My mother was the leader of those that hailed [Shadow] aligned powers, as such her line was trained to rise and follow in her steps, to make sure our heritage was protected..." Behind the woman a man with a demonic-looking mask rose, he was draped in shadows, and behind the mask also held blue eyes.
"My brother rose to the challenge, of course, he was talented and somehow was free from corruption like mother...Then...I was born..." Behind the woman, the image of Chloe rose.
Unlike the mother and son, she wasn't clad in shadows, nor her eyes were blue "I...wasn't up to the challenge, not only my red eyes spoke of a possible taint, but when I awakened my powers...They weren't shadow-aligned. I could purge the taint like mother...But it was more of a [Deletion] or [Purge] than a [Purification] like she could...So I was abandoned." The projection then showed her alone.
Showcased how the woman left with the parade of red-eyed people, how she ran after them only to trip and fall to the ground...How while her brother helped her rise, he still left her behind...
"Some of those under mother still cared for me of course, more because they thought I could still rise to power if nothing else...Some asked me to purge them from the taint even if that meant crippling them...But each time I did Mother would berate me and jail me..." The projection showed cold eyes in the face of the black-haired woman.
And a desolated child growing alone, that hurt her and made her want to hug the projection, but she wasn't sure if she should...She was alive under the premise that said girl would die...
"In the end, I lived an empty life devoid of anything, at least until I met you," Chloe said and with a flick of her wrist, the projection showed a group of students in an auditorium.
Among them, she could make up herself speaking with a pink-haired girl (weird color of hair) and on the other side the raven-haired girl looking at them.
"My skill allows me to be fully aware of my own mind since half of it is always within the skill and I can function even while my body is unconscious...So I know when something isn't normal...And my reaction to you was anything but normal." Chloe moved on and her hands started discharging electricity, her hair turned golden as if living lighting, and her eyes shone yellow.
"My body craved for you, so I turned it off. At first, I thought it was because of your [Taint] so I manually controlled my [Desire]. Then I got invited into [The Tribunal] because they thought I was you...And instead of being angry at me, you encouraged me...I was ashamed because while you genuinely tried to help an unknown person...I was wrestling my [Desires] trying to not tie you up to a bed and going over every part of you trying to find what made me like that..." Chloe spoke of it as if she was talking about going to the shop for milk...
While Elizabeth was trying really hard to not blush at the mental image of the black-haired girl doing...[Things] to her.
She wasn't successful, at all.
"It was this feeling that we should be one...That we needed to be one...To join...I hadn't understood it entirely and thought it was another aspect of my skill trying to make me purge the [Taint] it wasn't till we ended up here that I understood...My body was meant to be yours..." The projection moved to the last phase.
A recreation of what Alexanders had told her before, about them speaking and the decision they made. "So don't feel bad for me, I am happy. I will happily help you and live on you. You who have people waiting for you. You who tried to fight against the impossible even outclassed...You who did her best to go forward..." The Chloe in front of her turned the projection off and walked towards her.
She extended a hand and caressed her face "You who still have someone waiting in the real world for you...When you feel ready, call upon your [Soul] face yourself and return to the real world...She is waiting for you. And her soul will not survive long without your help." And slowly Chloe's body started to turn into sand.
Just like Alexanders...
"Oh right, before I leave...My [Skill] and Alexander's [Skill] will be embedded into your [Soul]. Call upon our [Skill] if you ever need it...Don't know what form our fused [skills] will take... Or how this new [World] you will wake up to will interpret it...But....You....will....be.....fine....." Chloe's voice disappeared and she felt herself be yanked out of the white room.
In a rush she opened her eyes and found herself draped in lighting, her hair shooting discharges and her hands looked like Chloe's when she had used her skill. This however settled down after a few seconds and no matter what she tried she wasn't able to make the lighting show up again...
"Well...Okay...Thank you for answering all my questions..." Mumbled Elizabeth to herself, she wasn't sure what to feel about that.
Maybe if she remembered the girl she would have felt sad, maybe if she knew her...But she didn't get the feeling that they were friends, more like the black-haired girl hadn't wanted to deal with the situation at home and decided to run away.
Was that callous of her? She couldn't tell.
"And now let's see what you left..." And just like with Alexanders she tried to recall every memory she could, but unlike with him...She didn't get any feeling of new knowledge, she didn't know new parts of the city, nor was able to use new skills...
She only felt...More full, more herself. Her body answered her faster than before, it was as if she had been moving under a heavy load only for it to be discarded.
And then as if in tandem with this new feeling she found knowledge of a part deep within the building she was, following that knowledge she returned to the burnt garden at the very bottom of the building.
"Open..." Elizabeth said to the tree in the middle...
And nothing happened, "OPEN!" screamed the blonde girl with more strength in her tone.
But alas, the tree wasn't cooperating.
"[OPEN]!" Intoned a third time Elizabeth.
This time, however, she felt as if something was leaving her body, and how her voice held more gravitas to it.
She almost fell to the floor after saying that phrase, but this time the tree responded, it moved backwards showing the stairs where the tree was once.
Elizabeth moved towards those stairs, grabbing the railing to support herself while going down, she had an idea of what was there, and the dread she was feeling only made her more sure that she needed to go down.
Each step was measured, each movement was filled with fear, and each second was an eternity of thoughts and reasons why this was a bad idea... But even so, she moved forward.
And soon enough she found herself in front of a door, to the right was a yellow key, it was already turned. To the left was a red key, it was also turned...
And in the middle was a final blue key...It was on the keyhole and one only needed to turn it to open the door, "It's okay...We already proved nothing can hurt me here...And if needed Stabby is one shadow away..." Elizabeth hyped herself and turned the key.
The key felt cold to her hand, and it was giving some mild repulsion to her touch, but it still turned and the door still opened.
Inside she found a sea of black fire and in the middle was the wounded and sickly body of a blonde girl with her eyes closed...
"Oh....Okay...that...That might be a problem." It was her body...
And if she was reading the screens to the side of her body that was floating in a crystal pod...She was sick, her arms and legs were full of bruises, and her stomach had a rupture that was healing...
Her legs seemed to have been broken at some point and were healing too...
And her face held some bruises here and there...
"Why...how...When...?" She couldn't help but ask while moving her hand to touch the glass.
As soon as her hand touched the glass, however, she screamed and jumped back, chains made of shadows yanking her backward while a flash of lightning seemed to propel her backward faster.
She immediately fell on the floor outside the room and started crying "....NO!" Her hands flailing everywhere and with a motion of her hand, all the shadows around her shrieked away.
"STAY AWAY!" She commanded and in the back of her mind could feel as all the shadows within the building move at her command, not a single shadow was in the building.
"....I'm okay...I'm okay...I'm Elizabeth Starbright...I'm safe...." Elizabeth started saying while looking at the crystal pod.
"[Identify]" She said while focusing her attention on her hand.
But nothing happened...
"[Identify]!" She infused even more mana into her voice, she sharpened her will as much as possible, and focused on what the [Skill] should do.
This time she pointed it at the body floating in the crystal pod, but alas... Nothing happened.
"[Status]" Elizabeth tried the next one, but nothing.
"What the hell did you do Alexanders..." She of course knew what he had done.
She had already seen the [Vestiges] of him and Chloe...
She...She just didn't think that she would need to go through her own [Vestiges].
She should have known better...Alexanders had told her how Chloe had fought to keep her intact... Chloe had already told her how she wanted [Her] to join and be one with her [body]...
The madman had managed to keep as much of Elizabeth as was possible...So when she found [Elizabeth's Vestige] and touched it...
She felt it...The despair, the fear, the pain she felt when Ethan took her body away... She felt it all...
And she knew...She wasn't Elizabeth, not fully...not yet... She was Elizabeth's Soul yes. She was the full and complete [Soul], she was inhabiting the [Body] that was meant to be hers, nurtured by [Chloe].
Her [Mind] was sharpened by the experiences of [Alexanders]...So now she only needed to face the [Memories] of Elizabeth Starbright to be whole again.
Starting from the moment her body, mind, and soul got separated...starting from the moment she knew true [Terror]...
"I hate it here." How hard could it be for one to face their own terrors?
The room she found herself in was a dilapidated library, metallic bookshelf thrown around on the floor, books missing pages, and in some cases dirty with blood.
The library's size was imposing, and the material of the bookshelves seemed to be of good quality. The lighting allowed good illumination all over the place, there were even some PC stations on the side for quick searches into the database of the library.
She was currently sitting in one of those, reading a very bland and insipid thesis about a theoretical metaspace inside the soul, [The Soulscape]. "This in turn means that if one can manipulate his own mana and form a consciousness body within it, he or she should be able to enter the [Soulscape]...." Whoever wrote this was a genius.
He also wouldn't be able to earn a living as a writer, the author had as much of a way of words as a Stone...In space...hurling towards the sun.
She wouldn't be reading this if not for the fact that her current theory was that this space she was in wasn't a physical place, but a metaphysical one. A holopad shouldn't be able to turn into motes of light and then into sand...Physics didn't work like that.
So she read about it, "So, in a nutshell, he doesn't know what the [Soulscape] is, but theorized that if one held the right frame of mind they should be able to visit." And summarised as much.
The thesis ended in a plea for more funding, and by the fact that this author didn't leave more thesis around, the poor man probably didn't get his funding. She doubted anyone else had read the whole thing, if not for her current predicament she wouldn't have done that either...
It had been a really boring month this one.
But that brought her closer to the truth...She wasn't getting hungry, a whole month in this building and she hadn't gotten any more hungry, the black flames had continued to fade away from the building, and now they were almost a block away from this building.
But she hadn't absorbed any more of them, neither in person nor with the use of Stabby, so this meant that she wasn't being nourished solely by them...Even though she was able to accelerate the disappearance of them if she went around as a black flame vacuum.
She had a handy notebook where she had started writing her summaries from the multiple books she had gone around while de de-stressing from the musings of that one author.
In a nutshell "The [Soulscape] is a theoretical fourth dimension nested within the [Soul], it should be a reflection of what we have lived, what we are and what we wish...A reflection of our greatest achievements...Or our biggest regrets." She had written at the end of her notes.
The whole thing seemed overly philosophical beyond a point, but in theory, if one could access that place they should be able to examine themselves and their abilities for what they were...
And yet...
"Do I need to meditate? But I don't know much about me...Besides that, I am a looker and it seems I was a brat in my past life..." Elizabeth was stunned at what to do.
On the one hand, she was sure she died as that brat before, she didn't know how nor why, but she had this feeling about [Not being him anymore].
Like that whole life had ended at some point and now she was Elizabeth Starbright...Whoever that girl was.
On the other hand...She wasn't sure what to think about the place she was in, so while leaving this place, and saved her notebook by throwing it into a shadow (She learned that her shadow seemed to work as some kind of backpack that could store things). She went to the top floor of the building.
From there she was able to look at the whole city without any problem, and as such it was easier to think about stuff, the office... Wasn't quite a comfortable place, whatever she had done as that brat didn't seem to bleed over to her current life, and she couldn't help but feel the place was stuffy.
As if someone had stuck everything they thought would look cool in what should be an apartment and then placed an expensive-looking desktop and an overly complex chair.
It was gaudy, it was weird, and it was still the only place she was sure no black flame had penetrated at any point, the place gave her this feeling of [Isolation].
And as such it was the place she went to think and sleep.
"The [Soulscape] is the reflection of what we are..." Mumbled Elizabeth while leaving herself to fall flat on her back.
Nothing hurt her in this place, after stumbling into a table without noticing she noticed how her feet hadn't been hurt, and in turn that brought her to experimentation, she couldn't be wounded unless she wanted. Or thought she should be.
This meant that she could be more liberal in her explorations...She still didn't jump off a building... No way to convince herself that it wouldn't hurt her...Not yet anyway.
But this meant that she could fall on her back without worrying about being hurt...And so it was easier to sleep...
"What am I...Who am I...I'm Elizabeth...But who is Elizabeth? What is Elizabeth?" This didn't help in her musings, so instead she tried to do what felt right.
She closed her eyes and focused inward, first on her breathing, how her chest went up and down with each breath. Then to her hands that were resting on her belly, the feeling of her blouse.
Then to her nose, the smell of the air, slightly tainted by ozone, as if lighting was falling...Every moment.
She had tried to do this several times across the week, but this time something clicked in place, she wasn't sure if it was because she had finally finished reading the damned book. Or if it was because this was the first time she tried to do this in this room instead of the library. Either way, she felt herself being pulled inward.
Soon enough she found herself in the middle of a spacious white room.
"Hello, Elizabeth." A voice said behind her.
She turned quickly and found a black-haired girl, the same one she had seen in the video that Alexanders showed her, the girl in the crystal pod.
The one that allegedly had ruined the plans of Alexanders and gave her hope to survive...At the cost of her life.
"You are okay?" Elizabeth asked, Alexanders had made it sound like she would die with him.
But then again, he survived long enough to leave a message...
"Yes...Well not really, but good enough." Answered the red-eyed girl. "I'm a [Vestige], the remnants of Chloe Ashcroft."
Oh...So she was another message in a bottle?
"I'm here to explain a few things, first of all...I...Wasn't alive before, so you don't need to feel guilty about me." Chloe started speaking, "I lived yes. But my family didn't care for me, my whole world surrounded the idea of trying to live up to some crazy standards and to try to fill an empty void in me."
Chloe raised a hand and a holographic projection showed a black-haired woman with blue eyes surrounded by hundreds of people with red eyes. "My mother was the leader of those that hailed [Shadow] aligned powers, as such her line was trained to rise and follow in her steps, to make sure our heritage was protected..." Behind the woman a man with a demonic-looking mask rose, he was draped in shadows, and behind the mask also held blue eyes.
"My brother rose to the challenge, of course, he was talented and somehow was free from corruption like mother...Then...I was born..." Behind the woman, the image of Chloe rose.
Unlike the mother and son, she wasn't clad in shadows, nor her eyes were blue "I...wasn't up to the challenge, not only my red eyes spoke of a possible taint, but when I awakened my powers...They weren't shadow-aligned. I could purge the taint like mother...But it was more of a [Deletion] or [Purge] than a [Purification] like she could...So I was abandoned." The projection then showed her alone.
Showcased how the woman left with the parade of red-eyed people, how she ran after them only to trip and fall to the ground...How while her brother helped her rise, he still left her behind...
"Some of those under mother still cared for me of course, more because they thought I could still rise to power if nothing else...Some asked me to purge them from the taint even if that meant crippling them...But each time I did Mother would berate me and jail me..." The projection showed cold eyes in the face of the black-haired woman.
And a desolated child growing alone, that hurt her and made her want to hug the projection, but she wasn't sure if she should...She was alive under the premise that said girl would die...
"In the end, I lived an empty life devoid of anything, at least until I met you," Chloe said and with a flick of her wrist, the projection showed a group of students in an auditorium.
Among them, she could make up herself speaking with a pink-haired girl (weird color of hair) and on the other side the raven-haired girl looking at them.
"My skill allows me to be fully aware of my own mind since half of it is always within the skill and I can function even while my body is unconscious...So I know when something isn't normal...And my reaction to you was anything but normal." Chloe moved on and her hands started discharging electricity, her hair turned golden as if living lighting, and her eyes shone yellow.
"My body craved for you, so I turned it off. At first, I thought it was because of your [Taint] so I manually controlled my [Desire]. Then I got invited into [The Tribunal] because they thought I was you...And instead of being angry at me, you encouraged me...I was ashamed because while you genuinely tried to help an unknown person...I was wrestling my [Desires] trying to not tie you up to a bed and going over every part of you trying to find what made me like that..." Chloe spoke of it as if she was talking about going to the shop for milk...
While Elizabeth was trying really hard to not blush at the mental image of the black-haired girl doing...[Things] to her.
She wasn't successful, at all.
"It was this feeling that we should be one...That we needed to be one...To join...I hadn't understood it entirely and thought it was another aspect of my skill trying to make me purge the [Taint] it wasn't till we ended up here that I understood...My body was meant to be yours..." The projection moved to the last phase.
A recreation of what Alexanders had told her before, about them speaking and the decision they made. "So don't feel bad for me, I am happy. I will happily help you and live on you. You who have people waiting for you. You who tried to fight against the impossible even outclassed...You who did her best to go forward..." The Chloe in front of her turned the projection off and walked towards her.
She extended a hand and caressed her face "You who still have someone waiting in the real world for you...When you feel ready, call upon your [Soul] face yourself and return to the real world...She is waiting for you. And her soul will not survive long without your help." And slowly Chloe's body started to turn into sand.
Just like Alexanders...
"Oh right, before I leave...My [Skill] and Alexander's [Skill] will be embedded into your [Soul]. Call upon our [Skill] if you ever need it...Don't know what form our fused [skills] will take... Or how this new [World] you will wake up to will interpret it...But....You....will....be.....fine....." Chloe's voice disappeared and she felt herself be yanked out of the white room.
In a rush she opened her eyes and found herself draped in lighting, her hair shooting discharges and her hands looked like Chloe's when she had used her skill. This however settled down after a few seconds and no matter what she tried she wasn't able to make the lighting show up again...
"Well...Okay...Thank you for answering all my questions..." Mumbled Elizabeth to herself, she wasn't sure what to feel about that.
Maybe if she remembered the girl she would have felt sad, maybe if she knew her...But she didn't get the feeling that they were friends, more like the black-haired girl hadn't wanted to deal with the situation at home and decided to run away.
Was that callous of her? She couldn't tell.
"And now let's see what you left..." And just like with Alexanders she tried to recall every memory she could, but unlike with him...She didn't get any feeling of new knowledge, she didn't know new parts of the city, nor was able to use new skills...
She only felt...More full, more herself. Her body answered her faster than before, it was as if she had been moving under a heavy load only for it to be discarded.
And then as if in tandem with this new feeling she found knowledge of a part deep within the building she was, following that knowledge she returned to the burnt garden at the very bottom of the building.
"Open..." Elizabeth said to the tree in the middle...
And nothing happened, "OPEN!" screamed the blonde girl with more strength in her tone.
But alas, the tree wasn't cooperating.
"[OPEN]!" Intoned a third time Elizabeth.
This time, however, she felt as if something was leaving her body, and how her voice held more gravitas to it.
She almost fell to the floor after saying that phrase, but this time the tree responded, it moved backwards showing the stairs where the tree was once.
Elizabeth moved towards those stairs, grabbing the railing to support herself while going down, she had an idea of what was there, and the dread she was feeling only made her more sure that she needed to go down.
Each step was measured, each movement was filled with fear, and each second was an eternity of thoughts and reasons why this was a bad idea... But even so, she moved forward.
And soon enough she found herself in front of a door, to the right was a yellow key, it was already turned. To the left was a red key, it was also turned...
And in the middle was a final blue key...It was on the keyhole and one only needed to turn it to open the door, "It's okay...We already proved nothing can hurt me here...And if needed Stabby is one shadow away..." Elizabeth hyped herself and turned the key.
The key felt cold to her hand, and it was giving some mild repulsion to her touch, but it still turned and the door still opened.
Inside she found a sea of black fire and in the middle was the wounded and sickly body of a blonde girl with her eyes closed...
"Oh....Okay...that...That might be a problem." It was her body...
And if she was reading the screens to the side of her body that was floating in a crystal pod...She was sick, her arms and legs were full of bruises, and her stomach had a rupture that was healing...
Her legs seemed to have been broken at some point and were healing too...
And her face held some bruises here and there...
"Why...how...When...?" She couldn't help but ask while moving her hand to touch the glass.
As soon as her hand touched the glass, however, she screamed and jumped back, chains made of shadows yanking her backward while a flash of lightning seemed to propel her backward faster.
She immediately fell on the floor outside the room and started crying "....NO!" Her hands flailing everywhere and with a motion of her hand, all the shadows around her shrieked away.
"STAY AWAY!" She commanded and in the back of her mind could feel as all the shadows within the building move at her command, not a single shadow was in the building.
"....I'm okay...I'm okay...I'm Elizabeth Starbright...I'm safe...." Elizabeth started saying while looking at the crystal pod.
"[Identify]" She said while focusing her attention on her hand.
But nothing happened...
"[Identify]!" She infused even more mana into her voice, she sharpened her will as much as possible, and focused on what the [Skill] should do.
This time she pointed it at the body floating in the crystal pod, but alas... Nothing happened.
"[Status]" Elizabeth tried the next one, but nothing.
"What the hell did you do Alexanders..." She of course knew what he had done.
She had already seen the [Vestiges] of him and Chloe...
She...She just didn't think that she would need to go through her own [Vestiges].
She should have known better...Alexanders had told her how Chloe had fought to keep her intact... Chloe had already told her how she wanted [Her] to join and be one with her [body]...
The madman had managed to keep as much of Elizabeth as was possible...So when she found [Elizabeth's Vestige] and touched it...
She felt it...The despair, the fear, the pain she felt when Ethan took her body away... She felt it all...
And she knew...She wasn't Elizabeth, not fully...not yet... She was Elizabeth's Soul yes. She was the full and complete [Soul], she was inhabiting the [Body] that was meant to be hers, nurtured by [Chloe].
Her [Mind] was sharpened by the experiences of [Alexanders]...So now she only needed to face the [Memories] of Elizabeth Starbright to be whole again.
Starting from the moment her body, mind, and soul got separated...starting from the moment she knew true [Terror]...
"I hate it here." How hard could it be for one to face their own terrors?
