Okay, this is ridiculous! I thought as my mind got encroached by tiredness and fatigue.

The battle between me and my roommate had gone for what felt like half an hour, and what was worse was they still had a lot of fighting spirit. It felt like they could go on for a few more hours of this.

We had moved closer to the door, and at that time, I had considered if I should have given up. This person was especially motivated to not do anything I asked.

[Fine!] He suddenly said with a growl, feelings of impatience flowing to me.

[What?] I asked. I was so tired that what he had said had completely gone over my head.

[I said fine! I’ll look in the mirror.]

When he said that, I wanted to cry tears of joy for all the hard work I'd done to get here, but I was more disheartened by the fact that I had fought this hard just to look into a mirror.

Why had I wanted to look into a mirror anyway? Oh, right, it was about my appearance. I had wanted to check what I looked like, which was the reason for this feud we had.

Was I tired so much that I had forgotten what I was fighting for? Well, that went on to prove how formidable my roommate was. I needed to pick my battles carefully next time because this was simply just not worth it.

My roommate kept a good grip on the body, implying that they were the ones that were gonna check. I had no problem with that. My only fear was that he was going to go back on his word and just leave the room. It would be a dick move, but there was nothing I could do if it happened. I was too tired.

I took a back seat again and gave them full control. They looked at the door for a moment before looking back at the hand mirror that was on the bed.

[Know that you only won because I resigned. Time is simply not on my side, so don't start thinking that that is my limit. Your magic cannot subdue me if it's only on that level, necromancer.] He said warningly.

We were back at the necromancer thing. It seems that he was still scared of me being a necromancer despite my telling him I wasn't.

He walked up to the side of the bed, snatched the mirror, and looked at it before he said.

[Don’t do anything suspicious because if I sense something is wrong, I will break this immediately.]

What could I do with a mirror? Suck your soul out? Actually, I hoped that something like that wouldn't happen. Since I was the soul in this hypothetical. Who knew where I might end up next. Maybe I might meet the goddess again, which might lead me to an opportunity to ask her why she had stuck me in a freaking undead that was keeping me caged up! And why an undead of all things couldn’t—Actually, wait, I was a vampire, right?

Would we even be able to see ourselves in the face? Vampires couldn't see themselves in the mirror last time I checked. But those were stories written by people in my world. Maybe things were actually different here.

[Well?] My roommate asked.

[Well, what?] I asked back, confused as to what he was asking. He still hadn't turned the mirror right side up, but he was sending me a feeling of annoyance.

[You agree to not do anything nefarious with this object.]

[Ohh, yeah, sure.]

When I said this, feelings of confusion and doubt flowed through my roommate.

“It… didn’t work?” He muttered out loud.

[What didn’t work?]

I asked, but he ignored me and seemed to prepare himself as he turned the mirror, and our eyes fell on its reflective surface. I looked at it for several seconds before I sighed.

The good news was I could use the mirror in that we could see our reflection. The bad news was the goddess hadn't made a mistake.

A kid who looked to be around the age of 17 to 16 years old. Who had crimson red eyes like the goddess and had white messy hair falling down to his eyes, nearly covering them. Stared back.

Though my eye color and hair color had changed, and I was a little paler, I looked identical to my human body.

This had answered the question of whether I was truly reincarnated or not, but that begged the question. Who was the person with me in my body right now?

[Can you show our teeth?] I asked, and to my surprise, my roommate complied without a complaint.

Our lips opened up, and I could see six sharp fangs occupying both my lower and upper jaw. They were in place of where the canines were, but these were twice as long and were much sharper. Two pairs were on top, and a single pair was at the bottom, adding up to six.

These were going to make it a pain to chew with. If I still needed to eat normal food, that is.

[Are you done? Will you allow me to leave now?] He said sarcastically.

[Sure, just one question, though.]

He turned with our body and started walking towards the door without giving a reply.

Well, that was to be expected. I was still considered the intruder in my own body. I knew asking questions was going to be useless so long as we distrusted each other like this. I needed to gain his trust somehow, and if that meant exposing things about myself, well, that was a small price to pay to not be in the dark.

Now, how was I going to grab his attention so that he wouldn't disregard anything I told him as a lie?

That’s right! I could use that.

I took the equivalent of a deep breath as I concentrated on what I wanted to do. I knew how to do it but, at the same time, didn’t. It was like using a limb that had suddenly grown on your body.

[H-Hello?]

I said, speaking in the divine language. The air trembled along with the entire house we were in. It was as though the words themselves held weight that manifested in the real world. Our body stopped, frozen, as I felt my roommate's surprise and bafflement.

[Yes, it worked! --- I mean…]

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[Umm, hey. My name is L-Leo Ortiz, the apostle of the chaos god utn---] I paused for a moment. [ I know we may have gotten off on the wrong foot and kinda misunderstood each other, so I thought we could fix that by introducing ourselves again. I'm Leo, and you are?] I said, trying to maintain my calm tone, as I had almost made the mistake of calling the goddess by her true name.

She had informed me that calling a god by their true name would call them to you. And although I wasn’t sure she would respond. I wasn’t keen on the idea of her coming here.

Exhaustion also hit me in that moment. This one was different from the mental fatigue that I got from fighting with my roommate. It felt more real and serious, like the tiredness you'd get after sprinting with all your might.

I was surprised by it, but it wasn’t something I couldn’t ignore. I had a more important matter to attend to. I needed to know who this person inside my body was.

[This is…. you! You're no mere spirit. No, you must be something greater—this wave of power. What are you really?] He said, his voice still shocked.

[I just told you I am the apostle of a chaos god I can’t name at the moment.]

[You’re related to the gods!?]

[Well, yeah? I guess, but to be honest, I'm still not sure since everything has been moving so fast. One moment I'm sleeping in my bed safe and soundly, the next I’m dead and meeting a goddess, then after that I’m a vampire who has somebody in him…... Hmm…... I probably shouldn't have said it like that, but anyway. Yeah, I'm related to the gods? Is this your first time hearing the divine tongue? Or have you heard it somewhere?]

I said my longest sentence as of yet. For some reason, I felt more confident and talkative speaking in this language. I hadn't felt the urge to overthink my words, nor was I hesitant to speak what I thought.

[…..No, I…. haven't.]

He said, his emotions still raddled and confused.

It seemed that he was willing to talk to me now, so I immediately took the opportunity.

[So now, since I introduced myself. Can you introduce yourself, too? Maybe a name or something?]

Though his shock was great and profound. He still quickly recovered to his somewhat calm and collected self within the few seconds I finished my sentence.

[I… don’t have a name or much of a background, as I was just born.]

When he said that, everything clicked into place, and I could see everything that was happening, from the new body looking like my old body, why there was a second person in my head, and why I was a vampire. It could all be summarised into one sentence. ‘The goddess was messing with me!’

[So--] I was about to say in the divine tongue when I realized that it was literally making me tired. I felt my soul not burning as brightly but like a small candle burning in the dark. Sleepiness and tiredness engulfed me, but it wasn’t at the point that I couldn’t resist it.

[Look,] I said, back to English and trying to be as sincere as possible. [My…. Lady, the god who reincarnated me here, told me that she'd create a body for me to be able to reside in the living and to do my apostle… duties. I’m confused as to what is happening right now and who you are. She never mentioned that the body she'd created for me would come with someone already inside. So, can you explain what you mean when you say born?]

[Ohh, I see, that explains a lot.] He said mostly to himself.

[What does?]

He didn’t answer me but stayed silent for several seconds, thinking. Emotions such as relief and calmness radiated to me, and I couldn't help but wonder why.

Was me being a necromancer that worrying?? Shouldn't you have been more intimidated that I was a god? Well, half, but still!

[Your master--- The goddess of….] He paused in thought, trying to remember back on what I said.

[Chaos] I helped.

[Chaos is the one that created me, correct?] He asked.

[Yeah, the fact that you look like me proves that this body was created by her.]

['This body' is me. Undead do not have souls, unlike living creatures. Though it seems our situation might be different from the regular undead.]

What do you mean the body is you? I've just told you that the body looks like me?

[What do you mean?] I asked.

[I’ve established that undead don’t have souls but are corpses that are moving around. I think your goddess did create a body for you, but that body just so happens to develop an ego because undead are independent of souls.]

Oh, I got it now. This person wasn't someone else in the body with me but the body itself.

So the goddess did make a mistake when making me into an undead. She didn’t account that my body might get up and start moving without me!

I thought back on the goddess's face and wondered if I should punch it the next time I met her.

Nah, I doubted I could punch anyone, especially a girl, who was also a powerful being beyond my imagination. And the most important thing was her face was cute. No, I should find something else to punish her with. Maybe I could use her thighs as a pillow again till her legs hurt. I chuckled to myself as these thoughts ran through my head.

But in all seriousness, what was I going to do now? Because the goddess probably did this intentionally. I doubted that a literal god would make a mistake. She probably made him to help me survive in this world or something. I did not know anything about this world, and I also didn't know how to fight. How was I gonna deal with the thing that had killed most of the people living here if it were ever to show up? Well, at least my roommate seemed to be agile and experienced in using our vampire body, so maybe he could run away better.

Focusing my attention away from my thoughts. I saw that we had returned back into the bedroom.

[You missed something?] I asked as I watched us get closer to the bed.

He waited to answer as he took the hand mirror again and looked at it.

[Do @#&$@--] He tried saying apostle, but failed.

[Ohh yeah, I forgot normal people can say it—I’ll try to find an equivalent word in English. Hmm, I think apostle will do-- Its apostle.]

[………… Do apostle have gender?] He asked.

[??........Yeah?] I said, unsure. I was confused about why he was asking that and what was in the question.

Did apostles have gender? Well, it should have been the case since I was still a guy even after I became an apostle, so probably 'yes,' but then again, do souls even need sex?

[Why do you ask?] I said.

[Am I right to assume that you're male.]

[Ehh… yeah?] I focused back on the mirror, looking for anything that might have made my gender come into question.

Nope, I still looked my same masculine self as before. Was it because I didn’t have a beard that I was questioned like this? But my little guy was still hanging around there, though. Did that not count as proof enough? Nah, I should be asking what was up. He said he was my body, after all, so shouldn't it have been easy to answer?

[What's wrong? Why is my sexuality being questioned?]

[Just checking something.] He said while he was in thought.

He observed our naked body very carefully as though he was looking for something. After some time had passed. He stopped and stood up straight, looking at the wall. I thought something was up, but I quickly realized that he was going to talk to me.

[Can you reduce the ‘influence’ that you have on me? I wish to verify something that my instincts are telling me.]

[Influence?]

[The power that's infused all over me. It took me a while to find it, but I could tell that it was not mine but yours.]

What, was he trying to get rid of me again?

[You want me to remove it?]

[Reduce, I'm not certain that it's possible to remove.]

Well, I guessed it was for some other reason. Now, what was this thing he was talking about? Influence? The power that was infused to him? I could only guess that he was talking about my soul, but even figuring that out, I still wasn't sure where to start.

Maybe I could use that new power I got as an apostle to figure out what this power he was talking about was and how I could reduce it.

For the next minute or so, I tried to listen to my soul and to hear all the things it was trying to tell me.

The goddess had told me that the soul was made up of an energy called essence and that that essence worked better than what any cell might be capable of. It could allow me to see what was happening in my soul with great detail and maybe eventually be able to let me control the shape of my soul.

I tried but eventually failed since I couldn't receive the information that my essence was telling. The stimulus from the outside was overwriting the ones that came from the soul.

[Can our close your eyes? It's kinda hard to focus like this.] I said after I had failed several times.

Our eyes closed, and everything became dark, allowing me to focus back on the essence that made up my soul.

Cutting off my vision had really helped because now it was much easier to visualize the information I was getting. Though the outside sounds that happened here and there disturbed the process, it was still not enough to knock me out of that state.

A somewhat clear image of my body appeared in my head. It looked the same as it was before, but a few things looked different. The first and most obvious thing was the lack of movement. Everything had stopped and was stuck in place like time had frozen. My cells weren’t moving and my heart wasn't beating, my blood wasn't flowing and my brain wasn't active. Everything was utterly and completely quiet.

If everything was like this in here, then how in the hell were we walking around, let alone to talk and think. In fact, how were we thinking if our brain didn’t work? Well, whatever it was something I could think about later.

Laying those thoughts aside, I focused on my soul, trying to separate it from the body so that I could at least see how the two were connected.

My physical body faded, and an outline that traced my body appeared in the next image.

Through the faded body and what I assumed to be my soul. I could see that they were very closely stuck together, like if you were to peel off the skin, you would find the soul, or maybe the skin was the soul itself.

As I looked at the image, I wondered what my roommate wanted me to do here.

'Reduce your influence,' yeah, how was I supposed to do that. I didn't know what this Influence even was.

Okay, let's think about this; he had described what I needed to do as reducing my Influence, which means that my soul was doing something that was worth describing as such.

‘It’s because you are simply mimicking your body. You'll have to learn to stop it because it's a waste of processing power.’ The goddess’ words went through my mind just as I was about to go back into the real world to ask my roommate to better explain what he meant.

Could that be it? Was my soul simply just trying to do the same to my new body? Because that was the only thing I could think of when you say Influence.

However, my soul was simply not doing anything from what I could see. And the power that was infused all over him was just my essence. I didn’t know where to start if I were to try ‘reducing’ it.

Reaching inside myself, I did the same thing as I did with the divine language and tried to manipulate my soul by controlling the essence that made it up. I tried stopping any type of mimicry it might do by forcing it to copy the current body I had now.

Everything needed to stop moving like it was frozen in time.

Stop moving, stop moving, stop moving….

When I felt that I had done enough. I returned my attention back to the real world to hear from my roommate if I had succeeded.

[I think I'm done. Did I manage to reduce my Influence?] I asked.

"Yes, plenty, so I believe." And a sweet and elegant voice reached my ears in return.

Someone’s here!

[Open our eyes. Someone is here!] I said, surprised.

“fufu.” The voice snickered, and it was only then, when our mouth moved again, that I realized it was us who were laughing.

My roommate opened our eyes and looked away from the wall we were staring at to look down at our body that had changed.

I would have dropped my mouth in shock at what I saw.

Two fist-sized mounds protruded from my chest, and one other protrusion had disappeared from between my legs. My skin had become much paler than it already was, making me think that there wouldn’t be much difference between me and a white piece of paper. Sharp nails that looked to be more claws than anything extended from each of my fingers and toes. They looked to be about an inch in length, and they were occupying most of the front of my fingers, like the bones themselves were sticking out to become these claws.

And I thought I barely looked human before, but this, this was much worse. I doubted I could show my face to humans without them bringing out the pitchforks to banish the demon that had appeared. And on the second note, why was I castrated!?

[Ehmmm…. The hell is going on here!?]

[Hmm?] my roommate he, no she stopped admiring herself and focused her attention back on me.

[This is our true form, it seems.] She said without care, as she picked up the mirror and looked at it.