Chapter 73
“The smell of death.” Part 4
“Give me back my body!” Kalysto shouted as black dots clouded her vision. And a cruel smile broke out on the face that was no longer hers, before answering her.
“Are you sure it was yours in the first place?”
Coldness buried itself in her gut as she heard that.
Her first instinct was to deny it, but they both knew she had no memory of much of her childhood, not until after the accident, where her father taught her everything from scratch.
And as a whole army of soldiers advanced towards her body from both sides of the corridor leading up to the destroyed room, she had just emerged from, the saintess’s heart trembled.
“No, it can’t be true. I..." But then she stopped. And though she suspected that she could no longer blindly trust Persephone’s words, Kalysto began to doubt.
And for the second time in her life, Kalysto again lost total control of her body, as darkness devoured her consciousness completely.
Kalysto lost track of time as she floated in the midst of an endless sea of shadows.
She tried to move, scream, and kick. But nothing changed.
She remained submerged in the deepest darkness. As doubts began to gnaw at her from within.
Enough! This is no time to be thinking nonsense! She scolded herself. Come on Kalysto, focus!
She fought and fought against the incessant darkness until she ran out of strength. And as the hours passed, boredom seized her, overcoming her fear and her doubts.
Whether or not I am the owner of this body is not important now! I need a way out of here! She thought.
“Status window!” She exclaimed, but again, nothing happened. Then she tried with each and every one of her skills, but the result was the same.
It was after a long time that a loud cracking sound, as if something breaking, echoed in the vast emptiness. Breaking the silence. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and fear invaded her at the thought that there might be some monster in the midst of that uncountable darkness.
But silence reigned again after a few seconds, and nothing happened again after that.
And at some point, tired of waiting so long, she spoke again.
How the hell was I able to regain control of my body the first time? ...Come on Kalysto, focus!... I’m not going to let someone steal my own body! I need to think of a way out of here! She said to herself, but nothing came to mind.
Then a small light flickered in front of her.
Her heart beat excitedly at the subtle change, and she waited until the soft violet tinkling finally stopped. Revealing itself fully.
[The passive ability Mental Defense has been activated.]
And for a second, she was able to feel her body again and get a small, very blurry glimpse of the outside world.
But it didn’t last.
And the darkness came back to devour her.
Come on, Kalysto, concentrate! She tried again.
[The passive ability Mental Defense has been activated.]
[Error! The passive ability Mental Defense has been deactivated by an unknown entity.]
Focus! Come on Kalysto, you can do it! Focus!!! She tried again.
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[The passive ability Mental Defense has been activated.]
[Error! The passive ability Mental Defense has been deactivated by an unknown entity.]
[The passive skill Mental Defense has been leveled up to level 42.]
[The passive skill Mental Defense has been activated.]
[Error! The passive skill Mental Defense has been deactivated by an unknown entity.]
Nooo! Come on, Kalysto, you can do it! Focus! Concentrate! She tried again.
[The passive skill Mental Defense has been activated.]
[Error! The passive ability Mental Defense has been deactivated by an unknown entity].
“Nooo!” Her head, or at least what should be her head, started to hurt. But still Kalysto didn’t stop and tried again.
[The passive skill Mental Defense has been activated.]
[The passive skill Mental Defense has been leveled up to level 43.]
[Error! The passive skill Mental Defense has been deactivated by an unknown entity.]
“Noooooooooooooo!” Kalysto wished she could have something solid in front of her so she could hit it.
Still, she tried to control herself. Took a deep breath, and despite the increasingly strong migraine that seemed to want to split her head in two, she cast a blessing on herself along with ‘Ezhil Purification’. And kept trying.
It wasn’t until two hours later that she could notice a change.
[The skill Ezhil Purification has risen to level 10.]
[The skill Blessing has risen to level 7.]
[The passive skill Mental Defense has been activated.]
[The passive skill Mental Defense has been leveled up to level 56.]
And again she caught a small glimpse of the outside world, observing a huge black crystal over two meters high blocking the blue sky.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Kalysto? Stop at once!” her body growled.
“No!" she screamed, but the darkness had already devoured her again, this time with much more force.
[Error! The passive ability Mental Defense has been disabled by an unknown entity.]
“Unknown, my ass! Persephone, stop whatever you’re doing and give me my damn body back, now!” She shouted into the void.
But no one answered her.
I never imagined I had to worry about having an enemy inside me, too... She lamented and the sadness of that fact wrinkled her heart. Persephone had been a constant companion as she went through the most painful times of her life, but for the first time she was beginning to see her in a very different light. Now it turns out that I not only have to watch out for monsters! Or for the possibility that the fairies will get rid of me after our contract ends like the human kings and the temple do with the heroes summoned in most of Kassandra R. Black’s stories! Or of the very likely possibility of me dying while performing the third mission!... Then she crossed her arms while snorting in annoyance. Shit! I forgot about that!.... She let out a prolonged sigh and frowned as she tried to remember. Was it the flower petals or the leaves that the silly princess poisoned Thomas with? But try as she might, she couldn’t remember. Whatever! None of that is important now!... But I must remember to find a way to acquire an immunity skill to poisons... or at least to that one in particular....
But the only way she could think of to gain such skill, was to have plenty of holy water on hand while consuming small amounts of poison, interspersed with both drinks.
I hope it doesn’t come to that. She thought, and stared into the void for a long time.
“I want to eat ice cream," she complained. Worst of all, even though she had no access to her physical body, her head ached, she was tired, and she was very hungry.
Enough complaining! she scolded herself. And after taking a long sigh, she went back to trying to get out of that void for another three more hours.
[The passive skill Mental Defense has been activated.]
[The skill Ezhil Purification has leveled up to level 12.]
[The Blessing skill has been leveled up to level 10.]
[The passive skill Mental Defense has been leveled up to level 69.]
[Error! The passive skill Mental Defense has been deactivated by an unknown entity.]
“Argggg! Stupid Persephone! Stop interfering!” She shouted into the void. And even though she was getting more and more exhausted, and a part of her just wanted to sleep and throw in the towel, she didn’t give up, and kept trying for another two hours.
[The passive ability Mental defense has been activated.]
[The passive skill Mental Defense has been leveled up to level 70.]
A loud noise, as of something breaking, echoed in the darkness.
And finally, after what felt like an eternity, Kalysto managed to open her eyes again. Blurry patches of color flooded her sight and the saintess breathed in deeply. Rejoicing at being able to feel the cold air rushing in and out of her lungs, as a powerful wave of nausea swept over her.
Inventory! -she whispered. And four windows, two blue and two violet, opened in front of her, obstructing her vision.
[Warning: the user has only 10 MP left. Please wait a few minutes before attempting to use any ability again or your health will be severely affected].
With trembling hands she ignored the countless amount of windows she hadn't closed before and pulled out the last remaining bottle of holy water from the ones she had looted from the soldiers when she arrived in this world four days ago, with her right hand. Noticing how she still had one of the handcuffs on, though it had one side completely broken. The problem was that there was no way her wrist could fit through the now missing piece.
Deciding to leave that problem for another time, she pulled out the small bottle of holy water and took a sip.
It was when she began to close the windows of her inventory that she noticed that this was the second time since she had arrived in this world that she had woken up in the middle of a sea of corpses.