1. Former "Man" and Templar Knight
"Splash—"
Cold water splashed on Angel's face, then flowed down along the smooth curves of her cheeks, taking away the last bit of panic and tension within her.
In the mirror was a girl looking back with a bewildered expression, about 18 years old, perhaps younger. She had soft, pale golden straight hair, and her facial features were perfectly proportioned, set upon her delicate face. Her deep purple eyes seemed like a pair of whirlpools, drawing Angel's gaze. The oversized, bloodstained shirt she wore could not conceal her tall figure.
"This is me... No, this is not me..."
Looking at this perfect female face, she was plunged into confusion.
Before waking up in the basement of this building, she was a member of the Church's elite Paladin Corps, "Agent", even among the few dozen agents, Angel Gray was among the top, as evident by her code "007". Only six were stronger than her.
The agents, each with their unique skills, were capable of taking on thousands, fighting on the front lines against heretics and evil forces since the formation of the corps. After the world situation changed, with countries and religions uniting against the increasingly active evil forces, they served as the backbone of various "Purifier" squads, forming the last barrier to prevent the invasion of evil forces into the mortal world.
Unfortunately, all this was in the past. In the battle against a powerful demon, to protect her friend, Angel was pierced through the heart by a flame spear thrown by the demon in its dying moments. Her last memory was of her team members gathered around her in grief, before she lost consciousness.
She slowly reached out her hand, touching the delicate face of the girl in the mirror, who also reached out, touching her fingertips. The girl seemed to have a strange attraction, her purple eyes as if wanting to suck in her soul.
"Assassin's Path..."
After the initial panic, memories of this body began to emerge in her mind, giving her some understanding of her current situation.
Firstly, it was clear that she was no longer in her original world.
Steam engines, magic potions, deities, curses... This was a world with a technological level somewhere between the two industrial revolutions, but it also possessed extraordinary powers. Mortals could gain various special powers through "magic potions", but also faced the risk of madness and loss of control.
This place was Tingen City, a medium-sized city in the Loen Kingdom of the Northern Continent, and "himself", Cole Granger, was an unofficial Beyonder person in Tingen City.
After her mother died from a disease shortly after giving birth to her sister, Lily Granger, her father, a sailor in a long-distance trading fleet, raised Cole and her sister alone. She herself died at the hands of pirates during a voyage to the Balam Empire in the Southern Continent three years ago...
Wait, siblings?
Angel continued to delve into her memories, soon revealing a bitter smile.
Even if she had "traveled" through time a day earlier, at least she was still male...
Just a few hours ago, Cole Granger had ingested a potion he concocted himself, attempting to ascend from the rank of Sequence 8 "Instigator" to Sequence 7 "Witch" via the path of an assassin. The ritual went out of control at the last moment, leading to failure and his immediate death.
In this world, failure to ascend often equates to losing control or death, and comparatively, death might even be the luckier outcome.
The characteristic of the "Witch" potion forces the consumer's body to transform into female. Although Cole Granger failed in his ascension, his body had completed the transformation before his death, causing Angel, who "succeeded him," to become the fragile female figure she is now.
She lifted her hand, looking at her flawless skin and slender fingers, finding it hard to imagine that this perfect female body used to be male.
"You had it coming, but unfortunately, you've left me with a mess..."
Angel felt no regret for Cole's death, as he was not a good person by any means.
Initially, Cole Granger sought Beyonder powers solely for the betterment of his siblings' lives. However, after taking the "Assassin" potion a year ago, he began to immerse himself in the identity of an assassin to meet the "Mentor's" demands and to master the potion as soon as possible, gradually staining his hands with blood.
Then came the next rank, "Instigator."
Unlike an assassin who needs to directly eliminate targets, an instigator works from the shadows, inciting evil thoughts in others with words, sparking conflicts, and creating bloodshed. Cole's journey to the ascension to "Witch" was marked by various homicides, no less than during his assassin phase. In her blurry memories, Cole was at least involved in several mass incidents at Tingen University, causing multiple deaths, injuries, and disappearances.
By this stage, Cole Granger had completely lost his way, forgetting the original purpose of his pursuit of extraordinary powers.
Being able to ascend from Sequence 9 to Sequence 7 within a year indicated his exceptional talent. If such a person were to take the right path, receiving proper guidance in the Church, he could safely increase his strength and advance further, instead of rushing to ascend without being fully prepared and dying in his own basement.
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Regaining her composure, Angel Gray stepped out of the washroom.
The unique red moon of this world still hung high in the sky, a peculiar sight that prevented her from rashly stepping out but instead made her cautiously inspect the building.
It was a two-story building above ground with a basement. Judging by the buildings across the street, it seemed to be a row house facing the street, with two entrances, one at the front and one at the back. The main entrance opened into the living room without a porch, leading directly to the currently deserted street; the study and the dining room were located at either end of the street-facing living room, with the kitchen, washroom, and storage room situated towards the rear entrance; the back door opened from the kitchen to a narrow, dirty alley. The second floor housed another washroom and four bedrooms, two of which were smaller and appeared to be used as storage rooms, filled with unused tools and broken furniture. The two street-facing bedrooms were in normal use, the master bedroom even had a small balcony. The entrance to the basement, where she had awoken, was located in the study on the first floor. The gas lamps on the wall were not lit, but she found she could see clearly in the dark.
"This body possesses night vision... This must be the dark vision acquired by Cole Granger after ingesting the assassin's potion. It seems that I, or rather this body, still retains the Beyonder abilities brought by the potion."
Using her dark vision, she returned to the basement.
The pool of blood on the ground, radiating outwards, had already dried up, a clear indication of Cole's failure to advance. The extensive spread and volume of blood made Angel suspect that Cole had exploded into a mist of blood at that moment, and she was actually a completely different person, merely appearing in the same spot.
"Cleaning this up is going to be troublesome, even with plenty of water, the smell of blood won't go away for a week."
As she worried about how to clean the basement, she noticed a black, gel-like substance among the bloodstains.
She hadn't noticed it when leaving the basement earlier, thinking it might be a piece of organ or a blood clot. Now, under her dark vision, she could clearly see its distinction from the surrounding bloodstains.
The gel-like substance was about the size of an egg, half-spread on the ground due to gravity, its color close to purplish-red, with a surface that seemed to have light flowing over it, yet surrounded by a darkness that appeared to absorb light, making its color stand out sharply.
As she approached the gel-like substance, Angel heard a series of whispers in her ears, and her mood became irritable, as if a desire to destroy and kill was rising within her. The smell of blood in the basement also became much stronger.
This was a Beyonder characteristic!
According to Cole Granger's memories, when Beyonders die, the power within their bodies condenses into Beyonder characteristics related to their abilities, separating from the corpse.
This gel-like substance was obviously left behind by Cole at the time of his death. Considering he had only taken the potions of "assassin," "instigator," and "witch," Angel speculated that it belonged to the "witch's" Beyonder characteristics.
But according to Cole's memories, the characteristics expelled by a deceased Beyonder should carry the complete extraordinary powers they possessed in life, which meant that her current body should no longer have the powers of a Beyonder. However, the unique "dark vision" was certainly not something an ordinary person could possess.
Perhaps it was because she... no, Cole Granger hadn't completely died?
Based on the abilities she possessed, her current body should be that of an "assassin"?
Former Templar Knight Angel Gray could only give a wry smile.
She did not rush to put away the valuable and dangerous Beyonder characteristic but instead left the basement to go to the study above.
Under a floorboard in the study was a small hidden compartment containing a metal box that Cole had previously prepared when buying potion materials, costing 20 pounds. According to the seller, it could isolate Beyonder powers and prevent the spirituality of the materials inside from dissipating.
Unfortunately, Cole had no extra Beyonder materials, so this box had become his weapon storage box, now containing only a damaged revolver.
Although it was uncertain whether the box truly had such an effect or if it was just the merchant's exaggeration, this small box was the most suitable container for storing Beyonder characteristics that Angel could find at the moment. With a mentality of trying a dead horse as if it were a living horse doctor, she carefully picked up the Beyonder characteristic through her clothes, placed it in the box, and put it together with the previously damaged revolver in the box.
Fortunately, the moment the box was closed, the whispers in her ears and the smell of blood in her nostrils were greatly reduced.
Although it did not completely isolate the effects, at least the side effects were within an acceptable range.
Angel put the box back into the hidden compartment, padded it with a few books, and after closing the hatch door of the compartment, the whispers finally disappeared completely.
After dealing with the Beyonder characteristic left by Cole, she went to the second floor, near the staircase to Cole's sister, Lily Granger's bedroom, which was decorated in a bright and girly style. A dressing table, a fitting mirror, and bedding with lace, all covered with dust sheets, and a thin layer of dust indicated that it had been uninhabited for some time. A few novels and a closed photo frame were placed on the bedside table. Angel picked up the frame, and under the crimson moonlight outside the window, she could barely make out a black and white photo of two people.
Next to the bedroom door were several height marks signed with ages, the tallest one reading "18 years old, 156cm."
Clearly, clothes suitable for a 156cm girl were not suitable for this body...
Standing next to the door, Angel measured herself against the 156cm mark and found she was a head taller, approximately around 175cm. It seemed she had no choice but to take a set of Cole's clothes to wear for now. Although the size was not quite right, it was at least better than wearing little girl's clothes.
The master bedroom belonged to Cole Granger, with a simple and clean decor style, cool tones, and no unnecessary decorations. The wardrobe contained men's clothing, including two suits of the same color and several casual outfits. Angel casually picked up a shirt and compared it to the one she was wearing, finding the size matched.
After taking out a shirt and a pair of casual pants, she took off her blood-stained, hardened clothes and changed into the clean ones beside the bed, then took the photo frame downstairs, returning to the relatively familiar study, where she turned on the gas lamp on the wall. The dim, soft light dispelled the cold brought by the red moonlight.
With the help of the light, Angel carefully looked at the photo frame. As she expected, the photo showed a completely unfamiliar man and woman. The man, in his early twenties, had golden short hair, was dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and casual pants, was tall and slim, with a delicate and soft face, very similar to Angel's current appearance around the eyes and nose bridge. He wore black-rimmed glasses and deliberately kept a bit of beard, trying to make his androgynous face appear more masculine; the girl, about 16, wore a dress, had a round face and golden long hair tied in a single braid, holding a novel in both hands, leaning against the man's side.
Based on the girl's height and the novel in her hands, which Angel had seen in the bedroom on the second floor, she deduced that this was the bedroom's owner, the "sister" Lily Granger, who had left Tingen a year ago to study in Backlund.
The "brother" next to her, who looked somewhat like the current Angel, was naturally Cole Granger in his male form.
This was probably taken shortly after their father's death, their expressions somber, contrasting with their bright clothing style.
While Angel was carefully studying the details in the photo, a series of knocks on the door interrupted her thoughts.
"Knock, knock, knock—"
Who could it be?