Chapter 5 - What Is Mine

"Giving up already?"

The voice said in a somewhat elated tone, as if happy she had decided to give up.

Slowly the darkness before her changed, moving as if coming to life and taking a form before her. It was herself, a reflection of herself that had been made from the darkness.

"What are you?"

The girl asked with a warry tone as her eyes glanced the reflection up and down. She didn't know what was happening, but whatever the thing was before her, it clearly didn't have any good intentions.

And it was clearly linked to what was going on right now.

It seemed happy to see her fail, and from her knowledge of fantasy stories, beings that looked like you and were happy to see you fail didn't lead to good things.

"Me? I am you."

The girl was about to say something in response. However, the being spoke once more without giving her the chance to voice her question.

"No, no. To be exact, I am your eyes, or rather, the power that is manifested in your eyes. God's Curse, God's Blessing, whatever you want to call it, there isn't really a name for what it really is, since, it's not the same."

The being moved around as they spoke as if enjoying themselves; they seemed very amused with the situation. They turned towards the girl and posed her a question.

"Well, none of that really matters. What matters right now is that I can grant you power. Do you want power?"

"What?"

The girl replied with a confused expression on her face; this situation had been moving much too fast for her to keep up with, especially with all that had happened so far.

"Power, I can grant you the power to do whatever you want. Rule your family, take over this empire, rule your continent. Whatever you want, I can give it to you."

"At what cost?"

Seraphina was not foolish; she knew better than anyone that such promise of power would not come for free. This being wanted something from her, and in exchange for power, it would take that.

She made no rash decisions— she would at least hear the being out before she made her choice. If she really had no other choice, she would have accepted it.

Dying with power was better than dying without, after all.

"Does it matter? How long would you live without power? Let's say you somehow live past your 20s, even with the drain from within. What, then? Your family has no use for you aside from a political wedding, so you would be sold off."

The being didn't answer her question. Instead, it went on a rant degrading her life and pacing around her.

"But even if you're sold off, as someone without any fight capabilities, no magic, aura, or energy, at best you would be one of many wives to some bastard, used as they please."

"You would be thrown away once you get used enough at best, or, at worse, you die due to the slightest of incidents due to your lack of capabilities. Monsters, rogues, misuse of power, all things that can easily end your life."

Seraphina listened along without saying anything in response. The being wasn't wrong— with her current capabilities, she wouldn't even last a few years in this world; hell, even a year might be a stretch.

But she didn't like the way the being said it. It spoke as if it was a fact— as if it had seen all this already. It was as if she was destined to go that way if she didn't agree with the being.

"So what do you say?"

Spoke the being with a smile on her face as it stepped towards her. It held out its hand, offering for the girl to take it.

Seraphina stared at the outreached hand for a few seconds as her mind ran over the possibilities. If she took the hand, she may have a sure way to live in the coming years, but who knows what price she would have to pay?

There would be a price.

But if she didn't take the hand, she would die within the next few years; that was a sure fact that she didn't need the being to tell her.

But were those her only options?

Bend to the will of this unknown being within her?

No.

She was better than that, she had spent years wandering this darkness and hadn't lost herself, she had the memories and souls of two different people inside of her.

She was Seraphina Augustina Willows— the reincarnated one.

She was not going to bend to the will of something that existed inside of her, for her.

"I refuse-"

Extending out her hand, she grabbed the wrist of the being as she spoke, and before the being had the chance to resist, she pulled it in towards her.

"-to bend to your will."

She finished her sentence as the being was jolted towards her; as the being got close enough, she opened her mouth and bit into the neck of the being.

No blood gushed out, no flesh was broken, no skin was pierced. Instead, it felt as if she was biting into a soft cotton candy. The melting within her mouth the second she bit into it.

"What are you doing!"

The being yelled out in a chaotic panic as it attempted to shove her away and be freed from her grip, but Sera was not having any of it. She didn't give the being a chance to fight away from her; she kept biting away at the creature, piece by piece; it broke apart within her mouth.

"Taking what is mine to take. You made me suffer all these years— now you will be of use."

Seraphina did not stop as she spoke; she kept eating away at the being to the point where it no longer had the ability to fight back, it couldn't run any longer, giving up its attempts to do so.

Instead, as Sera knelt within the endless darkness, eating the last remaining parts of the being's body, a voice echoed out in the abyss below.

It was calm, eerily so; it did not hold the panic that it had when she was eating it, as if it had already grown to accept this outcome.

"This is merely the beginning, live as you can, for now."

The voice faded within the endless void as suddenly the girl's mind was jolted and awakened, no longer in the dreamscape she had found herself in.

Now she had returned to her room, a new day upon her.