The curse

Priscilla had seen the terrible fate to which the barbarian who attacked her father was subjected, somewhere in her mind she even came to think that that person deserved what happened to her. However, the man's heartbreaking cries of help and mercy had broken her heart, at some point, the cruelty of the monster in front of her had made her aware of the kind of being she was.

Initially, the hooded man appeared to be a nice, good-hearted person with a somewhat twisted personality, sadly that was not the case at all. His actions simply could not be justified, doing something like that to a person who had not only surrendered but even cried begging for mercy while his limbs were methodically sliced as if he were extracting fine slices of ham for a sandwich, could only be described as the actions of a madman.

At some point, she had dragged her mother's body away from the merry monster who continued to play with her victim. After taking her mother's body to a nearby cell, she tried to cover her ears in an attempt to escape those heartbreaking screams.

Only when the screams ceased, did she hear a voice calling to her, it was a flat, deep, dark tone of voice that did not seem human at all.

—"Is something wrong, my lady?" the specter said as he approached Priscilla.

—"Don't come near me!" She screamed for reflex, she didn't want that creature from the Underworld to approach her under any circumstances.

—"Mmm... How can I say this...? Hadn't I already said I'm a bad person? I thought I'd made it pretty clear from the start..."

—"This has nothing to do with being a bad person, you don't even feel empathy! How can you be able to do something so cruel to a person?"

—"My lady, I don't know what kind of idea you have of me, but I'm afraid, being a wraith, I don't feel anything like empathy." The wraith paused. "However, I can understand what punishment or forgiveness is, based on my individual moral values."

—"Don't talk anymore!" She didn't want to hear it, not someone like him.

The specter was silent, sitting in the cell in front of Priscilla and her mother. He waited a couple of minutes until the girl calmed down a bit before trying to talk to the girl again.

—"My lady, I fear that if we do nothing in a few minutes in your arms there will be only one corpse." He warned tentatively.

These words caused Priscilla to lower her defenses momentarily and touch the face of her mother, whose temperature dropped more with each passing second. Priscilla hugged her mother's body tightly, she didn't know what to do, if she came out she would be hunted by her brother and if she did nothing her mother would die soon.

—"Can you save her?" She asked without raising her head.

—"Yes, I can."

—"How do you plan to save her?" She needed to ask that question, as at that point she could not be sure whether the specter would actually save her mother's life or whether he believed that saving her meant turning her into a monster or directly offering her salvation from death.

—"This body has almost reached its limit and even if I can extend that time by devouring the soul of that guy there, it would no longer make sense to do something like that. So, I think it best that use that energy to heal your mother and then disappear." Priscilla looked up to see the monster and what she found was a completely quiet creature resting in front of her.

—"I am not alive; I am not dead either. I will simply disappear into the void, because, from the start, something like me should not exist."

—"Wait, are you saying that you will sacrifice your life in exchange for saving my mother's life?"

—"That question is not very precise. It's nothing so noble, I'll just use my healing power to save that woman's life and because of that, my lifetime, if you can call it that, will be significantly shortened. Oh, but this is not a sacrifice, as the lives of my kind are not too long, to begin with."

—"Isn't that the same as sacrificing yourself?"

—"I suppose you can call it that, if you prefer, my lady."

—"I can't ask you to sacrifice yourself for something like this... that would make me equal to..." Priscilla couldn't finish the sentence.

—"My lady, could it be that you have a bad conception of good and evil?"

—"What do you mean?" The question bewilderment Priscilla.

—"First of all, I do not plan to convince you to abandon your human moral values. That said, we specters conceive of the world in a somewhat deferential way of you. The main difference lies in our ability to perceive the souls of living beings for who they are."

—"The souls?"

—"To put it simply, a soul takes a less dark tone the less guilt that living being feels. In other words, a guilt-free being will have a white soul and a guilty person will have a darkened soul."

—"Does that mean that creatures with black souls deserve to be punished?"

—"Not exactly, it would be more accurate to say that they seek to be punished to alleviate that guilt, as many souls become white by subjecting them to indescribable suffering, while there are others who even doing something like that keep themselves in the same shade of darkened color."

—"I don't think I understand you, are white souls a good person and dark souls a bad person?"

—"No, something like good and evil is a mere invention of intelligent creatures, referring to evil as something that does not suit them or something they fear, that's all." I observed the girl's reaction and then continued her explanation. "Now, guilt is different, a mother who was not able to save her children, will have a darkened soul even if she did nothing wrong. While a religious fanatic who really believes that, by massacring large numbers of people to justify his twisted ideals and who really thinks that he freed people from sin with his actions, might very well have a white soul, completely blameless."

—"Is that why you tortured that person like that? To save his life?"

—"Not really, I made him suffer because he was trying to harm a person close to me, that's all. I won't do anything against someone who doesn't try to hurt me or take something from me, I'll just let him move on quietly. How do humans say? Oh yes, [Your freedom ends where the other's begins. ]"

—"Why are you telling me all this... if you hadn't said anything, I would think that you are trying to justify your actions."

—"Maybe I do it unconsciously, as I was originally human and justifying themselves is somewhat intrinsic in human being's nature. However, I explain this to you so that you understand that asking me to sacrifice myself does not make you a bad person and should not feel guilty about it, it is simply a natural desire for the welfare of your loved ones over strangers."

—"Are you saying it's okay to ask you to sacrifice your life?"

—"I don't know if it's right or wrong, but I do know that, if you don't, your mother will die and believe me when I tell you, the guilt you will feel in letting your mother die, is not can be compared with the guilt you will feel in asking me to sacrifice myself. Personally I prefer not to see a darkened soul in the person I have chosen as my Master."

—"Wait, so you won't die?"

—"As I said before, I am only a projection of my real body, in fact, the specter that currently I habited is who is about to die, not me. Now, if you want to save the life of the spectrum, that's possible."

—"What should I do?" Incredibly, Priscilla was willing to save the life of such a being and her resolve made the specter hold his breath.

—"She is certainly a very strange Master... Well, if you let the spectrum inhabit your mother's body, both can be will save."

—"Are you saying I should let him possess my mother's body?"

—"That's the case, but just to clarify. That does not mean that she will lose her will, she will simply feed the specter with her spiritual energy and in exchange for keeping it alive, this specter will protect her."

—"I see... something similar to a parasite, right?"

—"You could say that. However, the one who will cure your mother, it will be me and when my conscience runs out of a container, it will simply disappear."

—"I see that you meant to disappear... and what if I let you inhabit my body?"

—"Huh?" For the first time the specter made an expression of disbelief so marked that upon seeing his ridiculous gesture, Priscilla could not help laughing.

—"Hehe, is something wrong with you? Did you think I wouldn't mind and let you disappear?"

—The specter was speechless, Priscilla had given in the nail, he certainly thought just that.

—"W-well, I thought you'd want to get rid of a creature like me..."

—"I will lend you my body if you promise not to take control of my actions." Priscilla offered the monster a sweet and sincere smile that would have touched even a rock heart.

—"Hey! Wait! Are you okay?" Priscilla was frightened to see that from the face of the disbelieving specter in front of her, tears of blood began to flow from her bright yellow eyes.

—"I'm sorry, I never thought a human would actually say something like that..." The specter wiped his tears and knelt in front of Priscilla. "I will be at your service, My Master."

—"Wait, you don't need to do something like that, just calm down a little bit, okay?"

—"I understand. But first, there is something I must warn you."

—"What is it?"

—"My original body had a curse and in an attempt to get rid of that curse, it divided his consciousness. In other words, I am the consciousness that was transferred to the curse, so when I inhabit your body, you will have the same curse as me, you still think to accept something like that?"

—"Only if you promise not to hurt me."

—"I would never dare to hurt my Master, but I am still a curse."

—"In that case, what kind of curse do you have?"

—"I don't know."

Priscilla blinked in bewilderment Why wouldn't she know about her own curse? Or could it be that she became a monster if she accepted the curse?

—"J-just to confirm something, will I become a monster or something like that?"

—"No, I know. All I know is, I'm a curse and it was planned to go away along with a part of my consciousness."

Without knowing about the nature of the curse it was very difficult for Priscilla to give an affirmative answer, even if she really wanted to save the specter, it was very dangerous simply to accept. That said, time was running out and every second his mother was closer to the gates of death.

In the end, she decided that it was a risk he could take and that, in turn, that risk would ensure that the specter did everything possible to save the life of her mother.

—"I will accept if you save my mother's life."

The Specter bowed deeply to Priscilla and approached Mirelia's body. After placing the palm of her hand on the woman's breast, the specter slowly faded and disappeared from view.