Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The corner of Skullius’ lip twitched, and not in a good way. His emotions swelled while his proper senses returned from the looseness imposed by that strange flower.

Something deep within him ached heavily as he looked at this young girl before him, making it so that he completely ignored the fact that he could see properly.

None of it was important, especially when he started to get what was happening.

This wasn’t the first time this had happened.

When he entered a Cluster for the very first time, and fought against the Lucky Gremlins and Jackpot, it had happened.

When he was with Stylla, Fore and Bron, fighting against the Sage Monkeys, it had happened.

Right here, and right now, it was happening again.

Camilla, was standing before him, the very same scene he had seen before re-enacting itself again before his eyes, but this time, he seemed to be in full control of his actions. For now, at least.

Skullius gulped unconsciously.

Camilla had long, dark hair with tinges of light brown at its ends. Her hazel eyes were piercing, her skin, which was supposed to be a neat shade of ivory, an object of admiration, now mimicking the paleness of that of a corpse, with some of her blood vessels showing from it.

It was easy to see, what with her not having any clothes on, not that Skullius paid it any attention. Even if he did, the result would have been the same.

The Hybrid Luman was overwhelmed by the situation. He didn’t know what to do, or say.

Unlike previous instances, Camilla’s stare felt… real. The chatter he heard from the ‘mansion’ that was now behind him, brought too realistic of a feel to all of this, and for the first time in a while, Skullius felt utterly powerless.

After all, just like how he had discovered that he couldn’t see too far right now, he had found that he didn’t have a mana core, that his body was extremely frail, and that the biting cold was battling heavily against the thick coat, and warm hat he was wearing.

He wasn’t a Hybrid Luman right now.

Heck, he wasn’t even a Discount Human.

He was… human.

A hot breath sprang from his mouth.

Camilla shuddered, and inched closer to it seemingly to absorb some of its heat, and warm herself a little during the pause.

A surge of instinct made Skullius want to take off his coat, and give it to her, but like thunder bursting from within, a torrent of cruel pain hammered through his body… or maybe his soul.

Skullius clutched at his chest, and staggered forward, his face turning pale.

‘What was that?’ he asked himself.

It was like something deep set viewed even the thought of helping this girl a taboo, vehemently rebuking him.

But…why?

Camilla’s face quivered exaggeratedly, and she spoke again.

“What are you waiting for, brother? You wanted me to die so badly, didn’t you? I just made it easier now. I’m powerless right now. A few more minutes in this…. ssssss… snow, and I’ll be gone for good. Or you could just get it over with quickly, and then dump me off this hill. Easy enough, don’t you think?”

Skullius’ face turned darker the more Camilla spoke, trying to smirk even with her freezing face. She could barely open her eyes.

That’s right.

Skullius felt like he was supposed to hate her for something, but couldn’t remember. Trying to do so made his soul ache terribly, so terribly in fact, that without his body being strong enough to handle it, tears were swimming so close to his eyes.

‘Oh damn! It hurts!’ he cried inside, and faced Camilla with a strained face.

What had happened?

What was so important that of all the things he remembered, it always had to be this scene with the snow?!

“Do it,” Camilla said as she spread her arms wide, with terrible difficulty. The cold didn’t feel particularly good under the arms. She heaved in deep breaths with a forced smile. “You scared I’ll kill you too? Just rip your head out from here? Haha. Like I said, I’ve got nothing right now. Even the pistol in your hand could take me out.”

Skullius’ mouth fell open, and he grew more confused, but to Camilla’s last sentence…

He felt something in his hand.

It was a strange contraption, black in colour, with a handle, and barrel that pointed in another direction.

Did he have this the whole time?

Before he knew it, Skullius pointed the thing at Camilla, and sucked in a deep breath.

Camilla also seemed a bit startled, but she kept up her daring expression.

“That’s it. Don’t hesitate now, brother. This is exactly what you need. A chance to exact your own stubborn sense of control over everything, including me. Studying law didn’t do shit, did it? In the end, you found that it takes using your own two hands to get what you want done, huh?”

Skullius shuddered.

His body… his arm had swung up on its own.

He didn’t quite understand what he was doing, but he knew that right now, he was about to kill Camilla.

What the hell?!

What was this?!

What did she mean?

Why was he here?

Who was he?!

All these questions stretched Skullius’ emotions to the limit, and finally, he squealed.

“No!”

With an inhuman jerk, he forced himself to pull down the gun, and fell to the snowy ground.

Whatever was steering him from the inside did not like that he resisted its control however, because a burst of horrific pain burned from within him.

Even while in a memory, or in another world, Skullius knew the taste of soul damage, even if it was significantly less impactful than whenever he had actively lost time for Doom Factor 2.

He groaned, and shook violently.

What made it so unbearable was being in this body that grew several degrees colder just by touching the cold on the ground, forcing a hiss out of him as well.

“Argh!” Skullius rolled in the snow, and grit his teeth. The bluish sky above, tainted by the falling snow flakes remained indifferent to his suffering.

He tried to pull himself up, and on the side.

He found himself looking at Camilla.

She had a disappointed look on her face.

She seemed angry even.

“I knew it,” she said with a huff. “You never change. You’re still insufferably two-faced. You can’t ever decide on anything. You can’t ever give up on things you are attached to. You think you can control everything with your own words… your lies. You always want to play both sides, while trying to shut away what you consider unimportant! You—”

Skullius’ mouth, to these accusations, suddenly flew open on its own, and he screamed.

“You’re wrong!”

“You’re a fucking hypocrite! When mom and dad died, you said I could cope in any way I wanted to! You said staying at home like a good little girl, and watering her favourite flowers everyday would make me feel better until I eventually accepted that she was really gone! Dad too! You told me things you didn’t believe yourself!”

“I… That’s not…”

“You can’t judge me for doing what you told me! <Sniff> I was happy! I was finally happy! When mom, and dad took me in, I felt safe! I was…actually happy! And when they died, I felt like everything was collapsing again! I believed your stupid lies, and kept doing what you told me to, but you left too! You forgot all about me and went to ‘follow your dreams’!”

“No… I… I just wanted to…”

Camilla drew close. Her rage had painted her face back to a warm ivory, but she was still freezing.

Yet, she couldn’t care less right now.

“Be goddamn honest for once in your life! Just admit it. Because I was never really your sister to begin with, you didn’t feel guilty leaving me alone… going on to deal with your own pain somewhere else right? Just admit it. Admit it, and tell me it’s okay that I coped with my own pain the only way I could after… after turning into this…. this…. freak…”

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A freak?

Just now, he vaguely recalled.

Right.

Unlike him… unlike how he had been for so long, she was different.

And…

Skullius reeled as the pain grew the more he resisted the gushing burst of wrath growling from within him.

He let it slip for a second, and in the next moment, he found himself holding the black, barrelled object again, pointing it at Camilla who backed away slightly.

This time, he too felt a surge of rage, and could barely hold himself as he took a step closer.

A vivid voice bellowed from within angrily.

“Kill her! She killed them all! Kill her! Kill her! It’s only right!”

Skullius grit his teeth so hard he felt them crack.

“That’s it! Just finish it, you asshole! Do it! Do it!” Camilla screamed with a tremble in her voice that Skullius noticed, but could hardly care for.

He didn’t understand anything at all.

It felt too real.

He was already forgetting what Aigas was.

What a mana core was.

All he felt was the cold, the rage, and the murderous intent blinding, and drowning his sanity.

Camilla screamed louder, and louder, urging him to pull the ‘trigger’, whatever that was, yet he knew he was close to doing so.

Hurried footsteps sounded in Skullius’ ear, shuffling the snow, but his bloodshot eyes stole all his focus, firmly keeping Camilla, who seemed to have gone mad, groaning horrible words from deep in her gut at him!

Just shoot!

Just shoot!

Skullius roared, as everything turned hot, atrociously painful, and too much to bear.

Then a loud noise blasted through his ears, rattling his body.

BAM!