Reprisal: A Wraith’s Awakening

Chapter 8

Arden's pov

----------------- [Acquired quest]-----------------

KILL THE INTRUDERS.

….

The moment I saw these words, I felt something I hadn’t felt since I lost my humanity.

The system had mentioned that I wouldn’t be able to retain human emotions, but…

‘Am I excited?’

My heart thumped loudly against my ribcage, and a burst of adrenaline kicked in.

“kill…” I muttered with a shaky breath as I could barely contain my excitement.

Jamie and the rest of the family stared at me with a hint of surprise. It was to be expected, considering I wasn’t able to feel emotion, but that was wrong.

The system said my price was at the cost of my humanity, but didn’t that mean that I was still capable of retaining some twisted desires so long as it involved killing?

“Hehe… blood, I want to see it, I need to see it, that’s the only color capable of dyeing my gray world.”

I couldn’t help but mutter in my frenzied state, my body trembled slightly, and my hands twitched.

I could smell it… prey everywhere, their bodies untouched, filled with the viscous liquid my body desperately wished to spill.

The siblings were staring at me strangely. There was a hint of concern in their gaze, and something else… a gaze that showed they could relate to what I was feeling now, like they’d been in that same situation.

“I thought since he wasn’t capable of feeling, he’d be free from that overwhelming bloodlust, but it seems like even he couldn’t escape it.”

“What do we do now, if he goes out in that state, even the servants won’t be spared.”

“Tsk! This is burdensome.”

“Melissa, ring the alert.”

I could hear their voices, albeit faintly, and although I failed to realize it, my vision was getting blurred by the second.

Using the last bit of self-consciousness that I had left, I requested in a flat tone.

“Jamie, I’ll trust you to knock me out should I overdo it. I still need my body in top condition to kill the Rosettes."

As soon as I said that, my world darkened, and I was plunged into a pool of darkness without hearing Jamie’s reply.

****

[Arden Moretti… to think the recently turned wraith would be the first to enter the XXXXX XX XXXXXXXX]

A cacophony of eerie sounds overlapped with each other, causing a wild interference with my perception.

I stumbled on my feet trying to stand, but then… I froze.

‘Trying to stand? Trying to stand on what exactly?

There was nothing; it was all a vast expanse of nothingness filled with a cloud of purple miasma.

Using my hands as indicators, I tried to differentiate between my left and my right, but then something strange happened.

As I tried walking right, I found myself moving left; and when I tried moving left, I found myself moving right.

When I decided to take steps backward, I discovered myself moving forward, and when I tried moving forward, the reverse was the case.

I tried picturing other things, like floating, and I felt myself sinking further into the sea of nothingness.

‘How bothersome.’

It was indeed a bothersome situation, but even in this bizarre location, I was strangely calm.

So I did the most bizarre thing I could think of, I simply thought of the opposite of getting to the source of the sea of nothingness.

As I did, something happened.

It was instantaneous, but for a second, I felt the space distort, and the purple miasma became frenzied in its approach, swirling aggressively before vanishing.

As the miasma disappeared, I’d assumed the sea of nothingness would follow suit, but my guess couldn’t have been more distant from the truth.

I had thought I would have been transferred to a different location, but I remained in the same spot.

Now that the mist had been cleared, I was able to notice something.

I arrived at the source the moment I was pulled into this realm; it was just being obstructed by the mist.

The vast sea of nothingness had remained as it was; the only difference now would be the fact that there were dozens of mirrors all lined within its unending space.

The positions were distorted, some were inverted, whilst others spiraled, forming stair-like patterns.

The space blended the mirrors and void seamlessly; yet it was quite flashy, but despite the flashy shows, I remained rooted to the space, deciding not to make any unnecessary movements.

My gaze slowly trailed around the void, scanning for a foreign presence.

As it did, my body shook lightly, and my fingers trembled involuntarily.

Above me was a face so wrong that it couldn’t have been less eerie than that of a demon.

The eyes were stitched shut, and the mouth was a grotesque mix of cuts and scars slightly stitched together, allowing very little room for speech.

The bodiless head regarded me with silence, watching my actions intently.

I met its gaze with an aloof expression. Similarly, it stared at me.

This went on for a short while and then...

It eventually spoke up.

“You lost your humanity, yet you still desire? Was there some sort of mistake in the contract we made? How are you still able to desire?"

"You took my humanity as the price for awakening, so any emotion that can be considered inhuman might be present, although that's a mere speculation on my end," I replied.

The head lingered for a while, perhaps considering my words.

"I can feel it, you desire your humanity, it's not merely the vile intents as you claim, you want your mundane emotions back."

At its words, I nodded.

"I see you're aware that it saves us the trouble of a lengthy conversation. Can you get it back? What would I exchange in return?"

"Do not ask for more than you can bargain, Arden Morreti; your coming here was unexpected, that said... You must return."