Chapter 96: Ch. 93 – Face Oneself

POV: Lucia

Our search for the others leads us again to a new place in the dungeon, "What is this? Why is a graveyard here? I don't like it here..."

Chloe tries to rile me, "Shouldn't you feel at home here, being a walking corpse and all?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll inform you when I find a moldy slime cave for you to call home. Right, you fraud?"

Elly interrupts our play-fight, "That is enough you two. Seriously, can't you go two days without going at each other's throats?"

Maria adds, "Come on, Lucia. Stop bullying Chloe, please."

Why am I the one at fault here?!

"...", I cross my arms, sulk and walk away from them.

Maria asks me, "Hey, where are you going? We're not-"

I don't let her finish, "Just leave me alone..."

...

I don't want to stay near the others right now, so I check out the tombstones instead. Far away from them.

That reminds me, weren't graveyards frowned upon by our religion? Something about it trapping the soul in the dead body, they should rather be cremated so the soul can be freed and pass on to the afterlife. Some rubbish like that.

The writing on most of the graves has completely withered away. Others... not so much.

I inspect a tombstone. It says that a Ted rests there. A common name around here. Couldn't narrow down in the slightest who that was.

A moment later, the writing disappears, as if it had withered ages ago. Is that supposed to tell me anything?

...maybe I could ask Elly about that, she usually knows strange things like this but... I don't want to. I would have to admit that I was in the wrong - which I clearly am not!!

I inspect another grave, another Ted. Over there lies a Greg, Jack, Alice, Tevin, Gus, Mina, another Jack, I... What? 'Here lies Lucia Delacroix'?! I'm very much still alive, thank you very much!

(Are you... sure of that?), I hear a voice from... somewhere. Why did that sound just like me, just with an added echo?

"Who...?", I look around but find no one.

(Don't just stand there dumbfounded. I'm right here!), out of 'my' graves crawls a ghostly version of myself, dressed like I used to while I still served as Holy Maiden in the church.

I recall reading about this kind of rare monster, "I see where this is going. You're something like an Evil Twin trying to break my spirit and then taking over my body, right? Forget it, that won't work, I won't let an Evil Twin win against me!"

She chuckles, "Is that so? Then I have to disappoint you, I have a surefire way to make an Evil Twin win. I only need to... surrender to you."

Did that bitch just call me evil?!

I get angry, "What the hell are you talking about!?"

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She scoffs, "You don't know yourself at all, do you, Lucy? Have you even for a moment considered how much you've changed since you became... that thing?"

"I don't know what you mean. What the hell are you?"

She gets closer to me, "Isn't it obvious? I'm the part of you that died when you became a vampire."

"Nonsense! I didn't change one bit since then! The [Living Undead] skill made sure of that!"

She scolds me, "Really, is the only thing your head is good for to look pretty? Think! You got that skill only afterwards when everything was already too late. Don't you remember what happened? First Jared bit you which triggered the trap skill [Undead Bait] you as the Holy Maiden had. Then you got turned into a vampire and your Holy Maiden class was replaced by Cursed Queen, only then did you obtain your skill, but by then the damage was already done!"

How does this imposter know all this?

"B-but...!"

She continues, "Don't you know that much? I clearly remember knowing this little bit of common knowledge about vampires. When a human gets transformed into one, a part of the original personality gets destroyed and replaced with vampiric instincts. I know this because...", her expression gets somber, " I am the part of you that you lost back then."

My voice trembles, "Lies, all lies! I didn't change, I'm still me! Complete and utterly me!"

She facepalms, "If you truly think so, then answer me this. How do you feel about healing people, about saving them from misery? Would you go out of your way to do so?"

"That doesn't count, I couldn't if I wanted to. Ever since I became a vampire I can't use that skill anymore."

She sternly questions me, "What makes you think you can't? You have that unpronounceable skill from being a Cursed Queen, don't you? All that stops you from using [Cure Magic] again is acquiring [Curse Magic], and really, classes with that skill are a dime a dozen."

Why does she know about [C̷̨̒u̶̢̕r̸̲̅(̶̞͝s̴̺͝)̴̩̀ĕ̵͓ Magic]? ...just seeing that name gives me a headache... Anyway, if what she said was true, she left me before I got that skill, so how does she know? [Forgery] should hide it from [Appraise]...

"No, that doesn't matter at all. I always hated doing that anyway."

She sounds frustrated, "Are you sure? Didn't you often go out of your way to help those people? Most recently being old Maude? You extra went out of our way to trick Jared into helping you with her sickness."

"Maude sick? What are you... wait, why did I forget about that... this was one of my precious memories of having fun with Jared..."

The other me flicks my head, "Does it finally come back to you? Yes, you hated being under the church's orders, and you wanted to decide about your own life ourselves but that doesn't mean healing the wounded was something you hated. Rather, it was something you liked, wasn't it?"

I feel tears welling up in my eyes, "But... but I... no it, it doesn't matter. I may have gotten to dislike my old hobby but so what? People... people change, don't they? It is alright, I'm still myself, just with a bit more life experience."

She sighs, "Other me, do you even listen to yourself? Alright, fine, I cede that one point, but what about everything else? Have you looked at yourself, how you treat everyone else like crap? The old me would never ask someone to kill themself, maybe play a trick on them that leaves them with a few bruises but no permanent harm. And now look at what you've done to the morph girl, you almost drove her to suicide!"

"Bah, you don't know what she is like. If you had to suffer her, you'd also wish her a cruel fate."

"No, I'm quite sure it is just you. Ever since you got turned you've completely given in to your vampiric nature, you didn't even consider fighting against it, you just gave up."

I yell at her, "Now you're just making shit up!"

This knock-off is still getting on my nerves! Just go away! Be exorcised and disappear from my sight!

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