VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 112: Dead Memories
The Spectre stopped dead in its lunge, its face was still twisted with the eternal torment of its final seconds of life. Yet even still, across this permanently fixed expression, there was a flash of surprise and then fear.
Belladonna closed her fingers around its throat, feeling the pressure of flesh that did not actually exist, as a dark energy curled around her hand. The Shadow Essence filled her being, turning her eyes completely black, yet as she held it there Belladonna did not move in for the kill. Not yet at least.
Instead she tilted her head as the Shadow Essence seeped into the ghost. With her amateurish control over the new, unknown essence it simply acted on its instincts and did what shadows did best. It copied and remembered.
Flashes of agony and torment burst through Belladonna’s mind. Filling her with a panic that was not her own as she desperately tried to save a family that she did not belong to. She could feel the spectre... She could feel Alan’s last moments.
Twisted beasts had torn through the walls of the village, lead by a singular group of madmen in dark cloaks. Alan had never seen these men nor their wretched Beasts before, but Belladonna had.
Although they were not the same beasts at their core, in fact she was not even sure what they used to be, these were the same type of twisted, unnatural abominations that she had fought with Saige and Lilith.
But the events were not recent. These were from decades ago.
The memories flashed, filling Belladonna not just with his anguish but his pain as his body was torn apart by these horrific creatures, all for the sadistic glee of their hooded masters. She felt his agony as he crawled towards his daughter’s corpse, who was still holding her favourite straw doll that was now seeped in her blood. But no matter how far he crawled, it was a distance that seemed impassable.
Alan did not even glimpse the faces of his killers, just the shadows beneath the hood before his vision faded into the darkness of death.
Belladonna let out a hellish scream of agony and rage as she tore herself from the memories, literally, by tearing Alan’s head from his ghostly shoulders. His form immediately started to degrade, turning to nothing but dust and smoke.
However in the last moments of his unlife, Belladonna saw the expression on his face finally change from twisted torment to a sad, knowing smile as he looked deep into her eyes before fading entirely from existence.
A trembling breath left Belladonna’s lips as she stared down at her shaking hands, and at the dust that was slowly slipping through her fingers. The dark energy had receded as she was unable, and unwilling, to keep up the Shadow Infusion for much longer.
But even with the Infusion gone, the memories still remained.
"Beans..." She muttered with a shaking voice before whipping her head towards the cat and shouting with a frustration and urgency that startled the little Shadow Demon.
"Beans! Come here now!"
The kitten paused in its fun, glancing towards Belladonna with sad eyes that squeezed her heart with regret, before it quickly flew over, weaving between the remaining ghosts, before landing on her shoulder.
He quickly nuzzled up to her, rubbing his head into her neck and earning some apologetic scratches behind his ear in return.
"I’m sorry... it’s just... It’s time to finish this. No more playing around. I’m going to need your help with this one."
Flames spewed from the base of her feet as Belladonna launched into the air, flying straight up. She kept her head high and her expression firm and she did so, yet there was the unmistakable sight of tears gently trickling down her cheeks and twinkling in the air as they dripped off her chin.
Once she was high enough in the air, Belladonna took a container from her Bottomless bag and quickly emptied its contents out onto her hand. A thick, yellow paste pooled in her palm as she tossed the container before clapping her hands together.
The sound of the clap echoed across the ruined village like a clap of thunder, as Belladonna began to mutter under her breath and her hands started to form slow and deliberate gestures.
The paste covering her palms glowed brighter and brighter, before igniting into roaring flames that engulfed her hands, but Belladonna didn’t stop her movements.
Her words drew the power from her source, weaving it in patterns she could not perform herself and pulling it into the spell, as the paste acted as the catalyst to bind it all together. On her shoulder, Beans closed his eyes and was surrounded by a dark energy, one that was much darker and more refined than the amateur infusion that Belladonna had displayed, as the roaring orange flames turned pitch black just as Belladonna finished the spell.
"Navash Ivin Ro’kum, Sagni!" She shouted, her voice echoing and thrumming with power, as she thrust her hands forwards.
The fire leapt from her palms, curling itself into a blazing ball of black flames that launched forwards like a cannonball and exploded into a dark inferno as soon as it hit the ground. The black fire swept over the undead, igniting zombies and ghosts alike as they were all consumed to further fuel the flames.
Watching them burn from her position in the sky, Belladonna let out a heavy sigh and remained hovering there. Only moving to wipe the tears from her cheeks.
Only once the flames had died down, did she finally lower herself back to the ground and slowly look around, searching for any more signs of life - or unlife. Her eyes switched to her mana vision, filling her eyes with a blinding array of different colours that she had to slowly sort through.
All signs of undead were gone, except for one. A dreadful aura completely engulfed the town’s church - a half destroyed and crumbling building just like all the others and one of the few that still stood in its majority.
It was an aura that easily rivalled that of the Argent Bear.
Belladonna took a deep breath, steadying her tumultuous emotions before striding over to the church with confident and measured steps.
