Death. I always found comfort in the word. The idea that I could one day disappear along with all my sins, all my worries. All my pain. Now, I find myself incapable of fantasizing about my idea of eternal serenity. After all, here I am. Still breathing in the body of a child I destroyed and possessed. Reborn as a body-snatching demon. ‘I want to die.’ However, who's to say I’ll not absorb another child’s soul. And who’s to say I won’t suffer the anguish of hell again. The pain I endured in the silvery field was still fresh in my mind. The very thought sent a sharp chill down my underdeveloped spine. Honestly, I didn’t want to go through it ever again. My mind was muddled with senseless guilt and self-loathing. But in the end, I pushed the unpleasant thoughts to the back of my head like I always did. There was no helping the fact that I was now an infant eater. I inwardly chuckled at the absurdity of the repulsive title as I gaze at the mysterious woman who was washing my soiled body. Every one of her movements during the act was done with affectionate care. I could tell by the look on her face that she enjoyed taking care of her children. ‘Right, this is motherly love.’ It felt wrong. Nevertheless, I chose to ignore the gnawing guilt. And by the time the mysterious woman finished washing the grime off my body, I felt too exhausted to stay up another second—unable to fight it. I found myself embracing the pleasant void of sleep. *** When my eyes fluttered open as I regained consciousness, the first thing I noticed was that the golden screen was nowhere to be seen. The next thing that caught my attention was the glowing blue orb near the ceiling of the room. It seemed to be a normal night-light, but the pale blue light emanating from it mesmerized me. I blankly stared at it for ten minutes before losing interest. ‘Is this what they call baby brain?’ I thought with a sigh, which only translated to a mouthful of drool leaking out of my mouth. Glancing around to familiarize myself with the surroundings, I noticed my pale-skinned sister sleeping quietly beside me. It seemed we were in a cradle of sorts. It hadn’t really crossed my mind when I first saw the infant. But my sisters' skin had a pale white radiance to it while mine, on the other hand, was more of a bronze color—like that of the mysterious woman. Was she adopted? After that initial thought, my mind kept bouncing from one random tangent to the next. Thirty minutes quickly passed, and I ran out of things to distract myself with. Finally, I gave in and focused on the thought I was trying to avoid. The golden status screen. Why was I avoiding it? Well, the answer to that is quite simple. My selfish nature got the best of me. Right. Somewhere between the guilt and self-contempt, a thought surfaced in my mind. ‘If this whole thing is true, what wonders does the magic of this world hold?’ The thing is, at one point in my life I did try minimizing my drug use. I’ll say this now; those were the worst four months of my life. It was a time when I had at least three mental breakdowns per day, and to keep my mind from wandering to the thoughts that haunted me—I read the bestselling fantasy novel at the time: Rise of the Basilisk. I was enthralled by the world the author had built, by the ability the main protagonist had to fix all his problems no matter how dire—from reviving the dead to changing the flow of time. And all this was possible because of one overarching element, magic. I know it sounds like wish-filled nonsense, but what if I achieved the same results by accepting this world? How dare I? After absorbing and possessing the body of a baby? It’s because, at my core, I’m a self-serving being. I had to be in order to survive on the merciless streets of Vaga. Besides, what can I do about that now? The one thing I once found solace in—death—is now out of my reach. In fact, I’m so terrified of the idea of dying again, that I would not kill myself even if I found out it would return the infant to his body. ‘I really am a shit stain…’ Sadly, I was used to this feeling—and in all honesty, I can’t be bothered to feel more guilty than I already am. Instead, I focused on trying to summon the status screen. As soon as all my attention was on the singular thought of a translucent golden screen in front of me. A calming voice echoed through my head. [Opening full status] At the announcement, the golden status screen popped up at a readable distance from my face. ‘This…’ Studying my ‘full status’ a few things caught my immediate attention. Primarily, the many fucking curses cast on me! And what’s this ‘self-inflicted’ nonsense… is it because I’m a pessimistic schmuck? Because that can’t be helped. The next thing is, well, the overall tone I get reading this—it’s so ominous. I know I’m a tad bit suicidal, but is it necessary to threaten me with so many curses? This raises the questions; the hell is the deal with this Goddess? What exactly does she need from me? ‘I’m getting a grim foreboding from instincts I didn’t even know I had…’ It was as though I was a puppet. What would happen if this God grew tired of playing with me? It was a thought I didn’t wish to know the answer to. A thought that left a prickling sensation on my neck, so I skillfully pretended such a thing would not happen... after all, she is a Goddess, right...? Thirdly, the sealed essence bit. That… I don’t really understand. So I’m going to glide over that one for now and move on to the thing that really piqued my interest: the skill labeled Lovers Covenant. ‘Isn’t there a way to—’ [Revealing skill info] ‘How convenient…’ I thought as I watched the screen shrink to the size of a handheld smartphone. + Skill: Lovers Covenant Skill type: Absolute Level: 2 [Cannot increase level: Sealed] Effects: ■■■■■■■■■■ + ‘… of course… ’ What a face-palm-worthy moment. Nonetheless, I regained my composure shortly after the incensing event. And went back to studying the status screen—more specifically the ‘quests’. The instructions were straightforward but vague. What I mean is, it listed things like; accept and absorb ambient mana or increase mana capacity, however, it didn’t explain how I should go about doing that. In the first place, what was mana? I knew nothing about it—except for the fact that it’s ambient. But maybe that’s the key? Is it possible to breathe in the substance? In that case, am I doing it right now? Nothing that made sense came to mind after a few minutes of deep deliberation, so I momentarily put a hold on the quests and willed the status into showing me the information on the skill: Countless Cursed Lives. + Skill: Countless Cursed Lives Skill type: Absolute Level: 99 Effects: Gain knowledge from past lives. + As soon as I finished reading the skill info, a set of names appeared in front of me. No, simply calling it a ‘set’ was an understatement because the names ran on indefinitely. Some of the names were listed in gold or bronze, but most were listed in a plain white font. Also, a lot of the names didn’t sound like… names. An example of such cases would be; **#*#*, 02, or ■■■. All of those were listed in gold except for the one in the middle. As time went on, I found myself searching specifically for the unique censored names. And just as my curiosity reached its tipping point— [Do you wish to relive your life as ■■■?]