Allen walked to the village’s gates as soon as they entered. He sneaked inside. He hid behind the goblin’s tent as he walked to the shaman’s tent.
He ripped the tent’s curtains with the darkness chain’s blade. As he did that, two ghosts came out and flew to him. They were the ghost women that used to be in his control.
Renegade ghost came out of his chest and stunned one of them. Allen cast several darkness chains. He lashed to the wooden wall and retracted himself. The other chains stabbed the ghost. The attacks injured her because she had been stunned.
The second ghost flew faster than his pulled body. She passed him. Allen’s reaction became slow and his body crashed the wooden wall.
The ghost woman clawed toward Allen, but her movement stopped; the renegade ghost passed her body and came back to his chest.
“D—Darkness Chain!” Allen slowly mumbled. He shot a chain straight to her chest. The ghost woman fell.
Allen gritted his teeth and crawled toward the shaman’s tent. After some minutes, debuff from the ghost had worn off. He could stand again.
Allen searched for the quest item roughly. He threw other items to the floor. He looked in the cupboard, chests, etc.
“Where did he store the undead tower?” Allen pulled a chair and sat. “Let’s think for a while. The shaman is like a spiritual leader. He won’t put a sacred item in a random place. Yeah, the undead tower should be a sacred item to be in his possession.
“Sacred items should be placed in a high ground. Let’s be calm. I don’t have to be hasty. According to my other ghosts’ visions, Mircalla is fighting the shaman right now.”
Allen stood up and looked around. Behind the dining table was a fireplace. Above it was an item that shaped like a tower.
“That must be the undead tower. According to the description, a tiny orb of mana floated above it. There’s the exact orb above it.”
As Allen approached the tower, he saw Johan’s half body turned into a black goblin’s form. He formed a sword of light and stabbed Reymond’s back.
“R—Reymond,” Allen muttered. He remembered his past with him. The man was a mentor for him. The only person who approached him when the others didn’t care. He was sure that he cared about him. However, when he saw him fell, his heart didn’t move.
Allen looked down. He could see Mircalla’s cry. Vanilla and Ren were weeping too. Even, Eren and Peter showed sympathy too.
Allen realized there was something wrong with him. “I see. I am not a human. Then, what am I?”
At this time, he had touched the undead tower. Suddenly, his consciousness faded off. When he came back to sense, he was in the middle of a spacious room.
“This place is familiar.” When he looked around, Allen saw the renegade ghost. Then, he saw iron bars. “This is my soul cage. No, the soul cage is the middle layer of my soul. How comes I am inside it? That means someone is taking control of it.”
Allen remembered that Johan’s body was possessed by the goblin shaman. If his guess was true, then the same thing happened to him.
Allen tried to melt his body and became one with his soul cage. He should have the ability to do it, but nothing happened.
Allen calmed down. He thought about the solution. If he couldn’t do anything, then being possessed was his fate. He shook his head. “Too early to give up.”
Allen willed the renegade ghost to approach him. It moved. He still could control it.
He made it gone outside of his body and came back intending to harm. The place shook. The black goblin shaman appeared before him.
“As I thought, I have been possessed. If you just trap me here, I will be bored. How about you kill me?”
The shaman chuckled. “Your soul is special. Your spirit is hidden by this soul cage. If this place doesn’t exist, I can overwrite your spirit vessel with mine and move yours to my spirit vessel. Then, I can free your spirit to come back to the Will of the Universe.”
“Well, I can’t fight back, can I?”
“Death is your option.” The black goblin shaman gripped his shoulders, but Allen didn’t resist. “You don’t afraid of death?”
“I only strive for what I have in my life. But, I don’t mind getting something I don’t have.”
As he said that, the shaman didn’t ask any more questions. His body turned into mist and enveloped Allen.
Allen closed his eyes. His body turned into mist too as tough he had merged with the shaman. They vanished. The soul cage became illusory, revealing Allen’s spirit vessel that floated in the deepest part of the soul.
The shaman’s spirit vessel appeared out of nowhere. It collided with Allen’s spirit vessel. Numerous texts moved into Allen’s spirit vessel.
As the shaman invaded his spirit vessel, an image appeared in his mind. He hung above the abyss. He held a rope and looked up. Then, he decided to climb it, hoping to reach the land.
“Are you sure you want to die? Even someone like you deserve to desire something.”
Allen thought the shaman asked him a question. However, it wasn’t his voice. It was similar to him. Suddenly, something came into his mind.
Don’t awaken him!
It was the words from the original book. “Who are you?”
The voice chuckled. “I am you. You are me.”
“Are you the original?”
“I am. You are the original too. The third is original too.”
“Are you strong? Can you help me?”
“I don’t know. People on earth don’t have realm level things. But, we can try. The probability is random. We can increase it if you have something to sacrifice.”
“Can you use the renegade ghost as a sacrifice?” Allen asked.
“Sure. Let’s form our imaginary body first. Isn’t it awkward talking like this?”
When Allen opened his eyes, he was floating in a white space. In front of him was a man that looked similar to him. He had bright azure eyes and black hair. His smile looked evil.
“Hi, fourth. Let me introduce myself. I am the second. You can call me the Morning or the Wicked.”
Allen remembered the original’s last word before he died. “The Dawn was stillborn. The morning was wicked.”
“That means I am number four? I am the Evening.”
The Morning grinned. “You sure are quick as expected of me.”
“What are we?”
“Are you asking about our race? Or are you asking about our weird condition?”
“Both.”
“We were once a human. No, the Dawn died human in the mother’s womb. Then, our mom asked the Ancient Beasts to revive us. She was their blessed. They granted her wish.
“The Ancient Beast of Creation and Desire and the Ancient Beast of Dream and Fate argued about what race they would give to us when we were revived. In the end, the Ancient Beast of Death chose a random race from his death realm.
“We were revived as a faceless. Faceless was a very rare race with an unknown form. They transformed into any race they saw the first time. We took a male human form because we saw our stillborn fetus in our mother’s womb.
“There was a time interval in our rebirth. We were inactive in our mother’s womb until she got pregnant again. She gave birth to you and your twin human sister.
“We were blessed by the Ancient Beasts. Your sister gained blessing from the Ancient Beast of Celestial Palace. We gained blessing from the Ancient Beast of Immortality and Reincarnation.
“We have an ability called Full Day Personal Samsara. It allows us to revive five times. It actives when we die. However, the third found another usage of this ability. He created a clone of himself and put another person’s spirit vessel. He overwrote this spirit vessel to match his. When the third died, he could swap spirit data with this overwritten spirit.”
Allen nodded. “So, I was someone else until the third died. Then, how about the lack of emotion I have?”
“Faceless always lack an important emotion. I can’t feel sympathy. The third can’t feel guilty. Your lack of emotion was decided by the third, though. He felt it would be hard for you to live alone in another world. So, he made sure you lack sad emotions. I want to answer any question you have, but let’s save it later. I was asleep until the shaman’s spirit collided with us. Let’s get rid of him.”
Allen and the Morning looked up. The shaman flew inside the black space. He kept closer to the white space.
The Morning chanted, “Sinister Condition! I offer a soul to increase my luck!”
Allen couldn’t feel his renegade ghost anymore. The Morning chanted another spell. “Dark Trigger!”
A vortex formed above the Morning. At the same time, the white space trembled. Cracks appeared everywhere in the air and kept expanding. The shaman who had reached the border of the white space stopped. He retreated.
“Thirty percentage of success. This is bad, Evening. That black space is the manifestation of the shaman’s spirit vessel. If the cracks can’t invade it, we will be the ones who get damaged instead. I need to sacrifice something to increase my luck.”
“What’s the best sacrifice for your ability?” Allen asked.
“Something related to the soul.”
“Are you the part of the character or the part of spirit?”
“Me? My data came from the spirit. But, when I awoke, I took some parts of the character to stay awake.”
“I see. Let’s sacrifice your character. I promise to find a way to awake you in the future. I still need you.”
The Morning was silent for a while before chuckling. “Fine, I don’t have sympathy, even toward myself. I only strive for entertainment. This is fun, but sleeping is fun too.
“Sinister Condition! Boost my luck. I tribute my character after this matter has done.
“Dark Trigger! Cast the die! Hundred percentage of luck. Body, mana, and soul gain a tremendous boost to match the black goblin shaman.”
The cracks expanded again and invaded the black space. When Allen looked at the cracks that spread in both areas, he sighed.
“What’s the matter, Evening?” The Morning asked.
“You can’t fool me. I will still get damage.”
“Well, yeah, but didn’t I tell you before, you can still revive one more time.”
Allen looked at the Morning. He had a different character than him. He suspected that the Third was different too. If he died, what would he become and go?
“Help me again, Morning. Sacrifice the part of my character too. You can erase people I know.”
“Didn’t your purpose is to get strong enough to meet our family? Ah, I see. You can’t feel sad. Alright, Dark Trigger. I sacrifice the Evening’s memory of other people.”
The vortex above the Morning revolved once again. The black and white spaces shattered. Allen could hear the shaman’s scream.
The Morning’s body faded off. He looked at Allen and smiled. “If you want to wake me, you can crash someone’s spirit vessel to yours. I am you, so you can still remember me. I remember all people you know.
“By the way, your soul will become weak. The shaman’s character has been destroyed, but the spirit data and spirit vessel can’t be destroyed. It won’t wake up, so just prison it inside the soul cage. See you later, my fourth self.”
The Morning vanished. When Allen opened his eyes, he was inside the tent again. His right hand held the undead tower. Suddenly, a message entered his mind.
“The task is complete. Moving to the next stage.”
Chapter 31: The other Allen
Shut up, scammer. I may be a polite person, but not to a scammer. Boo. Boo.
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Okay, I am high when I type this.