The [Golden Chains] that bound Tristessa's soul to the domain of the angels and demons who served Vel'Moran suddenly released her when the flow of time finished reversing, two days in the past. She was back in the atrium of the former House of Royal Hunters, in front of the display cases of trophies and animals eternalized by taxidermy.

With just a blink of an eye, her consciousness adapting to this new reality, the girl instantly lost her balance and fell backward, fortunately without breaking the tea set.

The cup and teapot spun across the carpet until they stopped near Lucahn's feet, who quickly put down his book to go help that newcomer.

"Miss! Are you alright?" the boy asked, crouching down and timidly placing a hand on her right shoulder. "M-miss?"

Tristessa still hadn't snapped out of it. Her mind was replaying what had happened in that previous loop at breakneck speed, while she inhaled and exhaled sharply to calm her anxiety, and the strange phantom sensation left by Aurelia's glaive's saber as it split her head in two. A sensation that was slowly fading, taking with it the nonexistent pressure inside her skull and the nausea rising from the back of her throat.

Cold sweat ran down her back as she recalled the Evil Dream… Aurelia Eramisaptor and her descent into madness for revealing the truth of her [Death and Resurrection] … Severus, Auron, and Astoria, dead.

The Mercer-Archeos, decapitated. Their heads covered in the blood of their own bodies, abandoned on that execution platform.

"Miss?"

Tristessa mustered the courage to turn her gaze and meet Lucahn again. No trace of that poor boy, frightened by the Death that loomed over him. No trace of the doom in his frozen face as his head was severed from his neck…

"I-I'm fine, Lucc…Lucahn."

Tristessa almost called him by his nickname, burdened with painful memories that only she possessed. She carefully got up from the ground, trying to keep the boy from seeing how sick it made her remember all the times she saw him die. Victim of madness because of her, murdered and kidnapped by the Coven, burned and executed… Terrible fates that no child deserved under any circumstances.

"…"

The aftershocks of her return from Death still lingered, manifested in her trembling hands as she tried to lift the tea set from the floor to carry it to the kitchen. Lucahn saw her difficulty and picked up the teapot, exchanging a friendly smile with her. As if it were the first time they'd ever interacted. As if they were getting to know each other at that very moment.

"Thank you." Tristessa carried the tray and cup, and winked at the chubby, adorable, curly-haired little boy, who didn't understand that sign. "Don't tell your mom, okay? I feel like she'll kill me if she finds out I almost broke her tea set. It'll be our secret."

"Y-yes, miss."

"Call me Triss, or Tessa."

In the kitchen, Tiara had been so focused on chopping vegetables at the table that she didn't notice what had almost happened in the atrium. For Tristessa, it was strange to see her like this, after so many failed loops that began with her yelling at her for breaking her set. The future certainly changed with any substantial change in events… With a few exceptions.

"Exceptions…" Just thinking about it made Tristessa feel a sharp pain behind her eyes. Her vision blurred, darkened. It tried to make her cry, replaying all the misfortunes she witnessed and for which she was indirectly or directly responsible. "…"

The edge of the knife slammed hard against the wooden board. Perfect cuts made by an expert like that woman with a permanent sullen grimace. Red eyes that focused on Tristessa and Lucahn as soon as they set foot inside her territory.

"Helping the guest, dear?" she asked her son, her coldness crumbling as she offered maternal warmth to her offspring and caressed his cheeks as he placed the teapot on the table. "What a good boy you are."

"Thank you, mommy."

"Thank you for breakfast, Mrs. Archeos," the gray-eyed girl said quickly, setting the tray near where Tiara was cooking, fearing that the persistent dizziness would make her fall. She almost invaded her personal space and earned herself one of those typical looks from that woman that could kill. "I'm sorry, I'm still not feeling very well. I think I hit my head or something, because I hardly remember anything about myself."

"…is that so?" The knuckles of Tiara's hand, enclosing the knife handle, turned white as she gripped it tightly. Anger, a product of the instant judgment she made as soon as those words left Tristessa's mouth.

Of course, Tristessa couldn't have sounded more suspicious and unbelievable, even though in the grand scheme of things, she wasn't lying entirely. But that didn't matter now, not after so many failed and poor attempts to convince Tiara that she wasn't hostile.

"Yes... Well, I think I'll go rest a little longer, if you don't mind, Mrs. Archeos." Tristessa smiled falsely at the woman, almost like a provocation, unable to filter out the implicit hatred she felt toward her. But she did reach Lucahn, stroking his head and laughing at him as he shriveled away, denoting extreme shyness. "Your son is very adorable."

Smiling and lowering her gaze so as not to see Tiara's reaction, she turned and left the kitchen. She ran a hand down her chest to smooth out some wrinkles in her white shirt and felt the cold of his dark mark spreading like cobwebs to her shoulders and breasts.

"I think I went too far in provoking Tiara... Yes, I'm sure she'll come looking for me sooner rather than later," she thought, lowering her arms and letting out a sigh. She passed by the glass case where she had been trapped in an endless cycle of Deaths and Resurrections, there where she always saw that Varg's head staring back at her. A fierce stare that predicted endless failures and perpetual pain. "..."

Tristessa climbed the stairs, her legs feeling hundreds of pounds heavier. Her body was still partially convinced that she was still in that execution yard, kneeling against the cold, damp stone floor. Just like in the beginning, it still took some getting used to, and for both her soul and body to synchronize in the same temporal dimension.

Fortunately, her last Death hadn't been so prolonged and painful as to bring her to the brink of insanity... Aurelia Eramisaptor had made sure it happened in the blink of an eye; not out of mercy, but out of her imperative need, guided by the Gradient of Madness, to eliminate the cause of that paradox that caused her to reveal the truth that shouldn't be revealed.

All that sanity disappearing into nothingness, leaving irrational dementia without absolute control, even in someone as powerful as the Ruler of End-World...

"No more. No more…"

Tristessa didn't want to see a person like Aurelia Eramisaptor descend into madness again. She didn't want anyone else to die, just as she didn't want herself to die again.

There was no chance of getting used to Death. Every time she returned, she felt her soul getting a new scar, a new wound… And the question was, how much longer could she hold out?

A question she didn't want to know the answer to. For that, it was time to get down to business.

One second lost was one second closer to Death. And there was one place in particular in which she could take advantage of the passage of time in the best way possible.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"I must use my [Divinity of the Dark Room] and devise a new plan. Now that I know more about the future…about the [three of them]…and myself."

With that thought consolidated and closing the guest room door behind her, Tristessa sat down in the chair by the window and closed her eyes, enveloping herself in the icy mist that drew her toward her mind palace.

Amidst partial darkness and with a firm step, she walked through the hallway lit by lamps powered by power crystals. She opened the black door at the end and found the Dark Room at its most normal, with the atmosphere wrapped in that reddish gloom, the photo-development elements casting countless shadows around and the classical music sounding lowly.

"Lenore?" she asked, walking around the Negative Altar, whose waters remained static, thousands of photographs jealously guarded beneath its surface. "Where is she…?"

Tristessa's eyes wandered from the dark surface to that door blocked by a metal barrier welded to the wall. It was almost absurd that such a place existed in his mind, what kind of secrets it hid...

"I wonder…"

Lost in thought, soon she found herself face to face with the Black Mirror, which placed her reflection in a pitch-black space. Dressed in a shirt and pants, she reeked of normalcy, and only the shadows floating around her—apparitions of her dark soul—revealed all the torment she carried.

The statistics windows appeared on the other side of the shadowy threshold, showing her the changes she had undergone since the last time she looked in the mirror:

TRISTESSA IRANDELL

MAIN STATS

Strength: 1 out of 100

Dexterity: 3(+3) out of 100

Endurance: 4 out of 100

Vitality: 4(+2) out of 100

Intelligence: 6 out of 100

Spirit: 9 out of 100

Willpower:

2

(+3) out of 100

Luck: 0 out of 100

SUBSTATS

Hit Points: 20(+5) out of 10000

Magic Points: 1 out of 5000

Spirit Points:

80

out of 5000

Stamina: 45 out of 5000

Poise: 9 out of 1000

Immunities: 5 out of 500

Physical Resistance: 18 out of 500

Magic Resistance: 10 out of 500

Instant Death Resistance: 2(+3) out of 500

Terror Resistance: 4(+3) out of 500

Madness Resistance: 7 out of 500

Karma: -25 points between [-100 and 100]

PASSIVES

First Echo of Viktor Enma: +3 Dexterity points. Bonus on daggers and knives.

Second Echo of Viktor Enma: +2 Vitality points. Bonus on HP.

Third Echo of Viktor Enma: +3 Willpower points. Bonus on Spirit Points, Terror Resistance and Instant Death Resistance.

Curse of the Nemesis (Dullahan): -1 on every main stat and -5 for every substat for each confrontation against the Dullahan. Cumulative.

EQUIPMENT

Casual Shirt: No damage negation bonuses

Casual Trench Coat: No damage negation bonuses

Casual Trousers: No damage negation bonuses

Casual Boots: No damage negation bonuses

Hunting Knife: +D physical damage bonus from Dexterity scaling

DIVINITIES

Death and Resurrection (Dark Resurrection)

–

Divinity of Death, granted by the God of Chaos, Vel'Moran. Banished from Death, there is no end to the abyss on the horizon.

Dying is a straight line. Resurrecting is a spiral

.

Baptism in Ruins

–

HIDDEN BY UNNATURAL DARKNESS

Gradient of Madness

–

The forbidden truth emanates from the overlapping of multiple realities. No sentient being can endure it. The logical result is madness

. (Grants +9999 points of Madness-status effect to friends and foes alike after consciously learning about the

[Divinity of Death and Resurrection]

)

Accursed Existence

–

Divinity of Life, granted by the Goddess of Order, Xiliarra. Life is a gift, rejoicing in it is an obligation. Even for those who reopen their eyes and beg for oblivion

.

Arising Capacity

: 1

Soul Strain

:

1 SP per second for Fading Souls – 5 SP per second to use a Divinity

5 SP per second for Lesser Souls

Curse of the Evil Eye –

From the Empyrean of Dead Gods, the Shadow Queen casts her malevolent gaze over Nekrom, wishing for an Age of Eternal Darkness where everything bends to her relentless will

. (+1 point of Terror-status effect while a returned soul tainted with the malice of the Shadow Queen is active. Incremental in value the mightiest the soul to return.)

Whispers in the Dark

–

Divinity of Power, granted by the God of Balance, Kantrus. It is believed that the dead tell no tales. The reality is that it is a matter of who is willing to listen

.

Harvested Echoes

: 3

Spiritual Resonance

–

A premonition of the other side, a message sent with the serenity of the grave. The dead fear oblivion. Show them that they are not forsaken

.

Dark Room

–

Divinity of the Mind, granted by the God of Balance, Kantrus. The mind can always be a darker place than one believes. Its corridors can be endless, a labyrinth capable of swallowing its owner alive, and no one will hear their screams.

Room of Knowledge

Room of Phantom Remembrances

Negative Altar

Projector Room

Assistant's Offce

Black Mirror

HIDDEN BY UNNAURAL DARKNESS

TITLE – Scum

"You are weak. Fragile and unwanted. You are nothing. Your allies see you as a burden, they despise you. Your enemies mock you at your attempts at survival. You are destined to fail."

Tristessa read it and nodded. She hadn't expected much beyond a few stat boosts, but the information about the Curse of the Evil Eye was interesting to know.

"Experience cultivates my spirit. Perhaps I can use my [Divinity of Accursed Existence] without feeling too much fatigue or strain… Though it will depend on who or what I'm trying to bring back," she thought, and focused on the new description under that same Divinity. "Evil Eye…"

She was going to have to be more careful if she wanted to bring corrupted creatures back to the material plane, if she didn't want the Terror that had tried to subdue her on the battlefield of the Evil Dream to succeed.

Falling into the Terror's clutches meant surrender, abandonment… Escape, like a coward, something she already knew very well.

"Oh, (milady/mistress/owner), you've finally returned to me!" From inside the Room of Knowledge, Lenore had emerged and stood by its entrance, smiling at her. With the red light in the room, her short black hair, and her charred eyes emitting reddish glows from the gaps made her gain an even more sinister aura around her beautiful yet equally terrifying persona. "Seeing yourself in the Black Mirror? Every now and then it's helpful to look at yourself and see the (changes/alterations/transformations)… As long as you don't forget that you are you."

"That's the problem, Lenore: I don't know who I am. And the answers are hidden in there," Tristessa said, pointing to the blackness of the Negative Altar. "But you won't let me put my head in and see."

The complaint only made the assistant let out a tender chuckle.

"Forget about the (Altar/Source/Origin) for the moment, my lady. I have something to show you. Something that will help you… Please join me."

"Very well."

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