CHAPTER 33: HER CURIOSITY

"AHHHHHHH!!" Beatrice shot up from her bed, screaming as her hands clutched her stomach. Sweat streamed down her forehead, soaking her pillow and the sheets beneath. Her chest rose and fell in frantic bursts, every breath slicing through her throat like glass. Cold tremors raced through her veins, up her arms, down her legs, crawling across her back like electric spiders.

Fear. Raw, suffocating fear. She hadn’t felt something that brutal in days no, maybe ever. It was sher quickest death, but the pain it gave was horrendous, burning, rip in two, then crush in rubble all at once was horrific experience.

Her entire body was trembling. The phantom ache of that last strike, that spear tearing through her gut was still there, ghosting in and out of her nerves.

"I... oh god..." she gasped, fingers pressing against her abdomen as if to make sure she was still whole. "I died again... no...what the fuck was that!?"

Her voice cracked halfway through, echoing through the small, dimly lit room.

She sat there for a while, blinking through the dizziness. Her heart was still hammering. Every beat reminded her she was alive again. But the trauma remained strongly.

The images came rushing back... the facility, the black fog, the Butcher’s carcass dissolving into light, the ruin city, the spread of the blight, the floating city, the flames of Mourn, and the unending waves of those damn Reclaimer and then, out of nowhere, that colossal spear descending like divine judgment itself, as it killed her.

It hadn’t even given her a second to react. "How, where did it even came from!?" She asked more confused than scared now.

But she knew she couldn’t just stay here forever. As such she forced herself out of bed, her knees almost buckling under her own weight. Her room was quiet, save for the faint hum of the fluorescent light above. She stumbled toward the kitchen counter, grabbed a glass, and poured water with trembling hands. The cold liquid steadied her somewhat.

"Fuck... She muttered after gulping it down. "I just beat the tutorial, and now I’ve gotta deal with whatever the hell that was. Can’t I get a fucking break!?" Beatrice argued, her Maher building up by the second, and rightfully so.

The glass slammed against the sink as she leaned forward, still panting. Her reflection in the metal faucet looked pale, ghostlike.

Beatrice dragged both hands through her hair, her thoughts spinning. The frustration was bubbling over now, burning through the remnants of fear.

"This is insane." She whispered. "Every time I think I am done, something worse comes along. What kind of shitty game is this?" She asked.

She bend over her ass visible in the light as she was still naked. "Sometimes D, I feel your just sadistic as fuck, you enjoy watching me suffer don’t you, how fucked up in head do you have to be to make a world like that, and call it a fun heaven for the determined."

But soon as she think about D, her mind change, like a switch, her expression changed as well. As the fear quickly faded.

Her eyes narrowed. "Wait... She muttered, her voice soft, almost disbelieving. "If I am back in the real world... and whatever I earn there transfers here...

A grin crept across her face, slow, deliberate, almost predatory. "Then that means... She flexed her fingers. A faint vibration energy pulsed under her skin, violet and volatile, a surge of warmth that wasn’t there before in this world atleast. She could feel it...the Mundus energy coursing through her bloodstream like wildfire. As her energized cells was full with the energy of that world.

"Hehehe... I take back what I said, D, I fucking love you, you sadistic douche." The laugh started quiet, but soon grew into something unrestrained.

She extended her hand, and her body responded instinctively. White fur burst forth rapid, wild, wrapping around her limbs like a parasite. The air shimmered with power as a dense black fog followed from her pores, curling around her form like a living cloak. The room darkened in response, the fogs shadow stretching unnaturally long across the floor, as it spread and move to her will.

Her armor manifested piece by piece, fur-lined plating emerging over her body like a second skin. When she spoke again, her voice was muffled beneath the fur-like layer that covered her face, but the excitement in her tone was impossible to hide. "Amazing... She whispered. "Oh my God... I actually have powers now."

She clenched her fist, feeling the fog respond in rhythm with her mind. "Still, these can’t really be counted as Spirit Techniques can they!?" She mused. "D is clearly not your average Outer Spirit. Even by the Divine classification I am familiar with, he is... different. I don’t even possess his powers directly, like I ad his contractor normally should, and yet because of his nature, I can channel what I earn through his game worlds as if it was my own."

She raised her hand, watching the black mist coil around her palm. "Truly." She said softly, "It is amazing how far I’ve come in just seven days, and it is all that is to him, really D, what are you, for some reason I feel like your something more than even the highest Ranking Spirit, Outer Spirits are Rule Breakers naturally speaking, but what you have shown me so far are things beyond what an Outer spirit should be capable of, it is like you are your God in a way, Outer Spirits manage the world as the world’s Gods, yet, you can just make your own world with your own rules, how the hell are you even doing what you are doing, sigh, I am kind of impressed, scared, and curious at the the same time."

Beatrice said to herself, as she keeps wondering about Dante. Still for the first time in a long time, she showed a genuine smile. "Still I am beyond grateful for his help, as I am now... She smiled, sharp and sure of herself. "I am confident I could probably take on my aunt now, maybe."

But just as she was talking about her aunt, her phone suddenly began to rang. As such she picked it up and answered. "Yes auntie... Haaa, wait for real, are you sure I am ready... No, no, as a matter of fact, this is perfect, sure, I will meet you at the take off point then, yeah, see you in an hour."