"Don't worry about Mama…" the woman trailed off, weakly raising her brows as she finally sensed the presence near her feet.
Slowly, she moved her gaze, catching a young man standing near her.
"Mama?" the child in her stomach called out.
She didn't answer, holding Mikel's blank eyes as the latter stared back.
[Scanning…]
[Detected: Shard of the Mourning Eye in her stomach.]
[Threat Level: 0]
Mikel registered Doom's readout but didn't let it matter yet. He kept his gaze on the woman, who instinctively held her stomach protectively with her frail arms.
"Say, Doom…" he muttered, eyes still on the creature. "Can she mutate? Or is this really all there is to her?"
[Not likely. She is neither a cursed nor malevolent spirit, but a broken one.]
[The Broken]
[Overview: Neither a ghost nor an evil spirit. They remain tied to the world of the living—not from unfinished business or confusion, but due to an inability to cross into the afterlife.]
[Note: Even when corrupted with the Shard of the Mourning Eye, they are incapable of mutating into higher beings due to their fractured foundation.]
Mikel figured.
From the outside, the aura around the junkyard was strong and off, giving the impression that something cursed was inside this place. However, after facing a handful of cursed and malevolent spirits—including the Blighted and the Nightbound—he knew Doom wasn't lying.
The monster wasn't this thing, but what was inside her.
"Please don't hurt us," she whispered, still holding her grotesque belly protectively. "My child—he did nothing wrong. Spare us, please."
Hearing her pleas, Mikel felt his chest clench. With the ghost's river memory still lurking at the back of his mind and her emotions, he felt a strange sense of familiarity that he shouldn't feel. Even so, he maintained an unchanging front, despite the turmoil.
"I'm a…" shaman.
Yet he stopped, because deep down, Mikel never saw himself as a shaman. More like he was just as damned and cursed as the ones he faced.
"There's something inside you that shouldn't be in there," he continued, dropping the introductions. "It's the one hurting you—"
"No!" the woman crawled back, grunting as her shoulder blade popped out of her thin skin. But she didn't stop. "Please, not my child! He's not hurting me—I swear!"
Mikel sighed and took a step closer. His action only caused the woman to squeeze herself into the corner, fear dominating her face. He stopped and crouched down in front of her.
"I'm not talking about your child," he clarified, his voice quiet and cold, yet not threatening. He pointed at her huge belly and continued, "But something else… something that's hurting both you and… him."
[It.]
He put down his hand. "You will still be together… in a place where you won't have to worry about what's outside beyond that womb."
Hesitation flickered in the woman's eyes, observing Mikel's non-threatening approach.
"Mama." Suddenly, her enormous belly moved a little. "I think he's not a bad guy."
"Don't listen," she warned under a jagged breath, pressing her hand on it. She shook her head, not trusting Mikel. "I don't trust you."
Not when his aura reeked of corruption and decay she had never felt before.
Mikel reached out slowly, making her pull her feet closer to her. He paused, meeting her eyes again. He extended his hand—the hand that was free from his cursed bracelet.
Despite her trembling, he gently touched the tips of her toes with his index finger. The second he made contact, the woman's trembling stopped.
Her fear was gradually replaced with surprise. Her eyes dilated a bit, her tensed shoulders relaxing at his cold yet gentle touch. His corrupted aura was still there, but she could feel his compassion just by this single and innocent touch.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he whispered. "As long as you trust me… Peace, I can make it happen. Don't you want to play with him?"
Her lips quivered, pressing into a thin line. Her mind wandered to the image of her and her child laughing in a sunny meadow. They were running, free of pain, of fear, of everything that haunted her. Just the two of them, alive in that warmth.
Just him and her.
Little did she know, a small piece of the Book of the Dead's page was between her foot and Mikel's finger, making her see what she wanted to see: peace. The peace she had secretly sought.
Was it true?
Mikel had no idea. In fact, he had no idea what was beyond leaving the afterlife. He only ever convinced himself there was peace beyond crossing over—but he'd never seen it.
Taking advantage of her fragile hope, sustained only by the illusion of peace, his mouth parted as he chanted,
"By the breath of mercy…"
"Mama, I'm scared…" Suddenly, the child spoke with a shaking voice. "The bad guy is back."
The woman's peaceful thoughts halted as her breath hitched. Her slightly dilated eyes moved from Mikel to the figure standing behind him. Her eyes widened with fear, but before she could say anything, her body split into two with a clear cut.
Time slowed for Mikel as his eyes slowly widened, watching a straight line bleed across from inside the woman before she snapped in two with an awful crack. He held his breath, shocked by the grotesque sight before him, but frozen in place by the danger right behind him.
[WARNING: THREAT DETECTED… RECALCULATING…]
[THREAT DETECTED: ERROR]
[THREAT LEVEL: ERROR]
[Survival rate: NEGATIVE]
Doom generated more data, which only showed the same error until it finally cut it off with,
[MASTER, RUN.]
A plethora of notifications popped up on the translucent screen in quick succession, but one thing was for sure.
A monster—a real one, a different one, and a more dangerous type—was there.
With a flick of his wrist, his cursed bracelet snapped into combat mode. But just as he twisted on his heel to confront it with an assault, a blow already landed on his side, sending him crashing through the thin walls of the shack straight to the mountain of junk right outside.
The crash shattered the stillness. His breath was knocked out of his lungs at the impact, and a cascade of junk rained on him, compounding the damage.
[Initiating Recovery Protocol Overdrive…]
[System Notice: Retreat.]
[System Emergency Protocol… preparing for launch…]
"Ugh…" Mikel grunted, gasping as system pings bombarded his ears. He moved the junk on top of him with his arm, propping his other arm as he rested on his side.
The assault hurt like hell.
None of the cursed or malevolent spirits he'd fought had ever hit this hard. The pain was different, as if the assault had fractured his ribs, and the Recovery Protocol was barely catching up to fix him.
As Mikel struggled to get up, a soft laugh echoed in his ears.
He froze, wide-eyed.
Slowly, Mikel turned his head, his eyes following the heap of junk until he saw someone seated on top of it.
It was a woman.
A blindfolded woman… with a massive, levitating eyeball hovering just above her outstretched palm.