Chap 12- Curse:
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{Location: Ex-Village of Joa, Front Entrance; Time: 11:29 p.m.; P.O.V: 3rd Zero}:
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After all the fighting happens, we now see the village on fire, various ashes in every corner, signaling that there had been a house there before.
Further ahead, we see six people in armor.
The missing heroes, they look at the burning village. - "We did it bois, let's go back now, I already got a pretty nice boost, the other four will probably come after destroying everything *sigh*""- The smallest of them leaves walking first, towards the port they came from.
The other five look at each other and shrug a little, and follow the example of the first.
As they are leaving, one of the stone walls near where they were collapses, and Zero, who was leaning on it, falls backwards, she doesn't have the strength to stand up anymore.
Her body finally gives up, she can't scream, or she will attract the attention of the other heroes, and she bites down on her right arm.
And deactivates the [Manas Armament].
Her muscles break, tear, and blood spurts out of her skin in a bloody scene.
"UGHHHHHAHAGGGHHHAHAAH!!!!UAGHHHHHHHHHHGGHHH!!!!"- She screams, her body spasming, her glove being the only thing keeping her from ripping a chunk out of her arm.
She stands there looking up at the stars in the sky, her body giving small bursts again and again, her muscles trying to regenerate, something slow, but still much faster than normal creatures.
The sky is her only company, she looks at the stars, trying to count them to pass the time, the loss of blood makes her hallucinate several things, she sees Mariie found beside her with a smile, she even strokes Zero's head.
An act she appreciates.
Her mentality seems to be healing little by little.
What had happened to her? She basically got a reset for a while, by seeing something that messed with 'Zero' herself, her instincts started to take over, she wasn't there to think.
And when she got back in control, her mind had matured along with her power, but forced maturation is sometimes not the best.
Her mind is now a complete chaos zone.
She says she gave her body to her instincts? It's just her own instincts realizing that the owner of her body isn't doing anything for her survival, so they throw her out of the control.
Finally, after receiving a blow strong enough to wake her up to reality, Zero came back, determined on what to do, did she look mature? Yes, her fighting style and use of skills, for sure.
But her mentality? What is wrong and right? For her, her head is still sorting out certain things.
For her Mariie smiling is a good thing, a child playing is the natural thing.
Even if she thinks some complex things sometimes, it is just the knowledge she has gained speaking louder.
And what is knowledge, without the experience to use it effectively?
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She laid there for another hour, thinking and seeing those she knows.
She sees in the corner of her vision someone she has never seen.
A dirty little girl, in dirty clothes that look like they have been burned and thrown on the ground, her black hair shortened to her shoulders, her face hidden with a shadow.
Small pointed ears stick out of her sides.
She smiles at Zero and whispers in a childish, calming voice. - "Your journey is not over yet."
Zero gets up from the ground with a jump, looking everywhere with sweat beading down on her forehead.
Looking up at the sky, it is getting daylight, the orange on the horizon indicating a new day.
She looks down at her body, her wounds have been closed by the looks of it, she tries to get up, but after sitting up, she no longer has the strength to move.
Choiceless, she stands there, with a poodle of blood in the floor with her thoughts, but at the moment, she doesn't know what she should be thinking.
At the moment, Zero doesn't realize something, her brain has done something in her absence.
It has blocked 100% access to Zero's memories with the residents of this place, because of the size of the trauma it had caused her.
This was helped by the unconscious use of {Predator Adaptation}, which made Zero adapt to the trauma in the best way possible, by blocking it.
This is the same skill that causes the confusion of Zero's emotions, since she is always adapting, for the simple reason that the skill has both passive and active effects.
If she feels happiness? If the skill sees it as something bad, it "fixes" Zero, blocking access to such emotion.
Obviously, such a Skill don't work 100% efficiency, sometimes only doing the suppression of something.
And it evolved as Zero evolved.
She only knew that she arrived in such a place and asked for a room and was attacked by the heroes.
A curse with a blessing face.
One day such memories would come back, and it won't be pretty.
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After staring at the sky for a long time, Zero gets up.
'Oof *cracks neck* Those heroes sure did some good damage! *cracks arm*'- She looks around, seeing the destruction, but it's as if the scene doesn't enter her head, to her everything is "normal", the bodies? She doesn't see them. The destroyed buildings? She thinks they were destroyed with her battle against the heroes.
After stretching, she goes towards where she last saw her cloak.
Walking through burned houses, and bodies that are now there for nature to consume, by means of an animal or the earth itself.
She reaches for her cloak, crouches down and picks it up. Tapping it a few times to dust it off.
She places it on her back with the hood on her head.
She looks in the direction where she had woken up, there is a dirt road going that way with footprints.
Furthermore, she decides to follow this road, it's probably where she should go anyway...
She remembers something when she steps on the trail, the heroes she battled were not the only ones.
Furthermore, she had hidden and watched six others.
With determination, she follows the path with more conviction than before....