"I'm... fucked ? What do you mean by that ?"
"Lightbringer...I will be frank. I have seen all sorts of soul seller during my life, some powerful enough to pose a serious threat to me, other so weak they were barely more dangerous than a wild beast.
But the person who created this..."
Shapeshifter suddenly stopped.
"The person who created this..." continued Alice.
"...is powerful. Very powerful. Did you get cursed by the God of Darkness himself ?"
Alice wasn't really surprise that Shapeshifter mistook Isa's sorcery for a god's one. When Alice saw Isa in her dream, she had the same kind of feeling.
A feeling... of power.
Whoever Isa was, one thing was sure: she was scary strong. Her mastery over sorcery was probably way better than what Mirror had been capable of.
One thing was strange however... Sorcery had a price, the soul of the user, and that price made it so most soul seller died really early.
Maybe Isa was already dead...
"No, I did not get cursed by any kind of god... I was cursed by a person named Isa. But I don't know a lot about her, honestly."
"Me neither. I have never even heard that name until now."
"So... what are the exact effect of that curse ? I'm sure you know, since you're so amazing."
"Why would I tell you ?"
"Why not ?"
Shapeshifter stayed silent, and changed his body again, this time, to someone Alice did not recognize.
"First of all, this curse can only target Lightbringers, or their bloodline."
"I already knew that."
That was a lie. A lie that franky seemed like it served no purpose.
But it did.
Alice knew from the fact that Shapeshifter was able to turn into Will that the monster had some way of reading thought. She wanted to know the exact limits of that power, so she was experimenting.
"You already knew ? Well, whatever. You don't know what the curse does, right ?"
"No."
"It makes you immortal."
Alice blinked.
"What ? Is that a joke ?"
"No, just an overstatement. You could probably still die if you sell your whole soul, but I doubt any kind of physical damage can really harm you.
That curse in your is one of a rare kind... it's a living curse that is designed to heal you, making you almost unkillable, but it slowly take control of your body everytime it does so. And when it fully take control, it's over. There is no way to go back. Even Isa wouldn't be able to fix you then. It's simply impossible."
Alice remembered the fight that Mirror had against Brandon. In that fight, Brandon did die of some sort of physical damage: having his heart crushed.
But maybe it was only thanks to Mirror's weird... incantation, at the end. Or maybe the curse was weaker in his case since he wasn't a Lightbringer, but just Stranger's son.
Still, Alice had several questions.
"And my face ? If I'm unkillable, as you say, then why doesn't my face fix itself ?"
"No idea. Unless... Maybe you got that beautiful injury before getting cursed ?"
"Wait... does that means that if I got that injury after being cursed, the wound would have healed ?"
"Yeah, but the curse would be way closer to fully take control of..."
Alice stopped listening.
Alice put her finger against her throat.
She had an argument with Killer shortly after leaving the City of Flowers, and during that argument, she put her dagger against her own thoat.
Yet, no mark of that event.
This was also probably why she wasn't dying of hunger.
Shapeshifter was right. She was near-unkillable, she knew it. Only, something as twisted as Lotus was slowly taking over her body everytime this power came into play.
Still, the lose of an eye and half of her face could have been prevented with a bit of luck. But she was unlucky. Really unlucky. Alice almost broke into an insane laughter.
Almost.
Somehow, she managed to stay calm.
"Cursed world..."
"..."
"How long ?"
"How long until you completly lose the control of your body forever ? Three months, at most."
"And the minimum ?"
"There is no minimum. If you take more than two or three lethal injury, the curse will take control instantly."
"Great."
Alice sighed.
The more she spent time in the Sky, the more she understood how much worse this world was, compared to Earth.
Let's hope the other Lightbringer know the way back, hoped Alice.
"Shapeshifter, do you think the people in the Temple of Light can heal me ?"
Shapeshifter looked up.
"I heard a lot about these guys... Bad things, good things. There is a possibility, as crazy as it sounds, that they may be able to help you as long as the curse doesn't win by the time you meet them. But I wouldn't bet on it. If I was in your place, I would try to find Isa instead."
Isa... Alice only saw her only two times, in her visions. She knew almost nothing about her, exept for the fact that she was involved in the City of Flowers' downfall and that she did a lot of mean thing to Stranger and her family.
Despite this very limited knowledge, Alice was absolutly sure of one thing: Isa was dangerous. Really dangerous.
"I don't really want to meet her."
Shapeshifter laughed.
"Well, can't say I don't understand. What kind of person create a curse like that ? It's so... unnecessarily complex. That person must be crazy..."
Alice threw a glance at the nothingness around her.
What Shapeshifter said about the curse that made her blood black was concerning. It put a timer on her already dangerous adventure, after all. And finishing like Brandon seemed like a fate worse than death.
But that curse also had uses, apparently. For example, without it, Shapeshifter would have tried to eat her, and she probably would have died here. It also made her crazy hunger somewhat bearable.
Not everything was grim and bleak: there were upsides to this situation.
Alice remembered Mirror's fight with Brandon. In that fight, Mirror showed her that even things that seemed impossible weren't, even if she lost her life in order to kill Stranger's son.
Alice remembered when Mirror punched her, back in the Forest of Glass. She remembered the face she made at this exact moment.
"I won't lose, Shapeshifter."
"What do you mean ?"
"I won't lose to this curse."
The Lightbringer and the weird monster who wanted to eat her previously looked at each other, and then, Alice frowned.
Something was odd, with this place.
"By the way, Shapeshifter, do you know where is the exit of this Room ?"
"You mean the Door ? Sorry, but I kind of ate it."