Chapter 12: A Man of the House (3)
Thud!
Estelle had fallen umpteen times, her entire body bruised and in blood. Wounded and sore though she may have been, trembling, she strained to rise to her feet like a zombie, hung her hands low, and blew up her disheveled hair, revealing blood trickling down her nose and corners of her lips.
She was shivering from pain and fury, but none of these were enough to stop her from leaping at Benjamin. However much Estelle pounced to draw Benjamin's last breath, he was one, perhaps three, steps ahead of her and perfectly controlled the flow of their battle.
It was because he knew Estelle's only means of dealing damage to him. It also didn't take a genius to know that her range was shorter than his.
Capitalizing on those shortcomings, Benjamin was cruelly beating her to the pulp.
His purpose? In addition to clarifying his presence and goals, Benjamin had been gathering information about the liberated soul and her origins by fighting her.
"It appears you aren't the existence born within Estelle," Benjamin began the speech, which would frighten the liberated soul to the core, "You said it yourself. Killing Estelle would at most get rid of you for a decade… but this much is now confirmed."
The existence could have endured Benjamin's one-sided beating and got to her feet whenever he made her fall, which had shown that she was used to the pain, unlike Estelle.
Since Estelle hadn't pushed herself over the limits in her entire life, how could another self be so tolerable?
Her endeavors while taking over Estelle when she had been living with her father could have helped her become used to pain, but Benjamin didn't think it was the case, even if he knew nothing of those shenanigans.
Only because he was deeply peering into the soul's origins.
"In my short but long enough stay with Estelle, I've mainly learned about her belief and family, which makes me believe these two are the most important to her," Benjamin took out another talisman and clenched it, "The latter is unlikely to put you within her. Why? They're too weak, from what I could tell. That leaves another option. The Goddess…"
Those words put Estelle on the edge. She was about to throw herself at Benjamin, but his next words stopped her and induced an unknown sense of relief. Much as it relieved her, however, the dread rooted itself deep within her mind.
"Like the enemies of The Goddess," Benjamin added, his eyes gleaming as he had noticed the change in the liberated soul's behavior and noted it.
It must have appeared that he had been wanting to talk about potential enemies from the start, but Benjamin, as someone who couldn't believe in deities, wanted to pin the blame onto The Goddess.
He, however, had changed his mind once he felt the thick killing intent induced by fear oozing out from the liberated soul's eyes. His mind quickly spun and added potential enemies, which could also be true.
Nonetheless, the relief and change in the liberated soul's behavior spelled more troubles than he had imagined. It'd be better to not stir her further and achieve the main goal of this event.
With the talisman clenched, Benjamin dashed at the wolf woman and entered into a tornado of kicks, throwing her off balance. Once she fell, Benjamin sneaked the talisman through her defenses and plastered it on her forehead.
A moment later, her right eye turned green, meaning Estelle had partial control over herself. A streak of glittering tears trickled down her cheek as mental and physical wounds grasped her from all counts.
Benjamin softly smiled, "Sorry for not telling you about it beforehand, but I couldn't risk this woman thwarting my plan… my plan to show you that you have what it takes to take control over her and that I'm by your side to beat her in your place should something happen to you. Your craft is amazing. It really is."
It wasn't just her right eye that Estelle had managed to get back through her talisman. Her right arm and side were also part of it, which meant that the hidden talisman meant to cause damage was now in her grasp.
Believing in the person she had found feelings for, Estelle strained to raise her right hand to pass him this weapon.
Aware of this from the beginning, Benjamin snatched the talisman and smiled at her.
That was when Estelle's green eye widened in shock. Because of this change and unique scenario, she had received access to another soul's thoughts and information.
Just like The Goddess had told her, her elder sisters were also haunted by similar existences. Those were the causes of their current coma and pain, but one of them was in such an advanced stage that her life was in danger!
Her older sister, Moon, was about to be entirely taken over by another existence within her!
"Get out-" the liberated soul spat through Estelle's lips.
However, Estelle's feelings for her family were much stronger than she had anticipated, and the wolf priestess snatched her lips back to convey a message to Benjamin.
"Save… Moon… please…" Estelle begged him, her brain burning from the connection to the knowledge she was too powerless to understand.
Her resolve reached Benjamin, though. Because he had taken a liking to Estelle, he planned to help her cure her sisters and perhaps use that to break her free from the shrine.
The new information, however, told him that many more events awaited this shrine and that it could become the center of attention in the future. His ambitious side would never let this chance go.
"Leave her to me," Benjamin reassured the wolf priestess before taking the talisman off her forehead. That unique connection and twin personalities within one body caused them both to lose consciousness.
Benjamin took Estelle into a princess carry and took her back to the shrine.
He didn't carry her to her room but to the special place in which two elder sisters were painfully sleeping in a coma and being treated by Estelle's talismans just to stay alive.