The one with the shield stepped back.
"N-no! Lacan!"
The one with just the sword, Captain David, lowered his head and brandished his sword.
"Jinn…"
Peace didn't take time staring at the spectacle and instead scurried away with his newfound vitality. Unfortunately, his strength was barely enough to climb the tree, but he'd be safe for now.
From his vantage point, Peace looked down on the three men.
'What's happening?'
The two men with swords were now slowly stalking toward the archer with their weapons drawn. The archer was stumbling around, backpedaling as if he didn't know where he was.
"S-stop!"
The archer tripped on an exposed branch and fell on his back, crushing the vial and causing the corrupted essence to seep into his soul.
"Why are you trying to kill me!"
The two men silently stood above the confused archer, who sounded as if he were crying. In the next moment, the archer started to jerk around and writhed in pain on the floor violently.
His body spasmed. His back arched, his fingers clawed into the dirt. A scream tore out of him, raw and guttural.
In the next moment, he calmed down and spoke in a solemn tone.
"O-oh… It's all a dream. Ah, what a weird dream. It feels so real."
Not even a second after the archer said that, Peace heard a weird clink and watched as the helmet was blown off, rising somewhere into the trees.
For the first time, Peace caught a glimpse of his face. He had short blonde hair. His features were sharp, and at one point probably dignified. But Peace wasn't able to gaze for long.
The man's face was soon touched by corruption, and his visage was instantly turned into that of a living nightmare. His skin grew a wild, inky black color. His pupils swirled like they contained the void itself. His jaw popped and stretched into a wild maw with serrated teeth.
The cracking of bones and tearing of flesh sounded as more and more bits of the archer's armor were torn and cracked, unable to hold his bolstering body.
His gauntlet burst, so did the skintight jumpsuit under it, and from it birthed a thick, mangy claw.
He was corrupted… He was turning into a corrupted Vanadar.
Peace watched intensely as Captain David swiftly brought his sword in a sweep, decapitating the archer before letting the transformation finish, causing his body to slump lifelessly to the side.
At the same time, the archer's fiendish head rolled down to the cold, corrupted ground. Yet, despite being lifeless, the black liquid that touched exposed flesh began to consume it…
The corruption wouldn't stop its machinations just because something was dead…
The two swordsmen kneeled before the corpse.
"Damned Jinn…"
"We can't even retrieve his corpse."
Peace could only stare, bewildered at the spectacle that just played out before him.
"Rest in peace… warrior."
The two men stood up…
The one with the shield asked:
"Where'd that vermin go?"
Peace reeled back and hid behind the leaves of the tree.
"It ran away… knowledge of its existence is enough, we can return to find it some other time…"
"Yeah…"
The two men stripped Lacan's corrupted body of its intact armor bits, weapons, and tools, storing everything in some weird sack that held way more than it should, before setting off in the direction they'd been heading before.
After they left, Peace didn't run from his hiding spot. He sat in the tree, hidden from potential threats, while trying to sort out his thoughts.
'Bodysnatcher…'
Peace could tell that the freakout wasn't caused by nothing.
'What if…'
Peace, when he awoke, had just been standing in the middle of the forest. There wasn't much to go on in that regard. But who's to say that he didn't take over this body?
And, if that were the case, then… then was it possible that other people took over human bodies?
In an odd, messed-up twist, Peace's hope grew…
If he was right, then that meant his sister might be alive! She might not look the same as before, but she might even be human!
His form was a little bit of an issue, though… But also, Peace was relatively unbothered by his absurd situation as if it were… right? He didn't feel disgusted with his form, nor did he wish to have a human one… It's like the very thought and wish was forbidden from his mind.
Peace closed his eyes and summoned the status window again, looking over it carefully.
Name: [Pax Garnier]
Level: [1]
EXP: [0/51]
Class: [Terror]
Traits: [???]
Essence: N/A
-Stats-
Strength: [10]
Dexterity: [10]
Constitution: [10]
Spirit: [10]
Item level: N/A
'This is unfair, no?'
He knew what 'N/A' meant… not available.
In the game, certain special classes would have an N/A over the Spirit because they were incapable of using it… This meant he couldn't use items, nor could he consume essence — the only two ways to raise stats other than the small amount from leveling.
This was bad, very bad. It also didn't make sense.
An essence had a chance to drop when slaying a monster, and a person's class was based on the first essence they picked up; they'd gain affinity towards weapons, spells, and essences of said class…
For example, if someone picked up the essence of the Rank 9 Skeleton archer, they'd get the archer class. Then, if they killed a regular Rank 9 Skeleton Warrior and got their essence, they'd become a swordsmen.
With the class, they'd get boosts from having similar essences and weapons, armor, and items fitting their type.
There were also hidden and special classes, but they were usually only unlockable by absorbing a high-rank essence as their first essence, which was practically impossible because the game was reset each playthrough and was offline.
At least it was impossible for one's own character. The player could feed the essence to an NPC party member and help them achieve those classes…
As for the traits, they were abilities unique to each person, and there are two types: Earned and Lineage.
Earned traits were side effects one could gain by consuming an essence that persisted even if the essence was erased. Lineage traits are hereditary traits that have the potential to be passed down to an individual's offspring.
These traits could be an extra ability or possibly a bodily mutation. They manifested in many different ways. But…
'[???]'
Looking beyond the weird nature of his trait, why did peace have a trait and a class at all? That should be impossible with the inability to consume essence.
As for the trait itself…
'I've never seen a locked one before… nor have I ever seen the class Terror.'
The weird voice in his head had spoken when he was eating the Onno that he filled 1/100… did this mean he had to eat monsters to unlock it?
For some reason, he was more upset that he'd have to find 99 more dead beasts than having to eat their corpses.
Speaking of that…
Peace was incredibly hungry. So much so that Lacan's corpse, now fully a Vanadar, below him was…
'No! I don't care if I'm a monster now, I'm not eating a human!'
Despite his current form, Lacan had been an undeniably normal human. Shaking that from his memories and devouring him wasn't something Peace was mentally capable of, even with the weird mental block placed on his mind.
While Peace felt at peace with his situation, he felt consuming a human would truly turn him into a derranged monster.
And he wanted to be of sound mind when he reunited with his sister…
That was assuming his sister was in a similar situation to him. Well, that was highly unlikely, but Peace didn't even entertain the notion he'd never see her again.
Done resting, Peace slowly stood up and began lurching toward the trunk of the tree to climb down when a sudden dizzy spell washed over him. Awkwardly, Peace stumbled on the branch, swaying left and right, before falling face-first into the trunk…
Peace felt the cold embrace of concrete and broken glass against his cheek.