"IT… IT IS POISON!.
.SHIT!—I'M DYING! NO—I'M ALREADY DEAD!..I'm just trapped in this body!"
Lucian's soul was spiraling in despair and the original owner of the body wasn't doing great either.
In fact—
"AGAHHHHH!!"
His scream echoed through the entire orphanage.
---
Father Ralnr sighed softly.
"Hmf. Aurelian child… you were destined by the heavens for a life better than this place, even if there is only a slight chance."
He smiled faintly.
"You can always be my inheritor.
Thornridge Village would be blessed if you became its future leader."
Tears streamed from his eyes.
And this orphanage… it will need a caretaker.
I might still have a decade or two to live.
Enough time to teach you everything I know."
Aurelian felt a weight settle in his chest—a silent guilt tightening his breath.But he didn't speak.
"Child Aurelian, it is your choice to make.I won't force you.You're your own person."
Father Ralnr rested a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Ah Fath—"
Aurelian's eyes widened suddenly.
"AGAHHHHH!!"
A scream of pure agony ripped across the orphanage.
"LUCAIN!?"
Aurelian jolted from the room without a second thought.His breath was sharp and panicked.
Lucian never screamed.Not when he fell out of windows,not when he was hurt,not even when injured.
He simply didn't scream.
That fact alone made this more terrifying than anything else.Aurelian grabbed the door—it was already unlocked, just needed a push.He burst inside—and froze.Lucian was writhing on the floor in terrible agony.
Tears of blood streamed down his cheeks.
Saliva dripped from his mouth.
His nose was bleeding heavily.
"Lu-Lu-Lucian…? What…?"
Aurelian felt helplessness crush him.
He stepped forward, trembling, reaching out with a shaking hand—but the moment he saw his sworn younger brother's face contorted in brutal pain…he froze in place.
Lucian's skin was pale,turning colder,and his breaths were sharp and shallow—as if he couldn't breathe at all.
"Ugh… am I dying again?"
Lucian's soul trembled.
"I was killed before because of someone else's envy… someone else's instability.And now again?"
He felt the same sharp anguish the original owner of the body felt.
Was I even alive?
This life—this reality—it's warm…warmer than the world I came from,where I was nothing but a slave to my own predicament.And now… this?
"Lucain!"
Aurelian snapped out of his frozen daze, eyes wide with terror.
Lucian's breath was shallow.
His mouth couldn't even open properly.
His body spasmed violently.
Without hesitation, Aurelian rushed forward, lifting Lucian into his arms.Lucian felt heavier than usual—as if his body had turned to stone.
Aurelian's heartbeat pounded in his ears.His legs trembled, but he didn't stop.He clutched Lucian tightly against his chest— sprinted toward the Apothecary's hut.
Lucian's soul felt as if his very being was melting—
as if he were sinking into a place where nothing existed.His sense of self blurred.
For a moment, it felt like his soul was dissipating into the void itself.
"I… I don't want to die."
Aurelian's eyes widened mid-sprint.His legs faltered for a step, breath catching in his throat.He slowed, jaw dropping.
"Lucain…?
Did… did you just say something?"
His voice shook.
Lucian was a special child—he could never speak clearly,never express himself like others.But Aurelian could swear…he heard a voice.
A real voice.
A plea.
Aurelian shooked his head,"Might be my imagination!..I'm...I'm.. wait..am I forgetting something?..what else can be more important than Lucain!"
Aurelian jolted to a stop outside the hut, nearly collapsing as the old Apothecary stepped out.
Her eyes widened the moment she saw Lucian—
gasping like a fish pulled from water.
"Good Lord… this is—this is a curse!",The old Apothecary recoiled, staring at Lucian's trembling body.
Lucian's breaths were broken, irregular.His eyes, nose, even his ears oozed blood.The woman had to admit—she had never seen anything like this in her life.
"Get this boy away from my sight!
He reeks of misfortune and bad omen!"
With a slam, the Apothecary shut the door of her hut.
"Wait! Please wait—help! Help us! Help Lucain!"
Aurelian's voice cracked.
His hands were sore and trembling.
His legs finally gave out, dropping him to his knees as he begged.
But the door didn't open.
Aurelian stared, eyes wide, mouth trembling.He never thought the world could be so cruel—so ready to throw away a life.
On his lap lay Lucian,clinging desperately between life and death.And in front of him…
a shut door.
A refusal.
An abandonment.
"Why…? Why, Lord Sun?
Why did she abandon Lucain…?"
He whispered, voice breaking.
Suddenly—Lucian's hand moved.It touched Aurelian's cheek, weak but deliberate.
A faint curl tugged at the right corner of Lucian's blood-stained lips.
"Lucian…?
The left side of Lucian's body trembled uncontrollably,while the right side remained strangely relaxed.
Left side struggling.
Right side calm.
A grotesque imbalance.
Lucian's soul—or whatever remained of it—
was no longer whole.
His sense of self had already shattered.
Half of his soul had fused into the Foolish Lucian's broken body…and the other half still belonged to the original owner—the slow, innocent, damaged boy who once lived in this flesh.
It was a terrible state to exist in.
Neither whole.
Nor half.
Lucian's inner thoughts were fading, dissolving—
as if the "self" was being scraped away layer by layer.
And the Foolish Lucian, the original owner,
had also lost half of his consciousness—
torn apart, eroded, eaten away by the pill's violent force.
Two souls.
Both incomplete.
Intertwined in agony.
Neither of them whole enough to scream properly.
"Lucain? What's wrong with you!? Are you okay!?"
Aurelian's eyes widened in horror.
He knew—without a doubt—something was terribly wrong with Lucain.
"Take this!"
The old Apothecary shouted, throwing a pouch of crushed herbs toward them.
"I don't know much, but… boil it with warm water and give it to him..It might help with the pain."
She didn't wait for a response.
She simply turned around and slammed the door shut.
...
Aurelian caught the pouch, gritting his teeth, and tied it around his tunic.He lifted Lucian again, holding him close, breath unsteady.
Inside Lucian's body…
His soul was still there—but only partially.
The left side belonged to the original owner.
The right side was his own soul,fused together yet separated by an invisible wall.
Right now, the original Lucain was unconscious.
Lucian's soul, too, was barely holding together—
not dead, but paralyzed,struggling as his essence melted, reformed,and slowly adapted to the frail vessel of this foolish boy.
It wasn't his body that was collapsing.
It was his soul.
* * *
"Where… am I?"
Lucian's eyes widened.
He found himself standing in a void—a darkness so complete that it felt endless.
Yet he could see himself clearly.
His body felt familiar.
Too familiar.
As if he had returned to his original body.
He touched his chest, his arms, his face.
"My… my body! It's my body!"
His lips curled upward, wide like a crescent moon.
His stomach tingled with excitement.
"Haha… ha…"
Tears rolled down his chin, and he wiped them away instinctively.
It was the same body he had on Earth—
Tall.
Strong.
Beautiful.
But before he could fully absorb the moment—
A voice echoed through the void.
It came from everywhere and nowhere,
neither male nor female.
"How superficial.
Your flesh is long rotted, foolish soul…
yet you cling to that flesh."
The veil of the vessel faded after the words and finally Lucain soul was formless no longer holding the humanoid form.
" What? What are you?"
" Audacious..You are just too Audacious,asking me what I am after a ghost like you tries to posses my Vessel's body!"
The words were like a storm.
"But,
You are similar yet different to my Vessel's soul as if it's same but different, an anamoly – that's the word that might fit perfectly in your case."
Lucian's soul—now in a strange, half-corporeal state—floated in the endless void.
The body he first saw, the physical form he celebrated, began to dissolve like ink bleeding into water.
It wasn't gone.
But it wasn't whole either.
It lingered like fog drifting along a mountain…
like the weak, flickering flame of a candle struggling to exist.
Then the voice spoke again:
"A mortal soul.
A mortal self."
Its tone was ancient, emotionless.
"A body is nothing more than flesh and bone.
And it is senses that keep it alive."
The void vibrated with each word.
"Hunger.
Lust.
Greed.
Survival."
"These instincts push that pathetic lump of flesh forward…
until a sense of self is formed from experiences and memories."
Lucian felt his soul tremble.
"A sense of self…
is the illusion mortals call 'identity.'"
The voice continued, deeper now—almost resonant:
"And when a mortal dies…
the first thing that leaves it is the senses."
Lucian saw faint silhouettes dissolving around him.
"Sense of pain.
Sense of touch.
Sense of smell.
Sense of taste.
Sense of hearing."
There was a pause…
Then—"Vision is the last to go."
* * *
In the real world, two months had passed.
Lucian was now in a vegetable-like state—completely bedridden.His already frail frame had withered into something resembling a skeleton.
Food was difficult for him to swallow.
Even breathing seemed like a chore.
"What… have you done to him!?"
Aurelian's hair was completely disheveled.
He wasn't doing well either.Ever since Lucian had fallen into this condition, Aurelian's psychological state had collapsed into chaos.
Lady Evelyne pressed her lips together, a faint regret in her expression.
She had disappeared shortly after promising to adopt Aurelian—summoned away for some important matter.
But Aurelian didn't know that.
To him, she had betrayed him.
And whatever happened to Lucian…
whatever curse or suffering he was trapped in…
Aurelian believed she had done this to him.
"Aurelian… this is a tragedy.
It should've never happened."
Lady Evelyne lowered her gaze, a heavy shadow falling across her elegant face.
"Tragedy?"
Aurelian's eyes widened.
Bloodshot. Trembling.
He stared at Lady Evelyne with raw desperation.
"Lucain? What happened to him!?
What did you do!?
Will he—will he ever walk again?"
His voice cracked.
Tears rushed down his cheeks mid-sentence.
"What happened to him!?
Tell me!"
Lady Evelyne inhaled slowly, bracing herself.
"His mind is ruptured," she said quietly.
"His consciousness paths are destroyed.
It is a miracle he's even alive after consuming the Blood Blight Pill."