[...Well, he isn't wrong that it's a really bad oversight. Her world... Isn't that great at helping out the disadvantaged.]
Well, there's a certain ritual that the Gracia church-- Oh, uh, have I talked about the church before?
So, um. In the world of Aterra, we worship the Star God, but there are six main branches of the church, one for each of the six elements of the world. Among the elements though, two in particular stand out: Ether, and Dusk. Ether is... You can think of it as the element of the Star God itself. Ether guides the elements and brings them together. On the other hand, Dusk is... It has a lot of powers, but none of them are exactly good. Dusk is desire. It lets people push past their limits and ignore pain, but it twists people, makes them more violent, and if people use it wrong, they can force people to do what they want. The Gracia Church is the church in charge of the Dusk element, and most of their duty is discovering various ways Dusk can be used... And making sure that if those ways would be too dangerous if they fall into wrong hands, that they never leave the Gracia Church.
One of the rituals the Gracia Church had was what they call the "Stillblood Ritual". It allows someone to come back to life after death, but there are certain requirements for it. First, it only works on children who had a high amount of star energy in life. Second, someone has to want to come back to life. Third, they have to regularly receive large amounts of star energy from an outside source, or they'll die again.
After all, it's not like the body actually comes back to life. It's actually more like we're possessing our own dead bodies. While we're doing that, we're actually using our star energy to maintain the body. While we can grow, it's more like we're using out magic to imitate life than actually being alive. Because of that, we don't need to eat or drink or anything, and we're almost unkillable as long as we have star energy. We could regenerate from almost any wound as long as we had star energy, and even if someone were to shoot me in the head, it wouldn't actually do much more than hurt a lot. But it also means our senses tend to get messed up: Generally, a Stillblood loses one sense, and has another sense enhanced and mixed with their ability to sense star energy. For me, I lost my sense of taste, but my sense of smell was enhanced, and I could smell the elements.
Of course, I didn't get revived for free. Only the Gracia church could perform the ritual to keep giving us star energy, and because of that, when we agreed to become Stillbloods, we also agreed to be the church's enforcers, making sure that Heretics that would abuse the Dusk element are... taken care of.
Yeah, it is. I mean, what I told you before isn't a lie, but... becoming in Inquisitor is pretty harsh and involves a lot of pain, and the Heretics I was sent after weren't exactly... good people.
Still, it doesn't change the fact that before I wound up getting this new body, I wasn't exactly all that different from the Monsters here.
[What... does she mean exactly... How does she word this...]
I may not have eaten people, but I've killed people as part of my job. Sometimes they would beg for their lives and say that they haven't done anything, and I would kill them anyways. And even if it's true that I didn't have a choice...
Well, this is just a guess, but... I think with my nature, I'm probably more vulnerable to that kind of possession than most. And if I were possessed like that, I might not actually be able to tell what part's me and what part's the monster.
[She's seen what Dusk does to people, it's not pleasant.]
It would be good if we can, but honestly speaking, our chances aren't likely. The only thing testing the puppy samples managed to prove was that fire won't work on it. The knife and taser seemed to work on it, but... There's no guarantee that stabbing or electrocution would work on the Barghest just because it would work on the puppy. And if we fail this... It's going to get away.
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Well, there's a certain ritual that the Gracia church-- Oh, uh, have I talked about the church before?
So, um. In the world of Aterra, we worship the Star God, but there are six main branches of the church, one for each of the six elements of the world. Among the elements though, two in particular stand out: Ether, and Dusk. Ether is... You can think of it as the element of the Star God itself. Ether guides the elements and brings them together. On the other hand, Dusk is... It has a lot of powers, but none of them are exactly good. Dusk is desire. It lets people push past their limits and ignore pain, but it twists people, makes them more violent, and if people use it wrong, they can force people to do what they want. The Gracia Church is the church in charge of the Dusk element, and most of their duty is discovering various ways Dusk can be used... And making sure that if those ways would be too dangerous if they fall into wrong hands, that they never leave the Gracia Church.
One of the rituals the Gracia Church had was what they call the "Stillblood Ritual". It allows someone to come back to life after death, but there are certain requirements for it. First, it only works on children who had a high amount of star energy in life. Second, someone has to want to come back to life. Third, they have to regularly receive large amounts of star energy from an outside source, or they'll die again.
After all, it's not like the body actually comes back to life. It's actually more like we're possessing our own dead bodies. While we're doing that, we're actually using our star energy to maintain the body. While we can grow, it's more like we're using out magic to imitate life than actually being alive. Because of that, we don't need to eat or drink or anything, and we're almost unkillable as long as we have star energy. We could regenerate from almost any wound as long as we had star energy, and even if someone were to shoot me in the head, it wouldn't actually do much more than hurt a lot. But it also means our senses tend to get messed up: Generally, a Stillblood loses one sense, and has another sense enhanced and mixed with their ability to sense star energy. For me, I lost my sense of taste, but my sense of smell was enhanced, and I could smell the elements.
Of course, I didn't get revived for free. Only the Gracia church could perform the ritual to keep giving us star energy, and because of that, when we agreed to become Stillbloods, we also agreed to be the church's enforcers, making sure that Heretics that would abuse the Dusk element are... taken care of.
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so you know a lot about possession already!
that sounds really tough though
is that why you don't like being touched?
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Still, it doesn't change the fact that before I wound up getting this new body, I wasn't exactly all that different from the Monsters here.
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[What... does she mean exactly... How does she word this...]
I may not have eaten people, but I've killed people as part of my job. Sometimes they would beg for their lives and say that they haven't done anything, and I would kill them anyways. And even if it's true that I didn't have a choice...
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do you enjoy killing them?
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But... That doesn't really change the fact that I've killed people.
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that's one of the last things he told me before i died
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And I won't forgive him for that. They have to be stopped, no matter what.
Just... It's possible that when it's all over, I might need to be removed, too.
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[She's seen what Dusk does to people, it's not pleasant.]
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maybe they'll be able to do it! though i don't have any idea where to start, either
:<