(background) Cafeteria part 3

Weeks had passed, during which Bram enjoyed his slave dolls and the money they continued to give him by tirelessly prostituting himself. Meanwhile, he ignored the anomaly of his growing number of slave dolls.

The "ability" Bram had gained from the ancient document had its limitations, such as the amount of "liquid" his hand could turn into, allowing it to infect other water sources due to dilution.

This had frustrated him when he tried to infect things like the river, the sea, or large water supplies with the "liquid" from his hand to rapidly increase the number of his slave dolls.

In the end, she decided to infect only the water supply of the cafe where she worked part-time, thus steadily increasing the number of her slave dolls.

But what he didn't know was that what was written in the document wasn't an "ability" to truly control people.

What was actually written in that document was a ritual to create a curse known as "water zombies."

A terrifying curse that replaces, or rather parasitizes, its user by replacing a part of their body with a "liquid" substance that, upon entering other life forms like humans, proceeded to destroy their souls, killing their bodies in the process.

It then spread through the empty "shell" left behind to reanimate it, in the process emulating its original personality while remaining completely at the mercy of the curse user.

In the past, "water zombies" posed a great danger despite being a low-level curse, due to their ability to deceive and increase their numbers at an accelerated rate.

Furthermore, the strength of a "water zombie" varied depending on its host. For example, young children, when transformed, acquired strength greater than they had in life. However, if the "water zombie" in question was a martial artist in life, their strength multiplied to dangerous levels.

These beings didn't even require the basic needs of a living being, being able to survive in any circumstance, and the only way to stop them was to destroy the body to the point where it was unable to move.

But even with all these advantages, it was considered a low-ranking curse due to its two major drawbacks.

The first was that, while they were able to mimic the original host's behavior through the use of their brains, they were unable to adapt to a situation that deviated from their original behavior, beginning to act mechanically like puppets, repeating unrelated, disjointed phrases. This allowed them to be discovered.

While their second and greatest weakness was electricity, due to their liquid nature, "water zombies" were overwhelmingly weak to electricity, and even a small shock was enough to expel the "water" from their bodies and eventually turn the reanimated empty shell into a corpse.

However, even with these limitations, what made the "water zombies" even more terrifying was their ability to reproduce. By kissing another person, they would inject a large amount of "liquid" into them. Taking advantage of their relationship with their hosts, they would immediately turn other people into "water zombies" and thus increase their numbers.

As a kind of plague, they reproduce slowly without anyone noticing until it's too late, only for the curse to have gained enough power to physically separate itself from its human host, killing them in the process.

All of this information should have been written in the document Bram read, along with the warnings about its use; however, "someone" had intentionally torn them out, obscuring only the negative aspects and the name of the curse.

Thanks to that, the newborn curse had the best environment to grow and spread unnoticed, while it pondered the opportune moment to separate itself from its current host.

However...

"How is it possible that I still get lost even with a map?"

<"Why don't you just give up and wait for Lilith to pick you up like always?">

"Because it's frustrating to keep failing like this."

<"Then as a suggestion, why don't you go to that cafe and 'drink' something?">

"What's so strange about that, Echidna?" What's the catch?"

<"I'm not really planning anything, I just want to put someone in their place while you hydrate." >

"Well, fine, why not?"

With the arrival of a silver-haired, white-eyed boy who talked "to himself," their plans would change drastically.

At first, everything seemed normal when the boy took a sip of "water" like everyone else...

"Wow, this tastes amazing!"

But what happened next was unexpected for the curse. It was suddenly attacked by a sensation it should have been incapable of feeling, known as "dizziness," and the next moment it was seized by "something" trying to attract it.

It was then that it realized that what was attracting it was the boy's soul, which was supposed to have been destroyed. But instead, what was happening was that the curse was being destroyed, or rather, assimilated by that soul.

Although it struggled and tried to escape, it was unable to do so, as if that soul were trying to devour its existence to "complete itself."

<"It was very naive of you to try to toy with this soul when it was so weak.">

In its desperate struggle, the curse could hear a voice speaking to it with utter disdain.

<"Even a being of such high rank as myself is incapable of separating; what did an existence as weak as yours expect?">

Hearing these words, the curse, determined to survive, took a drastic measure before it was too late. It severed a small part of itself that hadn't yet been captured, disconnecting from the "hive mind" of its zombies, risking losing control over them and taking great damage to at least survive.

"Ugh... ¡¡Buaaagghh!!!"

"Ahhhh... Eee... ¡¡Buuuaaghh!!"

"Ugh... ¡¡Buuuaaaghh!!!"

This caused all the "water zombies" to tremble and vomit large amounts of "water," but at least it allowed them to survive the crisis.

BUT...

<"Oh, I appreciate your courage to survive; however... DO YOU THINK THAT SAVES YOU FROM PUNISHMENT?">

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And with those words as its verdict, the curse felt an intense burning sensation as if its very being were being "corroded" by some toxin.

"Huh?! What's going on?! Why are my slave dolls vomiting?! And why is my arm burning?!"

But the curse wasn't the only one affected; its host, Bram, in confusion and panic, seemed to be suffering the same way. And it was there that the curse devised a solution.

"Aaaahhhhh! My arm!!"

The curse chose to steal every ounce of life energy its host had in order to separate itself and at the same time transmit the damage it had sustained in the process.

"Please stop! STOP!!"

(TEAR!!)

And as its former host withered like a mummy while screaming in pain, the curse broke free, tearing Bram's arm off in the process.

"AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHHHHH!!"

Creating a fountain of blood in the process, the curse quickly slithered away in liquid form, fleeing through the sewers, leaving behind the dying corpse of what had once been Bram.

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"Huh?! Why are people vomiting?!"

<"Who knows?">

"Then there's only one thing left to do! Run away!"

And as the silver-haired boy (Mireya) fled to avoid being involved in some supernatural event, something happened that no one could have ever imagined.

"It seems we haven't freed ourselves from the control of darkness."

"That's right, now we've seen the true Messiah."

In the cafe where a group of "water zombies" had collapsed a few moments ago, they were now getting back up, striking bizarre poses while reciting verses from Mireya's "Book of Reborn Black Feathers."

And not only was this scene happening there, but everywhere there were "water zombies," a similar scene was unfolding.

This was caused by the unfinished "assimilation" and the separation from the "hive mind" by the curse, leaving the "water zombies" now permanently linked to Mireya.

Who, due to his recently resurfaced "dark" impulses caused by the video game to which he had become almost addicted, ended up influencing the "water zombies," resulting in the emergence of a secret society that worships him as the "messiah."

It was the day the "fallen angel society" was born, unbeknownst to anyone else...

<"This seems interesting.">

As witne ssed by a snake goddess.