Memories

Selena began to have memories poured into her head. Not her memories, but her swords.

As the sword had been feeding off of Selenas soul, it had taken many of her memories with her humanity.

Selena saw in detail memories from the sword as if she was just now experiencing them, everything felt so real.

She could see herself from 'Spectres' view. She was bloodied and beaten, she had cuts and bruises all over her body in the memory.

She saw even more memories, from before she was beaten and bloody. She was fighting the emperor. He had made a deal with her that if she could cut him once, he would revive her entire town without problems and she could live with them worry free for the rest of her life.

She fought with everything she had, but this was at the beginning of her journey to bring her people back, and the emperor made quick work of her. She never stood a chance to begin with, the emperor just wanted a toy to play with because he was bored, she wasn't fun to him for very long however and eventually walked away and leaving her to die after besting her.

She should have died there in reality. If someone hadn't come to help her then she would have. She'd have died in just a couple minutes, but there was a village nearby that saw her battle, they had decided to help her after seeing her fight so bravely against such a force as the emperor himself.

Selena had passed out from her injuries, and it wasn't until Several hours later that she awoke In a wooden cabin.

She was greeted by all sorts of villagers, they were all wearing winter clothing naturally since this was a village in the north. They had gave her a set of clothes as well, a bed to sleep in, and even patched her up as best they could.

She remembered how kind they were to a complete stranger like her and how much they helped her. They didn't have much of anything but even gave her food and water, all while they smiled and laughed.

It didn't last long however, Selena could feel that the damages to her from fighting the emperor were much worse on the inside then on the outside. Her soul had been damaged greatly from her use of her own soul and what the emperor had done to her.

Selena never expected the emperor to be able to attack her soul directly, and was unprepared when he almost completely emptied her soul in just a couple seconds.

There was only one way she knew of healing damages to her empty soul. Human Sacrifice.

It would be so easy to go and steal a fox's or wild dogs soul, but that wasn't how it worked. Unless Selena were trying to heal a dog, she couldn't use another dog's soul to heal anything.

She could use anything soul to upgrade her physical abilities or her blades reach, but to heal herself, she absolutely could only use another humans soul. This rule applied to healing anything that lived.

She didn't want to sacrifice those people, but they just wouldn't let her leave. No matter how much she pleaded and bargained with them or claimed that she was ok and healed, they wouldn't let her leave for at least several days.

At this point in time she could feel the bloodlust in her sword, and soon after that, it had taken control of her mind.

The memories after that are muddled, because they aren't her memories directly, they are 'Spectres'.

She massacred that village. She was able to heal her soul after she regained her consciousness but she hated herself for murdering those innocent villagers, and as a result she subconsciously forced those memories down. Eventually, they were devoured by 'Spectre' and she lost a part of herself.

This was one of the first events of many that forced Selena to lose bits of her humanity. She started becoming numb to her own mental pain, and the pain of those around her, she no longer cared to take someone's soul to heal her own, it was second nature to her to take a life.

Eventually as she went down that road she met the emperor again, but this time instead of asking for a fight, he offered a deal to protect this bridge for a ritual he wished to hold. The emperor knew there would be people who found out and tried to stop him and he told Selena of a power he held that could reverse everything she had ever done, including the slaughter and sacrifice of her own town.

After 5 years, this is where she was now, fighting to reverse all of her damages, even if he had lost his town because of her, Chavez still would never be able to understand what she was going through.

Her winning benefitted Chavez, but Chavez would never see it that way or understand, Selena didn't expect him too, he would need to die to fulfill the contract after all.

The emperor wanted the head of whoever attacked the bridge, plain and simple, Selena wasn't to allow them to get away, and losing meant death whether her enemy showed her mercy or not. There was no avoiding this, and there wasn't a loop hole around it either.

She was to numb to apologize to Chavez like she wanted to.

The apology wouldn't mean anything to him anyway, and they were still in a fight to the death, she didn't need to explain herself to someone she aimed to kill.

If she didn't keep this same mindset throughout the entire battle, she might crumble away.

She snapped back to the bridge and looked up at Chavez.

"I had to, Chavez....but everything happening right now benefits the both of us the most if I walk away from this bridge alive and with your head in my hand!

Selena extended her hand towards Chavez and forced her soul into a blade extending from her finger tips into Chavez's chest. It pieced through him like butter, he was already caught off guard, and didn't expect an attack.

Selena was able to steal some of Chavez's soul before he jumped back looking confused.

He was confused because the soul blade thay peirced him didn't physically harm him and he didn't even feel it, he didn't have any clue whay she just did.

She forcefully pushed the bit of soul she stole from Chavez into her own soul. She'd never tried this before, but there was absolutely no way to buy time for her at this point in time, she needed to heal now.

'It worked!' Selena laughed out loud, she couldn't believe it.

Selenas wounds suddenly began to heal, they healed quickly, and she slowly stood up from the position she was in and stared down Chavez.

"OK! I'm ready now, let's go again!"