143 Devils Hour 2 (1/2)

Was she already succumbing to darkness? Falling into a muddy quagmire which would permanently entrap her underneath in this lifetime?

These were the questions Sofony asked herself when she accepted the last mission for level 2 that the system had issued her.

When she closed her eyes, the system's voice seemed to echo in her mind.

While feeling cold all over, she watched as the last man fell dead on the floor after being stabbed in the heart repeatedly by a short-haired girl. The system then asked her if she wanted to erase the memories or leave impressions that it was alright because they're bad people and were scums of the society.

To this question, she only shook her head and stayed silent.

Whether to remind her of her crime or her vow, she refused its offer and decided to keep the memories and everything that came along with them. She wouldn't erase anything, to always remind herself of how in order to not die by the system's ruthless and unseen hands within 24 hours, she completed a quest to kill ten people, which she accomplished by using borrowed hands.

'Time?' she asked with her eyes closed.

'Your hour, you mean?' she sarcastically asked.

The system sneered at her while she only opened her eyes to look around, braving the bloody sight before her. After a minute or so, she realized that probably close to 25 minutes passed since she turned herself invisible. The powder could only maintain her state within thirty minutes. Pursing her lips, she decided it was now time to leave this place.

She took one last look at the group of women nearby whose faces had become tear-stained again. They were no longer the same as half an hour ago, whether it was in looks or mentality. A few of them had blood splashed on their tattered and worn down clothes. Some even had on their faces. Unlike a while ago where everyone's eyes were full of fear, despair, and resignation to an imminent sorry fate, there were now hints of joy and relief in them. Fear was still present. But it was no longer the one directed towards the pigs and demons in human skins lying coldly on the floor. It was the fear of having taken somebody else's life.

Sofony tried hard to maintain a stoic face even though nobody would be seeing her. It was because, deep down, she knew. She, Sofony Mendez, was the one who gave them all of these. Joy, relief, salvation, freedom, and fear. She saved them, or rather, she helped them saved themselves. But her reason was not a great or noble cause, only selfishness and fear for her own life.

Suppressing the heaviness in her heart, she took a deep breath and opened up her mouth. These women needed her words, as she knew that they were still under her hypnosis. They were all pitiful people. It would be unfair to make them remember what happened to them and what she made them do.

”... Bury all the memories you experienced with these people, together with the events tonight.”

'... Only I shall remember.... imprisoned by the guilt and mental pain,' she thought with her eyes closed.

”Leave. You are all now free...”

...

Several weeks ago, when Sofony had just begun her conflict with Clarissa, knowing that she had already sunk deeper into this water and could only let herself sink more to protect herself and the people around her, she knew that ridding some of the restrictions she had imposed on herself would be inevitable. That all she could do to not totally blacken was to wisely set the bottom line.

It was like there was a vertical structure in front of her with the word morality on top and immorality at the bottom, and because her situation dictated it, she had to lower the bar corresponding to her morality level. She did, but made a mental note to place the new bottom line to where some moral codes would still be restricting her.

Two of these codes were to never involve the innocent, and to only do the minimum when completing a mission.

Currently, she was wondering how well she had executed these two in today's task of killing in order to live.

'... I violated the first one,' she bitterly thought a few moments later.

She said before that even though the future missions would make her do immoral acts, she could at least dictate how she would complete it. Although some complications and contradictions arose, she'd still proven this point today.