Reborn As A Ghost: Time To Build My Undead Army!

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"Hahaha… You're really a crazy woman, aren't you?" he laughed, his original personality returning. "But I like that… among all the flaws you have as a mortal, I suppose there's one thing I like, your pride and your reckless willpower, the determination to do things, courage that stems from seemingly nowhere. I once hated mortals, I believed them to be stupid and sinful beings… But I also pitied them and didn't like what my siblings were doing. Over time, I learned to accept them and even admire them to an extent… and now, I finally understand why I'm here. It's because I was the only one among my siblings to stand up for your kind."

"If they won't stop bothering me until I die, I might as well bring war to them," I nodded. "And… well, my greatest fear?"

I looked down at the vortex, ignoring the eyes of the primordial beings prying at my "ascension," something that went beyond just a Divine Ember, I'm sure.

I looked at the system descriptions again.

[You have obtained a Memory Fragment: 3/3]

[Congratulations, you have successfully gathered all Memory Fragments before the time limit!]

[You are now undergoing Existence Evolution, however, there's a need for personal input.]

[To continue evolving from this point onward, you will be required to recognize the depths of who you truly are.]

[To embrace the Nightmarish Fragment within you and use it to evolve as you wish, you must accept your greatest Fear.]

[This Fear, which has led you to all of your decisions, until this very moment.]

To embrace my Nightmarish Fragment and my Fear…

By Fragment, it means the power I took from the Original Nightmare Curse.

And by Fear… well, my greatest Fear is…?

What is it?

What guided me until this very moment?

What has defined every single one of my Memories so far?

Fear of dying? Not really.

Fear of…

…

Yeah, I know what I fear the most.

Despite being someone who never had that many friends.

And who was always fighting with her sister…

My greatest fear, since my father left me.

It was the Fear of being alone.

The Fear of Loneliness.

It was simple.

It wasn't the fear of dying, starvation, or any other thing.

No.

It was simply the fear of being alone.

I never wanted to be alone.

Since I was a little toddler, I feared being alone, and it tortured me that I was never popular or could not make friends that easily.

When my father left me, I was devastated. I was only a little baby girl at that time, and yet…

I constantly cried to my mother to never leave me like my father did.

Then, when I grew up, I feared being alone too. I didn't want Christopher to one day forget about me, so I tried to make him my boyfriend. I even dreamed about marrying him and living together forever.

I was… a little obsessive in the end, and maybe that creeped him out.

But I was just afraid that he would leave me…

I didn't want to be alone.

And then in the library, when I fought with my sister, I felt sorry afterward because I was overly rude. I loved my sister and would never want her to leave my side.

I was once more afraid of being alone, so I intended to apologize, to bring her a gift so she would forgive me.

As Maria, I never faced that Fear again until the bitter end, when I died and became a Ghost. The first thing I did…

Almost instinctively, as I was so afraid of being alone, was to create Partner, turning my own Skeleton into an Undead that would accompany me.

I continued gathering friends, mostly dead friends, because we were all lonely…

And when you're an Undead, your Fears and Traumas intensify tremendously.

This is how I ended up surrounded by so many people. I couldn't help but seek them to be at my side.

I couldn't bear being alone on my own again. I feared that more than dying again.

It was a creeping and terrifying fear.

And right now, this Fear is manifesting again. The friends I made here, I've become too attached to them, even though I only met them a couple of days ago.

This is also connected to my loneliness, to my longing for company…

I always thought I could be like those people who are perfectly content with being alone, and I respect them a lot…

Those who go on their own journeys and don't really need anybody by their side.

But… I am not like them. I can't really be like them.

In the end, I need them all by my side.

To continue moving forward, to continue fighting even when I'm so afraid.

And even now, with Michael, I wanted him to be by my side, because I knew he was also very lonely and sad.

"Michael," I smiled. "You will never be alone ever again, alright?"

"M-Maria…" he looked at me with surprise. "I see… so that's your greatest Fear? What you'll embody?"

"Yes…" I smiled, as my entire body started melting into particles of darkness and light.

My eyes shone brightly, resembling a pair of crimson stars, as the swirling vortex of energies, memories, and power engulfed my entire being and transformed me.

"My Greatest Fear is… Loneliness."

I had to accept myself, my own vulnerability, my greatest weakness.

They were all gazing upon it. They now knew it.

But it didn't matter, because this weakness, this fear…

It was about to become my greatest strength.

I felt my body melting. Everything became a starry darkness, which then turned red, black, and white and melted away.

I felt a cold wave of… loneliness. Dread consumed me, and then I consumed my own dread and loneliness.

I started crying endlessly.

Black tears covered the cosmos before me, as I couldn't help but weep at my own loneliness.

My nightmarish power manifested, shattering stars and melting them as they forged the evolution of my soul into something even more warped than before.

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