'Seed of Chaos' System

Alesha scratched her (borrowed) head with her free hand, wishing she could just ask the Captain. Mentally, she called out, seeking to contact the Captain in the same way she used to talk with Rogork.

There was no response.

Idly, Alesha wondered where Rogork had disappeared to this time. The System had been behaving oddly ever since she arrived in this "world," but now, it seemed to be entirely gone.

With no response from either the Captain or Rogork, Alesha decided to try another strategy. Could she summon her Status screen? If she could, would it show her stats and skills, or would it show the Captain's? Hopefully it would be at least one of the two. Any information about her current situation would be welcome.

Taking a deep breath, she mentally summoned the Status screen.

It manifested in front of her at her request. However, it was unlike any Status screen she had seen so far. Its base color was a deep maroon, with flecks of gold scattered throughout and a flamboyant, demonic framing. The same purple-red wisps of smoke that danced along her sword form also emanated from this Status screen. Its words were in bright white, with her name in an evil-looking font and everything else in a simple, easy-to-read italic font.

*****

Bana Laoch (Alesha)

Age: 0

Species: Cursed Sword 

…..

Stat Bonuses for Soulbound Wielder:

HP: +257

Strength: +90

Agility: +103

Vitality: +89

Intelligence: +71

Psychic: +52

Mana: +167

…..

Titles: "Hero From Another World," Hated by Gaia, Sacrificial Lamb, She Who Escaped the Seal

Shareable Skills: Parasitism Lvl 1, Plunder Lvl 3, Troll's Regeneration Lvl 14, …

*****

"THE HELL?" Alesha shouted when she saw the Status screen's contents. She tilted her head back and ran a hand through her hair, groaning loudly. This time, not only had her species and age changed, but so had her name? She wasn't sure whether to be happy that her actual name was still included or upset that it was only in parentheses. After recalling memories of Derek from that strange dream a while back, she dismissed them; those didn't count.

On top of that, it appeared that her Stats had been greatly altered; in fact, they had increased many times over. However, it looked like they had been converted into stat bonuses for… what was a "Soulbound Wielder?" Did that refer to the Captain? It seemed likely. The "soulbound" part of that would certainly explain why she was able to hear Alesha's voice when she awakened. 

Curious about her new titles, she opened their descriptions. Aside from the familiar ones, there were two more:

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"Sacrificial Lamb"

A title awarded for having been chosen as a sacrifice by the King who summoned Heroes to defend his Kingdom.

Allies are more likely to subconsciously treat you as a noble sacrifice.

When engaging in self-sacrificial acts, they are more likely to succeed.

"She Who Escaped the Seal"

A title awarded for being lucky enough to escape Ego Sealing.

Any further attempts at Ego Sealing will be ineffective no matter how high-leveled they are.

Allows the holder of this title to engage in Ego-battles to establish dominance.

*****

She practically growled in anger at the first but felt very pleased with the second. Whatever "Ego Sealing" was, apparently that's what she had escaped, and it would never work again. What was this about "Ego-battles" and establishing dominance, though? Was that what allowed her to take over the Captain's body? In any case, she was very glad that she wouldn't unwittingly get sealed again.

Why the hell were half of her "titles" passive debuff effects, though?? Suddenly, she remembered that "Gaia" from her curse-title, "Hated by Gaia," was the name of a fictional old-Earth goddess. Wasn't she supposed to be something like the world itself? With that, she made a jump in logic that, had she been a little more rational at the time, she would have said was probably a stretch. 

However, she was not in the mood to be purely rational at the moment. She was fed up with all the horrible things that kept happening to her like an unending series of tidal waves that, rather than decreasing over time, only seemed to get bigger. 

First, she'd been a victim in the attack on Faxton. That attack had put her into a coma, destroyed her university, and killed all her college friends, as well as rendering years of study and sacrifice worthless. Then, the overbearingly controlling "'Seed of Chaos' System" had attached itself to her and taken control of her life. She'd been turned into a carnivore, summoned to another world and mistaken for a demon, raped by someone she trusted, then returned home as a partial dragon -- only to discover that her city was destroyed, and that her family was likely killed in the process. What was worse was that it was her fault. The Korak which she had fed her brother's friend had led to an outbreak of Chaos Zombies, which had destroyed the city.

Then, as if that hadn't been enough to deal with, in the middle of an interrogation, Rogork had single-handedly decided to "accept" a summoning request (whatever that meant) and she'd been tossed into Zorhellian's vicious Storytelling Games. She'd been emotionally manipulated into liking her role as a werewolf, eaten a person in a fit of rage, then for some reason, put to sleep for six months. After that, she'd been "summoned" as a hero. 

Of course, she hadn't been able to become an overpowered hero and save the day like in the manga she used to read, but had instead been cursed to be unable to level up. She'd acquired the moniker of "Useless Hero" and been ostracized by her colleagues. That wasn't really the part that bothered her, though; it was the fact that the King had the audacity to pretend to be kind before tricking her into plundering a skill that would have been troublesome for him, torturing her for months, and turning her into a sword. 

Her anger at this incredibly unfortunate series of somewhat-related coincidences made them seem like a grand plot designed to make her suffer. Some extra-dimensional being surely had to be behind all of this.

In her search for someone to blame, a few candidates came to mind. Was it the King, who had committed irredeemable acts against her personally? He was one of them. Was it Zorhellian, who was the whole reason she was in a position to be betrayed by the King in the first place? He was one, too. Was it Rogork, who was responsible for accepting the summons, as well as so many of her other misfortunes? Certainly, he was high on the list as well.

However, there was someone else behind Rogork, a being upon whose shoulders Alesha thrust the ultimate responsibility for every single one of her recent agonies.

It was Toltura, the Goddess who had invaded her world and, in so doing, had caused Alesha to end up with the "'Seed of Chaos' System" in the first place. If the Goddess hadn't done that, none of her other misfortunes would have occurred.

"Hated By Gaia?" No, Gaia wasn't the Goddess that hated her.

It was Toltura.