Lying on the ground of the attic, draped in Benjamin’s ulster coat, the girl slept peacefully.

  Beside her, Benjamin’s corpse shuffled about the attic. He dragged an old chair to his side, set it near the girl, meticulously cleaned the floor, and rearranged the furniture like a host preparing for a guest.

  Next, he lit the candles one by one, circling them around the girl. Their flames flickered in unison, bathing her in pale light. Finally, he lowered himself into the chair, resting his bandaged head in his withered palm.

  ‘Do we even need to do this?’

  ‘Shhh, Izzy, this is why you have no romance at all, always so boring!’

  ‘…’

  ‘No, we are one in the first place.’ How many times had she repeated that? Why did her younger self always mock herself?

  ‘I’m not like you! I’m smarter, more good-looking, and way more easygoing!’

  ‘And more dimwitted.’

  ‘What?!’

  ‘Was I really this narcissistic in my younger days?’

  A flicker of amusement crossed her mind. Well, to be fair, she had been far more than just narcissistic. Anyone who knew her in her younger days was already dead, after all.

  Smart? Sure, surviving in that hellhole of an apocalypse was an achievement in itself. How she had managed to endure, she had no idea.

  Good-looking? Needless to say.

  Easygoing? It was easier to slit someone's throat if they underestimated you first.

  ‘What about dimwit?’

  Anyway, it seemed her young mind was attempting to make the attic look more “romantic” in a mysterious way.

  ‘Hey, don’t change the subject!’

  The night stretched in silence, broken only by the occasional chirping of night creatures. Cold wind periodically blew in from the open window, making the candle's glow flicker slightly, casting shadows across the attic.

  The weather was unusually calm and pleasant. With the old man gone, every day seemed to settle into a new, peaceful rhythm. An eerie peace, yes, but peace nonetheless.

  Benjamin stood silently in front of the girl, draped over by the coat. His expression was unreadable. In a literal sense, his head was fully bandaged, after all.

  Even the little mouse, perched beside her portrait, looked confused by the scene.

  With deliberate steps, the old man approached the girl, his hand raised over her body. Then, he slowly opened his barely functional mouth.

  ‘Arise!’

  “Grrrwwww!”

  ‘Pfft.’

  Despite the serious atmosphere and mysterious ritual, the guttural growl that escaped Benjamin’s corpse was too funny for Izzy to ignore. Perhaps Isa thought a male voice would be more fitting?

  ‘...’

  ‘Ahaha!’

  ‘D… Don’t laugh!’

  ‘My young mind,’ Izzy choked between laughs, ‘did you forget his vocal cords were destroyed by us?’

  It sounded like a constipated ghoul instead.

  ‘What a dimwit.’ Well, thanks to Isa, at least she had a good laugh once in a while.

  ‘You! We are one! Don’t call yourself that!’

  ‘Right, right.’

  ‘Grrr!’

  Returning to their business, both Izzy and Isa focused their minds on the girl’s body, expending a significant amount of their accumulated energy in an attempt to possess her.

  They were trying something unthinkable: it was to revive the girl, to possess her body and mind, force blood to flow again, reignite her dead heart, and restore this girl’s original mind.

  Since they had already proven they could forcefully kill another creature’s consciousness and claim the vessel for themselves, Izzy reasoned they could potentially bring the girl’s consciousness back to her own body.

  Without hesitation, Isa dove deep into the girl’s brain, meticulously searching for any trace of her mind, any lingering flicker of consciousness.

  The black-haired girl’s eyes snapped open. Her gaze flicked immediately toward Benjamin, standing silently by her side.

  However, as Izzy grimly assessed the situation, the truth became apparent.

  ‘We fail.’

  They failed. As expected, reviving the dead was an absurd myth, a forbidden act, with an almost non-existent chance of success.

  Izzy recalled that in her former world, there were always stories of rituals that could bring back the dead, but they only achieved a horde of mindless zombies, not true resurrection.

  If they really had the power to revive the dead, then…

  Isa’s consciousness slipped fully into the black-haired girl. She sat stiffly at first, brushing aside the coat before pushing herself to stand.

  Her legs trembled. Perhaps because the body had been starved, chained, and unmoving for so long, her limbs felt sore and sluggish. She stumbled over nothing and fell.

  ‘Careful now.’

  Benjamin hastily moved to her rescue, catching her just before she hit the floor. His hand settled on the girl’s frail shoulder.

  ‘Ugh!’

  ‘Hiss!’

  This action might have been a mistake. A strange sensation jolted both of their minds.

  On one hand, it was painful; the swollen bruises and scars on her shoulder were touched directly.

  On the other hand, it was… strange, an unfamiliar yet profound sensation that sent a shiver down their minds.

  Still, it was far better than letting her fall to the cold floorboards. Who knew how much more pain that would have caused?

  ‘This girl’s body is quite sensitive.’ Izzy noted to herself.

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  Her throat was sore, parched from prolonged lack of water, putting pressure on her vocal cords. Benjamin promptly fetched a cup of water.

  The girl’s small hands trembled as she raised it to her lips, drinking in slow sips.

  “Ah… ahh.”

  She parted her cracked lips, forcing her vocal cords to work. The sound rasped, but luckily, it was still working.

  “I… Izzy! I’m Isa!”

  “Nice to meet you, Isa.”

  “Yes!”

  Isa’s joy radiated through their shared mind. This was her first time truly speaking with her mouth, experiencing life as a living being.

  She then jumped and moved around the room with her newfound body, giddy at the miracle of life, like a child discovering a new toy.

  This body was far different from their previous vessels. The human body was vastly freer and more natural to move than a mouse’s body. As a former human, Izzy was accustomed to it far better than any rodent.

  ‘It’s quite complicated to remember.’

  To simplify things and make it easier to control their powers, Izzy decided to separate each of their puppet’s terms more clearly:

  When they performed Possession into a living body with a dead mind, they would refer to it as their Vessel.

  In this state, they controlled the body as if it were their own body. It didn’t feel like they were handling a puppet at all. This avoided the awkwardness of calling themselves a "puppet" when inhabiting a body they felt alive.

  When they performed Possession into a living body with a living mind, they would simply call it a Puppet.

  This applied to creatures like the mouse, whose minds were still alive but suppressed. They would leave a "puppet mark" on it, allowing them to resume control at will. The only downside was that it consumed one of her overall Possession slots, of which they could only manage five at the moment.

  When using Corpse Control on a dead body without a mind, they would call it a Marionette.

  With Benjamin’s corpse, since his body was beyond saving, it was like controlling him as a marionettist. They had to be consciously aware of each limb, each movement, and each of his remaining senses as though pulling invisible strings one by one. This allowed granular control, but it required tremendous focus and constantly drained her energy.

  With this girl’s living body, they could now possess her with their own senses, inhabiting her as if truly fused into a single being.

  They also could use her eyes, this Vessel’s sight, as a primary way to navigate the world, see far and wide beyond their limited sensory bubble, rather than relying solely on her Field Vision.

  They couldn’t use them earlier as Benjamin, since his head was partially damaged and his eyes were ruined.

  There were, however, both advantages and drawbacks to each approach.

  The primary advantage was that, since they controlled the body like their own, reigniting its heart and brain, they did not need to continuously expend energy to maintain control.

  It was unlike controlling a corpse, where they needed to continuously trickle their energy to ‘maintain the strings’ over the marionette.

  This made Vessel possession far more efficient for long-term use.

  As for the weakness, when inside a Vessel, they couldn’t sever one sense at will. For example, they couldn’t selectively numb the sense of pain, or hunger, or tiredness.

  Whatever the Vessel felt, they, or rather, the mind that controlled it, would feel it directly. This extended to their senses of smell, sight, or touch as well. It was an all-or-nothing experience.

  That meant, when in control of a Vessel, it was as if they were truly alive in that body. The only way to not feel these sensations was to sever their connection to their main consciousness in the portrait.

  And of course, when cutting off the connection, it would immediately fall limp. At that point, it would require them to expend energy again to reanimate it as either a Vessel or a marionette. This was assuming the body wasn’t too damaged, well beyond what a living being could take.

  Another thing was that if their Vessel died, Izzy suspected they could still control the body even if it was killed, technically leaving a puppet mark on it and reanimating it into a marionette. Although, the fleeting sensation of death would likely not be very pleasant.

  There was also another urgent problem that emerged the moment they possessed this girl’s body: their energy reservoir.

  The energy needed to possess and fully revive this vessel’s bodily activities was far greater than they had expected. Unlike marionettes, which they controlled manually, Isa completely fused with this girl’s mind and body, plunging their energy reservoir down to a critical level.

  If her prediction was correct, they only had enough energy to last for at least five days with their current reserves. That estimate already included the costs of controlling Benjamin’s corpse, using Fiend Vision beyond the base fifteen meters, and other basic expenditures.

  Although it was an investment, Izzy hadn't anticipated such a severe drain. She would need to consider her next steps carefully. If the worst came, then yes, they could always revert to their less-than-pleasant activity of "eating" insects and small animals for sustenance.

  “Well, it doesn’t matter! Most importantly, Isa can eat sweet things again!”

  Izzy sighed inwardly. Yes, as alive humans, they could now experience anything a living being could, including the pleasures of taste.

  She also subtly noticed something else: they seemed to be speaking in a foreign language.

  When Isa spoke through the girl, the words came out in a tongue entirely foreign to Izzy’s former life, and yet she understood it clearly. The rhythm and timbre reminded her of Benjamin’s speech, though neither of them could read or write it yet.

  It was like learning through immersion and understanding rather than formal schooling, similar to how a child first learns to speak before reading.

  If needed, Izzy could switch back to the language of her former world, the universal tongue of the Co.Nest. She still remembered how to write and read it. Perhaps that might serve as their personal cipher, their own cryptic language here in the future.

  Meanwhile, Isa dashed around the attic, laughing freely while reveling in her new body. It was only when she ran out of breath that she gasped and leaned against the wall. Her chest was heaving rapidly as she suddenly threw up. Nothing came out except a little water she had just been drinking.

  That made sense. A patient who had just regained their vigor shouldn’t be running around, especially not naked.

  ‘Why didn’t you warn me?!’

  ‘How could I? You were too excited to care.’

  The girl’s body was pitifully frail. Thin bones under malnourished flesh, starved for days on end. It was a miracle the corpse hadn’t decomposed yet. And it was still unknown why the other corpses had been reduced to piles of bones and ashes, yet only this body remained preserved in the basement.

  Izzy didn’t know why. Maybe this girl hadn’t been dead for too long.

  ‘So crude, hic,’ Isa hiccupped, still catching her breath and stumbling slightly.

  Her excitement had been so raw that she forgot the obvious that tiredness and hunger had limits, leading her into this weakened state.

  ‘Anyway, come back here.’

  ‘Yes, mom.’

  Izzy directed Benjamin to descend the stairs, searching for food and clothing, while Isa stood in front of the painted Isidora, locking eyes with the painted Isidora.

  In the meantime, Izzy wanted to examine her newly acquired body. It might seem inappropriate, but since this was the Vessel they would inhabit from now on, Izzy felt the need to understand it.

  The girl had a small, delicate frame, frail and slender, standing no taller than 1.3 m to 1.4 m by Izzy’s estimation.

  Her face bore blemishes, marks of hardship and suffering, yet in stark contrast to her delicate contours, her vivid green eyes exuded a sharp air, a piercing gaze like polished jade. In the hazy glow of the flickering candlelight, they seemed to faintly glow.

  Her hair was as black as a raven’s wing, falling against pale shoulders, her skin as white as fallen snow, preserved like a corpse long past life. Black and purple bruises bloomed across her flesh, with scars tracing throughout her body.

  The girl’s frail body seemed barely able to hold its own posture, yet when standing silently and gazing back at the portrait, without a tremor in her stance, she exuded the stillness of a predator that had learned to wait.

  ‘This is interesting.’

  It was almost unsettling, if not for the fact that they were the ones controlling her.

  Izzy raised a hand to her face, feeling the rough texture of blemished skin. It wasn’t like she was unfamiliar with it. Izzy was quite experienced in her past life, after all.

  Well, not in a sensual sense, just some odd jobs of handling bodies.

  ‘You could just say you were still single, mom.’

  ‘Fuck.’

  Ignoring her young mind, Izzy let her fingers trace down the girl’s neck, down to her hand. She pinched the skin lightly; the pain sensation sent a jolt to her brain, a sharp feeling of truly being alive again.

  Curiosity stirred within her. She lowered her gaze.

  ‘Right, as expected.’

  It felt a little weird not to have a thing dangling around, not that she minded. It felt freer this way; she didn’t need to worry about being targeted specifically in that part anymore.

  ‘Hmm?’ Right, if the living puppet could sync with her, then…

  Izzy looked down, her finger quivering, as she swallowed her saliva.

  ‘Should I try it?’

  ‘Bad thought, Izzy, bad thought! Go away!’

  ‘…Sorry. My bad.’

  She had momentarily forgotten that this wasn’t a child-friendly environment. She needed to protect Isa from bad influences.

  ‘No, it’s just… It’s not the time for this. We should take a bath, Izzy.’

  ‘…’

  Well, what else did she expect? Isa was her, after all.

  (I just realized "puppet" and "marionette" are two different definitions. It’s not the same, lol). So:

  Possession of a living body, dead mind - Vessel. (she controls it like her own body).

  Possession of a living body, living mind - parasite / puppet mark/puppet.

  Possession into a dead body, dead mind—marionette. (She controls it like moving strings in her hand, need more concentration).

  I think ‘Living body’ is quite… meh? What do you suggest?

  Yea, now it was pretty confusing between "they" and "she". Imagine when she gets a male body in the future, haha!

  If there are many mistakes, pls tell me about it, gonna fix it ASAP. Thanks!