Izzy fell deep into her thoughts. There was also the matter of Benjamin’s energy.

  Leaving his frailty from the poison aside, the sheer difference in their capacity after draining his green mist was unbelievable.

  It's still absurd how their strength increased exponentially just by absorbing the energy of a human being!

  A darker thought lingered in the back of Izzy's mind: Was this ability designed to encourage them to consume other humans for their own advancement?

  Izzy didn't know, that solution brought its own wave of moral questions. Perhaps those as twisted as Benjamin could be seen as suitable prey, but even then, was it truly ethical?

  Her hesitation wasn’t exactly based on morality. It was also not because she felt guilty as a fellow human being, or at least, used to be. No, her primary concern was more pragmatic: the church.

  Benjamin had mentioned the church before, describing it as an active force dedicated to eradicating people or entities like them. She didn’t want to paint a target on their back by using their powers recklessly, especially if the church’s reach and force were as formidable as Benjamin claimed.

  They would not kill innocents, for sure. Deliberately killing them would cross a point of no return. She would no longer be able to justify their actions, and their existence would inevitably be hunted down.

  More than that, though, Izzy couldn’t bear the thought of Isa being influenced by such malevolent acts. After all, she would not want her young mind to be affected by these evil thoughts.

  It was more of a responsibility. As much as Isa annoyed her at times, Izzy wanted to lead her to a better path than what she herself had walked in her former sickening life.

  There was another thing to consider: despite having absorbed the old man’s green mist energy, Izzy noticed something peculiar: her energy reservoir was still far from full.

  To put it in simple terms, before absorbing the energy, she and Isa had essentially been operating in a perpetually "hungry" state, relying on Benjamin’s “meals” each day just to remain fully aware.

  Their ability to self-feed helped mitigate some of the consumption. By conserving as much energy as possible, they had been able to successfully execute their little plans.

  After killing Benjamin and absorbing what he left behind, Izzy and Isa had experienced a sensation akin to being drunk. The sudden influx had overwhelmed them, forcing them into unconsciousness.

  The strangest part was that their reservoir remained unfilled. The realization unsettled Izzy. If one life was not enough to fill them, then what was the true upper limit of their energy reservoir? How much more would it take?

  Even with Benjamin as a "meal," they still weren't sated. It was impossible to disregard this feeling of incompleteness in their shared mind.

  At the very least, she knew one thing for certain: if killing was all it took to replenish themselves, then their energy consumption wouldn’t necessarily be an issue.

  And with no pressing need for energy for now, she could afford to test her powers without restriction.

  ‘Izzy, how can he manage this whole mansion by himself?’

  ‘Since he was fast, maybe he used it to clean the mansion?’

  After the attic had been scrubbed of its gruesome stains, Isa guided Benjamin’s corpse through the mansion freely.

  Since no one else was here beside them, they were free to explore without the need to sneak like intruders. Benjamin was gone, and this vast mansion was now entirely their domain…until the Herald came here, in which she’s still not sure when.

  For Isa, the experience was exciting. Every ornate hallway, room, and corner was an adventure waiting to unfold.

  Meanwhile, Izzy turned her mind inward, sitting inside the theatre in their mindscape, taking the time to reflect on their recent confrontation with Benjamin. Their chaotic and emotional struggle had illuminated critical aspects about both herself and Isa.

  Let’s address their own advantages first.

  For one, the discovery of their expanded abilities had opened a new realm of possibilities for how they could manipulate the environment around them and defend themselves against dangers.

  Still, the energy constraints tied to these powers made her acutely aware of how quickly she could be rendered powerless.

  Isa had also played a crucial role in Benjamin’s demise. The young mind’s impulsive demeanor often surprised Izzy with creative solutions, even if those solutions bordered on absurdity.

  Although Isa’s emotional vulnerability revealed a potential liability. Training her young mind was essential, ensuring Isa didn’t become a weakness in more dangerous, ruthless encounters.

  Izzy shifted her mind into another matter, as the stage of the theatre also changed its scenes. Benjamin sat slouched in his chair, his crimson eyes flashing faintly in the shadows, a moment from the past.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  As one would expect, he had some really strange abilities. However, it was not outside of her calculation. Although there were some twists and turns, the plan was still executed successfully.

  However, those little setbacks were what Izzy worried about. She was lucky this time. There were various ways for Benjamin to turn the situation around in that last moment, after all.

  Determined to address her vulnerabilities, Izzy began systematically analyzing Benjamin’s abilities and her counters to them.

  First, she noted the glowing crimson light in his eyes, which seemed to trigger his powers.

  It was subtle, but now burned into her memory after countless encounters. That flash of red, chilling against the night, had come to symbolize danger itself in her mind.

  ‘It looks like someone from a horror movie stepped out into reality,’

  It wasn’t really a metaphor, after all, Benjamin’s zombie appearance right now looks exactly like one.

  Secondly, despite his aged appearance, Benjamin was extremely agile. He could move at incredible speed, leaving behind only a blur. He had moved from the basement to the fourth story in the span of 10-12 seconds.

  Izzy countered this by wrapping his ankles with thread, limiting his movements when trapped. Luckily, he didn’t have the super strength needed to tear the thread apart once ensnared.

  When trapped, his speed returned to normal. She guessed that since this was a magical ability, not a physical trait, he couldn’t activate it when his movement was restrained.

  Thirdly, he could create an air bomb in the direction of his hand. The trigger posture was easy to spot: he would raise his arm and make a grabbing action in the air. The pattern was clear enough to notice.

  Fortunately, it wasn’t very precise. By maneuvering her mouse puppet to dodge before his grip closed, she forced him to miss.

  This ability troubled her most, and was the reason she had prepared a variety of weapons in advance. Yet, he never used it directly against her. Izzy reasoned that he avoided it deliberately, unwilling to damage her, his secret weapon that he had nurtured for so many years.

  Fourthly, Benjamin could potentially control fire. She was still skeptical about this, as it was unclear whether it was one of his abilities or something she had missed. He had used it to burn the mouse’s corpse after dealing with it.

  Let’s not point out the orange bottle he usually carried in his pocket. Since she had no idea of its use, she listed it as a potential subject to be learned later.

  ‘And that one.’

  Yes, there was still one ability she could not overlook, one that burned itself into her memory.

  The ability that warped their emotions the moment his crimson eyes locked with the painted Isidora’s.

  That one was the most terrifying, because they had no defense against it. It slipped in their shared mind like a thief in the dark, they did not even notice it beforehand, until it had already taken hold.

  The emotional shift had been so gradual that it felt like their own feelings. Even when Isa’s worry bloomed uncontrollably, when her own anger spiked so sharply it clouded her judgment, she still believed those feelings were natural. After all, one rarely questions their own emotions.

  Izzy, the mature mind, was usually calm and composed. Isa, on the other hand, was Isa, her demeanor was consistently impulsive and full of energy. Normally, they wouldn’t have been bothered by Benjamin’s theatrics, even if he died right in front of them.

  Isa’s habit of calling him ‘Grampa’ was something Izzy had noticed early on. It was a seed he had planted in them before they awakened. But she hadn’t focused on it, and hadn't realized how deeply it could affect them.

  She hadn’t imagined he would use that method in the end, exploiting Isa’s affection to consume her mature mind and escape the canvas, reaching for the doll in his grasp.

  Her carelessness had nearly cost them everything. And for that, she could only blame herself for missing such a small yet critical detail.

  ‘It’s not your fault, Izzy.’

  ‘...’

  Ignoring Isa’s interruption, she pressed deeper into her own thoughts.

  That’s why Benjamin had been so confident in his frail act. He knew that Isa, or the original Isidora in the painting, if Izzy hadn’t been around, would have fallen for it because of her affection for him.

  It was bizarre to Izzy that her young mind felt genuine concern when the old man was on the brink of death. Only when their emotions spiraled into chaos did Izzy realize something was wrong.

  Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, their dual nature allowed them to feel each other’s emotions and thoughts.

  If not for the strange duality of their minds, two halves sharing one core, able to sense and push against each other’s emotions, she might have been lost. The storm of rage and tenderness was almost unbearable, but it gave her a fleeting window to recognize the manipulation and fight back.

  If there had only been her young mind, or only her mature mind, the outcome would have been drastically different. She would have become his puppet immediately.

  Even after Izzy broke free from the trance and regained some control over their shared mind, concentrating on her main objective and executing her plan was still incredibly difficult.

  Thankfully, the continuation of her plan, wrapping the threads around his legs, coincidentally helped them break free from the trance again.

  After successfully killing him, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. It felt like she had just overcome an incredibly difficult challenge, akin to defeating a lifelong enemy.

  It felt… ecstatic, for lack of a better word. Especially the sudden drunkenness after absorbing his energy.

  ‘Don’t… don’t think about that, Izzy.’

  ‘Right.’

  Was Isa blushing just now?

  Whatever. She didn’t care.

  Didn’t care. Important things must be repeated twice.

  Izzy glanced at her young mind, feeling she understood a little more about the mystery of their existence.

  If she had to guess, Izzy was originally the first entity in the painted portrait. But perhaps Benjamin hadn’t expected that the ‘Isidora’ he nurtured housed the soul of a transmigrator.

  So, after Benjamin fed her some kind of affection, and since her soul retained memories of her past life, the mature mind didn’t lose herself but instead created another, more compassionate version of ‘her.’

  Thus, Isa was born.

  That was only her guess. Perhaps it was the case, or perhaps not.

  There was also the matter of the doll in his hand. The porcelain replica, eerily identical to her painted self. But she pushed it aside for now. That was a mystery to unravel later. It was not her priority.