'Why the fuck am I ginger, I hate the parents who abandoned me even more now. Fuckers were bad parents and had bad genes... Assholes'
Julius looked down at his reflection in the water. He was currently being bathed in a wooden bucket filled with warm water.
Besides him was the same nun, Maria, the newbie nun of the Church of Eve.
She was in her early twenties. And looked like a perfectly normal woman, black hair, brown eyes, beautiful face.
'These guys... There are a total of three people besides Maria here. Father Gregory, he's an old coot, so he's probably not a threat.'
Julius let out a small cooing sound, trying his best to seem like a normal baby. Smiling at Maria, the girl was obsessed with Julius, who wouldn't be? He was a small, chubby baby after all.
'And the maids too, Lucy and Amy, basic old women. Don't know how this church even functions to be honest.'
He was lifted out of the bucket, immediately being enveloped by the soft embrace of a woolen towel—at least he wasn't going to be cold.
'Well. Time to learn some shit. I'll need to grow up fast and stuff. I can only do so much... Maria is constantly on my ass, she's pretty so I'll let her be for now.'
Maria smiled down at him, putting a finger upon his lips as a sign of affection—she didn't know she held a grown man in her hands after all, or else Julius would have been thrown out.
"Is my baby hungry? Hm?"
Julius nodded slowly—an internal smirk made its way into his mind. He knew exactly where this was going.
'Yes... Give me them ti-'
Father Gregory appeared out of nowhere, clearing his throat before taking the child from Maria's hands with a wide, excited grin.
"Don't worry! He's my boy! He won't be hungry when I'm around."
Julius squirmed, trying to get out of the old man's grip. But he was far too weak right now.
'BITCH DON'T TELL ME HE'S GONNA BE FEEDING ME! HELL NO! GET ME OUTTA HERE! I'M NOT INTO MEN!'
Father Gregory gave a big—fatherly kiss to the child, one filled with affection.. As well as the smell of tobacco.
'He's an old fucker that's for sure.. Let's analyze his ass.'
Julius narrowed his baby eyes—he couldn't see very clearly, just the blurry shapes of people's bodies, but if he tried.
He could at least roughly calculate their height using other objects as a reference.
'He's above six feet—damn what'd they feed his old ass? Still a bit thin.. Not a fighter. Forget this shit I'm hungry! Where's my milk!'
A rough, calloused hand was placed onto his face, one that was as big as the baby's face itself. Just then, he heard some words. Like a mantra being uttered by the older male.
"Oh, Mother Eve. We Use Your Strength To Nourish This Soul. Grant Us Loyalty And Strength."
Julius felt a wave of warmth rush through his body, like being hugged by his mother—not like he wanted that, but this was interesting. He wasn't hungry anymore, and not only that, he felt a bit stronger.
'This old bastard.. Just used magic? This tattoo, is it witchcraft? Mother Eve?? Wait.. Eve. EVE?! Compound EVE?'
Julius' eyes sparkled with curiosity and desire—desire to find out exactly what had changed in his world after his death.
Just like this. Five months passed—Julius grew up in the church. Not allowed to go outside. But now?
He was armed with something that he had wished he had before. Mobility.
After being put to 'sleep' by Maria, the oil lanterns were put out. And both the nun and the father went to their separate quarters to rest.
Now was the perfect time for the man-baby to strike.
'Let's go! I can walk now... Time for some investigation. I need to know what's going on.'
He climbed out of his cradle beside the empty fireplace, the sound of Father Gregory's loud snoring echoed through the hall, and the dim moonlight shone through the windows.
'I feel like I'm a super-spy right now...'
Julius had trained himself, well... Training wasn't the right word. He had just been trying to keep his head up, rolling around that sort of thing. And due to Father Gregory's unusual magic, he developed well as a child.
He managed to climb up to the windowsill, pulling his chubby body up to peek through the window, and outside was a rather... Creepy sight.
A hooded man was staring in the window, straight into Julius's eyes with both confusion and amusement.
"Hey, kid, open the window."
His hand gently reached up, knocking on the window with a nearly imperceptible smile on his face—he was a nice guy, but how does he trust Julius to open the window?
'Son of a bitch. Here, I got a gift for ya.'
Julius put up a small middle finger, placing it against the window, surprising the man behind it, but before Julius could cause any more chaos, he fell to the ground.
'Shit.. I'm not a rock climber, I forgot.'
He let out a fake cry of pain. The sound of footsteps approaching was heard, and quickly, Father Gregory was there, armed with a sword and ready to defend his church.
"Who wants this retired old man's sword up their..."
He stopped himself, seeing that Julius was on the ground, of course crying, and that the man outside the window was awkwardly smiling. Made the old man release an exasperated sigh.
"Come in through the front door, Roy."
The man, Roy, waved to Gregory before kicking open the window, shattering the iron lock as he climbed through.
The Church Father was strangely indifferent to the brutish behavior of the hulking man.
"Hey, be careful. Don't step on the baby, fatass. Maria raised him. His Sigil is weird, though, that's why I called you here. Test it out."
Roy was a beast, towering over Father Gregory, his head nearly touching the ceiling chandelier. But again, he was thin. Not very built at all
'It's hard to fill out a frame like his.. He's probably over seven feet tall. But what the fuck is this sigil shit? The tattoo on my chest?'
Roy stared down at Julius, not bothering to pick him up. Instead, he reached down, pulling up the baby's brown tunic, revealing the same tattoo from before
"Yep, that's a decent Sigil, alright. The shape is pretty complex, and the mana ink is red."
Julius was silent. He knew about sigils—but to think he had one tattooed onto his chest and that they weren't even trying to remove it was pissing him off.
'These guys? Are they testing my tattoo out- Wait a damn second what's he doing!'
Roy had placed a black obsidian needle onto Julius's chest, and as soon as the tip touched the child's skin, the Sigil started glowing a bright red.
"Oh? It's an active one. I can't tell you what blessing or rank it has. But it's active from an early age, so I'm guessing that it's gonna be a rank 8 or even 9."
Suddenly, Julius felt a sharp sting of pain emerging throughout his body—the sigil was active now.
Father Gregory's eyebrows shot up, yet when he tried to approach. Roy put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
"Don't worry, I think that the Sigil is responding right now. Let it simmer for now."
Black veins spread throughout Julius' small body as he let out cries of pain, but seeing both Father Gregory and Roy being nearly unaffected by his desperate situation, made him rather frustrated.
'I-I can't breathe! My throat's closing up! Fuck you all! You're gonna regret this if you find out who you killed!'
His eyes closed, his body went limp, but surprisingly. He was still conscious, just in a paralytic like state, unable to move.
Enveloped in darkness, he heard and felt nothing, like he was floating in limbo—it was a little peaceful even. He cracked open his eyes just a bit; he wasn't in the church anymore.
The sky was a beautiful purple, adorned with white stars, and the ground was just below him. Like ink that rippled like water.
There was a small whoosh of air that occasionally came, lulling him into sleep once more, but it sounded like. Something was approaching but Julius was too sleepy to-
"Oi brat. You partially awakened your sigil already?"
This voice wasn't human. But it seemed to mimic Julius's real voice, and when the child opened his eyes, he saw something shocking.
It was Julius, just a bit twisted, the sockets of its eyes were empty. Replaced by a horde of insects that crawled around its body—it even wore the same lab coat and clothes Julius always wore.
"Who the fuck are you?"
Julius, in his childlike body, suddenly could speak in a squeaky voice—but the clone in front of him. It was curious, very curious.
"I'm... No one, I have yet to mature into my full form, that is why I took this strange body from your memories. But, the question is. How'd you know about the modern age?"
The baby floated in the void, in front of the strange being—most would be shitting their pants, struggling to come up with an explanation. But Julius could at least try.
"Well, it's simple reincarnation, you know? I don't remember this guy, but you do because you peeked into my past life's memories."
The being looked at Julius, innocently floating—a toothy, demonic smile of amusement replaced its curious expression. It saw through everything.
"You know we Demons can see through lies..."
It stopped itself. Realizing that it had let slip that it was a demon, all because it was a bit too arrogant.
"Oh? Why'd you stop talking? Cockroach went down your throat?"
The child pinched the demon's cheek in a mocking manner—one that damaged the being's pride to unprecedented heights.
"YOU INSOLENT BRAT!! I'LL-"
The demon reeled back his hand, possibly to punch Juliu, but it was interrupted abruptly, and the void faded away instantly. And Julius' eyes snapped open in the real world.
'Fucker.'