Chapter 207: Isabella's Remorse

Chapter 207: Isabella's Remorse
Chapter 207: Isabella's Remorse

Before Serena's alter ego can say anything more, a sharp gasp catches all their attention, and they all quickly turn their heads to see Isabella slowly getting up from the ground. She looks around at herself and at her surroundings as if everything appears unfamiliar and strange to her. She bites down against her bottom lip, rakes her fingers through her hair, and shakes herself as if she can't understand what the fuck is going on around her.

"What happened? Where am I?" she keeps asking repeatedly, gazing at Serena's transformed form, and then at Morgana standing a few meters away. She examines Morgana carefully with a squinted eyebrow, as if trying to figure out who the hell she is and why she's here. Then she diverts her focus to look at Damon, who remains partially hidden behind the laboratory equipment.

"What the hell happened and what the hell am I doing in this place?" she continues asking with growing confusion and force as she looks around the destroyed laboratory. "Why the hell do I feel so itchy all over my body?" she adds and begins to scratch herself compulsively, as if something is crawling beneath her skin.

Serena's alter ego, still possessing Serena's body, examines Isabella for a little while with calculating eyes and then shrugs with apparent indifference. "Well, as you can clearly see, she was merely being corrupted and controlled by the dark power she foolishly possessed. So now I've done what I can to help her, and she is back to her normal state of consciousness."

It is at that precise moment that everything seems to register in Isabella's confused mind. Her eyes grow wide with dawning horror as she looks directly at Serena and quickly moves over to her with desperate urgency.

"Oh my goodness, what have I done?" she says with genuine anguish in her voice, and Serena frowns at her dramatic reaction.

"You didn't actually do anything of your own free will," Serena responds with cold detachment. "Everything is okay now, and you are back to your normal state. You just made the grave mistake of trying to claim what was never supposed to be yours in the first place. But I guess you should have learned your lesson by now, because you are going to be living with this uncomfortable itching sensation for almost the rest of your natural life."

Isabella's eyes grow even wider with absolute horror at this revelation. She shakes her head quickly and violently, refusing to accept this terrible fate. "No, I can't live like this. Please, you have to help me somehow. I can't possibly survive like this. How the hell am I supposed to survive with a constantly itching body?"

"Well, you brought this curse upon yourself through your own actions, and you should have thought about the serious consequences before attempting anything like this," Serena says with harsh finality. "Do you understand that this is entirely your own fault?"

Isabella bites down hard against her bottom lip until it nearly bleeds. She continues shaking her head quickly, as if trying not to accept this horrifying reality. "Please, I'm begging you, you have to help me. It can't continue like this forever. There has to be something you can do."

"I've done all I needed to do, and you should be grateful that I helped you redeem yourself from this dangerous dark power," Serena declares with authority. "If I hadn't intervened when I did, it would have corrupted you into a much more twisted form that would have probably wiped your very essence out of existence entirely. So you should be thanking me instead of complaining."

Isabella looks as if the entire world has fallen and crumbled directly on top of her head. "How am I supposed to live with this constant horror?" she declares desperately, scratching her body relentlessly as if she is intent on peeling off her own skin to find relief.

"Don't worry too much about it. You are going to be fine, probably in a few years or so," Morgana says with attempted reassurance, though her words don't seem to provide much comfort.

Isabella looks at Morgana with even greater horror at the mention of years of suffering. Tears begin dropping from her eyes as the full weight of her situation crashes down upon her consciousness.

"I am so incredibly sorry," she says, glancing directly at Damon with genuine remorse. "I am really, truly sorry for everything I've put you through. I swear on everything sacred that I didn't know what I was doing. I was just desperate and confused."

"Yeah, desperate for something you could never rightfully have," Morgana interjects with sharp criticism. "You were attempting to take superior power over what the Moon Goddess herself has already declared as her divine will."

Isabella looks at Morgana with deep worry evident in her eyes. "I can't continue to live like this for years. Is there a definite, sure way to ensure that this curse won't be permanent? Please tell me there's hope for recovery."

Serena looks thoughtful for a while, considering Isabella's desperate plea. "Well, it's definitely not going to be permanent in the strictest sense. It's just going to take quite a while before you can bring yourself back to complete normalcy, because I literally had an enormous amount of complex work to do in order to separate the corrupted dark power from your own natural essence."

She pauses, allowing the weight of her words to sink in before continuing. "If I had wanted to be truly wicked and vengeful, I would have dragged your personal essence along with the dark power when I extracted it, and you would have been left with nothing but an empty vessel with no purpose, no soul, and no hope of accomplishment."

Isabella looks at her with a mixture of horror and growing gratitude at this revelation. "Thank you so much for showing mercy when you could have destroyed me completely," she declares with sincere appreciation.

"Don't thank me yet," Serena requests with continued coldness, and diverts her attention to Morgana. "Now, moving on to more pressing matters, we need to discuss how we can navigate this impossible situation, because I cannot remain trapped in this limited mortal body forever."

The weight of this statement hangs heavy in the air, reminding everyone present that while Isabella's immediate crisis has been resolved, the larger supernatural problem of a divine being trapped in mortal form still requires a solution that may take years to accomplish.