I Can Copy Curses

"Now, shall we start Orion?" Grey Orion said excitement could be visible in the eyes.

Orion turned to look at him and nodded. "Yeah, about that. Just tell me if you know anything about this place and why we were summoned here. Who is behind all of this? And how do you and other clones exist?"

Grey Orion looked at Orion deeply for a moment before he laughed.

"I know why you want to know that and I also know what your plan is to defeat me. But can you take that step? Can you give up all your curses? Without those, you are nothing."

Orion smiled back at him. "Yeah and so are you and your dream of going outside. You will be caged here forever, living here for eternity, watching me enjoy my life. Just imagine how sad that life would be." He shook his head as he said that.

"No, I will go outside. I will definitely go outside." Grey Orion shouted with a crazed look.

Orion shook his head and said, "Well, whoever summoned us here would probably want to kill us. So your dreams are destined to remain dreams forever, even if you somehow take over my body until and unless you know how to leave this place."

Grey Orion's expression turned dark upon hearing him.

"And I know you don't know how to leave this place," Orion said, looking into his clone's eyes.

Grey Orion's face became even more ugly as he looked at him. "I can think of all that after I take over your body." He suddenly smiled as he said that. He felt that this was the right decision.

Orion frowned at seeing that and said to him, "Tell me one thing first. Why do you think whoever summoned us here left you alone all these years? You said it yourself: you are different from the other clones. You can think independently and you aren't in his control so why did he not do anything to you all these years? Why did he leave you like that?"

Grey Orion frowned. He had never thought of that before.

"The thing is, these clones don't usually live here, so I didn't know until sometime ago that these clones were being controlled. They just manifested and disappeared randomly so I couldn't tell if they were under control or not," he said to Orion.

"What do you mean?" Orion asked, not understanding what his clone wanted to say.

Grey Orion said: "When a person in the outside world exhausts their mana, their curses become active or, you could say, when they overuse their talents. At that moment, a clone of theirs manifested in this world.

This clone then becomes the link to the original and transfers a form of energy called chaos into them which triggers the curses in their bodies by reacting with the chaos energy that is already present within them and hence their curses become active. However, when the curses cool down, all those clones will just disappear from this world. And this happens every time someone's mana becomes low."

"You mean?" Orion was shocked. He finally understood why his clone had existed since his birth.

Grey Orion nodded and laughed wryly. "You are right. Since you don't have mana, I always existed in this world, unlike other clones who only come into existence when their original's mana depletes and vanishes right after their curses cool down."

Orion felt pity for this clone of his. But he couldn't do anything about it nor could he hand over his body to him.

"Have you ever thought where your infinite energy comes from?" Grey Orion asked.

"Don't tell me it's the chaos energy from here." Orion asked in surprise.

Grey Orion nodded at him. "A human body is comprised of two types of energy in this world—mana and chaos—with mana being 90% and chaos being 10%. That's the standard but not in your case. Since you have the curse of a null body, your body doesn't have mana, so it's filled with chaos energy."

He looked around the grey world and explained.

"The source of your infinite chaos energy comes from this world. Since every clone is connected to their original and sends chaos energy when their mana depletes, I am also the same. I am connected to you and through me, you get all the chaos energy from this world when you use your curses."

Orion nodded, feeling a little overwhelmed by how much he got to know from such a little talk with his clone.

"You know what the funny thing is?" Grey Orion said, clenching his fists. "We clones—our whole existence is just to make sure you, the originals, will have curses. Hahahaha, talk about the shittiest existence in the universe."

Orion didn't say anything about this and thought for a moment.

He then asked, "So, you don't have any idea about who summoned us here?"

"No." Grey Orion replied before his expression turned dark. "No, I don't want to tell you. I have some ideas about who could be behind all of this after seeing all these clones being controlled but I ain't telling you."

"Why?" Orion asked.

Grey Orion laughed. "Why? Are you serious? Don't you know I am after your body?"

"You won't be leaving if you do that." Orion said, clenching his fists tightly.

Grey Orion shook his head. "I figured you would say that but now I don't care about whoever summoned you and his plans. I only want your body and I will get it now."

"Is there no other option other than you occupying my body?" Orion asked.

Grey Orion shook his head. "You know there isn't. Would you mind if another you existed together in your world?"

Orion didn't reply, for there wasn't a need to. Nobody would want something like that and Orion wasn't an exception.

"You see, that's the reason. I will need your body to exist in your world so I will have to kill you anyway," Grey Orion said, shaking his head. "Your death is crucial for my existence so today either you die or I stay here for eternity."

Orion took a deep breath and sighed. "Don't blame me then."

As he said those words, Grey Orion felt something before he found he couldn't control his body, and only a moment later, he saw his heart tear through his chest and come out of his body.

"You... you are... so cruel," blood seeped from Grey Orion's mouth as he looked at his heart floating in the air. He couldn't believe Orion could be so decisive. Even he had hesitated, unsure whether to kill or not, but the original hadn't even blink before doing this.

Soon, his body fell from the sky and landed in the desert. Though he didn't feel any pain on landing, all he felt right now was regret for his hesitation. It cost him his life.

Hearing the sounds of someone walking through the sand, he turned his head with all his strength.

He saw Orion holding his heart, which was still pumping, albeit very slowly, coming over to him.

"This is the only choice you left me with," Orion said, his eyes filled with pity.

"I... hate... you," Grey Orion only said those three words before he closed his eyes for eternity.

"It's over," Orion relaxed a bit and turned his attention to others when he suddenly sensed something, causing him to promptly turn around when he saw something he wished wasn't true.

He witnessed to his shock that his clone's body started to glow with a silver light before another heart grew in the gaping hole of his chest.

A moment later, his clone opened his eyes. "I am alive?" Grey Orion was shocked.

Orion was even more shocked.

"Ah, I get it now. If you don't die, then neither will I. My existence is just to ensure your curse activates in time. It's a universal law; you can't change it—no one can change it. So, it doesn't matter if you kill me once or a hundred times; as long as you live, I will never die," Grey Orion said, looking at Orion with a laugh.