The Bride

**The Bride** is one of **11** Devils currently featured in *Soul at Stake*.

## Lore

In the Chen Castle, there resided a remote and tiny Tulou in Yongding County, inhabited by about two hundred folks. The whole castle along with the farm nearby was governed by the landlord, Lord Fusheng Chen, and the life was tranquil there.

Xiu was born and raised in the Tulou, only managing to live a poor life with her mother, Wu. Wu was in her 30's but looked much older due to years of harsh labor. Wu's ex-husband was a lazy man who loved gambling. He owed Lord Chen an enormous debt and fled, leaving his wife and kids. Wu had no choice but to work for Lord Chen so that she could raise Xiu.

Years later, Xiu finally grew into an attractive and charming young lady. She was also very skilled at sewing. The clothes and handkerchiefs she made were quite popular among neighbors. Although she rarely socialized, her beauty was hard to hide. Young bachelors dreamed of her every night, and matchmakers visited her all the time. Of course, Xiu herself had pictured a pleasant life with her Prince Charming. However, it was hard for her to find a match.

Her hesitation came to an inevitable end when Xiu received a proposal from Lord Chen.

The Chen family was surely the richest in the whole county. Unfortunately, Lord Chen's only son was born with tuberculosis. He never spent a day without medication, and he was even too weak to finish sentences. Everyone was surprised he survived this long.

Sadly, the lord's son was getting worse and worse. Lord Chen was worried since all the doctors he consulted were unable to find a solution. The desperate lord sought help from a fortune teller, who claimed that to cure the disease, the son must marry a girl with a matching destiny. Coincidentally, Xiu happened to be a match.

Lord Chen immediately sent a matchmaker to persuade Wu and Xiu. The matchmaker condescendingly explained that it was a great honor for Xiu to be selected, as a servant's daughter no less, to marry a lord's son. Wu had been working for the Chen family for years and clearly knew the condition of the lord's son. Would any mother be willing to marry her daughter to a dying man? But considering the debts her husband owed the lord, and the fact that she was merely a servant in this Tulou, Wu wasn't given the opportunity to say "no" and save Xiu.

When she saw the wedding gowns carried to her room, Xiu immediately realized what had happened, and silently submitted to her destiny.

Something horrible happened just two days before the wedding - the lord's son was too ecstatic about the upcoming wedding and drank too much. His body couldn't handle that much alcohol. His lungs bled from intoxication and killed him.

The sudden death of the lord's son made Xiu feel a bit relieved because the wedding would be called off. She asked her mother to cancel the wedding, only to hear the shocking news that Lord Chen insisted on the marriage regardless. That being said, she would be marrying to a dead body.

In southwest China, necrogamy is a long historical custom, but asking a living human to marry a dead person? That just doesn't make any sense.

Wu was totally against this idea. She just couldn't allow her beloved daughter to make such a huge sacrifice. She begged Lord Chen, asked for his mercy, and said she was willing to do anything to cancel the marriage. Lord Chen, who was grieving over the loss of his only son, went mad and commanded his guards to whip Wu and throw her out.

On the day of the wedding, the lord's men came to Wu and Xiu's house to take Xiu, despite how hard she cried and resisted. Wu tried to stop them but those guards ruthlessly broke Wu's legs under Lord Chen's order. Wu crawled to her daughter, only to get kicked by one of the guards, slamming her head on the stairs. Blood started to flow from the wound, resulting in Wu being murdered right in front of her daughter's face.

Xiu was stunned, no longer feeling her own heartbeat. When she came to, she was already at the wedding ceremony next to a coffin. Xiu started to recall the last 17 years of her life. She remembered when her father abused her mother, when her neighbors bought clothes from her, when her mother died in front of her while no one took a stand against it... The desperation devoured her soul, she grabbed a pair of scissors which she used for sewing and walked out of the room.

The guard outside of her room tried to stop her, but Xiu didn't hesitate at all, stabbing his chest with the scissors. She knew where she was going - the center of Tulou, where the wedding was about to take place. All the helpers were too busy finishing the final decoration to notice her. She could hear her neighbors cheering and fawning over Lord Chen. She felt betrayed, disgusted and ashamed. She then walked to the family shrine, where the Chen clan worshiped their ancestors. She ground her teeth so hard that her mouth started to bleed. She hated the Chen family, she detested the Tulou castle, and she had nothing in this place left other than agony and torture. She loathed everything and everyone there, so much that even the most excruciating curse wasn't enough.

Xiu looked at her wedding gown, and used the bloodstained scissors to cut it into pieces, and knotted them into a rope.

Finally, people noticed that Xiu had disappeared. Not until midnight did people find her body hanging in the Chen family shrine. Xiu's hands and feet were as cold as ice. She was still holding the scissors, blood remaining on her mouth, and the red cover hiding half of her face. Her neck was twisted at a strange angle. Her eyes were still wide open, emitting the hatred of the last moments of her life.

Lord Chen didn't seem too concerned when seeing Xiu's body. He had his men take the body to the ceremony to finish the wedding and bury both bodies after a few days. As he said, now it really was a posthumous marriage. Others mostly were scared by Xiu's death, but eventually, let it go.A day after the marriage, Lord Chen had a sudden seizure attack, poking his own eyes and smashing his face. Following him, all family members and helpers of Chen family died one by one due to different causes. And in the following week, many other residents of the Chen Castle started to die for no apparent reason. Terrified people started to flee from this cursed place, but not everyone survived. Two days later, the whole castle became deserted.

Rumors say that at midnight, there can still be faint cries heard near the Chen family shrine. Nobody knows whether it's Xiu's ghost, or spirits mourning for the tragedy of the bewitched Hakka Tulou.

## Overview

**The Bride** can scare and confuse the Gamblers with her mirror images, and switch places with her mirror image.

## Abilities

### **Soul Split**

The Bride can create a Mirror Image at her location. The Bride can press Q to transfer to the position of a Mirror Image, taking its place and destroying it in doing so.

#### Ability notes

* **Soul Split** has a cooldown of **20** seconds.
* Each *Mirror Image* can last for **120** seconds.
* **The Bride** can maintain up to **6** *Mirror Images*.
	+ Each new *Mirror Images* will replace the oldest one.
* The *Mirror Images* have collisions.

## Cheats

*The Exclusive Skill of The Bride.*

## Tips

Playing as **The Bride**
* Mirror Images have collisions. You can use them to block Doors and narrow escape routes.
* Guard objectives by placing Mirror Images around Cardholders, Shops, etc.
* Mirror Images will emit heartbeat when Gamblers near them. You can use this to approach the area of a Mirror Image without Gamblers knowing you are doing so.

Playing against **The Bride**
## Notes

* **The Bride** is based on Chinese Ghost Marriage and ressembles the ghost bride from the 2015 Taiwanese supernatural horror film, Shi Yi(The Bride).
	+ She is also ressembles the Kuchisake-Onna due to her disfigured face and wields a scissor as her weapon.
* **The Bride** is the first Devil who floats, the second being The Drowner.
* **The Bride** is the first Devil who can teleport with other means, the others being The Drowner and The Twins.

## Gallery

* The Bride in the Lobby