140. A Star’s Cycle

A bright light suddenly enveloped the children as an invisible explosion erupted. It was a nonlethal explosion, but it felt as though she was caught in the middle of an artificial supernova as her eyesight was instantly turned white for as long as a minute.

Frost’s entire mind was focused on dealing with the pain of her bouncing heart. Her Touch of Golds crushed it into a fine paste against the loose brickwork as another dozen wrapped her chest like bandages, hoping to keep her regenerating heart within.

A combination of [Grand Healing] and [Prolonged Stasis] was used to keep herself alive. The fact that three quarters of her HP was instantly depleted frightened her of the possibility of death. Her body instantly became limp, and the only thing that kept her upright were her tentacles.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. AAH. Uaaaaaaaah!” Frost’s screams could not do justice to the immense agony she felt.

Her voice was a mix of a soundless cry and a hoarse yell. The soul-rending pain of Ignis’ Corrupted form could not even hold a candle to this. Her desire to protect everyone was quickly killing her.

And it did not help with the misery of losing Stella’s friends, right after she had promised that they’d be ok.

Their emotional instability cursed them with the dreaded Corrupted transformation. Their bodies fizzled into countless particles of light that suddenly spread thinly across the empty skies.

In that moment, a small portion of the skies were painted with swirls of light that represented the stars. A dark blue backdrop concealed the heights of the cavern directly above them. They carried a certain brushstroke texture. It was like an artwork more than anything.

< “Follow us. We’ll never leave you behind.” >

The Corrupted utter was the combined voices of the children. It wasn’t hoarse or ominous like many of the Corrupted she had faced. It was like listening to a gentle, hopeful harp. Like this Corrupted meant no harm, but the 10,000 ATT screamed otherwise.

Frost couldn’t cry even if she wanted to. Her heart wrenched for the loss as she screamed at her helplessness, and the failed promise she uttered to Stella.

I’m… so sorry…

“There is still a Realization criteria! Have hope!”

Why can people become Corrupted so easily? They said it’s never happened, but I’ve already seen it happen twice. Is it my fault, Nav? Is there something about me that turns people nearby into Corrupted?

< The Third State Has Manifested as Lament >

Frost drowned in lament. Her Touch of Golds slowly crept towards the ruined exit of the Triple Paw Complex to fend off the rapidly approaching Aspirators. Her mind was clouded in confusion, and her regenerating heart that tore at her chest only made it worse.

“I believe it is coincidence. Otherwise, so many more would have transformed into Corrupted. Their desires and emotions caused by the Heart of Ours is to blame. Not you.”

She wanted to believe Nav, but her own emotional spiral of self-loathing caused her mind to think otherwise. The tragedy of it all finally caught up to her now that her desires to protect were amplified by the Aspirating condition.

Tens of thousands had survived. The numbers were much higher than those that fell. She knew this, and even witnessed the Painters ahead manage to avoid the Aspirators.

Tell Ignis to get Ponea ready. A lot more people need to be cleansed. I… will hold this line and keep them out. Until Res or Jury wakes up Determined. No matter how long it takes… I will be standing right HERE!

Frost anchored herself into the earth with several tentacles. She kept her Unlying Tablets infused with healing magic all around them, all the while she attacked the distant Aspirators with Dismissed Confession.

The Aspirators afflicted quivered in place, and upon taking lethal damage they burst like a balloon. There was no blood, only the rubbery remains of a once functional heart.

< “You were always so bright and considerate. You never complained and still looked up to us like stars… You never knew that you were always the star in our darkest nights.” >

It was a miracle that Frost was even alive, but any time she used a skill that wasn’t healing-based she’d be struck down by the pain in her chest. [Prolonged Stasis] once again returned to being her lifeline despite how weak it was compared to [Grand Healing].

Frost was destined to face the Aspirators alone for an unknown period of time. She could not even fight the Asterism Corrupted with how distant it was in the sky. But in her fall arose the Hired Arm, who opened fire upon the stars the moment a beam of light was suddenly fired into their direction.

< [Ray of Hope] >

< “We still want to reach you no matter how far away we are. Please hold out your hand. You’ll never have to reach far.” >

The attack vaporized everything that stood in its path with a high-pitched noise, but it miraculously missed everyone as well. No one was hurt as far as she could tell, and it was confirmed by Ignis.

Frost never noticed it, but her Dismissed Confession was dealing much more damage than it should have. Her MAG ATT was currently only 4,500, yet she dealt with the Aspirators far faster than she should have.

The math was not adding up.

In the end, Frost could only stand her ground and open her one hundred Touch of Golds like the massive pincers of a beetle. With one sweeping movement she clumped the Aspirators into the center and crushed them with wave after wave of tentacles.

She dominated her 100-meter circumference, guarding it for dear life as the terrain was quickly molded after her attacks. With this amount of freedom without the fear of injuring the innocent, she became an unstoppable force.

But the Big Red Heart itself was like an immovable object. A lumbering mountain that slowly inched its way to claim her heart once and for all. It was the only thing that separated them from the Bloody Herring. Once it fell… then it was just a matter of destroying the Aspirators.

Then the Bloody Herring would perish alongside the Heart of Ours.

* * *

The constellation of stars called out Stella as her heart sunk. She felt like she could hear the voices of her friends somewhere in the sky, and when she reached out towards it –

“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Perla desperately urged.

– A wave of heat instantly cooked their faces and caught the loose clothing of countless alight. A beam of unimaginably powerful heat tore the barren fields in half, thankful just as everyone diverged from its path.

The stars simultaneously twinkled right before the attack, and the ground kicked up a tremendous amount of steam unnaturally. Perla’s barriers were of no match to the beam, and they were seemingly dissolved within.

Panic instantly ensured. Hysteria filled them all as they could only run towards the rocky wall at the deepest end of the cavern. The ceiling was considerably lower here, and yet the Corrupted star-lit sky somehow defied all logic and hovered higher than the ceiling allowed.

< “We dreamt of a beautiful star filled night. But we were always told that no such thing existed. So we all tried to fill that void.” >

Stella recognized those voices. They undoubtably belonged to her friends. Ignis carried the girl over her shoulder as she gazed into the direction of the light, her eyes watering as she wondered why their voices were so loud.

“It’s a Corrupted! It’s a Corrupted!”

“DON’T STOP! WATCH YOUR FEET! DON’T TRAMPLE ON EACH OTHER!”

“IT’S ALL GONE TO HELL!”

“Please help us… Please Angel! Please help us!”

The foreign language and her native tongue melded into a cacophony that inspired nothing but terror into her heart. Stella didn’t know what the implications of a Corrupted were, but their voices wove nothing but despair.

Yet… That heat was familiar to her, as were the voices. She instinctively reached out towards the light and uttered:

“Aster…? Everyone?”

< “We desperately wished to join our city skies. But we never knew that the star above was fake. What is a real star to begin with?” >

Suddenly, the stars illuminated to blinding levels again and fired another destructive ray of heat. Again, it was fired in Stella’s direction. Ignis acted fast and broke away as Perla marked the areas of impact ahead of time using her barriers and the searing grounds.

“It’s all you Busty Frost! Don’t let us down!” Cer exclaimed, snapping her jaw into the painted skies as the Hired Arm sniped the following stars with perfect accuracy, causing them to explode into colorful dusts and clouds. “Destroy those stars!”

“To think they’d take inspiration from my work… I don’t know whether to be proud or ashamed.” Ayel uttered, mesmerized by how closely the skies matched his artwork. “But I don’t understand. Are people able to become Corrupted?”

“That’s the existential threat that’s been lurking inside of us all along! Get running already! Don’t just stand there like a paintbrush! You’re in our way!” Ber yelled, sending slashes into the sky.

Her electrified claws were tremendously larger and carried far more power than normal. This was on top of her doubled stats, and she was not the only one who experienced this strange effect. Cer’s bites also travelled further, and the sparks generated around her fangs were extremely potent.

“You think Frost’s buffing us again!? I got another thousand ATT from nowhere!” Cer called out, which was confirmed by a rapid array of nods from Ignis, and verbally from Ber and Perla.

In fact, everyone seemingly became faster under the intensifying light of the painted stars. It was as if the Corrupted itself was trying to help them, and yet, it sought to annihilate them with that destructive beam.

“Wait… U-Um! Wait… P-Please wait. I think I know those voices!” Stella suddenly exclaimed as another ray of light cleaved through, leaving nothing but a bubbling gorge in its wake. “A-Aaah. Ouch… I – I know who they are! Aster! Everyone! Is that you!?”

The Corrupted sky then spoke, as if responding:

< “Please stargaze with us in mind. Isn’t it beautiful? A star filled sky that we were never allowed to see because we were tucked away so far under the world, ignorant of it all.” >

“ASTER!” Stella cried, reaching ever further for the false stars as Ignis held her tight.

Suddenly, the world shook and threw countless people off their feet. It was timed perfectly as brushstroke stars fell from the sky after having taken considerable damage. It exploded into a series of cosmic dust.

Their initial instinct was to avoid breathing it in, however –

“Light…!?”

“My body’s… It’s not hurting anymore!?”

“It feels so warm... What is this smoke?”

– It carried rejuvenating properties. The plume of purple and blue empowered them much to their surprise as Cer and Ber looked at each other in complete confusion. They recalled the tale of Snap, who was apparently a helpful Corrupted, and Jury who sought to warn people from the Skewered Beast.

Was this another Corrupted that aimed to help them?

They didn’t know, and it was difficult to accept this as a fact. Perla had faced enough Corrupted to know their terrible nature by now, let alone Cer and Ber who could read them like a book.

And that was exactly why they were confused. They had only heard the tales from Frost. Never had they seen one in person. Ever. Suddenly, another ray was aimed at Stella once again as if to prove them wrong.

It could not be a coincidence anymore. No one was stupid enough to believe otherwise. The patterns of repetition and the very fact that it was Stella’s friends who had become Corrupted was a dead giveaway of this thing’s intentions.

“Hope… Its Affinity is Hope.” Ignis suddenly uttered in her sweet voice to Stella. “Your friends became Corrupted. I’m sorry.”

Her apology was unexpected. Stella could no longer hear the surrounding chaos as Ignis’ voice nestled close to her heart. Sympathy was woven in her saddened voice.

“… U-Um… I don’t know what that means. Is that why they’re trying to hurt us?” Stella asked, still failing to understand just what truly was going on beyond the darkness of her eyelids.

“Mm. Involuntarily. They don’t want to hurt you, but they can’t help it. Your friends are trapped.” Ignis softly explained, speaking from her heart.

“How come? Are they ok? What’s going to happen to them?” Stella was desperate despite how gentle her voice was.

The girl was never a loud person to begin with. Rather, she was as passive as a brick wall, but her heart was always in the right place… Always putting after herself and the people she held dearly.

“They need to be saved. No one should become Corrupted. The Big Frost is trying to stop them from hurting you. But there’s another way to help them. You have to make them realize something.” Ignis spoke from experience. Stella did not know this, but she also sensed that this struck something deep within this warm lady.

“Everyone… Was it my fault that they became like that –?”

Ignis dodged an oncoming ray, having been warned ahead of time by Perla. AS they flew and their hairs tangled into one great ribbon; Ignis suddenly yelled:

“Don’t blame yourself like I did! It’s only going to make things worse!”

< “We didn’t know how cloudy our nights were. We didn’t know how small our world really was. For a moment, we wondered if that was how you always felt. Keeping you company was our passion. Keeping you happy was our happiness.” >

They skidded along the ground as multiple stars fell like giant raindrops. The crashing and the shattering of it all caused Stella’s heart to ache as she clutched onto her chest, tears building up in the corners of her eyes.

“Aster… everyone…”

Asterism | HP: 500,000

Celestial explosions rocked the cavern. Nebulas formed in the death of the stars as she felt the warmth of her friends slowly disappear. Stella instinctively reached out for them again, crying as she knew that they were on the verge of disappearing.

It was scary.

There was only so much she knew in the end. There was nothing more that she wanted than to be with her loved ones. They had become stars from what she gathered, and she felt them gradually disappear like small colorful sparks in her dark world.

She didn’t want them to disappear.

“Call out to them. Reach out to them. The person closest to me now did the same thing and rescued me. Even though I hurt them so much… They still held on and tried to save me. That person… Frost, she can’t help everyone. There’s only one her, and thousands of people like us.” Ignis slowly spoke.

Her words were not meant to discourage her. Rather, they were there to inspire Stella. It was true. Nearly everything was always Frost’s to shoulder. In a growing world where Corrupted hid in plain sight;

Where the Impuritas existed and fed off the innocent like Stella;

And the Ateliers that failed to rescue countless…

Ignis knew that they had to do it themselves if they wanted things to change. They all had to be as strong as Frost and equally capable. That’s why she hoped that Jury would arise as a brilliant Beholder that would outshine the others.

That way there would never be a repeat of Divas Pass, or the City of Vocals.

< “We’re so close by. Yet we’re still so far away. We hope that our light reaches you.” >

Stella then clasped at her heart as another ray of light fired upon them. She drew her conviction from every corner of her body and yelled at the top of her lungs:

“Aster… Aster… Everyone, you don’t have to become a star for me!”

Asterism | HP: 400,000

“I’m ok with staying here!” Stella yelled, her voice straining as she combatted the screaming and the sound of the crumbling ground. “I don’t… Need everyone to become a star. We’ve all been chasing the wrong ones, so don’t turn yourselves into them as well. Please… Please come back! We don’t have to keep trying to become stars!”

< “Your dedication and forbearance were always so bright, just like your smile. So we captured every moment and wore them to become like you and the star in the sky.” >

“There are plenty of moments you can still capture! You were all already brighter than our fake star! Aster! Aster! You were always more than just a star to me!” Stella sobbed as the rays suddenly intensified, now beginning to deal considerable damage to the terrain and people alike.

Still, no one was killed. The artwork above became a collage of so many spiraling colors despite the number of stars dwindled. There was more to the night sky than just stars and moons alone; and it was as if those cosmic clouds were creating more miniature stars in the process in a beautiful cycle beyond their reach.

“… It’s beautiful…?” Perla inadvertently whispered. “Why is a Corrupted so… Pretty?”

Asterism | HP: 300,000

The Hired Arm’s offensive only increased, as did the Moons who spared the Corrupted no mercy. But there was an air of reluctance that surrounded the Hired Arm. The dilemma of keeping the Corrupted alive verses killing should not have existed.

But knowing that that the Corrupted were essentially children was what made it difficult. Still, the Hired Arm fought on the principle of greed. So long as it was being paid for by Frost, then it would do anything she willed.

< “Please don’t make this all an illusion. The colors we were told about made us wonder how much more we were missing out on. So we wanted to become the stars among them to see what really happens up there.” >

< “But no matter how many stars we were surrounded by.” >

< “We realized that it was colder up here than down there with you.” >

Asterism | HP: 200,000

< “The stars… are so incredibly spread out that we can never talk to each other. It’s so lonely.” >

The bullets now began to rebound from star to star, seemingly devouring them in the process. The fallen stars broke upon entering the Hired Arm’s vicinity and were sucked up as if she were a black hole. A blue accretion disk surrounded her like a beautiful belt, which only expanded in size the more stars that fell.

And at the same time, the rays became more violent, claiming the limbs and flesh of many as it tried to obliterate Stella. If it weren’t for Ignis, then she would have died at the very first instance of the attack.

“Aster. You were always the star in my eyes! How do you think I feel down here without you or anyone! I want to stay by your side! Please… Stay by my side! I don’t care if it’s any empty sky anymore! I don’t care how many goodnights that go by without any light! I don’t care if I’m always still stuck in my own small world!”

< “There was only one variation of the night sky we both loved. It was the only one we ever knew until the kind painter and kind angel showed us what else laid beyond our tiny world.” >

Asterism | HP: 100,000

Ayel suddenly stopped in place, his hands falling to his sides as he gazed up speechlessly at the fleeting stars. There were thousands of things that went through his mind, and none could blame him for it.

L.S tapped him on passing and shot him a small, forgiving smile and a nod.

They couldn’t hear the same things that Stella could; but Ayel certainly sensed their words as the reimagining of his painting steadily came to its closure.

Asterism | HP: 70,000

The bullets became trails of light now in a darkening sky. The light of the stars had almost faded by now, but the colors remained flying high.

“We can see lots more! Together! Aster… I can’t imagine a world… I can’t imagine looking up at the sky without you so please –!”

Asterism | HP: 50,000

< “No matter how many failures, you were never discouraged. But now that you became aware, you realized how futile it was…” >

Asterism | HP : 30,000

< “Because we never really did know that our star was just an illusion.” >

Asterism | HP: 20,000

“THEN LET’S FIND THE REAL STARS TOGETHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!” Stella, with one final scream, let the world know where her heart lay.

This cruel subterranean world was their hell. But without Aster… then everywhere else was. The tears could not stop trickling down her cheeks as she suddenly clasped onto Ignis, sobbing uncontrollably.

The tears that fell sparkled in this dark place, like the last stars of their fake night sky.

Asterism | HP: 10,000

< “So let’s not make it an illusion anymore…” >

< “Stella. I ‘will’ become a star. Not a fake one…” >

< “But a real star. So please… Don’t give up reaching for them.” >

< “You’ll end up missing me.” >

Asterism | HP: 20

The final star fell towards Frost’s direction. As it gradually fell from the sky the spiralling form suddenly exploded, leaving behind nothing but vast clouds of compact colors. The blast threw many onto their arms and backs as the cavern was engulfed in an empowering glow for a very brief moment.

And then…

“Light…?”

“Something glowing over there.”

“It’s still alive?”

They were all at a loss for words. The clouds suddenly condensed into themselves and formed another star right above Frost’s tentacles, which reached out and cusped the light, which had taken a human form.

In the death of a star came the rebirth of another.

Ignis fell to her knees and hugged Stella. She instinctively knew what had happened, and as the light faded again, and the world returned to its reddish hue, she spoke to Stella with a quivering voice.

“You did it Stella. You did it. Aster is… She’s been Realized.”