175. A Musical Prisoner

Frost scoured the first half of the 3rd floor. Each floor increased by 50% as one descended. As large as it was, traversing them was a simple task for their speed. Frost had been compiling the Attributes of the Corrupted and aligning them with the Affinities.

What she gathered was interesting. There were a total of 11 Attributes, but she only had 10 Affinities. The missing Affinity was Amalgamation no doubt. Each Attribute-related Affinity were:

Righteousness – Judgement

Religion – Civilization

Meaning – Purpose

Vigor – Wrath

Trepidation – Ego, which was one of the newer Affinities.

Obsession – Attachment, which made her remember that Caldera Industries had a motto that went by “Endorse Attachment.”. Even the Spatial Distortion I Ability she possessed mentioned something about Attachment. By this alone she pinned them with the Attachment Affinity.

Ignorance – Hope. This made sense in the context of the Blood Festival, but not so much Snap. When Frost asked, Snap responded with: “Ignorance in how we forget about our happiest moments. How they’re fleeting, and how the smallest things can blind us from these truly happier times.”

Kind of like how people get mad at their parents but forget about the love they gave them during their upbringing, huh.

“It depends, doesn’t it?”

It does. And I hate that I can’t draw on experiences. Not with my memory.

… Nihilism – Despair

Sorrow – Lament

Aspiration – Desire

And finally, Identity for Amalgamation.

“Maybe the Manual will have something. We’ll check it out later.” Frost said, keeping a copy of the Overseer’s Manual close.

Another observation was that these Corrupted were vastly different from the ones they had faced. The Archivist confirmed that none of them were a part of any of the Archetype’s tale. They were just… ‘normal’ Corrupted.

“Frost. Can I call them Main Sequence Corrupted?” Nav asked for the Archivist.

For which group of Corrupted?

“The non-Awakening ones, silly. A-Ah… Er… You know the stars, correct? O to M follows that classification. They called it Main Sequence Stars in our world.”

Our world… You know what, I remember something like that. O were the brightest stars, right?

“Yep! And the biggest! ImpulseWorks must have knowledge about this! It can’t be a coincidence!”

Exactly. By the way, are you sure you weren’t a Navigator in your past life?

“You saw how much freedom we have in our memories. Maybe not you, but I spend a lot of time recording things. I spent a lot of time archiving what was left of our world.”

Frost then questioned if Nav was a Navigator again, to which it denied. Rather, Nav equated itself to an AI since Navigators were humans.

“Or I may be the voice resulting from the Third Man Factor syndrome.”

Hey. Don’t say that. You’re real. How many times do I have to say this? You’re not a figment of my imagination.

The Third Man Factor was a syndrome that caused people to hear guiding voices in near death experiences. This voice would help them, and from what Frost recalled from her life on Earth, this was actually a real phenomenon experienced by people, particularly ice and rock climbers.

Nav and the Navigator resembled this phenomenon. The Workers were in a constant near-death environment, and Frost began hearing Nav in the Black Forest. Still, it was a farfetched idea since Nav could interact with the System. Also, Jury, Ignis, Snap and other people confirmed Nav’s existence.

Afterwards, Frost moved to explore the latter half of the 3rd floor and came across a peculiar Corrupted.

Poisoned Apple
< G-O-087-07 >
< An eternal sleep awaits >
ORIGIN : Folklore     AFFINITY : Attachment

This immediately confirmed to Frost that the Corrupted could manifest from the information stored in the Eternal Library, because this tale was none other from a certain fairytale back on Earth.

The implications were vast, and she wondered if the Anti-healing components were a product of a radioactive Corrupted that was formed from the information from Earth. Either that, or the radiation itself was a metaphor for something else.

The Corrupted were riddled with meaning, and they were begging to be studied.

In the end, she departed and cleared out the 3rd floor, learning that most of the G-Corrupted resided here.

Then, as she approached the final containment unit, and as she prepared to interact with this Corrupted, she realized that something was off. The Corrupted she sensed within was not a Corrupted at all.

When she finally entered the containment unit, she was met face to face with a green-haired girl, dressed in baggy, male clothes.

Aspiring Great Composer
< G-V-000-01 >
LEVEL : 50     ORIGIN : Human     HP : 370     ATT : 50     MAG ATT : 100
ATT DEF : 10     MAG DEF : 10     MP : 500     RESIST : 12     AGI : 15

This person was one of the accidentally detained people who were mistaken for the Corrupted. The 000 designation made it clear that they had no code at all and were perhaps pending further research.

The girl glared at Frost defensively, holding out her conducting wand like a threatening blade.

“I’m so sorry.” Frost instinctively whispered in a silent breath.

“So they finally sent one of the bigger ones to deal with me! Locking me up wasn’t enough! Alright – ALRIGHT! I’ll show you a piece of me! I’ve got Color blood running through my veins, bitch!”

She was feisty, panicked and obviously alarmed. A stupefied Frost stood there momentarily, trying to understand how on Earth they managed to misidentify her as a Corrupted in the first place.

Then, a split second later, the girl swished her wand and a violin appeared in her hands. And along it, were the keys of a piano.

“Cause my aunt happens to be the daughter of the Green Composer – Wait – What’s with this mashup of instruments!? The hell is wrong with your body!?” She suddenly judged Frost, her mood taking a sudden turn.

She scrambled up to her. Curiosity overruled her sense of survival as she closely inspected the flabbergasted Frost.

“Piano for sure… Woah. But you got a violin in you too! Hey, the name’s Ara! Nice too meet you!”

“… Are you ok? I’m not here to fight or hurt you.” Frost calmly spoke, wondering if she was ok. “I’m a healer too. Do you have any wounds?”

This for some reason caused a glimmer of light to shine in this person’s eyes. And then, without any warning, she thrusted the conducting wand straight for her throat in an attempt to hold her hostage.

“A healer!? You’re the perfect – HOSTAGE –! Wait – How did you –!?”

Frost, being able to see ahead in time, saw the assault and clasped onto both her hands before she could even attempt anything. She kept them close, and the girl instantly began to flush unnaturally red.

“I’m here to help you. Please relax. Calm down. I’m getting you out of here. Tch… How long did they keep you here for? C’mon. Slowly. Let me heal you.” Despite all this, Frost continued to speak to her in a soothing, motherly tone.

And this for some reason caused this person to flush red harder.

This person was bound to be a handful.

However, what she said was interesting.

She had Colored Blood and had green hair like Hellen. She even referenced her aunt being the daughter of the Green Composer, which was undoubtably Hellen. This person was likely a relative, and so, Frost asked her if she was related to Hellen.

“You know my aunt!?”

Yep… What the fuck are the chances? Did she ever mention she had a niece? I remember she only had a nephew. Weird.