219. We Discarded Many, and the Chapter of a Moon

< CONDITION: Nil >

“Nil…?” Her voice was rife with disbelief, wondering if it was maybe a mistake, or a trick of some kind akin to how the Heart of Ours negated the RESIST stat.

But this did not appear to be the case. It was truly Nil.

“I too am at a loss for words. It has no condition like any ordinary Corrupted, but it resonates with the Archivist and her Floor. It is a Main Sequence Corrupted, as she has come to call them.” Nav swiftly answered as Frost carefully watched on, seeing the girl clasp at the strange, club-shaped object in her arms.

Fleeting Green Club

< It has no stats, but I sense that is similar to the Big Blue Diamond and the Big Red Heart >

< “Courageless… I can only keep holding onto what I have not yet lost.” >

“Everything’s turning green as I approach.” Frost noted as she steadily made her way towards the entity. “This doesn’t feel like a normal Corrupted Zone. From blue to green. Clubs are green, aren’t they? I remember each suit being associated with a color.”

“Correct. Green clubs. Blue diamonds. Red hearts. Black spades. Those are their attributed colors.”

Frost then froze, her gaze scanning the surroundings for any potential abnormalities. So far there has been nothing. Just vacant buildings from a setting that roused painful emotions along her heart. Various prickles of familiarity riddled her. She felt as though she was about to break into hives.

“So then what’s with the page and the crown? It doesn’t fit in with the card suits.” Frost pointed out, glancing at the floating neon sign. “I find it hard to believe no one tried fighting a Trickle Corrupted.”

“Your book specifically carries such a symbol. The Archivist pleads for you to wait until she understands it better. Keep in mind that only we know it is a Trickle Corrupted. Normal people can only assume the worst.” Nav reminded.

“Yeah. That’s right. Better off high tailing it than to get wrapped up with a Corrupted.” Frost agreed before she let loose of a long sigh. “The Archivist would understand it faster if we killed it right away. Unless you mean she’s wondering if there’s a chance we can Realize it?”

She pondered on the possibility, but she had interpreted the Archivist’s intentions wrongly.

“I do not believe Main Sequence Corrupted can be Realized. It would prevent them from being archived and added to your collection.” Nav explained as Frost walked across these now green streets, which stretched on farther than they appeared.

Her sense of distance was skewed in strange place. In the distance she could see swaths of people flee, some even phasing through the buildings as though they didn’t exist. She wondered if this place was a physical one, and she dipped her boots into one of the gutter rails, causing its metal bars to bend and screech.

It was physical. To her at least.

“… Any idea how long this Corrupted’s been here for? Its Corrupted Zone is pretty big.”

“Unknown. But it does not appear to be a Corrupted Zone in the traditional sense.” Nav was also confused. More than anything, it felt like an aberration of her mind rather than a Corrupted Zone, reinforced by how she was the only one able to interact with this place.

The longer she walked, the more she realized that the crowds whether riding atop disfigured mounds or fleeing on foot were not trying to escape this Corrupted. Rather, they could not even see it. They swarmed past Frost and overstepped the shadowy girl who held onto the club in her arms.

< “Abandoned with nowhere else to go. Suppressed and forgotten while I do the duties they all laughed at.” >

“HEY! What’s going on!?” Frost grabbed one of these people at the arm, demanding they explain the situation. A man with a face so filled with piercing that he appeared like a walking dartboard tried to shake his way out of her grasp but to no avail.

“GET THE FUCK OFF ME! LET GO BITCH – THEY’RE ON OUR HEELS FUCK OFF!” He tried stabbing Frost in the chest with a blade, only to be shoved off to the side as she called out to another person.

“What the fuck is chasing you!?” She roared, heard by a small family riding atop a giant, red-furred wolf.

“THE FLESH ATTRITIONS! MOOOOOVE! THIS PLACE ISN’T SAFE ANYMORE!” The wolf leapt over Frost as she realized that the heartbeats she had followed did not originate from this Corrupted.

No matter where she turned the heartbeats thumped in every direction now, as if masking one major heartbeat somewhere within, evident by an unnaturally powerful beat that interrupted her own.

There were too many Hearts rooted in S4. No matter who she tried to grab they’d immediately scream in her grasp, desperate to continue running away as they all ignored the We Discarded Many.

< “Preservation of our proof that we lived. It was all unvalued by the greedy. I laid there suppressed by it all in a directionless crossroads.” >

< SUPPRESSION REQIREMENT: How can I be any more suppressed? We Discarded Many cannot be Suppressed >

< SUBJUGATION REQIREMENT: We Discarded Many is defeated when its HP reaches 0 >

< ADDITIONAL SUBJUGATION REQUIREMENT: We Discarded Many is defeated when no action is taken >

An inexplainable pain struck Frost. Her stomach wrenched the closer she approached the aberration. It was so familiar that the idea of striking it down suddenly became poisonous, and it made her nauseous as she carried a flaming fireball in her right palm.

She only needed one final push to enter the Second State now.

“… Civilization… I’m surprised it’s a Trauma Corrupted. Not Disorder. It feels like the manifestation of the woes of people who can’t do anything about their world. But it’s personalized.” Frost picked apart this Corrupted as nothing but screams surrounded her.

She carved a wound across the length of her forearm using her teeth and began erecting Unlying Tablets, each infused with Grand Healing V. She could tell that while many of these people were murderers, there were also innocent people amongst them.

Right now, it was not her role to impart her judgement on a mass scale. These people reminded her that if she were to obliterate S4, then she would condemn countless to their deaths.

“The Archivist empathizes with the We Discarded Many. There is much resemblance of herself inside of it. It may be why you are suddenly hesitant to eliminate it. Do not forget that in the end, you cannot save a Corrupted of that nature. You can only –”

“Eat it. Kill it. Add it to my collection. I get it. But at the same time, I don’t. I want to reach out a hand towards it. To help it up, but…” Frost, now standing before the We Discarded Many, offered her free hand down towards it, to which the Corrupted only wept before suddenly –

< [Courageless] >

– It used a Corrupted skill.

But nothing occurred.

The Club in her arms flashed green as she clutched it all the more tightly, like it was the memento of a long-lost family member. Frost felt melancholic. A familiar air swept through the scenery which she for some reason longed for.

This is a fragment of that old world, isn’t it? Not Earth. The one I set alight. It’s like I’m daydreaming. No one else can see her, huh.

“The Archivist wishes to speak with you directly. Will you allow her to?”

Please.

The Corrupted then spoke again just as the Archivist spoke through Nav’s voice.

“I don’t remember much. But I remember also struggling to figure out which way was the ‘right’ way.”

< “Syphoned values. There was little we so many could contribute other than becoming their coins. But it was one way we could be ‘saved’.” >

< [Unvalued] >

Again, nothing occurred. By now most of the people had passed. The buildings obfuscated the threats that laid affair. She could not tell if they were encroaching or not. Her attention was devoured solely by the We Discarded Many.

Its namesake was oddly harrowing. Eventually, her outstretched arm fell back to her side as she just watched, standing there not knowing what course of action to take other than to just impartially observe.

Once again, as the Archivist spoke, so did the Corrupted.

“People motivated by greed. Then normal people like us were put down when we had no use. I remember… wandering our city. Wanting to record everything down. But they told me that my aspirations were useless.”

< “We drowned trying to reach things that no longer existed. But I never discarded them as they discarded us many… It’s so suffocating.” >

< [Suppressed] >

It was as though they were one the same. No. With how the We Discarded Many clutched onto the Club it was obvious whose trauma it was derived from. Simply listening was all it would take to defeat the Corrupted.

An uncertain sadness then assaulted Frost as she watched the girl cower behind the club, as if afraid of her gaze. The city then changed to blue, then red unnaturally.

“Wars fought for no reason. People didn’t even know what they were fighting for. You remember it too, Frost? Because you were… I think – I think you were also a part of it.”

< “No one knew why they acted. Motivated by greed, suppressed to never think – People fought for others, never knowing how much it caused the people of commonality to suffer.” >

< [Directionless] >

Suddenly, the world turned black. A silhouette of a black city contrasted with the grey fog above, and the red cliff faces in the distance. It was as though the world had been set alight, painted picturesque by parallax.

… And I still don’t remember any of it. I can only ‘feel’ it. Like it’s a burning sensation inside of me.

“… But I can… I don’t remember everything either – but – BUT! I’m starting to understand myself. I was… a coward with a dream too big.”

< “Soft spoken; I envied those who clasped onto their beliefs like it was second nature. I wondered if maybe we could all just talk…” >

< [Voiceless] >

Suddenly, everything was set alight. Frost’s flames intensified, and it caused her to take immense damage. So immense in fact that 10% of her HP was depleted in an instant, and she dropped to her knees, agonizing over the sudden agony.

“A-AAGGGHHH NAV! WHAT’S GOING ON!?”

“25,000 stacks of Cinder. Cleanse them –!”

< “Then our friend would have never needed to resort to violence.” >

Frost’s blazing arm suddenly crawled to her elbow. But this was not the worst part. It felt like she was clutching Ignis’ Corrupted form again, except it was significantly hotter. To the point where she felt so faint that she physically drooled on the pavement, retching as her soul was set alight.

[CLEANSE].

[CLEANSE].

[CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE]

[CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE]

[CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE]

[CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE] [CLEANSE]

“… FROST – It – It hurts!” The Archivist suddenly cried as well.

The We Discarded Many was felled after fulfilling its additional Subjugation Requirement, but none of them expected to be greeted with such a result. Frost’s mind was in so much disarray that she inadvertently entered the Second State.

< The Will of the Amalgam Has Been Raised to the Second State >

< Greed Counter. We will begin the mobilization of Justica Arms >

< We Discarded Many Has Been Subjugated >

< We Discarded Many has been added to your Collection >

< You may NOT manifest the Active and Passive Skills of the We Discarded Many >

< Only stats have been gained. No Abilities are available >

< But one thing is for certain >

< This is the first chapter in the book of Civitas Cinder >

< Only two more chapters remain >

None of this was processed by Frost. The Archivist seemed to have recovered already, but Frost on the other hand continued to struggle. She had barely pushed herself up to her feet, recalling the time when her precious history was forcefully dragged out of her by the Attuned Messengers.

The Painkiller Passive Ability thankfully softened the blow as minutes passed by, and before long, the false city was deconstructed.

The flames had ruined them and reduced them all to nothing but the urban waste of S4.

Then, she saw them.

Not her friends.

But the monsters everyone feared and called the Flesh Attritions.

//////// < WARNING > ////////

< ETERNAL NIGHT >

< THE ARBITER’S TRUMPET RESONATES >

Chapter of a Moon
Librarians
< Fragment of Ber >
LEVEL : 90     ORIGIN : Demi-Human     HP : 12,000     ATT : 1,000     MAG ATT : 500
ATT DEF : 800     MAG DEF : 600     MP : 6,000     RESIST : 80     AGI : 40

A swarm of handless Ber’s, each wielding the disconnected paws of a giant stuffed teddy bear, assaulted the landscape, ravaging everything they could find. A fleshy substance grew from their backs, connecting them all together like a giant network of umbilical cords – a parody of the electric link that connected the triplets.

It was clear that the Crimson Hunger too had a hand in this. But Frost couldn’t care less. Her burning desire to eliminate all-standing threats was intensified by the countless stacks of Cinder that riddled her soul.

Then, a voice suddenly called out from behind.

“What the fuck did they do to me…?”

It was Ber, and she could not believe the sight she was witnessing.