232. The Emergence of A Black Swan

“I remember seeing her for the first time. She was dressed in blue and looked so… much like me. Short hair, weird blue clothing. Everything about her screamed ‘unattractive’. Cer looked like she was flirting with her. She always did have an obsession with people with those kinds of eyes.”

Past the waists and backs of countless in the Common Hub of the Nexus, a silent Ber curiously watched Frost’s interaction with Cer. A wave of nostalgia struck Frost as she was brought back to a time when she had high hopes for this world, and when her naivety was exploited by a Star she thought she could trust.

But this memory was not about her.

This was about Ber.

“I never thought much about her. Those eyes were interesting, but I dismissed her as another unordinary Blessed. As Blessed, there was a sense of comradery amongst us. Because in one way or another we’ve all been hurt before the Nexus called upon us.”

The faces in the background were blurred as Ber sat across from Frost with her sisters. Her inquisitive eyes were masked by a veil of disinterest and tomfoolery. But in the small moment where she offered her words of advice, she realized how pitiful Frost actually was.

“Memoryless. Some bullshit about the Warped Stone. A human with no home? I didn’t believe her for a second. Humans are humans. Another had entered our unspoiled paradise. But I found her interesting regardless. She was like an ugly duckling. I found comfort knowing that I wasn’t the only one.”

The scenery dissolved to the burning city of Divas Pass. Amongst them, fighting a Corrupted and the Plague heart was the same Frost. But no longer was she dressed in shabby clothing or carried an air of naivety. The world froze as Ber stared at the fighting Frost, delving into her state of mind and resurging memories.

“On that day I found out that Frost never knew that she was in fact a swan. Be it a black swan, or the Black Dove she came to call herself didn’t matter. Call it envy, but I felt something stir inside of me when I saw those black feathers and the once naïve woman unknowingly bear the title of the Amalgam.”

Memories of Divas Pass, the Derma Layer and the Big Red Heart flashed before her eyes. She recalled the handless Bers and the pain she bared when her memories resurfaced. But the effects of Serum G kept her relatively sane, as did the presence of her sisters. Without Serum G…

“I would have lost myself. No matter how stoic I appeared, how tough I like to portray myself as, I was really just nothing but a house of cards underneath. I was never one to cry for help. One to let people know about how I felt. Seeing the crying me was a reminder of my ugliness. I wanted to change. I remember desperately wanting to become better. But this mouth of mine still refused to open.”

At the defeat of the Heart of Ours, and as they returned to the Golden Index, Ber took a moment to stare into her own reflection in the glossy floors. Walking with her head down, she saw nothing but a black blur with wolf ears and a tail.

“Maybe I’ve already lost myself. Long, long ago. But…”

* * *

Someone sniffled. In the darkness of midnight, tears fell into the clear lake. The moon and stars comforted a crying Ber, who stared down at the distorted reflection in Wharftow’s lake. Coming from a day of berry picking and finally reengaging with her roots, her mind had fallen as she desperately sought to look at herself.

“I don’t know. I can’t tell if it suits me or not.” Ber agonized over the hairclip, which pushed her bangs away to one side. Her perspective of beauty and ugliness was skewed, and she blamed it on the fact that Serum G had permanently stunted all forms of physical growth.

In the lake, Ber saw nothing more than a child staring back rather than a woman, and it frustrated her.

“We never mentioned it, but after returning from the Derma Layer, something in our hearts began to change. Call it a hunch, but I think it began when Frost ate the Heart of Ours. Somehow, it felt like something was chiseling away at the mold around my heart the longer we traveled.”

It frustrated her because who she saw in the reflection was the same child that she had always been since the start. She felt like those 30 years were wasted, when in only weeks with Frost they had grown to the point where they were able to reminisce of the old, ‘happier’ times.

Ber, despite her past, loved her village. Her mother. Those people and her sisters. Her despair grossly exaggerated the past, because when she thought long and hard about it, there were irreplaceable moments of her life still inside of her ruined home.

But she could not keep holding onto the past.

The chains that kept her down were now broken.

Serum G had lost its effect, and she wholeheartedly wept as she thanked Frost for it, biting her lips as she then cupped the onyx hairclip close to her chest.

“We reached so far. After 30 years, holding a knife felt so surreal to me. Hunting berries with Ignis… playing on the riverside. I’ve forgotten about the innocence we once had. I still carry them to this day. Bearing the memories I wished to forget. But now, after watching people blossom into beautiful swans one after another… I believed it was unfair that we were not allowed to become like them.”

Ber recalled the joke she made about becoming a Corrupted. Her words were lightly slathered with truth. Ignis. Jury. Aster. They had all undergone a transformation that made them so much more beautiful than they once were.

And most of all, Frost became the object of her greatest aspiration. What was once envy became jealousy, then adoration… and now – an inspiration.

The world became the lake of Wharftow. The painted scenery was no longer washed with watercolor. It was all real, and the surface of the lake acted like a platform as Ber suddenly stood in its center, sandwiched between the moon above, and its beautiful reflection.

“I, the ugliest duckling, admired the Black Dove. I knew she wasn’t a replacement for our mom like Cer believes... And Res to a smaller extent. But she was the ‘swan’ I wished to also become. So for the first time, I reached out to them all, expressing my woes of the Ateliers. And I realized something as they came together to embrace me…”

Suddenly, Frost regained control over her body. Standing out on the bank of the lake, she fondly stared at Ber, desperately holding back tears. To hear Ber’s outlook on life had changed for the better was reassuring.

“This is your first step outside of your black forest, huh?” Frost flicked a thumb across both eyes, refusing to cry in front of the person Ber admired more than anyone else in this world. “Ber. I’m going to take that hand. And I’m going to drag you right out of there!”

Ber’s body, encased by the moonlight, transformed into an adult version of herself. It was precisely what she’d look like if it weren’t for the intervention of Serum G. She was utterly beautiful, and wore a dress clad in the same essence of the moonlight. The dress was black, but it glistened like a beacon of light. Her hair was still cut short, her eyes were far sharper, but somehow calmer than usual, and her tail had received an uplift as well.

The tail was easily as large as herself, groomed to perfection as its white, fuzzy tip swayed in the invisible wind like a branch.

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

< ETERNAL NIGHT >

< THE ARBITER’S TRUMPET RESONATES >

< “In this world of forced choices, people are tempered by the choices their hearts make alone.” >

< “In that reflection I realized as I wept tears, ripple after ripple, that I was no ugly duckling.” >

< “From the sorrow of the past, shivering in the eggshell of the present – I desperately aspire to hatch into one of the swans I so desperately adored.” >

< “The mother swan I followed was the most caring and beautiful of all. I wanna become just like her!” >

< “I WANNA BE FREE AND BECOME A SWAN!” >

The Black Swan
Ber

< Through misery and the cold nights, the ugly duckling was nurtured by the swan she wished to become. But she never realized that she was just like her all along. Seeking redemption and happiness, she opens her wings to finally take flight into the cloudless paradise reflected by the lake >

AFFINITY : Desire
LEVEL : 140     ORIGIN : Trauma     HP : 200,000     ATT : 3,000     MAG ATT : 3,000
ATT DEF : 500     MAG DEF : 500     MP : 5,000     RESIST : Nil     AGI : 42

< CONDITION: The Black Swan wants to prove itself to the Black Dove. If your MP reaches 0, then The Black Swan will manifest and devour Ber. The lower its HP becomes, the more reign Ber will have over The Black Swan >

< SALVATION CRITERIA: The Black Swan’s HP must reach 0 >

< What happens afterwards is unknown… but the Archivist is desperately cheering you on! >

“We didn’t come this far just to fail!” Frost, with more vigor than ever, prepared to take on Ber’s final Corrupted phase with everything she had.