246. The Contents of the Tale

The mountain of corpses writhed. Maggots plagued their flesh, and they no longer took upon the appearance of a Crimson Hunger abomination. The bodies of humans and Demi-humans piled upon one another, creating the pillars that held up Bride’s pale castle, towering a hundred meters into the air.

Blood dribbled from the fresh wounds of the damned, oozing like the juices of crushed cherries. The land underneath, crushed by its amalgamative mass, was shaped into a bowl. The homes pulverized by its legs like the pestle of a mortar.

An ocean of red washed past the ankles of the Groom, who plucked whatever stray Crimson Hunger, person or entity came within reach and added them to the mountain of corpses.

Your Balcony to Stand Above the Stars
Librarians
< Our sacrifices >
ATT DEF : 3,500     HP : 400,000     MAG DEF : 3,500

“I love you. There isn’t anything else in the world I’d give to be by your side.”

“Standing underneath her pale castle, I heard the confessions, and my heart went aflutter.”

“HP… That thing is alive.” Ignis was the first to utter as the triplets stared at the mass, their eyes bewildered by the composition of the corpses.

“Demi-Humans? They’re called Familia so how come…?” Ber whispered through clenched teeth. “The Bride and Groom don’t look anything like us Demi-humans. Voice – I mean Nav! Are we able to look into the history of them or something!?”

“Nav doesn’t have that kind of knowledge. The Groom’s the likely culprit. But I don’t understand the meaning behind all those corpses? It’s horrible…” Jury held back a gasp, having never seen so many bodies before.

And neither had Frost.

The imagery caused a twinge of pain to form in Frost’s chest. The scenery was like a representation of her efforts thus far. Behind her she knew that a similar – if not larger – pile of corpses lay hidden behind the curtains of fire.

“Can you feel it? All you of you? It sounds like a story of desires to me.” Cer said. “Love, but there’s more desires. Dunno what it means to you, but I’d be an idiot to not crossmatch them with the affinities we know of!” Cer surprisingly brought up, stirring further intrigue.

“This is supposed to be a story. Pale castles. We’ve been travelling the world fighting all kinds of Corrupted, and there was only place that had those castles. Res. Cer… Am I overthinking it?” Ber solemnly spoke as the statuses of the Bride and Groom emerged.

Lover in the Sky Librarians
< Our divide >
LEVEL : 100     ORIGIN : Impuritas     HP : 150,000     ATT : 0 MAG     ATT : 2,000
ATT DEF : 2,000     MAG DEF : 0     MP : 4,000     RESIST : 100     AGI : 0

Far Reaching Lover Librarians
< Our divide >
LEVEL : 100     ORIGIN : Impuritas     HP : 150,000     ATT : 0     MAG ATT : 2,000
ATT DEF : 2,000      MAG DEF : 0     MP : 4,000     RESIST : 100     AGI : 0

“You’re not. Pale castles. They’re from one of the Kingdoms that failed after Paradise was lost. The 13th Order. It’s a Kingdom that deeply spited our kind. You had Puritas, and then you had them.” Res revealed, gnawing with certainty of this. “When Puritas fell, they crumbled and dissolved. They were everything Puritas stood for, and they became its executionary body. Condemning people for sins they never committed.”

Res spoke with overwhelming ire; a resentment shared between the triplets, and even Ignis. She had heard of the tales regarding the 13th Order from refugees who had found solace and respite in Divas Pass.

“Every single one of them were obsessed with demanding people to confess whatever sin was written on those pieces of paper given to them by the King of Puritas.” Cer scathingly spat, pointing at a peculiar emblem above. “That owl is the proof. In the end, no matter how many people protested to their barbarism, they pretended to listen. Destroying them was one of the few good things Raoul did!”

“Tch… the Listening Bird was the manifestation of what they carried out.” Frost clicked her tongue.

“Their love was doomed from the start. But from what I’m seeing it looks like they had some kind of chance. Good for them. And look at her… staying up there on her castle, rather than running away. Coward…” Cer, suddenly ripping herself free from Ignis’ tentacles, grasped onto Jury’s tail and screamed at the top of her lungs. “YOU COWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD!”

“Jury – THROW CER AND US AT IT!” Ber demanded, her emotions heightening all of a sudden. “No secrets right Frost!?”

“What’s wrong!? Is this another attack, like your fragments?” Jury questioned, slightly panicked at their deteriorating mental state as she wrapped them firmly, her tail curling underneath like an upside down trebuchet.

“No… but that bitch – How… How can you fall in love with someone, but lack the courage to stay with them?” Ber scathingly spoke, and Frost immediately understood what she was referring to. “Could you ever do that to Frost? Could you do that to Jury?”

Their father was likely a human. The stigma would have stained whatever prestige he held, if he had any. Frost had only heard about their mother, so hearing about their other parent was food for her curiosity. But seeing their impassioned faces, and spite for the woman made her hold onto these thoughts for another time.

“I couldn’t. Even if I was weak, I’d give anything to be with Jury.” Frost admitted, her eyes brimming with passion. “But do we know what the Groom himself sacrificed to realize their love? Looking at those corpses irks me.”

Then, as if to answer her fleeting question, both the Bride and Groom spoke, cutting through the quaking footsteps that reduced the city into a paste of debris and flesh.

“We had to abolish it from the inside. But I could not do anything. It was only through my sister’s encouragement did I gain the motivation to confess on that moonless night.”

“Abusing the power of the wrathful Atelier, I slayed countless to erect our impervious fortress! Hearing that song – Hearing that confession – No matter the Replication Cycles, I forever found my way back!”

“… Scarlet Logic. It somehow goes back to them. Meaning the reason why he looks human is because he lost his Demi-human features.” Frost gargled on her fury.

The tale was as tragic as she had initially thought. Everything was intertwined in one way or another.

“You are approaching the Third State. It will not be long now!” Nav warned.

“Be careful!” Jury exclaimed before she threw the triplets with enough force to obliterate a normal person. They flew like shooting stars, tumbling in the air as they returned a cheeky grin each. “Ignis – We’re going to take down the castle! Frost –!”

“Leave the Groom to me!” Frost had already thrown herself from Ignis’ machiconation, and plummeted from her great height like a flame-bearing meteorite.

From their height they still could not peer over the walls of the City of Spades, which the castle monstrosity gradually approached. The steep cliffs running towards its walls were no more than a staircase.

13th Order. Nav. Does Ber know what the 13 means?

Frost mentally asked moments before she collided with the Groom. The sheer impact instantly evaporated the coagulated lake as she bared her flames and fought with the suited man, pummeling him as golden sparks left his body with each strike.

Frost’s punches threw the Groom along the flattened field, and she gave chase, fighting in a manner that resembled a game of tennis as she whacked him up, down, left and right.

“The 13 represents the number of Orders within Grandis. They were, for lack of a better word, the equivalent of the wings of the bird that was Paradise. To keep it functioning – to keep it sustainable, 13 Orders were made. Puritas could be considered the 1st Order.”

Doesn’t that sound an awful lot like the Dozen Winged Bird!?

“Indeed. The Arbiter does harp at its familiarity. She finds it humorous that Galia had built her Atelier in a similar manner. But please do not ask much from her. Like you and the Archetypes, she is missing a significant portion of her memory.”

“There’s only one real way to get an answer, huh!?” Frost shouted as Ignis thrusted her spider-like legs into the stumps of the beast, causing it to drag her along as Jury ran along.

She did not use her Beholder powers just yet. Not when they could still manage, and not when there were still more Acts to follow. Such a tale could not possibly end here. There was more than what met the eye.

Bricks showered, as did corpses. Frost danced around them, bashing the Groom who could not even conceive of retaliating. She was simply too powerful, and the trails she left behind were like that of a meteor as she dragged the Groom along, biting at their neck whilst they followed the others.

She did not even need to use her Touch of Golds.

“Heretical beliefs. Humancentric values… I, for one, never believed in it after witnessing what they had done to those with pale hair. Despite all she had been through, my sister continued to push me forward towards our secret marriage.”

“Through our sacrifice, we would reach higher than what that Star ever could! That way no one could interfere with our love. But I had already been marked to be Condemned. To forever lament in those iron coffins, to bask in the inferno underneath…”

“Oboros Infintas as well. Star. Is he talking about –!?”

“Indeed. He is speaking of not only Iscario as the Prince. But of Raoul, the Star. After such bloodshed, castigation must have been required.”

The second Act was no harder than the first. Frost had already torn out the throat of the Groom, and the triplets had just finished up with the Bride. Jury continued to butcher the legs of the castle as it approached the walls of Scarlet Logic’s City of Spades.

Your Balcony to Stand Above the Stars | HP: 100,000

It would not even be a minute before it perished, but it for some ominous reason, continued to push straight for the City as though it carried a vendetta. Frost, having had enough of hearing of the atrocities committed by these Kingdoms of Grandis, finally breached into the Third State.

< The Will of the Amalgam Has Reached the Third State >

< Borrowing the Active and Passive Skills of the Heart of Ours >

Suddenly, as the castle collided with the thick walls of the City of Spades like a battering ram, her flames had risen to her shoulders, the flaming licks disorientating her momentarily before her vision returned.

“Look out Frost!” Jury cried through Nav. Entire building-sized chunks of rock fell from the walls as Frost avoided them with precision, her heart pounding harder than ever before. The tips of her hair transformed into a maroon shade as her body unexpectedly grew. From her legs, her arms, shoulders and even her chest.

There was a sting in her heart, and it coursed throughout her entire body. She felt as though she carried the combined hearts of all those present, and they had empowered her physically, hence her sudden growth.

< The Third State Has Manifested as the Heart of Ours >

But this was not the last of the surprises.

Because as the HP of the Castle fell, the Bride and Groom let out their final woes as the walls were breached, and like a hornet’s nest – The Scarlet Logic flooded through, bearing their arms.

“I never knew what existed beyond those walls. I, in my ivory tower, did not know of the struggles beyond. My fascination quickly turned into despair when I realized that it was not the world we had to fight for this love. It was the stars beyond.”

“To escape this punishment – I must murder those and all who dare to stand between our love!”

< ACT III >