247. At the Lip of the City of Spades

Scarlet Logic.

They blocked out the dim light of the sun like a swarm of locusts. Had she not looked up, then she would have believed that a second night had befell them. A fragmented shadow blanketed the world underneath the colossal walls as all eyes rose to the hundreds of Insectid personnel.

They took to the skies, each in perfect formation. Upwards of fifty were grouped in a squadron, lead by an Insectid rallying the banner of Scarlet Logic.

Scarlet Fodder
< First Responders >
Soul Rank: Green | Atelier: Scarlet Logic
LEVEL : 20     ORIGIN : Insectid     HP : 150     ATT : 100     MAG ATT : 100
ATT DEF : 500     MAG DEF : 500     MP : 10     RESIST : 10     AGI : 25

Their wings emitted a grueling buzz that marked their onslaught as a unanimous, high-pitched battle cry screeched.

“PROTECT THE HIVE!”

“DEFEND THE QUEEN AT ALL COSTS!”

“ORDERS ARE ABSOLUTE!”

“MANIFEST COMMAND!”

They had been waiting for this moment to arrive, and they sprung at the opportunity to strike. However, many were clipped by the falling fragments of the wall, leaving Frost to believe that they perhaps did not expect to be greeted with two colossal beasts.

“SO THIS IS WHERE IT BEGINS, HUH!?” A deafening roar left Frost as countless were rendered frozen by her gaze, causing them to plummet to their deaths.

A commandeering power was woven into her voice, reflective of her newfound powers.

Her Coat of Prejudice seemed to grow with her body, and the tights she wore had at this point disappeared. But if they were present, they would have shredded due to the extra size she had gained thanks to manifesting the Heart of Ours.

< ACTIVE: Beaten Desires >

< EFFECT: Ramp up the emotions of allies. Muddle the hearts of your enemies to suppress them >

< Cost: 25,000 MP >

< They could never act on their suppression. Ambition was wrung from their soul through bouts of violence >

< ACTIVE: Unwilling Unity >

< EFFECT: Physically conjoin an unwilling heart with all those within a 100-meter radius. They will fight for you, however unwilling they may be >

< CRITERIA: Initial target must be suppressed by Beaten Desires or other means. Secondary target must have less than 100 RESIST and 500 base DEF >

< Cost: 40,000 MP >

< Banded together for the wrong reasons >

< ACTIVE: Collective Leap >

< EFFECT: Collect the hearts of the fallen and raise them to the sky. Hurl them at will and deal 25,000 MAG ATT to target >

< Cost: 50,000 MP >

< Let us take this leap of fabricated faith >

< PASSIVE: Shattered Dreams >

< EFFECT: Summon devouring clouds. Cannot dictate where they appear >

< CRITERIA: Active when emotional state increases and when your heart is confronted >

< Oh how we all wish we could all just sleep in a bubble of ignorance. Wouldn’t we all be happier that way? >

< PASSIVE: Gushing! >

< The higher your emotional state, the more inclined your heart will be to speak. All targets within a 50-meter radius are affected. Target with over 200 RESIST will accumulate Gush stacks >

< The world doesn’t need to know what you think. Sometimes, it’s better to just keep it to ourselves… for our own sake >

< PASSIVE: Aspirating Aspirations >

< EFFECT: All those considered enemies will be challenged by their aspirations when emotional state reaches critical levels >

< Grasp it. Or risk drowning in a sea of fruitless ambition >

Many things happened at once.

The triplets attacked the onslaught with ease as they rode off the crumbling castle, and then ran along the barren battlements of the walls. The Fodder, no matter how many there were, may as well be grains of sand in the wind. With the hive agitated, and its walls crumbled, red lights began to flash throughout its entire length as an ear-splitting siren was raised.

“WARNING. WARNING. ALL DEFENSE TEAMS PREPARE. ALL FODDER MUST PRESENT TO THE FOREGROUNDS. TRESSPASSERS MUST BE ELIMINATED. WARNING. WARNING.”

It was a rudimentary version of the Blessing’s warning, designed for their innumerable non-blessed Personnel. The feminine voice came from everywhere at once, originating from chutes that protruded from the walls like gutter pipes.

This voice was likely the one they called the Queen.

“Looking at them I wouldn’t be surprised if the Queen turned out to be an Insectid as well.” Frost scathingly spoke as she began to clamber over the walls, her 50 Touch of Golds blossoming as they swatted the Insectid swarm. “Scarlet Logic’s right at our fingertips! There’s no way in hell –!”

Frost unleashed a barrage of her magic all at once. Magnitude was used to further crack apart the walls as Dream Shatterer ate at it from the inside out. The Touch of Golds buried themselves within, bursting through the other end as her body began to burn with an uncontrollably hatred now that they had reached their doorstep.

[Beaten Desires].

Her body brimmed with insurmountable emotion, and there was only one way it could come out.

“– THAT WE’RE NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO SET IT ALIGHT!”

As the shoddily equipped Insectid were disarmed, they chose to fight with words as Frost’s magic unconditionally caused them to spew nonsense. Higher did she climb, and as Ignis and the collapsing beast of the Second Act fell, she heard the voice of Ber cut through the ocean of utterances.

“CHECK IT OUT FROST! SCARLET LOGIC’S RIGHT AHEAD! IT’S A TSUNAMI OF THEM!” She pointed her fangs in the direction just as Frost emerged at the top, with Ignis clambering over behind her. Jury rode her head and joined their momentary respite after having cleared their immediate threats.

The air was clear again, but their ever ramping emotions quickly muddied it. Ber’s emotional state had risen far enough thanks to Beaten Desires. Manifested in her right hand was the feathered claw, which curled beside her like a coil of barbed wire.

“Emotionally pumping magic! That’s pretty neat Frost! Imagine all of us getting a Corrupted Persona! You wouldn’t believe how useful something like that would be!” Ber was elated by Frost’s magic as their hearts collectively beat in unison, whether it was a *badump* or a ticking. “So that’s them! The City of Spades!”

“… all of this was hiding underneath the smoke?” Res was more shocked than surprised, her voice trailing off as Frost’s eyes widened with repulsiveness.

It caused non-existent hairs to rise along her back as Jury’s jaw dropped.

“Since… Since when were all of Scarlet Logic’s Fodders Insectids?” Jury whispered, wondering if this was supposed to be correct.

“Could be just here… But it’d make sense for it to be Insectids. Why keep them replicated when you can just replace them? No shortage of them either. But that… that’s not normal.” Cer was bewildered, equally as stunned as she confused by the scenery.

Flying from the spires at the furthest recesses of the City of Spades, which pierced past the clouds, were potentially tens of thousands of Insectids. Half with wings which flew like smoke, and the other that gushed through invisible pores along the crimson spires, which appeared more like termite mounds now that Frost realized it.

The landscape within was ruined, abandoned almost. It was no more than an extension of the outside world. Remove the walls and none would be able to tell where Scarlet Logic’s territory began or terminated. The spires were their homes, and the remnants of the outside were their battlefield. The first several kilometers were no different from the outside. Deeper, it was all flattened. And even further was what appeared to be a garbage heap, which formed around the base of the spires.

It did not appear like a city. It was a prison. Or rather, it was like the flat, devoured plains of Brandar.

“Not normal? What’s normal supposed to look like!?” Frost demanded, watching the ground units take their formations, as the flying Insectids hovered just above, acting as their vanguard.

“It’s not supposed to look like we’re stuck in the middle of nowhere in Gnawer. Scarlet Logic has numbers. But nothing like this. That’s not just ten thousand. That’s like – a hundred thousand!” Ber exclaimed, clenching her clawed fist with a smirk. “Don’t they get that a hundred thousand isn’t going to cut it against us!?”

Frost however, could not share the same level of optimism. Whilst she yearned to obliterate them, a part of her remained skeptical.

“Only Fodder?” Jury was on the same wavelength as Frost.

The sheer number was unfathomable. However, what was more alarming was that they had yet to levy their strongest individuals. Instead, they sent out their weakest into the equivalent of a meat grinder as Res preemptively struck with her Electric Lance.

“Are they preserving their stronger personnel? Hiding them?” Frost wondered aloud.

What secrets were they hiding here? Why did the Masterpiece lumber towards Scarlet Logic? There were too many things running through her mind. It all spun like a kaleidoscope. Anger was the only thing that kept her mind intact as she vowed to bestow Scarlet Logic’s rightful judgement.

They needed to destroy whatever’s allowing them to replicate.

“Only one way to find out – Tch, here it is!” Cer cried as the walls began to quake. “The dissolving mountain of corpses is transforming into a… wait – ARE YOU SEEING THAT!?

Golden particles enveloped what was left of the Your Balcony to Stand Above the Stars, which laid buried underneath them.

Frost thought she had just about seen everything, until the golden light transformed into a grand, golden circle easily spanning 30 meters in circumference. And from it, she heard the roar of a train’s horn.

“We enjoyed the comfort of one another. The warmth made me realize that despite our differences, we both bleed the same blood, breathe the same air, and stare up at the same blue skies.”

“Wanting to protect this love, I took my condemned train and rode it straight into the heart of our enemies! We were freed from the vices of our families! This iron chariot will free us from the binds of the City of Spades, and that Star!”

But unlike the gravity-assisted trains of Caldera Industries, a steam train built on a colossal scale chugged through, spewing smoke that mashed with the grey overcast. It was so large in fact that even the cruiser-trains were miniscule in comparison. It was comprised of metal, but underneath, one could find sinew gluing it to a body of red, granulating flesh.

Our One-Way Trip to Heaven (Hell)
Librarians
< Our Final Stand >
LEVEL : 120     ORIGIN : Impuritas     HP : 1,200,000     ATT : 3,200     MAG ATT : 3,200
ATT DEF : 3,000     MAG DEF : 3,000     MP : 4,000     RESIST : 300     AGI : 80