249. Scarlet Logic’s Woes

Limbs. Bodies. Organs. Carapace. It hailed from the skies as electrical pulses squashed the horde of Insectid before they could even comprehend what had occurred. An invisible electric bug net zapped those that strayed too close, and the embers of 50 Touch of Golds incinerated all. Frost drowned in blood, her body soaked in the scarlet juices of the train’s innards like a starving dog.

A long tube-like rope hung from her chest, precisely where her heart was. Connected to it was the colossal False Heart, which dragged behind them like a giant ball and chain. It amplified her heartbeat, which clashed with the one hidden deep within the City of Spades. Between the sound of grinding bones and flesh at the front of the train, the heartbeats, and the deafening woes of the fallen, she could no longer hear the voices of those closest to her.

Ignis remained atop the train, dragging along an enlarged bone blade to catch those on the right, whilst Ber did the same on the left, severing countless Fodder along the way as they barreled straight into the depths of Scarlet Logic’s territory. Jury dashed alongside the train to catch off any strays, whilst Cer and Res prioritized long-range attacks, striking at acid-spitting Insectids.

It was hell. Complete and utter hell. Their attacks waged against Scarlet Logic were immeasurably powerful now that she had unlocked the Unique Skills of the Heart of Ours.

< UNIQUE | PASSIVE: Determined >

< Aspirations brim with the light of stars. Even in our desolate world of darkness, he warned that we must carry the resolve to embrace our hearts, less they drag us down and drown us in a sea of fruitless ambition >

< EFFECT: Grant the Determined Condition onto allies within 100 meters of you and the False Heart >

< PASSIVE: False Heart >

< No one could hear the heartbeats within themselves any longer. It all resounded from beyond. From somewhere indescribable. But they knew that it never belonged to them >

< EFFECT: Enemies within 500 meters of the False Heart are immediately challenged with their aspirations. Failure will result in the formation of the Suppressed. Suppressed will form within a 1km proximity of the False Heart when incapable of withstanding Aspirating Aspirations

< ADDITIONAL EFFECT: Suppressed will emerge with an Aspirator straight from their chests. The more that exist, the larger the area of effect Aspirating Aspirations becomes. All Heart of Ours Skills are free of cost. The False Heart will automatically apply all skills >

Frost’s companions had their stats essentially sextupled. While Empowered granted a doubling multiplier, Determined added an additional quadrupling multiplier on top of their base stats, sky rocketing it to over 10,000 across the board, with Jury becoming nigh immortal. It allowed them to become flexible now that they possessed the maximum limit of 200 AGI.

They were all as strong as Frost, but in the end, Frost was the only one capable of inflicting damage upon the train. Suddenly, it felt like her flames was but an ember compared to their electrical might. But she deeply understood the power of the common flame.

“THIS IS WHAT IT’S LIKE BEING YOU, HUH!?” Cer was ecstatic with her newfound power. The 25-meter range of her Ultracharged Field had extended to a mindboggling 150 meters.

“Spread yourselves out! Don’t overlap!” Res exclaimed, taking the reins over Frost’s command whilst she focused solely on devouring the train. Their formation was like an arrowhead, and the zone of annihilation caused Frost to clench her teeth between each bite.

“Get a load of the ground!” Ber shouted, scraping her claws along as she dug up crimson, bleeding stones. “It’s just like the ones from the Derma Layer! Wait – The blood’s all getting eaten up by the ground!”

Countless were left screaming, clutching onto their hearts in the distance as the False Heart quivered. Its deep thumps cause extreme mental anguish along the ranks of the Scarlet Fodder as they desperately latched onto themselves, screaming at the top of their lungs in a horrid cacophony.

“LET ME FIND MY REAL SELF!”

“I CAN’T KEEP FIGHTING MYSELF OVER AND OVER AGAIN!”

“AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!?”

“HOW CAN WE GO AGAINST THEM WE CAN JUST BE REPLACED WITH A MORE OBEDIENT VERSION OF OURSELVES!?”

“Hatred ripples across what’s left of our bodies. Someone tell me – what is the soul!?”

“Why am I being recreated!?”

“AAAAAAAH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“MAKE IT STOP AAAGH –!”

Aspirating Aspirations and the effects of the False Heart caused them to drown in their futile aspirations. None reacted to the awful sounds aside from Frost, who desperately wished she could shut out her ears. But she couldn’t bring herself to. A ravenous hunger overcame her as her eyes remained perpetually peeled, blood dying her irises red and hiding the golden glow underneath.

They’re willing to fight for hearts that don’t belong to them.

Frost mentally monologued, her invisible eyes witnessing the carnage beyond. The Aspirators, which were the giant, hopping hearts burst from those that drowned in their aspirations, all the while their bodies reanimated, becoming the Suppressed who became walking amplifiers of Frost’s heart.

Though they did not speak, she could sense exactly what was being conveyed.

Surrender. Walk to our side. Please don’t continue in this futile engagement…

Steam began to form along her cheeks. Dried, congealed blood fell instead of tears as she cried from within her dark chimney of cold flesh.

“Why do you all fight for something you despise? This is an opportunity to strike back with us. So why isn’t there a single person with us? Why are we the only ones fighting against them? At this point… aren’t we fighting for them?”

The underlaying issue of Scarlet Logic’s personnel, after receiving confession after confession, was their entrenched fear of losing themselves. Of dying a miserable death. Of being forgotten for not who they were, but what they were. The replications were a curse that inspired wrath through the manipulation of their identity.

But even so, they fought. The Scarlet Fodder fought. Whilst many fell into deep woes, there was still an innumerable number of them that genuinely adored the thrill of battle. The shower of blood. But more than anything…

“Nothing has changed. This is all we know. So why are we being punished!?” One cried, unfazed by Aspirating Aspirations, for they truly did not comprehend anything beyond war.

Insectids knew nothing outside of conflict. Such was their existence in Gnawer. It became clear that a majority of their collected personnel were from Gnawer, so she had to wonder just where were the others they had collected.

Dread suddenly overcame her as they pushed even deeper.

[Beaten Desires] dropped many to their knees.

[Unwilling Unity] conjoined them into abominations each sharing a singular heart; a parody of their reality. Those hearts were unbelonging to them, and Frost felt every collective heartbeat desperately fight against the one that beat underneath the City of Spades.

“An Atelier shouldn’t be so weak. But then again, we’re like a band of what, 18 Moons, 6 Beholders, 6 Exalted, and a fucking Archetype!” Ber counted each number on her fingers, bewildered by their overwhelming might.

“But something’s wrong! It’s under defended.” Res admitted. “All the Midnight Teams should’ve been sent out by now. If Scarlet Logic was just a mass of Fodder and Defenders, then who in their right mind would listen to whatever bullshit threat or excuse they come up with! Urgh! Excuses…” Res fell into a similar, grueling mindset like Frost, wondering how something like this went entirely unchecked.

Even looking at the City of Spades should have roused some suspicion considering there was nearly nothing in this so-called city. It was a false city, replaced by an infestation of Insectids. A rot that ate away at everything, with a smoke screen that enshrouded it from prying eyes. The utopia that was the City of Diamonds only further entrenched Frost’s trust with Carpalis, who lovingly took in even those unaffiliated with her Atelier.

Ironically, the one Beholder she entrusted the most was the one that chose to avoid the Nexus. Aside from Jury, of course.

Our One-Way Trip to Heaven (Hell) | HP : 760,000

“There was no peace anywhere. But everyone wanted a piece of that wish promised by the collectors of severed hands.”

“No matter how many hands I collected. How many fingers I severed for the Star disguised as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, he personally condemned me realizing the contents of my wish.”

“No one listened to us. Jesters, Jesters, Jesters…” Res lamented, her pupils emitting a vibrant glow. Those who were caught in the focus of her sight were immediately reduced to ashes by an invisible current. “IT’S LIKE THEY KNEW ALL ALONG AND JUST LET IT ROT! I can’t… I can’t believe it. What excuse do they have for this!? There’s a Heart underneath the City! Jesters for never joining them. How can you so blatantly spit on the face of someone who saw right through you!?”

The towering spires beyond were not spared, and her very vision carved into its exterior, revealing a honeycomb-like interior.

Her anguish was justified, and Frost wholeheartedly agreed.

There was no excuse for such an oversight. A Heart certainly existed here, and the lands were tainted by it. Something sinister was allowed to take root within the very place that was supposed to protect the Nexus.

With her emotions rising further, black clouds began to form along the battlefield. They were like a reflection of Frost’s clouded state of mind. The ever-increasing quivers of the unknown heart confronted hers, stirring all manners of hatred as she bemoaned for the twisted meaning of ‘Civilization’.

How could they have let people exist like this? Not the criminals. At this point she could care less for those deserving of this fate. But what about the innocent lives? Those forced to do wrongs. Ignorance was no defense, but was that truly fair for those who knew nothing but to answer those above? Who feared an even crueler punishment?

[Collective Leap].

As the train’s HP rapidly dwindled, and as they passed through a vast, ruined playground before finally setting foot into the inner parts of the City – the Aspirators rose to the skies, clumping into the stars and moon the inhabitants were deprived of.

And then, it all came crashing down. They struck the spires like meteorites, and the dispersed flesh returned to the skies, with some being devoured by the ground. Biomass was the energy of the Impuritas, and the Hearts. This only further confirmed their suspicions as they set their sights towards a central spire so large that it induced vertigo into Frost unexpectedly.

It was like looking up at the Nexus. No building on Earth compared to its size, and red electricity ran throughout it, bouncing onto the surrounding spires like a supersized version of the triplet’s Charged Blood Tether Ability. It created a wall of chain-link lightning, rising as far up into the distant haze.

The inner section was, in Jury’s words:

“A giant red forest. I’m starting to hate forests.” She growled, impassioned all of a sudden as she called out for Frost. “I’m – I’m going to use Retrocausality! This place – It shouldn’t exist! It shouldn’t be allowed to stand!”

“You have 2 million Nex on you, right!?” Cer exclaimed.

“Enough for two strikes!” Jury said, redirecting herself to the train where Frost remained awfully silent. “Frost? Frost!?”

“Well save the second one – Just in case!” Ber suggested. “… Frost – Don’t let those emotions get the better of you. You should be the last person who gets caught up by them!”

Jury, rushing into the chute of flesh, dropped down to find Frost feeding off the impervious meat, steam gushing from her cheeks. With her DEF, approaching Frost was easy. But the air was heavy with torment as she knelt there, surrounded by the Concealed Guilt.

Our One-Way Trip to Heaven (Hell) | HP : 230,000

“We wished to become one. I was still locked away in my ivory towers, using the blood of the fallen to begin writing the contents of our wishes. But for this strength, I firstly needed to become one of them – they who exist with the Pages.”

“Was it wrong for wishing to be together? I await the day he falls as a Star. To mark the first step of our wish. Maybe then he will grant it to us. I must confront him when he falls. Towards the end of the carnage, I left to see the beautiful homes of the innocent I had crushed in our City of Spades. I miss the simplicity of that City.”

“Frost! Are you ok!?” She embraced Frost from behind, uncaring of the flames that made the air unbreathable.

Frost finally blinked. The ticking brought her back, and she immediately held onto Jury’s hands like a frightened child.

“… The City of Spades wasn’t always like this, huh.” Frost spoke to herself. “… Jury. Thank you. I’m ok. Let me eat. Let me finish this. Let me… just burn this place down so no one needs to suffer here anymore. It’s all gone to hell. What can we save here, Jury?”

Her words were dangerous, but Jury never let her free until Frost’s heartbeats began to soften.

“… everything beyond this place. You’re right. It must be removed. It’s a rot in the Nex Megalopolis. The Nexus as well. Have you calmed down? I’m sorry that I can’t do anything more. Your flames have gotten hotter… But I’ll keep holding on for as long as you want.” Jury’s voice was the only thing that could ever bring her back, and for that she thanked her lover from the bottom of her heart.

Frost didn’t want to be selfish. And so, she assured Jury that her mental state hadn’t changed. She was not on the verge of breaking or becoming a Corrupted. This process had occurred numerous times. It wasn’t going to take a drastic turn all of a sudden.

“Mm. Yeah. We get rid of Scarlet Logic, take the Piece of the Fallen Star, and it’ll be over. 7 more days… and it’ll all be over.” Frost repeated this to convince herself as a small, lovable smile formed on her face. “Retrocausality, right? Do it. This won’t take any longer than a few minutes… And Jury.”

Frost called her name before she could finally leave. She stood there, turning back to a Frost who solemnly stared at her with a face brimming with hope.

“I’m counting on you to bring me back in case anything happens.”

Jury shone a smile to light up Frost’s darkness.

“I will. All of us will. Please hold on until this is over. Even I’m getting poisoned by it. Cer and the others are strong, hm. They’ve seen worser things. I really… really hope we can stop people from seeing them in the future.” Jury reapproached Frost, clasped her face and deeply kissed her. “No one’s going to leave you if you ever end up inside of a Black Forest!”

“Ha… Haha. Yeah. I figured as much. Go get them, Jury!”

* * *

Suddenly, a blinding light enveloped the entirety of the City of Spades. Pale orbs appeared in the skies one by one as the very fabric of space was torn apart. They fell like snow, appearing like white versions of Frost’s one thousand eyes. Each orb radiated an unnatural sound, half like a scream, and another like a holy hymn.

The battlefield froze in that instant as all gaze up to the falling snow. One reached out for it, and once it made contact with them, their body began to melt away from the hand down. They severed their hand, but the effects still advanced until only their armor was left.

|| RETROCAUALITY – ANGEL’S TOUCH |||

< ATT: 1,200,000 >

< MAG ATT: 3,200,000 >

< Call in a predetermined shower of hungry Angels >

< Use with discretion. Do you remember the sight, me? When the pale rocks fell from the skies and forever changed our world? >