282. Time Manipulation?

Emotions ran high. Snap took drastic measures and began to orbit the Blood of the Covenant as the Collective Illusion made it nigh impossible to move onwards without being struck. Its protective, fleshy armor courtesy of Ignis would have protected it through thick and thin, as the attacks of the Corrupted ranged between 2,000 to 7,000 ATT and MAG ATT.

Its strongest attack was its defensive veil. The invisible Big Black Spade. For Snap, danger was mitigated so long as it kept moving. Cer, Ber, Res and even Ignis had accumulated considerable damage in the two hours that had already elapsed.

Res was missing a hand and several fingers on the other. Cer had lost an ear and her tail was hacked into pieces. Ber’s back was riddled with deep lacerations as she struggled against the mental turmoil of the Corrupted’s goal to break every last bond they had like the bodies of the Scarlet Logic forces it captured.

Ignis | HP: 120,000 | 260,000

Cer | HP: 20,000 | 50,000

Ber | HP: 75,000 | 120,000

Res | HP: 32,000 | 50,000

HP was their major vice. Having lost half of their HP already caused some of their movements to become sluggish as blood poured from unhealed wounds for hours on end. The amount of blood a Moon possessed was far more than the ordinary. But this was not because their blood volume was higher. Rather, it was the rate at which powerful beings such as themselves could replenish it.

Bleeding out was only ever an issue when one accumulated multiple lethal wounds. The absurd resilience to death a Moon possessed was precisely why they were the perfect weapons to fight the Corrupted.

< [Collective Illusion] >

< [Collective Illusion] >

< [Collective Illusion] >

The barbed wire bombs were flung in every direction. The once stray strands quickly became a thorny hedge, severely limiting their maneuverability. Ber cleaved away the screaming thorns that were the Scarlet Logic using [Singing Wingslash]. Her electrified claws alleviated much pressure, but they still could not scratch what was akin to an insurmountable mountain.

“What a pain! They sent Impurtas to distract the Ateliers from something only they can take down together! It’s like they knew this was going to happen all along!” Cer cried, shouting louder than usual due to her degraded sense of hearing. “Then again, Carpalis is too busy moving everyone she can from the flames. Hey… HEY!”

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SCREAMING FOR!?” Res shrieked.

“You think Frost is trying to help us!? Her column of fire is headed right this way!” Cer pointed out.

Indeed. Frost’s flames had breached far into C4. It would reach them in under an hour. The speed of that fiery twister was easily greater than Snap’s. Flaming shockwaves and breaks of the atmosphere followed, incinerating all in its path as C4 was set ablaze.

The once green plains had become a hellish meadow.

“Maybe… Maybe she’s subconsciously wanting to claim the Corrupted!?” Ber exclaimed. “And besides! That’s totally a Frost thing to do! Wanting to help even while she’s in that state!”

“I’m fucking worried, because how the fuck are you or Ignis supposed to damage the Corrupted if she comes any closer!?” Cer roared, right before another cloth-like whip lacerated her stomach.

Had it not been for Ignis’ tentacles, she would have lost her entire lower half.

Cer was an upstanding Moon that laughed in the face of certain death. After distancing herself she became eerily quiet. Fear lodged itself in her throat, silencing her temporarily before she regained her bearings.

“… This is the thrill of the fight. If I show weakness here, then what the hell does that say about my own self-worth?” Cer grumbled, clasping tightly onto Ignis’ tentacles, summoning courage from her bonded friend. “I am a Moon. I am a Moon. I am never going to let myself submit to a damned living nightmare!”

No one heard her aside from ignis, whose tentacles could transmit sound the same way two cups and a string could. The vulnerable Cer was a surprise, and the internal conflict she faced caused her to constrict the wolf unexpectedly, almost snapping her already weakened bones.

Res also expressed certain vulnerabilities of her heart, but she backed it with the fact that she understood where her heart laid, and that her heart was hers alone. Ignis envied them a little. It was a disgusting sensation stirred by the Corrupted. But within the mud of her ugliness was a lotus of truth that blossomed.

Ignis herself struggled with the concept of bonds. Because she saw herself as one of the thorns among the hedges. Someone who only hurt others by her childish neediness. She was young, but she conducted herself like an adult. That freedom she once had brought misery to so many she loved.

The Covenant of Blood unleashed one last attack as its cloth-like tentacles suddenly retracted into its main body.

< [Watered Covenants] >

It became stationary as both Ignis and Ber were drawn into a dazed trance, causing Rer and Cer to panic as Ignis’ tentacles loosened.

“Hey – HEY! IGNIS!” Cer shouted, desperately grabbing armfuls of tentacles to keep herself afloat. However, at the sight of a falling Res, she freed herself and embraced her sister.

“It’s not that far of a fall! Is- Is it happening now!?” Res managed to shout moments before they crashed far below.

It was only a hundred meters up, so there was no risk of injury. Regardless, Cer was compelled to rescue her. After everything they had been through, she was not going to take the one-off chance of something happening.

“I… Tch – It’s gotta be! That’s six skills now right!? The Heart of Ours used eight! The only other two would be the one that empowers them! And… that.”

Laying on the ground, Cer and Res stared up from the desolate fields, basking in the light of Frost’s distant flames as the invisible Big Black Spade took form. It was no larger than the Big Red Heart. In fact, it appeared like an upside-down version of it. The entity stood in place, pores now forming along its outer shell like a giant colander.

Water surged from these holes instead of blood, flooding the plainlands in an instant.

Then, suddenly, two thick ribbons were ejected from its center mass: one rapidly approaching the hovering Ber, and another for Ignis.

“DON’T LET IT GET TO THEM! RUN AWAY SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!” Cer roared, flinging electric bites at it but to no avail.

“Break it!” Res fired as many Electric Lances as possible, only to watch them explode upon impact, leaving nothing behind but a small puff of fumes as the stumps of her hands physically steamed.

Its DEF was absurdly higher than the others. These ribbons were the amalgamation of all it possessed. Only the massive sprawl of razor wire remained with its chorus of suffering playing like the organ of a cathedral.

Snap could easily avoid it. Since Ignis still held onto Ber, Snap was able to drag them both around with relative ease as the two ribbons gave chase. However – Snap’s legs unexpectedly locked up as it skidded along the grasslands.

“SNAP!?” Res was shocked by Snap’s sudden failure.

The friction alone should have torn its legs apart but that did not seem to be the case. For a brief moment Snap was seemingly invulnerable as it ploughed a mountain of dirt aside. It tumbled and rolled like a flipped wagon.

And yet miraculously those aboard never moved an inch. They were welded to Snap. Not a single arm or hair moved until seconds later where Snap began to mechanically whimper.

“Brrrr! *Snap* *Snap* *Snap* Zzzzt!? BBBBRRRRRRR!?”

“GOOOOOOOOO! MOOOOVE! SNAP WHAT’S THE MATTER!?” Cer screamed, only to hear the voice of the White Wing respond to Snap’s cry.

“Can you feel it? If this magic was better used… and in the right hands, we wouldn’t have had to undergo so many cycles. It’s beginning. You can see fragments of the past, hmm? These polaroids… are quite polarizing.”

In the White Wings hands were a set of three polaroids, each with an image of herself and a young Elysia. She used them to compare it with the current Jury, and to her humor:

“Only one looks just like the you now. Long, long ago before it all went downhill. Little spider. ‘Observer of Hope’. I’d be careful prying into my past.”

The air lost its scent of grass. It disappeared as quickly as the air began to change around Jury. Blades of grass were lifted. The surrounding gravity hadn’t changed, but even so the blades of grass defied all that should have been impossible.

Then, the green confetti sporadically left left and right back into the ground. The upheaved soil collapsed back into shape as a powerful ticking overcame Res and Cer, to the point where it was all they could feel and hear. Their bodies felt light, and the wave of light blue caused Res to wince and hold her stubby hands in front of her face.

And when her eyes fluttered open, she was greeted with a complete set of fingers.

“… I was healed…?” Her complexion changed in an instant. The miracle caused her to pinch each finger individually to ensure it wasn’t just a dream. Even with the strongest healing magic her severed limbs had returned far too quick.

Rather, it was in a state of less damage rather than being completely healed. A moment of herself during the battle was restored, and the only person capable of such absurd phenomenon was Jury.

“She’s… not a healer… So how…?”

“I know this is going to sound crazy Res, but I think time just got reset. Forget that! Ber. What about Ber!? BER!?” Looking up, they saw Ber suspended in midair, tangled by the strands of both Ignis’ tentacles and the black ribbons.

And likewise, Ignis found herself mummified by them. Her tentacles wrapped around her throat, constricting herself until air could no longer be drawn.

Cer and Res prepared themselves to fight back. To at least aid them in whatever way they could now that they were back in their prime thanks to the perversion of time.

Their Mana, however, was not something that time could replenish.

The White Wing echoed this as she implored for them to stand down, flicking her watch from her breast pocket. All hands spiraled out of control as the gears within began to smoke. Her thumb clicked a button, and from its center grew a pale stake similar to the ones belonging to Iscario.

But it was brighter. Deadlier. It was a weapon the triplets could not begin to analyze. The back of their minds was stung by a numbing pain, causing the prompts to corrupt and show nothing but senseless characters.

The same kind only found within the books of the Eternal Library.

They gulped, for they knew that they had set their eyes upon something forbidden.

“Your answered name will determine whether this falls into your hands, Jury, or will penetrate that heart, Elysia. The rational Corrupted undergo their moment to become bonded. But it seems like we’ll be having company soon.”

Finally, she fixed her gaze upon the unhatched Frost.

“You said it yourself, Elysia. The egg is a world. Let’s hope that this world you’ve shamelessly named after yourself doesn’t become their egg again.”

A/N: We are less than 10 chapters from beginning the final sequence of the 6th Arc!