289. We (I) Discarded Many

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

< TRICKLE >

< THE ARBITER’S TRUMPET BECKONS >

Jury gagged. Her stomach nearly twisted itself clean apart from the rest of her organs. An unrelenting, unforgiving agitation in her abdomen nearly threw her off balance as she and Ber arrived at the scene.

“FROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST!” Ber slaughtered every Impuritas, and every Scarlet Logic force within the immediate vicinity, impaling them one by one along each claw. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER! WHAT DID YOU DO TO FROST!”

They gargled on bloody words. For the first time for many, they despaired their inevitable fate. Ber held them high above like a trophy. To onlookers, her form took after a distorted, dying tree with bodies serving as its fruit.

“WHAT DID YOU DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!?” Her emotional anguish was not even a fraction of what Jury experienced, as she stumbled along the uneven path, desperately trying to come to terms with the Corrupted Frost ahead.

“No. Please no. Frost… Frost! FROST!” Jury screamed, rushing straight towards the child-like Frost. However, no amount of speed or desperation was enough to bring her even a meter closer the moment she entered a 10-meter proximity of it. “CONDITION!? What’s the Condition! Frost she’s – she’s –!”

< As difficult as it is, I implore that you calm down. Unlike Frost and Ber, your emotions cannot be weaponized. I do not want you to fight if your mind is clouded… >

“There’s no way I can do that right now!” Jury argued, activating [Doppler Strike]. Her afterimages and absurd speed were not even enough. More than 40 after images followed as earth was excavated underneath her.

The smallest shrapnel was enough to obliterate entire sections of walls within this illusionary city. No. Illusionary was wrong. This place was as real as anything else. Jury’s attacks converged into one point, never able to reach Frost as a massive ring of earth sunk from the sheer force alone.

The 10-meter dome around Frost was untouched, and her platform stood like a pillar above the newly formed chasm. Localized Entropy and Retrocausality came to mind, but she suddenly came to terms as she abruptly held her claws mid-slash. She had focused on removing the barrier and assumed that Frost wouldn’t be injured or killed in the process.

She hyperventilated, panting from both physical exhaustion due to Doppler Strike, and mental strain at the realization that she could have killed Frost. Her desperation and blindness from the concoction of emotions had blinded her. Nav’s warning became a lesson for her.

< … because I don’t wish for the same to occur to you! >

“… then – what can we do!? Just stand around and wait!? What are the Conditions!? Frost is… I can’t… bear to keep seeing her cry! Aren’t you the same!? I can’t even hold her! I was supposed to be there for her! Ber!”

“LET ME CLEAN THEM UP FIRST UNTIL THE VOICE CAN START LAYING OUT THE MISSION!” Ber, populating her giant claw further, closed her grip and reduced tens of bodies into a fine paste, like a sharp net slowly constricting its victim until there was nothing left. “IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU – FOR ANY OF YOU THEN FROST WOULDN’T HAVE HAD TO BREAK!”

She did not wish to give them a quick death. Ber’s hunt for retribution was known to Scarlet Logic and the Impuritas, who upon witnessing their might began to flee like the roaches they were.

“If it weren’t for the Impuritas then we wouldn’t have had to forsake so many! And even now – it’s still us that’s fighting! They’re all cowards! Every single one of YOUUUUUUUUUUUU!” Ber howled at the Nexus, activating [Resounding Voice] which levelled multiple streets as a shockwave blasted through.

In the meantime, until Nav could form an answer, Jury moved to the healers, whom were still miraculously alive and attempted to heal them using her time magic. However, the damage had already been done. They were barely clinging onto their lives, eyes weakly begging Jury to help them, and… help Frost.

Even in their dying moments, the healers sought to devote their lives helping others.

“… I can hear ticking…”

“It’s so loud…”

“Do you… require healing…?”

Somehow, when Jury checked their stats, their HP never dropped below 0. It hovered at precisely 1. Something prevented them from dying. Jury turned to the trail of paste that followed Ber and was horrified at the sight of pulsating flesh. Where death became an impossibility, suffering became an inevitability.

Death could not occur within Frost’s Corrupted Zone. Like Frost’s state of mind, everything existed in a quandary state, unable to decide whether they were dead or alive. This world was Frost’s moral purgatory.

Suddenly, Cer, Ignis and Ber arrived at the scene without Snap anywhere in sight. They rode along the roofs, joining Jury with a panicked shout.

“FROST! You – You weren’t supposed to fail! You were the last person this world needed to become a Corrupted!” Cer, like Jury, expressed herself like she could not control her body. Her movements were wild. Aggressive, and uncontrollable. “Not again. Not again! Not like Orth and Thras! Frost! Get off me! We gotta – HELP HER!”

“Stand up straight! We can save Frost! Just like how she saved Ber! Conditions!?” Res embraced Cer, seizing her arms to stop her from collapsing.

It was the first time anyone had seen Cer breakdown. No tears fell, but they knew how desperately they wished to tumble down those cramped cheeks.

“Not known. Nav is figuring it out.” Ignis answered, looking down at the breathless healers. “I can hide them somewhere. I’ve never seen Frost cry before. It’s like… seeing a parent cry in front of you. Jury.”

Ignis, taking the healers under her protection, tugged on Jury’s mantle.

“Don’t let her cry anymore. Frost is… someone we can’t let cry like this. I’ll be back!”

“Mm! Please, come back soon. We’ll need everyone on board!” Jury hugged Ignis before the feline Demi-human dashed away, leaving Jury and the triplets to deal with Frost. “Conditions… please Nav! Hurry!” Her eyes were plagued with liquid anguish.

The three pushed onwards, surrounding the untouchable, Corrupted Frost. Her manifestation wasn’t an addon to herself. Rather, the Corrupted had taken over her as Frost began to speak from her heart into theirs.

< “Directionless I lay, my compass of morality broken by faults not that of my own.” >

< “Does it not bother them? That needless suffering can be justified? I fell into the same trap. I tried to protect innocent lives. But they became victims to my wrath.” >

Everyone could hear her. From the triplets, to Scarlet Logic and even the Impuritas. So long as they were within the 10km Corrupted Zone they could hear her sobs. Impuritas cackled at it. Scarlet Logic screamed profanities and judged the voice as a coward. Ber brought down her claws of justice upon them, purposefully grinding down bone, knowing well that they could not die if they even wanted to.

To them, Frost was but one chosen in a sea of a million. An ordinary person. One of the many they had discarded. But similarly, she was also like them.

She was the one who discarded many… and the only one who tried to find her way in her moral conundrum. The signs of the crossroads began to glow, all the while the club in her tiny arms became dull.

Cer trembled after hearing Frost’s words and attempted to break into her shell regardless of Jury’s warnings. She wasted magic and precious mana attempting to save her friend. Her desperation was deadly, and she nearly reverted to a feral state.

“Give me Frost back! Frost! Come back! The Frost I know wouldn’t have fallen like this! The Frost I know… she shouldered everything. Where is the voice when you need it!?” Cer screamed, her fangs of electricity never reaching Frost.

Instead, it only seemed to frighten her. Frost wept, hiding her face behind the cushion.

Humanity
LEVEL : 10     ORIGIN : Trauma     HP : 1

< “It’s tender. So long as I have this then I know I’ll make the right choices, right? Right…?” >

< “Which way is the right way? My compass from my world does not work here. My north is their south. My south is their east.” >