296. The Meaning of the Piece of the Fallen Star

4 days had passed since the White Wing left Jury and her companions to deal with Frost. The reason she left them to fight alone was never uttered, even to the curious Carpalis who tagged along now that the situation outside was manageable.

Much had occurred within such a short period of time. The White Wing’s reasoning for lending her hand was also draped in mystery. Her sudden change in heart caused her to redirect the Golden Index towards seemingly obscure locations dotted around the City of Clubs.

By now Scarlet Logic’s forces were dead. Only their gambit teams remained, as did their false healers. The 6th Branch had only just recently joined the fight, sandwiching the Dungeons and Impuritas between the existing forces within the City of Clubs, most notably in C5.

The only place that was not defended was the Piece of the Fallen Star.

Carpalis admittedly knew little of what was going on. The White Wing knew significantly more than she was willing to claim, made obvious by how she directed both Justica Arms and the Golden Index towards imminently emerging Dungeons.

Normally, Dungeons could be predicted ahead of time using Caldera Industries technology, as well as Act X’s predictions to a certain extent. However, in the thick of their shared silence, the White Wing slid a hand into her breast pocket.

“2 days, 3 hours, 21 minutes, and 37 seconds until the Hyperlink returns. Sooner is likely. But we only have 2 days until we have a Faux Angel on our hands. 10 times acceleration of time within this Isolation Sphere, if I recall its name correctly. Quite insignificant. Slightly less than 5 hours until it hatches. How awfully reminiscent. I could cry~”

She removed her gloves and placed a hand onto its thick exterior, sensing the vibrations within as a guttural snore ran through her fingertips, her golden eyes reflecting its darkness in a matter that made them appear like Carpalis’ demonic ones.

In contrast, Carpalis’ eyes were somehow more golden than the White Wings, as if she carried more Angelic traits than an Angel herself. She fondled the egg. Groped it. She violated it with her fingers, caressing it as she dragged a finger around, eagerly running them over each growing vein with a fond expression until they ran over a series of circular veins, isolated from the rest of the system.

Their forms were nonsensical. The scribbles of a child best described them. Closing her eyes, she suddenly paused and began to speak with Carpalis.

They had time to spare, after all. There was no sense of urgency. Both had seen enough horrors to become desensitized to what nightmare potentially awaited them. More than that, Carpalis simply wished to extend her hand again, and as for the White Wing?

“Do you know why it’s called the Piece of the Fallen Star?” The White Wing asked, turning towards the Piece of the Fallen Star as she openly ridiculed the desperate Impuritas, who flutily reached for the unreachable light.

Carpalis responded with a slightly confused twitch of her fennec-ear-like horns.

“I don’t blame you~ It’s prone to misinterpretation. Which star does it reference? Why is it a star of all things? Such useless questions. Hah… Did you know, beings tend to put meaning behind the most meaningless things. If they knew the origins of their world. But some things are better kept a secret. We called it an ‘Infohazard’ back in our world.”

“I was not aware that you came from the same world.” Carpalis gently spoke, neither shocked nor impressed by the revelation. She simply accepted it as fact, her concerns focused more on the situation.

“The same reason there are special scabs Beholders will try to guard. Yourself included. You could call the Advent a star because of its appearance. ‘To wish upon a star’. A fragment invites the notion of ‘incompletion’. Coming from something that was once whole. As expected of you, Carpalis my dear friend, you’re taking this easily.”

“I’ve heard stranger tales. My origins are a few of them. Hehehe… I might be married to misery… Oh White Wing – my dearest friend – would you be so kind to tell me what the true interpretation of the Advent of Desire is?”

“Exactly what it states. A piece of the fallen star. You see, our world has had no stars for the longest time. But one day, one fell into our world. Maybe it was there all along. Maybe it appeared from thin air. Who knows. What we do know, from history’s sake, is that it began a series of events that boiled into whatever world we ended being born into. That light which we called GEN-00 is intrinsically tied with Frost.”

“Frost is a star?” Carpalis’ left arm shivered as the White Wing kindly took hold of it, slowly bringing it towards the egg.

Her digits cramped. All sense of touch was seared by Frost’s flame, and all forms of fine motor movement were forever lost. Some semblances of gross motor movements remained. A Beholder having taken enough damage to lose a limb was not uncommon when it came to fighting the Corrupted, particularly those of the Apocalypse category.

Beholder E. was one such example, having lost every organ and every limb, left with only a small piece of their brain. Beholders were beings that rode a tormented path of blood before they ever had the chance of entering the Eternal Library. They were broken beings, saved only by an ideal they bared, complemented by their technology.

Such as Carpalis’ will to offer those her hand, hence why she received the Faustian Bargain.

She did not show it, but a small part of her was saddened that her left arm was left in such a miserable state.

“Wishes came true if you put your mind to it. Stones carrying reality-altering properties could be formed when the light was stimulated enough. You’re aware of these things, no? The Genesis Stones. Another component of GEN-00.” The White Wing never paused to allow Carpalis to properly digest this.

“You see, we lived in a city like this. Housing over a hundred billion, sprawled throughout the world, separated by walls and arbitrary classes made by those fortunate enough to be among the top brass. Before mana, we used electricity. Inside of a giant reactor capable of creating the energy output of a star. A mass fusion reactor. But…”

The White Wing, after an agonizingly long moment of silence, dragged a finger to what appeared to be an arrangement of beads and looping rings. They formed a childish drawing of a solar system.

“… little did the world know what that they actually did hold a star. They captured a star, and its pieces were slowly wrung from it. Ripped from its very seams. It became the ultimate object of desire, trapped inside of a black shell in its hell paraded as a paradise. A purgatory of sorts, generating Nex, the Genesis Stones, and the primordial ooze people had no qualms feeding on.”

“Is that what the Amalgam encapsulates? A true, complete whole?”

“I couldn’t care less. Seeing this egg hurts me, you know? Being at the center of so many things. The object of desire for countless. Having seen the greed firsthand. The wars waged around them… having lost their way in which way is right, they resorted to the one thing the world only knew. Bloodshed.” The White Wing sopoke fondly of Sinder, placing Carpalis’ hand back beside her as gently as possible. “Don’t lose that arm.”

“I wouldn’t be able to give a hand anymore~ Gabriella. Does this, in your mind, pardon you from leaving this to Jury and her friends alone?”

“I thought that maybe if it was Jury, then she’d be able to change things her own way. Besides, this works either way. So long as we can deal with them until… She arrives.”

“Our beloved Arbiter?” Carpalis hummed as the White Wing brought a bare hand to cusp the Demon’s cheek, brushing away leftover grime from her encounter with the Infusions.

The White Wing stood only a hair shorter than her, and their fond exchanged hinted a more intimate relationship than what met the eye.

“If there’s one thing I want from you, my Carpalis, it’s to never let her know that I was here.”

“Hehehe. Angels don’t get along?”

Gabriella’s small smile faded as she stared at the Piece of the Fallen Star through Carpalis’ eyes.

“That is no longer. Worry not of the Piece of the Fallen Star. All wishes will be as the Advent is. Incomplete. Just a small, fledgling, demented piece. Meaning nothing will go as planned. Only beings like us traverse their physical plane to have one grand wish granted.”

The black egg throbbed, the pocket watch ticking incomprehensibly now.

“It’s exactly what you think it is. Those wastes of life?” Gabriella pointed at the mountain of Impuritas. “Their orders to attempt something so futile were not by accident or by blind faith. It was all in the hopes of powering the Advent of Desire, but we severely miscalculated its cost. If you think about it, a certain fallen Star would also be here to claim it if this weren’t the case. A shame. I was looking forward to stabbing that one. I suppose that proves Act X is ultimately correct.”

As the egg continued to express activity in the form of moving veins, Gabriella summoned her pale stake and pricked its outer shell.

“Our 10th Act awaits.”

A/N:

Hello! This is Syringe, I hope you're doing well!

I'm currently planning a Q/A chapter that'll have ANY characters answer to ANY and ALL of your questions!

The format will basically be:

[Character] - [Question]

I.e: Jury - Why do you like to eat?

Or at least make it clear which character you wish to ask a question to. You may leave your questions on any chapter up until the last few before the Epilogue (which is due in 15 chapters). I will be looking back across all chapters from here until roughly 11-13 chapters later when I'll stop accepting Q/As.

Afterwards, this Q/A chapter will be released following the Epilogue. I will try to get the characters to respond to every single question. You can have as many entries, as many characters, or even multiple at once!

Have fun, and I can't wait until we hit the epilogue! It's by far the most ambitious chapter, so I hope you're all looking forward to it!