358. An Alternate Frost

It never occurred to her that Mimicry of all things would have requested for her appearance. A bewildered Frost wracked her mind as she tried to understand its reasoning. They followed the wide corridors, traversed wooden catwalks, and descended numerous steep stairs until they reached a place where the light of the sun could no longer reach.

Wooden walls turned to stone bricks. The basement of the Guild was a dungeon illuminated by faint, red crystals that served as permanent torches. Numerous cells flanked them, bearing nothing but the bare essentials for comfort: a shabby bed that was only just a single, thin blanket; splintered tables; ancient chairs and a foul bucket for waste.

Judging by the dust and cobwebs, this place hadn’t been touched for a long time, but one could imagine what this place was used for.

“Years ago, people that crossed the boundary from S3 into H10 were thrown into these cells to rot. But the coldness of these confines was warmer than what life they escaped.” Carpalis spoke. “Haha… then, they used to throw them down the escarpment, rolling down jagged rocks.”

Carpalis escorted Frost, Nav and Anna in near silence. The shuffling of their feet caused something further ahead to emit a guttural groan.

Frost was the only one who sensed this, and she could feel the odd resonance grow stronger with each passing second. A stone door surrounded by curtains of slightly luminous chains was where Mimicry resided.

“It feels like everything has some sort of wicked history surrounding it.” Frost complained, her eyes fixated on the stone door, like she intended to drill it open with her gaze alone.

Mimicry was a murderous Corrupted. One that could disguise itself to assume the form of its victim, mimicking their last spoken words. But according to Carpalis, this Corrupted seemed intelligent. Sapient, and conscious of its existence…

… or in short, an enigma.

In all likeliness she’d end up having to fight it, but she wondered if it would be sensible enough to understand the futility of going against her. Of course, what was a measly Corrupted to the Amalgam?

Intrigue suddenly filled her the closer they approached, with Carpalis mentioning how closely its face resembled Frost's. They stopped at the doorway, and Carpalis lifted a finger to touch an inconspicuously carved section of the door. It depressed into the stone like a button.

Suddenly, multiple rings surrounded the button as sections of the door began to spin like the dial of a safe, bearing magical inscriptions that took the form of chains and claw marks. This was the first time Frost had witnessed ‘magic’ in the more traditional sense as she knew in her world’s literature.

She had only seen Skills and magic conjured by chants, and the only other time she saw inscriptions were from teleportation magic and the glowing magical circles of the Memento Mori from what Anna saw in a book.

“I never put much thought into it, but how exactly does magic work? I’m so used to seeing tech get paraded as it, so I’m surprised to see real magic in action.” Frost’s voice easily drowned the screeching rock.

“I-It’s complicated. Blessed don’t have to worry about it.” Anna said, reluctant to elaborate.

“There is no one truth regarding magic, hence why schools of magic exists.” Nav stated. “It is the same reason why scientists on Earth call concepts and ideas ‘models’ and ‘theories’. Even ‘laws’ are never entirely true.”

“Huh… Not so different from saying we practice medicine too.” Frost understood that trying to figure out magic was arguable harder than the Corrupted. Also, there wasn’t a need to begin with.

She ended up wryly smiling as the inscriptions flickered before they sunk deeply into the stone, disappearing as the door dragged itself open. The stench of an unwashed animal assaulted their nostrils. Nav, Carpalis and Frost remained unphased whilst Anna winced and shielded her nose.

Her eyes watered, stinging from the fine, putrid particles as they stared into the infinitely dark chamber. And there, breathing within the darkness as chains rattled was a humanoid entity resting on their knees, helpless to their unbreakable restraints.

Within the darkness only two things glowed. The golden eyes of the Amalgam, and the crimson eyes of Mimicry. Long, pale hair coiled underneath the humanoid Mimicry, who assumed the form of a young, healthy woman in her early 20s.

Light quickly flooded the room from an unknown source, revealing Mimicry to the others as its eyes widened in response to Frost’s figure. Those eyes undoubtedly belonged to a monster, and they screamed, “I found you!” as Mimicry’s face contorted heavily, as though attempting to smile, but was incapable of doing so.

It appeared threatening, and it jostled in the chains that strapped its wrists and spread them high like wings, whilst another wrapped around its neck and locked it into a kneeling position on the bloodied stone.

Nav.

“No. Unfortunately, I have not detected a single hint of it being a Corrupted.”

Nav knew exactly what Frost wanted to know. The Arbiter’s Trumpet did not blare in the presence of this Corrupted. No one knew if it was an inherent ability of Mimicry – which was highly likely – or the fact that it was no longer a Corrupted at all.

Status.

Mimicry

Aspect of Amalgamation

AFFINITY : Amalgamation | ATTRIBUTE : Identity

LEVEL : 220     ORIGIN : Original     HP : 120,000     ATT : 6,500     MAG ATT : 6,500
ATT DEF : 150     MAG DEF : 150     MP : 55,000     RESIST : 550     AGI : 45

“You are…!” It spoke in a feminine voice, unable to fully vocalize its thoughts as it reveled at the sight of the approaching Frost, who ventured firstly into the room wielding an indomitable aura.

They almost assumed a physical form, for her shadow seemed to wear a certain feathered coat. Scrutiny did not allow her to see its heart. And neither could she see what color it was. Her powers only served to freeze it in place as her echoing footsteps finally came to a complete stop.

“Eternal Night Risk-Classification. I’ve come to this conclusion based on my parameters. This is an unusual sight. Both the Affinity and Attribute are being shown. Moreover…”

Nav spoke internally as Frost lowered her gaze but refused to tilt her head downwards to the Corrupted. Her stoic superiority and Mimicry’s twisted glee caused a dangerous chill to run down Anna’s spine as she took cover behind Carpalis’ back, wary of an unexpected showdown.

But Frost had no interest in a fight.

More than that, she was bewildered by the sight despite how she looked, because it was as though she was looking at a reflection of an alternate version of herself – an indescribable, eerie phenomenon she also felt when she looked too closely at the faces of the Innocent and Hired Arm.

“… the ‘Aspect of Amalgamation’ is funny name for ‘Alter Frost’. It carries the same meaning. Frost. Mimicry may be an aspect of you. Or more accurately, an aberration once a Corrupted, and now… something different, yet the same. I do not understand this.”

I don’t think anyone else does either. This thing…

Frost eventually crouched to level her gaze with the naked Mimicry as she asked but one question:

“What are you? If you can speak, then you have my permission.” Frost assumed the dynamics of her and the other Alter Frosts and applied it with Mimicry, heeding Nav’s theory of it being an Alter her.

And to her surprise, Mimicry eyes lit up by a thousandfold, the slits of its mouth extending to its ears as it finally formed an adequate smile.

“Happy…! – I’m sorry! – I am – Hello! – Smiling…!” Mimicry spoke with its own voice, but there were several others within that spoke alongside it.

And Frost recognized one of them.

It was the woman who lost her little brother to the Blood Festival Dungeon.

The woman who begged her to find her missing brother.