359. I Dreamed to Be Like You

Its eyes bled with boundless joy.

Parts of its flesh peeled away from its body like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, revealing thick strands of flesh that held it like the branches of a tree. Bones could be seen within bearing little resemblance of proper anatomy. It was an amalgamation of pulsating meat, with countless teeth, horns and claws that lined it inner walls.

A hot, foul breath hissed from its body as thick saliva dripped from it countless jaws.

Yet in spite of all this, its face and eyes remained human. The experience unsettled Anna, but was of major intrigue for the others, particularly Frost who could no longer be touched by fear. Long ago this kind of nightmarish entity would have frozen her in her tracks, but now, she was the one who struck fear into the hearts of such monsters.

The gleam in its crimson, vibrating eyes were clear.

It saw Frost as something more than a deific entity. She was an ideal version of itself. The one, perfect form that it strove to achieve. If it could already assume the form of her face, then why couldn’t it also take the form of her body?

Frost’s face became dark. Her tone became impossibly deep as she asked Mimicry to explain what it aspired for. Even though the chains could not hold parts of its transforming body back, it respected the boundaries of its chains and spoke:

“I have been watching. Following. Wanting. When I found myself trapped inside of my cocoon, I dreamed to become like you. The perfect me…”

“For how long?” Frost commanded.

“Ever since… you found me... in the world underneath this.” It croaked, pausing as if resting to speak the words of those it had devoured.

Frost’s eyes drilled deeply into Mimicry’s as she then asked another question.

“Did you take the body of that child?”

Mimicry blinked. Its smile widened suddenly, like a dog that was praised by its owner. Its body shifted, a squirming bulge emerging from its bare chest. Frost’s heart sank as she witnessed it take the form of the same, catatonic child who repeated over and over to return to his sister.

As if things couldn’t get worse –

“Sister. I want my sister. Where are you? I’m scared. I’m scared.”

– Mimicry repeated the same exact words that were spoken to her in the Derma Layer.

“You… that was you…?”

Frost’s blood flash boiled. The fact that Mimicry took pride in it only heightened her sudden fury, and before she knew it.

“Ggggghhhh!?”

*Splat*

*Crunch*

Frost silently thew a fist into its body, maximising the pain output as Mimicry’s body convulsed. The smile disappeared in an instant, the fangs quivering as if incapable of retaliating against her. The combined wail of countless voices shook the chamber, frightening Anna as Nav watched with unmatched intensity.

< Frost. Is it worth losing your emotions to a creature such as this one? >

“It’s. Fucking. Worth it! I… we did everything we could to save them! And you. Took. Them. AWAY!” Frost did not personally know them enough to call them friends, but they were amongst the bereaved people they saved from the Derma Layer.

To find out that not one, but two had been devoured by Mimicry nearly pushed her into the First State. However, her blood rush ended as quickly as it began. Blood coated her right hand as Mimicry’s body reverted to its human form to appease Frost, believing that its ugliness was the reason why Frost struck it.

… it doesn’t know any better. But that doesn’t fucking excuse it either. Tch. This is supposed to be based off me? In what fucking way?

Frost lowered her fist, and Mimicry blinked. It was perfectly capable of defending itself, but it refused to.

“Could it be something derived from your past self? A yearning to become something?”

By eating them? Assimilation? Nav… I don’t even know what the fuck I was when I was that ‘light’. Now you’re telling me that ‘light’ took over people’s bodies too? Based on this!?

“Please calm down. Frost… your back is shaking. That is not a sight I want to see.”

A compressed sigh left her nostrils as she wondered how to deal with this thing. Violence was always a sure-fire way unfortunately. Her hypocrisy returned in full force, but she was conscious enough to refrain from pulverizing Mimicry until it was nothing but a paste.

However, because this was the first Alter Frost they’ve found in the wild, she considered sparing it.

“… what did I do wrong? Why did you attack me?” Mimicry did not know why it was struck.

What did it do wrong? It eyes were terrifyingly filled with innocence rather than malice as Frost came to the realization that Mimicry had lack a concept of morality. What was right or wrong to a Corrupted to begin with? Especially one that solely sought to attain its one perfect body?

It was frustrating.

“I was happy to meet you. I don’t understand. Were you not happy to see me?”

Rather, the reason why it was happy was simply because it was a moment when they were closest with one another. Like a friend telling another that they unknowingly ran into each other somewhere in the past.

“I just want to be like you. I dreamed and dreamed. I yearned, crawled, and aspired. I grovelled and ate to become something that was ‘me’, rather than ‘them’. How do you do it? How can I do it? I don’t know why you attacked something that looks like you.” It didn’t cry, frown, or furrow its brows.

It spoke with an emotionless face, unable to express itself through body language. Even the tones of its voice were off, almost as monotone as Nav’s.

Mimicry did not just want the body, but her mannerisms too. Her persona. How she acted. It was a hideous blend of desire and obsession, packaged into an ideal. Frost was what stars were to people.

An object of aspiration.

Was this also true for the other Alter Frosts?

“Why did I hit you? Because you killed people I wanted to live.” Frost explained as simply as she could. “You cannot become like me if you’re just going to kill people for no reason.”

Her voice became unexpectedly sincere. Rather than scolding, it was as though she were offering it advice. Because she had done the same mistake. If Mimicry was in a state just like her when she was stuck in her rampage, then…

… was it forgivable?

Frost didn’t know.