The blind led the blind. The Organized Escorts navigated through the terrain using mysterious methods. Only a mouth and nose were plastered on their semi-granted faces, which appeared like a jigsaw puzzle.

Frost maintained some distance as she stalked them like a wolf. She imagined that a blind creature would sport a form of echolocation or something similar to replace their lost eyesight. Though if that were the case, then she would’ve been spotted immediately.

I don’t feel like talking. Not to things that enslave people. I can kill them right now but I think it’ll be a good idea if I can get closer first. I want some information as well… that’s ‘if’ those things will be willing to talk.

Frost had already antagonized them. They were already dead as far as she was concerned. But in a world where little information was available, it would be wise to try to get at least something out of them.

It’s only those two as far as I can tell. I doubt they’re able to communicate telepathically. But they might have some kind of alert system. I don’t want to take the risk.

“Then it would be wise to make it quick.”

Exactly. I see a few boulders I can sneak to. I just need to be quiet.

Frost was always a headstrong person. Ever since her encounter with the One Thousand Eyed Bird, she never found herself in a situation where stealth was required. The reason was simply because of her strength and stubbornly upfront nature.

This was different. She couldn’t just run up to them and kill them. Not until she got closer. She stalked them, swiftly moving from boulder to boulder as the sound of pained wails left the cracked lips of those shackled people.

Now that the immense glare of the light no longer blocked their faces, she easily spotted a few familiar faces. One of them was the grey-armored man that briefed her. The other, to her immense surprise, was the little brother of the woman she promised to rescue.

He did not appear as catatonic as he did before. Instead, he uttered the same phrase on repeat like a broken alarm.

“Sister. I want my sister. Where are you? I’m scared. I’m scared.” The trauma of this madness had broken him. To see him alongside those people shackled without care ignited her heart with insurmountable fury.

That fish said something about needing people. They’re probably food. I’m sure of it.

Frost eventually snuck close without raising suspicion. Visually, she stuck out like a sore thumb. But audibly? She was surprisingly silent. The clanking of chains helped cover her tracks, as did the voice of the blind child who led them along, with the escorts standing guard close by.

“W-Watch your step! It’s uneven! U-Um-! Follow my voice! A-Ah. Um – We’re getting close to home! Your new home! A-As long as you keep following me then everything w-will be ok.” The blind child promised, speaking as if reading from a script.

The blind Impuritas duo seemed to glance at her. A disgusting, ten-digit hand then grasped the girl’s long hair and hoisted her up like a sack of filth. The girl only whimpered. She didn’t scream or cry.

“Please speak like you’re happy~! Smile! You want to be a Star don’t you!” One of the Impuritas scum delightfully spoke, grinning from ear to ear.

“I-I’m happy… I’m s-so happy.” She trembled, not even showing a single ounce of resistance.

“The City of Vocals threw you out for being a baaaaad instrument! Thank the Monkey Brothers for giving you this amazing chance to become a great Star!” The other leaned in, tormenting the girl with a hideous laugh as she crookedly smiled.

“Mhm! Lucky you! A Star! That would put you riiiiight up there with Leitmotif! Maybe you’ll even have a big heart all to yourself! Work hard~!” They coarsely placed her down as she quickly resumed leading the group with haste.

“T-thank you… I-I-I will.” She said with false vigor.

Frost wondered if they were talking about the Stars of the Nexus. Considering Iscario was a Star and had some sort of allegiance with the Impuritas, it was not that outlandish of a conclusion.

That was arbitrary, however.

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She had seen enough to know that these creatures were her enemies. She was 10 meters away from them. All it took was a single lunge forward to strike them both down with a clean, decisive hit.

She was like a bullet. Before they could even comprehend what had happened their heads disappeared into a fine, red mist. A gust of wind followed as a horrific splat startled the girl who instantly shook her head left and right, wondering what had happened.

“Are you ok!? Everyone! You’re safe now! We have a camp further back with the others! Please hold still!” Frost exclaimed, startling the girl again as she gently held onto her shoulders.

“H-hello? I-Is this – Is this one of the e-evil painters?” The young girl worriedly asked, shivering in her grasp. “U-Um – I-I’m not a very good medium! I have thin blood! Y-your paint won’t be very nice!”

“It’s ok! I’m not going to hurt you! No one is. Here… I’m a healer.” Frost tried to soothe her, as she did with the still chained others who began chattering amongst themselves, reacting to the mention of a healer.

“A-A healer!?” The girl cried. “An A-Angel!? They don’t exist –!” She was silenced the moment Frost healed bestowed her healing magic upon her.

In the meantime, she swiftly healed the others using a combination of [Greater Healing], [Cure Disease], [Corporeal Restoration], [Cleanse] and even [Area Heal] just to gain some free levels. The crowd was thankful from the bottom of their hearts, all the while that young boy kept on repeating the same phrase over and over again.

“You can all see now, right!? Please follow me! There’s a hundred more of us back there!” Frost pointed into the distance behind her, gathering nods and additional thanks.

The little girl held out her hands, as if searching for Frost. Her eyes had not yet returned for some reason.

“Don’t worry. I’m right here. I’m here.” Frost kindly cupped her hand and crouched to match her height. “You can’t see? I thought I healed your eyes?”

Frost briefly checked her stats and saw that her HP was full. She had lackluster stats that hardly alluded to anything remotely close to a star. She was as normal as a person could get. Her origin was a Human even.

“U-Um! Heal my eyes? How? I’ve never had eyes before, so I don’t know what you’re saying – um… Miss Angel!” She was adorable. Her hair was long and black, and messy at the seams. Her apparel was tattered beyond belief, and Frost had to use Cleanse twice on her to erase the filth from her.

Frost stood up as the others immediately rallied behind her. Even the strongest level 50 Adventure present relied on her, despite her only being a healer.

“Angel, huh. Please call me Frost. You… you’re not from above, are you? From the Nex Megalopolis? Brandar? Elysia?” Frost asked, motioning for the others to follow as she glanced over each and every single one of them, assessing their conditions.

Thankfully, none of them ruined beyond repair. Hopeful reuniting the young boy with his sister would help him. Strangely however, was that the young boy’s eyes were fixed onto her. Like they were utterly infatuated by her presence.

“You’re not an Angel?” The girl dismissed Frost’s question.

She was far too interested in her bizarre identity as a heal – no, an ‘Angel’ for some reason.

“Maybe I am. Here. C’mon. Follow me. You don’t want to be here anymore, right?”

“I-I’ll get into trouble…”

“You won’t. I took those two guys out with a single punch. You can trust an Angel, can’t you?” Frost hummed. “No one is going to hurt you where we’re going.”

“… but I won’t be able to become a Star. I… I can’t leave.”

“Well, you don’t know the way back either.”

“I –! P-Please take me back! Please! Please I don’t want to be left out here!”

It was a fickle situation. But seeing how the Impuritas treated them, Frost was not going to allow her to return. She may be suffering from a disastrous case of Stockholm Syndrome.

Frost did certainly have the choice to send her right back on her way.

But she would be an idiot incapable of learning from history if she allowed this to happen. The last time she allowed something this dangerous to occur was when she witnessed D-13 inject that poor cat-girl with Serum S.

And she just stood there like a deer in headlights.

The regret that would torment her heart if this girl perished the next time they met would easily send her into a Despair state. Therefore, Frost, with all good intentions in mind, lied that she would be returning to the place she called the Triple Paw Complex.

But first, she needed to ask if she had family or something valuable there.

“I-I have no family… U-Um… Ange – Frost? Who… I can’t understand what the people around us are saying… you must be a good person, because they were hurt at first. But now they’re only scared. A-ah! Sorry! I didn’t mean to take your hand… It was warm so I couldn’t help –!”

Frost insisted and firmly her hand, as she did with the young boy. This girl needed help. Lots of help. The same with the other kid. And even these people.

The Derma layer was as sinister as she suspected.

She slowly escorted them back, but not without marking this area for the next time she returned. In their eyes those things were corpses, destined to rot. But to Frost, they were food. And she’d be lying if she said that she wasn’t hungry right now.

Though if she ate them in front of them then she’d only traumatize them further.

“Hey. What’s your name?” Frost ended up asking her somewhere along the trip back.

“… Name? Stella!” The girl exclaimed, although, she did with exaggerated happiness.

It was heartbreaking to see.

From what Frost gathered, the golden walls belonged to a place called the Triple Paw Complex. It undoubtably belonged to the Blood Festival. Moreover, this was the first time she was met with the limitations of healing magic.

Healing magic could only heal injuries and abnormalities that were not present from birth. It was essentially returning the body to its natural, unaffected state. This made the theory she had of healers essentially ‘healing’ their minds to an innocent state on repeat all the more plausible.

Frost could not heal her eyes because it was not an abnormality or a deviation from her body’s norm since it was the norm.

Needless to say, it pained her to only realize this limitation now.

This was called the Healer’s Crux.