Nex was the syphoned power of emotions. With the knowledge of how the Corrupted were created, and now having unraveled a major cornerstone of the Nexus; she realized just how harrowing it all was.

The Corrupted gave the most Nex by far. There was an incentive to harvest the Corrupted. If the Bloody Herring’s words were anything to go by, then there was no doubt in her mind that the Ateliers carried Corrupted under their wings to generate Nex.

Either that or they purposely allowed people to suffer to harness their Nex. Frost could no longer attribute their malice to incompetence. And if they truly did not know how the Corrupted were created in the first place, then there was a potential cycle of emerging Corrupted.

Emotions generated Nex, which in turn would cause affected people to break and create Corrupted unintentionally through emotions. The Corrupted were then taken down or utilized to generate more Nex, which then affects more people and repeats the cycle.

In the end, what did Frost know? She feared that she allowed the Bloody Herring’s compulsive lies to get to her. But even so, it was difficult to see it in any other light.

Aside from perhaps the case of the Golden Index. If hope was an Affinity, then was it necessarily only negative emotions that transformed into Nex?

She sincerely hoped that all forms of emotions, whether good or bad were viable.

If there was an Atelier that did know, then it would be CogitO. Their Cognition Suppressors were likely provided to prevent their members from becoming Corrupted or something similar in the first place.

She could not wait until the Nexus was accessible again.

* * *

They eventually returned to Ignis and L.S’ campsite with their bountiful haul.

The faces of a hundred starved people instantly lit up when a shower of delicious apples hailed from the golden spoon.

If they didn’t know any better, they’d believe Frost to be some sort of Goddess of harvest. They had to wonder just where she found apples underground of all places. But those questions were secondary to their hunger pans, and they ravenously ate to their heart’s content.

Words of thanks were shared as Frost retained the bad news for now. She wanted them to savor these last moments before they were tuned in to their unfounded predicament. It all somehow kept getting worse.

Murphy’s Law may as well be a hidden ability of hers.

“Ignis~ Good work.” Frost praised her hard-working feline companion.

Ignis nodded her head, her ears dropping to allow one of the Touch of Golds to pamper her.

In the meantime, Frost needed to address the news to Ignis, L.S and the Golden Middle personnel. If there was anyone that carried knowledge on the ‘Big Red Heart’, then it would be people form the Golden Index.

She was instantly met with crazed stares and pale complexions when she revealed the news.

“Boss Ma’am Captain… Can we really trust her word?” One asked, obviously frazzled by Frost’s harrowing claim of the Big Red Heart’s emergence.

L.S sent a sidelong glance down at the man she dwarfed. A thousand bricks suddenly weighed him down as the man instantly drenched his golden suit with sweat.

“You’re out of line. Can’t you see she’s surrounded by three Moons? Who else has that kind of authority besides a Beholder?” Another person spoke up before L.S chuckled to herself and calmly uttered:

“Seeing is believing. But our friend Miss Frost Healer Black Dove wouldn’t lie to a friend.” She munched on an apple, seemingly unaffected by this revelation.

Though this was a lie. Her hand trembled with each bite she took as the conundrum stirred within the gathered Golden Middle personnel. Most were worried just like L.S; but it turned out that they did indeed have some experience fighting against Heart of Ours, however little it was.

Any knowledge was invaluable at this point. L.S did not directly fight in that battle, but she certainly knew more than the triplets… And not only that, but Frost had one other peculiar question saved just for her.

Ignis cozied up right next to Frost and the sleeping Jury just as tension suddenly engulfed them. She wrapped L.S by the waist like a prisoner and brought her along somewhere privately, causing the woman to make a strange “Ooh~?” sound, as if anticipating some sort of intimate encounter.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Frost, Ignis, Jury, the triplets, the Scarlet Healer and her two towed Impuritas were brought away from prying ears. They stood amongst a small mound of murdered Reorganizers, each step squelching as if walking on paste.

“D-Did I perhaps do something wrong? Ignis my fellow comrade in golden arms! I was fighting on the front lines wasn’t I?”

“I don’t doubt that you helped. I’m actually really thankful for that.” Frost stated, somehow calming L.S down as Ignis tugged on Frost’s sleeves, begging her to not go too hard for whatever she was cranky about.

It wasn’t that she was cranky. She was just… angrily curious.

“O-Oh. You say that but that glare is…” L.S trailed off, right before Cer firmly placed both hands on her hips and hummed:

“Amazing, huh?”

“Shh!” Res shut her up.

“I want to know why the Bloody Herring can’t die. He’s just like you and Broker. We had him dead right then and there. Tch.” Frost spoke in a slow, grueling tone as she stared up at L.S, causing the tall woman to instinctively bend her knees to match her height.

It pained Frost beyond belief that she was incapable of killing him. Their immortality was almost certainly linked to the Golden Index for two reasons. L.S and Broker possessed this ability, and the Bloody Herring used to be a part of the aforementioned Atelier.

“That can’t be. He has no ring so that can’t be true.” L.S uttered with a confused voice.

“Ring? Elaborate. Explain… Please. We both want to kill that thing.” Frost begged her.

“I’m scared you’ll bite my ring off. But here. Take a look for yourself. Aside from looking beautiful like Carpalis’ splendid rings, it acts as a tether to her. She takes all the damage regardless of where we are so long as we wear this ring, making us appear immortal.” She explained, revealing the fatal weakness behind the higher-ranking Golden Index personnel like herself.

“He’d still have a piece of his soul connected to Carpalis, wouldn’t he? But you’re right. He doesn’t have a ring… Unless he has a counterfeit version?” Frost wondered if he had some sort of hidden Etched Coin.

She briefly analyzed the ring and much to her surprise –

“Counterfeit ring? But it isn’t anything too special. It’s just a guarantee. A bargaining chip. If we lose this, then Carpalis devours our soul.” L.S said, although she did understand why Frost would have thought it possessed a unique power.

Because the ring itself was entirely ordinary.

< An expertly crafted emerald ring. It refracts light beautifully >

“Fuck… Something else is acting as his ‘ring’?” Frost averted her gaze from L.S, calming down a little. “Sorry. And thank you.”

“That crude kindness would be attractive if you weren’t susceptible to breaking legs.” L.S chuckled, causing Frost to apologize again. “Regardless; his soul is still with benevolent Carpalis. Ahaha. Fear not. She retains the final say on all souls she touches. So long as they’re within reach of her beautiful golden hand!”

This meant that if there was no sure-fire way of killing him, then Carpalis was their last option. Still, Frost wondered if devouring him entirely would suffice. She regretted that she didn’t in the first place, although that wouldn’t have been possible in the timeframe she was given before that Corrupted attacked them.

Maybe there was a way to get him to Carpalis?

In the end, this was but one of many problems they had to face. Leitmotif and the Maestros of Flesh had their own unique Condition at play; and they had to somehow tackle the Heart of Ours on top of that.

Frost deeply exhaled and glanced down at her partner’s face, smiling softly.

“… It’ll be no different from the Black Forest.” She whispered, causing Jury to almost smile in response. “L.S. We’re going to bring everyone to the Triple Paw Complex. Don’t worry about the name. It’ll act as a base for everyone. It has facilities and structures for everyone to use. And there’s people we need to help.”

“Haha. And you want me to also inform you of the… Heart of Ours, was it? What a peculiar name. Very well. Consider it done.” L.S nodded, causing Frost to smile at her. “Oooh. That’s a nice face! So you can also appear womanly as well!”

“I’m sorry I smiled at you.” Frost sighed, finding it somewhat humorous to hear.

“Right!?” Cer wholeheartedly agreed before she was tugged from the collar by Res.

“Just sit still and be a good Moon. Show some respect.” Res growled.

A mellow liveliness enveloped the group suddenly.

It seemed odd for them to be laughing and smiling when an existential threat loomed on the horizon, but Frost wouldn’t have any other way. Remaining optimistic was one way she kept herself sane in the Black Forest. Cracking jokes was also another method of keeping one’s spirits high.

She’d rather they savored this moment before things went to hell again.

“By the way! Who is this sheet of paper!? Ahaha. Don’t tell me she flattened your cranium into that!” L.S finally noticed Ayel as she laughed at his flattened face.

“Broker’s replacement.” Ber said.

“Because Broker’s broken?” L.S wondered, tilting her head with an audible creak.

“Who’s broken!?” The Scarlet Healer exclaimed from seemingly nowhere, bursting through a mound of desecrated skin with a gushing fountain of blood. “Figure of speech? Aaaah… Don’t crush my hopes like that. Say… Maybe you should crush his skull. It wouldn’t be the first time~”

“I was unfortunate enough to be imprisoned alongside an infinite bucket of red paint. Now I’m in the presence of a paint brush.” Ayel was confused more than anything, and he referred to L.S as a paintbrush due to her thin, lanky appearance. “Yet I’m supposedly the weird one here. A tortured painter.” He said in a fake cry like he was playing a character.

An oil painting of a faceless man crying tears was drawn along his canvas-like face, impressing L.S as she placed a finger on her chin.

“Oh. That’s a nice ability. You could live life easily by selling those.” She stated.

“Sell? Can you only value an object by its materialistic worth?” Ayel scoffed.

These two were not going to get along.

With that being said, it was now time to return to the Triple Paw Complex. From there, they’d have to articulate a method of attack on the City of Vocals.

Ayel, Poena and Stella were their largest sources of information for that place, and Frost vowed to scrape every minute detail even if it meant to sit around idly for days.

It went without saying that this battle would not be over in a single night.

If it did; then they were already long dead.