[Inferno].
Her body moved on its own. Something deep within her heart snapped as flames suddenly consumed her gloved hands like blazing wicks. Punching, biting, and trampling over the unwashed scum that took pleasure in devouring the innocent could not do their sins justice.
They needed to be cleansed with fire. Erased from the face of this world with a heat that would not even leave their ashes behind. Her hands up to her elbows were smeared by these flames as they trickled onto the floor and began to slither like serpents.
“Don’t leave a single one of them left standing.” Frost ordered, her boots cracking the earth as the Syndicate members watched their group with growing warry, feeling her heat suddenly rain down upon them. “
Every smirk, every disgusting smile, and every ounce of confidence they had was burnt straight off them. It became clear that they had no idea who their opponent was, and before any of them could prepare to face off with Frost’s eager group –
– [Electric Lance].
Res preemptively fired an electric beam straight into the heart of their collective. The ionized air smelt of ozone as residual crackles of electricity caused those within the vicinity of the beam to curl up into themselves. If the electricity did not kill them on the spot, then they were permanently rendered as prisoners of their paralyzed bodies.
“Now you’re speaking out language!” Cer, sending electric bites far ahead.
Plumes of dust quickly enshrouded the world. The barrier completely broke all line of sight as Frost threw herself straight into the fray, her flames following like an oil slick leading a wildfire.
Explosions went off somewhere behind the smokescreen. Her speed blasted the clouds away as her flames quickly spread across the entire banquet table, incinerating each of these lowly level 70 Syndicate members by mere proximity alone. Frost’s flames, however controllable they were, emitted a heat that she could unfortunately not control, leading to several deaths of those impaled and pickled.
Those only just licked by the flames were then assaulted by innumerable Cinder Stacks, causing them to rush around as an ethereal flame encased them. The manic screams of the cannibals were, much to her dismay, such a pleasant sound.
“What the –!?”
“FIRE! FIRE! I’M ON FIRE!”
“IT BURNS! SOMEONE – PUT IT OUT! I CAN’T PUT IT OUT!”
“I’M ROLLING! I’m ROLL –!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! JUST LET THE FIRE KILL ME ALREADY!”
Not matter whether they doused themselves with water, ran or rolled into the dirt – that fire was not something they could possibly remove. It was the same kind of agony she endured when she clutched Ignis’ as the Scorched Girl. From their flesh down to their very souls – all was eaten by her cleansing flame.
Jury arrived quickly after, finishing them off with the tip of her tail which crushed their bodies into several pieces. The sheer kinetic power caused the ground to quake as several more explosions shook the air.
Cannons along the lines of the fortress opened fire upon them, sending a barrage of harpoons. Frost launched herself forward, easily maneuvering through them. Even the Righteousness’ spines were faster.
This was where Cer, Ber and Res showcased yet another one of their abilities.
Static Defense.
A naturally generating electrical barrier surrounded them at all times. Their Galvanic Blood allowed this invisible shield to defend them from most projectiles, save for those that lacked conductivity.
The pelting harpoons were instantly left frozen in mid-air as massive sparks exploded like fireworks.
“Heh. Ancient weaponry. Gotta say, those are some nasty barbs!” Cer commented, poking at the tip of one of the metal harpoons.
The object trembled in her palms as she handed it over to Ber, where it began to sporadically move within her grasp as if struggling to break free. In the meantime, Ignis went to work accumulating biomass from the freshly fallen, all the while lamenting the suffering of those around her, silently uttering apology after apology.
“Focus. The fortress is massive, but it won’t be a problem. Let them hit us with whatever they have! Just focus on destroying whatever’s holding it over the fault line!” Res commanded succinctly, eliminating the cannons along the wooden fortresses’ battlements.
The nearby wood was instantly set alight and was charred beyond recognition.
“Whatever’s holding it up, yeah!?” Ber brandished the harpoon, holding it with both hands over her shoulder like a rocket propelled grenade. Or, and RPG for short. “WATCH YOUR HEAD FROST! YOU’VE GOT A SPECIAL FRIEND COMING YOUR WAY!”
Her voice ripped through the chaos, causing Frost’s to turn back just in time to watch an impossibly fast jolt of lightning pass by her face, slicing a few strands of her hair. The sealed drawbridge instantly shattered as the bolt cleaved straight through the entirety of the fortress.
The dust reacted with residual sparks, creating miniature clouds of highly volatile lightning. A column of earth was upheaved due to the attack, and Frost’s ears rang lightly.
“A FUCKING RAILGUN!? You had that all along!?”
“Metal plus electricity plus me equals one hell of a punch! How does that compare to your Double Punch! C’mon, how do you like that, Frost!? That’s my version of Res’ Electric Lance – Justica Arms style!”
“That is ingenious for a wolf with only a single braincell. A walking railgun… Conductive material does all manners of mysterious things in extreme circumstances.”
It packs one hell of a punch. I can see right through to the other end. Ber’s much brighter than she thinks, by the way!
“Remarkably so. Frost. Remember, your emotions will continue to heighten. Soon you will hit the Second State. Justica Arms will begin their move if you –”
Nav…
A large gap separated her from the main segment of the suspended fortress. She only needed to leap across the land straight into the hole provided generously by Ber. Her superhuman feats had stopped awing her, for they had become second nature.
Her flames carved through multiple levels as she dragged them through like a blade as she ran straight through the walls, rather than navigating through them. Like an unstoppable train, she ploughed through searching for the throne room where the Head Eater awaited. The muffled screams intensified. Pickled jars and skinned, breathing people surrounded her in this hellhole.
Frost grinded her teeth as she silently promised to return to them. She did not leave them with the Unlying Tablets. Prolonging their suffering would only bring herself and them much despair.
Deep from the bottom of her heart, her emotions bubbled up to her throat as she shouted her true intentions at Nav.
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“I never intended to hold out until we found solid evidence! I’m willing to risk everything just to have them mobilize ahead of time! If there’s anyone’s that going to have the guts to take responsibility, then it’ll be me! SO LET THEM BLAME IT ALL ON ME FOR ALL I CARE!”
“You could say they can blame it on ‘the Will of the Amalgam’.” Nav managed to sneak in a pun as Frost burst through a kitchen, rampaging through its wooden counters as utensils melted at the mere proximity of her flames.
She could only imagine how much more powerful she’d be if she equipped the Iron Candle.
The structure began to shake, and after various twists and turns, she eventually burst forth a set of sealed doors using Thermal Propagation. The resulting explosion sent shrapnel straight into the other side, shredding the rallied Syndicate members within a putrid throne room made almost entirely from rotting wood, blood and human remains.
“It’s the Black –!”
“Already –!?”
“W-Wasn’t she supposed to still be outsi –!?”
Frost only needed to drag her flames around like a giant blade, immediately rendering all one hundred rallied members. A lone, red-haired woman who sat amusedly atop her fleshy and bone throne clapped at the spectacle, completely disregarding just how much danger she was in.
Rather, she was impressed by Frost’s feat. While there was a tinge of fear in her crimson eyes, there was an obnoxious overconfidence that irritated Frost to the core.
Head Eater
Syndicate: Blood Filters
< Soul Rank: Violet | Adventurer Rank: Nil >
LEVEL : 99 ORIGIN : Human
HP : 2,300
ATT : 700 MAG ATT : 0 ATT DEF : 500 MAG DEF : 500
MP : 600
RESIST : 50 AGI : 35
*Clap*
*Clap*
*Clap*
She continued to clap, the sound reverberating through the rumbling walls of the fortress. Her trusted halberd rested beside her, and her tunic made from grafted human flesh barely covered her bare skin. Not than it mattered at all.
A small distortion in space appeared beside Frost’s head as she opened the Dimensional Storage and sorted through until she took hold of a firm stick.
“Didn’t think we’d be up against a fire Color. Just like the Red Barron and his big encumberin’ blade of flames. So. Yer here. Angry. Full of vitriol. Ahaha! Meanin’ you’ve had a look at the gift I left out for ya –!”
*Shatter*
Frost could not care less about what she had to say. What mattered more was her silence. A single shot from her Justica Longarm had penetrated straight through her throat, leaving her gargling as she clutched at it in a futile attempt to save herself.
She then approached the woman, who slumped into her seat, but never showed any signs of resistance much to Frost’s surprise.
“Normally you’d be begging for mercy. Crying. Wanting to live. But I’m guessing you’ve eaten that Seed, meaning you still haven’t used up all your cards.” Frost slowly spoke, her voice desperately trying to remain composed as her flames eventually disappeared.
But she allowed the fortress to continue smoldering, much like her enraged heart.
“Level 99. And you need that Seed to get even stronger? All this greed… all this misery all for your selfish wants... Fuck you. Go burn in whatever fucked up afterlife you believe in.” Frost scowled, dragging the woman up by the hair and taking a massive bite straight out of her face, instantly killing her.
What remained was a head that appeared like an ice-cream scoop. Frost would have adored slowly killing her, but it was far more efficient to just put them down as fast as she could. It was anticlimactic, and the body slumped underneath her like old rags, bleeding from every pore.
“… that’s it? This is what they’ve been trying to lure me in for? Nav. What’s my Nex like?” Frost asked, wondering how much Nex was taken from her.
“It has barely increased despite entering the First State. Something is sapping your generated Nex.”
“Something stronger than the Nex Accumulator?” Frost wondered out loud, crouching over the woman as she began to rummage through her apparel, finding nothing.
Then, as the fortress suddenly shifted downwards, she plunged hand straight into the woman’s stomach, searching for a seed. However, before she could even react – Something within clasped at her hand, attempting to drag her closer.
“What the –!?”
Suddenly, their section of the fortress shattered, and she plummeted over several hundred meters down into the dark chasm beneath. Logs showered, plunging themselves into the earth like stakes as they began to pile up above her.
“That fortress is going to come down any time now… Fuck… What about all the people up there?” Frost spoke to herself as she felt an odd presence just beyond the piles of logs.
Something was awry. Something sifted alongside her as the sound of flesh and cracking bones caused her to take immediate action. She incinerated everything around her, as well as pulverized the stacked logs with Thermal Propagation until the chasm was in view again.
Then, she saw it.
Or rather, her.
“Nav… What the fuck am I looking at? Her corpse is moving on its own…”
“I’m still picking up her status. For whatever reason, she has yet to perish. Frost… In that state she’s invulnerable. While undergoing her transformation.”
“Transformation!? Into what!?” Frost cried, rushing into the animated corpse, which stood up before it was suddenly enshrouded with a dark light.
A beam of darkness was fired into the air. It cut through the grey fog, leaving a temporary gap that quickly sealed itself off as Frost’s senses numbed momentarily. She could not even look into the dark light. But even so, she continued to attack in its general direction, and much to her dismay, she felt the impervious barrier that the One Thousand Eyed Bird possessed in between its phases.
Something was terribly wrong, and the only culprit was the Seed she possessed.
Suddenly, Nav flashed her a prompt as soon as it all subsided.
//////// < WARNING > ////////
< The Head Eater Has Undergone an incomplete Corruption Event >
“Aaaaaahhhh… So, I didn’t die after all! I was hearin’ all sorts of bullshit out of you one-sidedly, fuckin’ Color.” From the ruins emerged a figure with a head entirely comprised of curved teeth.
In fact, its entire head was a mouth akin to that of an angler fish’s, and her body had grown slightly larger, with muscles that contracted as something squirmed underneath her flesh. Frost was left in utter disbelief. Not only had this woman undergone a Corruption Event, but she had also failed it.
And as a consequence of this –
< The Head Eater Has Become an Impuitas >
– She realized that the Impuritas were the bridge between the living and the Corrupted.
The incomplete selves as the Bloody Herring put it.
“Shocked. Can’t say a thing? Cannibal got ya tongue? Haha! Lemme teach you a thing or two about us, miss who comes from those green pasture up there! Cause down here, it’s an eat or be eaten world! Let’s figure out who’s got the better maw!” Her mouth extended widely, splitting like the mouth of a venus flytrap.
She had truly become exactly what her namesake was… Head Eater.
Venus Flesh Trap
Syndicate: Blood Filters
< Soul Rank: Black | Impuritas: Nil >
LEVEL : 99 ORIGIN : Impuritas HP : 23,500 ATT : 3,500 MAG ATT : 0 ATT DEF : 1,500 MAG DEF : 1,500 MP : 600 RESIST : 90 AGI : 45
< This Seed is far more dangerous than we initially believed! >