The City of Spades Massacre was the one-week war between Justica Arms and the Scarlet Logic, spanning across several Sectors. No official number of the total death toll was ever conclusively decided. Whilst the 2nd Branch claimed they had killed no more than a thousand, the aftermath spoke for itself.

The imaginary world that unraveled before Frost as the triplets fought with the Complex Heart, phasing through its erected structures caused her to question what was real and what wasn’t. Similarly, she was able to phase through these objects and people unlike the pseudo–Corrupted Zone of the We Discarded Many.

She wondered if the amount of Nex or emotions dictated its potency. From the imagery surrounding her she could tell that this was directly after this war. But unbeknownst to many was that the City of Spades Massacre was but one of two incidents that saw its streets stained in red. The War was the force that carved out its rivers, and the Star that fell to enact the City’s rightful judgement was the one who filled it with clumps of crimson.

The derailed train slaughtered countless, crushing all in its path as a metallic screech deafened all. Frost was the only bystander as complete pandemonium broke out, all the while everything ‘real’ to her remained silent.

The triplets fought uncontested by the Complex Heart, all the while the Memory Bistro held its tongue with both hands. It had not spoken for the last dozen Hearts they felled, as if understanding that its words could no longer penetrate their hearts.

Ber thankfully hadn’t reacted as adversely as the first time the Memory Bistro opened its mouth. The only change was the subtle heartbeat her Die Agnosis detected with seemingly no origin. That being said –

– “It’s – What is that –!?”

“A Scarlet Wolf –!”

“It’s not over – They’re trying to kill us all –!”

“Mom! Please wait for me –!”

One by one, no matter who they were or where they stood, Raoul’s shadowy wolf slayed them. Its claws upheaved earth, shattered structures, and hailed blood along this recovering settlement. The train continued scraping by until it reached the face of a cliff, right where the Heart now resided.

The wolf, towering over ten meters in height, shoved its claws into the underbelly of the train as various other figures dressed in a similar, black suit followed. Their hairs were perfectly styled, their nails groomed, and shoes unsullied by the filth of these slums. Mantles, long coats, hair accessories and headwear; their apparel was unique enough to differentiate them individual despite them all in suits.

Not all wore a tie, however. Not that it was an important detail. It was all pristine in spite of the blood they spilled alongside Raoul. Rivers of red ran through the cobblestone like veins. Black boots trampled on the blood and bodies alike. Hands that reached for them were kicked aside as they drew their last breaths.

The screams were quick to subside. Before long, silence prevailed, and a brigade of black-suited individuals conglomerated in a large circle meters away from the train wreckage.

“Raoul, Raoul, Raoul. You’re going to get us in trouble if you keep damaging Caldera Industries property.” A hunched woman with eyes of a dead fish dragged her artificially made, black claws out of the chest of several bodies. “CogitO’s Reality Manifesters can’t produce that much material in a day.”

Her voice was groggy, like that of a heavy smoker who had only just awoken from a long sleep.

Tubes like those of the Wandering Healers ran up her claws and into a vat hidden beneath a black mantle. Red liquid was drained straight from their bodies before something flashed a bright red through the fabric of her mantle. “So sour.”

“Don’t go eating on the job, vamps. Gotta see this through. Don’t forget CogitO sees what we see~”

“Feels what we feel as well…” An insectid robotically spoke as it plucked the clothes off their victims with arms shaped like scythes.

“Hehe. Try telling that to your partner. ‘Sorry, you had an entire Atelier know what you taste like.’” A tall, voluptuous woman said, striking a pose with both hands placed upon her hips. “Glad I don’t gotta taste any other one of you. Nice change of pace working underneath a Star. Or what used to be one.” She said before turning to much smaller, petite woman. “Hey, you free?”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“… Will be given the choice of repentance again going along with your whims. Don’t want the Lament Cycle. Shut up and keep watch, Color.” The tiny woman sneered, baring her razor-sharp teeth as a shark-like tail pounded the ground.

“You missed the ‘Orange’ part, sweetheart~” The woman, whose hair was dyed blacker than the night sky, and hair straight like that of a princess from a foreign land, offhandedly revealed herself as the Orange Disruptor.

I thought she was supposed to be dead alongside the Red Barron in G-Z0?

“She appears alive and well. This looks to have taken place around 10-5 years ago. G-Z0 was destroyed more than 20 years prior. Was her death perhaps staged?”

No idea. But it’s more likely that she didn’t die at all.

“The question then becomes why is she still pronounced dead.”

… But I’m more shocked by Raoul and everyone present. They’re… part of CogitO from what they’ve said. Does CogitO go around letting their members kill people indiscriminately?

“CogitO is an Atelier also masked in much secrecy I’m afraid.”

Fuck sakes…

“Oh darkest Star. Oh righteous Star… Shall we aid in the recovery before the Scarlet Healers arrive?” A woman, whose hands were clasped into a prayer-like position, asked as if seeing Raoul as a Deity.

“Recovery is for me. Disruptor. How are things looking?” Raoul asked as the thick sheets of metal were torn from the train, casting light into its dark cavity.

Frost gagged. She physically gagged and clutched at her mouth as the stench of death reeked through. It was so terribly horrendous that it had ate away at the inner linings of the walls like an acidic cloud. The state of the mobile prison was unconceivably rancid. Colonies of fungus and bacteria festered on open wounds, dwelling within for years, and yet their bodies had not decomposed.

Suddenly, the Orange Disruptor’s irises glowed orange, like that of a setting sun.

“It’s a difficult distinction. On one hand, the visual clarity means no one’s gone through an emotional episode. No need to order an Eclipse to eliminate. Not that a fallen Star would. Besides~ I’m right here. M-Mm. On the other, the disparity means the lack of emotions. Ergo...”

“Dead. Or they’ve become a ‘Shell’.” Raoul begrudgingly spoke.

The sight was a crime against all Frost stood for… No. A crime against life itself. Some could even be found moving, raising a hand as if begging to be saved.

Raoul was lifted by the head of his shadowy familiar into the cavity of the train. His footsteps were made known to all within the train, all of which were too move. Some were impaled by fixtures, others killed by the collision, and the rest left to bleed out.

He sought to find them. To find the misplaced Healers aboard the train.

To find Orth and Thras.

The lens Frost saw this piece of history through felt like a fever dream. Slowly, and one by one, the structures surrounding them began to contort as if made from wax.

An order was then given to eliminate all on sight by Raoul directly. Though she could not see it, she could tell that his voice carried anguish. Various scenery of the City of Spades falling to the bloodlust of Raoul and these unnamed CogitO personnel flashed before her eyes.

People who had nothing to do with the incident were slaughtered for merely standing in their path of hatred. And from this hatred spawned a Heart, encapsulating the emotion in its most raw form.

Frost had only seen a snippet of this disaster, and somewhere within the waning imagery, she heard the voices of Orth and Thras.

“… Tick…”

“… Tock…”

“Can you hear it, Orth…? It’s ticking... again…”

“… A gift… from beyond the void…”

“Salvation.”

“Salvation.”

* * *

“Do you understand it now? The unjust murder masked as righteousness led to the hatred that makes up but one segment of our whole.” The Memory Bistro spoke to Frost as the scenery soon returned to normal.

By now the Heart was roughly half-way dead. Cer and Res had been screaming for some help, and only now did Frost move in to offer her hand. Ber on the other hand was oddly silent as she pummeled and ripped her Fragments, avoiding the Heart entirely.

“Segments that we so aspire to accumulate. Only then can we call ourselves ‘one’. And shout to the world of our abhorrence. Perhaps then they will turn their heads, unable to ignore this beating heart. It will reach the ends of the world, Amalgam. All will one day know of us who you call the Impuritas.” It vowed, and Frost, for the first time, understood a semblance of their hatred.

If there was no hatred in this world, then they would not exist.

But a perfect world cannot possibly exist.

“Like them – Like the Ateliers – You still kill whoever you see fit. All this violence against violence breeds even more of it. I don’t know how you can’t even bring yourself to see that.” Frost sorrowfully spoke, striking at the Heart until it burst like a puss-filled pimple.

“Is that so hard to understand? The difference between us is that we are an existence born from hatred. Amalgam. Who chooses our nature? We were born in the nascent fluids of malice. You learned it. That is our difference!”

“Then that makes eliminating you that much easier!” Frost shouted.

There could be no common ground between her and the Impuritas. It was always one extreme to the other, and they somehow always managed to twist her values like she was in the wrong. Her frustrations only grew, and before long, the scenery began to change again.

But this time, the small, quivering heart picked up by her Die Agnosis had subtly grown stronger.

“So why are we being blamed for something Raoul did!?” Ber exclaimed, thrashing against the wall of the Heart. “Severed hands and all the misery brought onto us wasn’t because of anything we did! All of us just wanted to live peacefully in the world humans turned into a hell for us! I just wanted to be like everyone else!”

Then, Nav revealed something that caused her heart to sink into the depths of her stomach.

“Frost, her Nex is rapidly rising!”