Before CogitO began, Nav brought up an interesting topic.

“I have just realized something. The Ultimate Language is playing a role in your swaying of the Moons.”

Surprised, Frost mentally muttered:

I didn’t notice. Is it a passive thing?

“It seems like it. You know exactly what will move them even if you are not fully conscious of it. It must work on a subconscious level. I wonder if it works on a personal level too. That way you can go further when trying to gain their trust.” Nav had high hopes for her Apocalypse-Level Skill.

A shame it doesn’t work on Beholders. Language of Greed doesn’t work on any of them. I doubt they could be bribed in the first place. Thankfully, Leader of Hearts still lets me catch a glimpse of the color of their hearts. It’s a mix between blue and white. Stars are harder to tell.”

Frost relayed her observations, also suddenly noting that she hadn’t really gained anything from We Discarded Many. The Blood of the Covenant was self-explanatory. Nav mentioned that The Ultimate Language may actually be derived from We Discarded Many than the Crowned. Either way, it was a shame that she missed out on these Abilities.

Not that it mattered. The Ultimate Language was everything she needed right now.

“Past the halfway mark. This Council’s moving slower than I initially anticipated.” Descartes neither insulted nor praised as she tapped the side of her head again. “My equals are fighting for dominance over who gets to be the Reality Principle. Forgive me if I misspeak… I have come to address two problems. The first are the newly formed Corrupted Personas born from the Piece of the Fallen Star, and the second is that the ‘Collection’ is running low on capacity.”

The Collection was the place where all known knowledge separate from the Eternal Library was stored. Frost had only heard about the Collection through Nav’s prompts, as it was there where her Corrupted were stored.

Curious, she asked Descartes to elaborate.

“The Collection will be first then. It’s our lost magnum opus. A storage site of countless contributors dwelling somewhere in the Subcut. It has a… mind of its own in a literal sense. I imagine you were aware that the knowledge of the magical words in the heads of all Blessed are derived from the Collection.”

She stated its purpose but had yet to delve into what it was exactly. This still shocked Frost as she was under the impression that all knowledge was taken from the Eternal Library. Wouldn’t that have made sense? The Nexus grants the Blessing, and the knowledge it knows is also taken from a connected Advent?

This was another dreaded half-truth.

With a finger touching her temple, Descartes then answered:

“Emotions.”

Her hand then moved to the base of her skull.

“Memories and experiences.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Then to the back of her head.

“Visualization.”

And finally, to the top of her skull.

“And comprehension.”

Her hand slipped back to her side as she finally dropped a bombshell on the Council floor.

“The Collection is based on all four facets of a collective mind. Hence why we call it the ‘Collection’. When you appraise an object, the difficulty is based on how commonly known it is to the greater part of the world. I would proudly say so, but our sample size is miniscule all things considered. We stitch them together. It is how we can store and retrieve information. Somehow, the Blessing of the Nexus is able to interact with the Collection. We are still wondering how this is possible.”

The roller coaster of emotions never ceased. Revelations after revelations pulled the curtains of their operations, revealing a world she almost wished she had never involved herself with.

Nav. Are you also connected with this Collection too, do you think?

“I cannot tell. The information stored inside of me is certainly not my own… it may be true.”

Then what’s our Collection supposed to mean?

A Collection was also an individual thing. It was where emotions, memories, experiences, visuals, and a person’s understandings were stored. And as it turned out, it was also where Corrupted and Corrupted Personas could too…

… perhaps this was why she was able to hear Calfasio and the children of the Derma Layer, because their experiences were held within the same place where maybe even her own experiences existed.

A thought then came to her.

Could that be how manifesting a Corrupted works?

“I believe it is but one key to the truth. Take Ber for example. I can see how the Black Swan can merge with her mind via the Collection. Too much and that maybe what causes Instability, aside from just plain insanity.” Nav theorized.

A good compatibility regarding the Corrupted Personas must then mean that there is a lack of conflict between a person and the Corrupted Persona in question, huh. At least that’s where my mind is taking me. Shit… No one else knew this!?

None at all. Aside from the Beholders, of course. The core part of the Collection however was long lost, and CogtiO had been relying on Repenters to make up for it. Not all did, but what she wanted now was to bolster those numbers.

Her proposal was not aimed at the Council, but at Oboros Infinitas.

And of course, Satania agreed, with the vigorous nod from Enoch who mentioned that storage capacity from the Collection was hitting certain limits.

They relied on it far more than any other Atelier, after all.

“Who have you been using in the past?” Frost asked, wishing to dig a little deeper.

“Enemies, the lobotomized, and Shells. Those people cannot be recovered. So we offer them a place they can live and forever dream. When you make that face, Amalgam – and when the Nexus shakes – it tells me that you don’t understand that what we do for them is a mercy. When they become catatonic and when no healer can save them, then we place them there to live in blissful dreams. That was long ago. It stood as one of the major installations next to the Root-Pillar Complex. Were it not for the Scourge, or who you call the Fractured Nilhim, then we may have found a way to bring those Shells back.”

Frost knew what Shells vaguely were. Descartes further explained that they were not just people deprived of all emotion, but also personality, experiences – everything that made a person who they were. It was another form of salvation in her eyes, but a cruel one that caused her to glare at Frost for believing for a second that what they did was purely evil.

It was a temporary show of anger, and she eventually sighed as she brought a hand to her neck to calm herself down. A semblance of emotion could be seen swirling in those blue eyes for the first time.

“… Not everything we’ve tried to do is a means to an end. I tried to understand it step by step. Don’t lump me together with the rest of them.”

This was all she asked.

Frost was sympathetic; however, she did not allow herself to apologize. Not until she was sure of their intentions. No Beholder was going to be given the benefit of the doubt, and certainly not someone trying to guilt trip her.

Her ruthless stance was absolutely necessary so that she wouldn’t get blind sighted if they turned out to be worse than she initially thought. Frost stared at her with glowing eyes and spoke.

“I understand. I don’t know what you’ve done in the past. Know that I can only judge you from what I’ve seen and what you do now. Please continue.”