“Ehe…”

“Ehehe…”

“Haaaaah…”

Pleasurable moans came from further within the mines. Between each moan arrived a maniacal giggle. They gargled and croaked like phlegm was stuck in their throat. No amount of wheezing could remove it.

Chills ran down the spine of the woman who volunteered to escort Frost, Cer and Lucy to the Wandering Healer. Ill omens in the form of scattered belongings surrounded them as they wandered off the path of the broken rails, passing by tipped ore bins and winches of a leaking pump.

Quarries overflowing with dark water replaced the suburb of stone shanties behind them. Sentimental items like picture frames and pendants floated atop the waters, as distant droplets of contaminated water cut through the echoes of Gerina’s soldiers.

“Sweet numbness. Sweet ticking clock. Your whispers are so sweet and comforting. Pity me, do you? The throe of my slipping Will is just waiting to be snapped up.”

The woman wheezed with what sounded like her last breath. Her cynical tone and mannerisms that saw her speak with grandeur like she was atop a podium facing thousands caused Frost’s eyes to narrow.

“Tick… Tock… Draw you a painting I will… Red it shall be.”

“Please do not dip your finger into my chest cavity.” Another voice urged with annoyance. “Reserve your strength… Dove-13. Do not indulge in the voices.” It was a male voice, but he spoke slowly for he too must have suffered heavy wounds like D-13.

The Wayfarer is alive too.

“Yet it is this voice that has kept me so strong…”

Lucy straightened her back as she matched Frost’s pace exactly down to the synchronization of her legs. They could see the shadows of two figures projected against the side of the cave wall now, both hardly recognizable.

Now that they were close, Frost stopped dead in her tracks and placed a hand in front of their guide.

“This is as far as you will take us. Thank you for your guidance.”

“Hey? Wait, that’s a bad idea. They recognize me so they’ll think you’re not –”

“They recognize me as well. Or so I hope.” Frost cut her off and offered her a motherly smile. “It would be best if you hurried back to Princess Gerina. Healers are flock of the same feather. We know our kind well enough that we may as well be sisters.”

“Mother is mother, however.” Lucy glared at the woman. She did not bother to hide her murderous intent. Merely standing before Frost was a sin that could only be absolved with a bullet.

“Understood. I’ll return right away!”

She departed immediately, thankfully before Cer could say her own piece.

“’The Voice’.” Frost began as she resumed walking. At the same time, Cer retrieved a tiny Isolation Sphere from her Dimensional Storage. “You are aware of its existence, Lucy?”

Lucy stared straight ahead; her azure eyes unblinking as they turned the corner.

They were immediately engulfed by the shadows of two figures who lay on two separate wooden tables. The intensity of the light behind them made it hard make out who they were, aside from Frost who clearly saw a mangled D-13 and the same Wayfarer who accompanied her as far back as when she started out in Grandis.

Since their heads were positioned on the other side, they were not able to see Frost.

But they could hear them approach.

“00-00 ‘The Voice From Beyond the Void.’ Otherwise known as the ticking we Healers tend to hear.” Lucy recited as though she had memorized this from a passage somewhere. “It’s certainly what I heard roaring before I unlocked my emotions before the warmth of a star-like light engulfed me. Mother’s, undoubtedly. There isn’t a Black Wing that is not familiar with it either. Or should I say her regarding the latter, considering it’s this mythical being we call Elysia.”

Elysia was still not a widely known being. Only the Beholders, Stars, Moons and very few Exalted were aware of her existence, and even fewer outside. Those with such knowledge knew Elysia by name and what she was capable of. All Moons had come face to face with her at least once in their lives.

Otherwise, they would not have become Blessed in the first place.

“Elysia has a special relationship with Healers.” Lucy resumed as D-13 chuckled.

“Oh how she does. Angh… Ahhh…”

“Healers have only been known to turn into Shells under extreme emotional distress. Case and point – D-11.”

“Use a different Healer as an example.” Cer spat. “But go on.”

“Oh… That voice…? Could that be… the jawless one?”

“Bitch… So you can still run your mouth when you look like a human pin cushion?”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Lucy cleared her throat and continued, not wanting either to speak over her. The Ravens were in a unique position where they only answered to Frost directly.

This meant they were technically on the same level if not higher than the Three Heads of Security, as they had executive power over the Black Wings whereas the triplets did not have total control over the Moons.

“In my experience, the Nex generated from one Wandering Healer is what a max capacity Level 7 Site makes in an entire month. All condensed in a single fraction of a second.”

Lucy had a background as an ImpulseWorks-hired Healer, so she knew precisely what she was talking about. Furthermore, she had personally witnessed the transformation of D-10 in the now destroyed Site P-R3 stationed in Emvita.

Lucy did not wish to share the details, aside from the perpetrator that caused her expression to darken.

“Rosenrot. But these two matters are different. Mother. In your honest opinion, do you believe that Elysia is the reason why we cannot Corrupt?”

Frost drew near to the tables as they stepped out of the shade and were engulfed by the light of an altar of candles.

“I’m curious myself. Elysia is not an entity I’ve personally interacted with, outside of the Aberrations. Furthermore, I cannot say it has something to do with the Blessing of the Nexus.”

“We… are already Blessed… those who become Blessed… are those who would have been Corrupted…” D-13 hoarsely chuckled, instantly recognizing the voice. “Fate has an interesting way… of intertwining tales. To think that I… would be seeing you again… The Amalgam named Frost.”

D-13’s was barely more than a talking head. Her body was riddled with various weaponry that had remained embedded for months. The same was for the Wayfarer, who was in a considerably more stable state. He had lost an arm, a leg, and part of his chest was ripped straight off.

“Neither did I expect to meet you two again. To think even Wandering Healers are being targeted too...” Frost nodded at Cer.

“10x Relative Time, right?”

“As long as it’s the maximum Relative Time that Isolation Sphere is capable of.”

Relative Time (RT) meant the time dilation compared to normal time which was designated as Universal Time (UT). 10x RT to UT simply meant 10 times the amount of time condensed into a unit of normal time.

“… Time…?” The Wayfarer coughed.

“Do not speak unless Mother requests for your input. Just lay there and wait for your turn to be healed.” Lucy growled.

“It’s fine. I’m familiar with Vellin.” Frost was surprised that she even remembered his name, as was the Wayfarer.

Then again, what happened to Revy that night could never leave her mind.

“My apologies.” Lucy said.

“You…? A Moon and… a Wayfarer, I presume are taking orders from you? How much have you grown in these few months? Oh my~ The little hatchling bird with barely a feather on her wings~” D-13 nearly sang.

She lay sprawled like she was nailed down to the table. Her wounds blackened, and her eyes were bloodshot. Crooked fingers trembled constantly due to the severity of her endured agony.

“Now look at you~ A bird hatches from the egg… when the egg was its world. For it to be free…”

“A world must be destroyed.” They were Elysia’s words. Frost placed a hand on D-13’s chest to replenish her HP.

Judging by the damage she had already accumulated, it was better to just reset her like Gerina, less she wanted future complications.

Black particles rose from D-13’s pale ghastly body like she was being exorcised.

“What world did it break? Tell me Amalgam. Won’t you utter to me what walls were torn down?” She asked, her voice slightly more mellow as her fingers stopped trembling. The [Touch of the Black Dove] Ability calmed her.

“My perception of this world.”

With [Prolonged Stasis] active, she hacked D-13 in half. Her lower body slid from the table as the woman grinned back at Frost, unfazed by the pain. She was more surprised by how quickly she was healed, as was Lucy who burned everything into her mind.

“I thought that I could change things without resorting to violence. That world of mine broke. But so did my perception of believing that violence was the only answer. I’ve come full circle, but I’ve adapted to accommodate both enough to avoid the same pitfalls.”

Then, her lower body regenerated in mere seconds thanks to her upgraded form of [Corporeal Restoration].

“Perception~ An ambivalent way to put it, since perceptions can be reality. The egg is what a person knows~ So that is the Salvation the ticking has brought you to~”

D-13 praised Elysia for her work. The Wandering Healers and Elysia were similar in a way, as they sought to grant people things in their darkest moments. Both were destructive, with the Wandering Healers outright slaughtering countless for the sake of granting people salvation.

“You’re wrong.” Frost’s words caused D-13’s near radiant eyes to lose some of their light. “I’m the one who came to that decision. That Voice was there, but she wasn’t the reason why I became like this.”

“Are you… no, a Healer cannot lie~ Strange. That touch of yours is… not so different from the ticking in my head. Could it be… that you are similar to that voice~?”

Hearing her like this nearly caused Frost to reconsider giving her treatment. However, it was apparent that Wandering Healers needed help in the first place. For this reason, she couldn’t help but to pity her than feel the hatred like did in the past.

She hacked her upper half off.

“You…!?”

“Silence. Mother is at work.”

“You never got the memo, did you?” Cer and Lucy silenced Vellin immediately. “The person right here is the Head of the Nexus. Your beloved Galia? Yeah, she’s one of Frost’s pawns. You’re witnessing the power of an Archetype.”

He could not believe his eyes. D-13’s body was reconstructed through the power of Frost’s black particles. The damage was lethal, and yet she did not perish. D-13 awakened the moment her HP fully replenished, and she mused over how there was a second her on the floor.

“Like replication technology~ So this is what they must have seen over the iterations~ I can faintly hear the voice of a familiar one.” She said, cupping her ear as a faint voice reached them.

“That’s because Cara is also here. You can say ‘hi’ to her, but don’t bother my personnel like they’re your test subjects.”

Strangely, Frost dealt with D-13 in a much calmer manner than she anticipated. Cer was also surprised. She half expected Frost to rip her throat out the moment she spoke, though that was mainly because Cer despised D-13 to begin with.

“Yours?” Vellin spoke as Frost moved to his table. “Scarlet Logic personnel… are yours?”

He was wary all of a sudden.

“There is a lot that happened while you were hiding here. The fact that Cer is under my wing should be enough to convince you. But there is a better way. Cer. Do we have enough spare CognitiO Transmitters?”

“Enough for an army.” Cer said as she threw D-13 one of her larger pair of suits. “Put that on”

“How cold~ You’ve grown to become a Moon all because of my salvation –”

“Salvation this, salvation that. How about you figure out how to save yourself than trying to save others. I don’t regret an ounce of what the fuck happened in the past, but I can’t believe that you’re still the same piece of shit that gave me Serum S thirty fucking years ago.”

Cer refused to contain her contempt for D-13 as she handed Frost a tiny earpiece. After restoring Vellin’s body, Frost granted him the object and at once –

“… The 1st Branch…?”

– His eyes trembled as he heard the voices on the other end. He was devoured by both his thoughts and the voices of people who believed he was long dead. Cer didn’t have a set to give him, but thankfully there were enough spare clothes around the mines for him to take.

Doubt turned to trust. He could not take his eyes away from Frost as he realized – all at once – just who this person was.

“… The Head of the Nexus…”