“Achoo! Whew!” A chill suddenly overcame Frost from out of the blue. She couldn’t remember the last time she sneezed, so she welcomed the fuzziness in her throat while it lasted.
“Frost? Was that a sneeze? Did you catch a Corrupted bug?”
Jury joked through the CognitO Transmitter, her voice speaking to Frost from within her head. It was weird hearing Jury instead of Nav, but she wasn’t complaining. A tender smile formed on her face as she punched a hole into the damp earth.
“Nope. Just got the chills. Nothing to worry about. You can hear everything from my side, huh? Or at least what I’m saying.”
“Why, was there something I didn’t hear?”
A Conduit fell into the hole with a tremendous thud, shaking the forest floor.
“I was under the impression that Cognito Transmitters recorded everything around us. Turns out it can only relay the user’s voice and their thoughts. You didn’t hear it, huh? I just installed another Conduit.”
CognitO Transmitters were only able to send these two types of information. It was then up to the Receiver to interpret the message. The implanted Ego between multiple Transmitters and Receivers were usually sourced from one individual.
The larger the network, the more powerful the Ego needed to be.
“Just you~ Did you know that sneezing means that someone’s talking about you?”
“I feel like I’d be stuck sneezing forever if that was true.”
Frost heaved the earth with her bare hands, covering the Conduit with mud before she decorated the inconspicuous clearing with nearby logs and ripped foliage. Once she was satisfied with the camouflage, she [Cleansed] herself free of mud and placed both hands on her hips.
“Alright. Done. Haaaah. You know, I probably shouldn’t even be talking out loud.”
“But it’s nice to, hm?”
“Always. It feels like you’re right here beside me. How are things going on your end?”
“Galia has set up a front line, but she hasn’t made it clear if we’ll be attacking head on. It looks like she wants to lure them first using the nailed Impuritas. You wouldn’t believe it Frost. It looks like an army of Moons from far away!”
Jury gushed with enthusiasm.
“Sounds terrifying. What about you, Jury? Are things ok?”
“Better than ever! My Moons have been preparing nonstop in the Isolation Spheres. Lailah also thinks I’ll be getting new Beholder Skills soon too! Also –!”
Frost just knew that Jury wasn’t speaking telepathically. She wondered how the Moons must’ve felt to know that their Beholder was a bundle of sunshine. The canopies of the Great Rainforest Divide – which resided in the central mountain range that divided the Bellum Empire into two – parted ways as she barreled past enormous trees.
“– We received a special shipment from Inflow Direct when they passed by to deliver your Hyperlink Crystal. Giant canisters! The same kind we saw flying over the City of Clubs! And guess what’s inside of them!”
“Weaponized Serums?”
“Nope~! Try to guess!”
Frost’s speed was enough to cause the canopies more than twenty meters high to part ways as a column of leaves followed her. This was caused by the vacuum she left behind in her wake. Her steps were heavy, and they left major imprints after every dozen meters.
“Resurrected Obitutors?”
Frost did not run. She practically skipped through the air, propelling herself forward. With great speed came tremendous stride and at some point, so did increased efficiency as one spent more time in the air.
It was far faster than having both feet on the ground, although she found that this also meant that she had to sacrifice maneuverability. Moving mid air was outright impossible for humans. Even Snap had trouble controlling its direction at ludicrous speeds.
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“Blood Angels?”
However, this was where [Thermal Propagation] shone. Her trajectory promised a collision with the face of a tree but through using a combination of her foresight Ability and [Thermal Propagation] – the explosion in her palms propelled her to the side.
“Caldera Industries’ own Moons?”
It cut down her speed down by nearly a quarter as she counter thrusted with several more explosions to control her balance. The wall of trees belonging to the Great Rainforest Divide was the perfect playground to power level [Thermal Propagation], since it was close to reaching level 20.
“Stars?”
It was a cool gimmick that didn’t see much use outside of quick adjustments. But perhaps at a higher level it could do some fantastic things. With that in mind, she burst through the forest until she reached a downwards slope.
It seemed idiotic considering she was in the heart of the enemy’s territory. But this place was so secluded that she could fire a full-powered shot from De Jure and still not be noticed.
In fact –
*BOOM*
– Frost tested what the recoil of De Jure could do to her. After lifting from one foot, she fired a bullet behind her, and she was instantly flung forward like a kite caught in the wind.
“W-WOOOOOOAH! JURY! CAN YOU STILL HEAR ME!?”
“Hello!? You’re shouting all of a sudden!”
“I THINK I JUST FOUND A NEW WAY TO TRAVEL!”
Frost could barely beat the howling air, though on Jury’s side she could hear perfectly fine. It was like how grandparents would yell into the phone, despite there being a loudspeaker option for the recipient, or that they could be perfectly heard as is.
“Aww. I wish I was there to see it too. Oh! And speaking of speed – Infusions!”
“Huh?”
“We have entire capsules full of infusion C – Cataclysm!”
“Wait, slow down…”
Frost moved at a much more manageable pace, trying to wrap her head around the fact that there were Infusions in Jury’s possession.
“They delivered Infusions to you?”
“An Administrator personally delivered them. Both of her arms were prosthetics from what I could tell. She never really showed anything aside from her face. It was all hidden underneath a coat. I thought Administrators were all stationary. Like installations.”
“So Inflow Direct’s getting their hands dirty as well.”
“She said ‘The Infusions are only the appetizer.’ What do you think, Frost? What’s better than 16 capsules of Infusions?”
“Either another Beholder, or something we have yet to see.”
Frost had sent the Little Frost to speak with Caldera Industries and the Golden Index two days prior. Indeed, two days had passed since they first arrived in the Bellum Empire. one and a half days were spent travelling, and by now Cer was half a day away from the Rodan Trade City.
Similarly, Frost was the same amount of time away from Seer’s Town; a black-market town that received criminals, slaves and contraband directly through Smuggler’s Pass.
The Little Frost has already gotten into contact with them thanks to Snap’s help, huh. I was expecting an army of Liquidators, or maybe some war mechs powered with Liquid Nex. But Infusions? Can’t say I’m not happy. They must’ve sent them immediately. Three days is way too fast.”
< The Little Frost gives you a mental thumbs up >
< She says that Act X were present at the time too >
That makes a lot more sense if Act X was moving them in advance.
Once again, she had the Director to thank.
Infusion C – Cataclysm was, to put it bluntly, a bomb. There was no easy way to quantify its power aside that it was roughly a tenth of the energetic release of a single dying Star of the Nexus.
Again, Frost had no idea how powerful that was outside of word of mouth.
Infusion C – Cataclysm
< A forbidden Infusion under the Scorched Sun Treaty >
“Between which Ateliers?” Frost thought this treaty had its origins between Inflow Direct and another warring Atelier.
Or maybe the collapse of several cities had called for a ban, not that Frost believed the latter reason since the Ateliers were not the type to care in the first place.
“A treaty is a big deal to them, considering weapons too cruel are outright banned.”
Scorched Sun Treaty
< The treaty between all 16 Administrators of Inflow Direct’s Chapters. The Scorched Sun Treaty explicitly outlines the prohibited use, deployment or conception of utilizing Infusion C, Infusion K, and Infusion Z due to historical precedence of self and equally assured annihilation. For this same reason Inflow Direct is to have no Stars under its control >
It was not because of how dangerous they were to other Ateliers. Nor was it banned because of its cruelty.
Infusion C, along with two others were banned because they were used against themselves.
No wonder they were sealed away in the first place. Now that I think about it, they probably hid themselves away as a means of protection than to be sealed. That’s insane to think about. They were in a cold war. Just against themselves.
“They gave you something batshit insane to deal with. Please, please handle that with care.” Frost slumped against a tree, begging Jury to look after herself. “I hate that we’re split up like this. All of us.”
“The Iron Stars are handling them for us. It would be a perfect weapon to assassinate two Beholders in one swoop… I’m sorry. I’ll be fine Frost. We’re just one whole mountain away from each other!”
“A mountain or a pebble is too big of a divide for me.” Frost unintentionally flirted, causing Jury to mumble incoherently on the other end.
“If anything, it should be you who needs to worry. You have a whole front to take on by yourself!”
“I have a plan in mind.” Frost assured. “I can’t communicate with my Hired Arm since she’s in the Derma Layer right now.”
“Oh? What for?”
A grin grew on Frost’s face as she looked past the trees and spotted smoke rising in the great distance. Unmaintained roads ran through an enormous stretch of shriveled grass. The roads eventually led towards a colossal crevice that ran through the mountain range. Unfortunately, at this vast distance she could not see the town clearly.
“Backup.” She simply announced before she resumed her long strides through the rainforest.
She’d reach Seer’s Town in the next few hours.
It was insane to think that despite being able to see where her destination was, she was still so far away. This was made even more baffling with her insane 95 AGI, which saw her move at nearly 100 meters per second.
Since she’d stand out if she traversed through the plains, she chose to move through the mountains. That way she could enter much more covertly and avoid detection.
She sincerely hoped that she could keep herself together. It was one thing seeing the remnants of the past like the ruined Demi-Human villages.
But it was an entirely different thing to see it occur in person.
< Thermal Propagation I has become Thermal Propagation II >
< ACTIVE: Thermal Propagation II [0/10] >
< EFFECT: Create moderate thermal explosions within your palms. Deal 1,000 MAG ATT damage >
< COST: 600 MP >