Black clouds gathered above the city. Static discharge sporadically appeared in the dusty atmosphere, crackling away as the giant, five-meter-tall wolf made of pure darkness howled with Raoul’s voice at an invisible moon.
“I could never wish this lamentation upon my own sisters!” Raoul began as the clouds above the world spiraled like a forming cyclone. “All you had to do was give up on your aspirations to avoid this hell. But you followed me, Cer, down beyond the depths of my limbo to the gates of our inferno!”
Its crimson eyes gleamed with hunger as it puffed out its chest proudly, stroking the ground with its front paws. Black splotches appeared on its shoulders, forming another two heads.
They snapped at each other, each speaking a word in order from left to right.
“You’re wrong. You weren’t the only one in a state of limbo. We’ve been suckling on the teat of the Ateliers for Serum G for thirty years! Any aspirations I had were killed and manufactured to exist because of the Ateliers! All I wanted was to stay next to you, Raoul!”
“All I wanted was to push you away for your own good.”
Cer’s Emotional State sharply rose. The white tip of her tail glowed with an azure light as she felt herself manifest a part of her Corrupted Persona – Craving Electric Wolf. Unfortunately, her Blessing of the Nexus could not guide her through the process, let alone show her what Emotional State she was currently in, for that was a power of the Blessing of the Amalgam.
Instead, it was something that needed to be sensed; and mentally tapped into.
Thankfully, she was able to at least see what Corrupted Skill she was able to manifest.
< (C) PASSIVE: Watt Battery >
< Electrical stimulation dances on their tastebuds. More must be drawn to complete the feast >
< EFFECT: Electrical sources can recharge your HP and MP. Gain HP and MP via the subtracted amount of their ATT and your DEF stats. If your DEF stats are higher, then convert 100% into HP, MP and Overheal >
LEVEL : 200
Electric Fang
NAME : Cer HP : 50,000
MP : 10,000
RESIST : 100 (+50) AGI : 55 AGE : 42 ATT : 4,500
MAG ATT : 4,500
O : 200 D : 100 ORIGIN : Demi-Human (Wolf) DEF : 2,000 (+1,200)
MAG DEF : 2,000 (+1,200)
S: 100 E: 0
Her offensive abilities saw a 50% permanent increase thanks to her Corrupted Persona’s persistent Ability: [Craving Blue Currant].
“What good would’ve separating done for us! It’s done enough damage! You said you wanted to atone, but now you’ve gone and dragged Ara into this mess! You’re…”
A wave of black electricity pulsed from the legs of the three-headed wolf. The electricity wrapped around Cer’s ankles like shackles, attempting to ensnare her. The pitiful souls that fell asleep around her were swallowed by the darkness, their flesh corroding like they were dipped into a vat of acid.
“… not making any sense to me!”
Cer however, was unfazed by the attack.
Instead, it only improved her abilities.
Cer | HP: 50,000 (+2,000) | 50,000
Her own azure electrical field countered Raoul’s as she activated [Ultracharged Field]. The immediate 15 meters of Cer was engulfed with bolts of electricity, which leapt from surfaces like fish out of a pond.
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“RAOUL! IF IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FOR MY OWN GOOD THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY ANYTHING!?”
She charged straight for Raoul’s three-headed shadow, biting at the air to summon electrical abbreviations of her jaw – [Electric Fang].
Likewise, Raoul’s own shadow summoned his own, and they collided in midair like fireworks.
“Your curiosity would’ve made you follow me further into this spiral of lament. Cer. Do you still remember the face of our mother?”
The brick pathway crumbled under the weight of their power. She zipped through the shadowy bites, her speed unmatched thanks to [Galvanic Current]. In this state, her AGI increased from 55 to 82, allowing her to reach the head of one of the wolves as she uppercut it with sharpened claws.
“We all do! We have to! Is this because of how she treated me!? Raoul… You know the best that I never hated mother!” She shouted, flinging herself downwards with a burst of [Galvanic Current] to deliver a follow up strike.
“This isn’t about how she treated you. Tell me, Cer. Do you remember the twins?”
“OF COURSE!”
“Then, do you remember father?”
“Tch – Why should I have to remember the face of the miserable dog that left us behind!?”
She moved like a blade, slashing them with her immense speed as the heads struggled to keep track of her. It remained stationary before the building, never moving an inch as it relied solely on its bites to take Cer down but to no avail.
“That’s how you see him. No empathy spared for the mutt that forced us to live like abandoned mutts. Neither do I want to remember his face. But one day, we’ll have to face that monster. People have always slipped through our hands, Cer. It’s through this that we’ll never have to lose anyone again.”
Between each brilliant slash of blue arrived electrical bites that took shadowy chunks from the wolf. Its mass had reduced by 20% in mere seconds after the battle begun, causing Raoul to furrow his brows to the unexpected development.
“I should’ve done this from the start.” Raoul handed Ara to Beethoven. “To preserve what little happiness we’re allowed to experience in this world. The smallest rays of light should be bottled away. When Iscario saw that Frost and called her his sister…”
Raoul’s gaze lingered on Ara’s face before she was wrapped in a cocoon of thread.
“… I was envious. Ara reminded me of the time I lost with you all. I will regain it. All of it. It first starts with our resignation. I’m tired of running around in circles, Cer. Everything I’ve tried to do ended in losing more people.”
Black tendrils slowly fell from the black clouds that sat a hundred meters in the air. They invaded the city, creeping into windows and chimneys. In the background of Cer’s brawl, people were lifted by the throats into the air, their heads held in a noose of resignation.
“I must be the reason why things went this way. I will be the one to fix it. Cer. Please – Do not get in my way.”
It was not clear if this was Raoul’s power or not. Cer could not see the stats of his wolf or shadows.
The clouds were a different story.
“You always wanted to be like me. Can you bear to shoulder this lament like I have?”
Wuthering Resignation
???
It had stats, but they were either too powerful for Cer to decipher, or, once again, her Blessing of the Nexus could not identify what it was. Her instincts sensed only one thing emanating from it.
Despair. That thing was an amalgamation of pure, manifested despair. Hundreds of people were snatched and pulled through holes that could barely fit them before being dangled in the air.
Entire lengths of spinal cords freshly plucked from a body hung in the air, alongside mangled bodies that were dragged through the tiny grates of cages and prisons, the gap beneath doors and their keyholes.
It disgusted Cer that Raoul hadn’t changed at all.
No. He was worse. They were incomparable.
The murderous Raoul of the past slaughtered people indiscriminately so long as he had a reason to. But now, Raoul took it upon himself to eradicate all life within the Rodan Trade City.
… No, Cer knew exactly why he was doing this, and Cer’s eyes burned with fury as she screamed out his name.
“RAOOOOOOOOUL!” She sliced one of the heads of the wolves clean off, sliding across the ground.
Raoul’s slaughter was to prove his point, rather than an act of resentment or revenge.
It was simply to prove to Cer that she would be worse off if she could stand by his side.
That she would dabble in the same depths of atrocities.
“First it was the Electric Fang that slaughtered the lives of those in Grandis.” Raoul said shortly after exchanging whispers with Beethoven. “A miserable wolf that followed in the footsteps of her brother. Next, it would have been the entirety of this continent. A wandering beast unsated with just Grandis… That is why we cannot be together. Not as the way we are. Never as how we were. Leave my sister to me, Beethoven. Take Ara to that place.”
“Bzzt. And you? Bzzt.”
“I will be following shortly.”
“Bzzt. Should we be concerned? Bzzt. That is the Fang of the Head. Bzzt. It will be problematic if the Nexus retaliates. Bzzt.”
Raoul suddenly took the Maestro by the throat, causing him to buzz in terror as Raoul drilled his eyes deep into his soul.
“Bzzt… I understand. Bzzt.”
Beethoven backed off, spawning slimy wings as he took flight with the wrapped Ara in his arms. A black rod of electricity formed in Raoul’s hand, and with a single heave, he blew a hole into the side of the building.
Cer, noticing this, immediately turned her attention to the fleeing Impuritas and prepared to give chase. However, the wolf that guarded hell charged after her with impressive speed.
“IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT!?”
It rammed into her, sending her flying into the neighboring buildings.
“TO GIVE ARA AWAY TO THOSE MONSTERS!?”
Carnage broke loose as she charged through the walls, pulverizing everything that stood in her way effortlessly. Chasing after Beethoven was her utmost priority, but the moment she broke through the last wall of the building, she was met with the fangs of Raoul’s wolf.
“WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO ACHIEVE!?”
Cer’s Emotional State continued to climb as her emotions Heightened. She could sense it, and whilst her waist was caught in the maw of the beast, she released multiple consecutive bites, eventually decapitating the head that had caught her.
“Raoul! Why them!? Why the Broken Thorn!? Why the Impuritas!? Why… what do they have that the Nexus doesn’t!?”
Only one head of Raoul’s wolf remained, but it did not bother him.
He stood out in the open now, his hands in his pockets as he fiddled with a hidden keepsake.
“A method to give every broken thorn a rose of their own.” Raoul intoned. “The outcome of a perfect rose is the resurrection of a life.”
“And you believe that!?” The undersides of Cer’s hair glowed blue now as she manifested a second Corrupted Skill.
< ACTIVE: Bolt of Tasty Levin >
< Skewer me on top and garnish me on your main >
< EFFECT: Hurl a bolt of charged electricity. Deal 2,500 Damage. Inflict 10 Paralysis Stacks >
< COST: 1,000 MP >