Anpu did not like their odds. It was clear that his attacks were far too weak to even dream of damaging the ‘Sins’. According to his Lunas, they had 7,000 DEF and MAG DEF. The first wave of attacks had crippled a quarter of their team.
However, thanks to their own DEF stats and the high-quality clothing they wore, it was only a matter of outlasting them.
“Our only option is to buy time… Gerina! Head though the doors! We will face these alone!” Anpu ordered. “Until the Amalgam arrives – we will stay here and keep them off you! Usa! Follow the princess!”
“Gotcha! Let’s go! Quick!”
Usa and Gerina entered the throne room. A thick veil of black smoke smothered the entrance. The chaos could still be heard from behind, but they were safe for now.
Once they were through the smoke, Gerina alone was greeted by the throne room.
It was a magnificent hall of dazzling treasures. Unlike the room outside, everything was as she remembered.
Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Exactly thirty banners ran along each wall, carrying the symbol of their Empire. Between each cutout stood a statue decorated in the finest of armaments. Finally, the throne itself, which sat atop a steep, marble staircase had precisely 5 golden seats.
She swore she remembered her seat having been destroyed. Yet there it was, glowing in all its glory.
Usa’s presence disappeared. Again, she swore she had entered with her. She looked around in a daze, and before she knew it, the fighting from behind was gone.
“Sister~!”
A voice called out to her. A cheery, childlike voice. A woman with blonde hair and yellow eyes wearing a regal dress decorated with frills greeted her with a smile. Her hair was cut short, and in her hand was a stuffed toy.
“Arana?” The name easily slipped through Gerina’s lips. How could she ever forget who this was?
This person was her 2nd sister. Her skin was untainted. It was perfect, in fact, like long ago before they knew what the Memento Mori were.
“You’re finally here! C’mon! We thought you’d never come!” Arana said cheerfully as she clasped onto her hand.
Gerina stood her ground, still confused about the whole situation. It didn’t make sense that the palace was mysteriously… pristine despite the battles inside of it. Not to mention that her sister was friendly with her.
“Gerina? Is everything ok?” Arana asked, moments before another woman arrived.
“She’s tired. Gerina always tended to get sick. There, there. Are you ok, sister?” A warm hand tapped her head.
It belonged to her eldest Sister, Umara. She was dressed precisely like her other sister. Not only that, but when Gerina looked down at herself, she saw that she was also wearing the same dress.
“What’s going on? Aren’t you two supposed to be… Undead?”
“Undead?” Umara giggled, nudging Arana. “You must still be drowsy from that long sleep. Are you sure you’re alright? Let’s get you something warm to drink. It’ll make you feel better.”
“… make me feel better? Are you two…” Gerina looked at her surroundings again.
She couldn’t tell what was going on. Were these two really her sisters? Her mind and heart urged her to listen to them, but her rational self said that something was terribly wrong. Yet she could not listen to this piece of herself, because for the first time in years she felt like everything would be alright.
“We’re here for you, Gerina. We’ve always been here for you.”
“That’s right, little sis~ We’re a family, aren’t we? Let’s hurry up and go.”
“Go… where?” They took an uncertain Gerina by her wrists.
Their hands were colder now.
“Where else other than to be together forever?” They both turned and grinned at her.
Their faces flashed into a something hideous for a split second. She could have sworn she had seen a corpse in place of them. Had she been blinded by her love for her family, then she would have stayed with them. But it was also her love that made her stand her ground and reject them with all her heart.
“I’m sorry.” She began. “I can’t… be with you two.”
“Aww? How come?” Arana cocked her head.
“Yes, what’s wrong? Tell us. We won’t judge you.” Umara said, although her voice held a hint of restrained anger.
“… We’re breathing their smoke, aren’t we?” Gerina knew what the Memento Mori were capable of. One of their tricks was creating illusions through their smoke, which often allowed a person to converse with a deceased loved one or enter a dream-like state where their wishes could come true.
She was in one. She had seen the smoke from earlier.
And after looking into the eyes of her sisters, she knew without a doubt that they were also trapped in this illusion.
“So what?” Arana said.
“… huh?” Gerina blankly blinked.
Her arm was sudden tugged forward as Arana’s head twisted until her chin pointed at the ceiling.
“SO WHAT IF IT’S A LIE!?”
“GERINA! IS THIS SMOKE NOT WORKING ON YOU!? PLEASE! I BEG OF YOU! BELIEVE IN IT!” Umara immediately covered her face, which was rotting with maggots.
They were both in a state of perpetual decay with no end in sight. How long had they been living in this condition?
“I can’t even feel my face! I can only hear the squirms of maggots in my head! Why did you have to break this illusion! We’re still waiting for our masks to kill what’s left of this… this curse! But it’ll be a blessing! A blessing… so we can live forever and ever – but we just have to hold on!”
Umara’s withered, skeletal figure did not even resemble that of a human. Her hips were conjoined with her ribs, and her joints were fused to create hideously long limbs that needed to snap in order to move.
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“Why couldn’t you just accept it!? There is no world after this, Gerina! The Angel in red promised that the new world will have no place for us! So we have to obey them! We can’t fight them! So please, join us! Become anew like us! Become immortal in a new world!” Arana screeched, trying to pull Gerina even closer to her.
Gerina on the other hand, saw her ribcage replace her limbs, turning her into a blackened spider made of bones and exposed blood vessels that served as her web. They strangled her, and she also could not bear the fact that Gerina had broken their illusion.
The hand that gasped onto Gerina came from Arana’s mouth like a tongue.
Gerina knew that they were no longer human, but never did she imagine it to be this horrifying. Pity filled her heart, but in the end…
“… you made this choice.” She uttered beneath her breath. “I’m sorry, but you’re the ones who fell for that. An angel in red… doesn’t make sense. Are you saying you’d rather live like that than to die a human? With dignity?”
“We just don’t want to be hurt…”
“Pain. It was endless. You were lucky because you got away. You can only say that because you never suffered like we did!”
“You…” Gerina drew her blade and placed it against both their twisted napes. “HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I WENT THROUGH! I HAD NO JOY! I NEVER HAD TIME TO ENJOY THE FRUITS OF OUR KINGDOM! I SAW EVERYTHING OUR FAMILY DID – THE NOBLES – THE BARONS – THE DUKES – TO EVERYONE IN THIS KINGDOM!”
Gerina nearly slit their necks, but she knew that in this state, they could not die without being burned. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she steeled herself for what needed to be done.
“You… have no right to say that this is all because of your suffering, when you don’t even know one one-millionth of what’s happening outside of these walls! If you cared about anything but yourselves, then you… wouldn’t have given in to them… Mother and father… did they have to die because of this? Because of our greed? It must’ve been nice living in ignorance! If you could hear their screams, then would you be able to sleep at night!? Why…! did it have to be like this? I just…”
“… It’s not too late Gerina… We can still be together…”
“Y-Yes… Together… We can learn from our mistakes…”
The two still tried to bring her to their side, seeing her tears as a sign of weakness. They clearly lacked sympathy towards her. They couldn’t even conceive of what Gerina had gone through since her teenage days. For nearly two decades Gerina had persistently been trying to change things for the better.
To think that it all stemmed from greed, and from people she once loved… from people who were once innocent. She remembered the days when they’d sing her songs at night. Days they’d take her on walks along their immense courtyards.
“When did it all go so wrong?”
She then realized that killing them here would be the ultimate form of love. It would be her way of freeing them from their tribulations. She could not forgive them for what they’d done, and so, she pushed her blade harder against their necks.
“GERINAAAA!”
“IS THIS HOW YOU TREAT YOUR OWN FAMILY!?”
Gerina could not follow through due to the sturdiness of their bones. However, when all hope seemed lost, another voice cut through the illusion.
“Enough.”
The illusion fizzled away, revealing the terrible state of the throne room. The chandeliers had fallen along the ground. Judging by the dust, they had been untouched for many years. The statues were wrapped in black, vein-like webs, and the golden-pale color of the throne room was tainted in a foul-smelling darkness.
Frost had appeared again, this time, the light in her eyes shone greater than Gerina remembered. Her golden strands seemed brighter too. Not only that, but her presence alone was like a cleansing light.
“AAAaaaaagh!”
“Gerinaaaaaaaaa!”
Her sisters shrieked. They could not bare to even stare at Frost, for she burned their eyes.
“Are these our enemies?” Frost coldly asked.
She didn’t mention family at all, even though she likely knew who and what they were.
“… Yes. Yes, they are.” Gerina answered.
“Gerina! Please! We’re hurting! It’s hurting! Mother! Father! Help us!”
“Please… I beg of you… I don’t want to die! Don’t do this to your only family!”
“… My only family died a long time ago. This is for your own good. If it hurts so much… then there is only way to fix it. A remedy I’ve come to hate… but because of you two… just how many men did I kill so that they didn’t have to suffer anymore?”
Gerina’s eyes were filled with her determination as Frost raised her hand. And with the finality of a guillotine, she swung it down and lobbed their heads. Gerina did not blink. She wanted to see this through till the end.
It was what she had fought so hard for since the start…
… and finally, a being she could only call a deity had granted her this wish. Frost further destroyed their bodies with her bare hands.
For what reason was not known to Gerina. If she knew that Frost had destroyed their souls and very fabric of existence, then would she weep? Would she come to despise Frost?
Gerina didn’t know herself. Neither did Frost.
All she knew was that it was finally over.
She collapsed to her knees and crawled over their remains.
“… I remember them… when we all so young… so innocent…”
She grasped onto their ashes and brought it close to her chest.
“… when we had nothing to worry about... Amalgam… Frost… You’re a god, aren’t you? Can you answer me something? Are people born evil? I… still can’t believe that they turned out like this.” Gerina’s voice quivered.
Suddenly, she felt a warm hand fall onto her head. It was like her sister’s from so long ago.
Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes again.
And just like her sister in the past, Frost offered her some advice.
“No matter what, you must not blame yourself. If you want someone to blame, then it can be the Memento Mori. But if that doesn’t work, then blaming me might for you.”
“Why would I blame you?”
“Because it’s what everyone’s doing to cope with their own anguish. I was born as the scapegoat for these monsters. Believe me, getting to where I’m at was not easy. The same can be said for you.”
“… Yeah… I can tell.” Gerina was uneasy for some reason.
It felt like everyone she knew and trusted was gone. She felt so eerily alone all of a sudden, and it weighed on her heart as she stared down at her sister’s remains.
Suddenly, the warmth on her head moved down to her shoulders.
“Gerina. You’re a strong a person. You’ve been doing this for a lot longer than me, at a younger age as well. It won’t be long until it’ll be over, so right now…” Frost knelt to her level and embraced her just as someone did for her in the past.
Gerina was a proud soldier. A royal figure. A leader of thousands. Yet this person saw her as not only an equal, but someone who desperately needed help. It was an unfamiliar sensation to her. Kindness like this was seldom shown in Grandis.
If anything, it was only reserved for family.
“I want you to know that you did all that you could. I’m sorry if it feels like I’m treating you like a child. But you’re in pain, and I can’t ignore that. We’re not done yet. There’s still a lot more struggle we need to do to get out of this hell, but I promise you, that the light at the other end will be worth it. You’ve got a good heart, Princess Gerina. Don’t look so sad… Cry when it’s over.”
“… I will.”
“I’m with you. The Nexus is with you. Everyone’s here to help you now.”
The Tear Retrievers had all survived the battle against the Sins. Frost, unsurprisingly, easily cleaned up for them. Lucy could be seen nodding at Gerina, affirming that she had made the right choice.
“I never said it’ll be an easy thing to do. It can take years to heal from, but that’s what these guys are here for.” She slapped the backs of the Lunas. “They can help you after this is over. Also, don’t forget that we’re in your good favor now, princess.”
Lucy grinned.
“… Of course. Thank you.” Gerina thanked from the bottom of her heart, lowering her head.
“You did well. I’m done on my end. The gears are turning now. As much as I’d want to stay here too, we need to prepare for the next stage.” Frost said, lightly rubbing the woman’s head again.
Why is it so comfy? She really is a deity… and the one who rules the Nexus too…
“Amalgam. Is that perchance the Red Baron on you hip?” Anpu asked, noticing the red idol.
“What’s left of him. I didn’t think he’d manifest a Corrupted Persona… we’ve got a lot of amending to do with the whole Corrupted stuff. I also gotta thank you again, Gerina. Thanks to you, I gained something cool from your Gift.”
“… you gained something?” Gerina muttered.
“Something incredible.” Frost didn’t elaborate further. “Everyone. In about an hour you’ll be reinforced by Inflow Direct and the Golden Index. The Impuritas are not going to let us stay in control of this Gift. They’ll want Gerina either dead or under their control.” Frost announced. “Do as they say. They’re experts in this field.”
“May I ask who from Inflow Direct will be appointed to us?” Anpu asked.
“Chapter Seventeen – One; Administrator Qoph.”
“… We’ll be in terrific hands then.” Anpu was satisfied with the response. “Will you be leaving now?”
“Immediately. I’m just waiting for a friend of mine to arrive.”
“Oh? Who?” Cara asked, raising a brow.
Frost smirked.
“Remember Snap?”
Her answer caused Cara and Usa to smile.
“That cute thing!”
“The fuzz ball Anid~!”