//////// < WARNING > ////////
< NO KNOWN CONDITIONS >
< NO KNOWN SUPRESSION REQUIREMENTS >
< NO KNOWN SUBJUGATION REQUIREMENTS >
< We are only in the light of the Dirge hidden behind the smoke. I’m sure we’ll receive everything we need as soon as we break through! >
< But I might be able to formulate a list sooner! >
A myriad of factors affected how quickly Nav could reveal the Conditions. It wasn’t a matter of laziness. No matter how much Nav savored the lavishness of what little she could enjoy in her body, she was not one to let it get in the way of her work.
Distance seemed to play a large role, although this did not always hold up. After all, Frost was able to detect the Heart of Ours as well as the Beast Forever from tens of kilometers away.
So, if it was not distance, then it would be influenced by the strength of the Corrupted. Whether this came in the form of Light, tangible strength or otherwise was not currently known, but Light seemed to be the likely answer.
After all, Corrupted did possess Light.
Bolts of lightning showered from the skies like giant fissures. The enormous branches that passed by them had chunks erased upon impact. Snap wove through the incoming branches as it ran up along the main trunk. It was so large that it was like they were staring at a world made entirely of bark.
The scale of reality was altered in the same way as how Carpalis could make herself physically larger than the room itself. The grooves between each bark were deep enough for them to disappear and never see the light of day. They were like the cliff faces of a canyon, and swarming the air were branches that assailed from the light.
These branches were far smaller than the millions that seemed to span hundreds of meters in width. This did not consider just how far they had reached past them already. This and the smaller ones posed the biggest threat alongside the lightning strikes.
< [Sundering Un(Cer)Tainty] >
< EFFECT: Bolts of lightning are formed by the throes of a distressed Soul. Deal 6,000 ATT and 8,000 MAG ATT. If Target is killed, then activate [Erase] >
Erase
< EFFECT: Target is conceptually erased from all cognizant minds >
< TEMPORARY CONDITION: All targets eliminated within the Corrupted Zone of the Dirge will be afflicted with [Erase] >
“Dead ahead! Snap! Don’t change your course until I tell you to!” Frost commanded.
Immediately, she wrapped Steel Strands around their waists and anchored them to both her and Snap. That way they would not be limited to Snap’s back. The Hired Arm quickly threw herself to the side and began firing away, the recoil causing her to swing from side to side and yet, her aim remained precisely on point.
Branches as wide as meters exploded to nothing but splinters. The highly penetrative bullets of the Hired Arm pierced through the branches lengthwise, opening them up like the petals of a decaying flower.
Frost utilized her De Jure’s specialized bullets sparingly, since they could be enchanted with a specific magic in mind. Branches that were far too large were struck by a violet bullet containing [Armor Piercing].
However, she realized an issue with [Armor Piercing] bullets.
The penetrative power is too strong. It’s leaving the branches largely unaffected. [Magnitude] will work better against the much larger targets. But if that’s not enough…
Frost, while onehandedly shooting with her weapon, removed her gloves with her teeth in preparation to throw herself forward.
… then I’ll have to do this with my bare hands! Nav! How is my Emotional State looking!? [Prejudice] will be the best Corrupted Skill to use right now!
“Heighten them further! You’re not far off!”
The dire circumstances combined with Cer’s distress and the prospect of murdering Iscario should have been more than enough to at least manifest the Third State at least. But Frost felt oddly calm. Her emotions were kept under control, but she could feel a burning desire to let it all out – no doubt due to the influence of the Vestment of Goodwill.
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If she was carried away by her emotions, then she would be vulnerable to this parasitic Corrupted.
But as if to make for Frost’s lack of emotional outburst –
“Raoul… RAOUUUUUUUL!”
– Cer howled and unleashed a barrage of [Electric Fang]. The blue electric aberrations shaped like the maw of a wolf devoured the branches with explosive bites. Lichtenberg fractals instantly shot across the length of the branches, incinerating them with ease.
“SNAP! TAKE ME TO RAOUL!”
< Cer’s Emotional State Has Risen To The First State >
The tip of Cer’s tail glowed bright blue, matching the color of the world dreamt of by her mother. Fragments of the Blue Chorus could also be found, mostly in the fractal, infinite expansion of the tree above.
It was like an ever-expanding crystal chandelier. Clusters of blue crystals grew along the main trunk, and they vibrated to the sound of the Blue Dahlia’s wails.
< [Sundering Un(Cer)Tainty] >
< [Sundering Un(Cer)Tainty] >
< [Sundering Un(Cer)Tainty] >
< “Can you live a better life without me by your side?” >
“Tch! I can! I already have! Frost – can she hear me!? Can my mom hear a word I’m saying!?”
“It’s possible! But… I’m not sure if we can talk your mother out of it. The Blue Chorus was involved in the Dirge too. Still, we can’t rule it out!” Frost confirmed, but Cer had nothing else to say to her mother.
The Moon bit her lip in disgust as her face contorted.
“… But this isn’t a Corrupted. A Corrupted has a chance to come back. Mom was resurrected as a puppet. Can you even call that the same thing? That’s not really her talking to me, is it Frost? That’s…”
“Her memories. A living Ego made from the remnants of the CognitO Filter.” The Hired Arm answered sternly, causing Cer to nod. “The Memento Mori must have used it as a Memento to bring her back. Can we assume this is an Impuritas?”
A rod of electricity formed in the palm of both of Cer’s hands.
“We have no way of knowing until we’re up there.” Frost stated. “… Dammit… Cer!”
“I’M FINE FROST! KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE DAMNED BRANCHES!”
“IT’S NOT ABOUT THAT!” Frost lashed back as she mentally ordered Snap to change its course towards the left.
Her sudden outburst immediately neutralized Cer’s anger. The fury, the confusion, the bereavement – it all disappeared in the wake of Frost’s voice. A tangible pressure was exerted over Cer, but it wasn’t the kind that demanded her to be submissive.
“CLEAR OUT THE RIGHT SIDE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN! OF COURSE I’M WORRIED ABOUT YOU! BUT DON’T YOU EVER CLOSE YOUR EARS TO ME! I need you to listen now more than ever!”
Cer’s emotions were ultimately Frost’s responsibility as she was the leader of their group and, as much as she didn’t want to say it out loud, her caregiver. But it wasn’t like she didn’t understand Cer. In fact, it was admirable that this was the extent of Cer’s emotions.
Were it anyone else in the world, then they would have Corrupted on the spot. How is someone supposed to accept that their mother was resurrected? How can anyone possibly stop themselves from boiling in rage?
What Frost wanted Cer to realize was that her rage was misdirected.
“… Right. Ghk… Fuck… Yeah, Frost. I got it!” The pair of lightning bolts – the [Tasty Bolts of Levin] – were hurled straight for a large crystal clump that blocked the right side. “LEAVE IT TO ME!”
It was not just the branches anymore. Crystal clusters grew from the bark of the main trunk, some as large as a hundred meters. They were truly enormous, to the point where they blocked their direct line of sight with the light.
For them to grow suddenly and not count as a Skill must mean they’re occurring naturally, huh. With how large this place is, and with how many things happening at the same time – just what is the size of the Genesis Stone up there?
Frost fired several [Infinite Hatred] bullets at various weak spots in the crystal before finishing it off with a special bullet infused with [Magnitute] to break it apart. Destroying them with her bare fists was far from ideal, as the shrapnel could easily injure Snap.
Range. This was their biggest limitation, and why they relied on their weapons and long-ranged Skills. Frost could only leap 20 meters ahead. But there was a way to make this work.
“Snap… No, my Hired Arm!” Frost called out. The woman returned to her side on Snap’s back immediately. “Spin me around as fast as you can! Like a lasso! Just like when you used me to spearfish those ships!”
“What the hell are you on about!?” Cer, still on edge, could not help but to blurt out at their nonsense.
“So you plan to be used like a giant blade? It will be as you wish!”
Like Frost, the Hired Arm could onehandedly fire her Justica Longarm. The benefit of a Justica Longarm was that it did not need to be reloaded and could be fired just as quickly as a Standard Talon.
So, with that in mind, Frost was tugged by the waist and made to rotate around Snap. Due to the forces exerted by the swinging Frost, Snap had some trouble balancing itself.
Thankfully, Frost could easily orientate her body forward, allowing her to keep track on what lay ahead.
Wind rushed around her as she inadvertently crashed through branches that would have otherwise been dodged had she stayed on Snap. She extended out at roughly 30 meters. It didn’t seem like much, but this was only the beginning.
“Get ready! You’ll know when to release me!”
An absurdly large wall of clusters blocked their path. Countless more branches hailed from above at an angle that prevented Snap from simply leaping over it.
“THROOOOOOW!”
Since Snap was far too fast for Frost to elapse it with her own speed, she used centrifugal force to propel her ahead. That way, she was able to reach an additional three hundred meters forward and deal with much larger obstacles personally.
[Magnitude].
One lone punch caused an immense web of cracks to form across the face of the crystal wall. This Offensive Skill was part of the Ultraviolence Profession and allowed her to disperse the energy of her punches to a 5-meter radius.
A 5-meter impact crater was left where her fist had struck, and multiple more joined it as she tore it down with a vicious flurry of strikes. Bullets, electric lances and fangs joined her as well, tearing open a new path forward.
The crystal walls then formed in a spiral-like shape up the trunk, which forced Snap to climb the tree in a counterclockwise manner.
“It’s still far away! Haven’t we been moving for a few minutes now!? AT SNAP’S SPEED OF ALL THINGS!?” Cer notified, unable to wrap her head around the sheer scale of this world.
“No, we’re definitely getting closer.” Frost, whose eyesight was superior to Cer’s, assured her that they were on pace to reaching the top.
< [Sundering Un(Cer)tainty] >
< [Sundering Un(Cer)tainty] >
< [Sundering Un(Cer)tainty] >
The storm intensified the closer they approached the top. More and more crystals formed along the way. It was as though the world itself threw everything at them in hopes for them to abandon their pursuit of the light.
And to make matters worse, a new Corrupted Skill appeared.
< “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.” >
Suddenly, the wail of the Blue Dahlia reverberated from every single crystal. Blue dahlias grew from the chasms of the tree trunk, peering from their abyss and blossoming beneath the blue light of an absent moon.
“Tch… That… hurts!” Cer grunted, as did Snap.
Thankfully, the Hired Arm could keep Snap alive no matter what as she shared the same Skills as Frost. They had each taken over 10,000 damage from that scream alone.
< “A melody infused voice that I don’t recall. Nothing I can do can help me remember if this was always my own voice.” >
Then, without warning, thousands of crystals exploded at once, sending a hailstorm of millions of crystal shards at them.
< [Echoes of (Ber)eavement] >
< EFFECT: Major area of effect attack. The crystals will amplify the Dirge’s sorrows. Deals 5,000 ATT and 5,000 MAG ATT. Ignores all DEF Stats. Form [Blue Dahlias] and change the scenery >
< “Can I atone for the child I’ve forsaken to live on that cold lake?” >
And in every single shard Frost saw that same crystal-clear lake that Ber had once called her home.