Lament. The voice that spoke to them was filled with lament.
< “Cold winter nights were spent alone. Can my voice reach you before it’s too late?” >
< [Echoes of (Ber)eavement] >
< “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” >
Cer remembered the nights when her mother would wake up in cold sweat. The abandoned mutt who slept on the dirt outside of her own home remembered rushing through the twig doors, all the while her mother screamed like she had lost something irreplaceable.
“Does she remember us? Are you screaming because you remember what you did to us? Frost – how can my voice reach her? How can I make mom hear me!?”
“I can try reaching her myself!”
[Amplification] – the Beholder Skill – explicitly stated that only Skills could be amplified. Furthermore, the Gift From A Star [The Resonating Bell] only allowed Frost to create items that could amplify sources, as well as allow her voice to silence those with less RESIST.
A White Light Apparatus was a prerequisite, but Frost still wanted to see if it was possible to amplify her own voice. Like with opening the Status screen she mentally invoked [Amplification] and yelled:
“BLUE DAHLIA!”
It worked. A cone-shaped shockwave formed a meter from her mouth. The air quaked and distorted for a short distance as her voice was carried across the world. Since she did not use a Skill, she didn’t expend much Nex. Still, it came at a hefty 100,000 cost.
And to make things worse, the Blue Dahlia did not respond. She continued to screech like a banshee, sending waves of debilitating shockwaves that whittled down their HP.
Despite the Blue Dahlia’s call of her daughters, it did not seem like she knew Cer was here in the first place. No matter what Cer said or did, the Blue Dahlia could not recognize her existence.
I have 47,978,541 Nex. Just by using this I’ve shortened the number of times I can use [Amplification] by one. We lack information on Iscario. Wasting it here… even it’s for Cer isn’t the right call. The better option I have is probably doing ‘that’.
< ‘That’? Mind enlightening me? >
You weren’t there, but Ilya was able to Resonate with the Genesis Stone holding her mother’s memories. She was able to rewrite the Corrupted Zone to our benefit. If I can resonate with this Genesis Stone, then I should be able to interact with the Blue Dahlia! I can stop this!
Frost and Ilya were one in the same at a fundamental level. Both carried the primordial Light. If there was anyone in this world who could Resonate with a Gensis Stone like Princess Ilya, then it was Frost.
But how was she supposed to Resonate with it? Did she need to help the Blue Dahlia somehow find her memories? Help her, like how she helped Knalzark clear his mind? Or, did she have to hijack it?
Whatever the case was – she was fully prepared to commit to it. The only issue was that the Dirge was not their only problem, nor was it the biggest one.
Iscario. If he’s up there as well… then that makes things much more complicated. With the amount of damage the Dirge can do, it should be close to a Woe of the Fallen Star. Right?
< Woe of the Fallen Star to at least a low-levelled Apocalypse Risk Class >
A low-level Apocalypse Corrupted shouldn’t be too difficult for Frost in her current state.
< [Echoes of (Ber)eavement] >
< [Sundering Un(Cer)tainty] >
< “A lake formed because of your tears. You didn’t complain. You didn’t scream. Can my voice reach you right now?” >
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< “Prickly lightning bolts like the first born… and a stubbornly silent second. Were we always this torn apart? Sunder my soul and lay my heart bear to that moonlit night. It was my only way to atone.” >
“… You brought me up there to atone?” Cer quietly trembled. “You were always aware? You should… already be at rest. We’ve already forgiven you! But Raoul… thinks he deserves to say goodbye to you!”
< [Sundering Un(Cer)tainty] >
Bolts of lighting grazed the bark beside them, tearing it apart like a blade.
< “My ears are lost on me. I know she’s always called out for me. But I’ve been deaf for so long. So, so long… is there any way I can hear sad howls without the light of the moon?” >
She can’t hear Cer… No, the Dirge… The Blue Dahlia… she can’t hear a thing. It’s like she’s…
< She’s searching for her daughters >
Nav and Frost arrived at the same conclusion. The involvement of Cer and Ber’s names in the Skills combined with her lament made it clear to them. But she couldn’t hear Cer, and neither could her voice reach her or Ber. It was as if the Blue Dahlia was searching through millions of shards, hoping to find them.
This was the basis of her attacks. They were not solely meant to hurt them, since she didn’t even know that they were here. The refractions of her memories shown in each fragmented crystal were different from one another. Some scenes showed a blue lake. Others showed one dyed red.
The sorrow Frost felt became palpable. Though the Dirge was created using two Colors, the Blue Dahlia seemed to be the only Ego. The crystal powers and her melodic voice came from the Blue Chorus.
“They’re all equally true to her, as they are false.” The Hired Arm stated. “Her memories are as her Skill implies. They’ve been torn asunder!”
“What was their plan creating this Dirge, aside from fulfilling Raoul and the Memento Mori’s desires? What was it supposed to do?”
Frost vented through clenched teeth as she was thrown far ahead again like a harpoon.
“HOW MUCH MORE DO YOU WANT YOUR SISTER TO SUFFER!?”
She roared, feeling the tug of the Vestment of Goodwill.
//////// < WARNING > ////////
< The Vestment of Goodwill is attempting to manifest as the Second State >
Punches enchanted with [Magnitude], [Double Punch], and [Obliterate] paved the way forward as her emotions rose sharply.
And she refused to allow this Corrupted to take over her mind.
“After everything she’s been through… after the tribulations those same Impuritas you’re working with put your sisters through… Was it not enough!? THEY CORRUPTED BER!”
The tips of her hair that weren’t already gold were instantly blanched white.
Immediately, the presence of her invisible one thousand eyes became palpable. As soon as she sensed that her manifestation of the One Thousand Eyed Bird was complete, she finally sent out a barrage of shadowy fangs.
[Prejudice].
“THEY CORRUPTED RES!”
Frost no longer needed the Hired Arm or Cer. Her flurry of [Prejudice] annihilated the crystal walls and branches alike. Her mind was still hers, and her heart wept for Cer. Truly, from the bottom of her heart, she felt nothing but sorrow for Cer and her sisters.
“AND YOU DON’T THINK THAT THEY’RE TRYING TO CORRUP CER NOW!?”
At every step of the way, since the very start, the Impuritas had one goal to achieve when it came to the triplets. They wanted to Corrupted them. They succeeded with Ber and Res, and as if knowing that Cer would not break no matter what they threw at her, they resorted to dabbling in the unthinkable.
The Memento Mori used a similar tactic with the Scraper to create the Masterpiece. This wasn’t any different, and it riled Frost to where she began to strike the incoming attacks out of pure instinct.
She was reacting faster than she could predict them through her precognition.
< “Stones of regret weighed on me since that day. I trusted them. I stacked my stones in one place and watched them become a tower. I had hoped that I could at least hide you away from plain sight.” >
< “But I lost you all. I only remembered the name of the last child. You were all who I could see. You were the only one I… I… I…?” >
Suddenly, the crystal shards, the branches, and the lightning strikes changed their trajectory. Everything in this world was pointed straight at them.
“What the fuck… Snap… SNAP! GO AS FAST AS YOU CAN! WE WON’T BE ABLE TO STOP THEM NOW!”
Frost saw a future where they were skewered thousands of times over by the combination of all the Dirge’s attacks.
< [Searching For A (Res)emblance] >
< EFFECT: All attacks are directed to the one marked as [My Daughter?] temporarily. Attacks will firstly [Erase] the [My Daughters?] that least resemble the remembered [My Daughter?] >
< “I always wondered why the one I loved looked so familiar. She was imperfect, but she was all that I knew.” >
And with it came another attack that spawned phantom memories of Cer, Ber and Res. They floated in the air like specters, just like the spirits Frost saw walking the streets of Paradise.
< [Blooming (Cer)(Ber)(Res)] >
< EFFECT: Spawn aberrations of [My Daughter?]. There can only be one…? >
< “But who is the one I’m mistaking this one for? Why is that I remember her on that moonlit night?” >
They had crossed 2/3rds of the way up now.
The last stretch was now a battle of pure evasion.
“Who is mom talking about? She means Res…? She must. Res was the only one she cared about. I don’t understand…” Cer softly murmured. She tried to sound strong, but her voice rolled with a tremble that caused even the Hired Arm’s heart to melt. “… Just what happened to you for you to forget about everything?”
“This might be our chance to find out once and for all.” Frost said, trying to find a silver lining for Cer’s sake.
But Cer didn’t show any other signs of faltering. The wolfwoman stared with unwavering conviction at the light. Shimmers of sorrow sparkled in her crimson eyes; a deep contrast to the light of her mother, and the moon that they loved.
In that moment Cer remembered why she was so infatuated with the moon in the first place.
< “Our eyes shone like stars.” >
< “That moon was all I remember of you, my…” >
< “My…?” >
< [Searching For A (Res)emblance] >