Michaela remembered Qliphoth as being nothing more than the darkness that defended the Yetzirah deep beneath Paradisio. It was the purest emanation of darkness, and she believed it to simply be that – a presence or entity that was purely the antithesis of the Light.
But she did not realize that Qliphoth was linked to the impurities of humankind, something worse than the Sins she tried to wring out from humans. Not only that, but Corruption was heavily implied to be one in the same with Qliphoth.
Corruption was, after all, the Shadow that overwhelmed one’s Ego. One’s worst depiction of oneself, bearing fruit into what they believed they were. If these impure thoughts were the basis of Qliphoth, then what was Nex?
There was such thing as positive and negative Nex. Was Qliphoth the latter?
Michaela came to an answer of her own.
“Qliphoth must then exist as a living concept of cognitive impurities. The self-depreciation of life, and the realizations that come from the depths of despair. Nex carries their emotion, thoughts and memories, but Qliphoth is more so…”
“Yes, Michaela. You’re close. But neither am I much more knowledgeable of that primordial impurity.”
She paused for a moment. What she and Uriel knew of Qliphoth was far from a verifiable truth. The truth of the matter was that neither of them knew precisely what Qliphoth was, aside from it being a medium that obscured the Light.
Still, Micheala raised a hand into the air with cracks of light forming around her palm and ventured a guess.
“… It is the crystallization of something deeper than Nex. Whether it’s comparable what Frost conducts is to be determined. Weapons and a form made from the reinforcement of one’s Ego hardly sounds like Qliphoth, but the form itself may be just that. Nex in a physical form, but – those who have been shaped by her have returned radiant, nothing like those led astray by Elysia.”
< [O] [Zone of Arbitration] [O] >
< EFFECT: Greatly weaken the effects of Arbitration that do not belong to you. Generate a defensive sphere of Warp Feathers >
Warp Feathers
< Feathers infused with the spatial power of an Angel >
Warping slashes of light surrounded Michaela. They appeared as quickly as they disappeared like flashes of light. The bleeding shards that came her way were cut down effortlessly, all the while the Sins that emerged from the colossal crater of blood in the center of Mount Saris were afflicted with the Pale Web Condition thanks to her Unlying Markers.
Uriel was humored by this as she pointed her shoulder towards Michaela. Suddenly, the space around her warped as she appeared before Michaela in an instant. She arrived mid-swing and sent a devastating downward slash.
It was just barely blocked. Had Michaela not recognized signs of Uriel’s impending warp, then she would have taken the full brunt of that attack.
“With enough Qliphoth, a phenomenon where beings lacking Light emerges. They can’t Corrupt without Light. That’s the truth, and the undeniable difference of the Corruption phenomenon Elysia brought upon this world!”
Uriel’s speed dramatically increased. She no longer needed to thrust herself through the air. Her authority as an Angel allowed her to warp across space, closing the distance between her and Michaela in a fraction of a second.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
A pair of sanguine ring would appear where the space merged. This allowed Michaela to meet with her attacks.
“Warp. Is there a reason why you’ve chosen to use it now?”
“Your strength has increased by a sliver of a hair. It’s only fair if I match you!”
“You shouldn’t hold back.”
“My apologies! You weren’t around to teach me how to not play with my food! You’re going to see the fruition of our efforts! Killing you here and now would be a waste! Hang in there, Michaela. You’ll soon be reunited with your daughter!”
“Through the sacrifice of the Amalgam!? I will not allow it!”
“I wasn’t originally supposed to be a sacrifice. Oh. You don’t know, do you? That your son holds the very memento containing your child!?”
Everything seemed to freeze in that instant. The final piece of her daughter belonged in the hands of her son.
“… Iscario… has Ilya…?”
Michaela was not blind to Iscario’s nature; how obsessive he was of Ilya. So if it was him, and if the Price of Paradise was mentioned to be a memento…
“That is how she will be brought back…?”
Unfiltered vexation filled her widened eyes.
“Ah… That face! Ahhhh~! The Price of Paradise~! It has to be this way. She has to return as a vessel for us in one way or another. The Amalgam could’ve resurrected her wholly if she hadn’t escaped from the Black Forest!”
Uriel claimed fiercely, adding:
“The newborn Elysia would have allowed us to feed the Amalgam with souls from the reservoir! We could have tapped into the waters of the River of Expression and fueled her with the compiled thoughts, hopes, dreams, despairs, emotions… wishes from every world beyond just ours!”
A fierce barrage of swings cleaved through Micheala’s body. These swings ripped the mountain asunder, leaving massive gorges behind as though a celestial being had dragged a claw across the earth.
Blood sprayed across Michaela’s body. This blood was a mixture of hers and Uriel hardened blood. The flames of the flaming great sword rendered Michaela’s soul and reduced patches of her perfect feathers to ashes.
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“… You… are trying to recreate the Captured Star… You wanted to create one using the Amalgam?”
“Not anymore. Killing her will give us a new opportunity. But we can achieve it here. The Dirge confirmed that it was at least possible! If only we didn’t lose our opportunity to access Guf now that your ‘Jury’ has been tainted by her Gift! If a tail like that did exist, then we’d be able to go as far as to reach Elyisa herself! But alas, we have your daughter. She still carries a significant amount of Light. We just have to fuel her with everything we have, then, when we find GEN-09, we can syphon everything we could ever need! She will become an unbreakable vessel like the Amalgam!”
GEN-09. This was the miracle born from the Captured Star called The Gate. It allowed one to access not merely just other worlds, but conceptual worlds that may or may not exist. It was not known if those worlds existed before GEN-09 accessed them. The act of accessing these worlds would have forced them into existence, which of course, was possible through the infinite possibilities of the Captured Star.
In this world, this was likely the Advent of Attachment that Infecta Rot and Caldera Industries were after.
This however, was not what shocked Michaela the most.
“It thought the Second River was extinguished?” Michaela uttered.
“Have you already forgotten!?”
Uriel cleaved through Michaela one final time before taking a stance. They stood over 50 meters apart. Despite the damage Michaela had accumulated, she still stood as though it was but a flesh wound.
“This world was reset! How many thousand times did we loop back!? How far back in time did we go!? You, of all people, should know the implication it holds! The importance of what kind of world we live in! Why this ambition of yours you squashed needs to bear fruit!”
“… The Rivers would have refilled. Stars of the old would exist today…”
“Precisely. Humanity will not last. That is why I must collect the broken thorns scattered in this world to create a perfect rose. That rose should have been your Frost! We could have reignited that burned out Star into a being far greater than what fueled Paradisio! But that’s no longer a path we can take. Now, you’ll watch as they, and your accursed son propagate the world with Stars of its very own!”
Uriel lifted her blade towards the four-pointed star above. The deluge of Sins and rain intensified, ordained by her Will alone. The sea of red above Mount Saris grew ever larger. The waterfalls of blood that hurdled over the side of the mountain washed entire forests away like the sails of half-sunken boats.
What world did Uriel envision the world as?
Every Impuritas’ dream was to become complete. But within that completeness was a desire to shape the world to reflect themselves. The Crimson Hunger sought to bring the flesh together, and the Memento Mori wished to bypass the limitations of life and death.
So, with a resentful groan, she could not help but ask.
“And you?”
“I will bring forth a righteous kingdom! My very own world in your image that will elevate older life forms like humans. Humans are far too impure. You can never remove the impurities from them. So why not condense it all into one sin? Simple lifeforms of wrath. They’ll wear their own sins, and they’ll never commit another for as long as they exist… like my Honored Ones.”
Uriel smugly replied. She presented her words like they were a prophecy. The stars of the distant sky twinkled as though in agreement. Somehow, there were more stars in the horizon than there were above.