778. A World of Blue Dahlias

778. A World of Blue Dahlias

Before Frost left, the Vermilion Moons gave the body of an unfortunate Star.

“Keep him. If it’s Impuritas we’re up against then I don’t see how we’ll get any use out of him. Oh, and I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way. I’m just saying that’s overkill with a Beholder on our side. We don’t know what that white-haired bastard is up to, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a contingency plan.”

Blowing up Iscario could work too, but I’d rather see him lose an arm or two. That reminds me… I didn’t ask Mae what Iscario looks like now. He lost an eye, didn’t he? Infusion S takes a person’s most precious organ.

“You have an advantage if he only has one eye. Don’t bet on it though. You can still see with your eyes closed.”

Nav advised Frost to forget about the old Iscario. Expecting him to be the same person was the same as underestimating her opponent. She didn’t know what to expect in that case, but underestimating him could easily result in her death.

Iscario didn’t seem that strong when we first met. But then again, he’s half Angel and I haven’t seen his Stats in the first place. Ilya had abnormal stats.

“Hey. Tin can.” Frost knocked on the miniaturized Red Baron on her hip. “What’s Iscario like right now? Does he have both eyes? Did he carry a notable weapon? Tell me what you know about him.”

It seemed a bit late to ask. Also, she had asked the Red Baron what she knew about Iscario already. But seeing the backs of the marching army of Caldera Industries without their Behold to lead them yet gave her some time to talk.

Knalzark had yet to leave the portal, which was why Frost was still here so she could close it. She imagined Knalzark would have some parting words for her, although her time was quite limited.

If he didn’t come out in the next five minutes, then she’d have to leave without a word.

“… Powerful.” A croak came from the Red Baron. “I considered him an appropriate ‘King’ to serve.”

“Has that changed?”

“No. Since years ago… nothing has changed.”

Years ago, huh.

Those words alone told Frost everything she needed to know. The Red Baron hadn’t personally seen Iscario for over a year, if not years. Agonized Messengers were sent as envoys to exchange words between him and Iscario.

But still, the Red Baron recognized the Nephilim as someone of vast strength. It was difficult to gauge how strong he was in comparison to Frost. While the Red Baron acknowledged his strength, most of his knowledge came from the pre-Paradise Lost Iscario who led Puritas’ wars. He was a Star of the Nexus at the time which accounted for his immense strength. But the extent of it was undoubtedly hidden behind the obscuration of being a Blessed.

That is to say that no one was able to see his stats.

Iscario used information against me. I should stay alert for what I can’t see.

She knocked on the Red Baron’s otherworldly steel frame again to silence him. It was done perfectly in time with the arrival of Knalzark.

“Amalgam. A word?” Knalzark’s voice thundered

She saw pebbles sifting unnaturally towards the portal and the ground shaking seconds into the future, which was how she knew he had arrived.

“Go ahead.”

Frost was nowhere near Snap or the others as to minimize the damage they would passively take from Knalzark.

Still, she couldn’t be too careful and had left them with Healing-infused Unlying Tablet, just in case. Surrounding her were the same bleeding monoliths. Now that she had a closer look, they were certainly inspired by Uriel’s Tablet of Bleeding Truths.

“I wished to ask you a question before you left. I know you’re short on time, so I’ll make this as short as possible.”

It must be important if Knalzark himself is asking this. The guy doesn’t look like the kind of person to rely on someone. Is he going to ask me permission? If so, for what?

Frost had said this before – but she was good at reading people, more so now than ever. But Beholders were as enigmatic as she remembered. Trying to read the mind of a Beholder was like trying to discern the emotion from a rock that happened to look like a face.

“Can Beholders change?”

The question took her aback. She didn’t visually show this as a way of keeping face, since Knalzark considered Frost a supreme being above the Arbiter.

I didn’t expect that. I wonder what’s gotten into him. Kalzark doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who’d show weakness. But that’s just my presumptions getting in the way. I didn’t know he could be like this.

“Why are you asking me this now?” She firmly asked.

“I felt like it was appropriate. Respectively speaking, the possibility of losing your grace, the Amalgam, is never zero. Things break in the palm of my hands. It would be nice to fix things once and a while.”

It didn’t seem like Knalzark was embarrassed. Far from it. Knalzark showed humility by admitting his discontent with himself, but he did not outrightly say what the problem was. He was a strange man that Frost half-admired solely because she was envious of his impressive build.

But this wasn’t the first time she had seen glimpses of sadness from him.

Right. ‘Things break in the palm of my hands.’ Carpalis and Galia recognize that the Gifts of the Stars are poisoning the Beholders. Knalzark isn’t any different.

“Fix things, you say… Are you unhappy because you destroy the things you touch?”

“Remarkably so. You’ve been changing rapidly Amalgam. Despite that, you’re still the same if not better. A Beholder can only degrade as time passes on. Nex slows down our detachment from oneself… and you are a person who is capable of changing that. So I ask of you, Beholder to Archetype, is it possible for a Beholder to change?”

A simple ‘yes’ was all Knalzark needed, even if it was a lie. But Frost was not a liar. If she said yes without thinking it through, then it would be like telling a dying person that “everything will be alright.”

Truthfully, Frost didn’t know how much a Beholder could change. They were strangled by the chains of their Gifts. It rotted them from the inside out. Frost only knew of how much Carpalis’ gift made her suffer, and even that was but a mere insignificant fraction of the truth of Carpalis’ torture.

And even now there was no real way of helping Carpalis. Not even symptomatically.

But still, I want to find a way. So I’ll tell him what I believe, rather than what’s the truth.

“It’s possible. If people can have their wishes come true… then why are Beholders different?”

Knalzark’s face lit up. The stoic man barely changed from his serious facial expression. Frost didn’t think her answer was anything special, but for reason, the Beholder took her words to heart.

“Hahaha.” He laughed heartily, each heave of his chest causing the world to shake. “What makes us different? You’re… An Archetype must see things differently then.”

Ah. It’s because I consider him the same as everyone else. Right. A Beholder’s existence must be… Yeah. It must be a lonely existence, huh.

“Hah! Forgive me for delaying you!”

There was a silver lining to this after all. Frost half-expected to receive a Beholder Skill thanks to this. But if it was as easy as acting as a Beholder’s therapist then it would feel disappointing.

That being said, Frost returned to Snap’s back. Knalzark prepared for a grand spectacle that would no doubt act as a beacon to distract their enemies. Using this, Frost planned to weave straight towards the light without alerting them.

* * *

The vibrant blue accretion disk of Knalzark’s black hole caught the attention of the Impuritas. It rivalled the light that emanated from Primus Ramus, allowing Snap to soar through the air undetected.

A surprising amount of Impuritas were stationed in the north. Catacombs containing thousands of Undead Memento Mori arose at the command of Knightmares, Ankous and similar commanding beings. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary so far as they approached what appeared to be the distant walls of Primus Ramus.

The light was so bright that it was impossible to tell what resided in the center of it all.

A ruined city. Just like Paradise. It’ll look like a ruin. But what’s this feeling I’m getting?

It irked her. That light was familiar to her. It wasn’t a psychological phenomenon like nostalgia or déjà vu. Rather, there was a physical presence to the light that gave her goosebumps. Her tail reacted to it. Her soft feathers became bristly like the hairs of a frightened cat.

Cer’s ears and tail were not any different as Frost, Cer, the Hired Arm and Snap stared at the blue light.

“There’s no more Impuritas past this mark. Are not allowed here? Or is there something we’re not seeing?” Frost found it suspicious. But the fact that they had no other direction to head towards meant that they could only move forward.

They passed by the hole-ridden walls that marked the territory of Primus Ramus. It was built several kilometers away from the Capital city itself. Villages and small towns, roads, rivers, forests, etc unraveled beneath them.

Everything looked normal, but Cer made a face that said: “Something wrong.”

Their hunch was confirmed as the distant estates disappeared. They dove into an ethereal sky of pure light blue. The grassy plains that ran parallel with the skies were littered sparsely with blue flowers. These were blue dahlias, and they seemingly faded and came into existence like ghosts.

“Where… are we now? Frost – What’s this place? The light?” Cer’s five senses were overloaded as the Hired Arm carried her weapon in preparation for an attack.

Frost on the other hand was left wide-eyed at the world that unfolded before them.

“I think… We’re inside of a Corrupted Zone. But that doesn’t make any sense. Clearly, this place isn’t isolated from the rest of the world. We can see Knalzark’s black hole from here, and I can still talk to Jury. We can see what’s happening outside!”

Frost finally realized what the sensation was when she looked up into the skies, seeing the golden light of a certain object.

//////// ////////

“A Gensis Stone! That light – that means this place – It’s someone’s State of Mind! It’s like a Corrupted Zone!”

It should have been obvious from the start. Genesis Stones were capable of creating miracles, after all.

“This smell…” Cer’s heart dropped. She seemed to recognize this place.

Blue lightning descended from the smoking skies that twisted towards the light of the Genesis Stone. The wuthering storm heaved Snap like a mere kite, causing them to rapidly descend to regain their bearings.

The lightning strikes left craters larger than tens of meters wide, only to disappear seconds later. The entire plains were like a canvas constantly being painted over by blue dahlias, craters, homes, and dark silhouettes.

It was like the video reel of someone’s fading memories.

Suddenly, an upside-down bough grew from the light of the Genesis Stone. It was light blue like nearly everything in this moonless, starless world. But the strangest thing about it was that it was growing at an alarming rate.

In mere seconds, what was just a simple bough grew into a tree. Then, that tree grew to an incredible size. Thousands, if not millions of branches expanded from the upside-down tree.

At the speed and tight spread they were travelling – it would not be an exaggeration to call them bullets.

“SNAAAAAP! WE’RE GOING TO HEAD UP! LISTEN TO EVERY WORD I TELL YOU!” Frost roared at the top of her lungs.

Now that Snap had inadvertently been caught in this, it was best to keep them as close as possible rather than to order it to escape on its own. Frost banished her De Jure with bared fangs and took immediate aim.

“Cer! My Hired Arm! I’m going to tell you exactly where to shoot! Do not let those branches hit us!”

The lack of Risk Classification made things even more dire. This paired with the fact that Iscario and other potentially powerful beings were stationed here meant that one mistake could cost them.

“Snap! Head towards the light! We’ll use the trunk as a path!”

Just as Frost said this, an anguished cry called out from somewhere beyond the smoke.

“Mom…? How… She’s already been…?

Cer, who hadn’t heard the voice of her mother for over 30 years, stared at the light. No matter how much it burned, and no matter how harsh the wind was against her eyes, she could not bring herself to blink as though she would lose sight of her mother.

Indeed. That very same blue light, these silhouettes, these flowers – they were all from the fathoms of her own mother. Despite the failures of the Maestros of Flesh, the Towers, and the Red Baron –

– The Memento Mori had succeeded in creating their Dirge.