502. Lull-A-Goodbye

502. Lull-A-Goodbye

The patters of their footsteps eventually transitioned to the sound of thumping metal. The ground turned to a dull grey as they approached the passive entity. Frost stowed away the Lantern as she ordered Azure to leave her be. Her form disappeared following a respectful bow, leaving only Frost to deal with the Corrupted.

This resonates with you?

She mentally asked.

“I don’t understand it myself.” Nav was unable to describe what she felt, the cogs within her spinning in a manner that left her dumbfounded. “It is the first chapter in the Book of Dreaming Mortality. Can you describe what you are seeing?”

Frost relayed everything she could. The Corrupted in question was split into two parts. The first was a figure resembling a woman who was attached to the base of a pale tree. The tree in question had little leaves and was curved into arch that hung overhead where a small, glimmer of light dangled.

Wire-like vines extended from the bark and dug into her limbs, pumping strange fluids into her body.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The colors of her eyes were indescribable, her hair long and combed flawlessly. She wore a dress made of light and in her hands as she sat on her knees was a children’s book.

The Cradle

AFFINITY : Desire

LEVEL : 50

ORIGIN : Trauma

HP : 30,000

ATT : 150

MAG ATT : 150

ATT DEF : 100

MAG DEF : 100

MP : 10,000

RESIST : 100

AGI : 5

The other figure was a child that wore the exact same face as Frost’s. It was uncanny. The child wore innocent, crimson eyes that absorbed the dark world around them, smiling happily at the woman whose lips tenderly curled upwards.

The Child

AFFINITY : Desire

LEVEL : 0

ORIGIN : Folklore

HP : 300

ATT : 0

MAG ATT : 0

ATT DEF : 0

MAG DEF : 0

MP : 0

RESIST : 0

AGI : 10

She also wore a similar dress to the ethereal figure. They stood twenty meters apart, separated by darkness. Suddenly, The Cradle’s lips parted, and she began reading from the children’s book.

Two voices spoke. The first belonged to The Cradle and the second to The Child. Both voices carried the same baleful voice as most Corrupted. It turned what seemed to be a harmless Corrupted into something sinister.

Frost was complacent. A Hailstorm Corrupted posed little threat to her. Main Sequence Corrupted carried clues to the past. She rationalized that it would be a waste to kill it so quickly.

Suddenly, The Child gloated, waving her hands in the air as the dome of darkness saw golden images drawn along the skies. They were like constellations. Frost watched everything unfold a safe distance away. The world soon transformed into a fairytale-like landscape, where a chocolate castle sat at the top of a giant strawberry cupcake.

“They’re conversing. It sounds like it. But at the same time they’re both absorbed in their own thoughts.” Frost couldn’t quite describe it. The two seemed to interact but also not quite. “Nav. The Conditions.”

“… I’m perplexed…”

“Nav?”

“My lungs don’t need air. Yet I feel like I’m aspirating. This tightness in my chest. This Corrupted – I believe it may be linked to me in some way.” Nav adamantly claimed, and with what they knew of the past it was easy to see why.

“When you were Lailah, right?” Frost uttered, watching The Child happily roam the candied fields, drawing the scenery that was sung to her by the woman.

Suddenly, wires shot from the tree, latching onto the limbs of the child. Something was pumped into her in several wires. In the others, something was extracted. Her eyes began to droop as she wandered towards exactly 10 meters in front of The Cradle before she laid herself on the ground.

“Indeed. And Frost. Please don’t be alarmed –”

“I know.” She answered with curled fists. “That child is supposed to be me. I don’t remember any of this either. Couldn’t this also be the Star Child?”

“The Star Child also wonders. She draws equations and question marks. She’s with me now, sharing a cup of tea with the Archivist.”

The Child dozed off into a long sleep, receiving the Sleeping Condition as the illusions disappeared and were quickly replaced by The Cradle.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Nav finally relayed the Conditions. She endlessly questioned the sensations she felt, and the memories that trickled into her head as her chest continued to ache.

“I’ve never seen so many variations before. What kind of complex Corrupted is this?” Frost wondered if there was more to it, because despite all of this, defeating the Corrupted was straight forward.

She quite literally had to do nothing to make The Cradle vulnerable. If she wanted to defeat Lull-A-Goodbye itself, then she’d have to wait three times as long, which was odd to her.