599. The Bird of Paradise

599. The Bird of Paradise

The last fifteen minutes was displayed on Frost’s Interrogating Clock. The backwards countdown had subsided entirely as the hour hand ominously hovered over twelve. Every passing second brought her closer to a time when Paradise once flourished.

Shadowy specters of the past filled the streets. Bullets created holes that swallowed their bodies as Frost and Dark Memoria fought with nothing but their guns.

All forms of magic were ineffective in this environment.

[Unlying Tablet], [Prejudice], [Biased Verdict], and even the one thousand golden eyes summoned by [Rightful Ignorance] were frozen and left as grey blobs in the sky.

Frost was at a heavy disadvantage. Not only was Dark Memoria able to shoot projectiles, but she was also able to conjure crystal bullets from her pale magical circles. One circle turned to six as Frost faced a heavy onslaught of bullets.

The pristine buildings of Paradise were stuck by the relentless barrage as Frost used them as cover and to initiate a counterattack. Heavy dust and frozen rubble allowed Frost to close the distance before Dark Memoria could react.

A heavy right swing threw Dark Memoria backwards as she flung into various buildings. Frost instantly threw herself aside, and in the next moment, a hail of bullets blasted through, freezing precisely where she once stood.

“What’s the point of rewinding time if neither of us are going to have a moment to investigate it!?”

Frost’s demand was met with her blindly firing through the fog of war. Her flames and the debris served as a way to sever their precognitive abilities as they both engaged in ranged combat from hazy clouds.

The clouds parted for only a split second after each shot, meaning they both had to move and shoot on the fly as they maintained exactly twenty meters of distance.

“My reasons are not yours to know! Besides, what makes you believe that you can defeat me; a God of Cognition!?”

“I have my own ways! For now, I just have to outlast you!”

The longer the fight went on, the more destabilized Dark Memoria’s form became. It was unclear what the reason was, but the closer they reached midnight, the less of her form became tangible.

Dark shadows shivered from her body like a raging flame. What was supposed to be Galia was steadily becoming something else.

If only I could see her HP, then I’d be able to figure something out. All I can do is survive until the ‘wound’ makes itself clear… Nav… I hope you’re still ok –!?

A hand emerged from the fog, grasping onto Frost’s face. It clasped onto her with an iron grip that her hands failed to break off. Just as she was about to remove her glove in an attempt to ‘devour’ it, Dark Memoria branded her eyes into Frost’s and uttered:

“You give and take. Your form is something so immeasurably special that many can’t help but to want to take a slice for themselves. To willingly bring yourself here –”

The air cracked around her.

She was hurled from one end of the inner city to the other.

Her body soared through the air like a bullet, crashing into dozens of buildings before eventually colliding with the wall.

HP : 15,000,000 | 15,500,000

Were it not for her immense HP pool then she would have suffered catastrophic damage. 500,000 HP was nothing to scoff at. But the fact that her body was still entirely intact was a testament to her vitality.

The shadowy specter followed closely, and Frost just managed to break herself free from the wall. A heavy knee struck precisely where her head was. A great crack ran through the entire length of the wall.

“To expose yourself to the burdens of the past –!”

Frost’s instincts cried out all at once. She swiftly propelled herself from the wall as Dark Memoria thrust her fist through it like a javelin.

“To willingly shoulder the burden of unfamiliar faces –!”

Frost entered a freefall. [Thermal Propagation] alongside her barrage of bullets allowed her to hasten her descent. However, Dark Memoria had the full leverage of the wall. Her knees bent at a dangerously sharp angle as she stood on the shattered surface of the wall as if unaffected by gravity.

“Why do you stubbornly latch onto the roots of your attachment!?”

Steam rose from the walls. A fifty-meter crater spanning the entire wall was left behind in the process of crumbling as she launched herself to catch up to Frost, just in time to smash her straight into the earth.

“End this fruitless endeavor! You of all people must never attach yourself to others!”

Her shout drowned the earth-shattering thud of their impact. She pinned Frost down, straddling her waist as a hand clutched the throat of the very same person she wished to save.

A dark shadow hid Frost’s face, her hair shielding her eyes. De Jure was just out of reach from Frost’s now. Steam rose from her back as she stared up to see a starless night, filled only by the light of Paradise and the eyes of this entity that spoke like it knew her.

“You should’ve just stayed in the Nexus! To live a normal life! You didn’t have to get involved! Not this time. Not again…”

“Who… told you that?”

Frost clenched her teeth. A shaky hand clasped onto the Aberration’s wrist, her nails digging deeply into its shadowy shell.

“Who told you to decide what’s the best for me? If you really cared… if you really wanted things to be like that…”

Suddenly, the shell of the shadow broke, revealing a dark flame that was instantly consumed by Frost’s touch. However, Dark Memoria was not fazed by this. Rather, her eyes became sorrowful as if overcome with regret.

“Then why weren’t you there from the start?”

Frost asked, lifting her body to properly meet with Dark Memoria’s eyes.

“Why did I have to go through all of this? When I came into this world that’s what I wanted. I was looking forward to living a life only seen and read in fantasy novels! But it turned into this hell!”

“I can only manifest under specific circumstances. The Nexus is a place far away. Frost. Because that is how you feel, there is still a chance for you to rest on this body. For you to close your eyes and let us harrow this hell.”

The offer to close her eyes and be freed from the horrors of Elysia would alleviate so much pain. What was supposed to be tempting, however, only further bellowed the flames in her heart as her fist curled. Her nails dug into her palms, drawing blood.

It was the only thing in this timeless world that flowed aside from themselves.

“Don’t… you dare... come into my life telling me that you could’ve done this, or that for me when you’ve done nothing but try to hamper me!”

Frost struck it with her bare hand, cracking the shadowy faceplate.

It was not devoured, much to her surprise.

But it didn’t stop her from striking Dark Memoria again.

“Does the past mean anything to you!? All of it made me into who and what I am!”

And again.

“The friends I’ve made!”

Again.

“The people I’ve let down!”

Fragments of the shell shattered, revealing the dark, tender skin of a familiar face underneath. Shard after shard, fragment after fragment, more and more of the face was uncovered until a pair of teary, golden eyes stared back at her through the broken façade.

The hatred Frost felt disappeared all of sudden. It was truly like Jury’s eyes. So much so that she nearly lost the drive to fight back. Her hands clutched onto the collar of the entity as she brought her face close, staring up at this sorrowful thing.

“How can I forget all of it!? It’s a part of me as you said! But unlike you, it’s not what defines me! Unlike you, I don’t have an obsession to it! I’ve killed so many, but I’m doing everything I can, so it won’t ever repeat! And unlike you, I know there’s more ways than one to make amends! Isn’t it enough!?”

Frost clasped onto her face, hoping that she would understand her cries. But all that stared back were eyes of unchanging indifference, like they couldn’t understand a word from Frost’s mouth.

“You’re an Elysia born from that trauma of the cycles! You were trapped in those loops! You’re not there anymore. And I’m here right now. So why are you still clinging onto it?”

Dark Memoria’s eyes fell down to herself. The shards that remained fully broke off, revealing an Elysia with black and white hair; an Elysia that had been corroded by the passage of misery due to her obsession in changing the past but to no avail.

“You turned it onto me now. I don’t understand. Why are you so inclined to look at others when you should be looking at yourself?”

The overwhelming voice sounded just like Jury’s now.

Dark Memoria couldn’t understand how or why Frost showed pity towards her.

Frost was certainly in pain, but her eyes rarely fell onto herself. It was something Dark Memoria saw as her flaw, but for some reason, she could not bring herself to say it out loud.

“Cycles. A long life. The future you face is all tantamount. You finally left the Nexus after I sensed the Nex of a broken Sinder. My fear is that it will happen again. Only I know the misery that comes with attachment. To hold the weight of the world on your shoulders when you’re just one person.”

Dark Memoria’s body was protected by the Invulnerability Condition, meaning it was impossible to injure her true form. Frost could not read the status from her just yet, as she was still The One Who Will Betray.

The entity’s hands then moved to Frost’s face. Rather than seeking to injure Frost, they felt her cheeks and brushed the hair away, revealing matching eyes.

“It is the same thing that plagues me. I’m the cognizant manifestation of this part of ‘Elysia’. But I am equally Elysia, for I carry the memories and emotions she felt so long ago. I’m tired. I’m resentful. The cycles are over. But I can’t help but feel like you’re already on one, seeing that you’ve already broken.”

There was only one minute left to midnight. Frost understood why this Aberration felt this way, but also knew that she had only seen the tip of the iceberg. It was strange to sit here and talk to her like this after fighting for their lives.

Frost could not see the intentions in her heart. But she knew that this Aberration was not inherently evil. Otherwise, she would not have spoken to her like this.

Ultimately, it felt like Dark Memoria was like this because she didn’t want another person to experience what she had gone through. But Frost was already so far in that stopping now was no longer an option.

Furthermore, Dark Memoria’s ideology was something she could not accept either.

“… You’re wrong.” Frost uttered. “I’m not alone in this. People may have turned against you in the past, but no one will turn their backs towards me. Even at my lowest they helped me come back. I don’t want to be your enemy.”

Frost admitted.

Ten seconds to midnight.

Dark Memoria’s eyes widened in response. But they were soon sealed shut as a dark expression crept onto her face. A hideous, black tail covered in black and white fur sprouted from her back.

The tip was shaped like an hourglass. Suddenly, it began to spin uncontrollably like a gyroscope moments before color returned to the world. And in that instant –

“But I have to be yours. For our sake. So that the same mistake can’t be made again.”

– Every bullet that was ever fired assaulted the city of Paradise, leveling entire districts in the blink of an eye. Dark Memoria’s figure became transparent as the weight disappeared from Frost’s body.

Suddenly, the apparitions of the past assumed a solid form as if they were no longer specters. Some even stopped by to stare down at Frost, wondering how or where she came from.

But their words were cut short. Because before a single sentence could finish forming –

– A blinding light was fired into the sky. It originated from the center of Paradise, cleaving through the rooves and spires of the palace. Night turned into day in an instant, blinding all with a light that could only be described as holy.

“You said that you have people who can held you shoulder the burden.”

“Unfortunately for you, your most vital helper can no longer reach you.”

“To think that even Lailah has been reborn.”

Ironically, an unholy chill ran down Frost’s spine as she threw herself onto her feet, wielding her gun as she allowed her eyes to readjust to the light.

And when they finally did, her heart immediately stopped beating.

Because what stood above the palace, standing at a towering two kilometers tall was an entity that could only be described as a bird with twelve wings.

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“… No way… That’s… that’s the Icon of Judgement…?”

No one could hear her voice, for her voice could not be heard. All forms of sound were muted by absolute silence in the presence of the entity. Mouths gaped wide, but no screams left them.

A silent hysteria took over Paradise. Countless more stared up at the being, many prostrating in the streets as if a deity had descended from the heavens.

Status could not be used. Nothing. Not even her own stats could be accessed. Her link to Nav and the Nexus were completely severed, leaving Frost completely alone in the face of an insurmountable foe as her body began to grow heavy.

It was then when she realized that the people were not prostrating.

They were being crushed by the weight of their own sins.