610. The Twelfth Apostle

610. The Twelfth Apostle

Lailah, the Eleventh Apostle; a secondary Corrupted born from the Icon of Judgement possessed unbelievable power. Stat-wise, it was stronger than the Crowned. Gaining even a fraction of its strength would elevate Frost’s power to possibly rival a Beholder.

The problem was that she would be at a severe disadvantage. She did not forget her battle with the Red Herring whose speed exceeded her own. The Eleventh Apostle boasted 50 AGI over hers.

This effectively made her [Fine Line] Passive Skill a debuff. All attacks dealt to her would be doubled if their AGI exceeded hers. The higher their AGI was, the larger their own window of opportunity became.

Additionally, the only way she could even begin to harm it was to strike it with her bare fists, or to sink her teeth into it.

Frost dashed through the ruins, walking on the surface of the sea of blood. If she stopped for even a second, then she’d be swallowed by it. Her attention was split between the Apostle and the Markers.

Thankfully for now, the Apostle ignored her. It didn’t even cast a glance in her direction. All it sought was to protect the entrance of the Garden from all intruders. Regrettably, it was not something Frost could fight head on if at all.

Not without manifesting more powerful Corrupted.

She was not tempted to test if she could survive a strike from its spear.

So she focused on the only thing she could.

“Hey! What are the chances of me surviving a hit from that!?”

“Is that a Condition or are you telling me that because you know it!?”

“You said they’d immune to Immolation Stacks, not that they’d be protected!”

The prompt carried absolute certainty of this fact. Frost had never questioned the legitimacy of a Condition before, never mind how Nav and this Voice was able to consolidate it into straightforward rules. She was always aware that it was related to her Blessing of the Amalgam, and its ability to draw hidden information from the Corrupted.

But if that was the case, then couldn’t Frost just do it herself?

The fact remained that she needed someone or something to interpret it for her.

This was the essence of the ‘Blessing’ as Frost knew it.

Frost clambered onto the top of a 20-meter Marker. She needed to find exactly what was killing the Innocents so quickly. It hadn’t even been ten minutes and she had lost over 200.

Her omniscience allowed her to all.

But this was not enough.

A powerful gust swept through one of the streets. Dozens of Innocents were devoured by something invisible. Four were impaled by a twisted, black rod. It skewered them as their bodies were flung across the length of the street. Their bodies were sucked into the spear like they were caught on a lathe.

The spear lacked golden fruit unlike the ones that came before it.

The spear disappeared behind the ruins of a watchtower, as though it had entered a different plain of existence. A second later, it reappeared into a different street, impaling the panicked Innocents who tried to flee but were quickly struck down.

It appeared from above, impaling them from the head down as it sank into the sea, moments before appearing from the side of another Innocent, striking them like a giant harpoon before disappearing again.

Frost honed her senses. Something was moving through the fabric of space.

“[Non-Euclidian Interpretation].”

Portals that connected spaces emerged. Frost could barely wrap her mind around how the portals formed, because they were not moving from one reality to another. Rather, it was connecting two points of reality together like a shortcut.

Frost gargled and spat out contents of her stomach. The sight disorientated her to the point where she nearly lost balance, as she didn’t even know where she currently was in space.

Between each shortcut was a subspace where time seemingly froze, and within she felt a presence that rivalled that of the Icon of Judgement.

Warp

The first thing that came to mind was Galia’s Warped Stone. Frost had always wondered what the ‘Warped’ part of if it meant, and now she realized that it was derived from an ability.

Much like how Gifts of Stars were in the old world; items carrying the properties of beings beyond comprehension.

“Angels are kind of like Stars in a way, huh. Next thing to figure out is why my Innocents are being targeted over me!”

She claimed her 861st apple slice before throwing herself towards the next with a tremendous leap, resulting in a thunderclap. Frost could not afford to keep [Non-Euclidian Interpretation] running due to the immense Mana cost.

The despair of the Innocents was palpable. She felt everything they did as she tried to understand why they were spared by the Icon of Judgement but were targeted by who she believed to be the Twelfth Apostle.

By the time 900 apple slices were devoured, another one hundred Innocents were killed.

“SPLIT UP AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!” Frost ordered, beginning a mass movement that saw countless Innocents break apart from their groups, all for the sake of prolonging their numbers.

She did not see them as tools or disposable soldiers. But frankly speaking, there was absolutely nothing else she could do to preserve their lives. Their Healer-like appearance, as well as her adoration for the Little Frost inside of the Nexus kindled her wrath.

The rate had slowed down considerably.

But it didn’t matter how far away one was from the last. They died all the same, and she had yet to figure out who the final Apostle was.

All that she knew was that the spear matched the color of the tainted wing of the Icon of Judgement.

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

Frost received a warning from out of nowhere. A blinding light radiated from somewhere along the grand highway, hidden behind the ruins over to Frost’s left. She dashed over the collapsed rooftops, leaping high into the air to find the source of the light.

And there, running towards the Eleventh Apostle at more than three kilometers apart, was a girl with white hair and sky-blue, golden eyes. Tears tumbled down her fair cheeks, her feet red with cuts and blood.

Clutched in her hands was the same golden apple from the Advent of Judgement.

And on it was a bite mark too large for a child.

The One Marked by Judgement

The Princess of Puritas

Soul Rank: Green | Affiliation: Nil

LEVEL : 5

ORIGIN : Human

HP : 25

ATT : 10

MAG ATT : 10

ATT DEF : 1

MAG DEF : 1

MP : 250,000

RESIST : 500

AGI : 12

“SHE’S HERE!” Frost cried, throwing herself downwards from the air using [Thermal Propagation]. “VOICE! ALL I HAVE TO DO IS STOP HER, RIGHT!?”

“I wasn’t planning on it! I can keep her unconscious long enough until this blows over!”

A sudden chill ran down Frost’s spine. She could almost hear those bold words. Her voice sunk back into her throat as she was about to ask a question. Something was coming. It began with the chills, then it was foreshadowed by the haunting sound of a trumpet.

Finally, her precognition kicked in.

Her pupils shrunk into tiny dots.

Because she saw nothing but a foreboding darkness just seconds into the future.

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

<> [Trumpet’s Causality] <>

Frost instantly dove into the bloody sea, diving down until the light could no longer penetrate into its depths. In the next instant, a brilliant flash of light illuminated everything in the world.

The light could not be refracted by the blood, revealing a bottomless pit as Frost rushed to resurface, wanting to see just what had arrived.

And there, she saw it.

The flaming great sword of the Eleventh Apostle locked in a clash with an entity that mirrored it. In its pale gauntlets with streaks of pulsating gold was a black spear darker than midnight. The towering beings rocked the world as their feet sank into the brick as though it was made from clay.

Frost could not believe her eyes.

The Twelfth Apostle had made its appearance, and its spear was not directed to Lailah.

Rather, it was pointed down at the fallen Princess, blocked only by Lailah’s flaming blade.

A pair of golden eyes like that of a starved wolf glowed behind its visor. Pale strands of hair tumbled down its back, contrasting the darkness of its left hand that held the spear.

The hand that was charcoal-black, with long claw-like fingers that yearned to carve into the Princess, for it saw her as nothing more than an irresistibly sweet apple.

“The Twelfth Apostle… It was Elysia…?”

The Twelfth Apostle

AFFINITY : Judgement

LEVEL : 350

ORIGIN : Trauma

HP : 800,000,000

ATT : 300,000

MAG ATT : 300,000

ATT DEF : 200,000

MAG DEF : 200,000

MP : 500,000

RESIST : 70,000

AGI : 150

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