syringe

Special 5. A Moon's Day Off

What does a Moon do on their day off?

Do they hibernate until their next deployment? Are they stored inside of amniotic fluids like the living nervous systems of CogitO’s Mediators? Or do they enter a state of eternal meditation?

Moons were the strongest entities third to the Corrupted and the Beholders. Celestial Warriors, Divine Beings, Bulwark of the Nexus – these were some of the names that were given to the Moons.

As conquerors of the Corrupted, one had to imagine t...

876. Remember Me (Arc 8 Epilogue Finale)

The Tear Retrievers ripped through the bogs of Grandis. The celebrations had to wait for those who ventured into hell to recover the tears of the innocent. Cara’s team worked tirelessly for weeks following the war.

There was no glory to be had in an unfinished job. So long as there were tears then their job was not over. Cara’s conviction was shared amongst the ex-Scarlet Logic Dawn Collection Team members.

It was more than just a way to make ends meet. Their job was a method ...

875. The Season of Love

It had been days since Frost and Jury married.

By now the couple had left the Nexus for their honeymoon. But not without taking Nav to a secret place in Grandis.

Snap was supposed to follow them, but they had a different plan in mind.

“Would you like a grape, or cheese? Hehe… don’t choke.” Carpalis spoke tenderly to a recovering Evergreen.

Snap scaled the heights of Carpal Tower and recorded the two through one of its windows. Evergreen was still physically fat...

874. Of Oaths and Promises

“Ahh!? Snap!”

Ilya exclaimed, awed by the giant spider whose camera shuddered with surprise.

“Hello~! How are you~!”

“Bzzt!”

“Amazing… It feels like I can understand you! Are you… looking for something to eat? Or are you here to ask for something?”

It was painfully obvious that Ilya didn’t know how to interact with anyone. A week had passed, but this was the second time she was back in the Floor of Amalgamation. This time, her stay was perma...

873. Longing For The Future (Arc 8 Epilogue Beginning)

“I’m not the biggest believer in true love.”

Snap panned the camera to shoot a close-up of Cer minutes after Frost and Jury sealed their vows. She sat at the foot of a hill overlooking the celebration with a cathartic look.

“About a million ways it can go wrong. Hah. I wonder if mom and that bastard Typhoon were ever in love in the first place. Mom passed the baton over to Frost. Who would’ve guessed that the weird human we had to recover would take us in as her own.”<...

872. You Are My Star - The Vows of Eternal Love

Snap peered through the windows of the estate. Frost and Jury exited their separate rooms and stared at each other down the hall. A small ensemble escorted them hand in hand. Emotions burst in their eyes like fireworks as they stood in front of each other, utterly captivated by the other’s beauty like they had fallen in love all over again for the millionth time.

“It’s embarrassing if you stare that hard.” Jury giggled.

“How do you think I feel?” Frost laughed, taking ...

871. Our Special Day

The world goes on regardless of what happens.

Time marched onwards as it always had. The lives lost, the places destroyed, and the visions of apocalyptic events were always temporary. But life had the capacity to remember. What was gone would remain in memory. While the world was indifferent to these great events, the lasting impact would be felt by generations to come.

It was up to the people of today to learn from those losses, so that it may never happen to the people of the fu...

870. The Arrival of A Flower That Must Exist

The funeral ended as quickly as it began. Moons, Healers, the Archetypes and familiar faces such as Stella, Ignis, Aster, Revy who were denizens of the Floor of Amalgamation gave their condolences to the red-haired Healers.

“Sanguine Doves. Frost better give them a good name. Scarlet Healer and Blood Angels are already taken. She better not choose harmacist.” Cer groaned to herself.

Her tail gently brushed against the flowers. The flower patch she sat on was a family of colorf...

869. Rest Well My Precious Moons

Where the Ateliers buried their own out of obligation and tradition, the Nexus mourned the fallen Moons and Aspiring Moons out of genuine grief.

The Floor of Amalgamation was silent. News of the deceased Moons marred what should have been smiles as the Moons, Aspiring Moons and the Amalgam’s group returned to the Floor of Amalgamation.

Hundreds of Healers crowded the entrance with worried eyes. A wave of relief washed over them when they saw the faces of friends walking through ...

868. Goodbye, Gerina Aztra - The Empress of The Bellum Empire

Gerina finished delivering her speech.

The lump in her chest disappeared after a long, winding sigh. She wobbled on her feet as the strength to stand nearly left her.

Thankfully, a hand caught hers just before she could collapse.

“Your fatigue has finally caught up with you.” Anpu commented, lifting her back to her feet.

“Fatigue isn’t going to stop me. I need to start delegating while the sun is out. The nights by the coast are harsh. Cold winds are brought do...

867. Liberation of Grandis

No one expected to liberate Grandis.

The remark Galia made of liberating it was supposed to be no more than a veil of false hope to boost morale. The Beholders believed this to be the case, as did many Moons and Stars. It was an ambitious prospect, but it was never their primary goal.

Nothing past the lands of the Bellum Empire was supposed to be freed from the corrosion that ate Grandis from the inside out. Deeply entrenched monsters, the Impuritas presence, and the practiced bar...

866. The Child Who Saved The World

Ilya stood in the open field like a deer in headlights. Her eyes bulged with disbelief as she stared back at the carried Frost. Tiny hands gripped onto the hems of the coat, her parted lips struggling to piece her words.

Frost asked Jury to stop moving. She didn’t want to startle the girl who had not yet come to terms with her new environment. Isolation tended to eat away at people. This paired with Ilya being used by the brother who was supposed to be there for her made it hard for h...

865. A Million Roses And Only One Ilya

Ilya, the daughter of Michaela – The Princess of Paradise lived a life that didn’t know what laid beyond the pale walls of her palace. She would hear the commotion and the news of her Kingdom and the wider world carried by the wind.

When night fell, she’d picture them in her dreams as she slept alone on a bed far too large for a single child of her age. Stuffed plushies embalmed with gold and pillows too frilly to be comfortable were the only presence to keep her company at night....

864. Virtues of Paradise

Grandis would never be the same.

The morning sun marked the beginning of a new dawn of a Region that had been famished and torn apart by countless wars. What occurred here was no different from the many exchanges in the past.

The bloodshed was the same. Mountains had crumbled and reformed in the wake of extraordinary power. Millions of people were displaced, and countless would be devoured or slaughtered by the monsters of Grandis. The rest would die of starvation or disease.

863. The Cer As We Know It

Frost slumped backwards, lying flat against the sand as Cer stood over her. Her face was tense with restrained emotion, and her eyes shimmered as the last of the blue petals faded from the great tree beneath them.

“No one will be able to bother mom again. Can I believe that Frost? Am I allowed to believe that no one can mess with her sleep again?”

“It’ll be impossible. Her soul… it’s gone.” Frost tried to reveal this as slowly as she could.

Cer took it better t...

862. The Departure of A Flower That Cannot Exist

Frost knew that Lethe was a victim of circumstance.

However, she also looked at it from an objective standpoint, and subjectively with how Ber was treated. Ber was barely an afterthought, then again, whose fault was it in the first place?

It was a complicated mess.

But the tears that formed in the corner of Lethe’s eyes were real. The small beads of regret were all Frost needed to see to know that what she did was not out of malice.

Slowly, her tail reached up and wr...

861. Frost And The Blue Dahlia

Reality shifted to breathtaking field of blue dahlias and star-shaped flowers. The gust of petals that had snatched Frost from Jury’s hands gracefully sat her down beneath a broad, blue-leafed tree.

Her back pressed against the strangely soft bark. Blue petals gently snowed onto her as she wondered where she was. Her senses were overloaded with wonder. From the floral scent to the beauty of the cliffside view, and the moon that just barely remained above the horizon – It brought Fro...

860. A Kiss To Remember

It was over.

Nothing compared to the relief of this one small phrase. Its weight was a stern reminder of what was at stake. No one expected to lose, but at the same time, achieving victory felt like a dream.

Nav relayed everything that had happened during the war to Frost in detail. It was an overwhelming victory on all fronts, but it came at a cost. Battlefields were littered with the remains of friends and foes. Celebrations were held off until the first rays of sunlight finally...

859. Tying Loose Ends

Ara had regained consciousness at some point.

But thanks to her experiences in S7, she knew how to approach the situation. Playing dead was one of the first lessons she had learned, and she used it to stab Beethoven. The attack was hardly effective, but he was not prepared for the follow up.

“Get the fuck away from me!”

A giant guitar shaped like a mallet appeared in the air, and she swung it to hammer the bone fragment deeper into his body. The impact threw Beethoven me...

858. Beethoven, The Teacher and Ara

“Bzzt. The Curse of the Descent is non-binding to Ara. Bzzt. Neither are our instruments reacting. Bzzt. It must be related to the Red Wing’s orders. Bzzt.”

Beethoven stood above the battered body of Ara’s self-proclaimed grandmother. A Greatmage of her caliber was formidable and had managed to stall Beethoven for hours, but it was ultimately a losing battle.

A Maestro of his caliber could not be outdone by a lowly Greatmage. Needles made of bones peeled from his Instrumen...

857. Cer - The Awakened Star

It was not just Cer who had finished from a grueling battle.

Now that she had a closer look at the other people who roamed across the deck, she noticed that their clothing was in tatters. Wheelbarrows carrying limbs were brought into giant, smoking incinerators.

Cer had thought that was the engine… no, it was the engine.

It required biomass to sustain the engine that ran this ship.

“Just what is this ship?”

“The Iron Voyager. I’m not surprised that it�...

856. A Vessel of Pure Lust

Light filled her vision again.

Pink skies greeted her as her eyes fluttered open. Weakness locked her body in place as she found herself laying on a metal deck that stretched over kilometers on all sides.

A vessel, although calling it this did not properly illustrate just how large it was. It barely rocked on the sea.

Was I… brought on board a ship?

Massive, threatening structures littered the deck. They were weapon systems. Each was equipped with over 30 ca...

855. The Cer Hatches From The Egg

White foam and a transparent ocean were the last things Cer saw before her world turned dark. The impact of crashing into the ocean had knocked her unconscious.

It was the speed, she thought. Unconsciousness for Cer was different from how others experienced it. Anytime she fell asleep she would find herself suspended in a world of darkness.

Her curled-up form rocked in the invisible medium like driftwood.

I’m here again. My one and only escape. I should’ve taken my s...