syringe

337. Plans for the House

Constructing a place to call home was not as simple as plunging materials into the ground. It was a complex feat that went beyond their scope, leaving them to rely heavily on the instructions of both Nav and the Archivist who had access to the relevant knowledge.

Wood was absolutely going to be the main material of choice. As powerful as they all were, creating concrete and the relevant construction materials was impossible with the tools they had. And even if they did have the tools, i...

336. After Frost Thaws Comes A New Spring

Paradise.

Nothing else came close to describing the Floor of Amalgamation.

There were no wars.

No conflict.

No one to scream.

No one to cry.

No troubled slaves.

No signs of desolate lands.

No tears from a crying father.

No rejected masses who didn’t know what the sky looked like.

No deaths of the innocent.

And no woes from those precious to her.

The warm rays felt so real that she nearly believed they were somewhere nea...

MA: 3. Wolves...!?

Wolves.

Her sworn enemies.

She recalled a distant past where a white wolf had disguised itself as her grandmother. It had long eaten her in that lonely bed, tricked the poor girl and nearly took her life as well.

All she ever did was bring fresh confectionary and bread through the woodlands until that fateful night.

Her memories of the encounter were vague and clouded with missing details. But she was certain that they were real and belonged to her.

Regardless, i...

335. Welcome to the Floor of Amalgamation!

The next time Frost awakened…

“… a blue sky…? The sun…?” Frost whispered, staring up into a pleasant afternoon sky past Jury’s cascading hair.

She heard splashes.

The laughter of the others.

She felt Jury’s embrace tighten as her eyes lovingly locked with hers. It was the perfect way to wake up. And when it felt like Jury would lean down to kiss her –

“O-Ouch – J-Jury –!?”

– Frost was constricted by her tail. Her cheeks were pinc...

334. The Power of the Icon of Judgement

Rematching a Corrupted meant to fight them in their prime. No stats were barred back. To further complicate things, the Corrupted also distorted a major section of the floor, creating a sub-floor which became their Corrupted Zone.

However, many invulnerabilities were removed. Major damage resistance instead replaced it, meaning someone powerful enough could simply trample over the Corrupted without any regard for the Conditions.

Furthermore, materials could be harvested from the C...

333. Wait, We Can Rematch Them!?

The One Thousand Eyed Bird and the Listening Bird were now one within the Floor of Judgement. The process had little to do on her part aside from the intention. The Arbiter touched Frost’s forehead with a hand, and at once, particles of pale-golden light lifted from Frost like a piece of her soul was taken away.

Not a moment later, a black, giant fuzzy ball manifested behind the Arbiter. It was as large as a small car, its feathers ruffling almost playfully. Snap’s ball form immedia...

MA: 2. What Are Skills? What is Reading? I'm Hungry!

Hunger was a foreign concept to an entity that solely lived and breathed combat.

Literally.

There was never a moment when she considered putting slain prey into her mouth. In fact, she never thought of creatures devouring another as ‘eating’. From her combat standpoint, she’d call it ‘reloading’.

“Or is recharging better?” She pondered, her voice echoing under the blue, bioluminescent lights of the glowworms overhead.

The caverns were larger than she anti...

G-Z7: 2. The Descent

The Facility was uncannily spotless.

The lobby room that received all guests, visitors, and employees of ImpulseWorks hadn’t aged a day. The room was large enough to hold roughly a thousand people at once, usually for receiving a mass quantity of workers for the final floor when a Site reaches its maximum size.

Or it was used as a last stand against a Site-wide Corrupted breakout.

A Site’s lobby was as much of a reception as it was a graveyard.

At that point of irr...

332. A More Palatable Mimicry

There was a sudden stalemate between them. With the situation regarding the dwindling number of healers, rescuing one alive had also become of utmost priority. It seemed like they would attack at any moment, but Mimicry did not react like it had done to the past ARU personnel.

Rather, it was as though it were waiting for these specialized ones.

Soon, a dozen of them arrived at the scene, surrounded by a writhing Mimicry as they mentally communicated, trying to figure out the best ...

331. Mimicry

O-Id-090-03. Mimicry. A Corrupted that once shared the same Site as the Little Red Heart and escaped over a decade ago after the A-L7 disaster in H6. Its whereabouts were largely unknown, and it was responsible for numerous innocent lives to become detained, terminated or given extensive doses of Serum A.

But ever since the incident in H5 and its consequential elevation into a ‘Nightmare’, ARU O-Type finally had a lead. It seemed to have been following the trail of something, or hea...

330. Situation of the Nex Megalopolis

Meanwhile, fires spread along the Nex Megalopolis. Rampant pandemonium engulfed populations across all city Sectors. Hysteria spread like wildfire as Ateliers tried to regain control over the situation.

Inflow Direct took care of the City of Clubs which had received the largest number of casualties and damage. Justica Arms extended their reach across the entirety of the City of Hearts, peacekeeping as the 6th Branch Justicers – a Branch’s ultimate unit – were dispersed to deal wit...

329. The Floor of Judgement

The 7th Floor was the Floor of Despair. Surprisingly, this door was unlocked. The Archetype of Despair existed elsewhere in Elysia, their general location left as no more than an afterthought.

The symbolism of the chains was reminiscent of the Chained Theocracy. According to Galia as Frost explained the Affinities, Attributes and Origins of the Corrupted to her and the Arbiter; she figured that they’d fit well with the concept of despair.

Every Atelier seemed to have an Affinity...

328. The Awakened Floor of Civilization

The Upper Sanctums was a straightforward labyrinth sprinkled with the occasional Central Relay or a similar room. There were 11 rooms in total, which matched the total number of Affinities of the Corrupted.

The first was the Floor of Desire.

Secondly, was the Floor of Wrath.

There were no major differences with the Central Relay-like rooms. Everything followed a homogenous pale, marble construction, a boundless ceiling, and reflective floors. The doors leading into the Floor...

327. The Floor of Desire

The great nothing.

That’s what resided within the Floor of Desire.

A black expanse was all it was, and yet there wasn’t a place that felt more claustrophobic. Frost’s instincts warned her of the darkness, and the Alter Frosts were similarly on edge. The Star Child on the other hand didn’t seem to mind this place as she drew all manners of images, symbols, equations; everything one could think of was drawn like the world was her chalkboard.

“Hey, um, isn’t this ju...

MA: 1. A Monster Awakens

//////// < WARNING > ////////

< The Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns’ Poison Has Taken Effect >

These words appeared before the eyes of a nameless monster.

Ragged breaths were taken through pierced lungs. A horrible croak left her bleeding lips as she desperately gasped for air. No words could leave her lips.

There was so little she knew to begin with aside from the hatred she bared.

“… liv...

326. The Upper Sanctums

The Floors of the Archetypes resided in the upper levels of the Upper Sanctum. It was unknown if anything else lay further above.

How were these floors made in the first place?

How many more floors were there?

Why did everything feel so accommodating?

The Nexus felt like an ark in a way. A giant machine that survived the past world, bringing both good and bad influences into Elysia. The longer she and Nav explored the Nexus, the more they both felt themselves ‘connec...

325. Before the Upper Sanctums

The Awakened Archivist had the power to bestow and remove Corrupted Personas from people. The Eternal Library had finally integrated a ‘borrowing’ system with these Corrupted books. For normal Corrupted on the other hand, it did not yet seem possible for normal people to bear their powers aside from the Archetypes themselves.

But she wondered if it might be possible later as concurrent Floors and Archetypes Awakened.

There were major differences between Ber’s Corrupted Perso...

MA: Prologue

On the 16th day

Of the 9th month.

On the 350th year Post Advent;

A wish-granting star fell into the world.

Its woes reverberated through the continents of world, reaching distant continents as the mega city – the Nex Megalopolis – was set alight. Millions watched as the heavens hurled flaming brimstone upon them. The Eyes that monitored the Cities collapsed into crowds as a million more hands reached for the star, believing that they could capture it.

But it ...

324. The Power of an Awakened Archetype and Floor

Nav suddenly asked a question in the middle of their bizarre tea party.

“May I eat the cupcake now? I feel like now is a good time to pair it with the tea, even though I cannot taste it. I’ve heard confectionary is commonly eaten at such times.”

“Now you’re making much more sense to me.” Galia hummed, although: “But such things do not pair well with tea.”

“U-Um… I think you’re wrong.” Anna unexpectedly rebutted. “Tea goes good with everything. Biscu...

323. Advice for A Machine

Libraries weren’t anything Frost would call special.

Sure, they served a civil purpose, but she could not remember the last time she had visited one. She recalled an Earth during the height of its digital age. Libraries had long since moved online, where millions of books could be accessed with a device smaller than one’s palm.

This library, however, was gorgeous. She couldn’t stop herself from drooling at the boundless heights and the sheer number of books in this ...

322. Visiting the Eternal Library

Finally, they reached a hollow place reminiscent of the Central Relay. Here one could find two archways leading to completely different places. One held a hallway much larger than the ones prior, and the other led towards a long bridge that ran over the heights of the Middle Sanctum.

Following the bridge would lead one to the Upper Sanctums. As for the hallway, which was decorated with only two distinct symbols, which were chiseled along the frame of the grand archway.

One was a p...

A-V-121-01

A-V-121-01

“Vengeful Red-Hooded Assassin"

“The bane of fantasized trauma.”

Risk Classification: Violet Hailstorm

Affinity: Wrath (Unconfirmed)      Attribute: Vigor (Unconfirmed)

Origin: 2023-06-09 14:36:46 +0000 UTC View Post