[Prolonged Stasis] could only keep her alive for up to 4,000,000 damage, since she could recover up to 20 HP for every 2 MP. The Little Frosts were still so far away. On the bright side, her max HP was only 1, so she could keep this up for a while.
But she knew this wouldn’t be the case. Iscario had a weapon that defied logic.
The Star-slaying weapon was still clutched tightly in the only hand he had left.
“Why, Ilya? Why are you so desperate to follow that star? What is over there that isn’t by me?”
“… The Ilya… that holds the key to ending her sadness…” Frost croaked, causing Iscario to creakily turn his head into her direction. “… As well as the one person she wants to see the most.”
“… Hah… Haha… Amagam. You can still run your mouth even when death has you in his embrace? Will you still be able to talk when you’re nothing but a pile of flesh? No, that would be a waste. I should’ve just used this from the start. The Arbiter was destined to die by my hands using Longinus. But you, Amalgam…”
Iscario approached Frost with a limp. He dragged the weapon across the sand. His unblinking eyes were wider than the moon. The crazed look on his face was one of utter loss, like he had nothing left to lose.
“… you wormed your way into the place of the blind Arbiter. You… Uriel and Lilith were wrong. You should have died from the start. When I placed my hand on your head, I should have ripped it apart. When I laid you to die to the One Thousand Eyed Bird, I should have called the Red Baron to defile you. The Village of Virt was not supposed to be a ray of hope for you. They should have been cruel. Thorough with your misery. Then you would have appreciated your prison…”
“Iscario. Cease your ramblings. End it already –!”
Iscario conjured a rod and impaled the Red Baron, ending him unceremoniously.
“… I have no need for a failure like you anymore. I have no need for further failures. Your constant bickering resulted in the loss of my Ilya. Hah… I should have just had you killed as well.”
He wryly chuckled, following it with a long sigh that was punctuated with silent laughter.
“The Memento Mori could have used your corpse as a puppet, but I was generous enough to spare you… to allow you to live a life of luxuries…”
Finally, he arrived before the Amalgam.
Somehow, her shadow loomed over him. She was so much larger than she should have been, which further caused him to laugh and squeak maniacally.
“Why is that you’re still alive? After everything that’s been done to you? Healers beg us for sweet release only hours into the extraction procedures. But you…”
Iscario laughed again.
“… you’re an abomination. Stop looking at me with those eyes. Amalgam. Amalgam!”
Frost didn’t even look at him differently. She kept the same, deadpan stare ever since she was left to stand like a martyr awaiting death. Even in certain death, her gaze did not change.
“Just because I bleed… does not mean that you can kill me. I… will never die.” She said groggily.
Her words were laced with the authority of none other than her own. Nothing, not even the Arbiter or a Star could determine this other than herself.
Of course, it wasn’t true. She could die at any moment. It wasn’t confidence that drove her to speak these words. Instead, it was her sheer conviction; her unfathomable will to live.
“I was never bad. Or evil. The only wrong I did… was look like your sister. No one will forgive you. Your sister will never forgive you. I saved her. I saved countless.”
“You never had the right to live. That was your original sin.”
“… was that wrong? Just wanting to live…?”
“It is simple as this. Look at what you’ve done by living. How many lives have been ruined by you.”
Frost lifted her head. It was small, miniscule adjustment. But the pain she suffered was more than everything she had ever experienced combined. If it weren’t for her bloody tears, then she would’ve been able to cry.
What she wore instead was a smile. A tiny, self-asserting smile.
“… I’d rather live that way till the very end.”
Iscario lifted the Lance of Longinus and pressed the tip against Frost’s chest. Her dark, feathery coat burst open with hundreds of compact feathers. The crown of thorns above her head had lost the light of the halo.
But the light in her eyes never faded.
“The One Thousand Eyed Bird missed the opportunity to kill the Skewered Beast. Be judged by the Prince of Puritas, Skewered Beast.”
Iscario plunged the Lance of Longinus into Frost’s chest with a swift thrust. Blood instantly gushed from her wound, coating the Lance and spraying across Iscario’s face and apparel. It was a blow aimed directly for her heart.
The two prongs had already impaled it. Frost could feel it.
However, the light in Frost’s eyes remained.
She didn’t die. The spear was clearly lodged into her, and yet, she lived on with only a sliver of HP left. The engagement ring she wore on her right hand burned red hot as she came to realize just how she survived.
Jury… [Angelic Kiss] saved me. But it only grants me Invulnerability. The Lance of Annihilation should have still killed me. Why didn’t it work?
“You… are still alive…? Impossible. Longinus… the Lance of Annihilation…! Even from mere contact you should have been reduced to a primordial paste!”
Iscario couldn’t even dislodge the lance from her chest.
“No… I failed to piece your heart!?”
[Angelic Kiss] also had a second effect.
It granted a thin layer of protection that could freeze time.
< Jury wondered which organ to protect with that effect. She thought your brain was the obvious choice, but she ended up with your heart. It was the one thing she never wanted to break. It was her secret vow to you >
Frost was saved by Jury. But she wasn’t safe yet. She still couldn’t move. Not only that, but Iscario reeled his hand back and slammed the rod, attempting to hammer it into her heart.
“Die… Die Amalgam… I can’t… accept this. You’re nothing more than a devourer! You removed me from my Ilya! Anomalies like you should be uprooted the moment they’re born!”
“… My life… and the life of the Healers never mattered to you in the first place. Nothing did.” Frost groaned, her eyes never leaving Iscario’s.
He hesitated to strike again, as though finally recognizing exactly what he was dealing with now.
“What did we do to deserve this prejudice? The persecutions of people who were born to save lives… To be born into this world unable to fight back is too cruel. Ilya could never say no to you because of that. Healers couldn’t either…”
Frost eternally lamented that they had to suffer . She could only imagine what the captured Healers were experiencing at this same moment if they wished to take their own lives.
Nothing but pure hatred filled her heart.
“… Healers… don’t deserve this. None of us do. Everything you’ve done to me… to us, will be paid back by thousandfold…”
A strange heat formed in her chest. It reminded her of when she lost her mind when she last reached the Fifth State. But instead of Corrupting –
“I… will do everything in my power… so that there will be no one who will suffer this same pain…”
– She had reached an epiphany of her own, and it was ordained by the Light.
The distant Nexus changed color. The throes of the Nexus threw its inhabitants into disarray. It shifted from white to a deep shade of crimson.
< Ascensio Lux Per Viam Flammarum >
< The Ascension of Light Through the Path of Flames >
< UNIQUE PROFESSION GAINED >
< The Progenitor of New World blood-borne Angels >