The Blind Wayfarer

< Basic Observation >

< Its bullets will hit every target despite being blind. The blindfold only makes it easier to justify its actions >

< CONDITION : The Blind Wayfarer has no notable conditions >

< SUPPRESSION REQUIREMENT : The Blind Wayfarer is Suppressed when its Solemn Bullet counter reaches 0 >

< SUBJUGATION REQUIREMENT : The Blind Wayfarer is Subjugated when its HP reaches 0 >

"Another Corrupted with an Attribute instead of an Affinity. It can't be because it's a person Corrupting, otherwise we would have seen this sooner. But the way Raoul can return from Corruption without fulfilling the Salvation or Realization Criteria… We've seen that before, haven't we?"

Acedia, the twins and Abigail were her only audience.

Her words were directed to neither of them.

"I don't recall this accurately. I couldn't access your mind at the time. Was it the Vengeful Red Avenger? (Red Riding Hood). Snowfallen White and The Fruit of Everlasting Miracles? (Snow White)."

"The Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty). The Otherworlder (The Wizard of Oz). And The Dove From Jupiter (The Juniper Tree). Specifically, the Briar Rose. Michaela didn't fulfil a criteria to free me from Corruption. She beat sense into me. Fighting Raoul reminds me of that."

"Do you believe it has to do with your blood?"

Nav's train of thought aligned with Frost's suspicions. Frost herself was the only known outlier where she had freed herself from Corruption. Twice in fact. When the Crowned was Subjugated, Frost did not perish but was instead brought back in the shape of – in Lailah's worlds – her Soul.

Ergo, her Blueprint.

Repenters were the same. Death was the only guaranteed way of returning them to their original state. It could have very well been the result of their Soul. After all, only a piece is being compromised by the Corruption.

However, this was not true for Scarlet Logic.

If just one copy Corrupted, then the original Soul would be permanently tainted. Creating copies or using this Blueprint would then become impossible.

However, this did not affect already existing copies, as they were determined to be unique individuals.

The way the Soul, cognition, identity (self) worked was still a black box.

But Frost was certain that the reason Repenters could return from Corruption was because of her blood.

< Affinities belong to things closer to the source. Attributes come beneath them >

< It must be the effect of your diluted blood >

< [Blind Retribution] >

"A shame that I can't control a Corrupted with my blood." Frost sighed as a scorching bullet collided with her chest.

She did not budge. The sheer kinetic force should have at least moved her. Frost might have been strong, but she was not weightless. Even an attack of this scale was able to at least push her back if she was unprepared for it.

By simply contracting her muscles at an instinctual level, she was able to counter the force. She reapplied another [Protection Ward] onto the twins, and one onto the observing Abigail before slowly approaching Raoul with calculated steps.

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< [Blind Retribution] >

< [Blind Retribution] >

< "They're all the same. It's through our hands that we are able to strip the dignity of others. I shall saw them off, for the sake of my wish. They must atone." >

"Was that what made you found the Solemn Paw? You're telling me two things. A wish, and that people have to atone. I understand the argument for the latter. You hunted humans down for their hands because they didn't stop taking from Demi-Humans."

Frost retrieved her own variant of the Justica Arm and swatted a flaming bullet from the air with an imperceptible speed.

"But what about your wish? What was the purpose of collecting those hands? Raoul?"

Frost called out his name whenever possible. She didn't want to treat him as an unintelligent monster. If anything, the Raoul she saw was no different from a person consumed by wrath.

The empathetic part of her tried to speak with Raoul, and not the persona that consumed him.

< [Solemn Bullet] >

< Smoke rises from a barrel resembling a dragon's maw. Do they know it's in the image of a bored marrow? >

< EFFECT: Passive Skill. Sacrifice a percentage of HP to utilize Skills. Start with 60 bullets. Replenish 10 bullets on kill >

COST: 1% of total remaining HP per bullet

< "Overheating. The residual heat I once had still burns. Hell cannot wait for them. I shall send them there. Our own hell here is long overfilled!" >

The Blind Wayfarer | HP: 54,450

A bright blue magical circle appeared at the end of his barrel. It matched the color of his electric flames. These were Justica Arm's magical circles but distorted to match Raoul's Corruption.

*Bang* *Bang*

*Bang* *Bang*

*Bang* *Bang*

Frost fired six consecutive bullets to take down Raoul's midflight. Red and blue fragmentation scattered into the air like fireworks. She had intentionally weakened her bullets to ensure they did not shower the train.

After all, Joy was still sleeping down there.

"Let's keep this between ourselves. You must have realized that your blind massacres also took the lives of innocent people. An Ex-Star like you decided to keep on burning for the wrong reasons. However, when I think about what I would have done in your place…"

A familiar heat coursed through Frost's veins as she intercepted more of Raoul's bullets. She kept walking in his direction, her eyes matching the intensity of his flames.

The Unfair Tale and the Vestment of Goodwill attempted to seep into Frost's psyche. But her Temperament quelled those flames before they could burn her.

"… I'd be in the Derma Layer right now. On my own. Trying to enact vengeance. Killing anything that moved. Like you."

The metal deck bent beneath the presence of the Corrupted Raoul. Each bullet caused the metal immediately beneath his weapon to glow white hot. When she tried shooting Raoul, his target became her bullets.

< "Endless persecutions marked by torchings. I never knew how brightly a village made of thatch could glow." >

< [Blind Retribution] >

< [Blind Retribution] >

Once Frost was 5 meters away, the magical circles split into 12 smaller ones. She had seen this attack pattern before. But instead of attempting to fend it off, she slammed her weapon onto the ground and simply smiled at him.

"When it was your turn to start burning them, that intensity would've been too much for you to look at. Is that why it was easier to look away?"

< "Enough spilled blood promised to outweigh the suffering they caused. But millions could not match one droplet of a friend. It will never end so long as I am given ammunition." >

< [As Ordered] >

< Disperse and rend. Be torn unrecognizable >

< EFFECT: Shotgun form. Indiscriminate attack. Fire 12 bullets at once. Counts as a single Solemn Bullet >

ATT : 400 x 12 (4,800) MAG ATT : 200 x 12 (2,400)

< "Hands were the only things I needed to justify it. The roles I played made it easier. Can these flames ever stop the bloodshed? Only when nothing remains will it end. I was the only one who tried to stop it." >

It had no effect on Frost. She brushed the damage aside. Not even her Sanguine Coat of Prejudice reacted. All she did was reach out towards him, the bullets deflecting off that hand as she tried to grab his weapon.

"But it was also what caused you to break out of your role as a Star. The way your wrath burns looks closer to exhaustion. It is residual heat from a hatred that had been burning for a long time. Only your bullets produce heat, because they come from moments of ire. You, Raoul…"

It was a hunch, but every component of a Corruption tied into an aspect of a person's psyche. The fact that Raoul's flames were tame, and that only his bullets produced heat, was a sign that his wrath had been afflicted by nihility.

"… You know it's meaningless. Your wrath is the smoldering remains that come after. It won't change anything. Is that why you left the Solemn Paw? Because no matter what you did, how many humans you killed, it had netted no change?"

Basically, Raoul's wrath did not stem from pure hatred. He knew nothing could come from it.

But wrath is an insidious emotion.

Even if it had no tangible result, it was still an emotion that burned everything down.

And in Raoul's case, it had exhausted him.

"Even now, what had fighting against the Nexus changed?"

< "Nothing had changed." >

< "But nothing deserved to live." >

< "What for were we persecuted? What for were the Healers made to suffer? Everything dies in the end. What changes if a million are skewered, but that I had saved them time?" >

< "I culled them because nothing deserved mercy." >

< "Blind I am. A wolf longing for vengeance. When I failed as the Solemn Paw, a part of my heart crumbled. When I saw what it had done to the ones I loved in Grandis, another part froze. When they had taken the twins, it had died. It became natural to murder on the pretense of blind justice." >

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