"Oh cool! That pairs well with my Light-transferring Ability. Light batteries. Cer's gonna love this." Frost hummed before suddenly falling into deep thought.

They passed over a deep crevasse.

She had to move a log into place to let them cross. While she could easily leap across, the same could not be said for Raoul.

Furthermore, Frost had the strange urge to keep her hands off Raoul, so she could not carry her. The urge extended to punching inanimate objects as well. There was another crevasse they had to traverse over, and she found herself hesitating to cut down a tree.

"What's wrong with me? I'd have this cut down with a sneeze." She tried biting into it, but she gave up after a few mouthfuls. "… This isn't right. I'm hesitating. I can't use Skills, and I can't what– fight as well? Tch. Raoul. Try punching that tree!"

"Right away."

"Not too hard! I can't heal!"

"Does it matter?" Raoul struck the tree with a resounding thud. As expected, the attack did nothing to the Ironwood tree, but the impact alone confirmed to Frost that she was being influenced by an intangible Condition.

"You can strike it, but I can't? That doesn't make sense. I'm strong enough to at least anchor myself down. I'll head over and pull you up with my steel strands."

Frost had to use an alternate route, but she had also found that she couldn't tug on her strands when another person was connected to it. She was no stronger than a child in this state when it came to combat.

"This is dumb. Alright. Wait here. I'll hook it up to a branch. You can swing across."

She leaped into the canopies and attached a coiled rope made of steel strand to a hanging branch. Once the girth was large enough to be held comfortably, she thew it down for Raoul to use as a swing.

"Try it now! This isn't going anywhere!"

Raoul took the rope and twisted an Ironwood twig between the coils. It served as a footrest, and she used her body weight to build momentum until she was able to swing across. Frost shortly plummeted from over a hundred meters to join her, the landing barely disturbing the earth.

"Act X love their rehearsals. I don't see why this is necessary. But their zealots will blindly follow them." Raoul hissed, annoyed that they had to undergo this ordeal in the first place. "Have you noticed anything ahead?"

"Not yet, but I have a feeling we're getting close. You find something?"

"Footsteps. It's crawling. It'll be an Anid." Raoul was certain of this as Frost raised her fists, prepared to fight off the approaching Anid.

"You'll be an easy target. Stay back. Hide if you can." Frost warned, but Raoul couldn't care less.

She stood there, as if offering herself to whatever emerged from the fog.

Suddenly, Frost caught a glimpse of the approaching Light and inflicted [Scrutiny].

"It's frozen! At least my stare works!" Frost rushed into the fog and was greeted by a curled-up creature with four legs. "Quadranid!" She proclaimed, but upon brushing the vegetation away, she realized that this was no Anid.

"Control rods." Raoul recognized the object, which spanned over a meter in length and width.

It was a grey colored cross made of wood. It bent at unnatural angles, and it had curled into itself like a dead spider. It lacked eyes, mouth, and when Raoul stabbed it with a nearby stick–

"No blood. Status."

Devotion < At what point does a lie become the truth? Never, the wooden boy believed. His warm-blooded father would never lie >

AFFINITY : Purpose

LEVEL : 15 ORIGIN : Folklore

HP : 350

ATT : 20 MAG ATT : 40 ATT DEF : 10 MAG DEF : 30

MP : 50

RESIST : 5 AGI : 8

A Trickle Corrupted at best. But there was no warning, likely because it was so weak. Raoul easily finished it off with her spear, and the Corrupted stretched its four limbs out before reverting to what was indistinguishable from a wooden 'X'.

"I didn't think Act X would have Corrupted here too. Purpose, huh. They're thematically on point." Frost didn't waste any time and began munching on the Corrupted.

It tasted exactly how it looked, earthy and woody. Once she was finished, she clicked her tongue in disappointment.

"No new Ability. It doesn't mesh well with my Ego. But… are Trickle Corrupted outside of the Main Sequence once's this weak?"

She paused as Raoul's ears picked up another sound. Frost could hear it too, and the Judge's Pride ahead was unexpectedly ambushed. Frost didn't have time to mourn for her. All she could think about was the possibility that this Corrupted was but a Denizen to a larger one.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

*Scuttle*

*Scuttle*

*Scuttle* *Scuttle*

*Scuttle* *Scuttle*

*Scuttle* *Scuttle* *Scuttle* *Scuttle*

The sounds confirmed it, as did a sudden emergence of over fifty orbs of light through the fog. The ground trembled in the wake of the swarm, and Frost could only imagine what would become of Raoul if she was caught.

"Run Raoul! [Scrutiny] only works on creatures I'm directly looking at! You're as good as dead if they swarm us from all sides!"

"Back to where?" Raoul lethargically spoke as they backtracked with haste.

"The rope swing!"

The swarm of Devotions were still over a hundred meters away. They were certainly fast enough to outrun them, but their numbers and the environment made it impossible to outmaneuver them, given that Raoul was the only one capable of fighting.

Frost skidded along the earth as they reached the edge of the crevasse. A twenty-meter gap separated them from safety.

But to her horror, the rope swing was nowhere to be found.

"No way… Tch! Raoul! I'll web the perimeter and funnel them straight ahead. You stab them with the stick. Then I'll…"

Frost peered above, noticing several branches looming overhead.

"… I'll drop the branches on them!"

"Wait. Think logically. If survival is our priority, then we should avoid fighting. We'll both climb."

Frost was briefly stumped. The answer Raoul gave her was obvious. Then again, when had Frost ever chosen to retreat than to fight? Never. She was so used to conflict that even a losing battle seemed winnable.

She had expected Raoul to also want to take the combat route, which also added to her surprise. Frost hopped from stub to stub along the trunk, whilst Raoul relied on her claws and friction to climb. A metal rope was thrown down to Raoul once she had reached the canopy.

"Doesn't seem like they noticed." Frost said, watching hundreds of Devoted hurl themselves into the crevasse. "It still going. Shit. How many Denizens does this Corrupted have?"

"We should move along the canopy. Hope that the others weren't caught in that mess." Raoul suggested.

Frost nodded.

"I can confirm through the Blessing that everyone's still alive." She said. "Aside from the twins. I have nothing on them."

Raoul's ears flattened ever so faintly, and she moved with slightly increased haste along the branches.

"I see."

* * *

The endless stream of Devoted swarmed through the forest for another thirty minutes. Then, the forest floor fell to an abrupt silence.

A wave of heat then followed.

"I'm picking up another Light signature ahead. Seems powerful. It might be the source of the Devoted. Stay here."

Frost ordered, and after and exchange of nods, she flung from branch to branch until the heat was hot enough to cause steam to burst from the grey-colored leaves.

Pores along the Ironwood trees screamed like musical instruments as wind bellowed from beneath. It fueled a fire far above the canopies. The closer she approached that Light, the more orange the fog overhead became.

"Did Cer pass through here?"

"Cer has not used her Skills yet. The likelihood of a Corrupted is high. You're the only one present who can use fire."

Res was another suspect. But other than her and Cer, there was no one else to blame the inferno for. She could only hope that it was caused by one of them, because those flames burned hot enough to spontaneously combust vegetation.

Yet at the same time, that heat did not affect Frost in the slightest. She didn't believe it was because of her DEF stats, otherwise blisters and welts would have formed along Raoul's body minutes ago.

"This flame is like mine." Frost slowly recited.

Finally, she hopped down from the canopies and entered a blackened field. Trees cackled with flames, exploding every few seconds and vomiting shrapnel into the air like volcanic ash. The fog was a bight red here, and despite the heat being powerful enough to combust the Ironwood trees, Frost was still unaffected by it.

She could tell because she would have taken 1 HP worth of damage at the minimum, regardless of how much damage the attack was.

Slowly, she approached the iridescent Light and called out to the figure in the fog.

"This is Frost. Come out. Slowly if you can. Please tell me your name!"

She didn't call out if they were 'Joy' or 'Jury', at the risk of the figure adopting those names. Seconds passed, and the figure had yet to respond. Instead, the figure approached, their hands stretching outwards.

"Tch– WHAT IS YOUR NAME!?"

"… Is that the Amalgam?"

A very familiar voice finally responded.

That voice caused Frost's face to blanch.

"Amalgam…? Amalgam! Is that you!? Oh, how delightful! Is it not beautiful!?"

A splitting image of the normal Frost emerged from the fog, only that this version had red eyes instead of gold. A pair of horns stuck out from her skull, and her white-streaked Coat of Prejudice ruffled when Frost slowly nodded to confirm that she was indeed the Amalgam.

"The blasphemy. You… What have they done to you, Amalgam? They ruined your perfect form. And I thought I was perfect, to be near your splitting image! To carry these powers of untold destruction, and yet, still be so very far away from perfection."

It was Acedia, and she had a near perfect replica of Frost's own body. She peered into a lake of liquid Ironwood, and brushed off the ashes from her hair obsessively, wearing a scowl when an insignificant particle landed on her nose.

"Inexcusable. This world… won't stop tainting perfection. It's not burned enough. I need… I must…!"

"Acedia! Calm down!" Frost took her hand.

Immediately, the rage disappeared, and Acedia's eyes turned puppy-like.

"Yes, Mother? Forgive my tantrum. This ire I feel in my chest is brand new to me, as is this heat I feel when I peer at my– yourself in the reflection."

Acedia Five Wits

HP/MP : 275,000

ATT : 7,500

MAG ATT : 7,500 ATT DEF : 8,750

MAG DEF : 8,750

RESIST : 330 AGI : 52

Acedia did not dare to touch Frost back, though she clearly yearned to cup her cheeks in sheer reverence.

Five Wits for Acedia. They gave the mimic incapable of understanding emotions, emotions. And she has my current stats. What is Act X playing at?

< Goes to show how powerful the influence of a Star and an Advent is >

< Acedia will be beneficial since you lack firepower >

This might be too much firepower. But…

Acedia lowered her head, allowing Frost to pat her. She wiggled her head and lower half like a cross between an ecstatic dog and a beached fish.

… She'll listen to me, right?

She didn't expect Acedia to be here as well.

Then again, the entire Leviathan was swallowed by the sea.

"What force shrunk Mother down to a morsel?"

"The same that turned you into me. We're looking for the others. Did you notice anything strange? Anything at all?"

Acedia's lips curled into an awkward smile. She was not used to normal muscles and had expected her mouth to part wider. Like Frost, she was afflicted with a limitation. Acedia's specifically prevented her from shapeshifting.

"I believe I can provide us with some directions." Acedia purred, smiling at her own reflection. "Yes. Yes, I can. How perfect. This body must be reliable. Perfection, even in imitation, cannot tarnish the original's intent."

Acedia busily fanned the ashes away from her hair.

She did not dare to lay a single finger on herself.

"Look. Acedia. Don't worry about getting that body dirty. It's not even mine anyway. Like you said, it's an imitation. We'll grab Raoul first. She's waiting in the trees. C'mon…" Frost trailed off.

She wasn't getting to Acedia.

But she knew one sure fire way.

"… Don't make your mother angry."

Acedia instantly erected her posture, like a soldier ready for war.

"Lead the way, Mother."

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