"MALGAM!?"

Joy jolted awake after what seemed like a second later. She filled her lungs with fresh air as her vision was engulfed by a cloud of black fluff. Her hands rose to push it off, only to reveal a familiar face looking down at her with a warm smile.

"You're finally awake. You were flailing in your sleep. Bad dream?"

It was Res. She sat beside her on the edge of an overhang. The pale stone beneath them was smooth, like marble. And beneath them was a sea that stretched until it met with the shadow of Act X's floating palace of strings.

Joy's hands stopped pushing, and she let Res' tail collapse back on her face. A single golden eye peered through the fuzz. It was softer than she remembered. Less bristly as well, and the tip carried a dried splotch of paint that looked coarse but was soft to touch.

Indeed. Res was back to her original self. Her tall ears wiggled in the breeze, and the straps of her suspenders hung loosely from her shoulders. It was safe to say that Joy was back to her original self as well, at least stat-wise.

Although, she could not tell because status did not work here in this place overseeing the foot of Act X.

"… Gam."

Joy finally answered after a long pause.

Res fluffed her face in response.

"Me too. I'm guessing you cut the strings. Did they show you something cruel?"

Joy's tail overlapped with hers, and the tip wiggled, saying: "Yes."

Relief filled Joy just by knowing she didn't experience the nightmare alone. She inched closer to Res, and the woman happily moved a resting hand to let her wriggle even closer.

"Me too. I was shown the same role I once believed was the easiest to play. The blind me, who never knew the colors of the world. I used to see the world in blues. Reds brought back memories I tried to bury by closing my eyes away. My mother tried to protect me even after she died. Only little me. The Res who knew nothing about the world until she decided one day to expand her horizons."

"Good thing?" Joy asked.

She wondered if Res regretted it.

"It was my worst mistake of my life. At the time. I'm a lot happier now." Res laughed.

The memory was painful. Merely bringing it up caused Res' tail to seize. She had been re-exposed to it and was forced to live through a moment in her life where she tried to remain ignorant of the world.

It was a freshly opened wound, after all. Blood in the form of tears were expected to tumble down her cheeks, but Res' resilience was beyond that of ordinary people. Instead, she was able to make light of it.

"I saw something no one was supposed to see. Something out there. Equal or worse than the Corrupted that destroyed Paradise."

"Paradise?"

"There used to be an old city called Paradise. It was anything but. A majestic bird arrived one night to free Grandis from Puritas who called Paradise home. But nothing good came out of it. An entire Region was changed forever. It was the first Paradise Lost Corrupted to ever grace the world, for better or worse. Corrupted, Stars… I'm guessing they're all the same..."

Res unexpectedly trailed off as Joy was left to silently swallow the sheer power this Corrupted must have possessed to ravage a Region. A higher being, like the one that had spoken, Joy thought.

But were Stars stronger than Corrupted? She believed it to be the case, since Jury and Frost were capable of beating incredibly powerful Corrupted.

"It was the first and only Paradise Lost Corrupted. What I see up there, past the light of the Fate Mechanism… it reminds me of what I saw in the past."

"Hands?"

"It has hands? I just see a shadow. Look deep enough and it might notice you."

"… Already."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The admission instantly caused Res to swipe the air with her tail. It puffed out like a giant umbrella, and it shielded Joy from the distant light.

"Do you feel a sting in your eye!? Searing!? Does it feel like a mark, a branding, or any kind of heaviness weighing on your chest!?"

None. Joy didn't feel anything at all. She was left perplexed by Res. She responded as though Joy's life was in danger. Res bore her eyes into Joy's, searching for an answer. Joy didn't respond. Her silence, and genuinely confused reaction caused Res' shoulders to droop.

Then, she placed her forehead against Joy's.

"… When it notices you… that's when it becomes terrifying. I experienced it once. I never knew what it was, or what Stars were. We still don't know exactly aside from they're where Gifts come from, and that they brought ruin to…"

Res paused again, unsure whether to tell Joy about the Old World.

"… this world, once. Very similar to what Paradise Lost Corrupted are capable of. Still wondering how strong they are. Both give some kind of parting gift too."

"Gam?"

"Corrupted Items."

Another voice spoke. It caused the two to turn to a pale-haired, red-eyed Acedia who stared down at her hands with a muted expression.

"Corrupted, when slain, drop remnants of their shade. A last piece of themselves. As humans do when they perish. They leave behind memories, their regrets and their wishes in the form of Nex. I personally digest their final memories."

Acedia boasted. She had been standing at the edge of the overhang the entire time, holding a pose as she waited for either of the two to notice her. Res didn't acknowledge her in the beginning outside of a nod, which Acedia either missed or did not know the meaning behind that nod.

Since Acedia didn't reply, Res thought she didn't wish to speak.

"Did you cut off the string as well?" Res asked.

"I did. Without a second thought. I've been here for hours now."

"I just got here an hour ago." Res was surprised by how long Acedia had been waiting for them. Even Joy had been stuck in her dream for what felt like hours.

Acedia wore a sly yet neutral grin and folded her arms behind her back. She then bent backwards until her eyes met with theirs.

"I did not need to think about whether I wished to keep playing the role of the Amalgam. I was unfit. Unsightly. Embarrassed. This body knows only the pleasures of touch and obedience."

"In short, you cut the string before you could see what the dream had to offer?" Res raised an unsurprised brow. "Good instincts."

"I a second more in Mother's body and I may have lost my mind. I've missed this sensation. Now I hunger for a memory or two. I will never understand how humans enjoy perceiving pain. Humanity remains an enigma. But it is all I aspire to become."

"Not Frost?"

"The two are on in the same." Acedia smirked, one of her eyes splitting to reveal another set of jaws.

That mouth spoke.

"For now, why don't you tell us about your dream, sister Joy?"

* * *

Joy wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and released Res' tail. She finished illustrating what happened in her dream using the tip of her tail, and through a series of mispronounced words and broken sentences.

"So, and correct me if I'm wrong... You spoke to a voice?"

"Voice!"

Joy wagged her tail up and down.

"And it wasn't Elysia's?"

"No ticking!"

"You're sure it came from the shadow you saw up there?"

"Sure!"

"And there's no way in your mind that it was Frost's voice."

"Not Malgam!"

"We don't have a method to figure out what they said to you until you can talk to Nav again. But from what I've gathered, it tried to convince you to join it. Correct?"

Joy nodded wildly.

"But why did it go so far for you?"

"Malgam?"

This part stumped Res. Neither her nor Acedia heard a voice. They were offered a string, but they did not recall an encounter with the mysterious entity in the sky.

"The 'Child of the Amalgam' is a good reason on its own. It can use you as leverage, or even collateral. If that's the case, then I should be a viable target too. I don't like it when things don't add up. Like where Cer is."

"Oh, our sister?" Acedia hummed.

Res' ears flattened in response. She didn't want to outright consider Acedia a sibling simply because the mimic considered Frost to be her parent.

"That one. Yes."

"I haven't the slightest idea."

"… So why…" She wanted to finish her sentence with: "Why answer in the first place?"

Res sighed, starting to understand how Frost felt having to deal with Acedia. Speaking of her sibling's whereabouts, a figure materialized on the floor a meter away from Joy. Motes of dark particles formed to create the silhouette of a wolf-woman.

At first they believed it to be Cer, but Res' disappointment quickly evaporated when she found that it was Raoul.

"… Welcome back." She murmured, though the way her ears tilted indicate that she was glad.

However, she was also confused.

"You didn't turn back to normal? We did when we cut down the strings. Is it permanent?"

Raoul hadn't completely roused awake, and she was already being bombarded with questions. She didn't mind it and simply sat up and combed a hand through her hair.

"I doubt it's permanent. I just had a dream." Raoul spoke in a monotonous, exhausted tone. "Ara wakes up to this every day. He said he hated it half the time. But I never heard him complain about it on the road."

It was unclear what Raoul dreamt about. But more importantly was wether he had accepted the string or had cut himself loose.

"Did you reject it?" Res asked.

"I abstained. No point in making a choice."

"You still made a choice."

"I know. My choice was to make none."

Raoul retrieved a smoking pipe and lit it with a mechanical lighter.

"This body works for my version of the everyman. The normal life I wanted is to be able to settle down, and live. But it is a body that lacks what my counterpart has. Ara… wasn't wrong. I never doubted her."

She took a long breath of smoke and recited after a drawn-out exhale.

"I had a dream where I traded places with Ara. I got to live, for once, as the one who didn't have to fight. I became a common everyman. I remember an exchange I had with him and his niece. Back in H5. Hellen's store. I was allowed to cook. Provide in a different way than through spilling blood."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.