Her body erupted into flas again. The air superheated until it glowed red. A red spiral ford around her, and then, a column of flas shot upwards. It pierced through the five-hundred-ter prosthetic. It crumbled in an instant, and she followed the beam with haste.
The flas she left behind twisted into a tornado. It chased her, eventually enveloping her body before she commanded it forward. A Five-hundred-ter wall of flas crashed over Marionette.
|| Amplification – Inferno IV ||
< Amplifying Inferno >
< COST: 1M Next >
|| Sinder’s Wrath ||
< EFFECT: Conjure a controlled hellscape. Deal 100,000 Damage and 2,000 Cinder Stacks to those caught within the blaze. Maximum range: 1.5km >
The sheer scale prevented her from fleeing. It was an inevitability, thus why Marionette did not attempt to escape.
Furthermore, Frost’s occasional punches, combined with the infinite barrage of bloody bullets made it difficult even for her to move. If she could not strike precisely, then she only needed to limit Marionette’s movents.
“Has it beco desperation? What do you hope to achieve?”
|| Restring ||
Marionette questioned, her tone flat, and her smile unmoving. She was curious. But Frost considered it as a form of mockery. Cracks ford along Marionette’s body, only to be repaired using Healing magic.
Arms were quickly replaced, and another colossal prosthetic attempted to swat Frost from out of the air again. She could not stop moving. The constant barrage of golden blades and shockwaves from her strikes were enough to pulverize the vast majority of arms. It could not stop those that were larger than fifty ters, however, and required her to snipe them.
“To bring so sense into you! The twins don’t have to die! One actor cannot alter the course of the Fate chanism! All you had to do was leave it to and it would have been solved!”
Frost’s emotions flared. Her flas were a reflection of her heart, and they burned twice as brightly as she
“Could it have?” Marionette’s tone was indifferent.
She waved a hand through the air. A clear liquid poured from the pores between her fingertips. They rged with the invisible strings in the air, and the platform suddenly pulsed with life.
A ripple of web glided across the surface of the platform. A thin blanket of web rolled atop the craters. It repaired the platform layer by layer until it returned to its original state.
|| Stringed Prophecy ||
< EFFECT: Create or repair a designated Nest. Apply the || Nest of the Moirai ||’s effects while maintained. When the Nest is destroyed, lose the Zone of Arbitration and the effects of the || Nest of the Moirai || >
“The twins their instincts as much as you despise your desire to consu mories.”
“This is a rcy kill to you!?” Frost did not know what angered her more. On one hand, Marionette, speaking like she was doing the twins a favor, would have been enough to manifest Wrath as the Fourth State.
On the other hand, she despised that Marionette was aware of her hunger. Her mind went back to when she could have possibly slipped this up. It was entirely possible that the Star of Act X must have known this, seeing that it was able to create an idealized world just for her.
“I will allow my benefactor to decide. O’ guiding light, origins of the strings, answer the query of the lost… Ahh. Amalgam. You’ve heard it before. You shall hear it again. They’re have left the guidance of ours. The Azure Linen tethered them. The blue yarn that pretends to be a moon… You must have seen it too.”
Frost rembered it. It was one of the few lights in the skies. She had seen above the island. It did not occur to her that it was another Living Loom. A question suddenly erged as she continued her assault, this ti, focusing on damaging Marionette’s nest.
She asked, all the while surrounded by an inferno as she stood atop an immobilized prosthetic arm:
“Why are there two Living Looms in your territory?”
“Anids were not the first to be drawn to the light of the Fate chanism. Moths made their pilgrimage to the light, O’ longer than I can dream to imagine. Moths of a world unlike ours, who found solace in the Fate chanism. Moths who feasted on the strings of the Anids and the Fate chanism alike. Pests, they were, but through the Strings of their own, they found a manner to resist their instinct.”
The Mothlinen. They were another major race who had powerful connections to the Fate chanism, much like the Anids. She knew they were ancient but had not known that they arrived from another world.
Furthermore, though the Mothlinen were the natural enemies of Anids, and Act X due to their nature, Marionette’s smile imperceptibly grew at the ntion of the Mothlinen.
“… My Nest burns. The seconds of the future wane. Amalgam. What good is a future that cannot be directed? Light paves the way for travelers in the dark. A guideline ensures travelers remain on the designated path.”
Marionette understood her position clearly. Fighting Frost was a losing battle. Her prosthetic arms could only do so much. Furthermore, she was not designed to fight enemies one on one. She specialized in seizing information and controlling the battlefield using her precognition.
But she had no ans to extinguish Frost’s flas. Nothing to stop the Light of Frost’s Absolution. A Beholder stood at the pinnacle of power. Marionette, however, was among the weakest of the Beholders.
The fault lied in what she was.
Frost’s flas propagated. As powerful as Marionette’s prosthetics were, they could not resist their natural enemy. When the strings were burned by the flas, they fell into the Nest like dead birds. One by one, [Plaguefla] which was a Passive Skill that propagated Cinder Stacks, spread it like wildfire.
The pallid, icy appearance of her nest had turned black. Faint, orange embers burned within patches of string. Carving through were rivers of Frost’s blood. Her ability to predict the future steadily dropped, and before long, it had returned to its original five seconds.
The number of pendulums remaining had dwindled to a few hundred.
Marionette raised a hand, attempting to replenish her Nest with ||Stringed Prophecy||.
Frost waved her hand downwards, and commanded:
“Kneel.”
Marionette suddenly plumted, as though her strings had been severed. She crashed into the earth, and she brought a hand to her face she felt blood oozing from her mouth.
“… You…?”
“Precognition only shows what you can perceive. I’ve realized sothing from the way you fight. Your movents are calculated because you know what happens seconds later. You’re so preoccupied with the future that you didn’t consider the possibility of being poisoned in the present.”
“… When did you…? Kah… My body… This shell. Hah… Hahaha…”
Earlier, when Frost had first struck her, she had used the blood from her wrists. This was unnecessary, since she could simply use the blood from her Coat of Sanguine Prejudice. However, there was a reason behind this.
[OOO] Progenitor Art: Purpose – Divine Order [OOO]
< EFFECT: Your words are law to those with high levels of blood purity. Those who contain your blood are subjected to your orders. The higher the blood purity, the stronger the effect. Beings born directly from a similar origin of your own are immune >
Marionette’s hand trembled as she brought it up. Her eyes went wide. She was impressed, despite her predicant. It would have appeared that way to anyone who wasn’t Frost.
Why is she still trying if she knows this is a losing battle? Can I target that?
Frost raised her gaze to the light above.
< Unavailable >
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