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945. Joy!
🕑 Added 2025-02-19 05:42:04 +0000 UTC“O-Orange Disruptor! Are you… also afraid of the Head.”
“I’d rather not get myself involved in another troublesome war~” Horus laughed. “Keep in mind the Acedia Special Division is open to acquiring new kinds of Ex-Corrupted, and Ex-Impuritas. A wish granted by that incandescent light is hardly reliable.”
She knocked on the head of Hayte, who was proof of this.
“But, somehow, that Corrupted… Looks the most normal of them all. Or rather–”
Horus then tapped her left eye.
//////// < WARNING > ////////
< The Orange Disruptor is attempting to interpret your Stats >
< Your Stats cannot be read by external forces >
Frost’s hunch was confirmed, right as orange cracks formed along her face. It began from her left eye, creating an image of an almond shaped eye that had a long, spiral hook at the bottom.
“She’s the most ‘complete’. Content. I truly wonder what sort of star she wished upon to grant her passage into this world. Black Dove. That look on your face is rather telling. Allow us to find the time to discuss it.”
“That eye. Is that what makes you the Orange Disruptor?”
“Partially. I consider it a Gift, more than anything. You’ll come to understand the ‘disruptor’ part once we descend further. These Repenters have not lost enough Sanity to require my intervention. That one may require my services as well if the time should arise.”
Few knew what Horus’ powers were, other than that she was an exceptionally powerful Color that faded into obscurity after Site G-Z1 Zero Horizoned more than twenty years ago.
Since then, she had been involved in numerous questionable missions.
One of which was when she was deployed to assist Raoul in the City of Spades Massacre.
“Should Usari call in the ARU team right now or what?” Usari suddenly spoke up. “Usari doesn’t think bringing a child into the heart of a Site is a good idea.”
“Malgam.” Joy nodded her head, perhaps not recognizing that she was the ‘child’ in this conversation.
“It’s fine. She’ll have her own entourage.” Frost assured.
Merely entertaining the thought would have prompted the Stars to arrange several Moons to pick her up. If not, then Nav would take the reins and assign a Lunar Haruspex to Joy. Frost still wanted to enjoy her date with Jury, however…
Would it be a good idea to bring her along too? Joy… Haaah. Frost, she’s not your actual child. She’s a Corrupted that tried tearing your face off. You can’t unconditionally love her…
Several tiny steps reached Frost. Then, a small hand gently grabbed onto a bundle of her shirt.
“Malga.” She softly said, looking up at Frost with the same wonder as when she first woke up in this world.
Ah… what the hell.
Frost surrendered to this child.
“The fact that you look just like a cross between Jury and I is cheating, you know~?” She crouched down to pinch her cheeks. “So stretchy. Geez.”
“… Hayte. Usari wonders if this is the same person who nearly killed Usari.”
“The Black Dove… does have a polarizing reputation.” Hatye uttered.
“Ursari doesn’t understand.”
“If you were in the legions of Impuritas, then you would understand the weight of that name. I pity my brethren. To follow a false star only to find that the malevolent star we wished to snuff out was in truth, the one star we should have followed.”
“… Usari thinks you’re malfunctioning. What does that mean?”
Of all the Repenters present, Hayte would have heard who and what the Black Dove was.
Like the Orange Disruptor, he was aware that Frost was the Amalgam.
*
Joy had trouble looking into people’s eyes.
She was afraid that her Corrupted instincts would kick in and cause her to lash out.
But this wasn’t true at all. People could look into her eyes and remain unaffected, yet her fear was deeply entrenched into her. It was all she ever knew, and even after trying to get her to look into the eyes of the Repenters, she would either look away or into Frost or Jury’s eyes.
They were the same to her, after all. That brilliant glow of gold – those twin binary stars – were the same that had pulled her from her hell.
How could she ever grow to become afraid of them? Especially when it was those same eyes that willingly looked into hers as they rescued her.
“Malgam.”
“Do you understand what I’m writing?”
Icara wrote this to Joy. She was the one Repenter Frost allowed to approach Joy.
Joy nodded. “Mal.”
“Are you afraid of us?”
Joy shook her head.
“Gam.”
“Cute.”
“Malga~!”
Frost could already envision her interactions with the Healers.
I kind of feel like an idiot for being so… well, apprehensive now that I think about it. She’s not like Mimicry who Realized because of a wish. Still, can’t be too careful. Nav. What do you think?
“Realized Corrupted are completely safe in my opinion. A Hope Affinity Corrupted no less… That gave birth to Snap as we know it.”
Yeah. Snap’s been a tremendous help to us too. What does Snap think?
< Bzzt! Brr! (The more the merrier!) >
Frost broke into a soft smile.
“Aha. You think so too, Snap~?”
Suddenly, Usari began trembling at the sight of Frost’s face. While to most, it was no more than an innocent expression, Usari saw nothing but darkness and a pair of golden orbs in the place of her face.
“Usari… feels like she’s being cooked in a thousand different ways in her head. Uuu.”
That said, the First Level was completed without any major hiccups.
Horus tapped her ear, listening in to the frequencies of the other teams. Once their conversation was over, she strode towards the central elevator with raised shoulders.
“Looks like they’ve found an elevator. They agreed to splitting up to cover more ground. We just have to stay still and plot our course accordingly.”
One by one, they entered the elevator shaft. Everyone aside from Frost remained on the outer platform. The reason? She wanted to further marvel at the sheer scale of the central elevator shaft.
“Malgam…” Joy wore a saddened expression as Jury wrapped her arms around her.
“I’m not going to be gone for long~ I’ll just be outside.” Frost assured the girl with a headpat.
“Right out here.” Jury tapped the walls. “If you really want to hear her voice, then maybe the voice in your head can help you out~”
“Gam!?” She jolted in fright, likely hearing Nav’s voice for the first time.
Soon, her expression relaxed, but she still looked quite sad having to be separated from Frost.
Ugh. My heart…
The doors of the elevator closed with a heavy thunk.
The mechanical whirls within its mechanism began to spin. Space lightly distorted above the bell-shaped elevator as Frost sat along the ledge, waiting for them to finally descend. Nothing but darkness extended beyond just a hundred meters, aside from the azure light of the stored Liquid Nex.
The elevator shifted, ready to descend.
But in that moment, Frost saw the world barreling past her.
Her foresight kicked in.
And what she saw was the elevator shaft freefalling straight into the depths of the Site.
“WARNING. Destabilization of the Central Elevator. WARNING.”
An alarm blared.
The voice belonged to an unrecognizable figure.
The static made it impossible to decipher.
Yet it was eerily familiar.
“Manual overdrive required.”
“Please remain calm.”
“Place your faith into the Site Overseer.”
