Chapter 996. (Not) The Outside World!

“I’ve never seen two of the same hatchlings from an egg.”

“There is always that same voice that dictates the happenings of the Sites.”

“I used to believe the hatchlings were the source of the voice.”

“It is but a remnant of a memory.”

“Memories are fragile things.”

The Avatar of Kratt’s empty voice boomed.

The chassis of the Site Core collapsed into a black hole far above. Heavy chains toppled like buildings elsewhere. They were dragged across the desert as the black hole slurped them with insatiable hunger.

Cracks of thunder echoed around them. She could not discern what that dark hole was aside from it being the Advent of Despair. Now that the Site had been cracked open, it had free reign over the world, and it quickly began to distort space to its whims.

“It keeps growing. Were the chassis and the chains meant to seal it?” Cer asked the air she dashed across a black plane with the Fragment in scooped in her arms.

“Huh!? You’re very close!” The Fragment said, surprised. “Woah…”

Her eyes then wandered to the world. It was expansive, her eyes said. Though explosions and the grief of the Moons filled the world, it did not detract from the fact that this was the ‘outside’.

And for that reason, she pawed at Cer’s suit, thankful that she was able to see this.

“… We’re really…

I’m

really…!”

“Don’t get sappy on me! Celebrate after we’re in the clear!” Cer commanded with a howl.

The Avatar of Kratt’s head ploughed through this flat plane that hovered beneath the black hole.

Pieces fizzled beneath each step she took.

Her only option now was to run as far from the Impuritas as she could until either Frost, Jury or Dark Memoria could deal with the Impuritas. She didn’t have enough Light to fight it head on, and since she couldn’t see the Fragment’s stats, there was a risk of killing her if she accelerated too quickly.

With great speed comes great whiplash. She had ridden on Snap’s back enough to know how much speed was required for people of all sorts of HP and DEF.

“Quick! Durable!? Yes!? NO!?”

“I don’t understand. Are you talking about what I’m seeing?”

The Fragment was oblivious to their situation.

But that ignorance wasn’t born from malice or because she didn’t understand that they were in danger.

She knew well that she could die at any moment.

And it was for that reason that she did not remove her gaze from the world.

“Sand isn’t durable.” She paused, adding: “I heard it’ll fade away. Like everything else.”

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“I’m talking about you, brat!”

Cer made a sharp turn once they reached the end of the platform.

The gravitational pull allowed her to make a 90 degree turn as she slid on her side. Her tail aided in balancing her, bouncing all over the place to counteract the pull of the black hole and the constant quakes.

“Me…?”

The Fragment wore a look of surprised as her eyes fell back onto Cer.

“YES! YOU!” Cer hammered. “I’m talking about you! Quit gawking at your surroundings and pay attention! I’m the one doing the running! And besides, what’s the big deal about grains of sands! There are better places out there!”

“Better places… This isn’t the outside?”

“We’ve got a long way to climb to reach outside!”

Cer didn’t know how Frost managed to deal with people like this on a daily basis. As much as Cer was good as giving advice: however blunt it was to children: she didn’t exactly know how to comfort them, let alone talk to them like how Frost did.

She was crude, unruly, and direct. But could anyone blame her?

The Fragment was being a difficult brat when their lives were on the line.

Massive spires swept through their path. They were attached to a pillar, taking the appearance of a massive spiral comb. With the path being quickly depleted, she began hopping from spire to spire whilst fending off We Are Better machines with a blend of [Bolts of Tasty Levin] and [Fangs of The Electric Moon].

Sky-blue arcs filled her free hand as she then hurled scattering bolts of electric lances. They pierced through the incredibly thick walls of the spires and nailed down the oncoming machines in midair thanks to their ability to inflict Paralysis Stacks.

“We… cannot move…?” One of the machines questioned.

They were immune to a number of conditions due to their immensely high RESIST.

But somehow, this new attack had caused them to seize.

“Dunno if you’re aware you pile of scraps, but metal conducts electricity! Doesn’t matter if you got flesh in there. Electricity–!”

She used the floating entities as stepping stools. Their heads were shortly fused into their chest cavities as steam rose from their bodies.

“–Doesn’t discriminate! Even I know one or two things about Witches and their constructs! Electricity IS NOT COMPATABLE!”

Electric-based magic was incredibly rare in Elysia.

Of the millions of Adventurers registered with the Guilds, the number who could wield Electric-based magic numbered in the few hundreds. That number dwindled further when you took into account whether the mages could control their magic without meeting a terrible fate.

The reason for this was twofold.

* * *

The risk-adverse nature of the magic, and the principles of electric magic. Where fire magic had untold numbers of thesis written to describe it, electricity had less than a dozen.

As a result, mages often relied on long chants or pre-chanted papers to use basic electric spells, such as [Lightning Rod], [Bolt], or [Magnetic Furnace].

Cer and her sisters by extension were gifted with the Blessing of the Nexus and Serum S to awaken these powers. The Skills trivialized them. But Skills alone could only bring one so far.

And true to Cer’s nature, she sought to keep climbing like the Star she had become. Cer had been spending her downtime searching for a passion or a hobby. When painting became tiresome, and cooking became redundant, she sought answers in the Eternal Library.

Anna pointed her to a book that heavy textbook from Earth titled: “Physics and Electricity for dummies.” Though the dummies part was crossed out and replaced with “Wolves.”

She didn’t know much about the contents.

But there were diagrams and pictures that showed her interesting things.

Machines were powered using electricity on Earth.

But not in Elysia which relied on magical and physical systems, such as hydraulics.

Unlike those, electricity ran through all components. And since Infecta Rot were tethered to flesh, the discord it inflicted was doubled.

Flesh contracted due to electrical stimuli. The body moved through a series of electrical signals, after all.

Pair this with how her current superheated and degraded their chassis, and they were left as smoldering slag.

In short, Cer was Infecta Rot’s nightmare.

* * *

[Galvanized Art: Overload]. It was an attack specifically designed to overload the electrical highways of creatures. As it turned out, it worked brilliantly on machines. There were two forms. The first was a scattershot meant to disable the target.

The second was a large bolt of lighting that would chain the effect onto nearby targets.

This was meant to kill.

She hurled one such pillar and it lodged itself into a spire. Electric arcs jumped from machine to machine. Stray arcs slammed the body of the Avatar of Kratt like a lighting storm as Cer suddenly found herself running across its body again.

“GOT AN ANSWER FOR ME YET!?” She howled.

“I… I wouldn’t die that easily.” The Fragment murmured, awed by Cer’s strength.

Her tiny hands curled against Cer’s chest.

Her eyes asked, “Why are you protecting me?”

“You saw. It takes a long time to drain me. Are you going to syphon me too?”

“Pitiful children like you are all over the place! Hard to blame them when shit’s all hopeless! But you at least can fight back! Don’t sound like you can’t protect yourself! Don’t fuck with me and make it like I’m gonna eat you like the big bad wolf!”

Cer turned her back, shielding the girl as they crashed through hundreds of meters worth of walls, spires, buildings… And she emerged almost entirely unharmed. The girl’s eyes shimmered in the light of Cer’s hair.

She didn’t realize how gold they were till now.

“Tell me! Do you have enough DEF or HP on you!? ENOUGH TO BREAK THROUGH THE SPEED OF SOUND!?”

“S-Several times over! I can handle that! How can I see it!? What’s HP and DEF!?”

“SHOUT ‘STATUS’ AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS!”

There was no proof that it would work, nor did they know if she was Blessed by the Nexus. If she was anything like Frost, then chances are that she’ll be able to were high.

“S-Status! Woah!”

The girl couldn’t believe her eyes. Her small yelp caused Cer to make a toothy grin.

“See anything worthwhile!?”

“No, I just liked how your eyes went gold for a moment!”

The girl beamed, tucking her elbows to her chest as her eyes sparkled.

“S-So cool!”

“DAMMIT!”

< Your Emotional State Has Risen to the Second State >