1115. The Meaning Behind Beholder Marionette - 1187. Would You Cuddle With a Thrombosis?

One bite and I can sever her from it. It’ll kill her. I don’t want that. I still don’t know how much of this is caused by her will. There’s a chance that the Star is responsible for Act X. But, I can’t easily ignore Marionette…

Marionette tried to wave her hand, only for dark chains to suddenly emerge from the ground and capture her. These were from Frost’s [Oblivion Lock] Ability, which allowed her to restrict a target’s movements.

“Purpose… Remains… strong. I see what you are. A cuckoo bird. The Mother Black Birds… were originally cuckoo birds. My nest, destroyed, my body, parasitized…”

“I’m nothing like them, nor like an Anid.”

Beholder Marionette’s RESIST was far too high to keep her down permanently. If anything, she only had ten seconds before her blood was flushed out of her system. Frost plucked a band of Light from her halo and glided across the scortched platform.

In the split second before her fist made impact with Marionette’s chest, she uttered:

“Show me what you’re hiding inside of you. I thought it was strange you were called the [Marionette]. Do you even have a name?”

A crack formed in her chest. A heartbeat throbbed within. It ached, and a soft, breathy gasp said:

“No…”

“Amalgam… Do not…!”

Beholder Marionette’s voice, which came from her own mouth, was different from the voice inside of her.

Frost pummeled her chest again. Fragments of carapace flaked off. The shell was far too hard to break without killing Marionette outright. Thus, she moved to using an amplified version of [Armor Piercing].

*Pummel*

*Crack*

“… Please…!”

“Amalgam!”

Two voices pleaded at once. The cold, emotionless tonality of Marionette clashed with the terror of the voice within. One final punch shattered Marionette’s shell, and Marionette’s body slumped forward.

A heavy thud came from inside. The first rays of Frost’s light revealed a pair of golden eyes. Then, white, short hair…

“… Stop…”

… And a bare, naked body of a woman. She did not have arms. Neither did she have legs. She was wrapped in a cocoon, suspended with strings that acted as shock absorbers. The innards of Marionette were a slurry of human remains, the same kind found within an Octanid.

“… Who…? Marionette…?” Frost was just as shocked at the discovery, and upon looking at her stats, she finally understood why she was called Beholder Marionette.

Clothina

Beholder Marionette

Beholder of Act X

LEVEL :

250

ORIGIN :

Nephilim

HP :

1,500,000

ATT :

MAG ATT :

ATT DEF :

MAG DEF :

MP :

500,000

RESIST :

AGI :

Beholder Marionette

Paged Observation

Beneath the carapace shell lies a tender heart. Nilhinids lack a shell to survive the harsh conditions of the world. With no outer shell, they are defenseless. As beings born from humans, they carry the empathy their kindred lack. It is unheard of for a Nilhinid to live beyond a year

Clothina.

Before she was cut off from Nav, she had heard Lachesis utter this name to Jury. Clothina was the final Moirai. But this is not what shocked her. Lachesis had told Jury that Clothina was the daughter of Atropos, and the Angel of Lust.

That Angel was Sammy, the Winded Mother. The same Angel Cer had met shortly after Awakening.

A level 330 Angel, who had disappeared until recently with the Abyssal Mother.

Furthermore…

“The Father of the Asclepien. You’re…

You

are his sister?”

The woman flinched. As much as she wished to turn away, Clothina stared at Frost with wide eyes, as though she would be met with a horrible fate if she were to turn away. There was shame in her face, and her eyes were the same of a woman who had been intruded on in their most vulnerable moment.

“… Please… close it.”

“I can’t do that. Marionette…

Clothina

. What is going on?”

“… My shell. Healer… shell…”

Frost blinked. She had not moved in what felt like hours, and she brought a hand to touch her own face, checking to see if this was real. A part of her expected to find Marionette’s gift hiding within. Entrail.

Something

resembling a heart.

It was a heart. It was a Nilhinid. It was Marionette herself.

Marionette was no more than a shell. A puppet, and a namesake meant to be used while her true self hid within. Frost slowly reached in. The girl did not move, fearing that she would be killed brutally by the person she had antagonized.

Her eyes suddenly closed.

What she felt on her cheek was not pain, nor a cold blade.

It was something warm.

She opened her eyes and found Frost’s bare hand cupped around her cheek.

“What happened to you?”

“… I… I… Instincts… It… This is… me…”

The woman didn’t seem to know herself. Her replies were simple. Had Frost not known any better, then she would have believed she was talking to a child.

A Nilhinid. No limbs. She looks just like a human. The golden eyes come from her mother, but she was born from the womb of a Healer, which explains why she’s both a Nephilim and a Nilhinid… A Healer too.

Frost was lost in her own thoughts. So lost in fact, that she didn’t hear the strained breath come from the woman.

“… Amalgam…”

Her lips had gone blue, and her face became pale. Frost checked her stats and noticed that that her HP was rapidly depleting.

“Breathe. Breathe! [Heal]!”

“… Cannot… breathe the air… outside… Anids… require…”

Understanding dawned on Frost’s face.

Blood.

The liquified human remains inside were not for Marionette. They were for Clothina. Frost, in a desperate attempt to help her, shoveled the gore back into Marionette’s cracked body.

“Shit, shit! Shit! I can keep you healed! Stay put, alright!”

“… Stop… Hand… remove…!”

*Snap*

“Huh…? Marionette!?”

Frost shoveled one last scoop, only to find that one of her arms was missing. Marionette’s shell had snapped shut, and it had taken Frost’s arm with it. A blade fell onto Frost, swatting her back tens of meters away.

She quickly regained her footing and regenerated her arm using [Corporeal Restoration].

|| Armless ||

< EFFECT:

If the Marionette loses all eight arms, increase DEF by 10x for 30 seconds. Instantly replenish all mana and generate 25M Nex

“You’re a fool, Amalgam, to show mercy when you were in the position for a killing blow.”

“Who is talking to me right now? Is that you, Clothina? Or, Marionette?”

“Beholder Marionette. Clothina is my Ego. I represent the outward Persona. I am who defends the Ego. The same Shell I had offered to the twins through the Scripts. Healers deserve no less. But a betrayal of our benefactor… Ha… Haha… Hahaha…”

She laughed dryly as all eight arms were replaced.

“She spun me with her delicate silk. A Nilhinid’s tears are delicate. A delicacy of the Mothlinen. But she could not do more. Not without their aid. When she found her perfect Book, she came to understand not how to weave the strings, but how to use it. Her Gift took pity upon her, so it offered her a hand, and she came to love them.”

The gold behind Marionette’s eyes shrunk. The edges were filled with a bright blue, and her mantle began to emit blue flames. The strings that held her were no longer transparent, and they were coiled like rope.

The light above cracked. Blue blood spilled into the center of the platform, creating a blue lake. It reflected the world above like a mirror. The seal, which blocked the entrance of the Fate Mechanism, opened within the reflection.

“They are angry, Amalgam.”

The ground shook. It was barely enough of a warning before Frost witnessed a being emerging from the blue pool. An unholy chill seized her in place. She knew this presence. She had felt it back when she fought the Glimmer version of Jury.

This was the presence of a Star.

A mass that could only be described as an abomination assumed its place in the skies. The blue mass was an amalgamation of tens of thousands of fingers, spanning over two hundred meters.

A myriad of expressions were etched on each finger. The expressions were animated. The largest finger, which was attached to Marionette, carried the terrified expression of a hidden Clothina, rather than Marionette’s.

“Mother of the Child of conceptual creation.”

The song played, and she could clearly make out these words as though they were being spoken to her.

“The bearer of primordial Light.”

“How your resemblance matches Her from the days of old.”

“I know what you are.”

“I know what must be done.”

“The interpreter of mine may not be harmed.”

“My Gift is one with the Nilhinid.”

“To remove me, to remove my Gift, is to remove a life.”

“My marionette.”

Status…

Frost prepared for the worst.

And she was faced with yet another insurmountable wall.

Star Sign

The Moirai

Prewritten, as foretold, and as told through the strings. May they wear their happiest expression

STAR :

Celeste Star Fate