At the time Frost didn’t know how horrific Healing Magic truly was.

Neither did she know the extent of the stigma behind such a pure magic.

The Blood Angels, the Scarlet Healers, and now the Black Wings and hers truly.

She was always aware that Healing magic was sinister when wielded wrongly. Or when its pure power was harnessed by people other than the Healers. She always believed that Healing magic itself was the purest form of magic for it could do no ill.

However, Frost came to a realization after restoring the bubbling soup of meat that were the guards.

The Healers, including the White Doves, were capable of unintentional evil.

When broken flesh of many were close in proximity then healing magic would fuse them together, stacking bones, melding muscle, and bonding blood vessels and nerves into one, creating things that shockingly resembled entities of the Crimson Hunger.

This phenomenon as she had learned from Nav was another one of the caveats of Healing magic.

Such monstrosities only lived for a split second before they perished. At most they’d live for a minute.

Frost never had the opportunity to heal something from such a destroyed state. People were usually dead by then, but she possessed a Mastery Skill that did not allow those she was in contact with to perish.

 

(S) MASTERY: Black Dove’s Roost

< Nestle within the Angel in black’s wings. It’s safest there >

< EFFECT: Prolonged Stasis will prevent your death and targets so long as it is active. Prolonged Stasis may now be used in conjunction with any Active Skills >

 

So how were those guards able to live for up to hours afterwards? How did their bodies clump up into balls of flesh? The reason was not as simple as the repeated reconstruction of their bodies.

Rather, it was the result of [Prolonged Stasis].

 

(S) Prolonged Stasis V

< EFFECT: Convert MP to HP every second. Irregular conversion on target will result in the Overhealing Condition >

< CONVERSTION: Gain 100 HP per 1 MP spent >

 

Overhealing

< The condition of having excess HP. When Overhealed by 50% target will begin experiencing abnormally high internal activity. Blood Rip may occur during this time. At 100% Overheal, excess biomass will be created to compensate for elevated HP pool >

 

Blood Rip

< Exploding blood vessels due to immense systolic blood pressure. In other words, an aneurysm >

 

Normal Healers were too weak to replicate these effects. Also, people were usually dead long before a Healer could bring them back from liquid sludge. Only the very best Healers were able to perform such a feat, such as that of the Perched and the Mothers.

It was easy to conclude that the Healers were the sole cause of the Crimson Hunger’s existence, but in truth, they were likely only a small fragment of it.

After all, Frost was aware of the existence of how Scarlet Logic operated. Furthermore, the Scarlet Logic could even be linked to the likes of the Octanid that used living, liquified beings to constitute for its blood.

Grand Healing V’s Mastery effect can only reach 25% Overhealing. But Prolonged Stasis can reach 100%. I’ve never had the need to use it until now since I only received it after the big battles were over.

“So the first thing you did was use it in an unintended way. I was wondering when you’d start using your Skills unconventionally. Healing magic to punish. That’s quite like you.”

You mean that as a compliment, right?

“I like to think so.”

If you think so, then I’ll consider it as such. Thanks Nav.

Frost relayed this information back to her companions in the Nexus. The fact that Healers could do this was new to her, but presumably common knowledge to the Beholders.

Nav soon confirmed that this was one of the reasons why the Healers were prosecuted in the first place. Not that it was a major reason, but it was still something Frost particularly kept in mind.

What do the Impuritas want with the Healers? Is it because they’ve lost their access to Brandar that they’re resorting to needing Healers to create biomass for them?

Frost pondered on this thought as she stood at the very edge of a cliff.

Before her was the vast, desolate expanse of the ruins of Puritas. The landscape was carved as if the claws of an unimaginably large entity, creating colossal gorges, valleys, and canyons.

“Highly likely. But they were after their CSF, their Cerebrospinal fluid. I have no doubts that it is linked to their methods of stealing the Beholder’s Aspects of Technology. Frost. Can you see the same thing you saw that day? A ‘Tree’?”

Frost stared out into the desolate lands, where a sliver of light shone through the grey clouds that smothered the skies.

Nothing. I don’t see that faint outline anymore. It’s fine though. The plan will go on as normal. I’m going to investigate the ruins and find some clues. Aster still sees the light in this direction, right?

The reason Frost was here as well was because it was where Aster declared one of the Pillars to exist. Since there were more than twelve, they were unsure if it meant it was an Advent or something else entirely.

So when Frost heard that a Corrupted was present, she wondered if it was a Main Sequence Corrupted instead.

“It is. Do your best Frost. I will be cheering for you on. Wooo.” Nav cheered with zero semblance of emotion.

Frost laughed as she took in the walls of the immensely massive palace that sat in the center of Paradise Lost.

Surrounding it were walls and spanning city districts that were so large that the million or so lives that lived within seemed false.

No, she was convinced that it was.

The size of it was hard to determine due to the distance, but the fact that the mega city of Paradise spanned a considerable chunk of those lands only further cemented this.

Five million?

Ten million?

More.

It had to be more.

 

* * *

 

The territory of Puritas was divided into 13 provinces, each belonging to a member of the 13th Order including the Royal Family – Puritas. Where one began and another ended was lost by the weathering of time.

The only trees in Paradise Lost were the concrete pillars that once supported multi-stories homes. There were no roads or trails to follow. Only desolation. Rolling hills provided cover, as did the urban ruins.

As ruined as the landscape was, it was not empty. Very rarely were their clearings. Nearly every inch of Puritas’ territory was urbanized, with few sections of forests and empty lands scattered between its territories.

Much like how the Sectors of the Nex Megalopolis were made.

So this is where they drew inspiration from.

To the outside world Paradise would have appeared exactly as its name suggested.

A paradise.

An urban complex that would have housed many millions across its districts and provinces. But now all that surrounded Frost were fragments of a time rightfully lost. She immersed herself through the ruins.

Not even rats of insects were to be found nesting in these ruins.

The streets were wide, but the offshoots were eerily narrow. From a single glance she could tell that Puritas’ layout was optimized for navigation. She slipped through these crevices, unearthing ancient rubble with her bare hands.

The twisting pathways between the buildings were easy to get lost in. It was an urban made all the more difficult since the distal parts of Puritas were more intact than its depths. Frost eventually took it upon herself to climb onto the broken rooftops.

From there, she leapt from roof to roof like a specter, still overwhelmed by the sheer emptiness of this place.

She felt utterly alone.

Was this place a form of purgatory? So many homes were left abandoned. Broken windows revealed empty interiors, others bloody. The buildings were like that from the baroque era but with a gothic twist, having bold and jagged architecture that oddly complemented the beautify of this place.

The overgrowing grass that crept through the pale brick paths did not move to the wind. Neither were her footsteps carried by it. Everything seemed to dwarf her as she was swallowed by the lingering misery of this pale world.

And to think this place was on the outskirts of Paradise.

It all felt like time itself was frozen. The memories of that turbulent time were immortalized by the ruins. It was all unchanging, and Frost couldn’t help but to hold her breath as it strangled her no matter where she went.

The ticking of her Interrogating Clock revealed bloodied streets and rooftops where flaming arrows struck like fallen brimstone. Bloodshed and flames were all she could see in the memories of this place, which were delivered by knights in pale armor riding on horseback.

“We did nothing wrong!”

“We’re citizens aren’t we!? Why are you slaughtering us!?”

“Has the King gone mad!? Are you not from the 2nd Order!?”

Frost observed the memories from the heights of the buildings, watching them mercilessly cleave through the innocent. It mortified her. Sickened her beyond she was used to. The guilt of the blood she spilled was something she had to carry on for the rest of her life.

And yet through those visors she saw eyes that carried no fragment of regret as they wiped their cherished blades from the blood. The skies were red and full of smoke as if mirroring the streets that ran red that night.

“Puritas has a bloody history. So the 2nd Order went around slaughtering innocent people after Paradise was lost. A tragedy that everyone’s forgotten. All of the sake of the King’s will. Everything started to fall apart after that, huh.”

Frost’s eyes lingered on the largest structure in her current province. It was a palace constructed atop a steep hill which overlooked its territory. The brilliant icon was one of the few structures that were left mostly untouched, although this was because they were only looking at its good side.

The other half of the palace was in total ruins.

“I have a feeling that we’ll be finding something interesting in there. Nav. Are you also updating my map for me as I go along?”

Always. It will be useful for those who will be sent in later. After all, disregarded places of this kind –

A scream echoed from the streets ahead, prompting Frost to move quickly, leaving behind a cloud of rubble. The sheer force of her leap caused the building she was perched atop to crumble away.

“– Are breeding grounds for scum. Autumn warned me that this place was a cesspool. But she doesn’t realize we’ve already powered through a place arguably as worse.”

Frost was no stranger to places like these. After all, she had already ventured through the likes of the City of Spades.

And this time, her inferno would be a proper cleansing flame that can discriminate good from evil.

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