Disorder. The word alone carried too many implications to pin down its meaning. Chaos? Unrest? A dysfunction? Frost hadn’t the slightest idea. Unlike the Origin Trauma, Folklore or Original; this one was abstract at best.

But this creature was strong. Nefariously strong.

Frost’s foresight fired on all cylinders. A phantom hailstorm of massive, one-meter-long thorns were flung from its mouth like a giant shotgun. She did not have time to explain or think about anything else.

Her body moved on its own as she dragged Jury by the hand and fled behind one of the trees. The second they disappeared; a wretched chorus of birds chirped all at once, and in the next instance, the thorns were flung haphazardly like shrapnel in their general direction.

“C-Close… Jury, don’t get anywhere close to that thing. Tch – It’s still shooting!?”

The nearby trees became pincushions for the thorns. The thick tree they hid behind rapidly thumped to the assault like war drums. These projectiles were launched with so much power that they managed to travel nearly a hundred meters deeper into the forest.

“Righteousness… and a Disorder. System, do you have any information on it!?” Frost yelled to combat the cacophony of rattling trees and the mind-rending chorus of chirps.

“Righteousness is its name only. The Disorder Origin is unknown as you thought!”

“There isn’t a single thing on what those mean!?”

“No. It’s all blank! Frost, I believe you are the first one to discover these!”

“The Nexus had been fighting these for how long now!?”

“Believe me, there is no information!”

“… Great. Disorder. I don’t know if it’s the levels or the Origin, but it’s different from the others.” Frost inched herself to the edge and peeked, watching the Righteousness continue to vomit out its slurry of thorns. “And that Hanged Jury…”

“Frost! Bad skewered. Hurt skewered.” Jury warily held onto Frost’s arm, half-afraid of her head suddenly being impaled by the oncoming attack.

“I can take a few of those. But we won’t be able to get close. Let’s assess the situ – NRGH!?”

Frost only barely managed to pull her head back before the bark in front of her exploded. It was one of the rare occasions where she thought she was dead for certain. It confirmed that she was indeed fast enough to dodge those things, but the window of opportunity was miniscule at best.

If she ran headfirst, it would be even harder to dodge. Never mind when she reached the source. They were technically up against two enemies. One presumably needed to be cut free from its noose, and the other had to be slain.

Frost’s eyes narrowed. The situation seemed dire. The two focused primarily on melee to get the job done. However, Frost’s spirit did not falter. Neither did it waver. Her eyes naturally rose to the canopy, and she nodded to herself.

“Jury. You can’t see the trajectory at all. So… I’m going to ask you to do something a little crazy for me. Look up there. See the canopy? Think you can sneak behind it while I draw its attention?” Frost came up with a quick solution to dealing with it.

From what she saw; the creature could only fire in the direction it was facing. So as long as she drew its attention then Jury may be able to deliver a clean hit. Rinse and repeat afterwards.

The Corrupted were not smart creatures as far as she was aware of. Rather, they seemed limited to a set behaviors and attacks now that she realized it.

They were beings that existed ‘as is’. For all she knew this approach would end up with one of them getting killed. But it was not like they could high tail it and run away. Her stubborn resolve anchored her in place, and Jury seemed to sense this in her flaming gaze.

Frost was, after all, on the edge of reactivating the Will of the Amalgam from her wrath alone.

“Good Frost!” Jury nodded and suddenly leapt onto the tree, using her claw and tail to navigate the branches with rapid movement.

Alright… I didn’t explain that she needed to attack it while I held its attention, but I think she understands regardless. System. Do you think I can dodge a bullet?

“I can only expect you to.”

Exactly what I was thinking as well. Wish me luck!

Frost, after having confirmed that she wouldn’t immediately be eviscerated by a barrage of thorns, suddenly sprung out from hiding with immaculate speed. She could say for certain that there existed no human on earth that could sprint faster than she can walk.

After all, her AGI was 35 now.

Frost was like a spectre moving from tree to tree. She kept herself closest to the outermost ring of trees as the Righteousness laid fire upon her. Its accuracy was appalling, to the point where she could only believe it was intentional.

The whole concept or story of this agonizing place related to judgement in some way. But she could not piece the entire picture together. Not while she was still in combat. The thorns passed around her with thunderous roars as it tore through the air.

It was incredibly difficult to maintain eye-contact with the creature as she navigated from tree to tree. Sweat no longer dripped from her forehead as her body seemingly caught alight in the moment of utter mayhem.

The canopy rustled restlessly. Jury was already on the other side before long, and with a clear shot, the woman lunged forward and sent a rapid flurry of devastating swipe to creature’s hind legs.

 

Righteousness | HP : 4,500

 

The chorus of chirps distorted. Jury fled before the creature could turn around and shift its attention towards her. But to their surprise; the projectiles abruptly came to an end. Its petal-flapped mouth retracted close before the chirping devolved into a hideous screech.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

Frost nearly lost consciousness in that instant.

The sound was so high pitched that her ears felt like a pair of knives had been lodged into them. At the same time, it possessed an unbelievably low pitch that her vision waned in response. Her bones quite literally trembled as she found herself struggling to stand on her feet. Her hands had to be thrust into the side of a nearby tree for support.

I… I can’t hear anything… What the fuck was that?

“Frost! FROST! What’s happening!?”

“Stand up straight… C’mon… agh... System. SYSTEM!? Hello!?” Frost couldn’t even hear herself for a moment as she desperately searched for Jury. Thankfully, she caught a glimpse of her tail half-hidden behind a tree in the other side of the clearing. “Thank goodness… Ah… I can hear again.”

“I assume that means you can hear me now.”

“I can. That – what the hell just happened?” Frost had to wonder aloud as she carefully observed the four-legged creature.

It hadn’t moved ever since and simply stared elsewhere into the forest. Frost didn’t know whether it was a good time to attack. She had a plethora of odds to gamble against now. Ultimately, she figured she wouldn’t be able to kill it in time before it unleashed another attack.

Therefore, her priority shifted to freeing the Hanged Jury.

However, things could never be so simple. Because the moment she made up her mind –

– The Black Forest suddenly trembled. She looked back and saw a hundred Witnesses suddenly flock towards the Righteousness like a massive swarm of black rats. The demonic chirp had called them forth for an unknown purpose.

Frost, understandably, took many of them down before they could reach the Righteousness. She bashed at them away with countless swings and stomps, but their sheer numbers made it impossible.

But she did not need to waste her energy. Though to her surprise, she did not even need to do anything. Without any warning, the Righteousness attacked the Witnesses with a blanket fire of thorns, impaling dozens at once. It did not even target her anymore.

Rather, it completely ignored her.

“… I’m so confused. I’d understand why the Accusers would attack the Accused but… Righteousness and Witnesses? I don’t get it.” Frost verbalized her thoughts as she made her way around to the Jury’s side.

When they regrouped, Frost needed to assess the situation again. The thuds only continued to grow louder as the Witnessed were skewered into clumps. These clumps of spikes then rolled into a ball, collecting more and more Witnesses until they transformed into an Accused.

“T-That thing turns them into the Accused!?” Frost could not believe her eyes. “The Righteousness of all things? System… what the fuck am I looking at?” She struggled to comprehend the logic behind this.

“There was a story about this place, no? A story of how it was a trial ground for criminals. Do those Witnesses appear like criminals to you?”

“No. But they do now.” Frost muttered, somewhat feeling like she understood something. But no matter how hard she tried it was impossible to grasp at an answer. “Jury. System. I’m going to head for the Hanged Jury while they’re distracted –”

Jury clutched onto Frost’s wrist in response.

“Frost, Jury, run skewer. Hurt big beast. Eat beast in the Black Forest!”

If she was going to go out there, then Jury was going to go with her as well. That way it may be possible to take them both out in one fell swoop. At least that’s what Frost gathered from Jury’s emphatic eyes.

“… Alright. We have this window of opportunity now. Let’s make the most out of it. And since I’m faster –” Frost, after removing Jury’s hand, took the woman’s wrist into hers. “– I’ll take the lead. Jury. Let’s kill that thing and eat it!”

“Eat beast!”

Frost, having heard Jury’s battle cry, rallied herself up to new heights and charged straight into the clearing with a heart of steel. With the Righteousness’ back turned to them they had an extremely good chance of taking it out this time. However, it was not their immediate priority.

“JURY! Cut it down once we’re close enough!” Frost cried as the tremors became more prominent now.

She had a feeling that the stampede of Witnesses would be incapable of shaking up the entire forest. In her mind she thought perhaps another wave of perhaps Accused or Accusers were on their way.

But this was unfortunately far from the truth.

Because by the time they reached the bottom of the scorched tree –

– A prompt appeared.

 

< The One Thousand Eyed Bird Judges the Skewered Beast >

 

< Judgement in Progress >