The Greed Counter had rewarded Cer with temporary power.

It was counter intuitive in Frost’s eyes for a Corrupted to hand over strength so willingly to their foe. But the Corrupted were not beings that thrived on thought or worldly motivations.

The purpose of this was unknown, but Nav’s proclamation of it yearning to seek the best in a person was the only lead she had. In the end, there was no telling just what exactly this Corrupted was after.

But if Nav was correct, then Frost had to wonder what the story behind the Greed Counter was. Though that would have to wait. They had bigger issues at hand.

Cer’s entire body crackled with electricity as the diamond’s shell moved between her fingers like clay. The hardened exterior was no more than a façade in the face of the true diamond that was this empowered wolf.

Cer had realized her true value, and as a result, her strength temporarily surpassed even that of Frost’s. The Big Blue Diamond began to melt as chunks of its monumental body toppled like an avalanche, returning to a liquid form upon crashing to the earth.

The liquid spilled into the surrounding moat, causing superheated steam to rise.

“I’m aware of our worth. Don’t you ever try to put a number on us like that damned healer!” Cer erupted and snapped her maw rapidly, sending a massive array of electric bites that destroyed the very foundation of this false diamond.

It crumbled altogether as an electric pulse surrounded Cer, creating a near 100-meter perimeter that instantly felled the Touch of Golds. A sea of these golden creatures flailed in place as Cer easily finished off the Big Blue Diamond.

 

Big Blue Diamond | HP: 0

 

<> Ultracharged Field <>

 

Nav – isn’t that Cer’s skill!?

“I… it must be. It is possible that by being Empowered she has become partially Corrupted. Likely not, but it does not change that we can see her skills now.”

The construct collapsed into itself, creating a tidal wave that swept debris across the land. The world quaked once again as Frost tanked the electrical damage, slowly accumulating Zapped stacks as various muscles began to contract involuntarily.

It was a testament to Cer’s strength, and once the Corrupted entity fell, Frost healed her lost limb using Corporeal Restoration. The golden-pale light danced around her fingers as bone, muscle and skin slowly restored itself.

“Daaaargh! It… It hurts more than I thought!”

“But Corporeal Restoration works faster than Greater Healing, no?”

“MUCH FASTER!” Frost clutched at her renewed fingertip.

She felt every nerve scream during the process and shouted at the top of her lungs, joining Cer’s raging outcry. Res and Ber were forced to keep their distance, locked out by the immense electrical field that only Frost dared to tread.

“FROST! Let me handle this one! I always wanted to get back at the people that created that putrid liquid!” Cer burst forth with unimaginable speed.

 

<> Galvanic Current <>

 

“I’m Empowered, right!? Of course it’d be me! Just what the hell does this thing think a MOON is!?”

A trail of lightning followed as cracks of thunder rang whenever she changed directions. She did not run. Rather, Cer was throwing herself forward, plunging her hands into the ground and using it as leverage. The scent of ozone returned, clogging Frost’s throat as the world turned a slight blue hue.

And then, an electric maw surrounded her like a giant bear trap.

 

<> Electric Fang <>

 

Cer collided with the Greed Counter and unleashed hell upon its floating frame. The electric fangs snapped shut and severed countless ethereal hands, causing the giant monstrosity to stumble, losing balance as it threw more of its hands downwards to stabilize itself.

“What’s the matter now!? Regretting you ever crossed paths with me!? Ahaha! Watch me Frost! Look at how a Moon fights against these degenerate monsters!”

Cer lost herself in the heat of battle, immersing herself in combat she laid bite after bite.

 

Greed Counter | HP: 100,000

 

< “We gauged their values by injecting them with a forbidden concoction.” >

 

The entity was a living pinata for the inappropriately dressed wolf. If the situation wasn’t so bleak, then Frost would have found it humorous. But the number of the dead neared a hundred. Frost could not possibly laugh.

And during the chaos of Cer’s battle, Frost spotted yet another few dozen people flood through the last entrance of the carnival.

“There’s more people here!?”

“Shall I get Snap to save them?”

“Don’t! If they get hit by Corporeal Value then Snap’s going to be killed when their heads burst. Get Ignis and the others to head there! CER! I’m counting on you!” Frost thrust a thumbs up the woman.

Cer glanced behind her shoulder, her sadistic face softening at the sight. Then, she adorned a vibrant grin.

“Heh. That’s right. Leave it all to this one! Are you watching me my sisters!? You think Raoul will finally stop treating us like children after this!?”

“It’s just another Eternal Night Corrupted… don’t you ever get your hopes up with him!” Ber exclaimed in the distance. “But yeah! YEAH! Those are the bites I wanna see!” She punched at the air, investing herself into the spectacle.

“Just shut up and follow me!” Res snagged Ber by the collar and dragged her along.

Res, although her AGI was similar to theirs, was nowhere near as fast as them. She moved solely on her feet, navigating through the rubble by eliminating a series of roadblocks with her electric beams.

 

Greed Counter | HP: 70,000

 

Cer’s carnage did not relent even when she was low on mana. Her claws and jaws were enough to damage it, severing the many arms that held it upright.

“A night without the stars just needs a moon to fix the darkness of an unending night! Hah! How’s that for a line, Frost!?”

“Huh? Is she getting drunk on her power? Not that it’s a bad thing.” Frost commented as she rushed over to the spilling people.

Cer was on pace to annihilate this creature before it could convert the fleeing people into coins. They had a chance to rescue these trapped people.

However, things could never go so smoothly.

Because it stumbled again. Its entire weight shifted towards the innocent people, who were a mix of farmers, children and high-levelled Adventurers.

Frost then realized that they were part of the rescue team.

“They’re – THEY’RE GOING TO BE CRUSHED!” Frost exclaimed, increasing her speed with Final Onrush as the colossal creature tumbled like a collapsing skyscraper.

It fell almost in slow motion, upheaving the earth and showering the world with a hailstorm of debris. Frost watched various parts of the terrain become littered with these massive boulders as she dodged them well before they could even strike.

Her abnormal movement struck Ber and Res as odd.

This was the first time they had truly seen her insane predictive movements in its entire glory. Frost moved as if she had eyes on the back of her head, and now noting the countless glowing eyes that hovered above them, they realized that this was the truth.

A swarm of one thousand eyes moved with her like an extension of herself, blocking various falling stone as she finally reached a safe distance from the hysteric crowd.

“ALL OF YOU! STAY RIGHT THERE BEHIND MY SHIELD! YOU’RE GOING TO DIE IF YOU KEEP ON RUNNING LIKE THAT!” Frost commanded with a voice managing to tear through the mangled air. “THIS IS THE ATTACK TEAM! DO YOUR FUCKING JOB AND KEEP THEM CLOSE, YOU DAMNED ADVENTURERS!”

It was do or die for them. What other choice did they have? Even if they tried to outrun the falling beast to the side then they’d still crushed by it. There were a few adventurers who took it upon themselves to flee the scene, boasting the AGI to escape certain death.

“You – you’re crazy if you think we’re staying here!” Several adventurers scurried off, only for a few to be splattered by falling boulders.

“Wait! Ya bunch of fucking low lives!” A dwarven man howled.

“That… what the fuck is that barrier…?”

“That coat. Isn’t she exactly the one L.S described!? The Black Dove!?”

“We have an Incandescent Color here!? A new one!? THE BLACK DOVE! WE – WE’RE SAFE RIGHT!? YOU’RE GOING TO PROTECT US, YEAH!?”

“Just stay there and shut up! If you have any barriers then set them up! Use whatever you have on you and help us or you’ll all die!” Frost ravenously warned.

She also could not blame those that chose to run, but at the same time, there was an insurmountable rage that brewed in her heart.

A barrier made from a thousand glowing eyes floated high above, aiming to keep the Greed Counter at bay as Cer rode it down, continuing her onslaught as the others finally joined Frost’s side.

 

Greed Counter | HP: 40,000

 

< [Mangled Coins] >

 

<> Wolf Bite <>

<> Wolf Bite <>

<> Wolf Bite <>

<> Wolf Bite <>

<> Wolf Bite <>

 

“BER! RES! DEFEND THEM FROM THE HANDS! JURY! Wait – Jury!? Why are you and Snap here!?” Frost

“Is it bad that we want to help!?” Jury responded as Snap eagerly nodded, ignoring Frost’s command to preserve its own life and begin moving people to safety one by one.

Its presence terrified them, but they seemed to understand its intentions.

Or rather, it was likely because they had witnessed horrors far worse than a giant, fluffy spider.

Frost could not help but to softly smile at them both. She wished Jury and Snap could wander close so she could embrace them, but she risked incinerating them.

“… alright. Snap! Nav will let you know if it uses Corporeal Value! But I’m begging you, please look after yourself!”

It gave her a firm, happy salute and drove off with a few adventures aboard. With how close Cer was to finally slay the Greed Counter, it was a relatively safe bet to leave Snap to its devices. Although, Nav brought up a rather sinister suggestion just seconds before the creature fell onto her barrier.

“It would be wise to kill them all. There is a chance that they will become Hired Arms. Is it truly worth saving them?”

“NAAAAAAAAAV!” Frost roared as she physically felt the entire weight of the Greed Counter press against her, nearly collapsing to her knees as all one thousand eyes broke its fall. “THE MOMENT I STOP CARING IS THE MOMENT I LOSE MY HUMANITY!”

However, her strength alone was not enough. The eyes trembled, struggling to hold on. Her teeth painfully grinded against each other as her body quivered, the ground splitting beneath her feet.

She had only managed to slow its descent.

 

Greed Counter | HP: 20,000

 

Cer would not be able to defeat it in time.

Frost’s attention was split everywhere at once as she tried to find something – anything to salvage the situation as Snap and Jury desperately pulled people away to safety. But there were still a good number of people remaining.

Then, her eyes fell onto Ignis. The girl rushed up to Frost and presented her bone-like arm in front of her face and transformed it into what appeared to be a branching coral.

“Ignis has a skill that allows her to freely convert her accumulated biomass! She says that she wants you to show her how to do it!”

“How to – you can expand that!?”

Ignis nodded.

“Then – I’m sending my Judge’s Aids into various places! Do you think you can expand that arm big enough to hold it in place!?”

Ignis confidently nodded.

“THEN FOLLOW MY JUDGE’S AIDS! Anchor them down exactly where they are! You’ll be crushed otherwise! Send them deep underground and extend them. Like the roots of a tree!” Frost ordered, landing various glowing eyes around them as Ignis stood directly in front of her, enjoying the familiar heat she radiated.

She outstretched her right hand, and at once, various blade-like bones coated in crimson flesh sprouted out and began tunnelling right where the Judge’s Aids were. They deeply rooted themselves beneath them, creating a solid foundation right before she aimed her arm a little higher.

“The conversion process works in a mysterious way. The accumulated biomass is strongest when concentrated, hence her blade form’s immense power. The biomass can therefore also be used to spread herself thin, albeit at the cost of its strength. She wants you to look at her proudly. To see that she’s not a liability that can only hurt the people she loves.”

Gritting her teeth, Ignis released a sight that fascinated the world, and bestowed horror into the hearts of countless others.

“Extended System: Circulatory.”

Red strands of bone and flesh extended from her arm, weaving themselves into the air and branching off like a giant, twisting coral. But from afar it appeared more closely like an isolated circulatory system, pulsating with every calm beat of her heart as it nestled with the blue tubes.

The clash of blue and red reminded Frost of the countless diagrams depicting blood vessels she had combed through back on Earth. It was beautiful. So beautiful that Frost was left temporarily dazed, bewitched by the sheer scale of this branching system.

This, combined with her Judge’s Aids stopped it in its tracks, leaving it suspended high above as countless Touch of Golds hung like loose entrails.

The finale was here.

 

Greed Counter | HP: 5,000

 

< “We remember it greatly. The world wished to forget. But we couldn’t. So, she flushed all our tubes with a golden liquid to spare us from the same fate.” >

 

< “Our values were dictated by others. Our magic was stolen. And the drained healers were left shivering in the cold of the Frozen Springs.” >

 

Her heart sunk. In the afterglow of their triumphant victory, Frost’s mind was plunged straight back into the deepest recesses of hatred.

“Nav… the healers… were their magic stolen?” She whispered to herself, heard only by Ignis and Nav. “Is that why the healing potion exists…? And the Serums capable of healing people?”

She wove this strange utter from the Corrupted with Inflow Direct’s Serums and potions. How they were able to convert magic into liquid.

 

Greed Counter | HP: 0

 

“We are on the same train of thought. It is likely that this Corrupted is tied with Inflow Direct. The past… civilization, and the healers. The Wandering Healers, most specifically.”

While the world around her fell into silence, Frost placed a hand onto Ignis’ head to both comfort her…

… And to keep herself from entering the Third State.

“Nav… Nav… If… If that really happens to be the case, then I’ll personally take those Wandering Healers and have them destroy Inflow Direct. To think that I believed they were trying to protect the healers.”

The Corrupted laid there motionlessly, waiting to be devoured. But various parts of it then fizzled away into golden particles of light. They were left in a desolate world where the cadaver of this beast hung over them, and where the blue liquid waste that forever steamed within the molten pools, creeping, and claiming all that stood in its path.

 

< Greed Counter Has Been Subjugated >

 

< Greed Counter has been added to your collection >

< You may manifest the Active and Passive Skills of the Greed Counter when the Will of the Amalgam allows >

 

< The Archivist thanks you. She has confirmed that this is the second chapter in the book of Civitas Cinder >

 

< Stats from the Greed Counter gained >

 

< Unique Ability Gained >

< All Unique Abilities of the Greed Counter Have Been Condensed >

 

< ABILITY: The Language of Greed >

< EFFECT: Know their worth. You’ll know the price they’ll pay to defy their pride. Transform the living into coins and harness their true value >

< They spoke through coins but never through their voices >