Elsewhere, whilst Frost found herself in the central part of the Triple Paw Complex:

Ber found herself up against a small swarm of her doppelgangers. Around 6 of these wailing clones attacked her in a separate section of the Triple Paw Complex. The Impuritas monsters, as Frost called them, did not speak here. Neither did the panicked people.

The music abruptly stopped the moment she chased them through a thin, curtain wall that separated this section from the previous. There was a total of three sections as far as she could tell, but that minute detail was nothing but an afterthought.

Ripples of electrical claws decimated everything it touched. Ber unleashed slash after slash against her naked clones, and each slash met their mark flawlessly. They were of no match to her physically. Nothing here was. A Moon like herself was practically invincible.

But even so, she could not help but to feel like her mind was being toyed with.

As she dashed through the chaotic streets of this bizarre wonderland; she had to wonder just how they were able to replicate a piece of her past.

She knew the Librarians had something to do with it. The Impuritas were undoubtably working together in some way, and that paper egg was certainly the cause.

But she could not delve into any of these thoughts, because with each corner she turned, she would be met with an onrush of her clones, as well as a mouthless monkey-man who tossed various balls of paper.

They expanded into giant paper eggs, much like the one prior. They were much smaller and less complex.  What hatched were the crying clones, who desperately reached out for her with handless arms.

Ber did not speak. She did not yell. Nor did she outwardly spite that monkey; who wore a golden robe that concealed his entire body save for his face, where a pair of disembodied hands clutched over where his mouth would be if he had one.

Ber was usually loud. She did not usually speak as much as her sisters, but she always knew when to make herself known. Not here, however. Under extreme circumstances not a single word would dare to leave her mouth.

Her sole drive was to simply annihilate her enemy. To eradicate them from the face of the world. Her electrified claws were thrown with little regard for her surroundings as attractions fell, and buildings collapsed into themselves in the wake of her unstoppable power.

 

 

This entity was on par with her in terms of speed, and he moved exactly how a monkey would. He grappled onto walls, protruding rods and people alike to weave through Ber’s relentless assault.

The crying Bers were fodder more than anything. It was unclear just what this creature’s purpose was. He must have known that he stood little to no chance against her, and yet he still chose to confront her despite this.

He did not even attempt to attack her. The clones were far greater of a threat. His erratic movements were easy to track no matter how fast he blitzed through the streets.

He was not even powerful enough to break through the structures, having to navigate through tight passages and corners whereas Ber was perfectly capable of obliterating her obstacles with the wave of a hand.

The crying Bers lunged at her like a pack of starving wolves, screaming out at the top of their lungs.

“I never wanted this!”

“Why did I have to cut my hair!”

“Is it fun always being in trouble!? Why do I always have to be the one to save you!?”

“I’m always being punished because of you two!”

They were revolting. She knew exactly where in her past those words were stolen from.

She was always a strong wolf. The strongest many had ever seen in fact.

But that was after they were administered Serum S by none other than D-13.

Her Galvanized Blood Ability was present in these clones. They flung electrified claws at her like frightened animals as she was forced to recall the moments that led to her first encounter with D-13.

Her hair was snipped short to match Res’ appearance. Then, her hands were severed with a rusty cleaver when her sister’s ‘buyers’ realized that Ber was not the Demi-Human they were after.

She had never felt so vulnerable… and the mere recollection of those events rattled her heart.

But unbeknownst to the Speechless Paw was that it only enraged her.

The silence was telling of rising her fury as she caught one of the oncoming Bers by their face and swung them around at another two like a club.

A haze of paper confetti exploded upon their deaths. They did not bleed. Neither were they alive. They were merely papers folded to reflect a fragment of her past.

They were here to torment her. They wanted to upheave her spirit. She knew the tricks these creatures employed.

But she had never seen anything like this.

If only I hadn’t touched that paper egg. Why is it always me that gets into trouble like this? I was just curious!

Ber understood her blunder, but at the same time, she agonized over the fact that such a minor interaction had allowed something like this to happen in the first place. It felt like if she did anything selfish then she’d be punished accordingly by fate itself.

I didn’t do anything wrong. But I can’t do anything right either without anyone except for killing those problems away!

As she continued to eradicate her past selves, the Speechless Paw suddenly began shaking.

They were laughing.

Keep laughing. I’ll kill you just like every single one of them!

Ber’s claws ploughed the ground behind her. They grew exponentially with each fleeting second until the electrical constructs were as long as seven meters. A blue glow followed her as vibrant, erratic arcs of electricity zapped the nearest object,

In most cases however, it was whatever living being was closest. This Skill was Arcing Digits. They did not shock people to death. The electricity was so powerful that it literally erased pieces of their bodies. The burns inflicted onto the Blood Festival Impuritas exceeded any conventional burn, rendering parts of the body out of commission.

The light was so immense that those that happened to gaze in its direction were instantly blinded for minutes. At worst, they were blinded permanently. Magic could be categorized by its destructive scale and likelihood of unintentional damage.

What Ber used was classified as High-Risk

This was one of the reasons why Moons were never allowed to dabble in civilian life. Never mind the greater parts of Elysia, less there was a specific reason. And if they did, then they needed to limit themselves to low-risk or NUL-risk Skills.

Preferably nothing at all, less they’d devastate more of the world than their Corrupted enemies.

Her claws lifted from the ground like a pair of disembodied hands. The energized debris floated alongside them as she sent two upwards slashes against the running monkey. The false hers could not even process their deaths as they were instantly reduced to a burning page.

A carousel melted into a puddle of charred bone, metal and flesh as her claw passed through like it did not even exist. It cleaved the Monkey’s shoulder, instantly deleting a total of 6,000 HP. His body contorted much to her delight. Even if he couldn’t express it vocally, his body was awfully honest about the pain.

He took an additional 4,000 HP of damage from the Necrosis stacks that plagued his body. Through the torn, blazing fabric and his shriveled fur, she could see the flesh surrounding his wound turn black, as if he was frostbitten.

The Monkey only prolonged his death. But Ber had to wonder if it even had a method of retaliation. She found it glaringly odd that it would pick a fight against her if it had no chance of winning.

More so if it knew that it was going to die.

Impuritas are filthy. One place like Grandis wasn’t enough for the world, so they made another one down here. We’ll destroy your paradise!

Voiceless suffering surrounded Ber. People found themselves lost and trapped in their desolated ‘homes’. The Impuritas reached their hands out not to save them, but to preserve their life for a later, sinister reason.

Ber was all too familiar with such a sight.

She had watched people close come and go by the hands of pillaging humans. If a Demi-Human wasn’t outright killed or captured, then they were marked and left for another time.

They were like fruit. An unripe apple waiting to bear its sweetest nectar…

… And Res was one such apple.

One that people desperately tried to steal. She was an object of desire for many. Whether it was her beauty, her politeness or smile, Res always found herself in the eyes of hungry humans.

The results were always tragic. Not to Res herself. But to the people around her.

The Res now was not the same Res from before. At least not externally. Her emotions were concealed behind an impenetrable veil that only their late mother could break. Her hair was cut short long ago to mask her beauty; and Ber took it upon herself to sacrifice her own wants for her sister’s needs in their darkest hours.

“Why Res!?”

“I hate you Res!”

“It’s all your fault!”

“Why can’t you be just like Cer!?”

Ber’s movement slowed.

The memories were resurging too quickly. The vibrant pieces of her past came passing by like a kaleidoscope. It was difficult to differentiate reality from memory and before long, her legs refused to move.

Her hands collapsed by her side as she stared at the weeping Bers, who surrounded her, screaming their hatred for Res… all the while she felt the twisted lullaby of the destroyed carousel play in the background.

The Blood Festival truly knew how to pick apart one’s psyche. Ber never would have thought that she would be brought down by one memory alone.

“I never had any happiness! I… *sniffle*… I always wanted to pick berries with the other girls of the village!”

“I wanted to wear the dresses we made!”

“They made me suffer because of you Res! They took Cer’s tongue! They took her teeth! Why are you just standing there watching everything burn!? Brother Raouuuul! Raaaaooooul! I’m scared! It hurts!”

Ber’s hands trembled. The memories they jogged caused her heart to wrench as she found it difficult to breathe. The Monkey saw this as a good sign and stopped in his tracks abruptly, shaking as if laughing as Ber’s mental anguish.

But little did he know was that this was not fear or dread. What Ber experienced was loneliness. Despite everything she had gone through, she had never despised her sister.

It was an honor… her privilege to suffer if it meant to stay with them.

The Monkey drew near, studying Ber as the hands cupping its mouth pried open, revealing a wriggling mass of tongues. He plucked one approached Ber, presumably to place it into her mouth.

But it failed to realize that Ber was not under its psychological spell.

Because they only knew the past her.

Not the present her.

No matter how hard the past was; it did not change that they were here. There was no bad blood between her and Res. Every ordeal they overcame, and every blood they shed only strengthened their bonds.

The only thing that could truly hurt them was separation, and the anguish of their fellow sisters.

Therefore, she severed the nearing hand, as well as the other to match the crying Bers. The flashes of electrical arcs instantly erupted from her once again, zapping them into ash. The Monkey recoiled, but he did not seem entirely fazed.

Rather, he seemed like he accepted death’s approach with open arms as Ber focused every arc to penetrate his chest like bolts of lightning.

It was appalling just how little they thought of a Moon, who were equally as strong in might as they were mentally tempered.

Not to mention that she was one of the first 4 survivors of Serum S.

Cer. Herself. Res, and their brother Raoul were all empowered by this cruel golden liquid.

Their blood was as blessed as it was cursed.

His mangled mouth seemed to curve into a faint grin as his body dissolved into nothingness. The battle ended anticlimactically, and she could not help but feel like it was far from over.

The deafening silence ate at her as walls crumbled, and plumes of dust rose. The others were still fighting. Hers was over and yet she felt like it had only just begun.

What the –! Where’s his body?

She stood atop where his corpse was supposed to be.

She certainly saw his HP drop to 0, and his body burn right before his disappearance. But even so, something should have remained.

Did he teleport?

Something was terribly wrong. It brought into question just what his purpose was. With no other way of solving this mystery other than to destroy the Heart itself, she turned to Res’ direction. It was made obvious by the flying beams, which caused the walls of the cavern to bleed.

No. If it couldn’t kill me, and if had some sort of way of escaping – then was it trying to stall me? From who? From what? Res? Could it be Res!?

This was the only logical conclusion Ber could arrive at, and without a second to lose, she dashed in her sister’s direction, all the while hoping for the best for her beloved sisters.

And for everyone else.