Cer, Jury, and Broker spelunked a gold-tinted tunnel. The walls were carved into the shape of bricks as crimson lines ran through them like veins. Though there was uncertainty in where they were, Cer sensed that this place was somehow alive.

The tunnels were wide enough for a small group to comfortably navigate through. But the three found it difficult to believe that a small group would even manage to move a single meter through this bizarre place.

A red liquid dripped from the ceiling. It pooled into artificial vats which bubbled as body parts were stewed into a noxious concoction. The Reorganizers roamed these areas, clinging onto the walls like peeled skin as Cer wondered just what these tunnels were supposed to be.

Rooms with jagged teeth dripping with a blood-like liquid were also common, as were what seemed to be train carts used for roller coasters, as well as sewn up horses impaled with a pole, like those found in the Blood Festival carousels.

These tunnels were likely were the Attractions formed. In some rooms they’d watch as golden flakes peeled from the walls and wriggled onto the surface of the fleshy constructs.

They made them appear as if they were made from gold when in reality it was a much more sinister process. Cer, Jury and Broker destroyed each putrid facility they came across as they watched half-digested people fall from the ceiling into a bath of bubbling liquid.

What these vats did was dissolve the entire body, leaving behind only the bones and the organs of their victims.

Golden stakes impaled the Reorganizers along the walls, hanging them like the tanned hide of an animal, whilst Jury shredded them with her claw. Meanwhile, Cer created artificial tunnels of her own with her electric bites.

Even after when they’d clear a section she’d continue biting away, cussing irately in the absence of her sisters’ presence.

“It’s aaaaaall fucked up! What’s it with them and their obsession with gold!? You’re telling me they’re not like you up there in your tower of debt – I mean, City of Diamonds?”Cer said whatever came to mind.

Like Frost, it was incredibly difficult for her to ignore the similarities between the Ateliers and the Impuritas.

It was worse for her since she and her sisters had always suspected this to be the case. But they were always called Jesters as a result.

“Please do not put us on the same level of these monstrosities. We only try to keep everyone happy. We don’t aspire to hurt. Not like these monsters… Moon. Do you accuse us of being enemies of the Nexus?” Broker spoke. His voice sounded hollow thanks to his bulky armor.

“You’re not enemies. Cer. Calm down. We’re getting close to your sisters. They wouldn’t want to see you like this.” Jury intervened with a mellow voice as they suddenly found themselves at the foot of a long bridge.

“Yeah yeah. They’ll see me regardless… but thanks, I guess.” Cer sighed.

She was truly thankful that she at least had Jury by her side. Without her she probably would’ve maimed Broker. There were no rules constraining her as a Moon anymore, aside from Frost’s ‘save everyone’ approach.

That being said, the bridge hung over a gaping pit, where nothing but an all-devouring abyss awaited beneath. An invisible wind howled from an unknown source as did a bizarre heat that seared the bottom half of the bridge.

Cer could have sworn that she had seen something like this before in the City of Diamonds with Frost. The sewerage system! Although, upon looking up she saw that it did not connect to anything at all.

It was just a straight pit down.

So what was this pit used for then? To discard waste?

Cer cared little as she felt Jury’s warmth, calming down a little as they moved along the giant bridge. Their wits were finely tuned. Dozens of floating stakes followed Broker as they illuminated the murky atmosphere like fleeting stars.

The emphatic light that lit the entire cavern was nowhere to be found. As they walked Cer’s ears twitched like fluffy radars as she sensed something from deep underneath. She could not put her finger on what the sound was, but a part of her psyche begged her to never unlock it.

She sensed a miasma rich in despair. So much so that it nearly sobered her. They were like a supersized version of the pores that the Hearts used to invade Brandar.

No one spoke a word. Even their breaths echoed endlessly in this vast chasm.

Jury would tend to her missing tail every so often. It was rare to see Jury make such a pained face. But it was nothing compared to the face she made whenever she thought of Frost. Cer wondered if she herself maybe made a similar face when she looked at Frost.

Not because of love of course. She just enjoyed being under the devouring gaze of that woman. Why? Cer knew exactly why. But she never allowed herself to delve too deeply into it.

It has already been nearly 30 years since that incident. Yet her attachment to that incident was like a strand that could not be snipped.

But why did these thoughts interrupt her? Nothing was supposed to be running through her mind, and yet she felt like there was an external influence upon her. Her RESIST stat remained the same. So what was it?

Were they under the influence of a Corrupted’s power?

She suddenly froze and threw a hand up to get the others to freeze. Her ears detected an abnormal sound pattern. Her ears perked up like little towers as she instantly bit in the direction of the noise, casting her light into the darkness surrounding the bridge.

A swarm of Reorganizers wiggled their way across the rim. They were surrounded by these monsters, but they did not seem to be their target. Rather, they went into an obscure direction with a sense of urgency, disappearing into pores at the upper edge of the pit.

And then, someone spoke from beneath the bridge.

“It’s unbelievably harrowing. They call us the impurities when they do not know what else lays beneath! Hahaha! You can speak too, I believe Moon!” A cloaked monkey man crawled onto the bridge, laughing hysterically at Cer as if trying to wind her up.

“Another one of these lunatics! A friend of yours or something Broker!? Like that creepy fish!?” She yelled, checking the creature’s stats whilst she suddenly sent an electric bite at it.

 

 

“I am appalled you equate us to that thing.” He sighed, unable to speak back to a Moon.

The Monkey man did not evade the attack. He took it head on, allowing himself to take upwards of 2,000 damage. Parts of his attire were shredded as a result of his lack of self-preservation.

Cer’s brain interpreted it as foolish overconfidence, but her instincts told her that something was awry.

It was natural for beings to avoid an attack from an unknown opponent. Only the Blessed who were certain of the damage they’d take could stand in the face of what seemed like certain death. So why did they not decide to avoid her attack?

Did it know something about her?

It raised too many alarms.

“I’ve never seen such a Demi-Human in all my life! Beastkin? State your name!” Broker exclaimed, taking aim with his stakes.

“Not a Beastkin or Demi-Human! That’s an Impuritas!” Jury corrected, also having the ability to perceive the same things that Frost could.

They had the same eyes, after all.

But unlike Frost, she did not commence into battle immediately. She was not as hot-headed as Frost, or anyone else for that matter. But even so, Jury kept her guard up as she remained close to Broker, vowing to protect their weakest party member.

“Oh Moon. Oh talkative Moon. Trouble follows in your steps. There is much that a parody of the pearlescent celestial body like yourself pretends to shut your ears to.” He spoke, completely ignoring their words.

As his name suggested, he was truly deaf. There were no ears in sight. And, ironically, Cer refused to listen to a single word that left his cracked lips. Because something emerged as he dropped a bundle of paper balls.

Spawning from those growing sacks were tens of handless Bers. Her heart did not sink. Rather, they were instantly plunged into a pit of flames. A turbulent surge of emotions rose to her throat as her fangs glistened with electrical zaps.

“What kind of magic is that? Some kind of stupid illusion? You’ve got a one-way ticket straight to hell, huh!?” Cer exclaimed, sending a flurry of bites at the monkey man.

He dodged this time. Or rather, she missed completely. Something was messing with their RESIST stat and as a result, she was now under the effect of what she instantly recognized was a Cognition Scrambler.

While she wasn’t well acquainted with many of the Ateliers save for Justica Arms; she did have a few deployments on behalf of CogitO to eliminate rouge Atelier members. It was one of the rarer missions for a Moon to embark on.

But it was mysteriously among the highest classed mission that was be issued by the Nexus. Higher ranked Blessed were usually contracted for the job, or Eclipses; Moons specifically trained for assassinations.

These Moons belonged to ImpulseWorks and were outfitted in powerful weapons often reflecting their personalities and desires. Much like Cer and her sisters’ Atelier weapons.

What was the relevance of this? Cer had experienced the effects of a Cognition Scrambler beforehand as a result when her RESIST stat was much lower. It distorted the truth that one sought after, whether it masked the true position of its user to the intended target or scrambled a person’s stats to hide certain elements.

It was considered a contraband Atelier item, usable only by very specific CogitO personnel.

This confirmed that their RESIST stat was indeed being suppressed.

“Isn’t is splendid, Moon!? You have so many of your happy sisters surrounding you! Allow them to embrace you!” The Deaf Paw laughed maniacally at her as he scuttled around the bridge with the hoard of little Bers rushing towards them.

“Stay still and let me kill you! Take that, and that! AND THAT! Where did you get CogitO’s tech from!?” Cer avoided attacking her sister’s look alike as she tried to track that Monkey’s movements, all the while Jury remained behind.

She held onto Broker’s arm as she flung him from side to side with her, leaving the main battle rightfully to Cer. The handless Bers were theirs to worry about. They were met with a hail of golden stakes, as well as a deadly, black claw.

“How cruel. Is this what it means to be an Impuritas? But you don’t seem to be bad Broker. Your worst sin is an accidental theft.” Jury’s words were the last thing Cer heard as she dashed straight into battle.

The gargantuan bridge shook as the electrical bites cleaved off chunks of brick and stone. She relentlessly chased the man’s after image around the bridge, using her hands more than her feet as a game of cat an mice ensued.

“The despairs beneath make up our hopes above! Does it not make you smile hearing their woes surround you? They must have felt the same whenever they heard your anguish!”

“Why don’t you stop spouting shit and fight without your CogitO crutch! What happened to taking my first hit! Was that too much for you!?”

They conversed like they spoke entirely different languages. Neither of them could hear one another. Scars began to emerge along the bridge. It wouldn’t be long before it collapsed at this rate.

The Monkey man then clambered along the side of the bridge as Cer gave close chase.

She grinded on the side with her claws and punched her hands into the stone as they scuttled along the scorching underside of the bridge. Total blackness engulfed them for that brief second before they emerged on the other end, along with a massive barrage of electric bites.

Structural damage be damned. Cer did not care what happened to bridge. She only cared about eliminating her enemy for daring to try to wriggle beneath her skin.

Unlike her sisters, Cer was significantly harder to break.

She was always headstrong. Separation was her only weakness. Bringing Ber back, even if it was no more than a paper-made version, only strengthened her unbeknownst to the Impuritas.

“Do you not know that we must be deaf to the truth for happiness to blossom!? You Moons willfully cast your light away from the eternal nights of countless suffering souls! You and I – We are not so different!” He proclaimed. “The Sect of Gears foresee you Moons acquiring an epiphany! We merely wish to accelerate it. Therefore – You will become your true self! A wolf! Not a Moon!”

“I wonder if you’re on a time constraint! Trying to distract me from something, huh!? Don’t think I don’t have you figured out already!” Cer shouted, her speed steadily increasing with every passing second thanks to Galvanic Current.

Before long, she was encased in terrific aura of electricity as she coiled around the bridge, dragging her claw along to etch her mark. Pieces of the ceiling crumbled onto the bridge. Obstacles were created as further chunks were smashed off. It narrowed significantly now.

The bridge saw a century worth of wear in only a single minute. The stability was questionable at best. A total collapse was inevitable.

Cer’s electrical output drastically increased again once she was a vast distance away from the others.

The Bers were nowhere near her anymore. Their attention had turned to Jury and Broker. Now that she had a look at their back, she could see that some of them had small pages stuck to their back.

With the knowledge of their non-existent RESIST stat, and knowing of the Paged disease; she warned them with a blaring cry:

“DO NOT LET THEM GET CLOSE TO YOU! JURY GO AWAY! LET ME HANDLE THIS ON MY OWN! TAKE THAT HUNK OF METAL AWAY WITH YOU! GET BAAAAAACK!”

An electric pulse instantly caused her immediate section of the bridge to split. The 50-meter chunk sunk as only friction tethered the entire thing together now. Jury was easily faster than the crying children, but she was still limited to Broker’s sheer weight, and not to mention that her severed tail impeded her balance.

But even so; they’d still make it back to the foot of the bridge without any trouble.

“So that’s your option!? You will take me down with you into the deepest depths of our world!? Hilarious! You will end all alone! You truly wish to fall further MOON!?” He was instantly imprisoned by the electrical current.

There was surprise in his voice. His hideous laughter disappeared as if disbelief had clutched him by the throat. It was a miracle that he could even talk despite the Paralysis condition that caused him to lock up and convulse.

He was glued to the cracking ground as his HP rapidly fell. His body began to cook as steam threw his robe away, revealing the hairy back of a twisted ape. He was neither a Demi-Human nor a Beastkin as expected.

He was more like an abomination. Those hairs were mismatched and bundled to appear like fur.

The sight was disgusting to say the least.

“Moon this, Moon that! The fact that you can only call me a Moon tells me a lot about you!” Cer finally acknowledged his words, immensely disappointing the Deaf Paw. “Heh. What’s with that look? So you can hear me as well.”

“They lied. The Sect of Gears – did they need more faithful followers!? MORE GEARS TO GENERATE IT!? How could they have lied!? The Messengers; attuned by that mechanized Advent relayed it to our Herring friend so how –!?” Suddenly, as the bridge finally began to give way into the void, the man suddenly clasped at his ears. “HE – HE LIED TO US!? OUR VERY OWN FLESH LIEEEEED! LEITMOTIF! HEAR MEEEEEE! HE WILL TAKE IT FOR HIMSELF –!”

 

Deaf Paw | HP: 0

 

His body was finally reduced to a charred state as the bridge finally gave in. A cataclysmic roar echoed all around them as pieces of the ceiling too began to collapse. His voice didn’t make it far. The choir of screaming from above drowned it as a light shone down onto them.

But it never managed to penetrate through the darkness beneath.

“Finally. Some useful information. Why do all you morons open your mouth when you’re about to die?” Cer crushed his skull beneath her maid footwear. She checked twice to ensure he was dead. “Someone lied to you huh. Herring as in that fish. Frost ought to know what to do with this.”

She trampled over his body right as their section gave way. There was no CogitO Atelier item in his possession. Cer bent her knees in that split second of freefall and aimed herself for her fleeing friends.

“Good riddance. Too bad you died so quickly. I wanted to show you what’s it like to watch a sibling run around without their hands. Would you then be able to laugh and pretend like you couldn’t hear a thing?” She sneered before a jaw snapped shut from right underneath her, sending her flying like a comet.

She used the falling debris from the ceiling to zip her way back to the others. They made it to the other end relatively safely, sustaining only a few minor injuries no thanks to the falling rock.

The bridge was swallowed whole by the darkness. The crash never arrived, and the longer she stared the more that she found herself sweating unnaturally. There was an instinctive fear she felt from that pit.

She did not want to imagine where it led to.

And then, as she made one final jump –

She managed to pick up a familiar voice from above.

“IF I’M SO WRONG FOR DESTROYING YOUR TWISTED HAPPINESS, THEN I’LL BE WRONG TILL THE DAY I DIE!”

Cer’s lips curved into a smile as Jury instantly shot her gaze upwards with a vibrant smile.

“Heh! I missed hearing that scowling voice! HEAR THAT JURY! YOUR LOVER’S RIGHT ABOVE US – W-WITH A 10 MILLION HP HEART!?”

The hardest part had still yet to come.