“Death is an inevitability. Scarlet Logic has proven that the cycle can be broken.” Satania spoke with a finger held beside her face. “Untraditionally, that is. There are too many ways to forsake death that it ends up being the prize than an inherent fear. The ability to replicate overshadows every wretched form of aversion of death. Because they return as who they were, rather than an irreparable form of their former selves.”

She spoke with tremendous hatred that was not directed to Scarlet Logic. Rather, it was something else that irked her as Beholder Umbra nodded in tune with every spiteful word that left her lips.

Frost recalled that the Memento Mori were sworn enemies of the Chained Theocracy, and from what she had seen they reanimated the dead into puppets and clad their abandoned flesh in steel.

Promised Oath stiffened as he tightened his grip on the sleeves of his pink funeral suit.

“Keep nodding your head ignorantly, Umbra. I don’t condone death. I seek a way to bypass it. Burdens are everlasting. But it disappears once death claims them. The people we deal with don’t even have loved ones who can carry it thereafter.” She spat, causing Umbra to slowly cease her monotonous nods.

Then, Satania’s tone became uncharacteristically optimistic.

“What if those burdens could exist in a cycle of controlled repetition? What if they could truly become infinite as they are forced to face their sins over and over again as we send them out to do what not even Moons and Stars can? The amount of Nex we can harness from their eternal struggle alone can allow us the leeway we require to change in the eye of the Amalgam!”

She was ecstatic, her eyes bursting with mania as her bloodlust oozed from her words. Satania revealed her true colors at the prospect of facilitating infinite burdens amongst the detained criminals.

There was not a shred of malice in her eyes. It was instead a flame of indiscriminate wrath.

Her eyes suddenly fell onto Frost.

In Satania’s mind, she was convinced that Frost shared the same thoughts as Galia and herself. And she wouldn’t be that far off because her proposition had already begun to stir a hidden sadism deep within her supposedly gushing heart.

Frost knew that this darkness was created by this world. She already knew that her sense of judgement had long rationalized it. For now, she kept herself silent and listened to the proposition.

“We can put them to use. That way, we will regain the forces of Scarlet Logic we have all lost. Repenters and Harrowers to lead them for whatever whims we wish. They can be categorized to our liking as well. Think of them as no more than living batteries. They will harrow through hell in the hopes of buying their freedom. That is how the Repenters already function.”

“I find it compelling, but too much of a risk.” Frost considered it. She truly did, but it didn’t change the fact that they were at an exceptionally high risk of becoming Corrupted.

Galia, however, had a shocking answer for this.

“That is all part of the plan.” She slowly unveiled, rolling her tongue as the Moons above became restless. “It is their intended outcome. Their fate. We purposefully place the price of freedom so high out of reach that it’s akin to chasing a star. Their end is to inevitably fall into the shadow of the same star they dreamt to grasp.”

Galia formed a luminous object in the palm of her hands – a direct contrast to the black hole of Knalzark’s. It shimmered like a star, and the sound of a chime played from the object before she crushed it into a million particles, which scattered atop the desk.

“Oboros Infinitas is first and foremost the executioners. The difference between the Condemned and the Repenters is that the latter die on their own terms. With the Replication Cycles, they will die on our terms. Amalgam. Is it a surprise that the Condemned are poised to become Corrupted? Why else do we send them to the Subcut where they can no longer be an issue to the Epiderma?”

A colossal bombshell was dropped right in the center of the Council.

“It’s now revealed then. That is how you harness so much Nex…” Beholder E. was taken aback by this, but not nearly as much by the Moons and Stars who were unaware of this truth.

“I… frankly did not see that coming.” Magus was just as shocked as he fidgeted with his tie before bringing his hands together. “That explains why your Nex numbers are close to ImpulseWorks.”

“I’m offended that you didn’t send them our way.” Enoch was more concerned at the waste of banishing the Corrupted to an unreachable realm. “Infinite Burdens takes yet another meaning. Being a Corrupted would probably feel like that. No wonder you were so mad at us Umbra. The Subcut contains Corrupted! They’d spill out like blood from an open wound if the Gates were meddled with.”

“You’ve been creating Corrupted? This entire time?” Frost was at a knife’s edge, ready to erupt at a moment’s notice. “Tell me, is that the origin of all Corrupted?”

“No. You know better than us that Corrupted are a natural phenomenon.” Satania corrected. “More of a curse, but natural in every sense in this disgusting world. They’re more contained than you think. Monsoon Corrupted form from them at most.”

“I’ve seen a man turn into an Eternal Night. I’ve seen children reach the same Risk Class!” Frost began shouting as she brought up the fact that Beholders were sent down there as well.

This meant that significantly powerful Corrupted roamed the Subcut, and Satania did not deny this. She assured that it was safe as those that fell into the Subcut could only return if they still held onto what was left of them. The Scarlet Healers were the only beings that had repeatedly voyaged into the Subcut.

She explained that it was a place of not only fire, but of ice, caverns, forests, and the ruins of the old. What she described was a world within a world. The thing that caught Frost’s interest the most, and what managed to slowly defuse her was the fact that Blessed were able to become Corrupted even though it was a rarity on the surface.