It happened in a silent instant. There was no cliché roar or a self-absorbed speech prior to Frost’s assault. She immediately culled the Black Forest in search for the Disciple. Flames shot out from her palms as a golden-orange glow began to illuminate the darkness.

A loud series of snaps were met with dull thuds. The forest floor shook as though a giant roamed within. Frost created a clearing of her own after growing tired of the trees breaking her sightlines. A single passing of her arm was all that was needed to slice them from one end to the other.

The bark could not resist her sheer power. Between her knuckles were the uncuttable steel strings, each attached to an anchored Unlying Tablet. Her hands fumed with steam, reflecting the rage within.

The purpose of this was to create a barrier at the borders of the clearing she created, which slowly saw the debris transform into logs of chocolate. Stray branches became the handles of giant pink balls of cotton candy. Slowly, the black soil turned to a bluish-white powder that smelt of sour rock candy.

The borders beyond her steel webs were still largely the burning Black Forest.

And thankfully, she did not have to search for too long to come face to face with the Disciple.

He arrived from seemingly nowhere, joining Frost in the candied wonderland. His true form was revealed to her as well. Frost could clearly see that his fear of her was entirely nonexistent. That he perhaps did not understand the weight of her namesake.

But of course. They only knew Frost as the one who would set the world on fire.

 

 

< CONDITION: The Disciple of Nilhim cannot be interacted with unless it is in its manifested form. It must attain the image of an individual’s nightmare to completely manifest >

 

< It is exactly as Azure said. However, that will not matter to you >

 

Frost had spoken with Azure prior to entering the Escape. She was instructed to give her a summary of the Disciple of Nilhim. His weaknesses, any gimmicks she needed to be aware of, etcetera.

Only three things stood out.

The first was their revolting ego.

“We meet for the first time as fate would have it.” An air of superiority surrounded him, for he knew that he was untouchable by death. “The fact that you have not recklessly attacked means you know the futility of it. Neither am I so foolish to clasp at what resides within you, because sooner or later it will spill out. Those eyes brim with hatred. After all, that runt became a Corrupted.”

The second was, as stated before, their invulnerability.

“You too were a Corrupted at one point as I’ve heard. To ruin a city filled with innocents. Nilhim would approve. Flame is like fear. Only two people will come out of it. Those that overcome, and those that are swallowed.”

And the third was that the Fractured Nilhim moved like any other entity. There are no tricks to their ability to appear and disappear when in the absence of minds to rend. With what they knew of the Etched Coins, Azure warned Frost in advance that it was possible that they possessed a Hyperlink Etched Coin.

Otherwise, how would did they plan to leave the Escape?

Frost took a long look at the only manifested part of the Fractured Nilhim.

One - It can interact with items so long as one part is manifested. That part is likely a Dimensional Storage Etched Coin. I can’t sense it, but this puts us in a tremendously advantageous position unbeknownst to him.

“Indeed. We came prepared this time.” Nav mentally nodded as Frost took her first step forward, finally addressing the Disciple by name.

 

* * *

 

“Worm.”

The Amalgam ushered this singular word, refusing to see him as anything but an insignificant speck beneath her boots. She trampled on the sweet confectionary that grew like grass, crushing it under the immense weight of her overbearing presence.

“Everything must seem so insignificant in the eyes of a predefined evil like yourself.”

Terrent scoffed, half humored and offended that the Amalgam did not seem to understand her situation. Remove the aura that surrounded her, and she was no different from a fledgling Moon.

Seeing that the world had transformed into something so innocent had caused what little worry he had to disappear without a trace. Of course, if it came down to combat, then he would undoubtedly perish. That much he was certain of.

So why did his body feel so cold? A dangerous chill ran down his spine as he compulsively took a step back.

… this presence…

“Was your reunion with the Demi-Human runt too emotional for your tastes?” He taunted. Clawing at the mind of prey of all sizes was part of the Fractured Nilhim’s doctrine. All it took was one fracture for the liquid of fear to seep into their mind, and then that liquid would freeze all over.

It was how they rooted fear into the minds of people.

“How she covered her eyes. How she screamed and blamed herself for the loss of so many lives. You can empathize, can’t you, Amalgam? The weight of countless already rests on your shoulders. How many innocent lives perished because of your tantrum?”

The Amalgam’s mind did not crack. Rather, it seemed to only solidify further into one, impenetrable shell. The reason why Nilhim was here was to attain information directly from the Moons, and to further break down the Amalgam.

They believed her to be at her mentally weakest following the Atelier War.

However, Terrent sensed that something was off.

The Sect of Gears had reliable information this time. Amalgam. Your secrets will be dragged back along with the Moons at all costs. Those that are connected. Those that you fear to lose… We will see it all –!

“You took the form of her mother when she was at her lowest.” The Amalgam inched forward.

Her form began to morph. What was once a tiny, puny woman had grown proportions of a matured woman in her early thirties. Her height had increased to 185cm, and the presence she emitted became nearly unbearable.

She scrutinized him not for his sins, but because he dared to speak so highly as something so far underneath her.

“You took the form of their brother thinking you could bring another down. Yet you have the audacity to believe that I’m the one caught in your web when you have failed?”

He didn’t notice it at first. Surrounding them was an intricately crafted wall of web. It posed no physical issue for him, and yet dread began to gnaw at him. The light within the void plastered on his face trembled ever so slightly.

The emotion he felt was unfamiliar to him despite it being all he could inflict on the innocent.

“Worm.” The Amalgam spat again. “You can’t stand to face them directly, so you burrow your way into their head. The veil of invulnerability is all that protects you. Assume my fears. That’s why you’re here.”

He grew cold feet. A primitive urge demanded that he refuse. The Amalgam’s mind had not been cracked. Assuming it now would mean certain death. He needed a singular lapse of emotional disruption.

Otherwise, he was doomed to die here. He suddenly understood the position he was in.

And yet his egotistical fixation kept him firmly in place.

“Bold. You understand that even I would be able to crush an evil such as yourself once I manifest as your fears.” He spoke the truth. Indeed, depending on what Frost feared the most, he could very well surpass her in power. “See me, Nilhim. See that this Disciple walks this trial by fire and tramples on the pride of the Amalgam –!”

“What is fear?” Suddenly, before he could finish his drawn-out monologue –

“W-What…?”

– His arm was severed clean off.

He couldn’t even perceive what had happened.

Suddenly, one finger of his only remaining arm disappeared, causing a sickening howl to bellow from the bottom of his lungs.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“I’ll ask you once more, worm, what is fear?”

He attempted to escape her, hovering inches from the air as he flew across the pink fields only to lose yet another finger. No blood was spilled, for his form was not corporeal. Furthermore, the agony that chewed at his soul was unproportionable to the damage he had taken.

His body was then thrown into the Black Forest by seemingly nothing at all. He phased through the trees and the webbings, only to be caught in the clutches of the Amalgam. She squeezed his throat, her eyes filled with unquenchable hatred before she impaled him on her forearm.

“GAAAGH! That’s… this is… impossible…!”

“Fear isn’t an instrument. Fear is a survival mechanism. Those who lack it are not the winners in your twisted, fucked up interpretation of it. If you understood fear, then you never would have crossed paths with me in the first place!”

The Amalgam simply flicked her arm as if to remove the filth from her fingers. He flew in a random direction. The disorientation quickly caught up to him as he desperately attempted to clasp onto his only lifeline now.

“I can… I can leave… This is their fault. The Sect of Gears – How could they have mistaken the Amalgam to be emotionally weak!? Once I return…!”

He clasped at an Etched Coin like it was his only ray of hope.

But that glimmer was snuffed out when he was struck again, his head bending into an unrecognizable shape. He collapsed into the ground, nearly sinking before he was fished out by the Amalgam, who wrung his head and began crushing the bones of his last arm to dust.

“The Sect of Gears were never reliable. For all you know you may as well be a single cog in one of their predictions. You were nothing to begin with.”

“Preposterous! Why – why can’t I open the Dimensional Storage!?” Suddenly, the Etched Coin was stolen by Frost. It fell into her own Dimensional Storage, causing the flame in Terrent’s eye to waver.

He knew exactly where that was connected to.

“They still underestimate me. Do you know why?” The Amalgam gave him a single moment of respite. His pain threshold was lowered to the ground, allowing for even her breath to cause immense agony. “Because they lack information. Of all your friends that have come to challenge me, only the Memory Bistros have returned. The Bloody Herring. Leitmotif. The Messengers. The Syndicates. The Scraper. Scarlet Logic’s Nex Megalopolis Headquarters. Even a Heart of the City. All of them have fallen to me.”

Terrent’s pride offered him only to avenues now. To wait for an opening, or to die. If he perished, then he could return with this information. No, more than that.

I can warn them that the Amalgam possesses a Hyperlink Coin…

The best option was to gain the information, and then die. He had a method to eliminate himself, for he knew that the Amalgam could destroy his soul at the moment of death.

He felt fear for what seemed like the first time since he became an Impuritas.

And so, as he was pummeled, flayed, and broken down till he appeared like a ball of strung, blue and black flesh; he sealed his fate and uttered:

“Ah… Ahahaha… You should have been imprisoned. All of this this needless suffering could have been avoided if you sat still. How many have suffered? How many more will now? The healers you so adore will be caught in the crossfire. No. They will be at the focal point of it. Just what do you think we’re doing to the healers we’ve already caught? What will happen to the healers under you care? Or your beloved Jury?

They will break like the twins in the Leviathan!”

Suddenly, the Amalgam’s body was consumed by an uncontrollable heat as a crown of burning thorns appeared on her head.

And before he knew it, the world was set alight.