“No… No. This isn’t how it was supposed to be… My mind – I’m the one being consumed!?”

“I’m open about my fears.” The Amalgam spoke as his mind was ripped apart, becoming one with the homogenous, cold void.

And when he returned to, his form had changed entirely. It was that of a giant, black, fuzzy beast. It walked on two scrawny legs and possessed an abnormally large mouth riddled with thousands of teeth. The form could not be compared to anything. Within him was a single spark of light. A pitiful, lonely, fleeting ember that could not warm the cold of his new body.

What he manifested was the Amalgam’s worst fear.

“And looking at you, I think I understand myself a bit better now. For that, I will thank you.”

The Amalgam patiently spoke. Even though she was more than a quarter of his size, he could not help but to tremble. Not only that, but he also couldn’t even remove the form if he wished. His body refused to respond to his commands.

They found themselves in the Black Forest as the Amalgam strode towards him with agonizingly slow steps.

“What I’m afraid of is losing myself.”

The Amalgam had no grandiose fear.

Neither was it truly incomprehensible.

It was a core fear shared by many.

But hers was on a scale unlike anything he had ever seen. It devoured him. Broke his form down to a round, abstract smudge.

“You have no idea what I’ve been through to reach these heights. The sacrifices I’ve made. The pain I’ve endured. It’s a miracle that I’ve managed to keep my sanity along the way. The paths I’ve walked. How much of me is still missing from my whole.” The Amalgam placed a hand onto his form.

Every hair on his fuzzy body rose like thorns.

His body surrendered, for it considered him already dead.

“Stars constantly burn. They struggle to keep themselves from collapsing into an all-consuming void. You have no right to call yourself a Star when you worms have not even left the dirt!”

Suddenly, the world elapsed in the blink of an eye. The sound of the roaring winds could not drown his fears as the Amalgam’s unbearable heat and grip caused him to scream.

“AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” The voice was no longer his own. It had morphed into something truly hideous. Trees were mowed down in the Amalgam’s path as he was dragged along the dirt.

His body was shredded away. Then, seconds later, he was healed by the Amalgam. Death had become a mercy. Perpetual torment awaited him as the Amalgam used him as a giant ball, throwing, punching, tearing, and puncturing him however she wished.

“How much of me is still missing from my whole?” The Amalgam questioned, throwing him into the skies with a tremendous heave. She leaped into the air, her wingbeats fanning the flames beneath as a column of embers followed in her wake.

“Deep down I believe I also want to ‘complete’ myself, because there is so much I have yet to discover.” A part of her shared the same motive. However, it was far less twisted as theirs. Hers was an honest journey of self-discovery.

The journey was the change.

But to the Impuritas the journey mattered little.

They were so fixated on reaching for the stars that they had lost sight of the things surrounding them. The process was no more than a means to an end.

“Even so –!” She embraced him within her wings before they plummeted into the ground, creating a massive fireball that consumed everything within a five-hundred-meter radius.

“– I AM CONTENT WITH WHO I AM!”

The fireball left behind a molten crater. Within was the Amalgam and the tiny remnants of Terrent –

– No…

Terrent didn’t even know his own name now. The agony had destroyed his mind, and when his bead of light was held in the palms of the Amalgam, he understood the meaning of fear itself.

It drowned him. Nothing else mattered anymore.

The small cloud of black fuzz that surrounded his bead of light trembled as she pulled out a blue-pallid lantern. It was a birdcage with no light within unlike the one Azure previously shown to her.

That was because this one was empty. It yearned for a mind, as did CogitO’s technology.

“They will know my fears, and it will break them as it has done to you. My fears will be displayed as they always have. I must thank you again for being so cooperative. This birdcage will be your prison. I’m sure your Brightest Star intended the same thing to happen to me inside of the Black Forest.”

She placed him into the Lantern and at once, it illuminated with a bright light. Yet surrounding it was a black, glowing aura that blackened the pale cage. The fuzz of his being spilled through the gaps between the bars, tickling her wrists as she wore a fulfilling smile, bringing it to eye level.

“Why do birds fly? Such a stupid question. They fly because they have wings. Worms like you are food to birds like us.”

She watched him tremble. Any semblance of intelligence was stripped from his mind. He had become no more than an animal trapped within the cage of a monster.

“You can’t Corrupt. That’s all that matters to me. Azure.”

“Yes, Amalgam.” The Blue Moon materialized beside her, unflinching to the flames.

“It’s yours now. Give it a name.”

Azure’s lips curled into a wicked grin.

“No need. To give it a name means to grant it a semblance of self. It will be better to allow it to wander aimlessly inside of its mental prison. This is an incredible fear, Amalgam. I’m… ahaha…”

Azure trembled.

It was impossible to tell whether it was out of fear or…

… unparalleled delight.

Syringe

500 Chapters! Here's to another 500 more!