The patters of their footsteps eventually transitioned to the sound of thumping metal. The ground turned to a dull grey as they approached the passive entity. Frost stowed away the Lantern as she ordered Azure to leave her be. Her form disappeared following a respectful bow, leaving only Frost to deal with the Corrupted.

This resonates with you?

She mentally asked.

“I don’t understand it myself.” Nav was unable to describe what she felt, the cogs within her spinning in a manner that left her dumbfounded. “It is the first chapter in the Book of Dreaming Mortality. Can you describe what you are seeing?”

Frost relayed everything she could. The Corrupted in question was split into two parts. The first was a figure resembling a woman who was attached to the base of a pale tree. The tree in question had little leaves and was curved into arch that hung overhead where a small, glimmer of light dangled.

Wire-like vines extended from the bark and dug into her limbs, pumping strange fluids into her body.

The colors of her eyes were indescribable, her hair long and combed flawlessly. She wore a dress made of light and in her hands as she sat on her knees was a children’s book.

 

 

The other figure was a child that wore the exact same face as Frost’s. It was uncanny. The child wore innocent, crimson eyes that absorbed the dark world around them, smiling happily at the woman whose lips tenderly curled upwards.

 

 

She also wore a similar dress to the ethereal figure. They stood twenty meters apart, separated by darkness. Suddenly, The Cradle’s lips parted, and she began reading from the children’s book.

 

< [Goodnight] >

 

< “Let me read the words from a world of imagination.” >

 

< “Tell me more about the worlds I can’t see.” >

 

Two voices spoke. The first belonged to The Cradle and the second to The Child. Both voices carried the same baleful voice as most Corrupted. It turned what seemed to be a harmless Corrupted into something sinister.

Frost was complacent. A Hailstorm Corrupted posed little threat to her. Main Sequence Corrupted carried clues to the past. She rationalized that it would be a waste to kill it so quickly.

Suddenly, The Child gloated, waving her hands in the air as the dome of darkness saw golden images drawn along the skies. They were like constellations. Frost watched everything unfold a safe distance away. The world soon transformed into a fairytale-like landscape, where a chocolate castle sat at the top of a giant strawberry cupcake.

 

< “Glimmers filled the dark. I also wished I could see them too.” >

 

< “Amazing! Does the world look like this?” >

 

“They’re conversing. It sounds like it. But at the same time they’re both absorbed in their own thoughts.” Frost couldn’t quite describe it. The two seemed to interact but also not quite. “Nav. The Conditions.”

“… I’m perplexed…”

“Nav?”

“My lungs don’t need air. Yet I feel like I’m aspirating. This tightness in my chest. This Corrupted – I believe it may be linked to me in some way.” Nav adamantly claimed, and with what they knew of the past it was easy to see why.

“When you were Lailah, right?” Frost uttered, watching The Child happily roam the candied fields, drawing the scenery that was sung to her by the woman.

 

< “Anything is possible in this world. That is what I have always been told.” >

 

< “I believe you, caretaker! I always wanted to know what was outside of the shell.” >

 

< [Dreaming] >

 

Suddenly, wires shot from the tree, latching onto the limbs of the child. Something was pumped into her in several wires. In the others, something was extracted. Her eyes began to droop as she wandered towards exactly 10 meters in front of The Cradle before she laid herself on the ground.

“Indeed. And Frost. Please don’t be alarmed –”

“I know.” She answered with curled fists. “That child is supposed to be me. I don’t remember any of this either. Couldn’t this also be the Star Child?”

“The Star Child also wonders. She draws equations and question marks. She’s with me now, sharing a cup of tea with the Archivist.”

The Child dozed off into a long sleep, receiving the Sleeping Condition as the illusions disappeared and were quickly replaced by The Cradle.

 

< “They were hungry. So they destroyed your chocolate kingdom.” >

 

< “The dreams were all I had. My caretaker made sure I wasn’t hurt whenever I went to sleep. It was always loud outside. I imagined what kind of world was out there, beyond the repetitive grey halls and look-a-likes.” >

 

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Nav finally relayed the Conditions. She endlessly questioned the sensations she felt, and the memories that trickled into her head as her chest continued to ache.

 

< CONDITION: Lull-A-Goodbye cannot take damage exceeding 30,000 per cycle. The Child will grow stronger when its illusions are allowed to propagate. When The Child’s LEVEL reaches 10 before the end of the cycle, The Child will be targeted by an unavoidable attack. Inflict Mechanical Despair to The Cradle. The Cradle will become vulnerable to damage once Mechanical Despair is applied to it >

 

< CONDITION CONTINUED: If The Child’s LEVEL is less than 10 at the end of the cycle, inflict Mechanical Relief to The Cradle. The Cradle will remain invulnerable to damage. But Lull-A-Goodbye will still be able to be damaged >

 

< SUPPRESSION REQUIREMENT: Alternatively, if The Child’s LEVEL exceeds 10 and survives, then inflict Lull-A-Goodbye with Mechanical Hope >

 

< SUBJUGATION REQUIREMENT: Lull-A-Goodbye is defeated when either it or The Cradle’s HP reaches 0 >

 

“I’ve never seen so many variations before. What kind of complex Corrupted is this?” Frost wondered if there was more to it, because despite all of this, defeating the Corrupted was straight forward.

She quite literally had to do nothing to make The Cradle vulnerable. If she wanted to defeat Lull-A-Goodbye itself, then she’d have to wait three times as long, which was odd to her.

 

< I feel the aspiration. It’s constricting. But I too empathize with this Corrupted. Because for the longest time, I also wondered what the world was like >