She felt a presence surrounding her but no matter where she looked, she could not find it.

“I am not in the same place! I have climbed my way to where I am! Do you think there’s such thing as a wish without sacrifice!?”

Her vile nature came to light. There was not an ounce of regret to be found.

“This is what I wanted! Everything can be justified by the outcome! Ateliers, the Hungry, the serfs – this is the course of the world. I intend to fully embrace it!”

 

“How long have you been chasing that dream for?”

 

“What does it matter!? I’ve lived for hundreds of years! I pity my old iterations for never understanding the meaning that’s driven me to this one wish!” Her mind was seemingly long gone.

Her arms were on the brink of tearing themselves clean from her shoulder as she reached into the veil, still clasping at nothing for she believed she was just inches away.

“I am almost there! This vision is exactly what I was waiting for! I can feel it! It’s just out of reach! If I can kill one or two more Blood Moons – or even the Amalgam – then I can become the perfect iteration!”

 

“You are blinded by a star you cannot see.”

 

“I’m so close! I’m nearly there! All of it… all of it will justify my cause! Witness me! Watch as I clasp onto the same star they all dreamt to reach! I will replace it!”

 

“It was only you who sought after it. The people you piled under did not see stars. Even now you don’t understand that behind the veil…”

 

Suddenly, the fog disappeared. A night sky filled with countless stars sat at the top of the well the Arachnid found herself in. What she believed was at the cusp of her fingertips was so far away that her hand began to quiver.

 

“… Is a place we cannot reach.”

 

“You have not changed.”

 

“You’ve remained stagnant. You dragged people down to see the same sight as you. You wanted to become your only star.”

 

“I… must. Otherwise what have I been doing this entire time if to not be one of those!? I will not be bound to the throes of the Nexus! I want to hear my heart again!”

 

“You joined Scarlet Logic in hopes of achieving it. Have you not realized it yet?”

 

“No. You are already aware of it. Your heart was Scarlet Logic’s. You never had a choice in the first place. The Monarch’s orders were absolute. You happily followed it for the sake of achieving your dream.”

 

“Exactly. I did that. And what of it!? Am I so wrong for using others to get to where I want!? That is the nature of this world!”

 

“Then why have you still not moved?”

 

“… I… It’s all perspective. The people I dragged –!”

 

“They helped you hide the fact that you were unchanging.”

 

“That you could not move no matter how high you piled the bodies.”

 

“That is… I...” The Arachnid was faced with the one thing she feared to confront.

It was that she never moved from the same spot despite all she had done. Looking around, she realized that the bloody waters still caressed her ankles. The bodies she stood atop were built from the base of the sea of blood. The walls of her well were the faces of her past iterations.

And amongst the stars was the face of her very first iterations. The original her.

 

“It was a spiral of self-destruction.”

 

“… You say that like there was another way out!” She lashed out, her hands falling to her face as she began clawing at her flesh, unable to tear off her hideous form.

 

“You lived like the Iron Stars. You became unknowingly stagnant despite all you have done. It was futile. Nothing you did changed a thing. You only brought others down into the gravity of your well as a ‘star’.”

 

“Because I am a Star. I am… a Star…! Why am I the only one that won’t shine in their eyes!?”

 

“You tried to escape the call of the Nexus only to live as the slave of another heart.”

 

“I… want to be my own Star!” She screamed as the waters began to rise. “I – I have to! All of this will be meaningless! The light that sparkled in their eyes – it must be me!” Her thrashes were futile. The weight of the countless bodies beneath her locked around her legs, preventing her from moving.

The Blood Moons she trampled further anchored her in place as the waters rose to her ball-like joints.

 

“It’s already meaningless. The people that you believed who saw you as a light - they despised you. The Blood Moons you broke waited at the opportunity to bring you down.”

 

Her many eyes widened as she was faced with this realization. Revelation after revelation rose like the waters. They were things she kept locked out of her mind; things she had justified for her one wish.

And yet…

“… I… what have I been doing…?” She arrived at a crossroads as the waters reached her throat. Her eyes moved towards the lights above. Hands then blocked her eyes. They were the hands of those she had snuffed the same lights out of.

 

 

“Then tell me, ‘Star’, wherein lies your heart?”

 

She drowned in the blood of her aspirations. And within the cold sea, she arrived at an epiphany.

 

“I never had one.”

 

“I was lost and the Nexus took pity on me.”

 

“I tried to become something more and fell further.”

 

“It was all a waste. I wanted to claim myself. I still want to claim it. I can… still see the star.”

 

“Yes. I just have to follow the light.”

 

“No matter the cost. I must forget everything and just focus on that light that dangles before me.”

 

“That way everything can be alright.”

 

“What have you become?”

 

A single light emerged at the bottom of the red sea. And behind it was the face of a lost angler fish. A shadowy stem connected the head to a bipedal body. All semblance of her identity was stripped away as she obsessed over one core woe.

 

“Lost again.”

 

She whispered, following that star that dangled from an illicium, destined to forever be just out of reach.

 

* * *

 

//////// < WARNING > ////////

 

< The Red Giant Has Reached an Epiphany >

 

< Corruption is now unstoppable >

 

< The Red Giant’s Corruption Event Has Begun >

 

< The Red Giant Has Successfully Been Corrupted >

 

< ETERNAL NIGHT >

< THE ARBITER’S TRUMPET RESONATES >

 

 

“Your purpose is to be lost.” The Amalgam’s distinct voice could be heard from beyond the darkness. “And – it’s to be my nutrition. It’s short lived, but I’m happy that you have come to terms with yourself.

Thank you for being my meal. It’s been a while since I have had any meaningful changes to my Mana.”

And almost as quickly as she was born – her lights were snuffed away by something darker than the void.