93. Empowerment

93. Empowerment

The world trembled under the might of the Greed Counter. The center of this dilapidated circus was upheaved by a monumental gem. It burst forth from the earth, splitting the land as cracks ran through like lightning, reaching the furthest ends of the circus.

It was massive, easily reaching up to 20 meters in height.

The giant blue diamond shimmered in the middle of the landscape, glistening with a mysterious light as Frost felt her mind begin to rattle. A sudden surge of apathy befell her, transforming into a compulsion that begged her to succumb to the inherent greed that was etched into her heart.

Although, there was little there to begin with.

Big Blue Diamond

AFFINITY : Civilization

LEVEL : 120ORIGIN : Disorder

HP : 100,000

ATT : 0MAG ATT : 0ATT DEF : 4,000MAG DEF : 4,000

MP : 0

RESIST : 100AGI : 0

< CONDITION : The Big Blue Diamond will evaluate your worth. If its value exceeds that of your own, then you will transform into a diamond >

< SUPPRESSION REQUIREMENTS : Know your value. Feed it coins to counteract its effect >

A giant counter then appeared high above the Big Blue Diamond, beginning at zero. The number then began rise in slow increments as the Greed Counter continued to convert its victims into currency.

“A-AGH! FROST! What’s going on now!?” Cer exclaimed, waving her left hand around as if it was set alight.

“My hand!?” Ber gnawed at her gauntlet, pulling them off to reveal a frightening sight.

“W-what... the hell... is this!?” Res was also under this bizarre spell.

Jury, Ignis and Snap also expressed similar concerns, realizing that pieces of their bodies were being encased by what appeared to be ice. It began at their fingertips and slowly crept upwards like a flesh-eating disease.

They were literally being transformed into diamonds.

Frost did not spare a second more as she took note of all their values. Cer’s was the lowest of them all, alongside Snap. The semi-conscious Perla on the other hand was freed from this value for some reason, and as such, remained immune to this abnormal effect.

It was entirely unknown how or why this was the case, but she suspected it had something to do with how she managed to resist becoming a Hired Arm.

“EVERYONE! We need to destroy that thing as soon as possible! All of you! Gather the coins dropped by these things and haul it straight to that thing! DO NOT ATTACK IT! Your ATT and MAG ATT is nowhere close to being able to damage it!” Frost relayed this vital piece of information. “Leave that to me! And SNAP! Take one of them around! But please focus on surviving as well!”

The triplets were like a group of tamed wolves and obeyed her every order, now immersed in the heat of battle as Cer and Ber delightfully embraced this rush. They dispersed with Snap to harvest the coins that burst forth from the heads of the innocent people here.

People needed to die for them to succeed. Although at the same time, this would not have been an issue if these people were not here in the first place. It was a dilemma of moral relativism, and she had to gruelingly ignore it.

There was nothing else she could do to save them.

Frost casted [Cleanse] but it did little to help them in this situation. The CONDITION was absolute, but they still had a clear shot of beating this. Except that it was all down to Frost, and she’d have to hit it over 200 times over to destroy it.

“Jury! Get Perla awake and try to figure out what she did to resist this!” Frost prepared herself to leave, harnessing the last remnants of her mana to use Flame of Fleeting Ember.

“I GOT IT!” Jury nodded and began to violently shake the woman. “Wake up! Paladin Perla! Please, we need you to stay with us! WAKE UP!”

“Ignis, do exactly what the triplets do and start collecting gold! Leave the fighting to me!”

“Mm!” Ignis nodded with a hum, chasing down Ber right as Frost propelled herself forward with a blazing explosion.

Her mind was wracked with various impulses as the fingers of her left hand began to burn, like they were submerged in an arctic sea. No matter what she did the diamonds never broke off, and when she bit into it along the way; “ANGH!”

Her finger snapped clean off. Even something as hard as diamond could hardly resist her maw. And to her surprise, a portion of her HP was capped off because of this creeping diamond.

HP: 283,500 | 283,500 (285,000)

But it meant little to her.

It caused her to yearn for something. For a certain greed to arise. It was a weak sensation, but it was present, nonetheless. She could not put her finger on what this was, however.

This combined with her heightened emotions resulted in her unstable behavior and led her to repeatedly bash this mind-rending diamond like it was the source of the world’s woes.

The Big Blue Diamond yearned to sew these deep into Frost’s psyche. To cause her to doubt herself. To make her believe that she was worth exactly what it believed her to be.

Everyone... everyone’s feeling the same mental anguish right now...

“Jury’s conviction is steady. Ignis has no issue. Snap is having trouble, but at your rate you will be able to defeat it before anything can happen. However... you can hear it too?”

“DAMN IT ALL!” Cer screamed uncharacteristically as she joined Frost in the beatdown despite her futile ATT in the face of this Corrupted.

The value above her head flickered strangely just like Perla’s as Cer wove through the moat of molten rock and sent shock after shock against the cracked gem.

“Frost... Why is it making fun of me? Degrading me like it thinks it knows my story?” Cer smashed her head straight into its opaque wall, and as if by some miracle, she managed to crack it.

Big Blue Diamond | HP: 50,000

Frost’s emotions tempered as she continued to hack away at it. But the sound of shattering glass and bubbling molten rock was eerily silent.

In this strange void filled with false stars, the Moon spoke from the bottom of her heart.

“Can they call my necessities greed? When we were small... when we were nothing but little pups hung dry in the mess of Grandis... we were nothing. Had nothing but ourselves and that one stuffed teddy bear.”

Cer’s claws cracked into the gemstone as she clung close, her hair shading her eyes as this entity challenged the greed in her heart. Her fingers sank further into its walls.

Frost made it her mission to protect Cer at all costs now that every single one of the Touch of Golds moved to converge on her, like she was the most dangerous of them all.

“My big mouth got us into trouble here and there... but no matter how many times they put us down. How many times they made me eat the dirt they tread with their dirty animals –”

Cer’s body trembled. Frost had never seen a more vulnerable back before. And so, she defended it from the oncoming Touch of Golds with her life, watching the HP of the Big Blue Diamond quickly dwindle as cracks further spread from Cer’s sunken fingers.

Cer... I see. I understand why you took a liking to those women now. I never did think of you as greedy as much as you wanted to rob the casino blind. But I guess that goes to show what an outsider like me really knows about you, huh. Because anyone else would have thought otherwise.

“I agree Frost. Only a person may know their own worth. How intriguing. This Corrupted is a strange one.”

I’ve heard that a lot. In what way now?

“That it strangely seeks for the best in a person.”

Frost’s eyes widened for a moment. She could not understand why Nav believed this to be the case. After the countless blood it had shed it was nothing but a monster in her eyes.

And then, with one final shout, the crystal’s HP dropped by a whopping 25,000.

Big Blue Diamond | HP: 15,000

“– I never once thought I was worthless! YOU WILL NEVER BUY MY HEART! NONE OF YOU EVER WILL! NOT AN ATELIER, AND NEVER THAT SNAKE OF A BEHOLDER!”

< [Empowered] >

< Cer has become empowered! Her stats have been temporarily doubled for this encounter! >

A brilliant blue aura then surrounded her, appearing near identical to the ghastly, diamond visage of the Greed Counter. Except hers was beautiful, radiating the light of a moon in this desolate place. And with it, the value above her head disappeared entirely.

Moon (Empowered)

Cer

< Electric Fang >

Soul Rank: Incandescent | Atelier: Nil

LEVEL : 200 ORIGIN : Demi-Human

HP : 100,000

ATT : 6,000MAG ATT : 6,000ATT DEF : 4,000MAG DEF : 4,000

MP : 20,000

RESIST : 200AGI : 110