140. A Star’s Cycle

140. A Star’s Cycle

A bright light suddenly enveloped the children as an invisible explosion erupted. It was a nonlethal explosion, but it felt as though she was caught in the middle of an artificial supernova as her eyesight was instantly turned white for as long as a minute.

Frost’s entire mind was focused on dealing with the pain of her bouncing heart. Her Touch of Golds crushed it into a fine paste against the loose brickwork as another dozen wrapped her chest like bandages, hoping to keep her regenerating heart within.

A combination of [Grand Healing] and [Prolonged Stasis] was used to keep herself alive. The fact that three quarters of her HP was instantly depleted frightened her of the possibility of death. Her body instantly became limp, and the only thing that kept her upright were her tentacles.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. AAH. Uaaaaaaaah!” Frost’s screams could not do justice to the immense agony she felt.

Her voice was a mix of a soundless cry and a hoarse yell. The soul-rending pain of Ignis’ Corrupted form could not even hold a candle to this. Her desire to protect everyone was quickly killing her.

And it did not help with the misery of losing Stella’s friends, right after she had promised that they’d be ok.

Their emotional instability cursed them with the dreaded Corrupted transformation. Their bodies fizzled into countless particles of light that suddenly spread thinly across the empty skies.

In that moment, a small portion of the skies were painted with swirls of light that represented the stars. A dark blue backdrop concealed the heights of the cavern directly above them. They carried a certain brushstroke texture. It was like an artwork more than anything.

< “Follow us. We’ll never leave you behind.” >

The Corrupted utter was the combined voices of the children. It wasn’t hoarse or ominous like many of the Corrupted she had faced. It was like listening to a gentle, hopeful harp. Like this Corrupted meant no harm, but the 10,000 ATT screamed otherwise.

Frost couldn’t cry even if she wanted to. Her heart wrenched for the loss as she screamed at her helplessness, and the failed promise she uttered to Stella.

I’m... so sorry...

“There is still a Realization criteria! Have hope!”

Why can people become Corrupted so easily? They said it’s never happened, but I’ve already seen it happen twice. Is it my fault, Nav? Is there something about me that turns people nearby into Corrupted?

< The Third State Has Manifested as Lament >

Frost drowned in lament. Her Touch of Golds slowly crept towards the ruined exit of the Triple Paw Complex to fend off the rapidly approaching Aspirators. Her mind was clouded in confusion, and her regenerating heart that tore at her chest only made it worse.

“I believe it is coincidence. Otherwise, so many more would have transformed into Corrupted. Their desires and emotions caused by the Heart of Ours is to blame. Not you.”

She wanted to believe Nav, but her own emotional spiral of self-loathing caused her mind to think otherwise. The tragedy of it all finally caught up to her now that her desires to protect were amplified by the Aspirating condition.

Tens of thousands had survived. The numbers were much higher than those that fell. She knew this, and even witnessed the Painters ahead manage to avoid the Aspirators.

Tell Ignis to get Ponea ready. A lot more people need to be cleansed. I... will hold this line and keep them out. Until Res or Jury wakes up Determined. No matter how long it takes... I will be standing right HERE!

Frost anchored herself into the earth with several tentacles. She kept her Unlying Tablets infused with healing magic all around them, all the while she attacked the distant Aspirators with Dismissed Confession.

The Aspirators afflicted quivered in place, and upon taking lethal damage they burst like a balloon. There was no blood, only the rubbery remains of a once functional heart.

< “You were always so bright and considerate. You never complained and still looked up to us like stars... You never knew that you were always the star in our darkest nights.” >

It was a miracle that Frost was even alive, but any time she used a skill that wasn’t healing-based she’d be struck down by the pain in her chest. [Prolonged Stasis] once again returned to being her lifeline despite how weak it was compared to [Grand Healing].

Frost was destined to face the Aspirators alone for an unknown period of time. She could not even fight the Asterism Corrupted with how distant it was in the sky. But in her fall arose the Hired Arm, who opened fire upon the stars the moment a beam of light was suddenly fired into their direction.

< [Ray of Hope] >

< “We still want to reach you no matter how far away we are. Please hold out your hand. You’ll never have to reach far.” >

The attack vaporized everything that stood in its path with a high-pitched noise, but it miraculously missed everyone as well. No one was hurt as far as she could tell, and it was confirmed by Ignis.

Frost never noticed it, but her Dismissed Confession was dealing much more damage than it should have. Her MAG ATT was currently only 4,500, yet she dealt with the Aspirators far faster than she should have.

The math was not adding up.

In the end, Frost could only stand her ground and open her one hundred Touch of Golds like the massive pincers of a beetle. With one sweeping movement she clumped the Aspirators into the center and crushed them with wave after wave of tentacles.

She dominated her 100-meter circumference, guarding it for dear life as the terrain was quickly molded after her attacks. With this amount of freedom without the fear of injuring the innocent, she became an unstoppable force.

But the Big Red Heart itself was like an immovable object. A lumbering mountain that slowly inched its way to claim her heart once and for all. It was the only thing that separated them from the Bloody Herring. Once it fell... then it was just a matter of destroying the Aspirators.

Then the Bloody Herring would perish alongside the Heart of Ours.Findd new stories at novelhall.com

* * *

The constellation of stars called out Stella as her heart sunk. She felt like she could hear the voices of her friends somewhere in the sky, and when she reached out towards it –

“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Perla desperately urged.

– A wave of heat instantly cooked their faces and caught the loose clothing of countless alight. A beam of unimaginably powerful heat tore the barren fields in half, thankful just as everyone diverged from its path.

The stars simultaneously twinkled right before the attack, and the ground kicked up a tremendous amount of steam unnaturally. Perla’s barriers were of no match to the beam, and they were seemingly dissolved within.

Panic instantly ensured. Hysteria filled them all as they could only run towards the rocky wall at the deepest end of the cavern. The ceiling was considerably lower here, and yet the Corrupted star-lit sky somehow defied all logic and hovered higher than the ceiling allowed.

< “We dreamt of a beautiful star filled night. But we were always told that no such thing existed. So we all tried to fill that void.” >

Stella recognized those voices. They undoubtably belonged to her friends. Ignis carried the girl over her shoulder as she gazed into the direction of the light, her eyes watering as she wondered why their voices were so loud.

“It’s a Corrupted! It’s a Corrupted!”

“DON’T STOP! WATCH YOUR FEET! DON’T TRAMPLE ON EACH OTHER!”

“IT’S ALL GONE TO HELL!”

“Please help us... Please Angel! Please help us!”

The foreign language and her native tongue melded into a cacophony that inspired nothing but terror into her heart. Stella didn’t know what the implications of a Corrupted were, but their voices wove nothing but despair.

Yet... That heat was familiar to her, as were the voices. She instinctively reached out towards the light and uttered:

“Aster...? Everyone?”

< “We desperately wished to join our city skies. But we never knew that the star above was fake. What is a real star to begin with?” >

Still, no one was killed. The artwork above became a collage of so many spiraling colors despite the number of stars dwindled. There was more to the night sky than just stars and moons alone; and it was as if those cosmic clouds were creating more miniature stars in the process in a beautiful cycle beyond their reach.

“... It’s beautiful...?” Perla inadvertently whispered. “Why is a Corrupted so... Pretty?”

Asterism | HP: 300,000

The Hired Arm’s offensive only increased, as did the Moons who spared the Corrupted no mercy. But there was an air of reluctance that surrounded the Hired Arm. The dilemma of keeping the Corrupted alive verses killing should not have existed.

But knowing that that the Corrupted were essentially children was what made it difficult. Still, the Hired Arm fought on the principle of greed. So long as it was being paid for by Frost, then it would do anything she willed.

< “Please don’t make this all an illusion. The colors we were told about made us wonder how much more we were missing out on. So we wanted to become the stars among them to see what really happens up there.” >

< “But no matter how many stars we were surrounded by.” >

< “We realized that it was colder up here than down there with you.” >

Asterism | HP: 200,000

< “The stars... are so incredibly spread out that we can never talk to each other. It’s so lonely.” >

The bullets now began to rebound from star to star, seemingly devouring them in the process. The fallen stars broke upon entering the Hired Arm’s vicinity and were sucked up as if she were a black hole. A blue accretion disk surrounded her like a beautiful belt, which only expanded in size the more stars that fell.

And at the same time, the rays became more violent, claiming the limbs and flesh of many as it tried to obliterate Stella. If it weren’t for Ignis, then she would have died at the very first instance of the attack.

“Aster. You were always the star in my eyes! How do you think I feel down here without you or anyone! I want to stay by your side! Please... Stay by my side! I don’t care if it’s any empty sky anymore! I don’t care how many goodnights that go by without any light! I don’t care if I’m always still stuck in my own small world!”

< “There was only one variation of the night sky we both loved. It was the only one we ever knew until the kind painter and kind angel showed us what else laid beyond our tiny world.” >

Asterism | HP: 100,000

Ayel suddenly stopped in place, his hands falling to his sides as he gazed up speechlessly at the fleeting stars. There were thousands of things that went through his mind, and none could blame him for it.

L.S tapped him on passing and shot him a small, forgiving smile and a nod.

They couldn’t hear the same things that Stella could; but Ayel certainly sensed their words as the reimagining of his painting steadily came to its closure.

Asterism | HP: 70,000

The bullets became trails of light now in a darkening sky. The light of the stars had almost faded by now, but the colors remained flying high.

“We can see lots more! Together! Aster... I can’t imagine a world... I can’t imagine looking up at the sky without you so please –!”

Asterism | HP: 50,000

< “No matter how many failures, you were never discouraged. But now that you became aware, you realized how futile it was...” >

Asterism | HP : 30,000

< “Because we never really did know that our star was just an illusion.” >

Asterism | HP: 20,000

“THEN LET’S FIND THE REAL STARS TOGETHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!” Stella, with one final scream, let the world know where her heart lay.

This cruel subterranean world was their hell. But without Aster... then everywhere else was. The tears could not stop trickling down her cheeks as she suddenly clasped onto Ignis, sobbing uncontrollably.

The tears that fell sparkled in this dark place, like the last stars of their fake night sky.

Asterism | HP: 10,000

< “So let’s not make it an illusion anymore...” >

< “Stella. I ‘will’ become a star. Not a fake one...” >

< “But a real star. So please... Don’t give up reaching for them.” >

< “You’ll end up missing me.” >

Asterism | HP: 20

The final star fell towards Frost’s direction. As it gradually fell from the sky the spiralling form suddenly exploded, leaving behind nothing but vast clouds of compact colors. The blast threw many onto their arms and backs as the cavern was engulfed in an empowering glow for a very brief moment.

And then...

“Light...?”

“Something glowing over there.”

“It’s still alive?”

They were all at a loss for words. The clouds suddenly condensed into themselves and formed another star right above Frost’s tentacles, which reached out and cusped the light, which had taken a human form.

In the death of a star came the rebirth of another.

Ignis fell to her knees and hugged Stella. She instinctively knew what had happened, and as the light faded again, and the world returned to its reddish hue, she spoke to Stella with a quivering voice.

“You did it Stella. You did it. Aster is... She’s been Realized.”