496. New Corrupted Skills and Frost’s Worries

496. New Corrupted Skills and Frost’s Worries

< Frost. Before you head towards the Disciple of Nilhim, I have some good news for you >

< Stats from CENSORED and Black Dahlia gained >

< CENSORED and Black Dalhia have been added to your Corrupted Persona collection >

< Unique Abilities Gained >

< CENSORED | ABILITY: Beyond the Threshold >

< EFFECT: Dress yourself in materialized fear. Passively apply Trepidation Stacks to those with less than 90 RESIST when active >

< What lays beyond the expanse we call the horizon? >

< Black Dahlia | ABILITY: Sins Are Nutrients>

< EFFECT: Create and control thorny brambles at will. They will guide you towards Sin-rich soils. Attain Nex from Sin-Rich sources via the brambles. What is determined as a ‘Sin’ is dependent on your interpretation >

< Like the flowers, we reflect the world that has nurtured us. The colors of our petals are proof of our experiences >

Frost was not surprised to find that she had gained the Abilities of these Corrupted. She simply needed to be within the vicinity of a subjugated Corrupted, just like Asterism. The stats she gained were miniscule. As much she had hoped to gain infinite HP, that seemed to only stem from a Condition rather than the Corrupted itself.

Besides, personally devouring a Corrupted was bound to give more stats in return. Not to mention that such Corrupted barely passed as nutrition with her absurd stats.

Her figure blitzed through a forgotten wheatfield. The setting sun caused the world to glow a bright orange as pulp was flung into the air in her wake. Jury stayed behind the others for now, as per the request of the White Rabbit who wished to meet with Frost alone within the Escape.

Additionally, she did not want to expose Jury to an entity that could reach into a person’s mind. Jury was a Beholder with incredible strength, but she was still an infant compared to her peers.

Her mind lingered on the sight of the blue star. Thoughts trickled into her head as she entertained the countless ways of destroying the Disciple of Nilhim. The wave of emotions arrived as abruptly as she broke the surface of the lake, violently disturbing the otherwise serene body.

“Nav. Can you show me the Corrupted Skills I’ve gained?”

“That I can. It is not like the Crowned where you must first manifest it before it can all be revealed.”

Indeed. The reason why Frost has yet to receive a rundown on the Crowned was because she first needed to manifest it. Corrupted beyond Woe of the Fallen Star were inaccessible even to Nav. It was not clear why this was the case.

“’The Well’.” Frost repeated the term introduced to her by the White Rabbit. “It’s what resides at the core of all of us. The self and identity. Our wants and needs. Aspirations and motives. She called it a ‘Law’ of the Miracle of Cognition.”

The Miracle of Cognition was but one of many names given to the enigmatic beginnings that predated the Captured Star. A far more fitting name was the Source. It wasn’t the source of all life, or the beginnings of creation and reality itself. Rather, it was the source of all anomalies that broke the laws of physics.

“Something was born from nothing.” It was the most she got out of the White Rabbit, but it was more than enough to convince her that she knew far more than anyone else in this world. “I honestly can’t tell if it’s some elaborate metaphor, allegory or if she meant it literally.”

“Have you heard of the Boltzmann Brain thought experiment?”

“Not really, no.”

“It is a reductio ad absurdum argument. But we are no strangers to them in this world.” Nav began as Frost braved a cartoonish version of the Black Forest.

Not a single star shone in its foreboding skies.

“The thought experiment tests our assumptions of the laws of thermodynamics. That when all comes to a homogenous, low-entropic state – such as that at the end of the universe – then something can be born from the void.”

“We had theories like that on Earth for almost everything. Something from nothing.” Frost commented, her presence casting an emphatic light upon the dark world. “Sorry. What’s that thought experiment called?”

< ACTIVE: CENSORED: Surgical Administration >

< EFFECT: Permanently remove the organ of an individual. It may never be regrown. A piece of the soul will be forever scarred >

< Extreme terror mended only through extreme methods >

< COST: 100,000 MP >

< PASSIVE: CENSORED: Overwhelming Repression >

< EFFECT: Create an indiscriminate Repression Field. When left by individuals with over 20% Trepidation Stacks to their RESIST; inflict the Despair/Breakdown Condition >

< Is it really all inside our heads? >

< RANGE: 50 meters >

< PASSIVE: CENSORED: Nightmare Fuel >

< EFFECT: Your form becomes incomprehensible. CENSORED bars ooze from your body, instilling far more fear than what truly lies underneath. Those at 100% Trepidation may turn into Shells should you wish >

< The fear of the unknown is the most primitive of all terrors >

< BLACK DAHLIA’S CORRUPTED SKILLS >

< ACTIVE: Reap What Has Been Sown >

< EFFECT: Absorb the Sins and fragments of relevant memories. Flowers of a Sin type will be left to grow on the target’s body >

< It was tended in such a way that the results of the harvest were obvious >

< COST: 500 MP >

< ACTIVE: Guilty Constriction >

< EFFECT: Control those smitten with guilt so long as the Brambles are not severed. Target must have 50% Guilt Stacks to their RESIST Stat >

< We must make amends before the day of our mourning >

< COST: 500 MP per second >

< PASSIVE: Flowers of Repentance >

< EFFECT: For each Dahlia that grows on a target’s body, increase the number of Guilt Stacks accumulated when caught within the Brambles. At 75% Guilt Stacks, Dahlias become unremovable >

< Our sins leak into the world because we tend to overlook the damage we cause beyond ourselves >

< PASSIVE: To Bloom >

< EFFECT: Those with 100% Guilt Stacks will be absolved of sin by transforming into a Dahlia. They will proliferate and color their surroundings, leaving behind the proof of their absolved sins in the colors of their petals >

< It comes in full circle >