804. Descartes and Enoch

804. Descartes and Enoch

Indeed. Beholder Descartes stood before them at the gates of the Floor of Wrath. Accompanying her was the Star Child and an aloof Enoch who waved her tie at the Star Child, not even sparing the Impuritas a thought.

“You make it sound like I’m resentful of the Nexus, when it couldn’t be further from the truth. Seeing that you know so little does bring some comfort. As I thought. We had no rats, not even amongst the Blessed.”

Though her body seemed weak, and she had no weapons of interest on her – it did not change that Descartes was a Beholder. Lifting a single finger could just as easily annihilate them on the spot. The pressure she exerted alone was enough to petrify them. But this was due to a Beholder Skill Descartes possessed.

[Cognition Annihilator – Deceit].

Cognition Annihilator came from the same set of skills as Cognition Resonance and Cognition Nullifier. Cognition Resonance allowed Descartes to amplify the powers of people who resonated with a certain type, which they had recently come to call ‘Sins’.

Inversely, Cognition Nullifier weakened those who resonated the strongest with a type of Sin. As for Cognition Annihilator – a magic that did not overtly make itself known with fancy magical circles or great beams of light like the Skills of other Beholders – was a Skill that could psychologically handicap those who resonated with a type of Sin.

In this case, it was deceit – a Sin that CogitO associated with beings related to the concept of the ego, and in turn, with the Affinity of Ego itself.

“The Impuritas and the concept of Deceit fall hand in hand.” Descartes approached the army of 1,000 Impuritas, her arms folded across her chest. “Aren’t we all pretending to be something else than what we really are?”

It was like watching a child walk up to a band of monsters, but in truth, it was more like a monster approaching 1,000 children. Their eyes could not remain on Descartes’ form as she approached them. An effect similar to a CognitO Filter did not allow them to comprehend her existence. She appeared like a specter to them; a shadowy aberration that lacked a proper form, much like the Fractured and the Specters of Nilhim.

“Deceit is to fool yourself into believing in a ‘you’ that does not exist. Completion doesn’t come without tribulations. A single wish can’t bypass the ordeal that comes before it. Isn’t that what Nilhim taught you?”

“Nilhim spoke of no lies. That tribulation comes in the form of fear. We are his agents who will prepare the masses into the new world.”

“Oh? On whose authority? Nilhim himself may be attenuated to fear, but his Fractured have already shown themselves to be vulnerable. You still don’t understand it yourself. Your goal to prepare people is no more than terrorizing them. That is your deceit.” Descartes 3 reached for the Fractured, cupping their chin with a gloved hand as they wore a look of disappointment.

“You... you build a device that could trap people in dreams to escape the horrors of reality. You built that to evade the day that a Star descends into our world. But all it did was induce terror. You were just like Nilhim. You despised the Nexus! So why are you taking their side?”

“Don’t deceive yourself further. Being aligned with the Beholders is different from protecting the interests of the Nexus. I can admit that I was not too fond of the Amalgam due to how she lumped me together with them.”

Descartes 3’s hand crushed the Fractured’s jaw. Suddenly, the Impuritas began to display abnormal behavior. The Memory Bistro could not even utter a word. Instead, his tongue flailed as his hands curled when he reached for his head, as though something was burring deep into his cerebrum.

“But the Amalgam’s own values align with mine. We don’t harvest Nex based on manufactured misery. At least not from those who didn’t deserve to descend into our inferno. How contrived. This conversation is more of a one-sided monologue. Memory Bistro. Burn this into your memory.”

“I’m not the type of Descartes that particularly enjoys getting my hands dirty. Don’t mistake it for compassion. I couldn’t care less about inferior beings.”

“Would you call non-Blessed inferior beings too?” Enoch half-jokingly said, referring to herself.

Descartes shot her a dangerous look. Their contrasting eyes clashed as Enoch wiped the smirk from her face. Descartes was serious, and Enoch was not insane enough to ignore the authority of a Beholder. But this was not why her demeanor changed.

It was the look of disdain that Descartes gave her; a look that said: “How dare you accuse me of arrogance.”

Enoch could sense this in Descartes 3’s veins. The Beholder was not a person fond of vanity or praise.

“I guess not. You don’t tend to indulge in the luxuries of a Beholder. Then again, it’s not like the other Beholders do. Hm. How should I deal with them?”

“However you see fit.” Descartes knelt before the Star Child and offered a hand. “Forgive me for treating you like a child. You may push my hand away if it’s pretentious of me to offer you aid. Consider using these hands to cover your eyes.”

The Star Child only smiled in response as she stood on her toes to look over Descartes’ shoulder. Descartes wore a shocked expression, not because the Star Child wished to see Enoch in action, but because she wore stars in her eyes.

Then, the blue glow in Descartes’ eyes faded as she melancholically droned:

“As children do. From as young as 3 years of age. Your eyes remind me of the children of the Subderma Layer who looked up to murderers like they were heroes. They were ‘stars’, Long before we knew what ‘stars’ were supposed to be.”

She knew well of the type of world Nilhim wanted.

They came from the same, deep down in the bowels of the world, just before the gates of hell that was the Derma Layer. A melting pot of civilizations condemned centuries ago by the Iron Stars.

In a world where stars fell, the only ‘Stars’ that would be monsters. Stars were meant to exist in the skies. But because people transformed into monsters as they ascended due to the Curse of the Ascent, it was only natural for people to call these monsters ‘stars.’

It was not the fault of the Star Child. Descartes sensed an immeasurable sadness within those eyes, so she did not question why there were stars in those eyes.

Because at one point in her life, those eyes belonged to her. Stars and shimmers that filtered the world through the eyes of an innocent child who didn’t know any better.