Nexus Awakened (An Isekai LitRPG Gender Bender Story)

618. Where Mother Sleeps

Vexed Consanguinity.

The name struck Frost as odd, but the notion of sins and the ‘One Sin’ being shared by all gave it meaning.

Hateful, and bleeding descendants of a common ancestor.

The Rod of Agonizing Legibility bled words as Frost unleashed hell upon the rising entities, bubbling their bodies until they evaporated into hot, red mist. With such miniscule HP they were of no threat to her.

But to the Princess on the other hand, they were the most powerful entities a human could feasibly face. When one died another two took their place. They multiplied and birthed from the red pool, hands reaching out from the crimson shallows to their ankles.

Flames warded them away as Frost pushed through, annihilating the Rods of Agonizing Legibility with ease, using her teeth to shatter them as her hands were busy securing the Princess to her back, all the while pale monoliths arose

< “The collective pool of life has been passed down untainted even with sin.” >

< “Sin prospers in blood like the critters of a pond.” >

< “It represents our wholeness as one.” >

< “Our spiteful origins of utter beginnings.” >

“Is this you or are you translating those words!?” Frost roared, frightening the girl who latched onto her back for dear life.

< Nay. I am translating it for you >

< “Blessed is the blood.” >

< “Contaminate it you will not.” >

“Like the separation of humans and Demi-humans… Is this what this Angel taught!?”

“A-Are you asking me or a ghost!?”

Bloody, pale lances shot out from the floor and walls, yearning to impale Frost.

However, the trajectory was off.

She could have avoided them by simply not moving at all as she powered through the infinite hallways of blood.

“Just a voice ringing inside of my head! Princess! Are you sure that Angel you saw didn’t have a vendetta against you!?”

“I-I’m not sure! How come!?”

Frost’s heat alone was able to clear large areas of blood to prevent the formation of these entities. Physical attacks were hardly useful even with her power. They needed to be thoroughly destroyed, and there was no better way than with her flames.

She grit her teeth and manifested the Corrupted Persona of Asterism.

Star-shaped ornaments painted like living brushstrokes clipped onto her hair. Stars surrounded her alongside cosmic dust, creating a harmless accretion disk.

“You might not believe this, but I think they’re targeting you.” Frost reached out her barrier mid-transformation.

The entities awaiting on the other side avoided her, and instead, reached futilely towards the Princess.

“B-But… I’ve never… been attacked when I came here…” It shocked her to no end. “Blood? Could it be because of the big bird’s blood? Is the Angel blaming me?”

“Whatever it is, it’s no coincidence that the Icon of Judgement’s death activated it. Maybe it was a failsafe.”

“To get rid of me…?”

“I’m not sure why, but we’re going to get to the bottom of this!”

“You – You don’t have to –!”

“PRINCESS!”

A shockwave accompanied Frost’s roar with an explosion of flames.

“Don’t push me away! This concerns me as much as it does you! Think of me as your big sister! So close your eyes and hold on tight! We’re going to break through to the other side!”

Her small arms tightened around Frost’s neck as she buried her face deeply into her back.

“O-Ok!”

“Voice! This isn’t an Aberration of Elysia, is it!? It feels like something’s gone wrong!”

[Nature’s Compass] caused stars to twinkle down the hallway, leading Frost towards her intended destination as she barreled through. The Princess lifted a hand to point to it to offer some form of help, only to receive a gash along her hand.

“O-Ouch –!”

“I said to hold on! I might have eyes behind my head, but I can’t make predictions on anything outside my direct line of sight!”

< The Rewound remains as historically accurate as possible >

< However, that does not change that this is odd >

< Because the Origin of Sin can only come from one place >

“Blood! Hearts! US! Like the how the Corrupted can from the thoughts and emotions of people!”

The pale Rods of Agonizing Legibility carried the words of the Tablet of Bleeding Truth. No abilities could be gained from them unfortunately. Additionally, it was not clear if she gained anything at all from the Icon of Judgement aside from her golden strands of hair.

What was clear, however, was that she could feel their presence even though she couldn’t see them. It was a form of precognition in a way, which explained how she was able to dodge them so flawlessly even without considering her high AGI stat.

Basically, she could tell when they were about to form. The warning came in the form of what sounded like a gentle heartbeat.

“Impuritas are born from the Hearts! From impurities! If these things are the same, then doesn’t that mean they originate from a Heart!?”

< You are not entirely wrong >

“Dammit – THEN EXPLAIN IT TO ME! I’ve got something fighting for control inside of me! That damned Unfair Tail wants me to manifest it!”

Indeed. As Frost pushed through the endless river of blood, she felt a primitive urge course through her veins. Hatred meddled with her heart, tugging on strings that she vowed to squash down.

Metaphorical strings from elsewhere were also dragged into her heart.

“… It’ll take any opportunity to manifest when my emotions Heighten. If this how Wrath is going to be, then it’d be better to just destroy them than to add them to my Collection! I don’t have to repeat myself, do I?”

< Impuritas, like Sin, are born from the cognition of many >

< One is the collective impurities of cognition, whether it be ideals, events or ill thoughts that are created, forming a Heart that encompasses it; propagates it like a natural law; or overtakes a person, showing the world the shape of their heart unchosen by them >

< It restrains the Well. So that Corruption may never be >

< Because they, ironically, lack their slice of an apple, for it has already been used >

“… a transformation. It’s more in line with the Markers, huh.”

< Sin on the other hand… has always existed >

< But here it has taken a form due to the influence of an Angel whose virtues opposed Wrath >

Frost hailed bullets into a pale, bleeding wall ahead. Words collapsed from its wounds as it cracked. The door was far too large for a place where only a mother and child were allowed to live, much like the grandeur interior of the Nexus.

Looking closely, broken chains could be found wrapped along tall columns. Atop those were the busts of a feminine figure. In place of their eyes were rotting apples, which must have been golden apples at some point in time.

“Meaning this Angel of Wrath can create enemies born from Sin?”

< Correct >

< But she is not present >

The words of the door were then translated to her moments before she set foot into the sanctums of the pale palace.

The room they stepped into was a great hall made from white Tearstone. The architecture within was gothic. However, it was also clumsily made. On the surface it was grandeur and utterly perfect, but upon further scrutiny the details that were amiss.

Were there a ruler of Puritas, then this would have been utterly perfect. Hints of brutalist architecture expressed themselves through the thick walls and the lack of lighting. Blood bled through iron grates found in the walls, and on eyes of statues depicting an Angel, but their tails were all severed to defile it.

Battlements gushed with blood. Murder holes littered the floors above, as did siege weapons. They were all pointed to a singular spot in the center of the room where the blood collected into a conical basin.

“… This… isn’t a palace at all.”

“It is!” The Princess cried. “It’s where mother sleeps! Down there!”

She pointed at the pool.

“There’s a passage down there!”

Studying the walls, the chains which glowed ominously like those of the Chained Theocracy, Frost came to the realization that this place was no palace. The blood from behind did not follow.

However, the one within gave birth to new entities.

A being rose from the collection of blood. It was the bloody statue of a red angel, its wings skeletal and stabbing the air individually like scythes.

It stood at over five meters in height, and its hands reached up to cusp something inconceivable as it wept tears of blood. Suddenly, its body twirled, revealing a hateful expression with bared fangs.

Letters dripped from the tip of its feathers, as it did from a pale tablet it cradled in its arms.

< “Mixed blood of the astral and man must never be.” >

< “Do not taint the seed you have given to us.” >

A flash of a memory appeared before Frost’s eyes.

For a split second, she saw two Angelic figures.

One with red wings and bleeding words like that of the Listening Bird and its Mantle of Sin; and the other with many glorious wings.

But that was all Frost was able to see.