syringe
patreon
1095. Target The Milinid Legs!
🕑 Added 2025-10-26 07:42:38 +0000 UTCRes smiled to herself as the swirls were absorbed into her body, forming paint splats along her apparel.
Total silence befell the army within a hundred-meter vicinity. Every Missionary in their ranks had been dismantled in an instant. The Exarchs had all but been disabled due to her long-range attacks.
They had nothing but the Heralds and their Scripts to guide them. The Script demanded they hunt the twins. It did not describe what to do between. So when they were faced with an insurmountable wall they could not help but find themselves petrified, as though they were caught in the sight of the Amalgam.
Then, with Res’ gaze set on a collapsing Milinid limb, she asked the nearest Herald a question.
“What drives a Herald like you to push on despite knowing you’re nothing but fodder?”
“… a purpose. A Moon like you must know what it means to live for the sake of but one task. It is not different from your purpose of eliminating the Corrupted.”
They were panicked but quickly recomposed themselves. Not a single Acolyte or Herald had moved. Despite this, the army beyond them did not stop their march, only to be churned and spat out by Acedia and the Mimic of Amalgamation.
A dangerous bead of sweat dripped down the side of the Herald’s forehead. They were a human, so they were capable of expressing their terror in more ways than an Insectid.
He continued after tightening his grip on a Script.
“Moon of the Nexus. Can a pair of defect Healers be worth this struggle?”
“300,000 of you could fall right now and you would not amount to a single Wandering Healer.” Res coldly stated.
A wave of fear washed over them. It began pressing down on their backs, and an Acolyte fell to their knees in terror.
“Your value lies in Act X, not yourself. That’s the truth. Because honestly, and as cruel as this may be for you to hear, but you yourself do not value yourselves highly. You’re content with your Scripts. You’ve given everything away to become a puppet. But those twins denied the Script’s clause… so that they could hug my miserable brother.”
Her tail lunged into the earth. Various places beneath the Heralds and Acolytes began stirring with loose marble.
“We were trapped in our own cycle. Pushed and chained to believe it was normal. We had no freedom. I can see that you’re not that different. A refusal means death. For us, refusal was failure. A string of failures invited a visit from an Eclipse. You’re still lost.”
A bolt of azure electricity ran through her tail, and sept deep into the earth.
Then, a claw-shaped object burst forth and claimed the limbs of one hundred and thirty-five in an instant.
[Lichtenberg Fracking]. She had used her paint as a medium to manifest her electricity as a painted object. Lichtenberg figures were the tree-like fractals one can find when lightning struck a tree. The chaotic patterns were exactly what had formed beneath her feet, and had expanded to attack her targets before her enemies could even comprehend what had occurred.
“… Eh…?”
The Herald before her uttered midfall, having yet to fathom the loss of their legs.
“Did you think I’d spare you because we had a decent talk? Think about what you’re fighting for. Think about why you’re fighting.”
“Are… you any different? As a dog of the Amalgam?” He croaked.
“The difference between you and I is that I have the freedom to disagree with the Amalgam. Moons possess the discretion to ignore protocols if they deem it necessary. Whatever you think the Amalgam is, whoever you think she might be–it will never be close. I could gut you right now, and she wouldn’t bat an eye.”
“Then why won’t you?”
“Because I agree with the Amalgam.”
“How does that make you different to us–!?”
“I don’t believe her blindly. We are not the same. The Amalgam can be shortsighted. Rash. Her measures can be either extreme or not enough. Act X has been allowed to do as it wants for too long now… I know the love of a mother and how far they’ll go for the sake of one child!”
Res, of all people, knew this. Both the lengths of self-destruction and love. They were not mutually exclusive. They came hand in hand, and she had seen how it led to the destruction of her own family.
Her irises flickered with an electric glow and became halos. An emotional shift had occurred inside her. The Herald sensed it, and his face went pale.
Indeed. Res’ Emotional State had risen to the First State. She could not use unique Skills like Ber or Cer who possessed Corrupted Persona, since she was like Ignis. The Realized did not become stronger as their Emotional State rose.
But for Res, whose very essence was tied with the act of expression, was different. Her tail swelled to twice its size. Her ears which stood tall drooped behind her as they grew to three times their original length.
“The twins are Healers, regardless of what became of them. Orth and Thras… if they knew they’d become like this... if they weren’t so desperate to cling onto something to just live… and if I weren’t so blind… then they’d be in the Nexus. Next to the Healers. The Moons. Us. Frost.”
< Your Emotional State Has Risen to the First State >
< Corrupted Skill – ACTIVE: [Colorbound Heart] has been elevated to [Colorbound Heart I] >
< CORRUPTED – ACTIVE: Colorbound Heart >
< When speech betrays you, when your eyes deceive you, and when your ears cannot hear anymore; may your heart gush through your strokes >
< EFFECT: Empower all Corrupted Skills. Significantly empower paintings made in the color of your heart. Express yourself. Paint the world in your colors >
< Current Affinity Type: Wrath | Red >
Res hadn’t had the chance to properly stretch her legs since the War in Grandis and the invasion of the Nexus. Her face remained tranquil, but the crimson brushstrokes, the spirals in the air, and the barricades she had formed were anything but tranquil. They were a direct reflection of her inner turmoil, and the only way she could express herself without losing her mind.
She was an emotional person, as much as she tried to hide it. Her way of expressing it since her Realization was through her art. And now Act X were among the first to witness Res’ [Artwork].
Crimson veins protruded from the earth, creating a vast network that resembled a vascular system. It was splayed behind her like a grand 50-meter mural. The incapacitated were fused along it, syphoning as much material before they were delivered to the floating platforms.
[Artwork]. This was Res’ main Corrupted Skill. Indeed, [Painted Creation] was not her main Corrupted Skill. Far from it, in fact. [Artwork] was the very manifestation of her current state of mind.
It was what she used whenever she put her tail on canvas, or a pen to paper.
This was how she created her personal paintings in her free time. Suffice to say, it was a Skill she used more often than [Electric Beam], a Skill that was synonymous with her role and namesake as the Eye of the Head.
“You speak… as though… the Amalgam considers her their own child.” The same Herald was barely able to cough.
“Weren’t you aware? All Healers are the children of the Amalgam. The Black and Sanguine Doves that came after were born thanks to her. Before she declared herself as the Amalgam, she was the Black Dove. That same Dove is the mother of three wolves, a cat, a spider, a doppelganger, a child that looks just like her and her wife, and so, so much more. Who are you to take a child away from her?”
Res pointed a painted spear against his throat.
“A beloved friend of mine!?”
His eyes rolled back, and Res quickly retracted the weapon. Her [Painted Creations] assailed the army autonomously as she stood in place. Her combat style was the same as when she was the old Res. A stationary sentry with a focus on long-range engagements.
“The strings are another flavor of Serum G. Tch. Focus, Res. The Milinid legs. That should be my target… Jury. Is Lachesis willing to talk to you?”
Jury
< Res, please be quick! My concentration breaks every time I need to respond! >
What will happen if I target the Milinid legs? Is it safe?
Jury
< Safe! And possible! There’s a thousand, but not all of them are present! But it’s not a permanent solution! They can regenerate! >
“Then the best course of action is to destroy them before they touch ground!”
The pressure wave of the [Electric Beam] threw dozens of Acolytes off their feat. She did not spare a single moment and bombarded the nearest Milinid leg. The flood of Act X personnel immediately ceased as the crack grew. Each impact caused it to climb until a deafening snapping sound came from the leg. Then, one half of the leg snapped lengthwise. A pale fluid burst from the wound like a broken dam, turning into mist before it could reach the ground.
The other half of the leg struggled to support the weight to the Milinid beyond the ceiling. It retreated, only to be replaced by a new leg.
Tch. The first one took a tenth of my total MP pool to destroy…
She uncorked an MP Elixir from her Dimensional Storage and downed it in a single gulp. It shattered in her hand, and she resumed assailing the new limb with everything she had.
Thankfully, the HP pool across each leg seemed to be consistent. She could not tell since she could only see the total HP pool of the Milinid, rather than its segments. It retreated as quickly as it arrived.
Milinid | HP: 12,475,000
