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986. The Desolate Stars of The Lower Nexus
🕑 Added 2025-04-24 23:34:21 +0000 UTCSerum U – Ultimo greatly enhanced the combat capabilities of the user. Its immediate effects were strengthening its user’s DEF and ATT stats by upwards of 2x depending on how much was consumed.
When used passively, it had very minor but noticeable strengthening effects.
But using it as a means of breaking through one’s limits had its downsides.
Needless to say, it was catastrophic for the user. It would lead to their unceremonious death minutes after taking Serum U.
“Surpass our limits!” Argon commanded.
The sound of violent bubbles came from the backs of the Vermilion Moons. One of the eight liquid-filled rods on their backs was depleted of its Serum. When the bubbles subsided, the bullets no longer ricochetted.
They shattered upon impact.
The fragments peppered the parade of Sins.
But the parade never ceased beneath the light of the orange star.
Vermilion Moon
< Bulwark of the Head >
< Soul Rank: Incandescent | Body: The Head >
LEVEL : 235 (Limit Broken) ORIGIN : X HP : 200,000 ATT : 6,400 (+2,100) MAG ATT : 0
ATT DEF : 5,200 (+2,000) MAG DEF : 5,200 (+2,000) MP : 50,000 RESIST : 200 AGI : 100
Thirty minutes was all they had.
Afterwards, their stats would be cut in half for the next two hours. This included their AGI, reaction times, and all motor functions.
At worst, it would cripple a Moon and leave them vulnerable to Critical Strikes.
“Five minutes is a short time.” A Star of the Lower Nexus scoffed at their reliance of a dangerous Serum. “Thy hubris dare rivals the placement of the holiest Star Sigil? Very well.”
“Five minutes…” Argon stopped herself from finishing.
There seemed to be a gap in their knowledge. Realizing this, she grimaced and relayed a message to her squadron. It entailed how they’d approach this battle, and like a virus, her grimace spread to the other Vermilion Moons.
The Stars smirked in response.
If five minutes was all they had–
–then they simply had to draw out the fight.
*
“Inflow Direct failed to improve their formulas. How uncouth. But it is like them. Those machine heathens were known for peaking and falling off with each iteration of their liquids. It never occurred to them to improve upon the twenty-six.”
The Star who spoke was an ancient ex-Star of the Upper Half of the Nexus. He had fought during the War in Heaven, only to be cast aside in an iron coffin and sent into the depths of hell.
But he never held a grudge towards the Nexus.
It was far from that.
In fact, he adored the Nexus more than the constellations of Stars that call the Upper Half of the Nexus home.
That was because to love the Lower Half of the Nexus was to love the Nexus in itself. A Star must love the Nexus.
They must heed its call, answer its throes, and tend to its whimpers. And whimper the Lower Half of the Nexus did, for it carried a mortal wound that caused the Desolate Stars to weep at every lull.
The wound?
It was the separation of the Nexus.
The great rip that tore it in half during the War in Heaven in 200 PA.
“Thy Stars of the Nexus above fail to describe the agony of that day. How unattuned they were to the greater whole. But giveth enough time and effort, and it shall all return to how it was. Thou Moons serve a great cause. Thy shan’t eliminate Corrupted. Such beings are the true faces of the lesser kin, unlike the Blessed.”
He mentally commanded his floating armaments to open fire. The other four Desolate Stars joined him, assailing the Vermilion Moons as they pushed forward in an attempt to take the battle into their own hands.
Moonshots. This was the name of their weapon.
They were called Moonkiller-tiered weapons during the War in Heaven.
It came from a bygone era, and they still carried scars from the twenty-day war.
They were artefacts and remnants of weapons capable of disabling a Moon. If one were to shoot whilst holding it, then they would burst like a crushed pomegranate.
Ateliers used disposable personnel for this reason during the war.
Even Stars of today would lose a limb attempting to utilize such a weapon.
That reminded the Star. He smirked as he reminisced on the past.
Long ago, the Stars and Moons were not as scarce as they were today.
Thousands used to thrive under the banner of an Atelier.
The bullets were unable to pierce through their flesh.
But they were no more than a distraction.
“Never seen a weapon as weak as these before!” A Vermilion Moon mocked.
Their speed was insurmountable.
But that wouldn’t matter.
The Stars took a step back, reached forwards, and clasped at the air.
“Thy tongue shall be severed along the pitiful rugged Moons of ours. Thou – Moons of the orange Star – shall live in further humiliation. Pick up thy arms. Pierce the hearts of thy foes!”
A black hole emerged precisely where the Vermilion Moons were. It was not a gravitational anomaly but rather the absence of light.
It was as though someone had torn a hole in space, and it erased whatever it touched.
[Dark Flare].
This was magic unique to the Stars who did not serve the Upper Half of the Nexus. It utilized Qliphoth rather than Light. While Stars were under the impression that light was superior to darkness, the Desolate Stars embraced it, for it was still a fundamental part of the Nexus.
To reject it was to reject the Nexus.
The orb exploded into thousands of homing particles. No matter how fast the Moons were, it would never stop chasing them. The Stars entered and exited crimson portals to avoid having to deal with the Moons themselves.
They relied solely on their dark arts to do their bidding.
Five minutes was all they needed.
Afterwards, they would levy the full might of a Desolate Star upon them.
“Gaaaah!” A Vermilion Moon cried upon taking damage from the beads of darkness.
She was not alone.
The Vermilion Moons – despite being the rumored Bulwarks of the Amalgam – were ill equipped with fighting against non-Corrupted targets.
Additionally, direct attacks did little to the Stars. They possessed what was called a minor version of the Qliphoth Barrier that only functioned when they used a small percentage of their strength.
That was why they were waiting for the Vermilion Moons to tire themselves out. Once they were crippled and no longer posed a threat, then they would begin their counteract.
“Thy kind came from higher places. The so called ‘Head’ failed to acquire suitable Moons, such as the Eclipses. Though, Eclipses would fair even worse given their fragile nature. How humorous. From which pile did the ‘Head’ pull thy from?”
The Stars snickered. As they did when they maimed their own Moons. It was the only time they could feel pleasure in their lives of torment serving the Lower Half of the Nexus. Moons were viewed as lesser to Stars.
After all, Stars were higher in the celestial scale. Not only that, but Moons themselves did not generate their own light. They were sheep, and the Stars were the shepherds to guide them, and all that was Blessed by the benevolent Nexus.
“No. They are… Scarlet…” One Rogue Moon attempted to speak.
“Thou shan’t speak!”
But they were lashed by a dark whip – [Lamenter’s Lash] – which caused them to seal their lips. They had been struck numerous times by the Vermilion Moons and they had barely reacted.
That one lash was more than every injury multiplied by one thousand times.
Perhaps more.
It was highly effective against those who lacked the ‘Light’. No amount of pain tolerance could mitigate a pain that afflicted the soul itself. As a result, all acts of rebellion ceased amongst the Rogue Moons.
They took up their arms, their eyes further losing their light as they marched on, ready to give their lives if they had to.
The face the Manage of the Vermilion Moons wore humored the Stars.
“Moons of the blessed Nexus lack the Light of higher beings. These lashes of Qliphoth, the seeping darkness… Thy screams are harmonious. How unholy.”
The agony was shared amongst all Moons.
The way the Vermilion Moons screamed was proof that they lacked considerable light.
As the Stars utilized hit and run tactics against their foes, one began to recite:
“No Moon can fathom the ones of the old such as ourselves who heard the throes of the Nexus before it was known to the world. We were amongst the first to discover that the Eternal Library was but a usurper of the true First Advent.”
Thirty seconds were left. Various dark appendages grew from their bodies. Claws, eyes, feathers, talons – it was no different from manifesting a Corrupted Persona.
Only that this was far more malleable. Flexible, even, for it took the shape of their hearts as they currently were. It was not permanent like the flaws of Corruption, and they revered the Nexus, for they knew that it was because of it that they were able to possess such a power.
“Doth worship the Nexus, or the ‘Head’? Thy kind as Moons mix both. Thee shall be educated as our Moons hath undergone. Only then will thou recognize the awe of the Nexus. How pitiful. Thy ‘Bulwark of the Head’ was but a ploy to invoke fear. The Head hath chosen non-combative Moons. And we are supposed to believe thee is the ruler of the Nexus!?”
They ran their mouths.
The berating seemed to go on for longer than thirty seconds.
They found it hilarious how the Vermilion Moons couldn’t even finish off the Rogue Moons. If that was the level of their strength and conviction, then how could they call themselves Moons of the Nexus?
Thirty seconds finally ticked down.
And as the Vermilion Moons came to an abrupt stop–
“Assail them. Thy kind… Shall become subservient to Stars. Evermore.”
–The Stars made their offensive.
They unleashed hell upon them as their Qliphoth Barriers fell. 25% of their power was raised to 100%, and now, they could finally break these Moons.
For their own sake, of course.
They fired their bullets, and swung their Qliphoth Corroded limbs at them…
… Only for their minds to scream at a sudden pain in their chests.
