Nexus Awakened (An Isekai LitRPG Gender Bender Story)

118. At the Heart of the Complex

The long end of the barrel was pointed in Frost’s direction.

It knew precisely what needed to be done as a reflection of her Will. A magical ring formed at the tip as she took aim and fired the imitation weapon.

But unlike the proper Justica Arm, the bullet did not teleport. What was fired a golden coin which zipped like an arrow. There was no muzzle flash, smoke, or gunfire. It was simply fired in total silence.

Her target was the Bloody Herring. It missed unsurprisingly, but the building it did hit had its walls demolished as if a truck had crashed through.

A small coin did that kind of damage!? Frost was taken aback by its power as the Bloody Herring’s assault was suddenly cut short.

His AGI could not even allow him to dodge something of that speed. However, so long as he was on the move then hitting him was virtually impossible to begin with.

“Not a small coin! It’s a fist-sized coin. Are you familiar with firearm rounds of your world?”

Vaguely! That’s like a .50 Caliber or something, right? Frost had some degree of knowledge of modern firearms, but nowhere near to understand just what sort of round would be capable of such damage.

“Frost. A .50 Caliber is more or less the size of a finger. Her coin is much bigger than 20mm round. The payload is monstrous as a result.” Nav revealed, causing Frost to wonder just how such a thing was even able to be propelled in the first place.

And to think it was an imitation. Mysteriously however was that the destructive seen by the Justica Arms members was nowhere near as close as this. The reason was rather simple.

Justica Arms focused on penetrative power, rather than the raw destructive potential.

The Big Frost rehearsed loading a fist-sized bullet into a non-existent chamber, as if the Justica Arm was a break-action rifle. Then, without any warning, she pointed it in the direction of a hoard of Blood Festival Impuritas and obliterated them.

Shrapnel rattled the nearby streets as Frost finally reached her alter ego. The woman promptly saluted her as the emoji of a coin and greedy, rubbing fingers appeared over her head.

She required more coins. A small fee for her patronage.

< The Hired Arm requires coins >

< Upkeep cost: 15 silver coins per minute. The Hired Arm will enter a dormant state if the fee is not paid >

< Justic Arm Bullet: First is free. Each subsequent use requires 1 gold coin >

< All your skills may be used and will cost 10% of the total mana cost, but they must be paid in the form of gold coins >

< Corrupted Skills may not be used >

It was cheaper to hire her than it was to use her skills. The Hired Arm was like an ink printer in away. How? Because the cartridges were always the most expensive part of the whole thing

The Big Frost simply stood there, awaiting further orders.

She was not docile. In fact, her eyes wandered around in search for any threats. But she could not act upon Frost’s Will unless she was paid for her services.

She might be useful. Nav. She took the coins straight out of my Dimensional Storage. Can I assume she can work far away from me?

“She can.”

Frost had a plan in mind for this woman. Though she couldn’t help her outright, her weight in gold would be her ability to help everyone else. If worse comes to worse, then she can return to help Ignis and the others.

Therefore, Frost utilized her one hundred Touch of Golds to scoop up the remains of the fallen Impuritas. She gathered them close, reeling them in towards her chest as their body crumbled.

It was as if her tentacles were coated with a corrosive substance.

Every being she saw possessed a value written somewhere within their chest, much like the flame that displayed after Scrutiny. Most were a single gold coin, whereas normal people were as low as a single copper coin.

“You can read my mind, right? Help these people. Please.”

Frost did not order it. She asked it.

Even if it was essentially herself, she still treated it like it like a human. The captured Impuritas were converted into coins in a gruesome manner. But not a single drop of blood spilt.

With the funds now available, the Big Frost tipped her peaked cap and dashed away to a nearby, injured human. She healed them using [Greater Healing] and hauled them over her shoulder without any trouble.

She’s rather diligent.

As for Frost – the trouble was only just beginning.

“Feeder of Corrupted! Manifester of their powers! Amalgam! That power… that power… should not be in the hands of a destroyer like you!” The Bloody Herring’s voice hoarsely shouted in every conceivable direction as her tentacles surrounded her like a giant, spiky ball.

He did not chase her Hired Arm. His sole target was Frost. Whether it was due to his unbounded arrogance or blindness was unknown, but it didn’t change that he wanted her dead for the sake of their false cause.

“Have you ever stopped to think just what the Amalgam means!?” Frost yelled, beginning her mad dash towards the castle once again.

The faintest sound of a thumping heart came from its direction as the onslaught of Broker’s Arms returned.

But they did little against her. Her Touch of Arms were linked with her total HP pool. While it did cause her to take more damage since she was essentially a larger target, the Bloody Herring did not know this and made efforts to avoid it where possible.

She could not create a shield to protect her back out of the Touch of Golds. Because when she did, the drag it produced cut her speed by a quarter, and not to mention that the Bloody Herring was still easily able to attack her in all directions, rendering the shield useless.

Instead, she used the tentacles like the legs of a spider. They latched onto structures further ahead, dragging her forward at an immense pace. She was like a Centumnid; a 100-legged Anid behemoth fabled to stalk the lands of the Anid Region like sentinels.

“You’re supposed to be weaker! That bird of truths was supposed to skewer you, you fiend! Do you believe destroying the Heart will save your friends!? Will you plunge them into eternal despair when they could have all this – THIS HAPPINESS TO THEMSELVES!?” He proclaimed, attempting to paint her as the true enemy in this nonsensical ordeal.

Just how blind was he? His deafness? How much shit could he spew without tasting his revolting lies?

“DO YOU EVEN HEAR WHAT THE FUCK YOU’RE SAYING!? YOU’RE BLIND, DEAF AND BLABBERING SHIT YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!” Frost erupted in rage, thrusting numerous golden tentacles behind in a sweeping motion.

These things were around ten meters long, and they easily decapitated the roofs of structures and attractions alive. She needed to use them precisely, less she’d end up killing hundreds of innocent lives in an insant.

“But I do! Hear me, Amalgam! Is it fun to elevate yourself to the – Oh to the truest essence of our existences before our very eyes!? Where is your heart, AMALGAAAAAAAAM!?” His vocals nearly ripped.

She could sense the Etched Coins hiding beneath his jester-like apparel and rustling within sachets by his waist. They were indeed infused with Broker’s Arms. She could sense them thanks to her Stacking Wealth Active Skill, even without using it.

Furthermore, she confirmed that there was an Etched Coin that possessed the very first magic that was ever used against her.

< Etched Coin >

CogitO

ACTIVE: Cognition Scrambler

EFFECT: Visually censor the sought-after truth from the target. If user’s RESIST is lower than 150, then the user will be afflicted with an additional malignant version.

Condemnable in the wrong hands. Use in case of protocol Blissful Ignorance

The high cost of 5,000 MP dissuaded her from using it right now, however. With the number of Broker’s Arms in his possession it would be stupid of her to use those coins against him. Even using it against the Cognition Scrambler coins would be worthless if she couldn’t attack him in the first place.

She needed a better target. And she needed to hide this Skill until the time arose.

Then, Nav noticed something odd.

“There are approximately a thousand coins on his body. But the number isn’t decreasing no matter how many he uses. There is likely an additional coin hiding somewhere else that is refilling the lost coins.”

It could be a form of Dimensional Storage. If he can steal skills, then he can definitely steal Dimensional Storage from a Blessed. That’s an Atelier Skill too, just like that Cognition Scrambler I’m guessing.

It all boiled down to three things. The first was to destroy the Heart. The Second was to convert as many Impuritas into coins to keep her Hired Arm operational. And finally, the last was to sever the Bloody Herring from his limitless source of coins.

A makeshift suppression requirement in a way.

And just like that, Nav flashed her a prompt.

< Bloody Herring | Suppression Requirement: Identify and Destroy His Most Valuable Coin >

It’s that simple, huh. Nav.

“Yes?”

Let’s catch ourselves a fish, and a Heart.

Frost eventually reached the thick walls of the golden castle. She was met with zero resistance. The area surrounding the castle walls was a vacant courtyard where miniature, fake golden trees sprouted.

It was here where the Bloody Herring ceased its attacks, like they had stumbled into sacred grounds.

“Your filth will not touch our sacred models of that whimsical garden!”

Frost, out of sheer spite, demolished these trees with various swipes of her tentacles. She took pleasure in finally agonizing the Bloody Herring in a different kind of way. The minor victory was followed with a hideous cry of anguish.

“WHERE IS YOUR APPRECIATION!? My heart throbs uncontrollably! Oh dearest fallen star of the cursed rock – I am truly sorry for that thing’s ineptitude! I… I will destroy them! And I will prosper as the truest, oh truest me!”

She casually broke through the walls with her bare hands, scooping them with each swing as her Touch of Golds burrowed into the hole created. Then, they expanded outwards, causing the wall to explode and a major section of the castle to crumble.

The beating of a heart was ever present within, and the bitter scent of blood assaulted her as dove into a section of interconnecting hallways, where royal carpets sprawled along.

It was like a maze, and Frost refused to take part in navigating through these endless halls.

Instead, she took a shortcut through the walls once again, listening for the heart as the Bloody Herring threw a tantrum like a child over the trees she had destroyed.

“The Seed! The Seeeeeeeds! Oh their unripe Apples! Our commemorative place, destroyed by that poacher of happiness!”

To her shock, more of these golden trees grew within these halls. They were miniaturized oak trees from what she could tell, and they were made from solid gold rather than the bones and flesh of people. They had no anomalous properties, but they seemed to bear some significance to the Blood Festival.

“Ruiner of happiness…”

Voices began to speak through the walls the closer she approached the beating Heart. The world beyond fell silent as the song that played was quickly replaced with an unharmonious choir of voices.

“We must defend our Heart…”

Before long, and after she smashed through dozens of walls, she finally reached the heart of the castle. It was a ballroom with its ceiling arching well over hundreds of meters above, where various supporting beams ran across the arch in a ladder-like formation

It closely resembled a giant rib cage.

Beneath her was a vast, reflective floor. Pillars of writhing, golden flesh rose to the ceiling, dotting the ballroom nonsensically.

But what caught her attention was none other than the Heart itself, which hung from these pillars with disgusting, connective sinew.

“So that’s the Heart!” Frost exclaimed, freezing in place as she stared up at the near 50-meter Heart in disbelief. “It’s… unbelievably huge. They get bigger with each iteration, huh!”

The colossal structure was connected to various tubes that ran over, under and into the surrounding walls. They ran along the ground like oil pipes. The single largest one, which rose directly above the Heart, was the pumping aorta.

This Heart was the source of the monsters that invaded during the nights of Brandar. She could see the silhouettes of countless Reorganizers travel along these tubes.

“… With any means necessary.” The voice concluded, which was followed with a series of laughter.

She realized that the voice came from the surrounding pillars.

Expecting sudden resistance; she threw herself deeper into the room, her many tentacles following like the tail of a divine, multi-tailed fox.

The engraved faces moved with each spoken word, grinning uncannily like theatre masks. Suddenly, the pillars cracked as they separated from the ceiling and floor. They began to slowly skid around the Heart, orbiting it like moons.

Frost not only had to deal with the Heart itself and its mangled aids; but she also needed to fend off the Bloody Herring. A multi-fronted battle dawned upon her, and as she checked the status of the Heart itself –

I hope you guys can hold on. Nav. Let’s do this. For everyone’s sake.

– She hoped the others faired better than herself.