Finished mining the last update at a good time, can we build a large enough pillar of Arete?
Fanwork#4154 Words. Please bear with me while I attempt to write a reaction that doesn't consist of the words "Get Rankt scrub" a thousand times in a row. Honestly, my success was only literal, the spirit of boastful schadenfreude shines through. How uncouth of me.
The chain of logic is as follows. An Astral Rank of 9 is roughly equivalent to Titanic power. Hunger has reached Rank 9. Hunger can be described as a "Titan." The Titans lost the Titanomachy. In conclusion, aaaaaahhhhh!
It's okay, though, there's a continent sized fish that better fits the description! And Hunger is only thirt- wait, if this fish is a newborn, maybe I should scream again? If I didn't skip to the end to see that we were fine, I might actually be worried!
Blue.
Endless, tireless blue. The pale ragged blue of the sky and the steep pounding blue of the waves and the raw, limitless blue of the Fish as it surged and heaved and raged against its purposeless squalor. And him, alone and unwashed at the heart of the beast - sweat and brine and monster's spittle covering him like a mucus coating, a deep sea cocoon - alone and untouched by the wrath of the Fish his residence, a meditant alone in the eye of the storm.
Fodder for celestial divination (sidenote: weather forecasting should have a name change)? Don't mind if I do. Today's forecast is blue. This represents the insignificance of mankind in the face of the univer- wait, I'm reading this wrong. The blue symblozes the insignificance of
Ber, specifically. Spoiler, this unwashed, untouched loner is that guy, if that description wasn't clue enough I used my divination powers to look at the next sentence.
I'm getting ahead of myself in more ways than that, though. We haven't reached the parts that make me go "screw this guy," this is actually a great setup. Cultivation might be so last quest, but Ber sure has mastered the aesthetic. A solitary man, meditating on the profound might of nature. The cocoon of whalegunk is especially inspiring, makes me think that his isolation and sacrifice will pay off when he becomes a beautiful butterfly! But, of course, in the end it's still Ber, and he will die a worm. End forecast.
How long now had he been entombed in the blue? Even when he surfaced there was hardly any escape from it. But that was only fitting for the Blue Swordsman.
Who's that pokemon? It's Bearic! He's been here for a bit more than twelve days now, I believe- with that number, is he a Christmas present for us? No need for me to dunk on him here, he's doing the job for me by admitting that dying here is fitting for him.
Switching from reading the sky to color paranoia, the water is blue and the sky is blue. I'm not sure if this is a conspiracy, or if Ber has just gone mad from lack of stimulation. Really though, what are the chances?
He'd desired power, once. Such a nebulous goal, ill-conceived. What was power? Was it the thrill of domination, the joy of foes crushed and bleeding before you, corpses like ripe tangerines splattered upon the fetid earth? Was it glistening fear in the eyes of one's counterparts when one brandished the sword and was followed by the Blue? Was it the secret, shameful joy held close to one's heart in walking amongst others and knowing with absolute certainty that you were their better, in ability if not in worth?
According to Gisena, power is utility, and you should take her word for it because she's a genius. So power could be what gets you all of those things! Assuming you want them. I can't look down on him for his motivations while simultaneously gloating about his death, unfortunately- wait, no, I can, I just have to admit that I can also have evil thoughts. So ha, this guy is a jerk and so am I!
Taking joy in splattered corpses is a bit much for me, though, I can give him the side eye on that with no hypocrisy. The insecurity exhibited by the last line gets only my sympathy. Holding on to grades as a measure of self-worth because it was a quantifiable way to tell I was good at something was bad times, I'd hope that he grows and transitions to valuing himself as a person unconditionally. You know, if he wasn't fucking dead. But it's close enough, because that still counts as an improvement.
Or was it merely safety?
It had been a long time since he'd felt safe. Not since the limits of his System had been exposed, its threadbane omniscience revealed for a farce. Did that mean he was bereft of power?
Again, the desire to be safe is easy to sympathize with. Less so when Ber needs literal omniscience as a safety blanket, that's a bit excessive. I'm feeling only mildly threatened without any superpowers! I also don't have to contend with giant robots and assorted monsters and secret bosses, but Ber could have avoided this by not murdering people. They probably didn't feel very safe either.
Taking a step back into Ber's head, I have to stay focused on what he actually knows. His reaction (panic, cultivate frantically, worry about who you are) seems like a reasonable one for someone who needs to desperately grind to survive an upcoming fight with a Progression-type Cursebearer, which we know is his position. But
he doesn't have any of that knowledge. Based on the information he has available, he picked a fight, got his party wiped, was unable to scry this one guy, and escaped alive. This was back when Hunger was Rank 3.75 and Exhausted, with a single + in Might and Agi, mind you. In response, he rips up to a Reality Forming level of power and
still doesn't feel like that's enough to stop panicking. If Hunger was even close to that, there's no way you would have survived. Get some perspective, dude, you're perfectly safe even without being God. It's not all or nothing, the System didn't become worthless all of a sudden because it couldn't do everything.
Well, by all rights, you should be fine. We kinda screwed that up by dumping more powerups on our guy than Apo-chan did on you, but I won't apologize.
If the System couldn't be trusted then neither could its inputs, and that left him in chaos. His only recourse had been to grow, to hope he could outpace this threat as he had every other. That was the promise of the System, that with effort came achievement, a corollary too-often broken by the twisting chaos without.
Back up, when did we determine that the System couldn't be trusted? It fizzled out once, it's not even like it lied to you. The reasonable response would be to put a pin in that, acknowledge it has some limitations, and move on, but Ber has never spoken with a reasonable response in his life. If there's anyone I feel sorry for here, it's poor System-chan. She's doing her best, but her effort isn't rewarded with appreciation. "Effort" isn't a magic word unless you have the Praxis, and even then it needs to be aimed for best results. Completely ignoring the chaos of the world is a particularly high-level effect.
Gotta say, it feels bad to see my favored strategy of "just outpace it lol" reflected back at me like this. How dare you make me confront my own shortcomings. (It's fine until we lose though, we just gotta be better at it than Ber.)
He'd been fortunate. He'd stumbled into power beyond his furthest estimates, out here in the blue-on-blue-on-blue. Here was the nexus and the corollary to the magic of Color that he wielded, the solemn thrumming singularity of its emergence, and merely by residing in its shadow he cast net aloft and harvested towering swathes of power.
Ber's fascination with color might also be cause for introspection. Instead, I'll take it as evidence that I should double down on assigning meaning to every color we come across! Blue magic does a few things that we've seen: fuckhuge swordbeams, a simulation/prediction power, scrying, +Progression, and the ability to share it with party members. Blue=Mind is familiar to any MtG fan (and far more than that, but it's the first color magic that came to mind), and more importantly, it's baked into the Azure Ring. We've been using it's "Observe" Truth power as well. Which is enough for me to check the colors- nope, the Azure is a bit darker than Berblue, and Time shares its color. And the Praxis a bit lighter.
Berblue, then, lies between "Effort" and "Time." With enough of both, the sky is the limit, or something meaningful like that. Insert sky above sky line, Ber is a frog in a well. A slimly frog in a fish in a well, the well is the ocean.
But in his case, he's drawing power from the well so he can escape it- this metaphor has gotten out of hand. How is he accomplishing this? Not through effort, he rejected that philosophy, he's just sitting and cultivating by doing nothing. Nameless approves, and that should fill you with shame. Honestly, I'd (have Gisena) look into what he's doing to see if we can replicate it, but I'm sure it's 99% Apocrypha setting everything up juuuust so. We should still do it, since we have most of a day to kill regardless.
Can her Azure nom Blue, too?
The System hadn't enjoyed that. He'd felt it strain against the pressure, interfaces glitched and jangling, all but capsizing beneath the load of the power he'd accumulated, dense as caged atomics in every finger and sinew, well beyond the remit of its Level Cap. There was no science to this, no dance of computation and leverage, none of the reasoning which he'd excelled at and which had drawn the System to him. There was only naked, ceaseless power, pulled towards his grip with the tiresome ease of water flowing downhill, and himself growing fat and rot in gorging upon it.
You monster, after taking advantage of everything she gave without a shred of gratitude, you drowned System-chan. Sure, she was probably the tool of an evil (or at least sketchy) Astral Lord, but she never hurt you enough to deserve a glitching. I'm a bit curious as to why slurping too much Blue destabilizes the System, since you'd figure it could function as a "skin" even if it isn't contributing to the power. Probably an inbuilt limitation, so the pawns don't get too uppity just because they have a fortunate encounter. And he thinks he got the system because of his awesome reasoning powers. That might have been part of it, but gullibility was likely the more important criterion.
But really, isn't sitting at the bottom of a hill and drinking the water that runs down the greatest "leverage" of all? I get what he means though, it's gotta be incredibly boring to watch your numbers go up with no further mechanics... *quickly minimizes idle game* ehe.
But what else could he do? Stop?
It was not in him to surrender so blatant an advantage, no matter how unsportsmanlike it felt. It wasn't as if he was above hacking, so long as there was no chance he got caught. Most people would, if the stakes were high enough, though few dared to admit it.
I was a bit confused about why Bearic was being so defensive- for all his flaws, slurping free magic juice is neither foolish (well, in this case) nor wrong, so there's no need to defend it. But then I groaned, because he's
still acting like this is a game. Even after the first near-total party kill. No matter how much he powers up, this guy simply won't learn. And rather than not being sportsmanlike, isn't the real problem the murder? Is he seriously implying that he's stop slurping bluejuice if someone was watching, like
that's the thing he should be ashamed of? Ber, pls go.
Bearic understood patterns. They'd called him gifted at patterns, which was false, for people were comprised of patterns and he wasn't gifted at people. Too much recursion, too many feedback loops, uncertain information, hidden states, layers of counter-signaling and willful delusion, paradoxical reasoning: it wasn't possible to reason about people in the abstract with only the mind of a person, you could only rely on empirical experience and that was so time-consuming, there was no leverage in that-
He wasn't gifted, but he was specialized. What he specialized in, were those patterns which could be formalized, abstracted into the theatre of consciousness. Those things which were reasonably straightforward to perceive, he perceived. He could see the world as it was, and act accordingly. That had sufficed.
This segment is perfect. I'm relating to the autism-like worldview, the frustration, the managed obsession, the justifications, so hard. Moreso the "specialized," because struggling with social is far from a gift. If it wasn't attached to Ber, I'd think this was part of a character I'd be all about. It's interesting, though, that he calls himself "not gifted." I haven't seen anything like humility anywhere else in his train of thought, except maybe the superiority complex. But in this bit, he's talking about himself from before his isekai journey. So it's possible that he wasn't such an insufferable idiot before the System reinforced all his worst qualities.
Itt had sufficed to bring him into the highest echelons of competition, before the strictures of fate had deposited him here, before all his dreams had come true. The System unfurled, the Blue attained; Beth, Esterarc, Seralize.
As it turns out, Ber was good at something before he came here. No details on what competition, but it doesn't matter- he at least wasn't bullshitting about the patterns, the System might have chosen him for ability after all. He was isekai'd by what he calls "fate," so presumably the normal mechanism by which people are brought to the Voyaging Realm. I'm not sure how common it is for newcomers to get "cheats," which seems to have occurred from the start for him. We need an Isekai Studies major in our party to answer these questions.
And yet there were no happily ever afters, even after their first Mission was done. There was only life, stretching forth without limit, until it was brought to an end.
The Hungering One had ended Seralize, and with her all hope of Esterarc's true salvation.
Who was the Hungering One, and why did he defend the Devouring Giant? Why was he - it - the only thing his System could not Assess? How had he slain a Companion designated by the System?
Her slot still lay fallow on the side of his interface. Seralize von Esterarc. HP -37/2569.
Ber should've quit thinking while he was behind, reading this leaves my brain full of bruh. The first line isn't even stupid except by implication, which is more than I expected of Ber. But everything is downhill from there. The kingdom was placing its hope in Seralize of all people? I mean, she's still a noob with a single Mission under her belt, but in that case they should have found a new hope. And, uh, aren't you at Reality Former level now? No matter what complicated magicy bullshit was behind Seralize's importance, you should be able to Cut Through on sheer power to save Esterarc if you actually gave a damn.
Versch is a total bro, but to be fair there was no easy way to tell that. Ber even admits that the System can Assess everything but Hunger, the same one that he tossed in the trash. And that's terrible. But this fucker.
We gave him shit for his surprise that Seralize was not, in fact, axiomatically immortal, since anyone going into a fight should know better. But, fine, he's still young and he's not the brightest, that could fade into an embarrassing memory that occasionally keeps him up at night. Now, though. It's been a month and he's still grappling with that question- not in a grieving way (though that too), but as if the facts baffle him. Even while he laments the System's limits a sentence before.
I give up, there's no hope for this guy. Anyone else, there'd be soooo much pathos to draw out of the memory of his failure, of his friend's death, flashing ceaselessly in the corner of his vision. What a gut punch, but this guy is too stupid to feel bad for.
She was dead and buried, without even a completed quest to show for it. No mechanism had appeared to return her. Was he crippled in her absence, lacking an external perspective he could trust? By the power of the System he'd mastered the world without, but the people within it were as ever an enigma to him. He'd tried searching for other Companions but had found none, as if the System itself were admonishing him for taking poor care of his first. Perhaps his Companions would have lead him to a less foul and tedious source of power than this, if he'd managed to protect them.
Fuck you, System, if you're going to let my friends die at least give me XP as a consolation prize! That's how I know I truly cared about them. And you aren't even giving me replacements, how unfair is this? What do you mean, I haven't actually made friends to slap the "companion" label on, you need to designate some of these NPCs as "people" first before I can bond with them, don't you know how this works? And to add insult to injury, you didn't even pave my road to city-destroying power with gold, despite that being beyond your capabilities and the reason I ditched you in the first place! Honestly, System, you could be a little more grateful for having a Gamer as epic as I am.
His self-absorption levels are off the charts. He's even whining about Apo-chan's unasked for and
most certainly undeserved present. And the arrogance of assuming that he'd actually mastered the world, which is plain incorrect even before taking into account that people are part of it. Master yourself first. At least take a look? It'd probably help to have that "external perspective" from someone other than Seralize. This is the worst pity party in the history of pity parties, maybe ever.
After escaping he'd raged at the unfairness for a time. The System had reneged on its promise. He abided by its rules, followed the quests it issued, and in return it segmented reality for him, organized it into orderly encounters from which concrete patterns could be extracted and employed. He'd held up his end of the bargain, so why had it faltered then?
I've bitched enough about how unfair he's being to poor System-chan, so I'll leave that alone after pointing out that it was the System doing all the work here. But hold on, he's acknowledging here that the it processes reality into a form that he can handle. Despite his earlier boasting about being able to perceive the world accurately? Now I understand why I loved those two paragraphs despite Ber's shittiness- they were filled with bullshit. This guy has no consistency from one moment to the next, aside from the fact that he's garbage.
Perhaps it had simply lacked the strength. Entropy could be decreased in a finite space only at the cost of increasing its total sum. Any temporary order would hasten the final ascent of chaos. Perhaps they'd simply been unfortunate enough to encounter the embodiment of that reality. A greater power. How was he to know the limits of that power, if all of his methods offered nothing to perceive?
Everything except the last line is 100%, which frustrates me because, if he accepts this, he shouldn't be making half the complaints
I've complained about. Yes, the system is limited, and Hunger is an anomaly. Meaning, if you stay away from similar anomalies and keep to the bounds of the system, there will be zero problems! And if you want to venture beyond, good on you! But don't blame the syste- oops, I'm doing it again. The last line, though. Bruh, in this page you said "the limits of the system were exposed." Empiricism takes time, as you also said, but Hunger was kind enough to do the experiment for you. The way to find the limits of the Blue is simple. Pay attention. If you had a single neuron to spare for the task, it would be easy. The system isn't lying to you about its limits, it explicitly has a level cap and when scrying doesn't work it
tells you. What, would you only accept that if you got a blue pop-up saying "Divination Protection lvl. MAX"? It's implied, dude.
Order/Chaos/Entropy as a lens to understand the world is pretty rad, but I don't see the relevance here. Except for the fact that he's right, but since it's Ber I'm 100% sure it was an accident. Hunger as an embodiment of chaos? Well, yes, looking at the Ruin and the murderhoboing and the Curses. I sorta follow him, you gotta move stuff to make it orderly, causing waste. So when the System came into existence, the spare magic junk might have gone somewhere. And the thought that some of our powers could come from a... chaos landfill? as a byproduct of other magics is an intriguing one. Byproduct? I should've said
dross. I feel kinda clever for that, but honestly that's nothing new, and doesn't exactly fit with chaos either. The real trick would be matching types of dross to their origins.
That's just power stuff, though, sometimes you get punked with no need for physics metaphors.
The Hungering One. Chaos incarnate. The appearance of a nondescript add, but who twisted reality by its very presence, shattering the System's careful precision to leave Ber uncertain and reeling.
Thus, the degradation of his interface bothered him little. The slow disintegration of the System, was merely evidence that he was growing beyond its permissible bounds, growing to a level that might be capable of avenging his companions.
Still he had much further to grow. Not until he'd exhausted every facet and seam of the Blue would he be content to face the Hungering One, content in the knowledge that he'd done all that he could. Only then would he have the equanimity to face death - or the unknown - with grace.
As it turns out, Ber does have a way to harm Hunger even now. Slap the "Chaos Incarnate" title on him and he'll cringe himself to death, it's so much edgier than Reckoner. I don't think THO will stick, on the other hand. Hunger, the Hungering One? Far too on the nose, but it's not Ber's fault since he didn't know his name. Rather, it should be a credit to the System that its prediction was so accurate despite the interference. Which Ber predictably ignores and denigrates. I might be over-humanizing the System, but it's too much to talk about "avenging his companions" when he's chuckling over the slow death of the last one left, the most faithful.
Hunger's presence alone does influence reality. That's called Rank, basically everybody has it here. You and Seralize more than Hunger, at the time you fought. If we needed more solid proof that Ber was living in a fantasyland (more than anyone else, that is), here it is. It wasn't reality being distorted, only Ber's blinkered and spoon-fed perspective thereof. Apparently this guy can't brush his teeth without casting ten divination spells.
Somehow, I doubt that this guy would be graceful in the face of the unknown no matter how much power he inhaled. Not when a single uncertainty causes you to label somebody Chaos Incarnate *krakathoom*. It's a good sentiment, coming from somebody with a shred of credibility.
There was a great ripping sound, a tearing as if through vast layers of flesh. It was followed by a dull roar from the Fish around him, sound so immense that seemed to engulf his entire world. He marshaled the Blue, casting it as a mantle about him, and tore free from the cocoon of brine to face this interloper who had wounded his home.
No one was there.
He looked up. Through the fathomless mountains-deep flesh he could see the faint line of the open sky above, a cut that had penetrated all that fearsome musculature to stop finally at this esophagus-cave within.
Finally, a chance to get out of Ber's head! I'm enjoying ripping into him, but theoretically mercy or respect for the dead or something should stop me. I'll substitute this.
Hunger tore all the way through the Fish's throat with his attack, I didn't expect nearly that level of damage. I realize now that it's got to be the Artful Thorn. The Rotbeast fight contributed to my confusion, because Thorn there diminished the foe holistically. In hindsight, that's because the Rotbeast had that weird "no weak points" nonsense rather than an inherent property of the attack, which only promises hand or eye equivalent damage. A ripped open esophagus more or less qualifies!
Especially because, as the Fish quickly demonstrates, one of the main attacks we were warned about was it's explodeyscream. Attacking the throat (and the conceptual throat, and the essence throat, and etc., natch) would reasonably limit its ability to do damage, like chopping off a hand for a human. An excellent defense, this offense is! Makes me wonder about how the Fish would land a direct hit OHKO with an AOE sonic attack, I'm think that might be an oxymoron, but Hunger's alive so it doesn't matter.
Alternatively, that wasn't the roar attack, just a scream of pain. Not sure how I'd tell the difference, at this size. And on the topic of size, that level of damage would have oneshot the Rotbeast. Only not, because Thorn, but shut up.
Ber also needs to shut up, you can't brag about being in the heart of the beast when you're only in the esophagus! That's just unsportsmanlike. Won't rag on his adoption of the Fish as a home, loneliness screws with your head even without Ber's circumstances. I don't blame him for being a bit odd, only the incredible and willful stupidity. It does fill me with relief that we didn't give him another day to bond with his house with Apo-chan as a matchmaker.
Ber clenched his fist. A level-appropriate enemy? The System displayed only static and anarchy, meaningless characters shifting across panels. No help from that quarter. To so wound this Fish of the Blue would require serious power, strength physical and magical beyond the limits of ordinary magi. With his mastery of the Color he could level cities with a gesture, yet it would not be wise to overestimate his strength. The depth of this enemy's cut had shown them capable of the same, but offered little data on the upper limits of their capacity.
Ah, yes. I have grown beyond the System, it was never that great anyway. What, trouble? Please help, System-chan! ao8htyo81938y5, what does that mean? Worthless. Ber continues to be the worst.
If Ber believes himself capable of doing the level of damage Hunger demonstrate, and his perceptions can be trusted (lol), then it looks like I might have been wrong. Maybe it wasn't a Thorn after all. But that would mean Hunger could just Cut Through the Fish in a few strikes, unless the outer skin of the throat was far weaker than the rest of the Armament for some reason. Or the bones are tougher than skin, d'oh. But still, blood, so probably was Thorn. Ooooor maybe the Fish has a comically small head, attached to a comically small mountain-sized neck! The possibilities are endless. I'll put my money on "Ber doesn't know wtf he's talking about," since I'm having trouble triangulating the Ber-Fish-Hunger matchup otherwise.
It doesn't matter because you're dead, but you can't tell me you still hold to any concept of "level-appropriate" fairness? What am I saying, you're still having trouble with "people die when they are killed," of course you can. You're just so blisteringly foolish, it pains me.
He would scout out the foe and see if they were something he could overcome.
Ber scrambled up the interior walls of the Fish and peeked his head out of the cut their attacker had made. He moved with utmost speed, scarcely a blur to the senses of magi, utterly invisible to the unaided eye.
Hunger is, factually, the attacker of both Bear and Fish, but since this is Bearic we're talking about, "their attacker" is the pinnacle of empathy. There's no way he's capable of that (/s), so Apo-chan was likely grinding Affection points on their behalf like the filthy shipper she is. I can't believe how it seems that Cutting Through was actually the right answer, I just voted for Cast Line because I was too lazy to do proper preparation! Hooray for recklessness!
Schadenfreude laces the dramatic irony, I know something Ber doesn't know~ It's Blood. Even if Hunger's eye wasn't aided, there's approximately no chance he didn't notice the peeking.
And Ber's speed may be utmost, but Hunger's is uttermost! I'm going to run that stupid joke into the ground eventually, but I haven't gotten bored of it yet.
And yet, as soon as he broke the surface, he was flying, spinning, plunging into the sky, spray of blood half-obscuring his vision as he tried to turn and found his neck unresponsive. Finally he saw his headless body fallen limply below, arterial spray rapidly discoloring the form.
Hi, Bearic! Die, Bearic. That was anticlimactic, I love it. It couldn't be otherwise, with Crown, Skyveil, Tower, Tears, Whiteout, and All-Defeating Stance on top of what we actually needed for a decisive win against a Ber who actually finished grinding. That's, what, 90 Arete? You can't just count the Arete and assume you'll Overwhelm people, but in this case we can because haha money printer go brrr.
I know brains don't die immediately after decapitation even without magic, but seeing your own headless body has to be a trip. It almost sounds relaxing (in a non-suicidal way, don't worry about me). Like yep, I'm definitely dead, so I don't have to do anything but enjoy being alive, that kind of paradox. The reality must surely be less pleasant, like ew, blood.
But hey! Ever since he was cognizant, Bearic wanted to be ahead. And now, for
once twice in his life, he's got his wish!
The Hungering One stopped next to his corpse, nose wrinkled in distaste, and looked curiously up at him. There was faint recognition in that golden, glistening eye.
It had two arms now, its sword unbroken, shining with a colder, more-piercing shade of Blue. The shock of its unfurled Pressure was like nothing he'd experienced before, a bomb-blast of abrupt terror as sudden and total as a child's first peal of thunder. He summoned his Color about him, hoping wildly that it could transport him downwards, somehow stitch him back onto his body - but it could barely exist in the wake of that Pressure, let alone exert his will.
Ah, he thought finally. He'd never stood a chance.
Is it... is it time? Ahem. Get Ranked, son. If Hunger isn't actually looking down at Ber in disgust (tbh that's prime fetish material, for some people), and just reacting to gross giant fish juice, allow me my ignorance, because this is more amusing. Oh hey, it's that guy from back then, I almost forgot about him because he's just that worthless.
Reacting to how Ber reacts to the protagonist is the most degenerate of all reactions, so according to the thread rules it's mandatory that I do so. He's Overwhelmed by the Avalanche of Hunger's Pressure, but mechanically it's because he's going Holy Shit at his Charisma (sometimes, important magical capitalization makes English look a lot like German). Though the synergy is apparent. Ber's response is surprisingly decent in the face (lol) of 100 Charisma, considering that he's only a head. Give him credit for doing anything at all, at least. Oh wait, he didn't, he's still Ber after all. And our shade of blue is better than his shade of blue, if you'll pardon the color bias. Even he admits it (no, colder and more-piercing are obviously equivalent to better, this is true facts).
And this isn't even our Final Form! Or our Second Stage, but that one's kind of embarrassing, if he saw it we'd have to kill him even more.
Blue the sky and blue the sea and blue the titan thundering below, and white the froth of the wrath-tillered waves as they slapped uselessly against the titans warring. The Fish of the Blue was dying. Spinning still, he fell further now, and struck the cold salty waters of the ocean below.
The Blue was receding at last. Darkness instead claimed him. This, at least, had been of a pattern he could understand. The Hungering One was a Secret Boss, and Ber had not been prepared.
Game over.
At least Ber finds the comfort of his patterns in his final moments, and that he can return to his beloved blue. He'd prefer to not be dead, but we can't always get what we want. Everything being blue reminds me of a song. A million songs, rather, which is the problem- I found it on spotify, but later lost it in an unending tide of "Blue" titles. So I can empathize with Ber's struggle here! Sssort of.
More importantly than Ber (which doesn't narrow anything down tbh), Hunger won this 3-pick fight so quickly that Ber could tell the Fish was dying before his head reached the water. That roll must have been something. And I'm sure sky-high Agi and aggressive tactics contributed.
And now, I'll react to all the things that
weren't in this chapter, because they say as much about Ber as the things that were. No mention of any of his other companions, especially not the still-nameless girl that got shanked immediately after portaling in. No knowledge about the Astral Lord he was maybe working for, but to be fair we shouldn't be able to plan for that OoC. And not a lick of sense, the reason Ber's head came off so easily is because it was empty.
