The Frenzy trait formed a gray glow, constructing a cocoon around Naoko and wrapping her within. Threads of crimson power ran through it, bolstered by the "Gestation" trait.
Because for Naoko, this was practically another complete transformation.
Her soul was breaking through the barrier that prevented "traits" from fusing.
Wu Heng placed his hand against the cocoon and felt the violent energy surging within. Naoko was undergoing a transformation more painful than the tortures of Hell. Every second, countless voices tempted her to give up, yet the cocoon remained steady, like a stubborn heart.
"Sleep." Wu Heng shifted his gaze. The Fear Core suspended high above cast down a beam of gray light, shining over the mottled soil of Hell. A fissure split open in the deepest part of the ground.
Countless pale arms reached out from the crack and gently received the gray cocoon.
"When you gain enlightenment through pain, I look forward to seeing a brand-new..."
Wu Heng's words came to an abrupt halt.
At the very instant the gray cocoon sank into Hell's depths, he sensed something condensing in the depths of Naoko's consciousness. It was neither Lucifer's fall nor his own fear, but a purer, exceedingly faint will.
Wu Heng stood in the Hell that had returned to silence. A bloody tear mark suddenly ran down from the goat skull tattoo on his body, though it was not physical.
Thoughtfully wiping away the bloodstain, Wu Heng said, "Looks like you felt it too. Is this sympathy born from a shared fate?"
He looked toward a church-like structure that was rebuilding itself within Fear Hell. Where Lucifer's hall had once stood, an obsidian spire marked with silver-black patterns was breaking through the ground.
"Interesting." Wu Heng's soft laugh stirred a resonant wail throughout Hell. Countless Cenobite Devils