âWait...if Zhen Liu is the one fighting that armored guy, where the hell are his puppets?,â Zhen Hai wondered as he watched Olstenna and his (presumed) cousin fight yet another mysterious warrior.
This new warrior reminded Zhen Hai of those "paladin" guys who would occasionally show up to town, preach a bit about their religion, buy a beer, buy a steak and then go off to do...whatever paladins do.
Zhen Hai would often only half listen whenever these guys started preaching, but he was usually busy with something pertaining to the clan.
That being said, whomevever this armored guy was, Zhen Hai could sense the pure arrogance radiating off of him, to the point where he wanted to get involved too.
âBut something tells me thatâs a bad idea...wait, why am I acting cautious? Iâm usually never this cautious,â Zhen Hai thought to himself as he continued to watch the fight happening right in front of him.
Normally, Zhen Hai would be the one to want to jump into the immediate fray and would need someone to hold him back, hell, that sneak attack of his from earlier was out of character as well.
Perhaps it was the innate instinct of knowing that this battle was out of his league, perhaps it was caution developed after the last few times he got involved in a scuffle like this, or perhaps he just wanted to know if that guy in the radically different looking [Regalia] was actually his cousin in disguise.
Either way, this sudden development of wanting to be unseen was...different to say the least.
âWait...I heard some people say that those mystery fighters from earlier had this aura that caused people to act weird...is it possible that Zhen-â
*BOOM!*
âHoly shit!â
"Why wonât you two break already?!"
âOh, so thatâs where Zhen Liuâs puppets went. Well, two of them at least.â
However, before he could think about why his train of thought was deviating from the norm any further, Zhen Hai discovered that two of Zhen Liuâs puppets, the one that looked like a frog woman and a newer one that appeared to be a red skeleton woman, had become engaged in combat with a pair of girls that appeared to be wearing matching [Regalia].
From what he could tell, these two women were unassociated with the armored guy wielding the mace, but they had decided to work together for some reason.
Either way, the battle appeared to be remarkably even despite Zhen Liu and Olstenna joining hands with one another.
âWait a minute...where are the rest of Zhen Liuâs puppets?,â Zhen Hai quickly realized. âNormally, he uses that one made of red jade,another that looks a giant mammoth man and some weird looking mechanical ones he modified, so where are they? And why do I hear a whistling-â
*Crack!*
âAh.â
Shortly after thinking of this particular question, the aformentioned jade puppet and mechanical puppets appeared from the sky and attacked the armored warrior or the twins in matching [Regalia].
Needless to say, everyone was surprised or indignant about this sudden turn of events.
"More of them?!"
"Oh, now this is a party!"
Well, everyone except for the guy in charge of them, who used their sudden appearance to go and do...something else entirely.
...
âOh thank the gods, you guys finally showed up!â
[Apologies, director. Using ourselves as giant slingshot ammo is more of an art than a science,Iâm afraid.]
âThatâs-wait. Slingshot?â
[Weâll tell you about it later. Werenât you thinking of evacuating the children?]
âAh, right! Yes! Thank you for the reminder, keep these assholes busy or win!â
[Will do!]
...
As Zhen Liu used the appearance of his kaijin as a distraction, he proceeded to separate himself from the battlefield in order to run into the arenaâs halls while under the assumption nobody knew where he was going.
Unfortunately for him, somebody did notice.
âWait a minute? Why is he bailing now?,â Zhen Hai wondered to himself. âI should probably follow him.â
____________Elsewhere...________________
"Ow...is everybody...okay?"
"Why is my head ringing?"
"I think I got tinitius..."
"Mostly..."
The Zhen Clan scions were not having the greatest of times right now.
Moments ago, they were pumped and ready to get involved in the fight happening in the arena below them, or at least, distract everyone long enough for their elders and patriarch to arrive and deal with everything.
But then, just as they were about halfway through the halls, a loud and incredibly high pitch sound ripped through the area and caused all of them to double over with pain and nausea.
Luckily, as proper Aether Warriors, they managed to recover somewhat quickly and get back on their feet...for the most part.
There was still a ringing in their ears, but that would go away eventually.
"Alright, letâs try to-huh?"
As they were recovering though, the five Zhen Clan scions saw a rather unusual sight happening in front of them.
Namely, they saw that their hothead of a cousin known as Zhen Hai was attempting to stalk some warrior that looked to be twice his size.
The sight of the giant warrior was already odd enough, but the fact that Zhen Hai was stalking this guy was even odder.
The scions shared a look with one another before coming to consensus.
"Weâre going after them?"
"Weâre going after them."
"Come on!"
...
âAlright, where did Hurricroak and Screamira-â
"Over here!"
"Milord!"
"Ah! There you two are! Nice camouflage."
"Thank you!"
In a little alcove in the arenaâs halls, Zhen Liu had found Jasper and Janice hiding themselves away by using a combination of their innate [Chaos] abilities.
Janice had covered them with a blanket of threads, while Japser painted over it to mimic the wallâs texture. If they hadnât called out to him, Zhen Liu mightâve pass right by them.
"Sorry for your training sessions getting cut short."
"Itâs okay."
"Weâll just practice fighting monsters another day."
"Thatâs...okay."
Ignoring the somewhat worrying statement, Zhen Liu proceeded to produce the [Key to Nowhere] and use it to open a door back to the Library of Nowhere. Luckily for him, there was a janitorial closet door near by to serve as his means to exit.
"Alright, kids," Zhen Liu began to say as he opened the door. "Be sure to wash up, rest up and-"
"Hey! Who are you and what the fuck are you doing?"
"I-oh fuck..."
However, before he could even wish the kids goodbye, Zhen Liu found himself in a worst case scenario.
"Do you have anything to do with why those weirdos showed up to our city?"
"Hey! Donât move!"
"Tell us, or things are about to get messy."
"Uh..."
Zhen Liu had finally been caught by his cousins...and he didnât have a bad enough relationship to justify hurting any of them.
âFuck! What do I do now?!â
________________________________________
"Uhh...big bro?"
"What is it Simos? Iâm trying to concentrate over here."
"I just want to make sure...you still want us to go in there, right?"
"Seeing as were getting paid, yes."
"Okay..."
At the confirmation of their elder brotherâs desire to continue the job, Simos and Graff proceeded to give each other numb looks.
"Weâre gonna die, arenât we?"
"Probably..."
While Victor was busy trying to channel his aether into his teeth in a particular way, Simos and Graff and had spent their time staring and observing the situation in the arena. Needless to say, it wasnât good.
Explosion after explosion had rocked the arena, and that wasnât even mentioning the fact that they saw those demons literally fly in as well.
Just as they were about to have second thoughts and voice their concerns, they heard Victor let out a sound of victory.
"Finally got it! Now come on!"
"Huh?"
"Wait!"
Before Simos and Graff could protest, Victor suddenly grabbed them both by the wrist before biting the air in front of him.
A literal hole in space opened up as he did.
[Spatial Dive!]
The next moment, the trio had disappeared into the void...and caused a ripple effect that would change a generation.
________________________________________
<Well, this ainât good.>
=Itâs fine, all our lord needs to do is just walk through that door and...wait a minute, somethingâs wrong.=
<Wrong? Wrong, how?>
=Someone managed to breach into the tunnel. Weâve been compromised!=
<Oh fuck. OH FUCK!>
=Emergency protocol: Void Recall!=
<Sorry about this, milord. But it looks like youâre gonna have to have that talk with them now!>
________________________________________
âWait! Maybe if I act indignant...â
"You guys shouldnât be here right-wait, somethingâs wrong!"
"What do you mean somethingâs wro-"
*CRACK!*
"Zhen Yue! Take the others and get out of here now!"
"What the?! How do you know my-bah!"
Before anybody could let out a scream of surprise or an exclamation of shock, the door to the Library of Nowhere suddenly turned into a vacuum and sucked everyone in its immediate vicinity into itself.
*Pop! Pop!*
"Huh?!"
"Whereâd everybody go?"
Elsewhere, the kaijin suddenly disappeared like bubbles in the wind, with the only proof that they were in the area in the first place, being the destroyed internals of the arena. Even more surprising though, was the fact that Olstenna had disappeared alongside the kaijin in a similar manner.
Inquisitor Malifax and Calamity Sisters were the only ones left standing and the three of them were rather confused at this turn of events, sharing a singular thought.
"What the fuck just happened?"
________________________________________
â˘See? I said I was harmless.â˘
|Doesnât change the fact that you broke in here...and messed up my script, Iâm gonna have to do recap again.|
Iâm with him,partially, how did you get in here?!
â˘Trade secret, Iâm afraid. Besides, you wonât have to worry about me for too much longer anyways. This is the part where my protagonists depart from yours anyways. And if things go to plan, you wonât be seeing them again, until....â˘
Until...?
|Until theyâre ready for another go at the library?|
â˘More or less.â˘