[What the heck do you mean youāre about to escape in five-]
*Sound of insane bombshell demon woman jumping off the tenth story of a giant ass library.*
[SEE YA LOSESR!]
[DAMMIT!]
[Why the heck did she jump like that?]
[Wait a minute, isnāt the young masterās family down on the first floor?]
[Last we checked, yeah!]
[OH MIERDE!]
āTo the stairways, now!ā
______________________________________
"Oh hello my darling niece and nephews! I hope you are all alright," Daria said in a sweet tone of voice. "How on Valresta did you all end up here?"
"We...wait a minute, thatās our line!"
"Agreed, Seventh Mother, how did you find us?"
"Better question, how did you know this place existed?"
When that giant doorway appeared out of nowhere, the last person the Zhen Clan scions expected to see walk through it was the Seventh Lady of the Zhen Clan, Daria Nerissa-Zhen.
That wasnāt to say they thought she was too weak or anything like that, but rather, their doubts originated from how they wound up in this crazy place in the first place.
As the scions waited for a response from Lady Daria, a few of them directed their gazes towards the three men on the ground who were still holding their crotches in pain. More specifically, they were staring at the guy with the messed up teeth.
If Zhen Haiās observation was correct, then that meant that the only reason they were here in the first place was due to this guy interfering and messing with an ongoing teleportation array.
While none of the scions had the pleasure of undergoing teleportation via manmade means, that didnāt mean they werenāt informed about what could do go wrong during such means of transport.
There were plenty of stories, records and warnings that informed people that in the rare cases a teleportation array goes awry, the most immediate consequence was that the teleported people would end up in a location completely different from the one they intended.
In very rare cases, they could even end up inside of a set of wandering ruins.
As such, the Zhen Clan scions could only come to one of three conclusions when they saw Lady Daria walk through those giant stone doors.
She was either an illusion conjured up by their stressed out mind, or an enemy warrior.
"And youāre sure sheās real and not a hallucination?"
"If she was, why would we also be hallucinating the presence of all three of Zhen Liuās fi...girl...why would we also be hallucinating about the women who seem to like Zhen Liu too?"
"Same, if it was me, Iād be seeing Pai Ling."
"Or Iād be seeing Carlos."
"Carmen."
"Alright, alright! Quit reminding me that Iām single!"
However, since it appeared that Lady Daria and her entourage werenāt illusions or hallucination, that left only two possibilities.
This was either a complete coincidence or she had knowledge about this place prior to showing up.
The scions were more inclined to believe the latter moreso than the former due to all the warnings they received from their parents in regards to Lady Daria when they were growing up.
Namely, it was impossible to lie to her about anything, because she seemed to know everything.
Well, she seemed to know everything because of her pet Ghost Cat that seemed to be everywhere and nowhere all at the same time.
"Oh, thatās easy. My darling Spectra found this place months ago and has been exploring it ever since. This actually my first time coming here in person."
Case and point.
...
=Wait a minute, has there been a Ghost Cat floating around our shelves this whole time? How the fuck did we now know about it?=
<I...you know, I was about to say that she was probably lying through her teeth about that cat of hers finding and exploring this place, but we also just saw her perform an emergency procedure that only the kaijin should know about. Itās incredibly possible now that she was telling the truth this whole time and we might have been dealing with a literal ghost cat roaming our halls this whole time.>
=Okay, thatās it. Iām taking this as a sign that we need to update our security measures. Again.=
<But we updated them over a century ago!>
=Shut up and help me figure out if we have enough components in storage or if weāre gonna have to send the kaijin out hunting.=
<Wait, weāre not going to keep watch over the Zhen Clan members at this point?>
=Nah, this is our lordās responsibility, not ours.=
...
"What do you mean by āfoundā this place?," Zhen Yue asked. "Because we got teleported here by a weird vortex vacuum in the middle of a hallway and assumed we wound up inside a set of wandering ruins or something because of all the weird energy floating."
"Donāt forget the sudden shift in surrounding and the weirdly powerful aether beasts showing up," Zhen Tai added.
"Yeah, that."
"Wait...," Zhen Xing interjected. "I remember you mentioned one time that your cat is unable to enter the gateway of wandering ruins...does that mean this place is-?!"
[GERONIMO, MOTHERFUCKERS!]
"What the fuck?"
...
[GERONIMO, MOTHERFUCKERS!]
"What the fuck?"
"Why did that voice sound so sultry?!"
"Who...what the fuck is that?!"
"AH, MY DICK!"
Before Zhen Xing could finish his statement, a strange voice that seemed to have the natural ability to enflame oneās most carnal desires suddenly echoed throughout the room and prompted most of the people present to crane their heads upward and stare.
What they saw was...impossible for them to describe...at least with their current level of vocabulary.
To any outside observers from a certain blue planet, the being plummeting towards the crowd in a maniacal fashion was none other than Paralust, and she looked a lot like an incredibly curvaceous succubus with missing texture pink and black skin. The only parts that werenāt this weird missing texture pattern was the succubusās incredibly sparse armoring if if could even be called that.
Think a metal bikini, but somehow skimpier.
Of course, Paralust didnāt really care about how people saw her at this moment, because in about a couple of seconds, she was going to have a brand new body.
As Paralust continued to plummet downwards, the people in the first floor lobby began to panic.
"Incoming!"
"Sheās coming right towards us!"
"Is...is anyone else feeling a weirdly oppressive mix of killing intent and pure sexual desire or is that just me?"
"I think itās coming from that...girl? I donāt know what the fuck Iām looking at here!"
āFinally, finally, finally! Itās been months but it feels like forever, I can finally get my hands on a plump, fleshy body!,ā Paralust thought to herself, āBut the question is which one? Do I go for the experienced ones or the virgins? The men or the women? Oh itās so hard to choose but I think Iāll go for the-ā
*SMACK! BEGONE, THOT!*
ā-what?ā
However, literally moments before Paralust could pick a host and proceed to turn them into sex incarnate, Daria Nerissa-Zhen, quite literally, slapped them so hard that they were sent flying off towards a side wall.
A side wall that had just magically opened into a stairway.
________________________________________
Meanwhile in that aformentioned stairway...
[Milord? Are you sure itās a good idea for you to be leading us from the front? You only just regained consciousness,] Nepherage asked in a worried tone.
"Iāll be fine," Zhen Liu assured the jade warrior woman kaijin. "Besides, yāall are more dangerous than literally most people and beasts in the region."
[Hmmm.]
Shortly after Zhen Liu had regained consciousness, he immediately recalled all of the scattered kaijin in the library in order to better coordinate a response in dealing with his cousins, the intruders and apparently his mother.
His original plan was to pull off some flash and showmanship to make it look like this place was the hidden sanctuary of his mysterious "master", but he had to scrap that idea when he discovered that Paralust had somehow been let loose into the library, which was one of the worst case scenarios Zhen Liu was always paranoid about.
During their months of keeping Paralust under observation, Logos and Pathos had apparently discovered that if Paralust ever managed to acquire a host, they would be able to turn that mortal into some kind of [Chaos] based lifeform that was neither mortal nor kaijin. If Paralust ever managed to get their hands on a kaijin, theyād be able to hijack their body wholesale, erasing the original [Core] and personality. Either way, Zhen Liu had to make sure Paralust was back under lock and key or things were going to get real nasty, real fast.
Granted, it probably didnāt help that Zhen Liu was doing all this while mildly handicapped.
[Hey, Frosttusk?]
[Yes, Hurricroak?]
[What the fuck are you carrying? It looks like slimy fireball and reeks of violence and malice.]
[Oh, this? I think itās technically part of our jarlās soul.]
[I...why are you holding part of the maestroās soul?]
[Well, to make a long story short...]