Chapter 840: How Mama met Meteor Horn, for real this time

"Is...is this the part where you finally meet Meteor Horn?"

"Yes."

"Cool."

"But not before almost dying because I wanted to blow up a statue for disrespecting me."

"I’m...I’m starting to understand some of Jin Fang’s behaviors now."

"And yours, don’t act impertinent."

"Yes, mother."

________________________________________

"Oh no you don’t!"

Correction: Daria wasn’t freaking out, she was freaking pissed.

Not wanting to have her aether drained without putting up a fight, Daria proceeded to try and do something absolutely absurd.

She was going to try and absorb whatever the hell weird ass energy was nullifying her aether.

"Alright you stupid hunk of bronze! I’m going to-HRK!"

Unfortunately, this turned out to be a really stupid idea.

"What the fuck is this energy?! It’s so...wild!"

Daria was under the mistaken impression that the energy nullifying her aether was benign, given that the only thing it seemed to in regards to reacting to her aether was basically nothing.

As an aether warrior, Daria was familiar with the antagonistic and synergistic effects of aether when used in certain expressions. She figured since the reaction wasn’t a violent explosion when she used aether against this weird energy, nothing would happen if she attempted to absorb it, with the the worst case scenario being her stomach feeling violently ill due to trying to process an energy type that was incompatible with her own.

What happened instead was a surging pain shooting up and down her arms, the feeling that her mind’s eye was being violently ripped open and forced to stare into whatever void anima wielders saw, and an incredibly painful stomachache.

To say she was feeling regretful would be the understatement of the millenia.

If anything, she was feeling as if the spectre of death was looming over her...along with some other stuff.

"Can’t...hold on...much...longer! Wait...why am I thinking about blue bananas right now?!"

[Hey! What the fuck? Who’s messing with my mate’s memorial statues?!]

Luckily for her, someone, or something, significantly more suitable to the situation appeared from deeper within the complex.

At this point, Daria’s consciousness was hazy at best with her mind feeling as if ten thousand volts of electricity was rocking through her entire body. As such, she was fairly certain she was hallucinating what appeared to be a rust covered rhino man with a literal hide made of armor, wielding a double headed glaive and looking as if he was more annoyed than angry that someone intruded into what was probably his domain.

Making the whole thing weirder was that the rhino was speaking a language she had never heard of until now, but could somehow understand with perfect fluency.

Then again, that could’ve been the lighting bolts ravaging her brain.

[I swear, if it’s another remnant of that stupid Overlord I’m going to-huh? Wait a minute...holy shit that’s a new person! But why is she...wait...seriously?! What kind of-ah, forget it! Hold on little lady, I’m coming!]

The rhino man proceeded to rush towards Daria and the weird lizard statue with a surprising amount of concern in his voice for someone who was essentially a stranger in all but name.

As the rhino man got closer and closer, Daria could sense it was wielding that same weird energy that had started this mess in the first place. Albeit, in a much more controlled manner.

[Kaijin Art: Galactic Cutter!]

"Oh...fuck!"

With a heavy swing of his glaive, the rhino proceeded to release a crescent shape blast of energy that flew through the air at breakneck speed.

Daria gritted her teeth in preparation for what she assumed to be a case of impromptu amputation...only to be incredibly relieved that this wasn’t going to be the case.

*Zwip!*

"Huh?"

Instead, she felt only the smallest tingle of something happening in her arms before her connection with that weird energy got completely cut off.

"Oh that’s...why do I feel light-headed? Oh boy..."

Unfortunately, Daria couldn’t really appreciate this moment due to the overwhelming waves of exhaustion buffering her existence at this exact moment.

[Whoa there little lady! I got ya.]

Before falling into unconscious, Daria managed to make a few observations of her stranger looking rescuer.

Firstly, the hand supporting her fall felt surprisingly warm and caring for a creature made of rusted metal. An odd observation to make to be sure, but an accurate one.

Second, and perhaps strangest of all, was that the face of her savior was clearly inhuman by every regard...but was somehow filled with more emotion and concern for her well-being moreso than any human she knew.

’Huh...what a strange sensation in my chest...’

While Daria was fairly certain this wasn’t love she was feeling, it was something at least very, very close to it.

...

[But how in the name of the Star Caller did this girl find this place? I was fairly certain that only the next inheritor could...wait a minute...ah. Of course. Had to play one last prank, didn’t you? Wright?]

________________________________________

"..."

"..."

"...why’d you stop?"

"No real reason, I just figured you’d make a quip about me passing out before making proper introductions."

"So many of my past interactions with people in this library have involved unconscious people that I’m starting to think that one of the side effects of handling [Chaos] is sudden loss of consciousness."

"For you or people around you?"

"Yes."

"Huh..."

...

[Guys, it’s really fucking weird being the third wheel to what I think is supposed to be a mother-son bonding moment. Can I get an extract or something?]

[Are...are they trading torture tips or something?]

[No, she’s been regaling him and me with he tale of how she met a precedessor kaijin decades before today.]

[Oh, dope!]

[Small problem, I know who she’s talking about and it doesn’t end well!]

[Uh oh.]

________________________________________

"Nghm...grr...ah!"

[Oh good, you’re awake! I was getting worried there for a hot minute.]

"Huh?"

Shortly after losing consciousness, Daria was the subject to a literal nightmare sequence related to her clan’s practices and the appearance of a strange deformed monster that looked suspiciously similar to the portrait of her supposed fiancee.

Regardless, after the dream reached the climax of her being swallowed alive, Daria found herself waking up in a strange domicile that appeared to be mostly made of carved rock.

There wasn’t much to look at in this small little living space...then again, Daria wouldn’t really know due to he attention being focused on the six foot tall rhinoceros warrior man that was as weird looking as the statues she had interacted with just moments ago.

[Is...is there something on my face?]

"N-no...," Daria physically replied while mentally answering, ’more like your entire face shouldn’t be physically possible.’

[Hmm. I suppose it’s been awhile since I met a human. Maybe I should’ve polished my horn.]

Now that Daria had a better look at the rhino warrior that had rescued her, several things immediately became clear.

First,she had assumed that if she had a closer look at the warrior she’d be able to tell if he was a Rhinoceros Bloodliner with fitted armor, or a human with a funny shaped helmet. Maybe even an aetherii with a funky suit of armor. Much to her surprise though, she found that the armored form was more like his actual form.

Second, she realized that he wasn’t actually covered in rust covered armored...it was actually mottled rock hide reminiscent of a fallen meteor.

Last, and certainly the weirdest thing to note, was that this fellow radiated the same feeling as those statues she had observed moments ago, and not just because they both used the same type of weird energy. They looked absolutely nothing alike, she had no reason to associate them together and yet...she couldn’t help but to associate this rhino warrior to those statues in the same way one compares siblings to one another.

And she wasn’t entirely sure why.

That all stated though, the strange rhino-man didn’t really know these thoughts. If anything, he was more worried about the tray in his hand holding a cup of tea.

[Well then, I’m not sure how you managed to find this hidey hole of ours, but here,] the rhino-man said as he handed the cup of tea over to Daria, who was now actively awake and adjusting her sitting posture. [It ain’t much, just some Stellar Jasmine Lilly tea. Sorry I couldn’t find anything fancier.]

"Star Jasmine Lil-wait a minute, fancier?!"

The moment Daria heard the name of the flower, she was immediately struck dumb and shook as she recognized the name as being one of the highest quality natural aether medicines on the market. For some perspective, one flower sold for five hundred thousand gold coins at minimum, which was about an eighth of the Nerriza’s family worth.

Of course, Daria didn’t say shit about that when she gingerly accepted the cup and took a sip.

As she drank the offered beverage she felt her energy return and then some as the tea did it’s thing.

"This is really good."

[Thank you, Miss...]

"Daria. My name is Daria."

[Daria, huh? Hmm...my name is...Meteor Horn. It’s very nice to meet you, Miss Daria. Welcome to the Tomb of the Star Caller.]

"Nice to meet you too, Meteor-wait a minute, tomb?"