For the past five minutes, Zhen Liuâs entire existence was just pure pain.
In a manner akin to a certain blue boy scoutâs weakness being a glowing green rock, Buzzaâs [Hell Hum] was a strange technique that seemed to hyperfocus on Zhen Liuâs other weakness: music based aether arts.
Not only that, but it also managed to hijack his soul connections and cause some serious damage to the kaijin themselves. This led to a horrible feedback loop, where Zhen Aliya was forced to feel his own innate pain, as well as all the pain the kaijin were subjected to.
Including Spring Brawler being disarmed. Which were, ironically, in front of his face due to Gao Dau being an arrogant pissant and wanted to show off his new trophies.
Regardless, now that Zhen Liuâs painful existence had abruptly transitioned back to normalcy, he was now in a dazed state that made it hard for him to determine whether he was dreaming or actually awake. Making matters worse was the fact that even Blazejudicator couldnât give him a straight answer due to all the pain they were feeling.
One of the downsides of being a spiritual body kaijin: whatever crap the body went through,the kaijin felt it too.
Under these circumstances, Zhen Liu couldnât help but become incredibly confused the moment he saw that he was being rescued by a magical girl that looked suspiciously a lot like his girlfriend, Jin Fang.
Hell, in his current state, it couldâve definitely just have been Jin Fang and his pain-addled brain wouldnât be able to recognize as such.
Either way, he had mixed feelings about this moment, but not in a negative way. More of a...pure embarrassment sort of way.
âBeing rescued by a magical girl who is actually my girlfriend...by the heavens, I feel like a teenager again.â
Of course, there were also some unmentionable fantasies involving magical girls and his relationship with such individuals, but that was neither here nor there at the moment.
...
*Bing-Bong*
...bruh.
|Again, shut up.|
*Bing-Bong*
...
Right now, he had to try and get his shit together. And that entailed circulating [Chaos] into his damaged ear drums first.
âHold on magical girl Jin Fang, Iâll be fighting by your side soon...once I recover and address the issues plaguing the other kaijin...â
Of course, he could only keep this promise if Jin Fang managed to last long enough in this upcoming three on one.
Thankfully, she started very strong.
...
"Matriarch, get behind me!"
[How delightfully infuriating!]
As the barrage of baseball-sized water bullets flew towards the Fallen, they were forced to take on defensive poses and use [Chaos] shields to try and block it.
They couldâve technically opted to dodge this barrage to try and avoid damage altogether, but there were multiple reasons why they couldnât do so.
Due to the water bullets themselves being absolutely loaded with [Chaos], none of them followed a predictable flight path in the slightest.
Some of the bullets sped up, some of them slowed down, several of them even started doing weird patterns like zigzags, loops or just straight upwards.
This was the overarching reason.
On a more personal level, Buzza couldnât afford to dodge right now due to his wings already being messed up. Coral had pierced through his wings like a rock through a paper screen door, leaving massive holes. Any extraneous movements at this time could agitate his wings further and cause permanent damage. While he could spend time to repair the damage, doing so now would be just asking for trouble...or a baseball bat to the head.
As for Gao Dau and Gao Shen Yuan, the former had the ability to wield [Chaos] while the latter had no such luck...yet.
As such, Gao Dau had to fulfill his filial duty as an elder and defend his matriarch to the best of his abilities.
Which was...actually much easier than anticipated.
[Chaos Art: All-Knowing Calculation]
Thanks to the kaijin eye embedded in his forehead, Gao Dau was able to more or less predict where these water bullets were going to make impact. This meant that he could intercept these bullets with [Chaos] infused hands to break them apart.
Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of projectiles that each had their own randomized formula of movement, Gao Dau was forced to focus almost all of his attention on the water bullets in front of him and not the matriarch behind him.
Against most normal opponents, this wouldâve been a more than serviceable approach.
Against someone who was trained since toddlerdom to act like an assassin, spy and everything in-between to a doting yet terrifying mother, this was childâs play.
Especially when that aforementioned someone had purposely oversaturated the area with [Chaos] in order to make it harder to determine the position of anybody using the stuff.
âField is set, time to attack.â
Seeing that her initial distraction was doing as expected, she began to turn the dial on her baseball bat-shaped weapon to change the effect once more.
|Batter up! Mist Glamour|
âOkay, I really need to go and ask Logos and Pathos about this later. I donât even know what baseball is...whatever.â
Once this new setting was activated, Jin Fangâs body began to become wispy and ethereal as if her entire body was made of mist, bat and all.
With this new form, Jin Fang charged right into the barrage of water bullets she had just made, where the [Chaos] saturation was the thickest, moving and weaving through the projectiles as she made her way towards her target.
BAM!
âWhoa.â
For a brief moment, Gao Dau had almost made contact with Jin Fang, his fist impacting a water bullet that was right next to her mist form head. If she had lost her cool in this moment, the [Glamour] wouldâve been broken in that exact instant.
Instead, thanks to a cool head and the empowerment of [Chaos], Jin Fang managed to position herself directly behind the two Fallen leaders.
Not only that, but she was at the perfect spot to hit a home run on Gao Shen Yuanâs head. Which is why she opted to tap into the lighting power of her bat.
|Batter up! Lighting Glamour!|
"What the fuck?!"
Like a demon straight from the darkest pits of hell, Jin Fang manifested with a bat wreathed in lighting, ready to smash in Gao Shen Yuanâs head, power difference be damned.
âI-it canât be.â
In that brief moment before contact was made, Gao Shen Yuan swore that this girl dressed in strange blue clothes, looked awfully similar to the paintings and murals that depicted the Storm Queen in her prime.
...
{Successor Protocol at twenty percent completion. Material chambers one through three are deemed acceptable...}
___________Meanwhile..._________________
"By the hands of time and fate, these guys are heavy! How long are they gonna be unconscious like this?"
"From what I know about poisons, this one lasts for at least half a day without an antidote."
"Godsdamn."
While the sounds of battle and explosions echoed beyond the halls they were walking through, Cornileus and Zhen Xun Tian were still unloading the unconscious Undertow Council members into a secret "panic" room in [Storm Castle].
Well, it wasnât really a panic room but there was no way in hell Cornileus was going to tell the truth.
"Alright, I gotta ask."
"Huh?"
"Why does this panic room have manacles attached to the bed and walls?"
"Donât know, donât remember."
Even if someone asked about it point blank.
Eventually though, after much effort, Cornileus and Zhen Xun Po had managed to secure all of the councillors.
Now all they had to do was to make sure this conflict ended in victory. As such, the two warriors returned to the main hall of the castle to determine their respective courses of action.
"Alright, Iâm going to go into the city and help the others deal with the people on the-"
BOOM! BOOM!
"Holy-"
"Princess Jinju Ren? Mother!"
Just as Cornileus and Zhen Xun Po were about to go their separate ways, Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian and Princess Jinju Ren came crashing in, several feet away from them, from opposite directions.
Zhen Xun Tian was knocked through a hall from inside the castle,while Jinju Ren fell crashed through a window from the outside.
Needless to say, neither of them were looking too hot at the moment.
Zhen Xun Tian looked to be covered infected purple wounds that had managed to break through her [Regalia].
As for Jinju Ren, she was looking to be covered in cuts that had instantly cauterized, alongside several burn marks.
Strangely, enough though, both of them looked rather giddy.
"Bleh! Basilisk poison is more bullshit than I thought," Zhen Xun Tian spat out alongside a mouthful of poisoned blood and a tooth.
"At least youâre not dealing with some angelic knock-off that shoots balls of light like fucking throwing knives."
"Fair...wait a minute, Xiao Ren? When did you get to Undertow?!"