"I mean...youâre not wrong, but that feels wrong," Lythero commented as he stood by Zhen Liuâs side, staring up at the battle raging between Smoking Mirror, the City Lord, and the creepy angel guy that Zhen Liu pretended to go on a date with. "What did you say that six-winged guyâs name was again?"
"Alain."
"Right..."
After Zhen Liu had been informed that most, if not all, of his enemies were definitely going to converge on their location, Zhen Liu didnât hesitate to suggest that he and his friends get the hell out of dodge.
"Wait, what?"
"Why?!"
"What about Axer? Are we abandoning him?"
"Please donât do that."
Now, this initially rubbed his friends, family, and lovers the wrong way because he made it sound as if he were going to be abandoning Axer to deal with the fallout of problems that were technically their fault to begin with, until Zhen Liu pointed out a very important detail.
"Weâre not abandoning Axer; weâre bringing him along."
"Really?"
"Youâve seen me transform before your very eyes in a way that defies most logic and summon monsters that defy reality. Itâs either death or recruitment at this point."
"Recruitment it is!"
"Wonderful."
As for the kaijin, while they werenât happy about the idea of running away from a fight, they were loyal to a fault and were fine with having to default to their lordâs decision.
Mostly.
...
[Alright, has everyone gotten the jitters out of their systems yet?] Nepherage asked her fellow kaijin.
[Mostly.]
[Vaguely.]
[I want to eat someoneâs face.]
[Thatâs your default state, Razorstella,] Springerdermain retorted.
[Wait, what are we doing again?] Corpse Doll asked her sister.
[I think weâre going over our plan of action in regards to the people fighting outside,] Porcelain doll answered.
[Ah.]
[Alright, the Lord has declared that we will not be throwing ourselves into the heat of battle and assisting the City Lord. Instead, weâll be beating a hasty retreat back through the Door to Everywhere and pretend that we werenât here to begin with,] Nepherage explained to her fellow kaijin. [Any questions, concerns or statements of protest?]
[Why are we bitching out?] Hurricroak asked in a blunt manner. [Donât we outnumber these jackasses by like...a lot?]
[To be perfectly blunt, itâs because our Lord made a promise to the other Tezcatlipocas that he wouldnât fight that Smoking Mirror douchebag until after he made the three of them bodies to fight in. Additionally, itâs because he doesnât want to deal with that Grafted asshole if he can help it,] Nepherage explained. [We managed to avoid fighting them both for now, and our lord considers that to be a good thing. It gives us time to come up with a better plan of attack. That and we basically achieved most of our goals anyways, so itâs better for us to get the fuck out while the getting is still good.]
[Hold up,] Frosttusk interjected, his usual sluggishness banished due to recent events, [what about our apprentice zakos? Shouldnât we wait for their retreat?]
[Itâs actually because theyâre still out and hiding in the Redoxa Familyâs mansion that our Lord feels safer about us leaving Rainbowden behind for the time being. They can act as our eyes and ears here while also garnering important experience.]
[Ah.]
[Wait...are we actually running because that Law stuff has gotten the producer spooked and he wants to get out of here because he wants to learn more about how it functions before possibly getting injured by it?] Screamira pointed out once she thought about the nature of their enemies.
[...]
[...]
[...yes.]
[He...he does know that such caution tends to lead to us having to fight our odds anyways? Itâs happened before and is kind of a running trend with us.]
[I thought it was a running trend that he always found some girl to sweep off their feet everytime he traveled anywhere,] Springerdermain added in a deadpan voice.
[I donât think thatâs going to happen anymore to be honest,] Blazejudicator retorted.
[Alright, enough side chatter. Get into position already.]
[Aye, aye...]
...
Regardless of any perceived notions of cowardice/caution, though, they still listened to Zhen Liuâs orders to the letter.
Granted, these orders amounted to "transform into accessory mode and wait for me to cross the threshold back into the Library," so there wasnât much to do in that regard.
It only took moments for Zhen Liu to use the [Key to Everywhere] to open a gate back home to the [Library of Nowhere], and that shouldâve just been the end of it.
However, after most of his friends and family had passed the threshold and entered the [Library of Nowhere], a realization dawned upon Zhen Liu just as he was about to enter.
âWait...shouldnât the Redoxa Family or those bird-masked disciples of Smoking Mirror be knocking over this building right by now?â
Once this realization popped into his head, Zhen Liu proceeded to about-face before exiting Axerâs workshop to see what the hell was going on outside. As he was leaving, Lythero noticed Zhen Liu hadnât entered the library yet and proceeded to go after him.
"Huh? Zhen Liu, where are you going?"
It was after following him outside that both he and Zhen Liu learned that they were no longer the main targets of this battle.
"Huh..."
When that giant pillar of [Law] came out of the ground, Zhen Liu was certain that he was going to have to fight a pitched battle, regardless of his own desire to not want to fight.
His friends and Screamira had essentially declared war against Smoking Mirrorâs forces and caused one of their own to horribly injure themselves.
Zhen Liu figured that while in the process of evacuating with his friends and family, he would be yanked out of the workshop from behind and forced to fight the bird-masked freaks while coordinating with the kaijin. On top of that, he figured that all of the fighting and inevitable leakage of [Chaos] would attract the attention of a certain six-winged asshole that would then use that opportunity to join hands with Smoking Mirror, in an attempt to kick Zhen LIuâs ass in.
He would then be forced to pull out some kind of hidden trump card, or at least a highly improvised one, from his pockets in order to not get murdered by a knockoff angel or the broken shard of a god that shouldâve stayed inert.
Much to his relief and mild annoyance, though, that didnât happen.
Instead, Zhen Liu found himself staring up as he watched Smoking Mirror and Alain rip into each other while a third, unknown group of warriors was fighting both them and Smoking Mirrorâs subordinates.
"Who the heck are those guys?" Zhen Liu asked Lythero, banking on the latterâs local knowledge about the identities of the poor sods doing their damndest in fighting powers beyond their understanding.
"I think that old guy is the City Lord of Rainbowde," Lythero accurately guessed. "And I think those guys with him are the local powerhouses."
"Ah, coordinated defense, got it."
Zhen Liu and Lythero continued to stand and stare at the battle unfolding above them, understanding that technically speaking, they were in the clear. Since their enemies were busy fighting each other, they had absolutely no reason to get involved in the slightest.
And yet...a little voice in Zhen Liuâs head was encouraging him to make a rather bad decision.
Correction: multiple little voices in his head were encouraging him to make some very bad decisions.
...
[Maestro...I know you said you wanted to bail,] Hurricroak began to ask in a sing-song voice, [but it appears our enemies are acting like idiots and tearing each other to shreds for us.]
âI can see that, Hurricroak.â
[It would be rather easy for us to just...get the jump on them from down here,] Razorstella pointed out. [I could easily leap up from down here and land a a pretty sweet stabbing kick directly into the groin of that angelic motherfucker.]
âThatâs tempting, but we really should just go...â
[I donât think we actually need to get our hands dirty in the slightest,] Blazejudicator added. [We could just make use of the Godoku Gourd and fire a pretty hefty shot at the lot of them. Hell, see if thereâs a combination of us that could turn that blast into a scattershot.]
âI mean...we got options...â
[Honestly, I was thinking that this would be an excellent opportunity for us to try doing that fusion trick again but with a different cast of kaijin,] Springerdermain suggested with obvious intent in his voice. [We know the Gallop Brothers form Captain Gallop, and the Ragnarockers showed us a preview back in the Abyssal Lands. Maybe itâs time to see what happens when Mysticlassic takes the stage?]
âI mean...I am curious about using that trick for more practical purposes...â
<=Milord, werenât you the one to suggest we should retreat and reassess? => Logos and Pathos pointed out, acting as the united voice of reason.
Once he heard their voices, Zhen Liu paused his current train of thought.
âI mean...â