Chapter 1077: Outside Developments
*Bing-Bong*
We interrupt this chapter to inform the reader that this next part is a little weird, timeline wise.
The following fight technically happens during the same time as everything that happened in the Storm Queen’s Tomb, with both ending a little after the Fallen and Buzza bailed.
As to why that occurred…you’ll find out soon.
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter.
Thank you.
…
Huh, I was actually wondering if you were going to hand wave this part away or actually elaborate. Color me impressed that you’re actually focusing on this again.
|It’s called build up.|
Right…
|Sides, I don’t have a publisher or editor to tell me how to pace this shit.|
Yay?
*Bing-Bong*
________________________________________
“No, seriously, how did you get here?,” Zhen Xun Tian repeated moments before coughing up a glob of purple tinted blood. “Oh that can’t be healthy.”
“Mother!”
“Oh! Hey, son! You finished taking the councillors to safety?”
“Yes. Cornileus here helped me.”
“Who?”
“Hi.”
“Ah.”
“So that’s where you went,” Jinju Ren added in before redirecting her focus back to Zhen Xun Tian.”Anyways, do you want me to answer that now, or do you want me to help you eject that basilisk poison before we join hands and fight off the assholes trying to kill us?”
“The latter.”
“Thought so, here!”
Jinju Ren extracted from her spatial treasure a small jade vial and tossed over to Zhen Xun Tian.
The matriarch of the Zhen Clan took a whiff before downing the bottle down in one gulp. Immediately after doing so, her general aura became a lot healthier.
If she wasn’t wearing her [Regalia] right now, one would notice that her skin looked healthier too.
However, there wasn’t any time for Zhen Xun Tian to enjoy this refreshed feeling.
“Just so you know, future grandmother-in-law, that antidote will only prevent future poisonings for about twenty minutes.”
“Figured,anyways,here comes company!”
Shortly after Zhen Xun Tian got back to semi-decent fighting condition, her opponent made their appearance alongside Jinju Ren’s. Albeit, invert different directions.
Crash!
Fwoosh!
“No stopping until one of us is dead!”
[You’re going nowhere, princess!]
Hu Ken came crashing in through one of the castle’s inner wall, looking even more massive and dragon-like than before. However, he was also covered in a large amount of wounds, as evident by the cuts lined with ink in his fleshy bits and the fist-shaped craters in his scales.
As for Alain, he arrived fluttering in like a literal angel. Although, the sour look on his face and regenerating wings being hindered by Dragon Force, made the man look more like a sorry sight than the before.
At the sight of each other, the Dragon-Blooded warrior and Grafted warrior paused for a brief moment to confirm each other’s allegiances.
“Huh? Who the heck are you?”
“I am Prince Alain. One of the Grafted warriors of the Fallen?”
“One of the Grafted? Oh, I heard of y’all. I’m Hu Ken, I was supposed to be the inside man for Undertow.”
“Really? What happened?”
“That bitch from the Zhen Clan over there.”
“Funny. My issue involves the princess of the family they swear fealty to.”
“Looks like we can join hands then.”
“Indeed.”
Battle lines now drawn, both sides readied themselves for a second confrontation.
With her channels now cleared of poisonous Dragon Force, Zhen Xun Tian began to circulate her own [Chaos] throughout her body and tattoos until the latter began to manifest in the form of large black tentacles that seemed to be composed of swirling patterns.
“Huh…these look significantly more solid than I remember the last few times I did this…wonder why…”
As for Jinju Ren, she readied her [Dragon Taming Saber], and began to concentrate on a particular looking black jewel that she had just recently acquired.
As she did, a construct made of black flames and shaped like a dragon-ape began to manifest around her.
“Ah, so anger was what I needed to bring out your power…that makes sense.”
On the other side, a similar pair of power-ups were taking place.
Hu Ken began to circulate the dragon force in his body to the injured parts of himself, but not to heal the damage that had been inflicted upon him. Instead, he began to make it so that his blood was so toxic that the moment it touched the ground, it began to eat away at the stone flooring.
“I’ll watch you writhe in pain before you die,” Hu Ken growled.
As a “pure” [Chaos] user, Alain’s method of circulating his power was a bit different. He had no existing channels to work with, but the wings he was grafted with did. As such, he circulated his [Chaos] into them, causing them to glow even brighter…and the wings to fuse with his back even deeper.
[I’ll make it so my brilliance is the last thing you’ll see.]
Off to the side, Zhen Xun Po and Cornileus had initially wanted to participate in this upcoming conflict too, but then they realized something important.
There wasn’t enough physical space to fight…yet. As such, they opted to stay off to the side and wait for an opportunity to jump in.
Which was an incredibly wise decision for their part, because the moment they got out of the way, the combatants made their move.
More specifically, Zhen Xun Tian and Alain made their moves first!
…
[Kraken’s Drill!]
[Sunshine Rush!]
The former had launched herself forward while condesing their [Chaos] and aether into a drill made of ink that surrounded her leg. Her aim was to jamit into Hu Ken’s skull and start digging until she hit the man’s spine.
As for the latter, Alain was simply aiming to hit Jinju Ren at the speed of light and turn her into mist. He had just recently learned that speed was one of the biggest factors in making something hit hard, so he was wanting to test that theory on an actual body.
Instead, both [Chaos] wielders ended up colliding into one another, with their attacks attempting to overpower the other.
While neither were the others original target, it honestly didn’t bother them that it happened in the first place.
If anything, they felt…thrilled.
[Huh…looks like we’re trading dance partners.]
[Fine by me, something about you is driving me crazy.]
[Probably those wings in your back reacting to my ink.]
[Makes sense to me!]
Once they had determined the cause, Zhen Xun Tian and Alain disengaged from their clash in order to prepare their next attack.
…
While the [Chaos] users were clashing, the ones armed with Dragon Force were sizing each other up.
A battle between dragons was always one for dominance, after all.
“That stench…you used a [Purple Miasmic Dragon Pill], right?”
“Indeed. Then again, I really shouldn’t be surprised that a member of the Imperial Family would recognize the scent of dragons.”
“Oh? You know who I am?”
“Not you specifically. I recognize the emblem on your scabbard.”
“Ah.”
“Its from the time I kidnapped Princess Jinju Yuki.”
“…what?”
For the most part, most members of the Pearl Scale Emperor’s incredibly vast family tree, didn’t really interact with each other except for their most immediate parents. However, there were always exceptions to this rule.
Jinju Yuki was the 12th princess of the Pearl Scale Empire and was once considered the most congenial, charismatic and graceful out of all the princesses.
Emphasis on the word, “was”.
At some point, she was kidnapped by some bandit with a grudge and was held for ransom. The bandit in question almost gotten away with it too, had it not been for the timely intervention of the Zhen Clan’s matriarch.
The rescue has gone smoothly, and not a single hair on Jinju Yuki’s head was harmed. However, something else had broken instead.
Ever since that day, Jinju Yuki had sealed herself away in her private estate, rarely taking visitors and barely even speaking words when spoken to.
Nobody was sure what had happened during her kidnapping but it was something so horrible that it turned the once proud flower of the Empire into a recluse.
Jinju Ren was actually rather fond of her half sister and hated whomever did this awful thing to her.
And now, lo and behold and ten long years later, she found the guy claiming to have done the deed.
Funny how the universe works, right?
“If I recall, she said something along the lines that the Emperor was going to have my head if I didn’t let her go. But after torturing one of her attendants to death in front of her, she clammed up real quick. Shame I wasn’t able to lay a finger on her though.”
“…”
Jinju Ren didn’t say a word in response to these obvious provocations as she entered into a fighting stance. The giant construct made of black flames, however, started looking a bit more fearsome and a lot more monstrous.
“I’m going to take your fucking head now.”
“Try me.”
