Chapter 1081: Tactical Retreat
“Wars aren’t fought by champions alone, but by the men and women giving it their all.”
-A quote from a general who managed to win over a dozen battle, despite being horribly outnumbered.
…
“Wait, so you guys have been sentient this entire time?!”
“I mean, a couple of months, yes.”
“I was actually sentient since your trip to the Zhen Clan estate.”
“I used to be a clown…up until five minutes ago.”
“This is hurting my brain…”
“Don’t worry about it, we’ll probably erase this memory from ya later…probably.”
“Wait, what?!”*2
Due to an unexpected number of circumstance, Zhen Hai and Zhen Feng found themselves following after Screamira, Razorstella and Springerdermain…and knowing who they were.
But it wasn’t by choice.
When Screamira and Razorstella had their initial freak out and were subsequently injured by who know what, a citizen from Undertow had taken them in to hide them from fighting until they have recovered. It was that same citizen who explained to Zhen Hai and Zhen Feng what the kaijin were exactly and their deep relationship with the city of Undertow.
It didn’t take them too long after being given this explanation to put together that their cousin, Zhen Liu, was in the same category of warrior as the infamous Storm Queen. But it did take the arrival of Springerdermain to confirm it altogether.
As such, while they were apparently moving to take care of some unknown task, they were being given the rundown on… everything.
Death was around the corner at this point in time, and having any secrets would’ve been a bane rather than a boon.
Plus, Zhen Feng and Zhen Hai had already demonstrated their ability to use [Chaos] to an extent while being possesses by Razorstella and Screamira, respectively, so they might as well be given a proper explanation than some weird ass one that might occur due to them meeting Buzza or some asshole like him.
Most importantly though, this moment gave Zhen Hai and Zhen Feng an opportunity to ask about a few details that have been bothering them in regards to Zhen Liu’s sudden pivot from crippled sad boy to hyperactive genius embodiment of paranoia.
Not those exact words, but along that idea.
“Are you guys the reason why Xiao Liu is stupid strong and stupid tough?,” Zhen Feng asked.
“Nope,” Screamira answered. “That’s all him.”
“How?”
“Not sure, but I think we were explained about it once…do any of guys remember how?”
“I think it had to do with how his body naturally infuses his tissues and bones with [Chaos] and aether due to lacking proper channels?,” Springerdermain suggested.
“I thought it was just a bonus given to him by the formula,” Razorstella added.
“Might be both.”
“Also possible.”
“Wait, so you guys essentially cultivate for Xiao Liu, right?,” Zhen Hai followed up. “Is that why he’s able to cultivate so quickly?”
“Kind of,” Razorstella answered. “We cultivate on our own and send a bit back to him as feedback. He brought us into existence, so it’s kind of like…paying rent, I guess?”
“I…was going to say that sounds like cheating and/or bullshit, but I get the feeling you’re about to tell me there’s some major drawback to this cultivation method…”
“Good catch. You’re surprisingly a lot more intelligent than you let on,” Razorstella praised.
“My fiancee says the same thing.”
“Adorable, but anyways, you’re correct. This is working off of a lot of assumptions and shorthand, but using you two as examples…let’s say that in order for you to go from Acolyte to Master to Grandmaster, you needed one hundred units of aether, thousand and ten thousand, respectively. With medicines and cultivation chambers speeding this up. You with me so far?”
“Yeah…”
“Vaguely.”
“Okay, keeping what I said about the unit amount, the director needs about…twenty to a hundred times the amount of aether y’all needs to go up a ring.”
“By the gods!”
“Seriously?!”
“Yeah, so he needs a lot of us to cultivate for him. So don’t freak out too much if even more of us pop up in the future.”
“Uh…”
At this statement, Zhen Feng and Zhen Hai exchanged looks that basically begged the other to bring up a topic that popped into their head the moment they realized most of Zhen Liu’s kaijins were… surprisingly curvaceous. Eventually, Zhen Hai built the bullet.
“So…two more related questions. Are these future kaijin also going to be women and-”
“Imma stop you right there,” Scremaira interjected. “We think it’s a coincidence that most of us popped out as female whenever the producer gets around to creating us, also, no we do not view him in that way. That is gross.”
“If you had to apply a mortal relationship to us and the director, we’re more like…his children?”
“Does that make us uncles?”
“Kind of”*3.
“Huh.”
“Anymore questions, or are y’all finally satisfied?”
“One more, do you guys normally do all this stuff in the side while Xiao Liu is busy?”
“Actually, yes,” Springerdermain answered. “But we don’t do anything obvious or try to outright force a win. We normally just prevent the others guys from… hold up…”
“Huh?”
Before they went any further, Springerdermain suddenly put a brake to their movements and began looking around their immediate area. Noticing this sudden change in behavior, the others stopped as well.
“What’s the matter, Spring-springer…”
“Springerdermain.”
“That.”
“It’s…quiet,” Springerdermain answered. “Like…all the fighting across the city has ceased.”
“Is… isn’t that a good thing?”
“Doesn’t that mean we won?”
“Usually, yes,” Screamira answered. “But it’s too sudden, is what I think Springerdermain is trying to get across.”
“Really?”
“Shh! Over there.”
As soon as Springerdermain saw what he was looking for, he suddenly rolled to the ground before shrinking down in order to hide. This change prompted Screamira and Razorstella to do the same, while Zhen Hai and Zhen Feng hid away.
Once they did, they could clearly hear but not see, several Fallen warriors having a discussion as they ran by.
“Why the hell are we beating retreat now?! We got those Zhen Clan bastards on the ropes.”
“We might’ve been doing well, but the situation ain’t looking good overall. I think I saw two of our Grafted elites get taken down earlier.”
“Oh…still not a reason to retreat.”
“Doesn’t matter, the orders came from the top.”
“Fair enough…”
Once the soldiers had gotten out of sight and earshot, the kaijin and Zhen Clan scions got out of hiding. The expressions on their faces made it clear that they were…troubled by their words.
“Okay, there are only two reasons for an army to retreat. They’re either losing so badly that they would rather live to fight another day,” Zhen Feng suggested.
“Or there was another goal that was resolved that we aren’t aware of,” Springerdermain finished. “At least, that’s the impression I’m getting from those airborne assholes I’m sensing.”
“Huh?”
“Over there.”
In the direction that Springerdermain was pointing, Zhen Hai and Zhen Feng could make out three figures flying towards them.
One appeared to be a strange looking hornet man, another was one of those Grafted warriors, the one with the third eye, and the last was a woman that Zhen Hai recognized as being the matriarch of the Fallen.
“Wait a minute, if those guys are flying towards us, does that mean Xiao Liu was-”
“If he was, then the three of us wouldn’t be here to deal with them,” Razorstella pointed out.
“Ah, right…,”Zhen Hai nodded. “y’all did explain that…so what’s the plan? Because only a few of us can fly.”
“Yeah, even if I I could, I do not want to fight them if I can help it,” Zhen Feng readily admitted.
“Oh don’t worry, you’ll be able to fly and fight,” Razorstella said in a weirdly ominous tone of voice. As she said this, Springerdermain, suddenly manifested a pair of phantom-like spring arms and grabbed two buildings across from each other before running backwards.
Once he was far enough, Razorstella and Screamira proceeded to play rock-paper-scissors…and then proceeded to jump into the bodies of Zhen Hai and Zhen Feng, respectively.
“Nyah, pointy!”
“Buaaa! Four times I’ve done this and it still feels weird.”
But they didn’t stay inside them for long.
Moments later, surges of [Chaos] released from their bodies before forming into pieces of armor on the both of them. The pieces looked very similar to how [Regalia] appeared, but the power behind them was very different.
These were, after all, [Stigma].
“Arms, legs…wait, are these suits incomplete because the rest is supposed to be filled in with our [Regalia]?”
[Yes.]*2
“I…I can’t tell if I should find that insulting, or as a form of inspiration to reach higher places.”
[Both?]
“Both.”
“Okay, but now what we’re dressed, what’s the next part of this-”
“INCOMING!”
“Huh? BAH!”
The next thing either Zhen Hai or Zhen Feng had realized, they were both sent flying up towards the Fallen leaders.
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS
Mizako
I added more art throughout the chapters…have fun
