Chapter 1093: About time we settled this
“War Elder Gao Ao Long, I know I requested for you to merely distract them in order to give the [Shape Sovereign] time to charge, but if the opportunity feels right…”
“Don’t have to tell me twice, matriarch. I’ll blast them into oblivion when I have a clean shot.”
“Excellent.”
In the observation room of the [Darkshell Citadel], Matriarch Gao Shen Yuan watched with unmasked glee as Gao Ao Long made use of the citadel’s defensive array to fire blast after blast of energy at the hateful vessel of the Kaijin Lord.
While this was happening though, Buzza was keeping a quiet eye on the rest of the displays showing other vantage points around the citadel.
It was while doing this that Buzza noticed that things were about to get even messier than they were now.
“Matriarch.”
“Hmm? What is it Buzza?”
“It appearzzz that the War Elder may have to redirect his effortzzz again. The current Lord and his entourage is coming towardzzz uzzz.*
“What?!”
“Check that dizzzplay, over there.”
Heeding Buzza’s words, Gao Shen Yuan ordered her subordinates to bring the aforementioned display to the front. Once they did, her expression immediately became even angrier than it was a literal second ago.
From what she could see, the Kaijin Lord, his weirdly dressed lover and the rest of his presumed kaijin were flying towards the citadel at breakneck speeds.
Gao Shen Yuan’s eye twitched as she was becoming even sicker with having to deal with this guy and his stupidly strong subordinates.
Thankfully, she was a professional.
So, after releasing a very deep sigh, she gave Gao Ao Long new orders.
“War Elder, can you redirect our fire towards the airborne assholes coming towards us? As much as I want to blow that shit up to kingdom come, this motherfucker has been a thorn in my side for too long!,” Gao Shen Yuan loudly declared before realizing what she just said.
“Okay, seriously, Buzza is this constant swearing and off the handle rage going to be something I’ll have to deal with once the grafting procedure is completed?”
“It zzzzhould lezzzen.”
“Good.”
“Matriarch,” Gao Ao Long interjected.”I don’t think I’ll be able to reliably do that.”
“Wait, what? Why?”
“The moment I stop putting the pressure on that boat of Kaijin, they’re probably going to go back to attacking the [Shadow Sovereign]. But if I keep focusing on suppressing the boat of Kaijin, those flying fucks are going to attack us directly. Best case, they just attack the defensive array directly. Worst case, they somehow break into the citadel directly.”
“So, what are you suggesting?”
At this question, Gao Ao Long stopped focusing on the array and began to circulate his [Chaos] back into his grafted arm.
“That we finally settle what was started. Without holding back this time.”
“…agreed.”
Summoning forth her [Regalia], [Astra] and [Icon], Gao Shen Yuan gave one last batch of orders before going to the front lines.
“Notify Alain that he will be needed to deal with the front lines and have Sophita arm the defensive array. Notify any of the elders to deal with possible boarders.”
“Huh? Don’t you want them to accompany you in dealing with the invaders now?”
“None of our elders are familiar with [Chaos] and are more than likely to be blind sided. Besides, I don’t want them getting caught up in what’s about to happen next…”
…Meanwhile…
“Hey, shouldn’t you be hanging in the back lines and using your royal authority to comfort people?”
“That only works on people who vaguely respect me, not a populace that has an ancestral hate boner.”
“Fair.”
“Besides, couldn’t the same be said about you?”
“Ya see, big difference between you and me. I got a score to settle…”
…
[ETA: Thirty seconds.]
‘Thanks for the update, Blazejudicator.’
[Ain’t not thang, Executor.]
“Wait, so you’ve been dealing with all of these voices going off in your head this entire time, Xiao Liu?”
“Uh…yeah?”
“How have you not gone insane?”
“I ask myself that every single day.”
“Oi!,” Jin Fang yelled, now in the full battle headspace. “Quit having side chatter. If we don’t free up the pressure coming down on the kaijin, they won’t be able to stop that big ass lizard from blasting Undertow off the map!”
Proving her point, the aforementioned [Shadow Sovereign] began charging up as if it hadn’t been getting pounded on in the past five minutes or so.
“See?!”
“Right!”
As Zhen Liu and his allies approached the [Darkshell Citadel], a mixture of anticipation, dread and excitement boiled in their stomachs.
None of them could really explain it, but they could feel that this next battle would be the one to determine how this day would be remembered in history.
This would either be the day that Fallen, the greatest enemy of the Zhen Clan and the Pearl Scale Empire, would finally disappear into darkness after centuries of being a scourge in the underground scene.
Or this would be the day that the Zhen Clan would suffer a crippling blow, the day Undertow fades away into the legend it was long thought to be and both be used as stepping stones for the Fallen to finally get their revenge against the Pearl Scale Emperor.
As such, every single detail and movement was something Zhen Liu and his allies kept track of.
“Hold up…something’s wrong.”
Which is why they became unnerved when they noticed that the citadel’s defensive array suddenly went quiet.
It would be one thing if the attacks were redirected towards themselves, it was another thing entirely for them to suddenly go dark.
A sudden cessation of aggression meant one of two things, at least in Zhen Liu’s head.
One possible scenario was that this was a sign of a sudden and violent change in the chain of command for the Fallen.
Maybe someone got sick of all the bullshit, maybe they killed someone in a backstabbing manner, but there was no way to know without being in the room where it was happening.
The other scenario, and the one Zhen Liu wasn’t the least bit excited for, was the possibility that the War Elder had passed off his responsibility to another warrior and was now in the process of coming out to fight in person.
BOOM!
“OH SHIT!”
“INCOMING!”
‘Godsdamnit.’
The sudden surge in [Chaos] alongside the appearance of the aforementioned War Elder of the Fallen essentially cemented that second idea.
Evidently, the War Elder was not fucking around this time, as he came out of the [Darkshell Citadel] absolutely swinging.
He was fully clad in his [Regalia], armed with his [Astra] and the [Icon] embedded in his chest was blazing with an unnatural light that made it clear he was circulating his aether to the absolute limit.
But that was just the beginning.
As the War Elder continued to surge forward, the environmental aether began to react and condense around him into a shape that vaguely resembled some kind of whale monster.
“[Avatar], appear!”
BAAAOOOOOO!
‘Of fucking course he decided to go big.’
It wasn’t until he invoked the word, [Avatar] that the condensed aether solidified into the fully defined shape of a humanoid whale monster covered in malicious looking armor, that was actively swinging an arm towards Zhen Liu and his cohorts.
Needless to say, everyone that wasn’t Zhen Liu, or the Kaijin, began to deal the fuck out.
“Oh fuck!”
“Move, now!”
“Dodge, dodge, dodge!”
As Aether Grandmasters, at most, Jin Fang, Zhen Feng and Zhen Hai knew damn well that getting hit by an [Avatar] at the stage of the equivalent of trying to stop a runaway wagon while being the size of a sparrow.
Making matters worse, this [Avatar] had just enough [Chaos] laced into its structure to prevent Zhen Liu, Wavebreaker, Slug-at-Arms and Shellvalier from being able to just use [Chaos] to bypass the attack.
That didn’t stop them from trying to block it though.
[Slug-at-arms, Shellvalier! With me!]
[Aye!]
[On it!]
Undaunted and undeterred by the encroaching arm, the newly minted Storm Knights readied their weapons to counter against it.
However, that turned out to be an unnecessary action on their end.
[Bring it on you-]
BOOM!
[Wait, what?]
Just as the humanoid whale’s arm was about to make contact, another giant arm that appeared to be covered in tattoos intercepted the attack.
Following the arm led one back to what appeared to be an asura with squid-like features, and the war goddess that the aformentioned asura was coming out of.
“Oh, you have got to be fucking joking right now!,” Gao Ao Long cursed when he saw who blocked his attack.
“Gao Ao Long! It’s about time! I was waiting for you all day,” Zhen Xun Tian taunted with a smile.
‘Oh thank the gods.’
As Zhen Xun Tian began to make move towards Gao Ao Long, she made sure to pass by Zhen Liu as she did.
“Oy, leave this old bastard to me. Why don’t you go and make a mess of their headquarters?”
“That’s the plan.”
