“No way…”
“Can…can it be?”
“After all this time…”
“It’s not possible…we all saw her die!”
The funny thing about aether cultivation is that even practicing it to a short extent, is enough to expand one’s lifespan from a couple of decades to a handful of centuries.
Normally, this expanded lifespan was just to assist in the pursuit of cultivation.
Many aether arts take years to fully master, and multiple aether treasures found throughout the world take months, years and sometimes centuries to fully develop into items that can be considered useful to most cultivators.
However, there is one unexpected benefit to this expanded lifespan that most people tend to forget about, save those scholarly few.
Historical memory.
Many of the citizens of Undertow, had been around during the hey day of the Storm Queen, the Floating Khan and the once-vicious Pearl Scale Emperor.
They remembered when they were slaves to megalomaniacs, and were subsequently free to find sanctuary in places where the sun didn’t shine.
They remembered the brave Storm Knights who once protected them, and the despair they all felt when the Storm Knights sacrificed themselves for them.
They remembered celebrating over the news that their queen has given birth to a child, a proper heir to the throne!
They remembered the grief they shared over their queen’s funeral, and of the disappearance of the princess.
These events may have happened over hundreds of years ago, but to a select few people of Undertow, they could remember as if these events happened only yesterday.
As such, when the people of Undertow were still in the midst of evacuating to shelters, with those already inside being able to view the outside via special arrays, many of them fell to their knees out of a mix of relief and joy.
Due to their way of life, they had no way of knowing whether or not she was alive.
They had no idea of what was going on in the wider world beyond the borders of Roaring Tide.
They didn’t even have the faintest of clues that her daughter had managed to not only survive but thrive in the outside world.
For all intents and purposes, this was a miracle.
Because how else could they describe a moment where, in their hour of need, the long lost Princess of Undertow returned to save them?
How else could they describe the sight of her performing the [Leviathan’s Dance], the same technique her mother used to defeat the [Shadow Sovereign] once, to actually destroy it this time around?
Of course, they did notice that she was accompanied by another warrior when performing this attack, but that was probably her consort or something.
Regardless of the details, the people of Undertow were simply ecstatic and flabbergasted.
As for the instigators of this feeling, well…they were busy trying to stick the landing.
…
[Holy shit! There is so much mechanical crap in here.]
[Well, it is a giant robot puppet thing…]
[Feels like a waste to destroy it so thoroughly like this…]
‘I don’t mind the chatter, but please make sure to help me and Jin Fang pull up before we hit the bottom.’
[Of course, Captain.]
[We’d never let the Princess sink after coming this far.]
[Besides, I don’t think we need to worry about her…]
“BAHAHAHAHAHA! THIS IS AMAZING!”
[Then again maybe we do…]
Despite all the fancy build-up that both Zhen Liu and Jin Fang had done in preparation for their attacks, the final execution essentially had them turn themselves into living rockets that tore through the [Shadow Sovereign] like crazy.
Then again, that might’ve been due to them needing to channel most of their attack power into the very tips of their tridents to do anything remotely effective.
Regardless, as Zhen Liu and Jin Fang continued to tear through the internal mechanisms of the [Shadow Sovereign], explosion after explosion rocked their surroundings and made things even more chaotic.
Needless to say, after they had finished ripping through this mechanical monster, it would end in an explosive finish.
‘Wait a minute…uh oh.’
As this realization came to Zhen Liu’s mind though, he realized something important.
…
‘Logos, Pathos. How big of an explosion should I be expecting from this attack?’
<=…=>
‘Logos? Pathos? Where you at?’
<=…=>
‘Godsdammit, do I have to do the math my-‘
<Hey there! Sorry for the delay, had to do the calculations myself because Logos is having a breakdown, don’t worry about it.>
‘I will, but I’ll ask about it later.’
<Smart man. And if you’re going to ask if whether or not the explosion would cause Undertow to become flooded, good news, it won’t.>
‘Okay, cool. What about-‘
<And if you’re worried about it affecting your cousins who are currently inside of the [Darkshell Citadel] and in the process of rescuing a fuckton of prisoners…don’t be.>
‘Because…’
<Three, two, one…>
[Good news, milord,] Nepherage suddenly chimed in. [We have secured both your cousins and the hostages they suddenly acquired.]
‘Cool…what happened?’
[Well…]
…Moments ago, inside of the Darkshell Citadel…
“What the-Xiao Feng? What are you doing here?”
“Zhen Hai! Thank the gods!”
Earlier, Zhen Feng and Zhen Hai had decided to go in opposite directions of each other in order to fulfill two equally important but different directives.
Zhen Hai went to go and rescue the scions that had been captured not too long ago, and succeeded.
Although, some of those scions may have been traumatized during their captivity but that wasn’t really important for the time being.
Meanwhile, Zhen Feng went to go and deal with the Grafted warriors who was in charge of the defensive array.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t as successful as his older cousin.
…
[What we miss?]
[Not much, the crystal bitch got away.]
[The fuck?]
[My host is gonna explain.]
…
“Wait a minute…”
Zhen Hai had initially assumed that Zhen Feng had probably fought and defeated the Grafted warriors in charge of the defenses, but the sheer lack of tiredness indicated otherwise.
As such, he assumed the worst and guessed correctly.
“Did you not manage to secure the warrior in charge of the defensive array?”
“No,” Zhen Feng readily admitted.
“Why?”
“Literally, the moment I got in the room, took out all the guards and was about to have a final showdown with this crazy bitch with a literal crystal heart and had this look to her that screamed, ‘family issues’, some eight winged assholes wreathed in light came in out of nowhere, kicked me in the nuts, punched her in the gut, grabbed her and fucked off to parts unknown. I just managed to recover from the unexpected attack when I got a notification from the kaijin to come here.”
Zhen Hai was stunned at the sheer amount of information that was spilled at once, but he managed to parse out the key details.
Especially at the mention of, “an eight winged asshole”.
“Wait…did this eight winged guy look like a noble by any chance? Fine features, probably from Radiant Feather?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Huh…”
At this answer, Zhen Feng looked behind him towards the gathered crowd of prisoners he had just rescued, a contemplative expression. Evidently, he was going to have to talk to some of them later…but for now, they had bigger questions.
“…worry about it later I guess, Xiao Feng, you have any idea why we’re here?”
“No. But I think the kaijin-”
Thump!
“What the fuck?”
Just as Zhen Feng and Zhen Hai were about to ask their respective kaijin buddies for more information, the wall to the left had suddenly made a strangely heavy thumping sound.
Silence befell the hall for a couple of moments before it was filled with the sound of a rapid series of thumps beating against the wall in quick succession.
And then cracks began to appear on the wall.
Evidently, whomever was on the other side of this wall wanted to get in.
“Wait a minute, isn’t this the wall that’s directly connected out-”
BOOM!
“Holy shit!”
[Coming through!]
“What the fuck is that thing?!”
A couple seconds later, the wall they were staring at had collapsed into a pile of calcified rubble and dust.
As for the cause of this sudden demolition, it was none other than Frosttusk. He looked surprisingly heroic, having smashed through a wall, but he also looked intimidating as well.
His voice being deeper than an arctic rift didn’t help either.
“We’re here to pick you up.”
“We?”
“HEYO!”
Looking pass Frosttusk and out the hole he had just created, Zhen Hai and Zhen Feng could make out the galleon that they and Zhen Liu rode in on, being piloted by Nepherage, Hurricroak and a green snake puppet that looked vaguely familiar.
The two scions of the Zhen Clan stared at each other for a moment before simply shrugging their shoulders and turning to their freed prisoners.
“Alright, one at a time y’all. We don’t want anyone falling into the [Shadow Water].”
…
[And that’s that.]
‘Cool, in that case, I’m about to speed this the fuck up. Ready y’all?’
[Aye, aye captain!]*3
