[Time] is funny
When Cornileus chose to fight Buzza, he assumed he had the advantage.
While he wasn’t able to wield dragon force or use musical aether arts, the two biggest and most obvious weaknesses that all kaijin possessed, he knew that there was a third weakness that could only be found in Kaijin without a Lord.
[Time] aether.
Every kaijin needs a constant a flow of [Chaos] provided to them by their lord in order to survive in Valresta. Without this source, the world actively rejects them to the point they have to test themselves apart just to keep going a little longer.
However, the rate on how this rejection occurs varied from Kaijin to Kaijin.
In past lives, Cornileus had encountered these types of Kaijin before.
Some were on the brink of madness and just about ready to become Abominations, while others were so far from the edge of madness that he couldn’t help but to wonder if they had achieved some level of independent [Chaos] cultivation.
Regardless, in the moments he had to fight these rogue kaijin, he discovered that by using [Time] aether, he could accelerate the breakdown of Kaijin to Abomination to… non-existence.
Regular kaijin were more or less immune to his abilities due to the constant flow of
[Chaos], but lordless ones were always on borrowed time and abominations even
moreso.
As such, when he faced Buzza, this unknown rogue kaijin that was definitely older than when he met him the first time around, he figured he’d able to accelerate the bastard’s remaining time in this reality into nothingness.
He had done it before and Buzza would’ve just been another entry on the list of Kaijin he had to accelerate into nothingness.
But alas, life decided to screw with him.
[Sandstorm of Time!]
[GAAAAHHH!]
When Buzza was initially caught in his attack, everything was going as he had anticipated.
Before his very eyes, Buzza began to twist, distort and change into something horrific,
slowly losing his identity.
Buzza.
Buzz_.
Buz__.
Bu___·
GRROOOAAA!
“Oh no…”
[Now!]
But before the job was done, Tortallion had
decided to go with his final option and flooded the area with [Chaos] as a result.
‘You crazy bastard…’
Centuries ago, Cornileus had beared
witness to the Storm Knights as they faced
the [Shadow Sovereign], choosing to [Return to Chaos] in order to give their
lord an opening to send the bastard back into the deep.
It was a moment that had burned itself into
the records of his soul, because it was the first and only time he had seen kaijin willingly turn themselves into Abominations…or something equivalent.
Not only that, but the feeling on his skin
that day was something he would never forget either.
Due to the rareness and instability of [Chaos], Cornileus had never felt what it was like to be in an area that had high concentrations of [Chaos] before. But after that day…he started to understand why the kaijin were as wild, reckless and uncouth as
they were on a day to day basis.
Strange prickliness that seemed to drastically change between a feather touch
to giant needles poking at his skin happened in such a short amount of time
that he could barely concentrate on maintaining his attack.
“Bah! I can’t fucking…wait…why isn’t my sandstorm dispelling?”
Not that it mattered anymore, since it had gotten hijacked by Buzza.
Due to the sudden surge in [Chaos], not
only did any and all aether based abilities
were going haywire, but anyone who had even the barest form of [Chaos] cultivation was invigorated to an absurd degree.
In mortal cultivators, this just meant a boost in their abilities and a recovery their energy.
of
In kaijin though, this meant that they could
not do things that were out of their regular wheelhouse, on top of the reinvigoration. As such, Buzza was able to hijack an attack that was meant to drain away his remaining time in Valresta, and convert it
into a means to strengthen himself further.
After all, if [Time] going forward was what led to Kaijin becoming abominations, then shouldn’t reversing it restore a kaijin to a better state.
Cornileus could literally feel in real time as
Buzza’s aura got stronger and stronger by the second. In the center of a whirling sandstorm, he could vaguely make out
Buzza’s shadow taking on a healthier and more humanoid silhouette, a sharp contrast to the more monstrous and
demented form he was originally turning into when he was in break down.
Needless to say, Cornileus was losing his
shit for all the right reasons.
‘Shit, shit, shit!’
Out of a mix of desperation and madness,
Cornileus kept trying to gather up enough aether to fire off an attack, any attack from
his repertoire, to try and interrupt whatever the fuck Buzza was doing. Unfortunately, he physically couldn’t.
The sheer amount of [Chaos] in the area
made it almost impossible to condense aether for anything beyond simple strengthen enhancements and defenses.
‘No, no, no! Come on!’
For the first time in this new lifetime,
Cornileus felt the inevitability of death
breathing down his neck once more. And he was starting to panic. ‘I need to get out of her-no, I made a promise to stick around this time in order to-‘
[Ah…much better.]
‘Shit.’
Cornileus didn’t even have to attempt to
get his shit together before Buzza had finished with his rejuvenation. The results
of this change was…dramatic, to say the
least.
[It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this
way. Why, it even removed my zzzpeech impediment. Hmm, never mind.]
Prior to entering the sandstorm, Buzza looked like a hornet-human hybrid that leaned more towards the hornet side than
the human side.
But now, for reason unclear to Cornileus,
the kaijin looked significantly more human. Now, this didn’t make much sense to Cornileus at first…until it finally dawned on
him.
“You…you were already abomination. But how did you-” [You’re partially correct,] Buzza interjected
in a honeyed voice that buzzed with a
surprising bass. [Much like Sir Tortallion
over there, I learned that by embracing my Desire, I could zzztave off the breakdown for a time. But eventually, I reached a limit…and then I learned how to slow it down.] Before Cornileus’s eyes, Buzza held out a palm and produced from his own flesh, a
vial that began to fill with a strange black liquid.
A shocked expression of extreme confusion formed on Cornileus’s face.
“B-but you’re a Kaijin! Kaijin can’t produce blood,” Cornileus exclaimed.
[We can’t, that’s right,] Buzza agreed. [But
we do lose parts of ourselves whenever we break down.]
“What does that have to do with-oh.”
In that moment, Cornileus swore he saw Buzza develop a wide, vicious smile. learned a long time ago, that by giving
away my blood to humans, having them undergo a metamorphosis and then extracting their blood after that, why, it
produces a substance that staves off the abomination transformation to a degree. Although, azzz you heard and zzzaw, it comes with side effects.]
Cornileus’s head was in a swirl at this
revelation, but he was cognizant enough to understand a horrible implication in Buzza’s words.
“How long?”
[Hmmm?]
“How long have you been doing this?,” Cornileus repeated, as he remembered all of those prior encounters in the past with
those sorry Abominations. He had always assumed their presence was just a sign of the Kaijin Lord’s title being exchanged all
over the world.
But if what Buzza was saying was true, then…
[Oh? Well…honestly, I stopped counting
after the first five hundred years.]
“The hell?!”
Then it meant that this old kaijin, that
should’ve broken down ages ago had been around for a long, long time. [Well, with that out of the way…my work
here is done.]
“Wait, what?”
After making this baffling statement, Buzza unfurled a pair of wings that looked significantly more powerful than what he
had initially when this fight began. “You can’t just-MMMPH?!”
don’t care much about the Fallen and
their ancestral feud,] Buzza began to explain while manipulating the
surrounding [Chaos to hold Cornileus in place. [There are some subjects here that are of interest to me and my experiments. Including a certain angelic fellow that had himself scarce as well. As such, I expect that we’ll be making our escape right now.] As he continued to Cornileus in place, he
made sure to fly close enough to speak into
his ear directly.
[I hope you know it wasn’t personal, darling,] Buzza continued in that stupidly
sweet voice that once drove Cornileus to madness. [And just so we’re even. Here.
This should help break down that little
toy.]
With a snap of his fingers, Buzza produced
a familiar looking treasure box that was
absolutely radiating [Chaos]. With another snap, the chest flung itself
open and allowed what appeared to be a
pair of different looking giant claws to fly
free.
“No way…”
A pair of flying claws that Cornileus recognized.
As to where the claws were flying…well,
let’s just say Cornileus couldn’t help but get
a feeling of deja vu..
