On one continent, a hidden city was celebrating the return of royalty.
On another, a defeated clan was about to make a deal with a devil.
Two stories that just so happened to have a shared origin of sorts, all thanks to a certain young man’s interference.
But alas, not all stories are cleanly connected like this.
Others take a little more time to develop, and have a tendency to collide later.
For example, Pathos stated that he gifted most of Zhen Liu’s lovers with gifts that allowed them to access [Chaos] in a manner similar to what Jin Fang did. One can’t help but to wonder how a certain sheepy princess and a certain newfound tinkerer would develop their abilities.
Now adding on to this curiosity, let it be proposed that they practiced these abilities together due to the rare happenstance of attending the same martial academy, one that caters to all the nations in equal capacity in order to create a richly diverse ecosystem.
And what if, these two young women capable of wielding [Chaos] just so happened to meet a certain revived old young woman looking into the reason why she was able to come back from the dead.
Wouldn’t that be fun?
________________________________________
Six Lotus Island – Rainbow Phoenix Academy.
Located on an island that current routes connected to every single continent in Valresta, Rainbow Phoenix Academy was the number one place for royals, nobles, or incredibly rich merchants, to send their scions in order to turn them from regular experts to top tier ones.
This reputation was thanks in part to the unusual geography of the island that enabled the academy to create special cultivation zones that could concentrate all seven known types of aether, and the anchored wandering ruin that look the form of a massive tower.
It had been speculated once upon a time that the latter influenced the former, but that hadn’t been confirmed nor denied by anyone…yet.
Regardless, it was in this academy setting, in a training field rich in neutral Omni aether, that a pair of young women, one human and one Bloodliner, were preparing to spar, using some rather unusual treasures.
“Alright, Bellona. You ready to go?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be, Alicia.”
Bellona and Alicia stood across from each other, but didn’t immediately enter into fighting stances. Instead, they both placed a hand on to their respective hair pins and began to pump them full of aether.
Once they did, the pins began to glow with light and life as they converted the aether into [Chaos], which began to condense into unique shapes around Bellona and Alicia.
Around Bellona, the [Chaos] took on the form of mysterious feeling giant sheep monster that appeared to be covered in sand.
As for Alicia, the [Chaos] took on the form of a copper golem that radiated heat and raw mechanical power.
These giants didn’t linger for long though, as the two young women said the magic words that caused them to become something else entirely.
“Sprocket, Henshin!”
“Hypnos, Henshin!”
Once these words were used, the two aformentioned spiritual giants exploded into particles of light that then reconstituted into distinct combat dresses for both Alicia and Bellona, that had a vaguely similar design to a certain Roaring Tide girl’s outfit.
However, the finishing motif to them were very different.
[Majin Makeup: Gear Shojo]!
[Majin Makeup: Dream Shojo]!
To use the parlance of worlds that both were vaguely familiar with thanks to a shared love interest, Alicia’s outfit had a steampunk feel with shades of brown, brown and black to it while Bellona’s outfit was dream punk, with notable highlights of purple and gold.
Once both women were fully outfitted, they held nothing back.
“Go!”
[Illusion Step!]
Bellona made the opening move as she leaped forward and disappeared into a purple blur before launching a side kick towards Alicia’s head.
[Bronze Blockade!]
CRUNCH!
But before the attack could do any damage, Alicia manifested a bronze shield made of [Chaos] to take the blow in her stead.
Using this momentary pause, Alicia proceeded to close the gap to throw a punch at Bellona’s chest. Unfortunately, it didn’t connect.
Before the fist could make contact, Bellona used the still manifested bronze barrier to push herself at a weird angle in order to dodge the attack and enter a hand stand. Once positioned as such, she tried to follow up with a whirlwind kick that was intercepted by Alicia using a palm strike.
The two warrior women were separated after this exchange of blows. Looking invigorated but a little worn out.
“Not bad,” Alicia praised. “You seem to be getting better at using [Chaos] to propel your movements.”
“Right back at ya,” Bellona replied. “You seem to be better at the whole construct thing than me.”
“Shall we move on to the next level?”
“Yes, let’s.”
Both Alicia and Bellona proceeded to focus their [Chaos] once more in order to summon the special weapons that came with their gift.
“Ya think this is how it feels to summon an [Astra]?”
“Probably.”
After that short exchange, the weapons came out for real.
[Lantern of Progress!]
[Dream Weaver Rings.]
In Alicia’s hands, a giant two-handed mace that had a lantern cage for its hammer head and a long metallic ribbon tied to the top had appeared. Burning inside of the lantern was a strange fire that seemed to shift between all the colors of the spectrum at once.
In contrast to this bombastic weapon, Bellona’s weapons were much more delicate looking.
A pair of golden chakrams had appeared floating above Bellona’s hands, spinning like they were ready to be thrown at any time. If one were to stare at these rings for too long though, they would start hallucinating the most wonderful visions.
Of course, there were a lot more to these weapons than meets the eyes.
[Gear Shift: Drill Glamour]
[Dream On: Wool Glamour]
With a swing of her mace, Alicia willed the the metal ribbon on her mace to coil and fold into the shape of a giant drill. Granted, her drill came attached to a burning red ball of fire.
While spinning her chakram in place, threads of [Chaos] began to manifest and were woven into the shape of ram heads that were poised and aimed to impact Alicia’s drill head-on.
Once their weapons were ready, the two women began to make plans on how to get the edge over the other…until a third party intervened.
“Mistress! Mistress!”
“Huh?”
More specifically, Alicia’s personal maid and confidant had interrupted the sparring session.
Not only that, but she had a weirdly stressed look on her face. The kind of face that caused Bellona and Alicia to dismiss their weapons outright. Whatever got her like this must’ve been important, since the maid was usually quite unflappable.
“What’s the matter, Matilda? You’re not usually this…panicky.”
“Lady Harriet is on her way here as we speak,” Matilda answered as quick as she could.
“I…okay?,” Alicia replied with a confused smile. “What’s the big deal?”
“For some reason, she’s being accompanied by the Umbral Fury!”
“…oh.”
Evidently, Bellona and Alicia’s peaceful sparring session was going to get a lot more chaotic.
…
New language markers:
~~ for Umbral Talk.
°° for Radiant Word.
…
°Thanks again for saving me from those beasts, you know you’re much nicer than what the rumors say,° ~Er, I mean…~
°Eh, don’t worry about it. I’m aware of what’s being said about me. Cowards just couldn’t take a punch.°
When Alice Dunkelkrieg enrolled into the academy at her “father’s” (younger brother’s) request, she made a rather… questionable first impression.
As a “young” Aether Lord cultivating genius, she had done an excellent job in making sure people respect her.
However, her rather gruff mannerism and icy demeanor has led to members of the fairer sex to spread some nasty rumors about her.
Especially after she had pummeled the everliving shit out of the one most popular students in school for groping her ass in public.
While he technically deserved it, he was also the scion of a major backer of the academy so she was the one who got into trouble for it.
It was unfair and corrupt, but Alice wasn’t allowed to retaliate in the manner she was used to doing. She had made a promise after all.
Regardless, these factors added all up to the point that Alice Dunkelkrieg was given the nickname, Umbral Fury.
It was technically supposed to be an insult title of sorts, but it was merely a mark of honor for her.
°Anyways,° Alice said in an attempt to move the conversation along, °you mentioned something about your friends being from Stampeding Bison?°
________________________________________
*Bing-Bong*
I’m not gonna lie, feels a little weird about not having a cut-in at the top explaining the situation.
|Trying something here. A lot of other books just do abrupt point-of-view changes anyways, figured I give it a go.|
Does it work?
|Kind of.|
Huh…by the way, why does this chapter seem so…light hearted?
|Palette prep.|
What the hell does that mean?
*Bing-Bong*
But I would love to hear your thoughts on whether or not to remove the Bing-Bongs.
