Chapter 151: A Duet(Triplet) of Blizzards
As his mind entered a half-blank state, Zhen Liu began to have visions again.
‘Huh…wonder if this will happen with every transfer?’
In this vision, Zhen Liu saw…nothingness.
It wasn’t a black or white space, it wasn’t a chaotic mess, it wasn’t even an “it”. It was just….”nothing”.
But as Zhen Liu kept watching however, he saw something strange occured.
Crick, crack, kzzt.
In this “nothing” soon formed cracks, like a glass panel falling to pieces. Seconds later, the nothingness fell away as something entered into it.
“How…empty,” they uttered while looking over the nothingness.
The being was a giant made of fire and ice, was both beautiful and terrible, and gave off the feeling it knew everything and nothing all at once.
‘Huh…I guess a creator type would be like that…’
“Huuuuuu…”
After surveying the nothingness, the giant took a deep breath, causing bits of frost and smoke to suddenly manifest and enter the giant’s lungs.
And then…
________________________________________________
‘And the giant marionette is back…in a new outfit?’
As soon as Zhen Liu finished doing whatever he was doing preparation wise, which looked like he was just focusing incredibly hard from Jin Fang’s perspective, the giant ghost marionette from last time manifested again. However, this time it was dressed like a band conductor complete with a pair of batons, one for each extra hand, and a little bow tie.
Familiar threads of white energy soon unfurled from the marionette’s finger tips and attached themselves to Zhen Liu and Frosttusk, both going slack once the strings connected to their bodies.
With a careful twitch of it’s hands, the marionette had Zhen Liu and Frosttusk stand up straight and place their hands before them in a folded pose.
With Zhen Liu and Frosttusk in place, the marionette proceeded to wave both batons about, summoning forth the rumbling sounds of a dozen instruments warming up. The sound of which caused Jin Fang’s perception of reality to skew for a moment.
“Buh…”
…
…
…
*Ding…*
“Bah!”
Until it suddenly snapped back, but now the reality she was perceiving was remarkably different than from before.
‘What…is all this?’ And what am I wearing?’
One moment she was standing in a wasteland watching her boyfriend do whatever he was now capable of doing, the next, she was sitting in a grand theater, awaiting a performance.
From the top to the bottom, it was in a style that was simultaneously familiar yet alien, but judging from the materials, she could tell it was a theater of high quality.
The walls were covered in red velvet, pillars of marble and gold held up the ceiling and partitioned the walls, as delicately crafted angels and gargoyles stared down at her from above. Illuminating the whole building were strange lights encased in glass that didn’t burn like fire, but didn’t have the low hum of aether crystals either.
Her clothes had also transformed into a dress of an unfamiliar style, as if to match the finery and details of the theater around her.
“Wait… where’d all these people come from?”
Surrounding her seat were dozens of faceless patrons, some in suits while others were in dresses, but all dressed in a similar style. However, to her immediate left and right were Nepherage and Hurricroak, dressed in a suit and a dress respectively.
“Nice clothes.”
“You too, amico,” Hurricroak replied while looking over her dress. “Didn’t want to wear a dress?,” she asked Nepherage.
The jade kaijin shrugged. “Not my style.”
“Fair.”
“Wait, where’s the Razor Maiden?”
“Hi.”
Immediately next to Hurricroak was the Razor Maiden, in a surprisingly lacey dress. It kinda worked in a…murderous bride kind of way.
Jin Fang and the kaijin proceeded to idly chat for a few seconds, caught up in the grandeur of the illusion, until the lights of the theater began to dim.
“Oh, it’s starting.”
The strange lights began to go out one by one, as a brighter ones from above suddenly lit up and directed beam after beam towards the stage.
The first beam illuminated Zhen Liu, who was standing on the right and dressed in a black dress suit.
The second beam illuminated Frosttusk on the left, dressed in a matching suit. How it managed to fit onto Frosttusk’s large form, Jin Fang wasn’t entirely sure.
Finally, the third beam illuminated a spot in the center revealing…nothing.
The faceless crowd began to murmur, confused at the empty spot.
*Clack, clack.*
However, they all began to quiet down as the sound of wood hitting wood echoed through the theater.
Jin Fang couldn’t see where the sound came from, but she assumed it was the marionette ghost doing…whatever it was doing.
When the theater was finally silent, the sound of a strange stringed instrument began to play a few soft, starting notes.
“Ah. A viola,” Hurricroak quietly commented, how beautiful.”
Followed by those starting notes, the horns and percussion began to come into play as well, until the singers on stage finally decided to join in.
“Bahhhh, bahhhh, bah, bahhhh”
“Daaahhh, dahhh, dahhh”
“Whoa,” Jin Fang commented, “I didn’t know Zhen Liu could sing that low”.
Both Frosttusk and Zhen Liu were in perfect sync as the two of them sang in an impossibly low baritone. But that wasn’t the weird part.
“Brr..is it getting colder in here?,” Jin Fang asked as she rubbed her arms for warmth. When she exhaled, a small puff if steam formed and disappeared in a moment.
“Yup,” Nepherage answered while pointing upward.
Above the audience’s head, literal dark clouds began to form and billow as the duo on stage kept singing. It was as if they were being summoned by this strange, bellowing song.
The clouds eventually reached a saturation point, but by then, snow began to form and fall gently down onto the crowd below.
“Wow.”
“Haven’t seen snow this gentle in ages…”
Jin Fang and the kaijin were enamored with the falling snow, so much so that they failed to notice that under that empty spotlight, a ghostly figured began to form, formed from the flow of aether between man and kaijin, and the duet was slowly becoming a triplet.
~And through the storm/I forged/my world~
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS
Mizako
How did I hit 1k? where did you all come from? hello??
