Chapter 154: This ain’t addition, it’s algebra
“Xiao Liu? H-how-?”
“Honestly, no clue,” Zhen Liu shrugged, “on the plus side, I…we feel like we can wrestle a rhino and win.”
‘Also that stupid voice is no longer making innuendos but she doesn’t need to know that.’
While he was saying this however, his left hand began to poke and prod at his own cheek and body like it had a mind of it’s own.
“Uh, Maestro? What’s going on with your hand?,” Hurricroak asked while pointing at the mobile hand.
“I’m not used to having flesh and teeth,” Nepherage answered, “I’m getting used to the sensation.” When she was taking lead of the body, the voice changed from sounding just like Zhen Liu to sounding like a mix of her own voice and Zhen Liu’s. It was a bit disorientating to listen to, but not unpleasant.
“Nepherage, please stop.”
“Sorry milord.”
Zhen Liu’s left hand stopped poking his face and dropped to his side.
“Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
“Alright,” Jin Fang interrupted, “so I get that this is probably a part of your formula’s…quirks. But what is the point of having your kaijin take over your body like this? What…what does this do for you?”
“Uhhh…”
Jin Fang had a point here, in the sense that Zhen Liu had no idea what was the point of this ability.
‘Magic brain voice, mind explaining?’
‘Uhh…alright.’
“Jin Fang, we’re about to find out.”
Following the voice’s instructions, Zhen Liu/Nepherage leaped back to their original position. While he wasn’t entirely sure, but it felt like this action took a lot less stamina than usual.
Once they had landed, the voice began to explain some things.
‘Alright, I guess. Weird thing-what the fuck?’
As Zhen Liu placed his thumb to his forehead and checked his formula, he noticed something unexplainable by this world’s normal standards.
It wasn’t the singular [Chaos Body Forge] floating inside him anymore, Nepherage’s formula of [Lava Maiden Revelry] was quite literally intersecting with his own like they were pair of impossible gears meshing with each other. The way they intersected made no sense, yet it felt completely natural.
For all intents and purposes though, this type of interaction should be impossible.
Aether formulas were like computers, as far as Zhen Liu understood them, but with very specific operating systems to them.
This specificity was so ingrained that if someone attempted to combine two different formulas into one, it would lead to violent rejection.
One could technically take pieces from different formulas and merge them into one, but even then, the incompatibility would either lead to an inoperable hulk or an unstable time bomb.
‘This…this should be impossible. Then again, I create life out of… questionably nothing, so I should stop questioning why I seem to defy normal logic at this point,’ Zhen Liu said to himself and technically Nepherage. The latter didn’t say anything about Zhen Liu’s thought process at this moment, but he could feel her confusion.
‘Welp, you heard the voice. Nepherage?’
“Understood.”
‘Wait a minute, my body can’t use arts. How the heck is she-‘
“Hah!”
‘Whoa!’
With the order given, Nepherage began to circulate aether throughout Zhen Liu’s body. Internally, Zhen Liu could see Nepherage’s formula starting to rotate, which in turn caused his own formula to rotate alongside with it. Externally, Zhen Liu’s body looked like it was releasing an inhuman amount of aether that radiated the essence of Teraqi, Ignati and Omni at the same time. There were even traces of a foreign energy mixed in, but only those who were in the know or were sensitive to aether would have noticed this strange energy mixed in.
As the aether circulated faster and faster, a ghost-like image of Nepherage began to superimpose itself over Zhen Liu’s body, granted, it looked somewhat different in terms of overall build.
Once the aether circulation had reached a peak, Zhen Liu/Nepherage clenched their fist and pulled it back. The circulating aether then began to condense around the aforementioned fist, causing it to glow with heat and light.
‘Gah! What the hell?! Is this what Ignatiband Teraqi aether feel like? It’s like my arm is turning into molten lead!’
While Zhen Liu had experienced absorbing Ignati aether and technically channeling it thanks to [Salamander’s Will], it was another thing altogether having it circulate throughout his body in combination with Teraqi aether, something he had never dealt with before.
And now, for the first time in his life, Zhen Liu’s body was going to use aether, not to enhance a kaijin’s art, but to practice an art.
[Eruption Knuckle!]
KA-BOOM!
As the art made contact with the ground and released its explosive payload.
‘I’m not gonna lie…this felt both incredibly novel…and incredibly cathartic.’
‘The what now?’
________________________________________________
About thirty minutes after the above happened.
‘Hmmm, so this is how Santiago looks? Not bad…I guess,’ Zhen Yue thought to herself as she looked over the portrait of the Prince’s son, Santiago, while making her way to the Clan’s training arena.
A bit after agreeing to meet with Santiago, Prince Carlos had provided Zhen Yue a small portrait of his son as a mean to to familiarize herself with how he looked. For the most part, he was okay.
Objectively, he looked handsome with kind eyes and a good jawline, but there was one thing she couldn’t get over: his hair.
Perhaps it was due to his heritage as a sheep bloodliner, but the man’s hair was incredibly…wooly, for lack of a better term.
Zhen Yue wasn’t one to normally judge others by their appearances, but there was just something about how clashing the hairstyle was with the rest of the man’s features.
Maybe it would look better in person, but for now, it was weird.
Zhen Yue let out a sigh as she put away the portrait and was about to focus on her training for the day, until she noticed something off in the corner of her eye on the courtyard she was passing through that caused her to stop dead in her tracks.
“Whoa. What happened to you two?”
“Meeehh…” *2
Facedown, on the ground, were Zhen Liu and Zhen Hai both looking absolutely exhausted. Granted, the reasons for their respective exhaustion were very different.
