Chapter 228: Ending it…
‘Oh balls, that’s a fucking World Class aether art, isn’t it?’
‘Oh fuck me sideways.’
=Relax milord, you have a World Class aether art on your side too, remember?=
‘Oh, right…wait, I’m not even sure grandpa mastered that art yet!’
‘I mean sure, but what does that…oh. Oh shit.’
=As Pathos would say, this next part will be “fucking hilarious”.=
‘Oh right. Hurricroak, andale!’
[Si, maestro.]
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Out of the corner of Zhen Shi’s eye, he could see that his grandson and his other puppet(?) had finally made themselves scarce when Harold started charging up his attack.
Fully aware that there was probably more to Zhen Liu’s aether puppets than meets the eye, Zhen Shi decided to ask some questions to the…thing embedded to his chest and talking in his head.
‘Just to be clear, you’re some kind of…spirit or something under my grandson’s command, right? And you use the puppet as a medium?’
[Can neither confirm or deny that, but I can say your grandson is…talented in unexpected ways.]
‘That is an ominous statement.’
[He complains about us being ominous too.]
‘Us?’
[Don’t worry about it, you have revenge to take.]
‘Oh…right!’
Zhen Shi eyed Harold as he began charging up his World grade aether art, a feeling of defiance building up in his chest.
‘Shit, looks Harold actually mastered a World class art while he was away.’
[Don’t you know one? Echoing Frost?]
‘How did you, wait…right, you were in the same set of ruins…makes sense. Technically yes, but I haven’t completely mastered it yet. And I have no idea if the first verse will beat out whatever the hell Harold’s about to use.’
[What about the second verse?]
‘Haven’t mastered that part yet. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around it for weeks.’
[Analyzing…complete. Conclusion: Zhen Shi is not fully compatible with Echoing Frost. Estimated maximum power output even if mastered: 75%.]
‘W-why is that relevant right now?’
[Initiating remix protocols: Alternative Second Verse – replacing “March of Giants” with new verse “Jormungandr’s Roar”.
Compatibility level increased to 90%.
Analysing additional manner to increase compatibility…confirmed.
Zhen Shi has been found to carry the spirit of a Gold Scale Sea Serpent.
Initializing Chaos Evolution of Spirit: Jormungandr…duh.]
‘The hell does that any of that mean-gah!’
The familiar feeling of information forcibly being bestowed to Zhen Shi’s brain began once more, only this time, his formula, his armor and his Armament were acting up all at the same time!
‘I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but I’m feeling a lot stronger! Let’s do this thing!’
With the sudden surge in power and confidence, Zhen Shi began to charge up his own World Aether art.
Reacting to his will, Zhen Shi’s chain began to rapidly uncoil and tie itself in various places until it began to form the line work of a giant serpent’s head.
At the same time, the sea serpent shadow that would normally appear when Zhen Shi would channel his aether expression or cultivate had appeared as well, although….it looked like to was getting bigger and bigger by the second as Zhen Shi charged up his attack.
From outside perspective, one could see that the sea serpent shadow was growing to match the outline of the chain.
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‘Okay, this should be far enough from-why do I suddenly feel light headed?’
*Thud!*
[Maestro!]
A bit away from the soon-to-be battleground of giant powers, Zhen Liu had managed to get to a point that he figured would be the farthest away from the area of devastation, while giving him a good view of the action.
Unfortunately, he had suddenly come down with an acute case of aether drain for no discernable reason.
[Sorry jarl, I had to borrow some of your power to do a thing in my end.]
Until the discernable reason asked for forgiveness.
‘At least warn a guy before you drain him of his power,’ Zhen Liu complained. He was happy to help within his capacity, but unexpected drains like this was a massive hamper to his ability to do things.
[Maestro, here. Let me help you up.]
‘Thank you Hurricroak.’
It was a good thing nobody but Hurricroak was here to see him like this.
“Xiao Liu, are you alright?!”
‘Godsdammit.’
Because life was funny like that, Zhen Liu’s father and uncles had shown up to his hiding spot just as Hurricroak had finished placing Zhen Liu on her back for piggyback ride mode.
Evidently, they didn’t really care as Zhen Yan moved to check on him.
“Are you okay, son? Are you injured?”
“Let me see,” Zhen Long interjected.
From what Zhen Liu could see, none of his uncle’s became a casualty of this unexpected family turf war, although, he swore one of them had two arms about an hour ago…meh. Nothing a little weird surgery can’t fix.
“He’s fine Xiao Yan. Looks like he’s just aether drained.”
“Oh thank the heavens,” Zhen Yan sighed, “now we just need to…hey, what are you guys looking…holy shit, what the fuck is that?!”
“I…think it’s father?”
While Zhen Yan and Zhen Long were looking over Zhen Liu, the other five uncles were busy staring off into distance, or more specifically, the titanic size serpent made of ice aether that was rising from the ground like a primordial monstrosity.
When Zhen Liu saw the serpent, his face went: ._.
‘You…you couldn’t have been more subtle with the power up, Frosttusk?’
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‘What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck?!,’ Harold cursed as he saw that not only had Zhen Shi had also learned a World class aether art, but that his was somehow growing stronger by the second.
Surprisingly though, Harold didn’t feel fear at this sight.
He didn’t feel despair at being possibly outmatched.
Instead, he felt unbridled…jealously and rage.
‘You fucking piss drinking bastard! I don’t know when or where you mastered such a powerful art, but I recognize a long charge time when I see it. I am going to cut you down and take it from you! For that is my birthright as your superior!’
With his goal now set, Harold doubled the amount of aether he was putting into his attack to quicken the charge up and launch it whenever.
‘Not yet…not yet…not yet…now!’
[Holocaustic Hellfire Seal!]
Harold swung out his sword and released a torrent of black fire that quickly formed into a strange, diabolic seal that seemed to carry the intent of the underworld itself.
As the seal flew towards Zhen Shi, the very ground it went over quickly melted into magma and any corpses that happened to be in the way turned into ash in an instant.
“You’re ash, you fucking piss drinker!,” Harold shouted as his attack was about to make contact.
But just as it was about to hit, Zhen Shi took up a horse stance and took a deep breath. He was done charging too.
[Echoing Frost: Jormungandr’s Roar.]
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS
Mizako
A random insight into monkey brain: Part of the reason I wrote this is because of an old mobile game I played called Kaizin Rumble.
