Chapter 278: At the edge of the map, there be monsters
[Yeesh, those were some really dark threats,] Hurricroak commented as she ready a muscular bear arm.
[Yup…]
[Think he’ll go through with them?]
[No,] Nepherage and Frosttusk both answered simultaneously.
[Zero hesitation! Por que?]
[Our lord gets jumpy over us heading him trophies. You seriously think he’d able to rip off someone’s limbs?] Nepherage pointed out.
[Good point.]
[Besides… it’s…our…job…,] Frosttusk added as he sucked in more heat from the room.
[Better point.]
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The ladies in the lounge room stared at the display with a mix of horror and awe at the elborate threat that Zhen Liu just made…well, two out of four of them at least. Jin Fang was just clicking her tongue while shaking her head, while Matilda was laughing about it, with Bellona and Alicia being caught off guard over the laughter.
“Ha! Are you serious?,” Matilda asked while still laughing, “that’s the kind of threat he’s going for? Dressed like that? Hahaha!”
“Wait…do you find the idea of dismemberment funny or…?,” Alicia asked, now a bit concerned about what might the future hold in regards to her adventures with Matilda. Violence was normal with their lifestyle, but there was a bit of a difference between fighting and dying on a battlefield and being executed in a grusome manner.
“Oh nothing like that milady,” Matilda said between laughs and a wave of her hand, “it’s just…it’s Master Zhen Liu making these threats, while dressed like that! Ha!”
Alicia and Bellona looked at each other, sharing the same thought, that they couldn’t see the joke. Luckily for them, Jin Fang could explain while Matilda kept laughing.
“As much as I love him, Xiao Liu essentially has the disposition of…an ornery puppy dog. Combined with the… ridiculous is too strong a word…”
“That, outfit,” Jin Fang agreed despite not completely understanding what that word meant, “it makes Xiao Liu’s threat less theatening and more mildly silly.”
“Huh…”
Alicia and Bellona brought their focus back to the mirror display and thought over Jin Fang’s words.
Evidently…yeah, Zhen Liu was more like a puppy dog than an intimidating beast now that they looked him over a few times through the mirror. With further thoughts on that idea, the two of them thought him similar to a wolfhound or a sheep dog.
Maybe a little dangerous, but still a big fluffy beast they couldn’t help but want to pet…and collar.
“With all that said though,”Matilda managed to say while wiping a tear away from her eye, “if Zhen Liu was a bit beefier or dressed in some intimidating armor, that threat would have been less ridiculous sounding.”
“What? No, it…wait…”
The three young, romance starved women, thought about the idea of their object of mutual interest looking a bit more muscular and wearing clothes that looked more “knightly”. This little action caused the three of them to remember specific things.
Alicia remembered a recent dream she had before…’an act of heroism and inspiration…’
Bellona recalled a childhood wish…’a knight who will understand…’
Jin Fang remembered yesterday’s training session…’my friend all grown up…’
As the three of them reminisced, a certain magic clown was looking at a strange little accessory decorated with beautiful gems. As they stared at the accessory, three of the gems lit up.
‘Desire born from a memory may not be as strong as a current want, but it’ll serve it’s purpose,’ Pathos thought to themselves as he carefully plucked the gems from the strange accessory. Once they were extracted, she studied the three more carefully.
‘Storms…dreams…clocks? …I can work with this.’
“Hey! Looks like the kaijin are about to make a move!,” Matilda called out to the girls.
Broken from their reverie, the three of them refocused on the display.
“Oh shit! Looks like things are about to get violent.”
“Now if one of the kaijin used Zhen Liu’s threat, I could believe that.”
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What exactly happened during the lounge moment.
“And with the subordinates out of the way,” the Overlord continued, “that just leaves you two…you and your master…”
Zhen Li gulped as those words rolled off the masked man’s tongue.
The room began to grow cold as he tried to suppress the imaginative methods of murder this insane butcher could inflict upon him.
“Now, I could just give you the same treatment like your subordinates, I’m sure your parents would love to solve one last puzzle with their son! Complete with an explosive gift, from yours truly~”
“You keep them out of this!,” Zhen Li shouted. Consequences be damned, he would not have anyone threaten his family.
“Oh touch a nerve did I? Don’t like it when others target your family? How lovingly hypocritical!,” the Overlord yelled. When he did, Zhen Li swore he could feel the room become electric.
“You know what, I just thought of the perfect punishment for you and your master, want to hear it?”
“What? What are you going to do you bastard?!,” Zhen Li shouted as he grabbed the mirror with both hands, failing to notice the three giant shadows looming behind him.
“Well…,”the Overlord began to say, switching from a yell to a whisper, “someone like me has the ability to access the deepest, darkest, foulest pits of evil, the places where only the monsters and the forgotten can live.”
Zhen Li’s hair began to stand on end, sparks of lighting jumping between strands, the smell of smoke in the air.
“Down there, many, many of the residents would love nothing more than to come back up here on the surface and revel in the delights of the living.”
Zhen Li’s skin began to feel itchy, as if a pair of claws was coming down on his shoulders…hold up…
“But the thing is, they can only do so if they can secure two things. A contract with a warrior of higher power and standing than them, to carry them from the darkness and into the light. And…”
“And what?,” Zhen Li whispered, noticing now the smell of sulfur breathing down his neck.
“And…the soul of a sacrifice.”
“ROAAARRRRR!”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Zhen Li dropped the mirror, forcibly deactivating the aether array and leaving it to tumble onto the ground.
<
Illuminated by their bodily lights, Zhen Li could make out three distinct and monstrous forms.
