Chapter 279: Pain is temporary, Trauma is forever
“Bleh. Remind me to never use an accent again, what the fuck,” Zhen Liu groaned as he took off the mask and cleared his throat. It felt right in the moment, but it did a number on his throat.
=Duely noted milord.=
With the connection to Zhen Li’s mirror now disrupted, Zhen Liu could stop finally stop putting on airs and ditch the costume.
His performance wasn’t long, but it felt like it took hours.
‘And why did I feel like someone other than these two and Zhen Li were watching me the whole time?,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he took off the robe and placed it back in the clothes hanger, ‘oh hold up.’
“Hey, Logos?”
=Yes, milord?=
“I just remembered that we technically used two…,” Zhen Liu paused as he stared at the two spies he was using like a broadcast camera, who were both attempting to free themselves from what he just now realized was essentially bondage gear, “volunteers. What are we gonna do with them?”
=Well,= Logos paused while scratching their chin, =since you already made the threat, you could follow through with it and lob off their heads first. We do have a variety of bladed objects in the storerooms. Blunt or sharp, we can make it hurt for awhile.=
“MMMPH?!”
Logos wasn’t quiet about her statement of beheading these two, so they began to writhe and lash against their bonds even harder.
“Yeah, let’s not do that. I’d rather not leave trail of bodies in my wake…or get covered in blood right now…oh hey, didn’t Pathos do something to those Wolfe invaders? Y’all mentioned this before.”
“Hmm?”
When the two spies heard one of their captors not wanting to butcher them, more specifically the guy who did make that threat in the first place, they paused in confusion.
=Oh yes, the Pathos “production”…yeah. If you so desire milord, we can mindjumble them.=
“Okay, coo-wait… mindjumble?”
=Mindjumble,= Logos repeated, =manipulate their memories and change them in such a way to make them not question what had occured to them in the last twenty-four hours? Mindjumble.=
“Ah…okay then…did you guys always call it that or-”
=Recently coined the term, had a feeling this would be a common occurrence in the future, didn’t want to say “wipe and replace their memories” every time.=
“Got it…”
=…=
“…”
=Not even gonna question that prediction, huh?=
“No, its just…I just thought of something, come with me for a second.”
=Of course, milord.=
“Hmmm?”
Accompanied by Logos, Zhen Liu walked back to his captived camerapeople and once he got close enough, he stared them down from above.
“So…now that you heard my plans…I have a question for you both.”
Zhen Liu crouched down in order to stare them both in the eyes.
“Are the two of you loyal until death, or willing to pay a price to survive?”
The two spies looked at each other with confusion, but as they did, Zhen Liu kept both hands behind his back and out of sight.
“What is your desire?”
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“Oh try not to scream too much little man! Not like anyone will be able to hear you!”
“Sound…proof…”
“Less talking you two, more torture…”
Before Zhen Li’s eyes were three monsters beings that were definitely not of this world. No matter how much he focused on them, he couldn’t help but notice an innate wrongness in their appearance, not in looks, but in reality.
“What do you say guyzzz? Should I cut him up? I bet we can make some nice sashimi out of him!”
The first to speak was a strange beast of a woman that looked like a mix between a bear, a frog and a human. The glowing patches of blue skin made her all four of her eyes stand out from otherwise dark brown fur, alongside her knife-like claws.
‘A chimera bloodliner? But they’re only in Umbral Spider! And what’s with this melodic voice?!’
“Too messy…freeze him…leave him…to melt!”
The second being was an absolute giant, also covered in fur but it appeared more akin to armor than his actual skin. Gleaming white horns and tusks could be seen coming from his face, alongside a strange beard that seemed to move like a snake.
‘No…that’s a trunk…an elephant? But this chill…it’s like being inside a glacier.’
“Nah, screw all that. Just let me burn him instead. There’ll be nothing charcoal and ash left, but maybe we can use that to make a nice barbecue out of his accomplices.”
“Ooooh, that’s violent!”
The last to speak up was a horned woman with skin red and burning like molten lava, eye of green jade staring and judging him. Zhen Li was amazed he wasn’t being burned by the heat coming off of her, but that might have been due to the giant.
‘Burning, freezing, shocking! Their presence alone makes this room feel like I’m inside of a storm! I have to escape!’
When Zhen Li attempted to break the hold of these monsters earlier, he realized that whatever they were doing was causing his aether to still, but only on the places they were touching, namely his shoulders. While he wasn’t the greatest at using based arts, he could still use them.
“Why don’t we-”
[Flowing Kraken Kick!]
BOOM!
“Bah!”
In the blink of an eye, Aquarii aether gathered in Zhen Li’s leg and caused it to wiggle and wobble until it looked a bit like a squid’s tentacle. Once it was fully charged, Zhen Li kicked his leg up and against the mammoth’s man head, the concussive blast of the impact knocking away the frog-bear woman and the magma woman a step back and freeing Zhen Li’s shoulders.
‘A chance! Now I can…huh?’
In the heat of the moment, Zhen Li assumed he had kicked in the giant’s head while knocking away the other two monsters, thus, giving him a chance to escape. However, he found himself stuck in a kicking position and his leg immobile.
‘Why can’t I move my-?!’
“Cheap…shot…”
<
Now that he had the chance to focus his mind, Zhen Li could now see that not only his attack did absolutely nothing to the giant mammoth man, but that the mammoth man had somehow countered and encased his leg in ice!
The mammoth didn’t use an arm to block the kick, the ice just appeared on his skin in a moment’s notice…and was growing.
“Looks like…he wants to… chill out.”
“Gah!”
As the ice kept spreading across Zhen Li’s leg, for the first time in years, he felt the bitter sting of frost against his skin.
‘Am…am I going to die here?!’
