Chapter 312: Planning the Abominable.
This wasn’t the first time Zhen Liu had to deal with bullshit monstrosities, so when he entered the room, he immediately ducked behind a pile of remains.
The unexpected upside to raiding a man-eater’s lair of horrors: plenty of bone piles to hide behind.
‘Fucking hell…this damn thing looks like something out of a Lovecraftian horror novel,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he stared at the blobof bugs.
While there were probably more descriptive words he could have used to describe the abomination known as Grub, “lovecraftian” worked as a decent catch-all in this particular instance.
‘Huh…I just realized with my luck, it’s probably gonna be as racist as Lovecraft…hope he doesn’t have a pet cat,’ Zhen Liu joked about his situation as he observed the blob of flesh.
When the expected sass back from either his kaijin or Logos and Pathos didn’t come, Zhen Liu immediately froze as he checked his connect to them.
Thankfully the connections were still there, but unfortunately, they appeared to have weaken. He wasn’t entirely sure, but when he tried to focus on them, it felt like they were in a one-way transmission mode.
The kaijin could probably hear and see him, but they couldn’t respond back.
‘Great…now I’m actually alone out here…what a lovely time for “alone time” now, huh?’
Was it a bit inappropriate to joke right now? Yes.
Did it help him keep his head cool so he didn’t scream in disgust and horror while staring at this thing’s writing, oozing mass that was causing him to develop all sorts of new phobias by the second? Also yes.
“heEeE-Hoo-HeeE! ShOUld I RoooAasTt you, or eat your raw? iIII CaN’T DeCideeeed,” Grub giggled as it yo-yoed Nausicaa’s dream-addled form with it’s tentacles made of millipede corpses.
Zhen Liu had initially planned to use the [Veteran’s Bone Club] to smash this creepy buggy bastard like the…bug he was, maybe use [Imperial Crusher] for once.
However, despite having practiced the art a couple times over since he learned it, he couldn’t exactly control the area of effect all too well.
If he used it now while Nausicaa was still a hostage…things would get messier.
‘I also can’t just smash it with the club directly or punch it like normal. That abomination thing might just…absorb me…ick! Welp…good thing I snatched this thing then.’
Zhen Liu pulled from his waist the machete he picked up from the abandoned campsite earlier that evening. It looked a bit rusted, sure, but it should still probably cut through a tentacle or two… hopefully…maybe.
Give it tetanus maybe?
‘Wait, you’re a fucking magic powered super warrior, why the hell are you freaking out over fighting a humanoid blob of insects?,’ Zhen Liu realized while weighing the rusted blade in his hand.
*BRAP!*
As if the universe was answering this question for him, Grub burped up a partially digested skeleton that was covered in a million or so bite marks.
“eXCuuuseee mE, LiiiTTle SnacckkK. Just someTHiNG I ChhhEeWed oN tOoo PasS thE TiIMEee,” Grub weirdly apologized in an attempt to sound “civil”.
‘Ah, right. That’s why.’
Zhen Liu stared at the bones for a bit, before switching focus to the blob and then Nausicaa.
Zhen Liu took a deep breath before slapping his own cheeks.
‘Fuck it. Game on.’
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While Zhen Liu was trying to figure out a plan of attack on dealing with the abomination…
[Eruption Knuckle!]
[Storm Stereo!]
[Echoing Frost!]
“SLASH!”
“SMASH!”
Angered and worried about being separated from their lord, the kaijin released attack after attack against the invisible barrier that was blocking them in an attempt to break it.
Unfortunately, all of their attacks seemed to a do little less than nothing against it.
“Accursed barrier! Let us through!”
“Too…tough…”
“Damnit! Why isn’t anything working?! None of y’all are holding back, right?,” Hurricroak croaked in frustration.
“No.”
“No!”
The others resolutely shook their heads in disagreement. They didn’t like being separated like this either and we’re giving it their all to break the barrier before them.
What made this situation even more frustrating to the kaijin was that once Zhen Liu had left their line of sight, they all felt their connection to him suddenly grow a lot weaker to the point that they could still hear, feel and see the things he was doing, but they couldn’t respond or help in the slightest.
They could hear him make jokes to distract himself, they could see what he was seeing in regards to their corrupted counterpart…they could feel that he was going to try and do something that might get him killed.
The kaijin knew Zhen Liu was about to rush in and attack the abomination full force, and while they would normally encourage it, this time was a bit…different.
While they were never explicitly told this, but during their respective creations, they were instilled a few key details about their lord and his abilities. The most relevant one being that while Zhen Liu’s constitution allowed him to tank attacks enhanced with aether no problem, attacks enhanced with [Chaos] could hurt him.
Badly.
That said, the reverse was also true, but their emotions were running a bit too hot to remember this fact.
“Alright, once more!”
=Don’t bother.=
“Huh?!”
The kaijin were just about to launch another set of attacks against the barrier before them, when Logos suddenly interjected.
=That barrier you’re trying to break isn’t something you guys can easily overpower because it’s not being powered. It’s something created by abominations to try and prevent kaijin like you from attacking it or interfering in the slightest. It’s like magnetism, like repels like.=
[So what can we do? Sit here and do nothing?!,] Nepherage protested.
[Destabilize it, how?,] Hurricroak asked.
<=Physically or mentally,=> the two answered in unison.
[What?!]
The kaijin understood physically destabilizing the thing sure, they did that already, but mentally?
They had all heard the thing talk, sing and had front row views in just how mentally deranged the thing was.
How do you break something already broken?!
________________________________________________
“Come little darling… won’t your take your final rest…here on Mama’s breast…”
“Okay…ma…ma…,” the toddler mumbled as she walked through the tunnel and into a rather ominous chamber.
The chamber looked to be rather large and circular, decorated with the bones and carpaaces of countless fallen warriors and spiders alike.
At the very center of the chamber was a strange pool of glowing liquid substances, Sacred Beast Essence, deep purple and jade green, swirling around each other in a yin-yang pattern.
However, the pool was not a beautifully balanced mix of these two colors, rather, it looked to be polluted with strange detritus that seemed to radiate hate…and hunger.
And if one wanted to know the origin of this mess, all they had to do was stare in the center of the pool, where a hulking mass of a humanoid stood.
“Come close…little one…and soon you’ll be…reunited and one with me…,”the humanoid continued to sing in a decidedly feminine voice despite having surprisingly masculine features….sort of.
In the darkness and from a distance, one would assume it was a giant standing in the pool of Sacred Beast Essence, basking in its glow. But if one looked closer, more details emerged.
The torso was composed of several muscular giant beetles, fused together to make out the vague shape of abdominal and pectoral muscles.
The arms were actually several hundred long legged insects, twisted around each other like muscles and sinew, with the hands not even being hands, but a pair of giant tarantulas molded and shaped into the looking like hands, with the eyes and mouth, fused into the arm-like facsimiles.
The bottom half was submerged in the pool, but if the giant left it, one could see the lower half of a giant wasp with a stinger as long as a spear and barbed like the devil’s tongue.
The most disturbing thing of this giant humanoid, however, was its face.
It wasn’t like the rest of the body, in the sense it was made with of other insects lashed together, instead it stood out for being too…handsome.
From the chiselled jawline, to the symmetrical nose and high cheekbones, any human with this face would be the talk of the town for years.
But of course, he knew this to be a fact himself.
Now, after all this time, all these years of luring in foolish human after foolish human into his gullet, after all this time of having been fooled by that (hate/wonder)ful professor, he could finally complete his evolution.
All Frederick had to now, was consume one, measley little girl.
“Once you’re with me…then you’ll see…just how…glorious my ascension will be…,” Frederick kept singing…unaware that the path to “ascension” had a tendency of coming with hiccups.
“I’m coming baby girl!”
