Chapter 323: …Once Accidental…
“WhhhaaaAAaat thee-”
*BOOM!*
“gGaAAAAAAHHH!”
“Whoa!”
“Ah! Papa’s saber!”
As soon as Zhen Liu opened up the Godoku Gourd, all hell was let loose.
Actually, that’s a misnomer, all Ragnarok was let loose.
From the Godoku Gourd’s nozzle end came a massive blast of tri-colored aether and [Chaos] that carried aether signatures found only during natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, blizzards and category-five hurricanes…all at once.
This explosive blast of energy hit Grub directly in his everything while knocking Zhen Liu backwards and into Nausicaa, causing the two of them to fall over each other.
However, the “Ragnarok Shot” did not stop with hitting Grub…it kept going.
As the energy blast went through Grub, it eventually curves upward and hit the ceiling/carapace of the Spider Queen’s Remains and then went through that…and the ground above that…
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*Rolling, rolling, rolling*
*Rolling, rolling, rolling*
On the bottom layer of Insect Hell, in the Green Scavenger area, a Black Iron Pill Bug was happily rolling around.
Whether it was in search of food or for a drink, nobody but the pill bug knew.
However…life has a tendency to throw even it’s most peaceful individuals a massive curve ball.
*Rolling, rolling-* huh?
As the pill bug continued rolling around, it suddenly felt the ground beneath starting to rumble in a most peculiar manner.
Out of curiosity and confusion, the pill bug stopped it’s rolling in order to use it’s feet to get a better feel for what was going on.
A literal second after putting it’s feet on the ground, a massive blast of energy shot through the ground like a geyser and knocked the Black Iron pill bug airborne, pass both the Misty Paradise Layer and Dead Air Layer and straight up into the fucking sky.
Sensing the fact that it was very airborne and about to fall, the Black Iron Pill Bug immediately rolled into ball form.
It(She) didn’t know where it was going to land, but it/she gambled on her body being tough enough to take a hit.
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Around the same time…
“P-please! Don’t do this!”
“Shut the fuck up!”
*Pow!*
“Ah!”
“Leon!”
At the very edge of Insect Hell’s pit perimeter, a crime in the making was taking place.
The victims of this particular drama was a young couple, not in the romantic sense, but travelling companions of the same religious group: The Order of the Tri-Colored Serpent.
The one who just got their teeth kicked in was Leon, a priest-in-training, and the one calling out for him in worry was a priestess-in-training, Isa.
The two of them had come to the Wasting Sands as part of their holy pilgrimage. Once the two of them had successfully crossed the desert and returned to their home city/temple, they would become official priests.
Unfortunately for them, they got attacked by bandits.
“Now then, unless you want to become spider food, I suggest you handover any hidden valuables you may have.”
“We told you, we don’t have anything!,” Isa shouted back.
“Liars!”
The ones attacking the religious duo a group of low tiered bandits who called themselves the Fanged Hyenas. As you can imagine from their “creative” name, they weren’t exactly the sharpest daggers in the armory.
Leading the group was a vicious looking fellow with fake teeth that were actually ripped from a hyena’s mouth, who went by the equally creative name, Bone Gnasher.
Bone Gnasher had been on the sidelines as he watched his subordinates beat the everliving snot out of Leon. However, after watching them do so for about twenty minutes with no visible results…Gnasher got bored and decided it was time for him to take over.
“Oi. Lay off, Smasher. Let me talk to him.”
“Huh? Okay…sure thing, boss.”
Smasher released Leon from his grasp and allowed the would-be priest to fall to the ground.
The young man released a bloody cough as he collapsed, followed up by a broken tooth.
The one known as Bone Gnasher didn’t really care about Leon’s condition, so he proceeded to grab the man by the hair lift him until he was eye-level with his own, squatting form.
“Alright then,” Bone Gnasher hissed while clicking his teeth in a show of intimidation, “your friend over there is very insistent about you two being broke…but I know priestly types like you two, have a tendency to carry a few more valuables than you let on. Stuff like religious tools made of precious stones, donations given to y’all via begging bowls…surely you must have something like that on you, right? I mean, we don’t want to throw you to down the pit, but…”
“T-those are holy items!,” Leon managed to cough up, “we can’t just-.”
“Ah, ah, ah,” Gnasher tutted, “holy to you, but to plebians like us, they’re nothing more than…huh? What’s your friend there doing?”
As Leon was being coerced into handing over even more of their stuff, Isa was on her knees with her eyes closed, praying to their Tri-Colored Serpent for deliverance, safety, anything as a sign that he was watching over them.
Granted, to the bandits at least, she was just muttering nonsense.
Boss, I think she’s…praying?,” one of the bandits pointed out.
“Praying? Hahaha!”
When this was pointed out to Bone Gnasher, he let out a rather hideous sounding laugh.
The bandits were a bit confused about their boss’s behavior, but one found it prudent to ask a question.
“Uhhh, did you want us to stop her or…?”
“Oh no no no, please let her continue,” Bone Gnasher said in a mocking tone, “I would love to see this so-called ‘divine intervention’ that so many religious types preach for! I actually want to see if these so-called miracles exi-!”
*FWOOOOOOOMMMM!”
“-WHAT THE FUCK?!”
“OH FUCK! GODS ARE REAL?!”
At the exact same moment Gnasher was going to mock the two acolytes about their religious beliefs, a literal pillar of light, made up of three different colors, shot out of middle of the Insect Hell pit as if to mock Gnasher for his mockery.
Out of shock, Gnasher released Leon from his grasp, giving the latter time to pick himself up and go to Isa’s side, who was also looking shocked.
“W-was that you, or…?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“HYENAS! FORM UP, NOW!”
Out of fear and readiness, the Fanged Hyenas proceeded to group up around their leader in preparation of what was to come. While they didn’t know who or what made that pillar of light, they could at least feel the shear amount of power radiating off of it.
Unfortunately, them grouping up like this would turn out to be a really bad idea.
The bandits and acolytes watched with awe and fear at the pillar of light, only to be dumbstruck when the pillar quietly dimmed out. In retrospect, the latter should have taken that opportunity to run.
“Was…was that it?,” one of the bandits asked their leader, genuinely confused.
Bone Gnasher was about to say “yes”, but then he heard something…weird.
“What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know, but it sounds a lot like someone falling and scr-”
*BOOM!*
“BY THE SERPENT!”
“THAT IS SO MUCH BLOOD!”
Like something out of a cartoon, the Fanged Hyenas were reduced to a fine blood mist as a large, multi-colored spherical object fell out of the sky and crashed directly into their grouped up formation like a meteorite.
The acolytes watched on, stunned silent as they tried to process what the fuck just happened, all while keeping their eyes on the colorful ball that just rolled to a stop a couple feet in front of them.
“…”
“…”
Both were rather clueless what to do in this situation…up until the ball started shaking.
“I-is that thing alive?!”
“I-I think so?! I think it’s starting to stand…whoa.”
“She’s…big.”
Before their very eyes, the strange colored ball had opened up and transformed into an amazonian bug woman with four arms, a strapping physique and a colorful shell.
Leon and Isa stared in awe at the woman’s alien yet beautiful form…up until the amazonian bent over on all fours(sixes?) and started to vomit.
“Blaaaargh! Ugh…did anyone catch the number of the truck that just hit me?,” the woman asked aloud, “wait…what’s a truck?”
And that, dear readers, is how the epic of Rodenia the Amazon Bug and the Tri-Colored Kingdom began, but that’s a story for another day…
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‘Holy fucking shit that was loud,’ Zhen Liu observed after seeing the aftermath of his Godoku Cannon, ‘No wonder those armored hero types wear full helmets, they probably got noise cancellers in there.’
At this moment, Zhen Liu and Nausicaa(?) we’re currently laying on their asses in a heap after the former’s attack. Unfortunately, the latter was also rendered unconcious due to the sudden knock back. It was starting to become a running joke at this point.
‘Fuck…I really hope this stuff is still usable,’ Zhen Liu griped as he realized how damaged the place had become.
The aftermath of Zhen Liu blasting Grub to kingdom come was rather…ruinous, to say the least. Aside from the giant hole he had blasted into the ceiling, a lot of rubble got loosed and had littered the chamber space. A couple of zakos got crushed in the process, but they just turned back into the hunks of junk and bones they were originally made from.
‘Well…at least that guy is-.’
*Rumble.*
‘Gods fucking dammit.’
