Chapter 373: Enlightenment into Horror
[Welp, looks like I lost that bet about the person they were planning to see was Madam Venus… normally I’m pretty accurate on people being bastards,] Hurricroak complained, [but they’re all here now, so we can-]
=Hold up you lot,= Logos interjected, =it sounds like this Fia character is about to do an exposition dump on something…weird.=
[Weird? Weird how?,] Nepherage asked.
[…oh.]
=Not exactly that, but it’s more like…if this girl knows what I think she knows, then we are about to open a large can of worms.=
[That…that sounds redundant.]
=It’s either acid or poison gas. One’s easier to deal with than the other.=
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“Such a sweet and precious child…,” Fia said in a sinisterly sweet voice.
Fia began to lightly caress the unconcious girl’s face, not in the way a mother would a child, but in the way someone would caress a “beloved” pet or a “precious” item.
Sentimental for sure, but in the wrong circumstances, disposable at a minute’s notice.
“Do you know what problem is shared between Cultivators and Wielders alike?,” Fia asked aloud as she continued to gently stroke the little girl’s face.
Neither Victor, nor Simos, nor Graph could provide a good answer for this question, since the three of them could not even fathom what kind of things Wielders had to deal with, they didn’t have access to anima in the first place!
Fia let out a small chuckle before throwing the boys a metaphorical bone and giving them the answer.
“It’s capacity my fine gentlemen. Simple as that.”
“Oh.”
It was common sense that the more powerful an Aether Cultivator or Anima Wielder became, the more aether or anima they could leverage for their abilities. However, there was some nuance in this regard due to the differences that can occur between formulas and aether keys alike.
Some formulas were designed for long staying power with a weaker output as a trade off, others had amazingly powerful bursts but with no stamina whatsoever, but a majority fell somewhere in-between. All that said though, there wasn’t a single person in the world that would say no to higher power capacity, hence the popularity of aether medicines that could instantly restore it and aether treasures that could do just that.
Granted, that latter solution was prohibitively expensive and needed very rare materials in order to be made in the first place, and unfortunately, demand exceeded supply by a very large margin.
“Now my dear gentlemen,” Fia continued to explain, “did you know that one in every one ten thousand or so children in this world of ours, they are born with the inability to cultivate any known aether formula or anima key? Not necessarily for lack of trying though, no no, it is due to the simple fact that they’re born without the vaunted ability that we oh-so take for granted.”
“There are children out there that are born crippled? That’s sad,” Graff noted.
“You sure about that statement, Miss? I mean, not to be rude, but I’ve never met any children that couldn’t produce a lick of aether, beggar or otherwise” Simos retorted.
At this statement, Fia couldn’t help but laugh.
“Hahaha! Well of course you haven’t. In this world of ours where might makes right, many such individuals end up dying before even reaching adulthood. Some places around the world consider such children to be cursed and sacrifice them with impunity, or they grow up and end up smashed to pieces as soon as even a weak little Novice so much as look at them funny.”
Surprisingly, the little girl didn’t stir in the slightest despite Fia’s laughter. A sleep this deep could only be attributed to potent drugs or insidious aether arts, both not exactly good for the average growing child.
“But you see, this inherent lack, her innate emptiness, is what makes such individuals so valuable…to the right people,” Fia said as she switched from caressing the little girl’s cheeks to lightly grabbing her face and squeezing them.
“There is this theory, a rumor really, that such individuals, those with this innate emptiness, can be processed into gaining the ability to store any type of energy regardless of it’s origin or purity,” Fia added.
Simos and Graff looked downright impressed at the statement, who knew that crippled children had such potential.
On the other hand, Victor noted something important about the statement.
She said “processed”, not “trained”.
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=Oooooooh. That old practice…I thought that particular chunk of knowledge disappeared centuries ago.=
=Yes, we were. However, it appears that some key texts managed to escape that blaze, that or someone robbed us but I highly doubt that latter bit.=
[Wait, there was a whole ass empire that had a practice of turning children into living batteries?! What the fuck?!]
<"Living" is a stretch, Nepherage, more like...what's that medical process from our current lord's world? The one that fell out of practice because it didn't work?>
=Lobotomy?=
[…Are we in the clear to enact our plans now or…]
=You are, we just had to confirm it wasn’t anything worst than that.=
[Cool… wait a minute, worst? What’s worst than lobotomizing a child and using them as a living battery?!]
<=... you'd be surprised.=>
[Oh…]
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‘So that’s why Miss Venus always paid extra for kids…dark…but ain’t no skin off my bones,’ Victor thought to himself as he didn’t point out the turn of phrase Fia had used.
The world was cruel and it was every man, woman, and child or themselves.
Besides, not like anyone was around to punish for his misdeeds this time around.
Once Fia had finished squeezing the little girl’s cheeks, she stood up and faced the trio eye to eye.
Since her lecture was done and their transaction was finished, all that was left to say their goodbyes and disband for the evening.
“Now then, gentlemen, I once again must thank-.”
“Hold up, hold up, hold up!,”a booming adolescent voice, laced with the fury of thunder and lightning, suddenly interjected,
“is that why you lot kidnapped my beloved little sister? Was that the purpose of that orphanage we escaped from? So you could turn us into living batteries?! I can’t tell if that’s ironically fucked up or just fucked up.”
“What the hell?!”
The moment that voice echoed through the warehouse, Fia’s face went from jovial to infuriated, shooting a glare at the trio of Victor, Simos and Graff.
“I thought my men made it clear that it was you three and you three alone!”
“They did!”
“Then did you three betray me or get tailed!”
“Neither! Honest”
“Oh don’t be too mad at them, ‘Miss Venus’,” the voice interjected again, “if anything, you should blame that Shadow of yours. He is the one who killed me after all.”
“What?!”
Just as soon as Fia asked that question, she received her answer in the form of the sudden appearance a small child dressed in fine robes and accompanied by a flash of lighting.
As in, there was a literal manifestation of lighting that struck the ground in front of her and the trio, and a child suddenly appearing before them.
“Hello~ I do hope you remember me~”
The child in question had this strange air around them, not of arrogance, but of absolute confidence. The whole world was their stage, everyone else was just an audience member or an extra.
This feeling infuriated Fia even more, but the presence of the child terrified Victor, Simos and Graff in a rather noticable manner to the former.
“You three recognize this brat?”
“Well yeah,” Simos answered first, “he’s apparently the older brother to the little girl here.”
“But he should be dead!,” Graff followed up, “your shadow took him out in a single blow.”
“Slammed the kid’s head into a fucking wall,” Victor finished.
Given the whole story, Fia redirected her ire to her subordinate.
“Shadow, are they telling the truth,” she asked aloud.
Instead of answering, her blue-masked subordinate arose from the shadows, armed with a pair of vicious looking katars.
“They are indeed correct, Miss Venus,” the Shadow answered truthfully, “I did slay this whelp prior to your meeting now, but it appears he somehow survived. No matter, I shall rectify this mistake post haste!”
[Nine Shadows Striking the Heart!]
Shadow’s form flickered for a moment as Caligos aether suddenly surged and enveloped him for a moment before gathering around his feet.
He immediately rushed towards the child, faster than anyone could naturally keep eyes on leaving literal afterimages made of dark energy behind him.
“Die!”
Shadow was just about to punch forward and pierce the child right through the abdomen with his katars, but then…
“Neat trick. Let me show you mine. [Sonic Stride!] [Cacophonous Knuckle]!”
