Chapter 374: Hell Child
*Bing-Bong*
Before we begin the chapter, the writer of this work would like to present the readers a minor lore dump and a very simple mathematical question.
Don’t worry, this is relevant.
In the previous chapter, Jasper/Hurricroak used a pair of aether arts known as [Sonic Step] and [Cacophonous Knuckle], the former being a major Corporeal aether art while the latter was a minor Ethereal aether art.
Now [Sonic Step] is very straightforward, using aether to strengthen one’s legs so that the user can launch themselves forward with enough force to cause a sonic boom, while coating the user in enough aether to protect the body from the resulting g-force.
The drawback to this art however was that it was very loud, noticable and the user could only use it for straight line acceleration.
An easy clothesline target.
Now as for [Cacophonous Knuckle], it’s a bit more complicated.
[Cacophonous Knuckle] can hit pretty hard on its own, but the ideal way to use it is in loud environments.
This art allows the user to gather all of the noise in a particular area and momentarily concentrate it into the fist of the user, turning the punch into a cannon of sound that affects an area condensed around the user’s fist.
Now dear readers, a simple math problem.
What do you think is the answer to this equation:
[Sonic Step] + [Cacophonous Knuckle] + a fist no bigger than a ball=…
*Bing-Bong*
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“Whoa! What the fuck?!”
“That kid moved way too fast!”
“Wait….this feeling…”
“THAT KID IS SOMEHOW AT THE GRANDMASTER LEVEL! THROW UP YOUR DEFENSES NOW!,” Fia commanded, but it was too late.
Before Shadow could even comprehend that the child he was about to skewer with his katar had closed the distance himself, he felt a small impact of force against his stomach….for about a second.
Then came the “boom”.
BOOM!
Then he felt as if an entire elephant had jammed itself through his navel.
Shadow was launched backwards with enough force that several crates of salted fish that was in his path were splintered into pieces before he himself made impact with the wall.
Not crushing it, but becoming so deeply embedded inside it that he might as well have been built into the wall in the first place. Needless to say, the man’s katars were shattered to pieces…alongside several pieces of his internal organs and bones.
“Bleh!”
As he puked up several cups worth of blood, mixed wit the aforementioned viscera and bone shards, Fia, Victor, Simos and Graff noticed the rippling pattern that was thoroughly impacted into the man’s abdomen. It reminded them about what happens when multiple stones were thrown into a still pond, and the ripples would collide into each other and cause more discordant ripples.
The funny part was that this blow shouldn’t have taken Shadow out so easily.
All things equal, Shadow was still an Aether Grandmaster and could have tanked the blow no problem, but he made the fatal mistake of underestimating his target and not thinking that maybe, just maybe, there was a deeper reason as to why the child he slammed into a wall wasn’t dead.
“Awww~ I figured a big bad assassin like you would be hardier, too bad~,” the boy mocked while standing there with his fist still outstretched. To those who were particularly sensitive to aether, one would be able to make out the faint after shadow of a frog-like woman overlaying the boy. Granted, this sight was only visible for a second before the boy retracted his fist and he returned to a standing position, fists at the ready and a smug smile on his face.
“Oh…fuck…”
“I…I think we fucked up…”
“Uh, Miss Venus? Our transaction is done here so we’re going to-”
“Don’t you fucking d-”
“Oi! Idiot Trio! Don’t think you can escape from this situation so easily,” the boy interjected, interrupting both Victor’s attempt to recuse himself and Fia’s objection to the recusal, “y’all wouldn’t be dealing with a little ole me, if you hadn’t kidnap my sister and slam my head into a wall.”
“That was Shadow’s doing,” Simos said in an attempt to deflect.
“That fucker is either dead or grievously injured,” the boy replied while giving the speaker a pointed, dirty look, “and you’re next if you don’t shut the fuck up.”
“…yeah, alright.”
“Now then,” the boy continued, snapping his fingers as if to dictate the flow of the conversation, “I do believe you might have some questions for me?”
To punctuate his point, he proceeded to make a grand gesture and point directly at Fia Venus, who looked positively pissed off at the action.
However, she was a businesswoman and had dealt with arrogant people before. If she played her cards right, she could learn much about this hateful youth and turn the tables in the process.
As such, she took a deep breath before indeed asking the boy some pertinent questions.
“So…you must be her…adoptive, older brother?”
“Oh A+ on observing the obvious,” the boy answered in a condescending tone that definitely didn’t match his age, “and connecting it to my declaration from earlier, good to know you know how to listen. But before you move on to asking me my name, you can just call me…Geo.”
“A pseudonym?”
“Obviously. You seem to be familiar with the practice yourself.”
“A bit.”
As the boy calling himself Geo and the woman calling herself Fia continued to converse, a strange feeling of oppression came down in the warehouse. The kind of oppression that could only be felt when two strong-willed individuals collided with one another.
Granted, it was still rather concerning that one of these strong-willed individuals happened to be a nine year-old with a smart mouth.
“I’m going to assume that you weren’t an Aether Grandmaster when…Shadow, slammed you into a wall?,” Fia asked.
“Ah, finally asking the interesting questions are we?,” Geo asked back with a smile, “but yes, I definitely wasn’t an Aether Grandmaster when I was so rudely murdered in a back alley via head cracking.”
“Murdered?,” Fia repeated with genuine confusion. She was used to death and people faking it in order to escape certain mistakes in their lives, she had even sent some assassins to deal with those escapees, but this is the first time she ever heard of a child being murdered and then coming back as a someone strong enough to seriously injure one of her minions in a single blow.
Sensing her confusion, the boy simply chuckled for a moment, before explaining further.
“Yes, I did say I was murdered,” Geo continued, “I saw in my dying moments, bleeding on the alley floor, my very brief life flashing before my eyes….and then nothingness…or so I thought.”
As the boy continued speaking, the already oppressive atmosphere produced by Geo’s and Fia’s conversation was suddenly enhanced as an unusual amount of distinctive presences appeared one after the other.
Simos, Graff and Victor were originally rather cowed by Geo’s and Fia’s conversation, but the presences compelled them to talk.
“Did…did the number of aether presences increase or is it just me?”
“No…it did.”
“Maybe they’re with Miss Venus and they’re here to help?”
Sensing the presence as well, Fia’s face became a touch more…concerned.
They definitely weren’t her agents…so who were they?
“Now…when I died, my soul went some place far, far, far away from here,” the boy continued, “and I managed to confirm that the afterlife was indeed a thing! So good news! If you happen to die tonight, take comfort in the fact that your soul will receive its just reward and/or punishment for your dirty deeds in life!”
“Geo” paused for a moment in order to let the statement sink into the minds of Fia and the others. The former appeared to be rather nonplused at the statement, but the other three looked rather pale.
Victor, Simos and Graff had long scoffed at the idea of an afterlife, believing it to be cheap religious guilt tripping, but…it was hard to deny that they watched this kid before them die prior to now.
“Now, the funny thing about the afterlife is that there were many, many, maaaaany different lands one’s soul can go to and that some of these lands are special…beings, that can do all sorts of miraculous, reality defying feats like bringing someone back from the brink of death with a few…extras.”
To emphasize his point, “Geo” began to circulate his aether until he radiating the same power as an Aether Grand Master, but the funny part was that it felt remarkably similar to the unusual prescences that had appeared moments prior and in fact, it felt as if it was merging with the others.
“It was in one of these lands, somewhere dark and cold, where the punished screamed just to take a breath~,” Geo sang, “that I met someone who…gave me a deal.”
“A…deal?”
Geo’s smile went wide as soon as this was asked.
“In exchange for my soul, I could come back to take my revenge and save my sister. In exchange for all of yours…I got some help.”
“ROOOOOARR!”
“PAAOOOO!”
“SKREEEEE!”
“OH FUCK!”
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=Wow….=
