Chapter 385: … they’re ready to clap back.
Meanwhile inside the formation…
“No, no please! Just hold out a little longer! I can make it in time, just please!”
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!! I thought I was making the right choice, please! Please don’t leave me like this!”
“Have to…keep going. Have to…keep walking…”
“Another flop, another increase in debt…welp, try again tomorrow I suppose.”
Lines of dialogue just like these were being repeated over and over and over again, in situations and simulations that seemed to entail the same follies, the same mistakes and the problems over and over and over again.
And yet…the people trapped in these simulations…didn’t notice a bloody thing.
{OH COME ON NOW! YOU JUST NEEDED TO MOVE A LITTLE FASTER THIS TIME AROUND! YOU’RE JUST THIS CLOSE TO SAVING HER!}
{THINK EVERYTHING THROUGH. THINK EVERYTHING THOROUGHLY, OR ELSE THEY’LL ALL DIE FROM YOUR MISTAKES!}
{THAT’S RIGHT, THAT’S RIGHT! KEEP GOING FORWARD! JUST A LITTLE LONGER! IGNORE THE ACHING IN YOUR FEET!}
Words like these kept playing in their heads.
Words like these were driving them all mad…
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[Hmmmm. How long have I been walking? It feels like this stupid darkness just goes on forever! But that’s not possible, I saw them fucking set this thing up! Yeesh…hope the others are doing okay…huh?]
As Razor Maiden kept walking forward, she paused before taking another step.
She could sense that something was blocking her path.
Something very small, but also very familiar.
[Wait…that little kid? I thought…oh right she’s currently…oh that’s not good. Gotta get you the heck outta here.]
Razor Maiden crouched down and was just about to reach forward and lift the kid into her arms, until she realized something important.
[Wait…I have literal knives for hands! If I reach out incorrectly, I could…hmmmm.]
Razor immediately tried to call for help, ask for assistance carrying the kid, or at least have someone lift the kid into the not razor sharp portions of her arms.
However, this plea turned out to be for naught, as she was simply…ignored.
[Okay, I’m really starting to pissed off at this whole being ignored thing! Pay attention to me dammit!]
As that little thought popped into her head, something in her core started to spark and stir…not that she noticed it…yet.
“Mmmm? What’s going on? Am I dead?”
[And the kid’s fucking awake. Shit.]
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[Alright then! Let’s run a fade on this bitch so badly that even the universe can’t help but say “damn”,] Lacerage proclaimed as she took up a fighting stance ready to counter charge the incoming woman in gold.
Archanidame followed suit in terms of taking a stance, but didn’t share in the same battle hungry recklessness…yet.
[Right, but before that, pleae help me summon some of the zakos first,] Archanidame asked as she pulled from seemingly out of nowhere a small handful of teeth covered in runes.
[Oh, right. Cannon fodder.]
Seeing the handful of teeth, Lacerage followed suit and pulled out a handful of metal shards and crystals also covered in runes.
[Lacerage! Don’t call the precious little zakos cannon fodder!]
[Not them! The assholes they’re about to gank.]
[Oh…alright then.]
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As Fia rushed towards the kaijin duo, axe in one hand and fury in her eyes, she began to charge up an aether art that seemed to cause the axe in her hand to glow.
Luckily for the kaijin, the attack was rather slow, giving them a chance to build up a counteroffensive as opposed to having to just dodge or block.
[Crushing Star!]
[Tornado Buster!]
[Twisting Nether Nail!]
BANG!
Fia swung her axe forward, bathed in light and aether to the point that looked like a glowing star about to make impact with the earth below, meanwhile, Lacerage and Archanidame released a powerful tornado and a demonic looking nail that both barreled straight towards Fia like drills.
A loud cracking sound could be heard as the arts made contact with one another and exploded, causing both the kaijin and Fia to take a few steps back to avoid getting caught in the blast.
In the confusion, several bits of teeth and metal could barely be seen as they flew towards the direction of the [Five Shadow Kings] formation.
However, none save two of the participants of this sortie would have noticed such a thing, and the two who knew were definitely not going to point that out.
“Nice move,” Fia complimented once she regained her footing. The axe in her hand seemed to glow and visibly become more agitated at this exchange, as if it was becoming excited by this fight.
“Not bad yourself. Although I can’t tell if all of that was your power or just the funky little axe you have in your hands,” Lacerage returned the compliment with a stinging twist, implying that Fia’s power wasn’t completely her own.
Fia let out a small chuckle in response, she had a feeling something like this was going to be said.
“Ah. I see now it’s the modus operandi of you demons to enrage, annoy and belittle those you consider opponents in order to get them off their game. Is that right?”
“Oooh, got it in one! Wanna gold star? I’m sure Archanidame here could stitch one for you!” Lacerage taunted.
As if to prove her companion’s point, Archanidame proceeded to weave a very quick gold star out of aether enhanced threads of silk from her fingertips.
If one were to take a closer look on the star, they would see the words “you tried” stitched in in Roaring Tide script.
In response to this obvious insult, Fia let out another small chuckle and readied her axe once more.
“I’m going to enjoy crushing in your exoskeletons and selling your bodies to highest bidder.”
“Hah!,” Archanidame laughed this time, “I’d like to see you try you brutish boorish boring bimbo bitch.”
Fia didn’t respond to the jab this time, instead she just readied her next attack, which causes several different glowing skulls made of aether to manifest around her like some kind of demented halo.
[Spirit Skull Barrage!]
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[Archanidame…what the fuck?]
[What? Alliteration is the ultimate form of insulting someone in an elegant manner.]
[I…really doubt that.]
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Clatter.
“Huh? What the fuck? Are those teeth?”
“Looks like…shrapnel?”
As Fia was busying fighting off the two new demons that suddenly appeared, the rest of the shadow were busy making sure the formation was still intact.
Their victory was highly dependent on their leaders killing the demons in there so that they could assist Miss Venus out here.
It was for this reason of thoroughness that several of the guarding members proceeded to investigate as to why a handful of teeth and metal shards were thrown in their direction.
Out of curiosity, one of the guards proceeded to walk over and pick up one of the fallen teeth.
“Is this…a rune?”
POW!
“OW! WHAT THE FUCK?!”
“DID A FUCKING HAND JUST SHOT OUT OF THAT TOOTH?!”
The shadow who picked up the tooth got clocked right in the jaw as a corpse gray arm in a leather jacket sleeve shot out of the tooth and into the former’s face.
As the tooth was dropped, it quickly transformed into a walking corpse wearing an anachronistic punk rock outfit complete with a mohawk.
“What the fuck is that thing?!”
“I don’t know but there appears to whole lot fucking more of them!”
Clatter.
Creak.
Shirek.
One by the teeth and metal shards exploded as they rapidly grew and transform into a variety of humanoid, alien shapes.
Some of the ones growing from the teeth looked significantly more skeletal, with a strange energy filling the empty spaces to make them look less like empty skeletons and more like something wearing a skeleton as armor.
Others from the teeth took on an appearance similar to the first anachronistic walking corpse, but with wildly different outfits and equally crazy hair, while another group took on a a strange spectral looking yet seductive phantom with ill-defined faces but well crafted bodies.
From the shards of metal and crystal, more metallic humanoids that looked more like walking suits of rusted armor and cracked crystal arose from them, their arms having been replaced with various weapons, a giant tuning fork or even a shield.
As the weird humanoid monsters appeared one by one, the shadows quickly noticed something important.
“Hold up…they’re radiating that same feeling as those demons trapped in the formation! What the fuck?!”
“They must be lower level ones though, feel their aura? They’re at the Acolyte rank!”
“Oh who cares how strong they are?! Fucking kill them! [Shadow Piercer]!”
A tendril of Caligos aether shot forward and attempted to pierce one of the corpses standing before them, only for a cracked crystal knight to intercept with its shield.
Despite how fragile it looked, it held firm.
“ROOAAARRR!”
With the first blow being fired, the zakos proceeded to charge.
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[Big Razor Sis? You need help?]
[Oh thank gods, Spring! Yes, we do! I need an extraction from this shitty formation. Can you pull us out?]
[Don’t know, if I can. I can try though.]
