Chapter 397: Fate and Chaos, don’t mix too well
‘Guys, what the flying fuck was all of that?’
‘Wait, what? Fate? What do you mean?’
=Not fate, [Fate]. Whomever that Venus lady is, she apparently got her hands on the [Fatestealer’s Masquerade] formula. In the same way [Chaos Body Forge] let’s you use [Chaos], [Fatestealer’s Masquerade] lets her use…[Fate].=
‘Right…but what does [Fate] do? Change your soul?’
=Not exactly, it’s…=
<[Fate] is all about "inevitability", "predetermination" and "forgone conclusions", and ONE ANNOYING MOTHERFUCKER!>
=Kind of, it’s also related to one’s future potential and depending on how it’s distorted can change “what will happen”. Does that make sense?=
‘Okay, cool, so there is yet another type of energy that defies the normal rules of aether and the universe to force certain things to happen, why is Pathos unusually angry?’
=Oh, she used to be in a romantic relationship with the being involved with that particular formula.=
‘Wait, relationship? Y’all had romantic lives?!’
=That’s what shocking to you?=
‘I can create monsters on a whim, and y’all have hinted at the existences of gods, that I am familiar with, multiple times. While I’m fairly certain there are other weird spiritual beings out there mentoring their own neonates, this is the first I’ve heard of y’all’s outside of kaijin. Backstory is important and y’all are a black box to me.’
=Fair enough…oh, by the by, are you planning to kill this woman or…=
‘No? I just got a weird core from her, and I’d rather not lose it. Plus I get the feeling maybe I should try and dig into her secrets more before doing anything fatal. Call it a feeling.’
=Good to know.=
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“My…face…it’s gone…,” Madam Venus mumbled to herself as she stared into the distance, a look of pure shock still plain upon her face.
Off to the side, Razorstella was looking a touch triumphant, while the one who caused this situation to occur looked rather confused.
‘Razorstella, real quick, who the fuck is this lady?’
[Huh? Director, weren’t you getting all of the information we normally feedback?]
‘Ehhh…’
After dealing with an imploding headache, focusing on running to the warehouse district where the kaijin and zakos were fighting, and then getting unceremoniously knocked into the air via a stray tornado propelling a cannonball made of people, Zhen Liu didn’t have time to process all of the information he had been subjected to up until now.
[Hmmm. Okay, I can do a debrief, Director.]
‘Eh? Yes, thank you.’
Thankfully, when Razor Maiden matured into Razorstella, she also picked up the ability to notice social cues. That and her connection with Zhen Liu strengthened to the point emotions and thoughts now flowed boths ways.
Sensing her lord’s hesitation, she just rolled with it.
[Long story short? That is Madam Venus, an opera diva we watched perform earlier this evening. Who apparently moonlights as a black market peddler and can shapeshift or… something. Honestly, I’m as confused as you are.]
‘Good to know.’
“You…”
“Huh?”
At some point during Razorstella’s quick explanation, Madam Venus stopped looking into the distance like a woman who lost something important, and readjusted herself to face Zhen Liu and Razorstella, a look of hate and anger boiling in her eyes.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but a woman screwed over is a close second.
“You…broke…my mask,” Madam Venus hissed through gritted teeth, “you stole…my [Fate]!”
“If it helps, it was an accident on my part, my bad” Zhen Liu half-heartedly apologized.
“Who do you think…wait….”
As Madam Venus continued to stare at the duo, she began to notice something.
When she turned her gaze downward, towards the ruins where the other kaijin were laying, the pieces all clicked together. As it did however, she got even angrier.
“Those monsters…these demons…this horrible, wretched evening…it was all your doing?!,” Madam Venus shouted even louder and with more force.
“Do you know what you have done? Do you know who you just screwed over?!”
As Venus’s voice echoed into the silence of the night, Zhen Liu just stood there with a strange look on his face. It wasn’t until after the echo had completely died down that Zhen Liu gave her an answer, granted, it wasn’t one she was going to like.
“Okay, I’m just going to answer all of your questions at once. Technically, these ‘demons’ are independent thinkers, so I have very little say in what they say and do, but if they decided it was worth their time to kick your teeth in, it was probably for a good reason. I have no idea what I did exactly other than headbutt you completely by accident and break some creepy looking mask thing that allowed you to change shape or something and the ultimate kicker to all of this…no. I don’t know who you are exactly.”
“What?”
As soon as he gave his answer, Zhen Liu swore he could hear something snap inside of Madam Venus. The kind of something normally associated with pure rage.
“What did you just say?”
Sensing he might have hit a sore spot, Zhen Liu tried to correct it.
“Well, I only know that you’re Madam Venus, a singer of some sort and that’s it. In terms of anything else I-”
“You don’t know who I am?,” Venus repeated. “After all of this, and you have the gall to say…you don’t know who I am?!,” she shouted as her voice’s intensity increased with her rage… and her aether.
As Venus’s aether spiked, Zhen Liu chose not to react at this intensity because he unsure of what would happen if he attempted to close in for an attack.
Razorstella however did not have this qualm.
[Okay, I think she has seethed long enough! Shooting Star Kick!]
‘Wait, what?! Razorstella, hold on!’
But it was too late, in the blink of an eye, Razorstella had launched herself towards Venus and swung out one of her legs, wreathed in aether and glowing like a star.
However, at that exact moment, yet another mask appeared and slammed itself onto Venus’s face, causing her to transform once more, but this time into a woman with bronze skin and a mysterious aura.
[Smoke Double.]
Just as Razorstella’s leg was about to slice through Venus’s head, the latter suddenly turned into a cloud of smoke and disappeared like an illusion. The only trace that she was real, was a lingering voice.
“Know this, boy! My name is Venus, and you and your monsters have managed to wrong me in ways no other has done so before. Here my words, I will have my revenge and I will steal your face!”
As soon as that last word was said, both Zhen Liu and Razorstella could sense that Venus had disappeared from the area, leaving the two of them floating mid air, partially confused as to where she could have gone.
“Of course the crazy bitch has a disappearing trick,” Zhen Liu muttered to himself, “well, chalk one up to actual reoccurring villain in my life now.”
“Director…”
“It’s fine Razorstella, I know you did your best,” Zhen Liu comforted the remorseful Razorstella as he patted her head.
“Hmmm.”
While there wasn’t really anything to apologize for, Zhen Liu still found it necessary to reciprocate Razorstella’s feelings of remorse and regret, especially since he could actually feel them in real time.
Zhen Liu kept comforting Razorstella, up until he got the feeling she was better.
“Alright then, let’s go check on the others. I’m pretty sure they’re alright, but you never know.”
“Right!”
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“Miss Venus has retreated from the battlegrounds, I repeat, Miss Venus has left the battlegrounds!”
“Master Ogrim, Master Fili, Master Dane and Master Balos have been defeated! They’re still alive, but they have been rendered unconcious!”
“All shadows, retreat!”
After a long and arduous battle against literal monsters, the warriors of the Blue Shadow organization finally admitted defeat.
Their leaders were thoroughly defeated, with their four Grandmasters somehow getting bested in a terrain where they would normally be considered undefeated, and then one-shotted by two insectoid demons that appeared out of nowhere.
Miss Venus, their benefactor and the reason why they were here in the first place, was forced into a stalemate by a weird doll demon, and then immediately bailed after some random guy just showed up out of nowhere again and headbutted her in the face.
And to top it all off, all of the lesser shadows had to deal with wave after wave of weird, inhumanoid warriors that were simultaneously uncoordinated yet most organized things they had ever faced.
To say this night was the worst night to happen to the Blue Shadows would be an understatement.
All that said though, there was at least one thing that could be agreed upon by all those who were present for this night.
It is better to live and be punished, then it was to die at the hand of monsters.
