Chapter 466: Who can take the sunshine…
“By the Holy Mother, what the fuck was that all about?,” Elsa grumbled as she rubbed her eyes.
One minute, she was dropping blood on top of a sugar statue next to her old military medals, the next, that kaijin lord guy straight up flash banged her with a weird blast of purple light.
“Wait, he didn’t do that so he could run and-HOLY SHIT!”
As soon as her eyesight came back, Elsa was all set to determine whether or not Zhen Liu had screwed her over and respond appropriately.
Instead, she dropped her jaw as she bore witness to an unbelievable sight, namely the appearance of some kind of giant in her inner workshop.
“Wait…where did Zhen Liu go? Did he turn himself into that giant?!,” Elsa exclaimed.
The reason for Elsa’s exclamation was twofold.
Firstly, this was literally the first time she had ever had anyone suddenly disappear from her sixth sense entirely.
She had dealt with enemy psychics use their methods to hide themselves mentally, but not physically and vice versa, this was something else entirely.
It was as if someone had straight up replaced the being known as “Zhen Liu” with an entirely different existence.
An existence that happened to be the second reason why she had freaked out.
Before her very eyes was a gigantic being that glowed with a strange purple light and seemed to fill her inner workshop in the same manner that an adult enters a child’s playhouse, hunched over with their limbs folded in. Granted, unlike a human adult, this giant had a strange smiling face that looked almost like it was sculpted more so than naturally made and several long arms like a mechanical spider, that seemed to bend and turn in every direction. In fact, upon closer inspection, it seemed as if the arms were actually intertwining and merging with the various machines and tools she used for her candy making craft. It wasn’t until she looked a bit closer at some of the tools that’s he realized that they hadn’t actually merged with the tools, rather, they were going through them like a phantom.
“Why does he look…so nostalgic?,” Elsa asked herself as she mentally compared the giant before her to an old fairy tale she read as a child.
It wasn’t a very detailed story, but the premise was about a strange metal man who would pluck the very stars from the sky in order to create children out of everyday items for childless couples, and then take back those very same stars on the days of their deaths.
A rather apt comparison, given that as she looked over the giant’s figure, she soon noticed the statue, the medals and the drops of blood floating in the giant’s palms as a purple ball of light orbited around them. Evidently, Elsa failed to notice these bits at first due to the sheer scale of the giant catching her eye.
As Elsa kept staring at the giant, a strange whisper of a voice soon echoed around her.
[With my power, I forge your body…]
Then the giant’s arms began to move…
________________________________________________
‘Fucking hell, is there going to be a point in time where I’ll be able to create kaijin without being rendered unconcious or whatever the fuck this is?,’ Zhen Liu complained as he “woke up” in the familiarly empty kaijin creation space.
Albeit, there was a noticable difference this time.
[Milord! Are you okay?]
[Ringmaster, where are we?]
‘Wait, what?’
As soon as Zhen Liu’s mind came into focus, he saw what appeared to be Nepherage and Spring Brawler floating in the same space as he was. Granted, they were looked less like themselves and more like…balls of energy that had super deformed facial features of it. Zhen Liu was briefly reminded of an old toy series which were essentially foam balls made into the shape of monsters, except his were cuter and more…anime looking.
‘Wait, now is not the time to think about that kind of thing,’ Zhen Liu told himself as he waved away the random thoughts, ‘how and why are you two in this kaijin creation space?’
[We don’t know, ringmaster?,] Spring Bralwer answered first, [this is new to us too.]
[Perhaps the assistants can help explain this?]
=Hmmm. It appears my estimation was off by about two sessions.=
‘Speak of the devil.’
[Huh? Pathos isn’t in devil mode today,] Spring Brawler stated.
Logos and Pathos had appeared like they usually do when Zhen Liu does his kaijin creation thing, but this time around, they had opted on new forms that fit the situation…sort of.
The two of them were in what appeared to be modified chef garbs, Logos looking mathematically perfect and professional while Pathos was rocking an apron that looked like it should be in a “modern” art museum.
Granted, the both of them were coordinated in one regard, the two of them looked like candy golems in this instance.
‘I was about to ask why you two look like you’re made of candy, but I just remembered we’re working with a statue made of sugar in a candy maker’s shop. So skipping that, any particular reason why these are here now and not in my prior sessions of doing this?,’ Zhen Liu asked as he pointed at the two floating balls of energy that were Nepherage and Spring Brawler. The former was resolutely floating there like a dutiful soldier, while the latter was spinning in place. Evidently, he was bored.
‘What?’
=In essence, milord, you need to be wearing the kaijin in their accessory modes while exercising your creation methods.=
‘Ah…okay, cool…any particular reason why they can be in here and the possible benefit to doing so?’
<=You'll find out while we're creating the new kaijin.=>
‘Of course…what’s my workstation looking like this time?’
With a wave of her hand, Pathos summoned forth a magipunk kitchen filled with all manners of weird and aracanic looking tools.
In the exact center of this mess of tools was the bloodstained sugar statue, the military medals that Elsa provided and the [~Wailing~ Core of Motherhood], all sitting on a giant slab.
All the while this was manifesting though, Logos was busy fiddling with a holographic screen in front of them.
=Gimme a second…=
In Zhen Liu’s eyes, it was kind of like a surgical operating theater but with a cooking focus instead.
‘Welp, now is probably a bad time to mention that my only cooking experience is soup and the occasional egg dish, so this is gonna get weird,’ Zhen Liu told the others as he walked up to the kitchen set up, ‘so what do I-‘ *Ding!*
=There we go.=
‘What the fuck?’
[Hey! That’s us!]
[Why are we on this list, milord?]
‘I…don’t know…’
Before Zhen Liu could walk into the kitchen and get to work in making this kaijin to clear his grandfather’s debt, he was stopped by the appearance of a strange holographic screen.
On the screen was displayed three distinctive choice buttons, each depicting a symbol with no explanation as to what the fuck they meant.
‘Wait a minute…that’s my hand seal…and those two other buttons look like…huh.’
However, as Zhen Liu examined the buttons, he realized that each of them either corresponded himself or one of the two kaijins floating next to him.
Himself being represented by the seal etched into the palm of his left hand, the two kaijin being represented by the cartoony ball forms they currently looked like.
Skipping the song and dance of trying to figure it out himself, he just asked the creator of the screen.
‘Logos, would you mind…’
=Of course, milord,= Logos nodded, =due to the Kaijin Lord finally bringing in other kaijin into the creation space, you now have the opportunity to make use of alternative creation parameter options. In essence, you can have a kaijin contribute to a step in the process.=
‘Wait, seriously?’
=Be warned though, each kaijin can only help with one step of the process at any one session.. If you have Nepherage help with body creation, she can’t help with mind or soul creation later in the sessions.=
‘Ah….that makes sense,’ Zhen Liu nodded, ‘…real quick, how come there’s no description on these buttons on what the kaijin will do in the creation process?’
[I’m with milord on this, how come it’s not telling me what to do,] Nepherage added, [because I don’t know how to cook.]
<=That's because their input is entirely instinctual and based on the whims of [Chaos].=>
‘Of course…well then, any volunteers or am I doing this first bit myself?’
