Chapter 467: …Sprinkle it in dew…
[Boo, that’s ageist!,] Spring Brawler protested.
‘In that case, Spring Brawler, wanna help me make this body?’
[I’d be honored, ringmaster.]
‘Nepherage, you’ll be assisting with the kind portion.’
[As you wish, milord?]
‘So I just press this button?’
<=Simple as that.=>
‘Okay then.’
Without anymore hesitation, Zhen Liu proceeded to press the holographic button depicting a cartoony looking Spring Brawler.
‘So what’s supposed to-HRK!’
[Milord?!,]
[Ring-HNNNNNG!]
[Spring Brawler?! What’s going on with you two?!]
Immediately after pressing the button and causing the display to disappear, Zhen Liu could feel his connection to the proto-kaijin suddenly triple in strength. It felt as if some fundamental force of the universe was pulling them together.
In fact, the two actually ended up fusing into a single being!
The spiritual ball of energy that was Spring Brawler had merged into Zhen Liu, causing the latter to suddenly develop traits similar to the proto-kaijin, namely spring-like limbs, metallic oversized limbs and a somewhat clownish acrobatic asthethic overlaying his own.
As soon as this fusion occured, Zhen Liu started seeing the sugar statue, the medals and the blood in an entirely different light.
‘Oooooooh, that’s what they meant by instinctual….well then.’
Influenced by Spring Bralwer, Zhen Liu leaped towards the materials, bringing his hands down like a hammer.
[With my power, I forge your body…]
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The purple giant brought forward a pair of limbs that looked to be mechanical, with exposed spring coils acting like muscle tendons and producing what Elsa could sense was incredibly powerful kinetic force.
*CRACK!*
“MY FUTURE BABY, NO!”
Incredibly powerful kinetic force that was just used to crush the sugar statue that she had spent years carving into perfection into dust.
Elsa was all set to rush forward and try to salvage her statue, but stopped midway when she sensed an indescribably strange energy beginning to flow from the giant into the hands that had just crushed her statue’s limbs. As it did, the giant’s fingers began to wriggle and move in such a manner as if it was kneading something. It wasn’t until the giant opened its hands and revealed that it hadn’t just crushed the sugar statue nto powder for nothing, it has done so in order to change it.
“Wait…did…did that giant…did Zhen Liu just turn my statue into…taffy?,” Elsa asked incredulously.
As if to give credence to her question, smaller mechanical limbs began to manifest and meticulously remove the sticky taffy from the hand that has crushed it into existence. As they did, they made sure to reshape the taffy back into the exact shape it had when it was a solid sugar statue.
Unsurprisingly, the taffy statue created had several red streaks running through it’s form, due to having been infused with a couple blood splatters from the woman who had made the statue in the first place.
While this was happening, another pair of limbs, this pair looking as if they were carved from bright red stones, had taken the medals and began to melt them down into a liquid ball of metal.
The metal than began to flow down towards the taffy statue, forming into various pieces of armor and decals, providing more and more details to the taffy statue, making it more and more lifelike by the second.
A tip portion made of purple tinted metal, finger tips of silver and bronze, even some flecks of iron mixed in at the knees and elbows to strengthen them a bit.
The strange thing though, the giant had yet to give the newly formed body a face, as if it was saving it for the very last moment.
[With my wisdom, I forge your mind…]
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As soon as Spring Brawler/Zhen Liu had finished their task of turning the sugar statue into a taffy statue, the two had immediately defused back into being separate entities.
Spring Bralwer for their part looked exhausted while Zhen Liu looked shocked.
‘When and where did you learn about how to make taffy?’
[During reading time,] the springy proto-kaijin answered, [tried to see if I could get inspiration on how to better use my stretchy limbs in combat by looking up stretchy substances. It took me way too long to realize that I had to be made of significantly stretchy and malleable substances to do what I and in mind. Did learn a lot about “engineering” though.]
‘Huh, neat.’
<=Milord, you're still in the middle of something.=>
‘Right right, sorry sorry. Nepherage, you want a go?’
[Not sure how I’ll be able to help this newborn’s cultivation path, but I can at least try…]
Immediately after this exchange, Zhen Liu was presented with the prompt screen again and he chose Nepherage’s icon just as quickly.
Once more Zhen Liu merged with the kaijin, but this time, it was touch more familiar, and a whole lot hotter.
‘Huh…so I can mutate the formula bestowed before install them? Interesting…’
<=Alert, due to the materials present, the kaijin can be given an anima key as opposed to an aether formula. Would you like to proceed with this option?=>
‘Anima is a bit like psychic powers so…the kaijin would be more aligned with Elsa’s origins?’
<=More or less.=>
‘Alright, let’s go with that.’
<=Acknowledged.=>
From the depths of the Library of Nowhere, a certain series of shelves began to glow as books that hadn’t been touched in decades began to rumble and shake in place, until one specific one flew out of it.
Inscribed in it’s pages was an anima key, a cultivation path structured a bit like an aether formula, but it was noticably square as opposed to the aether formula’s circular structure.
<=Anima Key selected: Heartsinger's Insight has been selected.=>
As soon as the anima key had appeared before Zhen Liu/Nepherage, the combined being proceeded to instinctually infuse it with energy, modifying it ever so slightly.
[With my wisdom, I forge your mind…]
________________________________________________
As the giant finished making the taffy metal body, a new limb appeared, one that looked to be made of carved red jade shaped into a warrior woman’s hand. In this hand was a strange looking pen that the giant used to lightly tap the taffy metal body.
As it pulled back the pen, the streaks of red inside of the taffy body began to flow out of the body and into the strange pen until it was completely filled with blood red “ink”.
Once the pen was filled, the giant began to draw a series of runes and lines into the shape of a square diagram that seemed to radiate courage, warmth, love and hope all at the same time.
“Wait…that’s an anima key! That means my child will be able to…you strangely thoughtful lad…,” Elsa said in disbelief.
Having helped hundreds of thousands people go on the run over the years, Elsa knew that this world was full of strange and wondrous abilities not unlike her own.
However, out of all the powers she had witnessed, anima was something that was most familiar to her, since it was the most similar to her own.
With how prevalent aether cultivation was though, she had assumed that if the kaijin lord had given her what she wanted, the being born would be more likely to use aether than anima.
She would have loved and cared for it all the same, but it would be lie to say she wouldn’t be a little disappointed that her own child couldn’t inherit her abilities, or at least, something similar to hers.
To say that the appearance of this anima key was a pleasant surprise would be an underststement in regards to the joy she was feeling at the sight of it.
When the anima key was fully drawn, the giant pressed down against it with the pen, pushing it towards the taffy figure until it had suffused with its entire being, causing it to glow with a scarlet light akin to a fire.
[With my will, I pull your soul from Chaos.]
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As soon as the anima key was fully drawn, Zhen Liu defused with the kaijin once more, Nepherage surprisingly not flopping to the ground like her counterpart, Spring Brawler. However, her likes did look a bit shaky.
[How are you able to withstand the drain of doing something like this, milord? Creating thing is exhausting!]
‘I don’t know,’ Zhen Liu answered honestly, ‘just rest up Nepherage, I can take care of it from here.’
[Of course.]
Heeding her lord’s words, Nepherage proceeded to sit down and try to recover her energy after having assisted in creating a new member of their kind, at least mentally.
‘Well then, I guess now is a good as time as any.’
Zhen Liu walked over to the kitchen area, infusing the core with necessary [Chaos] and aether to take hold, and was just about to bestow the newly minted candy kaijin a name suitable for it, until he realized something important and stopped in his tracks.
This pause did not go unnoticed.
<=Hmm? What's wrong?=>
‘Logos, Pathos…I just had a thought…is it even appropriate for me to name the kaijin this time around?’
<=Oh?=>
