Chapter 469: Birthed in ruins.
‘Kit? She’s going with the name “Kit”?,’ Zhen Liu asked incredulously, “that’s so…normal. She’s not gonna go with like…Candybelle? Taffighter? Sweet…beater, honestly, I have no idea what I would name them. They can use anima power and stretch like taffy, how do you name that?’
[I actually like Taffighter,] Spring Brawler commented.
[Sugarseer?,] Nepherage suggested.
=Candied Eye.=
‘Wait, what?’
Follow their lord’s questioning tone, Nepherage and Spring Brawler also turned to look at Logos and Pathos in confusion, prompting the two provided answers.
=Candied third eye, since the kaijin has anima abilities.=
‘Ah.’
[That sounded like a pun.]
[Kinda is.]
‘Wait, I just realized something and have been meaning to ask this for a while, does the name actually affect the kaijin end result or nah?’
=It’s actually based on the materials moreso than the name, although, it will affect the end result in some minor way. True name empowerment.=
‘That…explains stuff, actually…’
‘…’
=…=
[…]
‘I am taking away your harem light novel privileges.’
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[And with my will, I pull your soul from Chaos.]
With the glowing core in hand, the giant delicately placed it in chest of the taffy statue, the glowing core looking a bit like a brooch before being swallowed up by the surrounding sticky sweet candy.
*CRACK! CRACK!*
“This sensation! Here?!”
Elsa’s eyes went wide as she saw a pair of spatial cracks open up on opposites of the soon-to-be born Kit.
“How can there be spatial cracks here?! My home should be shielded from those blasted ruins!”
As an otherlander several decades older than Zhen Liu, Elsa had learned some of the stranger secrets of the world of Valresta.
An important one she learned was just exactly how her humble little candy shop somehow appeared one fine summer day in city of Pearl Scale Harbor, smackdab middle of the artisan district: the wandering ruins phenomenon.
Wandering ruins were so well known by the people of Valresta that even the most uneducated layman knew that they were chock-full of strange and wondrous treasures that could instantly turn a beggar into a king and a Novice into an expert, but…there were a bit a more to them than that simple fact.
As the name implies, wandering ruins were pocket dimensions that seemed to be connected to ruins of all shapes and sizes, the entrances being these strange cracks in reality that seemed to flicker into existence for a moment before disappearing or lingering for ages.
Some of these ruins appeared to be destroyed palaces, others were intact institutes of learning while some were just giant sprawling ecosystems.with flecks of civilization mixed in after being overran by nature.
A majority of cultivators presumed that these ruins came from civilizations that had long since passed or were created by top tier experts in order to pass on their inheritances to worthy successors of the next generation.
This presumption was half right.
The cracks in reality that randomly appeared around the world would usually be connected to ruins, dungeons, planes of cultivation where one could unlock the secrets of the universe. A majority of these spaces were pocket dimensions no bigger than maybe two to three miles at max.
However, on occasion, these cracks in reality connected themselves to something a bit…bigger than a three mile space. Some of these cracks would connected themselves to entirely other worlds.
A world where machines were as natural as nature, a world where it was an endless ocean, a world where aether doesn’t exist but anima was the prevailing force.
All of these worlds and more were accessible via these cracks in reality, but they were incredibly rare occurrences, even among other wandering ruins.
A wandering ruin, on average had a one in ten thousand chance appearing at any one location, with the chance of that wandering ruins being a whole other world altogether being at least a one in one million chance on top of that.
As such, not many people knew about the existences of these other worlds, these other lands.
But the ones that did tended to be on the secretive side or members of massive international sects, i.e., the those of people who made use of this secret knowledge to maintain their power or even enhance it. This was especially the case when, for reasons unknown to even these powerful sects, there was usually only one entrance to any given ruin or other world.
Which leads us back to Elsa and her candy shop, for her own store counted as being a part of the “wandering ruin phenomenon”, and why new cracks were appearing inside of her house caused her to freak the hell out.
Technically speaking, these cracks shouldn’t exist because her house already had an established crack that served as the entrance in and out of Valresta But, the moment Elsa felt the arrival of a strange yet familiar energy enter in from the newly minted cracks, she understood why these cracks occured in the first place.
“This…this is the same energy I sensed from all of the kaijin…is this where he draws power for them?,” Elsa asked herself.
As she thought of the implications though, colorful and eerie black streams of energy flowed out of the cracks and into Kit’s body.
As the energy flowed, the crude pieces of armor took on a more refined appearance as the statue itself began to glow because of the influx of energy.
The glow was so bright that Elsa failed to see that the statue’s face was finally being formed, with two large and expressive eyes and a mischievous almost smile on their face.
“Why is there always so much light when this guy-GAH! What the fucking hell?”
However, she did feel her soul suddenly being connected with a newly forming kaijin and the influx of emotion and thoughts that came with suddenly manifesting into existence.
The sensation was shocking to the say the least, and maybe a touch painful, but that soon got overwhelmed with a whole slew of feelings that were either positive about being finally alive and real, or extreme curiosity about how the world works.
In other words, after years of becoming familiar with the world to the point of numbness, everything around her felt new again.
‘Is…is this how other parents felt when they saw their children get excited over things like mechanjcal mixers or ruined temples for the first time?,” Elsa asked herself in this instance.
But before her mind could wander any further, a voice that sounded like three different ones layered on top of each other.
<[Strange being born of taffy, metal and blood, your mother has decided to name you Kit. As your namesake implied, help her when she needs it, be by her side and bring her joy when she weeps, but most of all, grow to be healthy and strong. Now then, I think it's time to say one last thing...happy birthday.]>
As soon as these words were said, the giant disappeared as if it was a dream, leaving the glowing figure to gently descend from the air and back onto the metal slab that had served as it’s resting place for several decades.
Off to the side, Zhen Liu had reappeared alongside Nepherage and Spring Bralwer, but the only person in the room to have the mental capacity to care about that had her focus elsewhere, namely at her child.
Elsa rushed over to the slab’s side to see how her child came out.
The figure was still glowing as Elsa made her way over to the metal slab, but as she got closer, the glowing began to dim until finally stopping completely, giving her an opportunity to finally see how the kaijin came out in their totality.
So far…it was just as she hoped and then some.
“A far better use for those blasted medals than having me stare at them,” Elsa commented as she looked over Kit’s form.
The majority of the kaijin’s body was made of taffy, colored in such a way to prevent a uniform blob look, but the limbs, extremities and several parts of the torso were made of the same metals that had made up her medals. On top of that though, she could make out that thin lines of blood, her blood, criss-crossing the entire body like veins in a way. Granted, these veins looked a bit more artistic than medically viable.
Eventually, Elsa moved her attention to the kaijin’s face, which was blank up until the moment the giant had finished it’s work, when she was greeted with an unexpected surprise.
“Oh…hello.”
“…”
That surprise being Kit, fully conscious, staring right back at Elsa.
As the two stared at each other, a strange, comfortable silence fell over them. The kind of silence that would normally occur when a newborn is finally in their mother’s arms.
Albeit…it was a bit different than that.
