Chapter 560: Violence isn’t an answer…it’s a question.
[Huh…this is why my fellow kaijin like possessing people so much? Hmmm. Reminds a bit of those “videogames” I’ve seen Archanidame take away from the kids, although, this place is a lot emptier than those games…,] Lacerage observed as she settled into Zhen Hou’s mind.
[Then again, perhaps it being empty like this is the point? The others did mention having to decorate a bit, using a bit of their own aether and a bit of the host’s…wonder what I’m working with here.]
…
…
…
[Huh? None of the others mentioned a host’s memories having little coffers involved, am I suppose to use this?]
[Hmm…why is it labeled with the word ‘Repressed’?]
[…eh! Consider this payment for giving you a power boost, Uncle Bear!]
*Click.*
[Oh, so that’s why this box is labeled ‘Repressed…I can work with this.]
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‘Fuck…this really does feel like I’m sinking in a bowl of molasses…I think I owe Zhen Xi that Iron scale Pangolin Crystal now…shit.’
Despite taking a full frontal blast to the face with a strange bolt of energy, Zhen Hou was surprisingly conscious. However, this consciousness was fading fast as he sank deeper and deeper into a strange state of mind, a trance really, that was somewhere between being awake and being asleep.
‘What’s that sound? Is that howling the wind or…something else?’
Part of the reason why he was able to maintain this strange state though, was due to the fact that he was informed about the nature of this possibility days ago…sort of.
A few nights back, Patriarch Zhen Shi got a bit more buzzed than normal with his sons and ended up explaining what had happened to him the night he suddenly broke through to Aether Lord rank while also somehow becoming physically younger by a noticeable amount of decades. This event was triggered by Zhen Shi catching a reflection of himself while staring in a mirror and remembering how young he looked…again. That being said, the details were a bit garbled due to it being drunken ramblings but Zhen Hou managed to parse out the big and important details…mostly.
The sons were also rather drunk as well, so his memories of that evening were a bit…vague.
What he did remember hearing though, was that the breakthrough was facilitated by an unusual spirit that took over his body and then subjected him to a series of mental tribulations that involved his past regrets leading up to that point. Prior to this event though, it was accompanied by the sensation of getting blasted in the face with a bolt of energy and then entering a weird half-conscious state…like what was happening to him right now.
He also vaguely recalled that evening was accompanied by the sound of agreement and rebuttal from his brothers, with them saying that while they agreed with the weird trance bit, the part about the spirit in question forcing them to face their own past mistakes was off.
Zhen Hou honestly couldn’t remember what they said though.
Regardless, as Zhen Hou fell deeper and deeper into this strange trance, he felt and heard another strange sensation coming over him.
Something like the winds of the universe was blowing all around him.
‘Why…is…there…so…much…wind…?’
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[Alright, that’s enough mucking around with the memories, the room is all set and I have established an impeccable costume…I do hope I am doing this right, because I am not entirely sure if my “core” is the right lesson to impart on this man…then again, someone once said that violence isn’t so much an answer than it is a question and that people need to determine whether or not that question needs to be answered at any given moment…ooh, maybe that should be the basis for my bestowal…]
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“Alright…how did I get here and where the fuck am I?,” Zhen Hou asked aloud while laying on a ground of hardened dirt and sand, “wait a minute…why does my voice sound off?”
Zhen Hou quickly sat up in an upright position and began to pat his hands all over his body to make sure nothing had changed.
“Okay. everything feels off and unreal…but it also feels like nothing about me has physically changed…yet…hopefully…alright, where the fuck am I?’
One minute, Zhen Hou was sitting in the hotel lounge, nursing a drink.
The next, he was shot in the face with a weird blast of energy and was set into a strange trance that seemed to stretch his perception of reality to the point that everything looked like a trippy music video from the eighties…as well as somehow learning what all of that meant!
And finally, after gods know how long he was in that weird trance, he found himself waking up in a weirdly familiar waste land that looked like home, but was distorted enough for him to understand that his place wasn’t exactly real.
The giant plastic insect carcasses laying about were kind of a big giveaway…that and the decrepit windmills that seemed to spin for no purpose or reason.
This entire place looked like a scene turned poster, out an anime about post-modernism and the meaning of wastefulness and excess in a capitalistic socie-
“OKAY, WHY DO I KNOW ALL OF THESE WORDS NOW AND DO I HAVE A NARRATOR?!”
[Whoopsies! I think that is my fault. Apologies, Master Zhen Hou. Allow me to mute that voice.]
“Huh? Who are-whoa…”
[Oh goodie, I left a good first impression.]
Zhen Hou was all set to scream in rage and confusion at his new circumstances, only to be caught off guard at the sudden appearance of a debonair stranger walking towards him.
A debonair stranger that looked to be a tall insectile woman with elongated limbs and delicate lace-like wings, dressed in a clean three-piece white, red and black suit, complete with a strange looking mask that seemed to be a perfect blend of insect and human features. Granted, despite how well-dressed this stranger appeared, Zhen Hou couldn’t help but feel this…unbridled fury and thirst for [violence] radiating off of this strange woman, bubbling underneath that well-manicured surface.
Honestly, Zhen Hou didn’t know if that disconnect of aura and appearance was a good thing or not, he just knew he felt…intimidated.
Granted, the source of this intimidation didn’t seem to notice Zhen Hou’s attitude in the slightest. Or, more unsettling, she had already notice and decided to just outright ignore it.
As the debonair insect woman walked closer and closer to him, Zhen Hou swore that the woman’s mask had somehow changed expressions from neutral to a smiling one. Whether that was a good or bad sign was up for debate.
The debonair insect woman eventually stopped walking once she felt she was close enough to Zhen Hou’s being, which just so happened to be distance that allowed her to loom over and stare down at him. It was at this distance that Zhen Hou could see that the seams where the mask met the face, was actually a mouth, because the insect woman had yet to actually look down at him physically, opting to stare straight ahead.
[Well, well, well…now that I have a better look at you, I can understand why I was sent your way,] the debonair insect said with an accent that Zhen Hou recognized as being from someplace known as “Nola”, another strange word that got added to his mental lexicon.
[You got a heart filled with a passion and fury like that of a howling windstorm…yet you don’t want to so much as let a breeze out of it? How strange indeed.]
“Wait, what? Who are you and where am I?,” Zhen Hou asked with confusion plain in his voice. While he had a decent idea of where he was, he couldn’t help but ask anyways.
It felt right.
[Hmmm, now those are some good questions,] the insect said while scratching her mask, [but unfortunately, mon cher, you forgot to throw in one other question that would’ve definitely help you figured out what’s going on.]
“Huh? What question would that be?”
Once this question was asked, the debonair insect proceeded to take two steps backwards before leaning over and facing Zhen Hou mask to face. Evidently, Zhen Hou eyes went wide once he had a better look at the mask on the insect woman’s face.
“Wait a minute…that mask!”
[The forgotten question you should’ve asked amongst that triad of questions of yours, the one to make it a proper quartet, was a very simple one…”when am I”?]
*Dong…*
“Whoa…”
As soon as the debonair insect asked this little question, Zhen Hou suddenly felt as if he had a bad case of vertigo as the landscape around him began to distort and change into a cityscape.
Not into Stone Claw City though, but one that he was familiar with a very, very long time ago.
Back when his immediate family of eight, was simply one of four.
“Why…do I barely remember this place?”
