Chapter 60: Revenge is-ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?!
<[Core of Re(gret/venge)] has been consolidated, please locate the appropriate material and create a new kaijin at your earliest convenience.>
A feeling of cold, dread and disgust suddenly filled Zhen Liu’s body as the newly formed core hid away in his body. Appropriate, given the circumstances he and his family was in.
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The Zhen-Corrada teams could only helplessly watch as the Wolfe team slowly broke apart the Ifrit Fire Heart Crystal and squirrel it away in a exit that nobody had noticed until the latter assholes came flying out of it.
Everytime anyone even slightly twitched, Richter would make a light swinging motion towards the crystal chunk at his feet with his maul. All they could do was seethe with rage at the situation. The fact that Donovan had a massive shit eating grin made the whole affair even worst.
“Last of the crystal is up in the exit, boss,” a weasely fellow wielding a halberd called out while sticking his head out from the hidden tunnel, “ready to go whenever you are.”
“Thank you Jeremiah. We’ll be up shortly,” Donovan replied with a polite smile and nod. Once Jeremiah returned into the cover of the exit tunnel, Donovan smile turned cruel as he turned his head back to the Zhen and Corrada teams.
“Now then, I won’t take too much of your time, I have people to see, a competition to win and untold power to tap into! You know how it is,” Donovan gloated with every step he took towards the exit tunnel, “But before we leave, I do believe we need to compensate you for all your hard work.”
Something about that line caused everyone’s hair to stand on end.
“Richter, give them their payment,” Donovan ordered as he made his way to the exit tunnel.
“With pleasure, boss.”
Richter’s aether began to surge as he took on a wide stance and prepared to swing his maul like a golf club. Seeing Richter’s movements, the Zhen Clan heirs and Corrada team immediately began to scramble to get out of the way.
“Donovan! You son of a bi-” [Shatter Nail!]
Richter smashed the chunk of Ifrit Fire Heart Crystal directly towards the two teams, making sure to infuse in his aether in such a way that it wouldn’t react with the crystal until it had impacted the area that they were standing on.
Luckily, none of them was in the immediate area for the initial blast.
*KA-BOOM!*
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As I swim and wallow in this burning pool…
Memories of old began to stir…
From the fires of hell, my soul was wrought…
By brass and and bone, I was lashed to form…
Tied here to guard this forgotten tomb, left to this darkened gloom…
The souls of greed and arrogance, to serve as fuel and knowledge…
But hark, I forgot as the centuries rolled by…
A beast with no thought I became…
Until I fell back down…into the place that made me.
And so by the sound of the booming bell, I rise.
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*KA-BOOM!*
Unfortunately, they still had to deal with the shrapnel caused by the unusually powerful explosion of Ignati and destruction aether inside of the crystal. While a good chunk of the team were able to block or avoid most of the shrapnel chunks headed their way, some weren’t so lucky.
“Ah! My leg!”
“Raquel, no!”
[Look out milord! Gah!]
“Nepherage!”
The blast had shot up a huge amount of obsidian and igneous rock in multiple directions, a large chunk of the former having sliced through the leg of one of Gianna’s teammates while a slightly smaller chunk having embedded itself into Nepherage’s back when she attempted to block a piece of shrapnel flying towards Zhen Liu.
But a bunch of injuries was only the start of their problems.
“Is everyone okay?!,” Zhen Yue called out
“Mostly,” Gianna answered, “but Raquel got hit by one of the shards!”
“Same with Ne-my puppet. Something got cut.”
[I’m fine milord, just need to yank it out.]
Once everyone had confirmed their statuses, Zhen Hai pointed towards a familiar hole in the distance. “Looks like the Wolfes forgot to close off the tunnel behind them, looks like we can catch up.”
“Good!,” Sullivan proclaimed while punching an open palm, “Once I get my hands on him, I’m gonna-”
“Uhh, guys? It looks like we’re gonna have bigger problems than some injuries.”
“What? Oh shit.”
The explosion of fire aether had caused a lot of smoke to form and blind everyone’s vision for a moment, preventing them from seeing that the once uniform floor of rock and obsidian now had a rather large hole in it.
Coincidentally, once the hole was fully registered in everyone’s minds and they could see the bubbling pool of magma, the room began to rumble and the floor began to shake. As time went on, the newly formed rock floor began to break apart and allow even more magma to seep through.
“Everyone to a platform, now!”
*GROAAAARRRRRR!*
As the two teams scrambled to get on to a more solid platform, a large, burning serpentine beast rose from the pool of magma and broke apart the rock floor that had sealed it away. Feelings of dread began to fill their stomachs as more and more details of this monster had begun to register in their minds.
It’s body wasn’t covered in scales or segmented like a bug as they had thought, for the fires had burnt it all the way to reveal smooth contours of brass, forming several metal plates that were interconnected by bits of strange glassy threads. What they had assumed to be hundreds of legs were actually hundreds of spikes that spun and stabbed at speeds so terrible that it chunked the very stone it walked. And it’s head, which they had assumed was akin to that of an anaconda’s, was in reality a metal facsimile of centipede and snake, stitched together in such a way that it looked to be straight from nightmares.
“What kind of beast is this thing?!”
“That’s no beast…it’s a machine!”
*GROAAAARRRRRR! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!*
