Chapter 802: Secret my shiny metal-!
“Holy crap, that was close!”
“Is everybody okay?”
“I think so…wait, no….Harold got stuck in a tree after being tossed out by the Evac Spiders.”
“Dang it!”
At this point in time, the patrons of the Stone Claw Arena had managed to fully evacuate from the premises, and away from the volatile aether flames being swung around like clubs.
While a small minority still wanted to stay behind and watch, a much larger majority wanted to stay out of the way.
*BWOOSH!*
“WHAT THE HELL?!”
A feeling that got amplified once they saw the massive cloud of steam spontaneously spill out of the arena’s top and exits. But that was just the start of the issues.
“What the fuck is going on in there now?!”
“I don’t know! Wait…do you guys sense that?”
As people continued to mill about outside of the arena instead of going home, they began to sense strange fluctuations of aether that suggested several newcomers had showed up out of nowhere.
After sensing these new signatures, a single question appeared in the minds of everyone watching.
“Why the fuck did even more warriors showed up?!”
Evidently, they wouldn’t be getting the answer to that question, any time soon.
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‘Yeah, I’m not sure what I’m sensing. However, I get the feeling I’m going to need your help more than ever, Frosttusk. So…please tell me you’re done?’
[Integration of Stigma is complete, minn jarl. We’re ready for combat.]
‘Alright, cool. Let’s figure out a way to freeze or beat these guys so we can…hold the hell up, my brain just caught up with what you just said, and the fact that you’re speaking significantly faster than normal.’
[Understandable.]
‘What the hell is a Stigma?’
[Oh, right. Remember how you grumbled one time during training that you thought some of the names for your abilities seemed cumbersome?]
‘I…not really? I might’ve grumbled it in passing because of the auto-translation in my brain making things sound off.’
[Well, Logos thought it was an understandable gripe and just shrugged their shoulders at the thought, but Pathos took that moment as a challenge, and proceeded to comb through the pop culture section of the library and several thousand tomes and scrolls to find suitable words that could better represent what we kaijin do when we reach certain levels.]
‘Of course he did…’
[Yeah, so our ability to become enhancements for your “Regalia” has been altered to “Stigma”. Logos said something about that word usually meaning “a mark of shame” or something along those lines and thought it would be an appropriate antonym to “regalia”.]
‘That…weirdly makes sense…what about the other ability where you guys turn into a weapon?,’
[Taboo.]
‘Taboo?’
[Because you can carry a taboo, by choice…or something along those lines.]
‘Huh…’
[But on that note, perhaps we should focus on the battle in front of us, Minn jarl?]
‘Fair point.’
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Shortly after Frosttusk had used his [Stigma] on Zhen Liu, and stabilized his burning soul, two incredibly distinctive groups of warriors that had been watching this all unfold had finally decided to make their moves.
Or at the very least, they had both decided to stop watching and had jumped into the arena one after the other, all while declaring their intentions like a bunch of fucking anime villains.
“By the order of the Holy Council of the Church of the Four Wings, I command thee, leader of the demon warriors, to lay down your arms and surrender yourself to me.”
“Oh patron of the Archive…”
“…we demand you hand over your right to enter.”
‘Oh joy, there’s more of these weirdos who are in the know. Great…,’ Zhen Liu mentally griped while trying to determine just exactly how tough both of these guys are going to be to deal with. On the positive side, Zhen Liu could at least determine that the new fighters were unaligned with each other…except for the obvious set of evil looking twins that is.
The first guy to the enter arena though, was a warrior decked out in an entire suit of armor while wielding a two handed mace. The armor itself has this golden finish that seemed to give off this impression of being “holier than thou”. Then again, this impression could’ve also just been attributed to the man wearing the armor.
“I don’t know who you harlots are, but I suggest you stand back. I, Inquisitor Malifax Dupont, has been tasked to bring this conjurer is to be brought to the Cathedral of Twilight, so that the Holy Council can determine his fate.”
In order to emphasize his threat, the Inquisitor proceeded to circulate his aether, causing the mace on his hand to glow with a faint white light.
“So stand down before the might of the gods.”
‘I…I feel like I should be complaining that I don’t follow his religion, so his rules doesn’t apply to me in the slightest,’ Zhen Liu thought tobhimself. Thankfully for him, the creepy ass twins who looked only a little older than him had opted to speak up instead.
Granted, the moment Zhen Liu heard how these twins spoke, he began to regret not speaking instead. There was something incredibly unnerving about twins being this uniformally in-sync, after all.
“Did you hear that, sister dear? An Inquisitor! For the Church of the Four Wings, no less!”
“Really, dear sister? Aren’t they that religious group that worships a giant chicken?”
“No, but this man indeed crows and preens like a giant cock, sister dear!”
“He does indeed, dear sister! But I can’t help but think he doesn’t have one. Not a big one at least.”
‘Ey yo, what the fuck?’
“Excuse me?!”
[Uncalled for, but not unwarranted.]
Neither Zhen Liu, Frosttusk nor Inquisitor Malifax Dupont expected these twin weirdos to make a comment that out of pocket.
“Why, It’s almost like he doesn’t know who he’s threatening. How quaint! How cute!,” the twin sisters said in perfect unison.
‘Oh, of fucking course these two can talk like that.’
“But I suppose, it makes sense. After all, we, the Calamity Sisters, promised to keep ourselves hidden, until the next owner of the Demon’s Archive appeared that is.”
‘Oh fuck me sideways, three for three, really?’
At this point, Zhen Liu remembered that his abilities were supposed to be a secret to the rest of the world, so he was getting little annoyed that three, completely unrelated asshats had somehow shown up to his doorstep like a bunch of fucking plagues.
As such, he decided to ask as to why this was the case.
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<=Welcome back, milord. We missed having your presence with us.=>
‘Alright, cool, but what the fuck gives? I thought the kaijin and the Library were supposed to be a secret, wrapped in a riddle and covered in enigmas. How the fuck are there so many people seeming to know where the fuck I am and what the fuck the kaijin are?!’
=To be fair, milord, the kaijin, the library and you are less of a secret and more of a… mythological fact. People all over the world know about your predecessors and the kaijin they lead, but they don’t know if any of its true or the real nature of these myths.=
‘That…that statement seems to imply that these weirdos are all part of big ass organizations that have access to knowledge that is forbidden to the rest of the world.’
=The inquisitor is at least, since he’s part of the Four Wings Church, an organization that has connections to one of your predecessors.=
‘Of fucking course.’
=That also applies to that Olstenna guy.=
‘I…I don’t know if I find that bit of information unsettling or comforting.’
<=Probably both.=>
‘Yeah…wait a minute… Nepherage, Hurricroak, Screamira, Razorstella, Spring Brawler, Archanidame and Lacerage. Report. Can y’all get into this arena in a timely manner to help me deal with these guys or nah?’
[Most of us, yeah. Archanidame and Lacerage are still being held up by their human identities.]
[Being a responsible human being is hard, young master.]
‘Fair enough.’
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“You insolent little whelps!,” Malifax shouted with indignation. “How dare you insult my person in such a way! I am an Inquisitor for-”
“Oi, oi, oi! Can all of you please shut the everliving fuck up?!,” Zhen Liu shouted aloud with a bit of bass added to his voice. Zhen Liu was already faking a deeper voice before any of these assholes had shown up, but he had Frosttusk pitch in a bit to help hide his identity further. He didn’t want to risk one of those crazy ass twins being some kind of audiophile.
With the attention of both the twins and the inquisitor solely on his ass now, Zhen Liu decided to…piss them off even further.
After all, there was nothing more distracting than pure rage.
“I’m just going to say this once, so listen up.’
