Chapter 812: Labyrinthian Havok
[Hello, I am back.]
=Please place our lord on the table, but don’t take your hands off of him. We’re gonna need to keep his body cool.=
‘On the one hand, I shouldn’t be surprised this place exists. On the other hand…how? Just…how?’
Zhen Liu wasn’t sure how long he had been dragged around at this point, but he eventually found that Frosttusk and his body had been dragged into what appeared to be private chambers of Logos and Pathos.
Granted, their private chambers looked like the control room for some supervillain in a spy craft movie from the 1960s, but that was neither here nor there at the moment.
‘Wait, why am I thinking about such things now? My body is literally burning itself right now!’
Thanks to all the walking Frosttusk had to do, Zhen Liu was given to examine his body’s condition with more detail.
It wasn’t good, to say the least.
As Frosttusk placed Zhen Liu’s unconscious body down on a table that Logos and Pathos manifested, intertwining wisps of green and purple smoke escaped from Zhen Liu’s mouth.
=Pathos, joint analysis. Now.=
‘My brain says they’re going to whip out some anachronistic tool or a weird looking aether array…but my hearts know that they’re probably going to-‘
<=Sniiiifffff!=>
‘-do that.’
Despite the fancy words for their action, the curator spirits of the library’s method of figuring out what was wrong with Zhen Liu amounted to the two of them looming over Zhen Liu’s body and taking a deep breath of the smoke coming out of Zhen Liu’s mouth. Granted, the two of them were technically living embodiments of knowledge, and more than likely had a million different aether arrays built into their non-corporeal bodies, so there must’ve been some sensibility behind their actions.
Maybe.
Then again, this train of thinking could’ve just been Zhen Liu trying to cope with the situation of his soul being tethered to a body that could literally burst into flames at any moment.
‘It probably isn’t healthy for me to keep making jokes about a serious situation…especially when that situation is my own,’ Zhen Liu told himself, fully aware that this made him look crazy.
Zhen Liu was about to make another self-deprecating joke for the sake of getting his mind off the situation, until he noticed how after Logos and Pathos both took a whiff of the smoke coming out of his mouth, they both developed the same grimacing expression.
‘Well…that’s not a good sign,’ Zhen Liu noted with an expression very similar to the curators.
This internal sentiment was then compounded because, shortly after Logos and Pathos shared this look, they proceeded to summon a rather hefty looking aether array right above Zhen Liu’s unconscious body.
‘Oh, that’s a really bad sign.’
It didn’t help that, shortly after the appearance of this array, Logos and Pathos said the following in perfect unison.
<=Frosttusk, hold him down. We're going to have extract a part of our lord's soul in order to save him.=>
[Right!]
‘Fucking, what?!’
Shortly after this outburst though, Zhen Liu got his answer when the strange looking array positioned over his body began to spin and suck up the smoke that was flowing out of Zhen Liu’s mouth. As this continued though, Zhen Liu began to notice small embers starting to get absorbed into the array…and the chain connecting him to his body starting to shorten.
‘Oh…okay then…’
Zhen Liu was incredibly tempted to follow up that thought with the statement, “I guess all I need to do now is wait and hope nothing goes wrong”, but he didn’t want to jinx himself any further than necessary.
Besides, Logos and Pathos already did that for him when Frosttusk decided to ask a rather obvious question.
[Is the jarl going to be alright?]
<=As long nothing unexpected happens, yes.=>
‘Godsdammit.’
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*Bing-Bong!*
…
Huh?
What’s going on?
I thought we were going to go back to focusing on the scions, the berserker and the thieves dealing with the bullshit that was the giant murder labyrinth full of monsters and a vague “Arabian Nights’ theme.
Why are we interrupting the chapter.
|We are, we’re just taking a small pause for some reader interaction.|
Why…?
|Partially because actively engaging the readers with a fourth wall break activity like this can have them remember the book for far longer than anticipated, and partially because writing out the full scenarios for all three of them would require a much larger chapter space.|
Ah…well, at least your honest about your laziness.
|Hey, watch it!|
Yeah, yeah…
…
Will this gag even translate to a visual medium, like, at all?
|Comics, yes. Animation…maybe? It would be like a P0p Te@m Ep!c kind of thing, or that one anime about religion in a godless world level of gag though…what?|
You are nowhere near cool enough to have an anime done like that.
|Hey!|
…
We interrupt this chapter to give an opportunity for the readers to guess what is going to cause problems for Zhen Liu, Logos and Pathos during this incredibly delicate moment.
In other words, what’s going to prevent Zhen Liu’s soul from returning to his body?
Please note, instead of having the readers make wild guesses that could completely side track the story, the following guesses are based on situations going on in the Library of Nowhere and are very simple summaries.
They shall be elaborated upon in a later chapter, but for now, please read over carefully.
…
Option 1: Due to Zhen Liu’s cousins having to fight a horde of beast-like zakos, constructs and kaijins, and the after effects of [Possession], they unlock a new array of abilities that not only turned the tide to their favor but also cause massive amounts of collateral damage in the immediate areas. While damage to the library would probably be minimal, the damage that they’d do to themselves would be rather hard to bear. Then again, it probably didn’t help that a giant chimeric frog, a giant demon spider and a giant lacewing insect were all gunning for their heads…in a trial by fire sort of way, not murdery sort of way.
Option 2: Combining a hair trigger temper with magical flames that react to such emotional highs tends to be rather hazardous to everyone’s health. Now that Olstenna had proper kaijin, zakos and construct opponents, and no Interlopers, the purple flames berserker could finally cut loose and release all of his powers at once. Needless to say, the resulting clash of flames vs [Chaos] would end badly for everyone involved. Especially when the kaijin involved happen to be a valkyric warrior woman and a razor bladed dancer with absolutely no fucking chill when it came to fighting.
Option 3: As it turns out, dumbassess with unusual powers are still dangerous dumbasses with unusual powers. Because Victor, Simos and Graff couldn’t put together that an indoors bathhouse being attended by literal monster women may have been a bad idea, the trio were now going to become the unwitting host to a demonic super parasite that was literally empowered by the concept of [Lust]. Needless to say, Neither Zhen Liu nor the curators of the library wanted to see what would happen when Paralust finally got her claws into proper human hosts with innate abilities and cultivation levels of their own, and not just random zakos. Sending the technical “daughter” of that parasite and a kaijin with only half of a [Core] might’ve been a bad idea, but they were also the only ones that could probably get close enough to that aforementioned parasite with no consequences…probably.
Option 4: If you noticed, you know. And if you know, you know. Nuff said.
…
Hold up, why is Option 4 so…weirdly vague and…stupid sounding? You usually don’t leave shit this vague.
|You said it yourself. I should have more faith in my readers being able to retain details and object permanence in their heads better. So, there ya go. Also, screw off. I’ve been feeling off my game recently, and writing dumb helps with trying to get my brain back into things.|
Uh…huh… anyways..
…
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter, we apologize for any inconvenience.
Thank you.
*Bing-Bong*
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“Wait, so this is where the Library’s located? I always figured it was a pocket dimension kind of situation like with my father or great grand aunt Zhen Xun Tian.”
“It… actually kind of makes sense? I remember reading about an old saying about needles in a haystack, so maybe that’s the same logic?”
“I thought the term involved hiding leaves in a forest.”
“Hiding a library in a forest?”
“Are both of you talking about the idea of hiding something strange in plain sight?”
“I think so?”
“Precisely that, yes.”
“Huh…wait, now that I think about it, why did the both of you decide to tag along?”
“Boredom.”
“Opportunity to further integrate myself with Xiao Liu by treating his injuries.”
“Girl…”
“Funnily enough, that is how I got closer to my darling. After sparing or arguing, I’d treat his wounds and flirt. Ah, memories…”
“That’s…wait…why would he need to get injuries treated after sparing?”
________________________________________
‘Huh…did a shiver go up and down my spine because of the specter of death possibly looming over me, or is someone talking about me?,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself.
‘Honestly, could be both at this point.’
