Chapter 934: Pillars in the Dark
‘Okay, so y’all were basically going through what I can only describe as a fishing expedition in a literal sea of nightmares?,’ Zhen Liu summed up the kaijin’s story in a rather blunt manner. This was his way of trying to understand everything, plus doing it like this allowed him to silence his imagination.
Zhen Liu had very little desire as to imagine what sort of monsters lurked within the Abyssal Lands, more so than what was described.
[More or less, yeah,] Kit replied in a tired tone. [Aside from that eel, we ended up fighting all sorts of maniacal and monstrous cavern sea creatures that we had enough to open up several questionably themed sushi restaurants.]
[It was awful. I almost got swallowed at least fourteen separate times!,] Amazon added with a weirdly cheery tone.
[By the way, Creator, the Matriarch made sure to keep the corpses of the more interesting abyssal creatures in her storage treasure. If you want us to grab anything, just ask.]
‘I’ll…I’ll keep that in mind.’
[As you wish.]
[Hate to interject,] Hurricroak interjected, [but why are you guys feeling like giant bundles of stress and nerves right now? We can feel it through the connections.]
[Oh, it’s because Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian is using us as canvases for her tattoo art right now, and it’s kind of…imprinting onto our existences. Then again, probably should’ve expected that when it involves tattoos infused with Chaos.]
[Huh?]
[Oh, right. Apparently when she’s in a bad mood, or has a lot to think about, she likes to tattoo herself or other people. And since she figured out even more ways of channeling [Chaos] she wanted to try and use it on us since normal aether tattoos does nothing when applied to our skins.]
[It tickles my soul, like hugging a cactus made of knives,] Rodenia commented, again, in a tone that was rather contradictory to the content of the words being spoken.
‘I…I think you just skipped over a lot of details right now, mind elaborating?’
[Oh, right,] Kit said as they brought their focus back to the story. [Let’s see….after the encounter with something we later learned was called a Lesser Abyss Eel, the rest of the time was…what’s the opposite of smooth sailing?]
‘Painfully eventful?’
[That.]
___Around the same time as the branch clan was recuperating from the ruins…_______
“See anything?”
“Other than miles of shadow water, the occasional sea monster popping out it and glowing moss that’s the only ‘safe’ form of illumination for miles around?”
“Yeah?”
“No.”
“Damn.”
“I’m not complaining. I almost got eaten, literally, three minutes ago.”
Zhen Xun Tian, Kit and Rodenia had been sailing in a single direction for the better of three days after entering the [Abyssal Lands], and it had been a rather eventful three days.
On several occasions, their vessel was attacked by some aether beast or another that looked like that they crawled out of the nightmares of someone who had a deep-seated fear of the ocean and behind.
Many of them were translucent, had body parts that flowed with bio-luminscent and had teeth that were sharp enough to pierce through sheets of steel like they were pieces of paper instead.
Occasionally, something a bit hardier would pop out of the sea like a school of giant shrimps that could all launch balls of superheated water by snapping their claws, or a weird scallop that used its fluttering body as living torpedo.
There was even an event where their ship was boarded by strange humanoid fish creatures that either wanted to eat them, make them their brides or both.
Either way, all of these creatures met the same fate of ending up as a freshly butchered corpse though when they encountered the full force of an Aether Overlord accompanied by a pair of kaijin that had powers equivalent to that of Aether Kings.
More or less.
The kaijin could comfortably fight Aether Kings at least.
Anyways, it was under this pattern of near constant aquatic attacks that both kaijin and crazy woman eventually ended up developing a strong yet strange form of camaraderie.
There was no better bonding activity than a continuous stream life-or-death situations after all. Then again, it also probably helped that during these conflicts, both Kit and Rodenia taught Zhen Xun Tian how to better leverage [Chaos] while she taught them her own brand of fighting tactics and maneuvers.
Of course, as much fun as it was to randomly fight sea monsters in the middle of a literal ocean of darkness, the trio still had a goal in mind.
A goal that involved Kit coming down from her post of the ship’s crows nest to ask Zhen Xun Tian a question that’s been bothering her for a while.
“So… I’ve been meaning to ask this for the better part of three days…”
“Is that question, what’s the best way to eat Fallen Sea Angel meat? The answer is, a lot of sugar.”
“Not that,” Kit continued while filing away that bit of information for later. “What I wanted to ask is, how do you know the Fallen Clan lives down here and not like…on the surface with an easy access tunnel to the [Abyssal Lands]? Because I figured we’d hit something by now.”
“Ah, that. Well, there was the information we extracted from that fucking spy from not too long ago. Squealed like a pig after I was done with him, he said that the Fallen lived in some kind of floating fortress.”
“Uh huh…,” Kit nodded. “Okay…but you seem to be absolutely certain. More so than just relying on the words of a torture victim. Why is that?”
“Oh…well…”
Zhen Xun Tian was initially hesitant about sharing her reasons for knowing, since it sounded absurd to her and she was fairly certain most other aether warriors would also find this reasoning absurd.
“Wait a minute.”
Until she realized that she was in the exact company would definitely believe her reasoning.
“Well, long story short, it’s because my ink can sense where that bastard’s arm is.”
“That bastard?”
“The Fallen’s War Elder.”
“Oh. Him.”
“Yup.”
Despite the two of them being mortal enemies, both Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian and the Fallen War Elder happened to share an unusual legacy in the form of grafted kaijin body parts.
Granted, the former was chosen while the latter was stolen, hence why Kit and Rodenia weren’t compelled to try and rip Zhen Xun Tian to shreds.
Not that they really could, but still, the sentiment was appreciated.
“But yeah, I guess since my ink and his arm belong to the same ‘generation’ of Kaijin, they have weird…resonance(?) with each other. To put a complicated feeling into simple words, my ink itches of we go into certain directions. Ya dig?”
“Yeah, I get it.”
“Huh? What are you guys talking about about?”
“Oh, hey Rodenia. We were just talking about…”
After that short yet meaningful exchange, the group continued to sail the Abyssal Sea in hopes of finding where the Fallen were located in this sea of shadows.
Luckily for them, it didn’t take that long. In fact, it took them about an hour after that previous conversation.
“We’re getting close…my tattoos are itching like an allergic reaction meets a heat rash.”
“Descriptive.”
“What’s a rash?”
Anticipation began to bubble in the stomachs of the Zhen Clan matriarch and the kaijin, as they were finally about to meet the bastards that had attacked the former’s beloved city while angering the creator and sensibilities of the latter.
Much to their disappointment though, they didn’t find the bastard. Instead, they found something, multiple somethings in fact, that set off their senses.
Their [Chaos] related senses.
“Wait a minute…what are those things sticking out of the water?,” Kit asked as they squinted their nebulous eyes towards one of the structures.
“They appear to be stalagmites,” Zhen Xun Tian initially dismissed. “Makes sense for them to be here, we’re inside of a cave.”
“Okay, sure, but why do they look so…crumbly,” Rodenia pointed out.
“I think a better question is, why do they feel so…familiar.”
“That… that’s a better question.”
Surrounding the trio and their vessel were a series of strange looking islands and pillars that radiated a feeling of [Chaos] that to the kaijin felt familiar, like staring at the paintings of an old ancestor.
To Zhen Xun Tian though…she couldn’t help but feel this intense feeling of grief and nostalgia. A feeling so strong, that tears began to flow from her face.
“Huh? Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian, are you alright? Why are you crying?”
“I…I don’t know, Kit. It’s just…happening.”
“Uh…guys? Not to interrupt what is probably an emotional moment,” Rodenia interjected, “but why is there not one but two weird giant floating thingies illuminating the darkness ahead of us.”
“Huh?”
Confused by Rodenia’s words, both Zhen Xun Tian and Kit ran over to where she was standing and pointing to confirm what she was saying for themselves.
