Chapter 967: Against the Inheritor’s Insanity
“Wahoo!,”, Zhen Liu shouted in a rather undignified manner as he propelled himself with Blazejudicator’s flames.
“Oh boy.”
“Is he seriously going to try and speed run this?”
[You go, maestro! Show that ship wheel who’s the boss!]
The kaijin and the girls were rather used to seeing Zhen Liu rubberband between being seriously stressed and manically reckless, but this occurrence was new to the observing Strange Bloods.
[Is…is he seriously trying to overcome the energy wave through sheer brute force?]
[Yes…yes he is.]
[But…why?,,]
[I don’t know…]
Regardless of these outside observations though, Zhen Liu didn’t really care what’s the others were thinking about right now. Right now, he had his eyes on the prize, and that prize was a cursed ship’s wheel that he planned to grab and never let go.
He just needed to get close to it first, which was…a lot easier than before. A part of Zhen Liu chalked it up to his weird ass plan of using himself as a rocket to bypass the wave and the emotional turmoil and tempering that came with it somehow working, but then…
[Huh…that’s weird.]
‘What’s up, Blazejudicator?’
[The walls of energy that were hammering and hampering you when you made your first attempt, are no longer present.]
‘Like I’m moving so fast that it’s no longer a factor, or…’
[Like it’s being concentrated into that wheel.]
‘Oh boy.’
Evidently, Blazejudicator’s warning came at just the right time. Moments before Zhen Liu was in striking distance of the aformentioned ship’s wheel, the damn thing suddenly released a pulse of concussive energy that would’ve sent Zhen Liu flying backwards and knock his ass to the ground. Thanks to Blazejudicator’s early warning though, that didn’t happen.
‘Just gotta readjust my angle and-‘
Bam!
“Ah, bitch!”
Instead, Zhen Liu managed to change his repelled trajectory so that instead of being sent out the door, he was knocked upwards and into the ceiling. From there, he pushed himself down so that he impact the ground hard enough to crack it and make himself some footholds and hand holds. Well, that was the initial plan. He ended up impacting the ground so hard that he buried his arms part way into the ground, which was fine by him.
This maneuver turned out to be quite prudent, because the ship’s wheel began to amp up its energy waves as a result of this impertinent action on Zhen Liu’s part, how dare he defy a treasure that belonged to the Invulnerable Storm Queen.
So insulted by this show of audaciousness, the wheel amped up the illusions from before…and gave them a bit more bite.
|BETRAYAL, HATE, DIE, DIE, DIE! BASTARDS!|
‘And the voices are back…and even louder, godsdamn,’ Zhen Liu muttered to himself and Blazejudicator as he felt his mind and senses get assaulted with auditory hallucinations once more.
|BETRAYAL! HATE! YOU SHALL NOT PASS!|
‘Oh hey, a new word.’
[Not only that. Look.]
As the auditory hallucinations began to assault Zhen Liu’s senses, an illusion of the Storm Queen began to manifest right before his eyes. She didn’t appear to be happy to see him though.
[It’s your girlfriend’s mother.]
‘I can see that.’
[Man, she is staring daggers at you. Is it because you’re trying to steal her stuff, or because you’re dating her daughter while engaged with several other women?]
‘I…don’t think that’s related to this moment…I hope.’
Zhen Liu expected this was the part where her image would make some vaguely poetic statement about worthiness or being too weak in his current state and that he should come back later.
Bam!
‘OW! Wait, why did that hurt?!’
Instead, the illusion of the Storm Queen just kicked Zhen Liu across the face and uprooted him from his space in the ground, sending him back to the ceiling.
“Oof!”
After impacting a lightbulb above him, he landed on the ground with his arms and legs spread open, due to the back-to-back impacts preventing him from moving in time.
It should be noted that while Zhen Liu didn’t feel the lightbulbs smashing into the back of his head, he did feel the kick that had sent him up there. Which made sense, given that the kick was loaded with [Chaos].
[Milord!]
[How dare she-] BWOOM![-ah! What the fuck?!]
Seeing their lord getting kicked in such a painful manner, the protective instinct in the kaijin compelled them to rush forward in an attempt to rescue and retaliate.
Power differences and ancestry be damned, they were more than willing to go down swinging. However, the sudden manifestation of a strange barrier made of [Chaos] put a stop to this plan.
[A fucking barrier? How?!]
[Don’t know. But it feels…old.]
[Step back…I can…]
[Are you crazy?! You don’t know what will happen if we try to attack it!]
‘Its okay guys, I’m not alone in here,’ Zhen Liu reassured the others as he got back to his feet and prepared to summon his [Stigma].
With the barrier preventing any assistance from getting through, Zhen Liu was forced to rely on himself and Blazeju-Bam!
‘Gah!’
[Executor!]
[Oh shit!]
Correction, Zhen Liu was forced to rely only on himself in order to overcome whatever weird ass trial in the ship wheel was putting him through.
Shortly after he got back up to his feet, the Storm Queen illusion proceeded to kick Zhen Liu directly in the abdomen. Strangely, it didn’t hit him though. Instead, Blazejudicator got impacted by the kick and sent flying pass the barrier and towards the other kaijin.
[There was another one??]
Practically all the mortals in the area were shocked by the sudden reveal of this spiritual body kaijin, but there was something a bit more pressing to focus on. Namely, the unfolding conflict between Zhen Liu and the illusionary Storm Queen.
…
‘Well, this is a fine fucking pickle I’m in,’ Zhen Liu mentally griped as he stared down the illusion of a woman who was technically his predecessor. ‘I can’t even find a fucking opening. Damn.’
Zhen Liu had thought that the title of “Invulnerable Storm Queen” was a bit of an exaggeration, since a lot of warriors of note always liked to attach “immortal”, “impenetrable”, “invulnerable”, etcetera, to their whatever they’re actual famous for.
However, this one of the few times where he felt that this was one of the few times this title was properly earned.
Zhen Liu had a feeling, deep in his gut, that any attempts to attack the Storm Queen right now would end in utter failure. This was in spite of the fact that the Storm Queen looked like she was just leisurely standing there with her trident in hand.
‘Huh…why am I getting a sense of deja Vu?,’ Zhen Liu mused, as he normally did in stressful situations such as these. However, unlike previous times, he had a painfully obvious win condition: the wheel.
Shifting his focus back and forth between the illusion and it’s source, one of two possibly ways this trial was supposed to go, popped into his head.
Option 1: Weather the storm and take the wheel. In a very literal sense, Zhen Liu was probably supposed to ignore the storm of blows coming from this illusion and be able to focus on the goal right in front of him. Probably to learn some lesson about how every storm has its center of calm and that by keeping one’s eye to the horizon, they’d be able to weather it. This was the most logical and most pacifistic way of approaching the problem.
Option 2: Fight the storm. Standing before him was the illusionary echo of a warlord that was so feared, so dangerous that a literal dragon emperor had no other choice but to back off after leaving a permanent scar on his face. Normally, fighting a force of nature was beyond stupid…the Storm Queen was someone who was a force of nature and had fought those forces of natuee before. And as someone who had inherited her abilities, wouldn’t it make sense for him to show that same defiant attitude against someone clearly stronger than himself? Plus, if he was observant enough, maybe he could steal some moves during the process?
‘Huh…both of these options have to do something about being able to showcase force of will…no…perseverance? Yeah, that sounds about right.’
Regardless of his plan of approach though, Zhen Liu still had one thing he had to do before committing to either option: summoning his [Stigma].
[Come forth.]
A mixture of [Chaos] and aether began to condense around Zhen Liu’s waist, forming that oh-so familiar MY Driver that Logos and Pathos had help him to visualize. However, the vibes it gave off was a little different in comparison to previous times.
‘Huh…why does it feel more…vicious?’
Logos and Pathos had told Zhen Liu not too long ago that names had power when it came to the aether and [Chaos], so the fact that Zhen Liu’s abilities were no longer being named after the standard cultivation abilities meant that there was a lot more…wiggle room.
‘Fuck it, figure it out later.’
[Stigma, on!]
