"In order to excel in life, one needs two faces. A professional face and a personal face. Granted, I always prefer to make more than one."
- A quote from the Aether Saint, Thousand Masquerade.
...
[Whoa! Is it just or does the atmosphere feel a lot heavier?,] Hurricroak comnted to her fellow kaijin. [It feels like a natural disaster is coming or sothing.]
[I believe that’s actually our lord’s matriarch’s aura,] Nepherage pointed out.
[Sa...thing...]
[Fair.]*2
[Oi, can you two shove it?,] Screamira interjected. [I want to take notes about this briefing.]
[Why bother? We got Logos and Pathos for that.]
[Just in case...]
...
"Atten-hut!," Zhen Xun Tian shouted with an aether enhanced voice, prompting the main clan elites to suddenly stiffen up their backs and salute.
"Madam General, Ma’am!," the soldiers said in unison.
"Whoa...that’s...different"
"Yeah..."
"Shouldn’t we be saluting, too?"
When Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian arrived at the coastline, the branch clan scions had a specific image of how she would arrive, based on prior experiences.
In their minds, Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian was loud, blunt, a lush and soone who would fit right at ho in the frontier. Combined with her brute strength and her reputation as a problematic front lining warrior who had been called the "Painted War Devil" by both friend and foe alike, they assud that she commanded the Zhen Clan soldiers with nothing more than simple orders and a presence more akin to a "champion" than a "general".
Hell, they expected her to show up in casual wear again.
But at this very mont, they began to realize that their assumptions were incredibly wrong.
Zhen Xun Tian had arrived accompanied by her son, Zhen Xun Po the Hero Elder, and a warrior that none of the scions had seen before, but they could all sense was either at peak Aether Lord or the first ring of the Aether King rank.
Both the Hero Elder and this other warrior were wearing suits of armor that appeared to be Silver tiered aether treasures, which made them look like a pair of guardian warrior statues.
As for the matriarch herself, she looked very different from her usual self.
Dressed in a suit of modified armor that allowed her tattooed covered shoulders, arms and key spots on her back to be exposed to the open, and topped with a flowing dark green cape with the emblem of the Pearl Scale Empire embroidered on its back, Zhen Xun Tian looked like a proper war goddess, and not like the leader of an underworld sect.
Combined with the serious expression on her face and this aura of icy professionalism, the branch clan scions were convinced that this was another person entirely.
Of course, Zhen Xun Tian didn’t notice or care about these personal thoughts.
Right now, she had clansn to inform.
"Sons and daughters of the Zhen Clan," Zhen Xun Tian began her speech. "Heed my words and listen well! For today, begins our campaign into the [Abyssal Lands]."
At the re ntion of the na of the [Abyssal Lands], several mbers of these elite warrior could feel their eyes and limbs twitch out of experienced fear.
For so of them, this wasn’t the first ti the Zhen Clan had sent warriors into the [Abyssal Lands] entrance. But they were the only ones who managed to co back alive. However, any fears they had were quickly blown away as Zhen Xun Tian continued her briefing.
"Our campaign, however, is not for so simple matter as resource acquisition or exploration. Rather, this is the finale to a campaign that has been plauging our families for centuries. Today, we begin our last campaign against the Fallen!"
As soon as Zhen Xun Tian made that announcent, the gathered warriors began to murmur amongst themselves. They would’ve been louder, but they were still professional soldiers...so they settled for hushed whispers of aggression.
"The Fallen? Seriously?!"
"After all these years, all these deaths...we found them?"
"I can’t wait to tear them apart..."
Zhen Xun Tian allowed the soldiers to sit out their feelings for a bit before moving on to the next portion of her prepared briefing.
"For centuries, the Fallen have raided our territories, slain our people, tarnished our honor and recruited criminal after criminal against us. But no more! For today, we have finally found their lair. Zhen Song? Zhen Xun Po?"
"Hmm."
"Yes, ma’am."
The warrior that Zhen Liu could now associate with the na, Zhen Song, stepped forward while pulling out a conch shell shaped aether treasure. From what Zhen Liu rembered, this was a Bronze tiered tool that was allowed one to copy their mories and display it for others to see, but only in the form of pictures.
Although, that was enough for Zhen Xun Tian’s purposes.
Channeling a bit of aether, Zhen Song proceeded to activate the treasure and called forth an image that appeared to be from Zhen Xun Tian’s point of view, alongside several other images that appeared to be from soone else’s point of view.
The mont that first image manifested though, Zhen Liu had to hold himself back from reacting.
’No fucking way...’
The image in question featured people Zhen Liu recognized as being the Fallen Clan’s Matriarch and the War Elder. The two of them were standing in the cusp of what appeared to be a giant scallop’s shell, with the faint glimpse of a large citadel on the inside do it.
Opposite to them though was soone significantly more interesting: a turtle shaped kaijin.
Of course, to everyone else, they appeared to be a Bloodliner that had a heavier ancestry towards their bestial half.
"Woah! Who’s the turtle?"
"Don’t know, but he looks like a Bloodliner I knew..."
At least, that’s the impression Zhen Liu got from his cousin’s comnts.
The soldiers though, were more focused on the other images that surrounded that first one. After all, they ca directly from the head of a certain traitorous spy.
"That arm...that emblem...it’s really them! It’s the Fallen Clan!"
"I knew they had a mobile fortress! Pay up!"
"A giant scallop though? I figured a bunch of bastards like these would use a giant octopus or sothing."
"I can’t believe that Zhen Jun Yao was a traitor all this ti..."
Several months back, Zhen Liu had manipulated so events from behind the scenes in order to have a mber of the main branch, Zhen Li, expose a spy from amongst the ranks of the Zhen Clan.
That spy, Zhen Jun Yao, had been feeding information to the Fallen over the past few years in order to reap benefits that propelled him into being an elite warrior in both clans. Had it not been for Zhen Li’s "discovery", the Zhen Clan wouldn’t have had the guts nor information to try and end their conflict with the Fallen once and for all.
Now, they had intimate views of the internal workings of the Fallen’s fortress, the [Darkshell Citadel], and the warriors they’ll face when they finally attack.
"As you can see, the Fallen’s fortress is a living one. One that is ant to swim the waves of the [Abyssal Lands] as easily as the fish of the surface swim in their lakes and rivers," Zhen Xun Tian said as she gestured at the images before her. "It was due to this previously unknown capability that we have tried and failed to locate the Fallen in the [Abyssal Lands], flopping and drowning more tis than I have fingers to count on."
"Snrk!"
Evidently, Zhen Liu wasn’t the only one to need to stifle a laugh, due to the absolute irony of Zhen Xun Tian making a statent about lacking fingers. Which might’ve been the point due to the smirk appearing on Zhen Xun Tian’s face after making that statent.
"But no more! Now, with the information we have gained and the help of our new modes of transport, we will take the fight down into the the depths and finally sink the Fallen once and for all!," Zhen Xun Tian proudly declared while circulating her aether. As she did, the faint shadows of her [Icon] and [Avatar] began to manifest behind her, making her appear to be larger than life.
"Now then...Zhen Clan warriors! Are you with ?!"
"Yes!"
"I can’t hear you!"
"YES!"
"GOOD!"
The atmosphere at this mont was electric with fighting spirit and the desire for glory, honor and victory.
Hell, the desires of these soldiers was so potent, that Zhen Liu heard a familiar set of words play in his ears.
Albeit, they were a little... different.
...
...
’Well...that’s really fucking new...’
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