It took a few days for Zhen Liu and Lythero to reach Lake of Six Iguanas, not because of anything truly difficult getting in their way, but because the forr had been acting...weird.
To be more precise, Zhen Liu had been acting like a hardcore survivalist.
"Uh...Zhen Liu, are you good?"
"Yes, why?"
"You’ve been harvesting grubs from practically every tree for the past mile or so."
"They’re good sources of protein."
"Right..."
Zhen Liu had made sure to explain to Lythero about [Cores of Desire], how he had to digest several of them at once in order to give himself a power boost prior to fighting the Cortez Company and that there was a non-zero chance of there being...side effects.
Unlike last ti, which consisted of incredibly horny intrusive thoughts, the [Survival] focused cores just made Zhen Liu develop an almost insatiable hunger for wilderness survival foods, the intense desire to make shelters out of random pieces of detritus and the thirst for... purified water from dubious sources.
It was a little weird to Lythero, but he was assured it was temporary, and there was an unexpected upside to it too.
For reasons beyond him, Zhen Liu managed to gather several rare naturally occurring aether dicines while in the midst of his survival binge.
Most of it had to be processed into proper elixirs in order to be usable by either of them, but they could easily sell the stuff to any alchemists if the opportunity ever arose...and if they could keep the Corpse Doll from eating everything.
"Please stop trying to eat all of the [Blood Cloud Mangoes]. They’re full of poisons."
[But they taste amazing! Also, I’m technically undead. Poison is a tonic to ...probably.]
"Then at least spit out the pits..."
[They’re crunchy!]
Despite all of these weird side distractions though, Zhen Liu and Lythero managed to reach the Lake of Six Iguanas with no injuries.
A good thing too, because things were not as Lythero had described.
The two of them had heard unnatural noises as they were approaching the lake’s vicinity, so instead of walking into it blindly, the duo had climbed a tall tree to determine what was ahead of them.
Needless to say, there were people involved.
"What the hell?," Lythero asked in confusion.
"That’s a lot more people than I expected to be visiting an abandoned battlefield..."
From what Lythero had told Zhen Liu, the forr had described the Lake of Six Iguanas as a place that had once been a pristine watering hole/fishing oasis that visitors ca to in order to find a mont of relaxation away from civilization and the stresses of cultivation.
Unfortunately, that all changed when war broke out.
A pair of kingdoms, one known as the Erald Flare Kingdom and the Cyan Orchid Kingdom, had gone to war over control of a newly discovered wandering ruin entrance that had a relatively low danger level but an absurdly high amount of tallic resources.
The war between the two kingdoms was surprisingly short, lasting only a few years at best, but the battles that had been fought were incredibly brutal.
Thousands of people were killed on both sides, entire landscapes had been irreversibly changed because of collateral damage and both of these kingdoms were wiped off the face of the continent as well due to an opportunistic third party slling their weakened blood in the water. In fact, there was even speculation that the war got to the way it was due to that aforentioned third party.
Regardless, the battle that took place at the Lake of Six Iguanas was neither the first nor last battle of the war, it was just regular skirmish in the eyes of history.
But the sheer number of bodies that day were enough to cover the entire lake’s shoreline and turn the lake’s waters a dark shade of red.
At least, that’s Lythero’s masters had told him.
When Lythero was first brought to this place, he couldn’t help but think about remarkably fresh the air was and how pristine the waters appeared. He did indeed find remnants of broken pieces of armor, shattered weapons and all manner human remains, but it wasn’t the macabre wasteland of death as his masters had experienced.
His masters had said that nature had simply taken its course and wiped away the remains of the battle, as was the way of the world. However, Lythero himself believed that his masters had decided to clean up the ss and bury their fallen comrades in order to make ands for all the blood they had shed when they were soldiers.
And, when Lythero had to bury his masters in this forgotten battlefield where they had first t, he couldn’t help but to think about how much greener it was since he was last there.
That wasn’t the case at this mont though.
For reasons yet to be made clear to Lythero and Zhen Liu, they could see that on the shores of the lake, a massive camp of so kind complete with lumber walls and catapults had been constructed.
Banners depicting a raven perched on downward facing sword could be seen decorating the camp, giving off the impression that this was a military regint on a campaign...in Lythero’s eyes at least.
Zhen Liu, however, recognized the camp as being sothing else entirely.
"That’s a hunting camp."
"A hunting camp? How do you know that?," Lythero asked, fairly certain Zhen Liu was still in his weird survivalist kick.
"See those weird looking boulders by the catapults?," Zhen Liu asked while digging through his pouch of zako marbles. "The ones that are like perfectly smooth and covered in runes?"
"Yeah?"
"Those are burst glue array stones," Zhen Liu explained as he began extracring several clear, ghostly feeling marbles from his pouch. "They’re used by hunters when they’re trying to capture aether beasts of the feathered variety, or slow down particularly speedy ones...well, if they’re smart."
"I see...wait, if they’re smart?"
"So people try to use them to slow big and bulky aether beasts, but those type tend to have too much muscle," Zhen Liu elaborated as he looked over the three ghostly zako marbles in his hands. "Which ans they can easily break through glue traps like they were nothing but a mild inconvenience."
Once he had the marbles ready, Zhen Liu prepared his throwing arm. "So we need to know who or what we’re dealing with. Go!"
Pop, pop, pop!
[Wooo!]
With as much force as was needed, Zhen Liu threw the zakos marbles towards the camp and ordered them to transform.
As the marbles soared through the air, they transford into spectral won that diaappeared from view.
"Now let’s see who is disturbing such a tranquil battlefield..."
...
House Strummata, was a house built on stubbornness.
In the days of yore, they were humble farrs until their founder, Dominic Strummata, managed to beco a noble for the Erald Flare Kingdom.
As mbers of this kingdom, they had fought, bled and grew to even greater heights, becoming renown as the great shield to the once prosperous kingdom.
And then the kingdom fell.
After a brutal war with the Cyan Orchid Kingdom that left them both in an incredibly vulnerable syate, the two kingdoms were easily swept away by the Erupting Dawn Empire’s army and were forced to beco client states.
Many nobles houses during this ti were either destroyed or banished for their trouble. House Strummata, on the other hand, managed to survive and even thrive.
Through clever maneuvers, backroom deals and pure martial might, House Strummata managed to rise up the ranks until they had managed to beco one of the most influential families in the Erupting Dawn Empire.
But their ambitions were greater than that.
House Strummata had been waiting for an opportunity to crown one of their own as Emperor, but they hadn’t found any opportunity to do so...until two little rumors ca whispering into their ears.
The first was that there was a mysterious arms dealer/surgeon that could turn even crippled nobodies into top tier warriors. Rumors had it that a monarchy in Radiant Feather had undergone a regi change due to this arms dealer turning a crippled prince into a force of nature.
If he could do that without a broken warrior, then what about a tempered one?
As for the second little rumor, it was a bit more mundane but it was sothing a bit more substantial
At the Lake of Six Iguanas, where a battle between Erald Flare and Cyan Orchid unfolded, a strange sort of aether beast had begun to make its nest there.
This beast was known as a Forged Feather Dragon Vulture, a creature known to make itself a suit of armored feathers by covering its body with pieces of scrap tal and ore.
It’s often said though, that if one wanted to find particularly valuable piece of tal, they should look for these beasts and determine just how strong it was.
And this particular specin was incredibly strong.
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