anwhile, back at the Library of Nowhere...
=Have I ever been wrong when it ca to array construction?=
=Precisely, perfection ans stillness and stillness ans death.=
After the Kaijin and the curators had determined who amongst the forr were going to and find their lord, the latter decided to prepare so last minute preparations.
In other words, they were going to make so aether tools that would-
Pathos asked after suddenly pausing part way through their task.
=Sense what?,= Logos replied while still doing the math on a couple more arrays.
With a snap of her fingers, Pathos summoned the basic information feed that was still working in relation to their lord.
As of this mont in ti though, the display had been divided into four sub-screens.
Pathos first noted.
=I hate it when you say that. What’s not good?,= Logos asked after pausing his work.
Pathos answered.
=Yeah? What about-oh no.=
=Figured as-wait...why the hell is a monk working for what appears to be a pair of nobles? Aren’t most of them in one of the Seven Monasteries?=
...Now back to Dozing Salamander...
’Okay, he’s still blurry even when I stare at him directly. That’s weird,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself.
Once Zhen Liu had realized the zakos weren’t able to clearly see whover this old guy was, and recalling them so they weren’t at risk at getting caught, he attempted to use his own enhanced vision to see if it was a problem with himself or with the zakos themselves.
Evidently, it was both.
’Wait a minute, Blazejudicator. Can you enhance my vision with aether instead of [Chaos]?’
[As you wish, Executor.]
In one fluid motion, Zhen Liu removed the [Chaos] empowering his eyes and replaced them with the aether that Blazejudicator could produce.
The difference in his vision was as different as night and day the mont this change occurred.
’Okay, now I can see him...huh.’
A part of Zhen Liu was expecting this imperceivable old man to look sothing like an elderly war god or so unfathomably strange being that made his kaijin look plain in comparison. Which is why he was more surprised that the warrior the zakos couldn’t perceive correctly was just...an old monk.
Zhen Liu knew better than to judge a book by its cover though, given his own situation, but he couldn’t help but still have a small shadow of doubt in his heart about this guy.
That is, until he noticed sothing odd.
’Wait...is...is he staring directly at ?’
Zhen Liu and Lythero may have climbed a tree in order to see what was going on at the campsite, but they were relatively far away to the point that not many would even look towards their direction. Not only that, but they had even made it a point to cover themselves in foliage in order to camouflage themselves.
So the fact that this Tusk Elder was looking in their direction was slightly unnerving. Especially since Zhen Liu’s instincts was telling him that this monk was staring directly at him.
Then again, he could’ve just been paranoid due to the [Survival] cores that were still flowing in his-
[EXECUTOR, DROP DOWN!]
’What?’
BANG!
"HOLY-!"
Evidently, his paranoid wasn’t wrong.
In the short span of ti of noticing that the Tusk Elder was staring in his direction, the old monk had perford a simple flicking gesture that was aid between Zhen Liu’s eyes.
Fortunately, a combination of his own instincts and Blazejudicator’s warning had managed to prompt Zhen Liu to throw his head back far enough to narrowly avoid what was actually an empowered sesa seed.
A sesa seed that Zhen Liu saw explode the foliage of a tree adjancent to Zhen Liu’s and Lythero’s position.
Needless to say, after this sudden attack, the duo proceeded to drop down from their tree and returned to the ground.
"What the fuck was that?," Lythero asked after they had both touched down. "I thought you were immune to most aether based attacks and techniques."
"I usually am, yes," Zhen Liu retorted. "But that sesa seed wasn’t empowered with any normal type of aether. It wasn’t dragon force but it was like...weird."
"What do you an by ’weird’?," Lythero asked, knowing full well that if the weirdest warrior he ever t was saying sothing was strange, that ant sothing bad.
"You know how my kaijin are powered by cores made of human desire?"
"Yeah?"
"It was like...the void of desire was being launched at my head," Zhen Liu explained. "Don’t think it was enough to kill , but it was definitely enough to make it hurt and make a statent."
"What was the statent?"
"For us to fuck off."
"...huh."
Most people would’ve definitely fucked off after a display of power like that, but there was just one problem.
They had a very good reason to being in this area, and they weren’t about to let so noble assholes and their scary elder monk stop them. Besides, it’s not like their goals were in conflict anyways.
"Technically, we don’t have to fight them since we’re just here for the swords and nothing else," Zhen Liu noted. "Where did you bury your masters?"
"Hmmm. I think it was..."
...anwhile, in the sa-ish area...
"Elder Phanra? What are you doing?"
"Oh nothing, Master Gera," the old monk chuckled while keeping his hand out as if he was about to catch a falling flower. "Just admiring the natural world around us."
"Is this a Buddhist philosophy?"
"Part of it, yes."
"Ah."
Elder Phanra was considered an oddity in the Erupting Dawn Empire.
Despite being one of the most powerful warriors in the entire hierarchy, strong enough to establish his own faction, the man made it a point to keep his nose out of the political gas that many of the noble families played against one another, and made it a point to not swear his loyalty to any particular household, not even to the Imperial family.
Instead, the strange monk known as the Tusk Elder to the wider world, simply traveled the Empire as he pleased, spreading a philosophy of removing oneself from earthly desires, and only fighting if the Empire was ever threatened by outside forces.
Or, at least, fighting only when he felt like it.
As such, the fact that he decided to join in on this hunting expedition organized by Gera and Giobana was considered a stroke of good fortune.
Not only because his abilities would help secure their prey, but it also served as an opportunity to recruit the man to be a mber of House Strummata or House Dindara.
At least, that was the plan.
In reality, the man seed to cling to his principles of detachnt so strongly that both Gera and Giobana couldn’t help but think they were talking to a stone wall.
But they still had a small modicum of hope in changing this.
After all, everyone had their price, they just had to find it.
"By the way, Tusk Elder Phanra, why are you called that?," Gera asked as he, Giobana and the aforntioned elder made their way over to the al tent. "All I heard was a rumor that you inherited the title from your master."
"That was no rumor, Master Gera, but the earnest truth. I am actually the second to carry on this mantle."
"The second? Really?"
"Yes," Phanra nodded. "Long ago, the Buddha ca and taught many disciples who then went on to spread his teachings all over the world. My master was one of them."
"Interesting..."
As soon as Phanra said that last part though, Gera noticed that there was a twinge of sadness and regret in his voice. In other words, he found an opportunity to extract so much needed leverage.
"Are you alright, Elder Phanra? You look sad."
"It is nothing, my child," Phanra dismissed with a wave of his hand. "I am just sadden at the state of the master’s teachings."
"Oh?"
"When the Buddha sent out his disciples, so of them ended up misrembering or outright distorting the teachings to fit their own needs. Leading to all sorts of interpretations that were never as pure as the original material. One of biggest hopes is to find the original scrolls, or better yet, find the teacher himself so that the true teachings may be brought to the world."
"Is that so..."
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