The only thing evil n fear more than a man who wants to do good, is a man who wants for nothing.
-An old soldier’s thoughts, upon seeing the execution of a good man.
________________________________________
Monts before the inevitable...
"Alright, you guys know the plan, so go!"
[Oooh!]
Realizing that carrying all of Gold tiered swords by themselves was an absolutely terrible idea, Zhen Liu had summoned several amphibious zakos to carry the blades out of the underwater tunnel.
He was a little worried that the blades would act up in the presence of the zakos, but that turned out to be unwarranted. The zakos managed to hold the swords without causing any adverse reactions, but the damn things were a pain to carry without their sheaths. Regardless, once Zhen Liu saw off the last of the zakos, he returned to the main cavern where Lythero was standing guard.
"Okay, that’s the last of the swords. Now we gotta go."
"Right," Lythero reluctantly agreed while directing a passing glance at the [Midnight Slasher].
Lythero and Zhen Liu were just about to walk out of the main cavern, hoping to escape the notice of the Erupting Dawn nobility and their scary ass monk friend, until the latter suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"Uh, Zhen Liu? What are you doing?"
Evidently, Zhen Liu noticed sothing incredibly important about their current situation. Naly, running away was probably a bad idea.
"The zakos are moving way slower underwater because of having to carry those swords. Not slow enough to be a hindrance, but slow enough that those guys could give chase and catch them," Zhen Liu explained. "If we run, leave this tunnel here, then they’ll probably chase after us through it."
"And steal the swords we worked hard to acquire ourselves," Lythero added on in realization. "So...what do we do?"
"Buy ti."
With a gesture, Zhen Liu ordered Lythero to get into the tunnel and stand at the ready.
Once he was inside, Zhen Liu followed up, positioned himself at the tunnel’s entrance and began to channel [Chaos] into the palm of his hands. However, he wasn’t going to try and change anything. Instead, he was trying to make a shield cover.
"I really hope this works," Zhen Liu mumbled to himself as he began to direct the energy outward. As he did, the entrance to the exit tunnel beca significantly more...obscured.
...anwhile...
=I...I think he ca up with it on the fly.=
...Now to the present...
"Well, there’s the Forged Feather Dragon Vulture...but why...how is it still sleeping?" Gera asked Giobana and Elder Phanra as soon as they entered the main cavern.
"I’m not sure," Giobana answered. "But you were right about a curse being applied here sowhere..."
re monts ago, Gera had identified that sobody had made use of a corrosion curse ability to try and weaken the Forged Feather Dragon Vulture.
Whether that ant applying the curse directly to the body so that it would fall apart at the seams, or to the armored shell so that it would be easier to break was unknown to the scion of the Strummata household, he just knew that soone making use of such abilities with such subtlety was probably anything but an ordinary person.
However, now that they were in the cavern proper and unable to find that these unusual people of interest, Gera and Giobana couldn’t help but be a touch annoyed.
Partially due to them now realizing that all of the trouble from earlier was most likely related to the presence of these curse wielding warriors, partially due to the fact that they wish they had thought about bringing in soone capable of curses on this hunt of theirs.
But alas, now wasn’t the ti to think about what could’ve been. Instead, now was the ti to determine what had occurred.
"Do you still have that [Oracle Eye] treasure from your father?," Giobana asked. "The one you used when we hunted that Great Chaleon Hound?"
"Of course," Gera confird.
Thankfully, they had the tools necessary to do so without disturbing the Forged Feather Dragon Vulture.
From his person, Gera retrieved a small ball made of polished and smoothed crystal. If one were to take a closer look at this hall though, they would notice it was carved like an eyeball with an array replacing the pupil.
The scion of the Strummata clan proceeded to bring the crystal eyeball up to his forehead before channeling his aether into it.
The crystal eyeball then began to release a strange piercing light that seed to carry this feeling of being able to penetrate any and all ans of obfuscation.
Well, any ans that involved aether anyways.
...anwhile...
"Okay, that noble looking guy with the scholarly attitude appears to be sweeping the area with a crystal eye. Should we bail?," Lythero asked.
"No, it should be fine," Zhen Liu responded. "I’m fairly certain my shield is going to negate it."
...
"Hmmm. Strange," Gera began to say as he retrieved his crystal eyeball. "I can sense that there were two warriors present in this cave, and that they flew around for so ti, but I can’t seem to find any evidence that they had left. How mysterious."
"Is it possible to that they teleported?," Giobana asked.
"Perhaps. I am not trained to detect such things though."
"I think I can help with that."
Giobana activated her spatial storage ring and summoned a small, delicate bell that appeared to be made of gold and carved in writing.
The sight of this treasure caused Gera’s eyes to light up with understanding.
"Ah yes, the [Bell of the Breach Swimr]," Gera nodded. "This is what you used when we were hunting those Breach Horned Rhinos."
"Indeed."
With a light swing, Giobana rang the strange bell shaped aether treasure in her hand and filled the cavern with a light ringing sound that was loud enough for it to echo, but not loud enough to wake the Forged Feather Dragon Vulture from its slumber.
The tone from this bell was designed to resonate with dinsional tears, or at least, the remnants of them.
As such, the [Bell of the Breach Swimr] was incredibly useful when tracking down aether beasts that regularly swim through dinsions, or even doorways connected to wandering ruins.
However, it was a bit useless in this situation.
...
"Uh...going to be honest, I figured you had opened a tear into a dinsion made of nothing but [Chaos]."
"If I had done that, we’d all be dead by now."
"I...I can’t tell if you’re joking or not."
"You will never know."
...
"Odd. No traces of teleporation being used or any dinsional energy at all. How contradictory."
"Quite."
Gera’s eyeball suggested that the people in this cavern had teleported away, while Giobana’s bell suggested that the intruders were still in this very cavern.
Did this an that the answer was sowhere in-between, or a were they both simply wrong?
"Maybe we should lea-"
"No need," Elder Phanra said as he proceeded to walk into the main hollow cavern without making a single sound in the process. "Let try my detection technique."
The air of the cavern suddenly felt a lot cleaner as Elder Phanra began to circulate his aether throughout his body and release a warm, golden aura that was as gentle as the rays of the setting sun.
But this little display was just the beginning.
[Sutra of Truth.]
Once his circulation reaches a satisfactory level, Elder Phanra began chanting in an language that neither Giobana nor Gera could understand in the slightest, but at the sa ti, felt as if these words were being spoken to their very souls.
"Oh my."
"It’s stranger...enlightening."
Needless to say, this sutra was a touch more effective on certain individuals than others.
...
"Okay, and now they chanting," Lythero comnted. "Honestly, I’m more surprised all this noise hasn’t-whoa, are you feeling okay?"
"Yes...why?," Zhen Liu answered in a shaky tone of voice.
"You’re looking sweaty and shaky."
"I...am? Oh...shit...is my...barrier breaking?"
"Uh..."
Lythero recalled that Zhen Liu inford him that [Chaos] wielders had two major weaknesses: [Dragon Force] and musical based aether arts.
The forr because [Dragon Force] was apparently an embodint of [Order] which was the opposite [Chaos], while the latter because their effects were more exaggerated on [Chaos] wielders.
Evidently, that appeared to apply Buddhist sutras as well...maybe.
Or was it closer to the [Order] thing?
"Your barrier appears to be...fading. What the fuck?"
"Afraid of that," Zhen Liu managed to squeak out. "I think I understand why too."
"Okay?"
"Rember when I ntioned that [Chaos] is amplified by emotions and is given focus via [Desire]? I think since Buddhism is all about letting those things go in order to reach Nirvana. I think..."
"All of their techniques are laced with anti-[Desire] or sothing like that?"
"Kind of, yeah."
"Oh...no."
Evidently, things were about to get real bad real fast.
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