As "Holy Lonely Night" blared at full blast in everyone's minds, Hurricroak kept harassing and striking at the Marquis with everything she got and then so.
There was never a mont where the Marquis could reliably counter or block properly, because everyti he tried to, Hurricroak would just imdiately fly backwards and then co crashing down in him again from a different angle.
More frustratingly, he couldn't find any rhy or reason to Hurricroak's movents at all.
"Is it the vocals? That thing that sound like drums? Those infernal strings? What rhythm is she moving to?!," the Marquis scread aloud in frustration.
"No rhythm this ti, bastardo! This is pure and simple free style!," Hurricroak replied as she dove in for another strike. However, this ti she grabbed him by the shoulders as she placed her feet firmly on his chest, pushing her wasp/frog/humanoid face up to his.
"But don't worry, bastardo. I'm just the opening act. The finale will be much more fun!," she said monts before headbutting him and causing his aether helt to crack open like an egg. Hurricroak proceeded to fly away again after doing the deed, without a single drop of blood on her fascinatingly alien face.
The Marquis snarled with rage at the action and quickly donned his helt again, only for it to disappear not even a second later.
"Huh?"
The Marquis attempted to don his helt one more ti, but this ti it didn't even form, or rather it couldn't.
Before the Marquis's eyes, the aether that would normally condense into a helt was being stopped by a weird type of energy he had never seen before. It didn't feel like aether, or anima power, rather it felt like sothing significantly more...ominous. As he stared it so more, he soon realized that this energy wasn't blocking the surrounding aether, it was eating it.
Focusing on the weird energy caused the Marquis's hair to stand on end and feel as if tiny needles was pricking at his skin.
"Wait a minute..."
The Marquis quickly stared down at his body, his eyes going wide with a horrifying realization.
"My armor! It's breaking!"
The Marquis's aether armor, the pride and joy of every Aether Grandmaster, was breaking apart piece by piece. The culprit being none other than that ominous energy.
"Foul energy, begone!"
Out of desperation, the Marquis attempted to flare up his own aether as a ans to put it out.
This attempt only made the ominous energy even more vigorous and made it break his armor faster. The Marquis stopped as soon as he felt what was happening, causing the energy to slow down.
In any other situation this would be a fascinating, but in the middle of a life or death battle, this was horrifying!
'It doesn't appear to be getting stronger as it eats my armor. Where is the energy going?'
_________________________________________________
Zhen Liu stared down towards his stomach as a weird feeling ca over it.
'Why do I feel like I'm getting fuller by the second? I haven't eaten since din-'
[Maestro!,] Hurricroak suddenly called out via her ntal link with Zhen Liu.
'Huh? What's up Hurricroak?'
[The song will end in exactly one minute and thirty seconds. I have already set the stage for your performance, so please be prepared for the finale number, hai?]
'Uh...hai.'
[Molto bene.]
As the active connection with Hurricroak turned passive, Zhen Liu couldn't help but let his mind wonder how the hell did Hurricroak know both Japanese and Italian, if she was alive for all of five minutes.
'Wait...is she actually speaking those languages, or is it another "translation" going on?'
Zhen Liu's brain buddy stated.
"Harmo-Wah!"
Zhen Liu's left suddenly moved on its own accord and lit itself afla with [Chaos] energy. As it burned, a strange looking shadow could be seen floating within the flare of [Chaos].
'What the hell? It looks like a belt?,' Zhen Liu observed. The next thing he knew, his left hand suddenly pald a bit below his belly button and a slightly constricting sensation could be felt around his waist. He looked down to see he now had a brand new belt that looked a little...familiar.
'This...why does this look like a toy?'
His new belt was surprisingly boxy in shape, with a strange looking gem embedded right in the center. For so reason, there was a lever on the right side and a little slot on the top.
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