An [Astra] is an aether warrior’s ability to impose their will, their [Creed], on the world around them. Creeds are personal, and yet, they are how people understand how soone can live.
A [Taboo] was a kaijin/Shaper’s way of using their interpretation of the world’s principles to rally against it. For one man’s virtue is another’s sin, aning the re act of living is a rebellion onto itself.
Combining these two things create sothing that the Kaijin Lord and their charges would call an [Apostasy].
Now, why this na?
Because if one were to justify their sins, their [Taboo], with a [Creed] that went against the world, is that not the ultimate [Apostasy]?
-An observational note from a prior Kaijin Lord, the Devout Heretic.
...Ti for the educated observation...
Through Zhen Liu’s eyes, Pathos and Logos recorded how the False One Dante had managed to achieve the next step in Kaijin Lord developnt before their current master, i.e., the combination of an [Astra] with a [Taboo] to create an [Apostasy].
It was a very odd experience being on the receiving end of one of these things, especially when they had a deep understanding of what this combination was capable of doing.
As such, the two curator spirits were understandably freaking the hell out.
Well, one of them was.
Pathos shouted as he began manifesting bottles to smash against his head out of a mix of shock, sha and stress.
To give Pathos so credibility to their freak out, they were literally seeing Dante’s dragon-shaped [Apostasy] charge towards Zhen Liu with the sa murderous glee that real dragons would have in the sa situation.
Honestly, there was a hint of irony that the enemy Kaijin Lord had shaped his [Apostasy] as a dragon of all things.
As for the other curator, they had noticed so...flaws in the lord before them. Incredibly exploitable flaws.
Logos was silent as Pathos kept panicking, the forr’s mind a swirl of calculations and observational data that determined that the latter’s reaction was warranted but slightly overblown.
=This power...is way too unstable.=
To better explain themselves, Logos quickly placed a diagram over the live footage of Dante’s [Apostasy], showcasing several glowing dots up and down its body.
Every single last one of these dots was the [Core] of an absorbed Kaijin.
=Just like his [Stigma], Dante’s [Taboo] has a lot of power but is unstable as hell. Maybe even more unstable in comparison,= Logos explained. =It’s like chaining together several discordant power sources at once.=
To better explain Logos’s statent, imagine a water generator, a wind generator, a coal generator all connected to the sa battery...all in the sa location.
Not exactly efficient but technically more powerful under extrely ideal conditions.
But also, incredibly likely to be subjected to a system cascade of failure.
That is, if Zhen Liu was capable of causing such an event.
=Essentially yes, but...=
=Our lord needs to match fire with fire. [Apostasy] with [Apostasy],= Logos explained. =Otherwise, his attacks ain’t gonna do shit.=
=Yeah.=
=Hope for a miracle. Because the heavens know that not many deities are willing to listen to our prayers...=
...Now back to the fighting...
’Shit, shit, shit!’ Zhen Liu ntally cursed as Dante went on the offensive.
After he had finished creating his new weapon, Dante proceeded to use it with a sense of familiarity and naturality that would make even the most exquisite of weapon masters jealous.
The dragon-shaped [Apostasy] flew through the air with utter certainty, with its mouth as wide as an abyss that led to a poisonous hell that was filled with vicious and vile thorns.
In response to this incoming charge, Zhen Liu channeled [Chaos] from himself, Blazejudicator, and Nepherage into one massive slashing attack made of multi-colored flas.
Zhen Liu had hoped that this attack would cut and burn through the charging wood dragon, with the added bonus of slicing off Dante’s arm in the process.
Unfortunately, that didn’t work.
Instead, Zhen Liu’s attack simply fizzled out as soon as it made contact with Dante’s [Apostasy], it barely even slowed it in the slightest.
’Oh balls.’
On the plus side, Zhen Liu’s aggressive action gave him the montum he needed to not only roll out of the way from the attack, but to try and use physical force to cut through the wooden dragon.
Surprisingly, this was significantly more effective.
Zhen Liu was ntally preparing himself for his glaive to get completely stuck in the wooden dragon, or possibly break in the worst case scenario.
What ended up happening instead, was that his glaive sliced right through the wooden dragon like he was cutting through a burdock root.
’What the fuck?’
[I feel like, I should be happy about this,] Nepherage added. [But sothing feels wrong...]
[Does it have to do with the fact that Dante over there looks like a cat that devoured a canary and it’s family?] Balzejudicator noted.
[Yes.]
The dragon’s head didn’t fully fall off when Zhen Liu sliced through it, instead, it just sort of dangled there be a thin skin of root.
Directing his gaze in Dante’s direction, Zhen Liu noticed that the false Kaijin Lord didn’t look upset that his new toy was damaged. In fact, he looked even happier than before.
It wasn’t until Zhen Liu felt a surge of [Chaos] coursing through the dragon [Apostasy] that he understood why.
’Oh, damnit.’
[You took out one head, but what about six?!]
Under his control, the wooden dragon’s suddenly reattached itself to the body and then divided into six tendril-like structures that then wriggled their way towards Zhen Liu’s direction.
As the tendrils moves, they began to transform.
A part of Zhen Liu was expecting the tendrils to transform into a series of smaller reptilian heads, a hydra situation.
But nope, Dante and Slavina just had to be little freaks about the whole thing.
As the tendrils got closer and closer to Zhen Liu, they began to transform into having heads that Zhen Liu could only attribute as to having belong to the Kaijin that Slavina had absorbed in the past.
’Oh, well that’s nightmare inducing.’
Making the imagery worst, the faces were made to appear as if they were screaming.
Not only that, but Zhen Liu could sense that tendrils were like Obsidious’s [Taboo] from earlier. As in, each of these heads were like their own separate weapon.
And Dante was more than happy to confirm that little suspicion.
[Slavina here here was absorbed the Cores of dozens upon dozens of toxic Kaijin that could lt stone with just their breaths,] Dante chuckled, his body shaking in a way that made Zhen Liu’s skin crawl from a feeling of uncanniness. [Now let’s see how nasty those toxins get when I’m the one directing their dosage!]
’Why am I getting a sense of deja vu?’
[Hiss!]
[Not the ti!]
’Right.’
Before Zhen Liu could muse over the fact that his cousin was engaged to a literal poison woman, the tendrils of screaming monster faces began spitting bullets of toxic liquid in his direction.
The killing intent laced in the foul fluids was so dense that Zhen Liu didn’t even need to consciously dodge any of these attacks. He simply allowed Blazejudicator to take control of the mont while he thought of a plan.
’Blaze!’
[On it!]
Jets of fla began to shoot out of various spots all over Zhen Liu’s body, allowing him to dodge with relative ease.
Of course, now that he had more room to think, Zhen Liu couldn’t help but go into his usual panic mode thinking.
...
’Okay, so Dante is now packing the collective power of what I think is about a dozen and a half or so Kaijin? How the fuck am I supposed to take this asshole down?! Wait, Nepherage, you’re still in contact with Logos and Pathos, right? Please tell they did an analysis of this guy.’
[They did, but you’re not gonna like the report.]
’Try .’
[Well...the good news is that Dante’s power is so incredibly unstable that a powerful enough blow should cause an explosive chain reaction.]
’But...’
[You know it’s bad luck to predict a "but" statent, right?] Blazejudicator added.
’My entire life has been a series of extre fortune and misfortune, so lay it on .’
[You’re objectively too weak in comparison to Dante at the mont, and you need to compensate by creating more Kaijin,] Nepherage answered. [That way you can break through and hit him with an Apostasy.]
’Of course.’
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