[I should be helping the others...but against my own creator? Madness!] Arbalest mumbled while slamming his head against a cave wall.
In a part of the main cavern that was overlooking the ongoing battle, Arbalest the chiric porcupine kaijin was undergoing a bit of ntal breakdown.
It wasn’t exactly an identity crisis, but it was definitely based on morals.
Yes, morals.
The thing that most of Dante’s other kaijin simply laughed about before eating a baby in front of its mother and then spitting the remains into her eyes.
[I can’t keep perpetuating the suffering and misery he wants from , but he made . I can’t just bite the hand that created , right?]
When Zhen Liu injected [Chaos] into Arbalest, it was based on instinct.
He wasn’t entirely sure why, but sothing in the deepest recesses of Zhen Liu’s soul had given him the fool hardy idea of seeing if there was more than one way to ss with Dante’s knock-off kaijin.
Sure, he could’ve just defaulted to violence and blow the fucker up by pumping their [Core] with an excessive amount of [Chaos]...but that didn’t feel right to Zhen Liu.
None of Dante’s Kaijin asked to be uplifted from the original roots, and he was fairly certain that none of them had initially wanted to inflict mass suffering on others or be forced to participate in a cannibalistic battle royale on the daily.
Which was sothing he confird when he gave Arbalest a healthy dose of [Chaos] to the core.
All of Dante’s [Cores] were all about the power that could co from [Disgust].
Disgust at being alive.
Disgust at the existence of others.
Disgust that would lead to hate, suffering, and apathy.
Disgust that could only be relieved by making others feel those exact sa feelings.
In other words, all of Dante’s Kaijin thrived in the act of making others suffer, lest they were to confront the fact that they were truly disgusted with themselves over all others.
Aether beasts had their own prides and egos, and many of the high ranking ones loathed being subservient to others.
Especially when they were forced to heel via the thod Dante had used.
[But he took away from my ho! My family and made this...wait...family? I had a family?]
Dante’s [Cores] outright suppressed any form of emotion that couldn’t be rooted back to [Disgust].
Love.
Happiness.
Sadness.
Regret.
Loneliness.
If it didn’t make the kaijin maintain a sadistic disposition that encouraged inflicting suffering, it was suppressed.
And because it was suppressed, the sudden relief of being able to feel such things was...maddening.
Especially in the case of Kaijin, who were beings that were more emotional than material.
Arbalest stopped banging his head against the wall as all sorts of old mories began to bubble up to the surface of his conscious mind.
[I...I went down swinging...] Arbalest mumbled.
As he squatted and mumbled, the [Core] in his chest began to throb with pain as two very different visions of [Chaos] conflicted with one another.
[I should...no, I shouldn’t!]
Needless to say, this internal conflict was going to go on for...a rather short ti.
[I need to...]
...Speaking of those visions, let’s take a look at one of their originators...
Hovering over a literal pit of corpses, Dante, Gumba, and Delictum looked as if they were a collection of demons about to punish the wicked and wayward for their sins. Alas, this was rather ironic given that they were the greatest sinners in these mines.
[Well, we’re here, boss.] Delictum noted. [Did you want us to dump their cores in straight or...]
[Not just yet, Delictum,] Dante instructed as he swept his gaze over the mountain of the dead and dying. [I still need to take stock of...oh, wait. I suppose I should have more hands on deck in case of a battle. Lets see...HA!]
With a shout, Dante defused with Obsidious and Slavina, dismissing the benefits they would normally provide him as [Taboo] and [Stigma], respectively.
The rat and plant kaijin looked rather shocked over their sudden return to individualism, but they managed to recover quickly enough. They had people they needed to kill, after all.
[Hey, you two are back!] Delictum cried with uncharacteristic delight.
[Yes...we are,] Slavina slowly answered as if she was unused to being an individual again, feeling the oddness in her fingertips. [How strange it is, having access to all that power flowing in and out of you...only to have it all...go away.]
[Really? Is that what it felt like?] Gumba asked Obsidious.
The rat-king kaijin was silent for a mont before slightly nodding.
[Hmmm, strange. It feels so much quiter now that you two are no longer bonded with ...oh well,] Dante shrugged before he flew down closer to the corpse pit’s lip with his arms spread open.
As he did, he began to pool [Chaos] into his hands, causing pitch black liquid to pool in his palms.
[Now then, Delictum, Gumba. Will you two please go ahead and—]
[GET HIS ASS!]
[Oh?]
Before Dante could finish giving his orders, he and his Demon Knights found themselves under attack.
More specifically, Zhen Xing, Zhen Tai, Olstenna, and Lyona had rushed into the Corpse Pit cave in an attempt to put an end to Dante before he could do...whatever he had planned.
Unfortunately, Dante had the foresight to predict a situation exactly like this.
[Obsidious, Slavina, Gumba, Delictum. Go and...actually, don’t kill these fools yet. I want the first al for your new comrade to be...delicious.]
[Yes, boss!]×4
As the [Demon Knights] charged in, Lyona was the first to strike back.
[Brave Star Cutter!]
...Well, crap...
"GODSDAMMIT!"
When Zhen Liu was told that the old caverns were directly below the slter room, he was expecting a short plunge.
He was not expecting a fall that could rival the most vicious tower drop rides.
On the plus side, his [Stigma] was strong enough to take whatever shock damage that he was about to acrue...maybe.
The sa could not be said about the Voyager-1 Probe though...maybe.
Zhen Liu wasn’t entirely sure if the space probe could survive such a fall, since it was still engulfed in weirdly hateful fire energy. Either way, Zhen Liu figured it would probably be for the best if he and the kaijin mitigated as much damage as possible to the probe.
’Blazejudicator. Nepherage. Any ideas?’
[Reverse booster rockets?]
[Soften the earth?]
’Lets go with both!’
By a massive technicality, Nepherage also had access to potent earth-based aether arts due to being made of [Crimson Jade].
However, she never really used those abilities for anything other than defensive actions or movent.
Thankfully, she had one move that was oddly appropriate for this situation.
[Mud Bomb!]
Before flying close enough to grab the probe, Zhen Liu released a surge of mud on a spot directly below where the probe was originally going to crash.
This mud, laced with aether and [Chaos] had the strange effect of softening the earth it ca into contact with as if it was regular soil, regardless of its original composition.
As such, the stoney cave floor beca as soft as mud during a sumr rain.
’Landing zone secure. Initiating slow down.’
Once the landing mud was prepped, Zhen Liu proceeded to try and grab the burning probe.
Instinctually recognizing the dangers of the flas surrounding the probe at this ti, Zhen Liu made sure to coat his entire body with all seven types of the [Flas of Virtue].
Once he was sufficiently prepared, Zhen Liu proceeded to grab the probe whenever his arms could reach.
’Holy hells! This thing is fucking heavy!’
As Zhen Liu did his best to physically slow the Voyager-1 Probe with Judy as his muscles, he realized that he didn’t have the raw physical strength to do so.
Thankfully, he had the elental power necessary to do sothing else entirely.
Keeping his hands on the probe, Zhen Liu better positioned himself so that he could release massive jets of flas from his feet and use the force of the throttle to push against the falling probe.
Initially nothing happened, as the force of the fall was too great. However, as Zhen Liu continued to push, the probe actually began to slow down as well.
’Almost there...’
Eventually, after much effort and firepower, Zhen Liu managed to gently land the Voyager-1 Probe into the muddy floor directly beneath it, providing it with a very soft landing.
A massive sigh of relief escaped Zhen Liu’s mouth as soon as he managed to land and release the probe from his grasp.
’Phew! Okay...with that out of the way, let’s get to turning this guy into an ultra-powerful—’
SOUND OF A COLLAPSING CAVERN FLOOR GETTING WORSE IN REAL TI!
"—OH CO THE FLAMING FUCK ON!"
Zhen Liu didn’t even have ti to finish a sentence when the world around him got into an even stickier predicant.
’Alright, fuck it! Let’s go save whover or whatever is currently going up shit creek without a paddle.’
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