Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What? Chapter 1424: Casting the Corpus

’Huh...this is going a lot smoother than I anticipated.’ Zhen Liu mused as he watched the ingots in the crucible lt, all while absorbing [Chaos] and whatever cursed energy radiated off of the [Ghost Flas]. ’I wonder if I actually would’ve gotten along with Dante in another lifeti...nah.’

The ti Zhen Liu had spent pretending to be Dante’s ally proved to be rather...enlightening.

Sure, the man disgusted Zhen Liu on a moral and spiritual level, but the way he approached [Chaos] was a refreshing change of perspective.

Zhen Liu would usually infuse [Chaos] into either completed products that had a strong enough identity on their own or at least material components that also had strong identities.

To give an example, prior to eting with Dante, if Zhen Liu was tasked with making a clock into a kaijin, he would normally just infuse the entire clock with [Chaos] and be done with it. At that particular point in ti, if he attempted to break down the clock into components and infuse [Chaos] that way, he would overclock it and accidentally create gear-based zakos, spring-based zakos, and probably chi-based zakos.

Now, after eting Dante, Zhen Liu was fairly certain that he could infuse the aforentioned clock components with [Chaos] and end up creating a clock-based kaijin with significantly more power than what would happen if he just attempted to suffuse the whole structure with [Chaos]...probably.

Zhen Liu had yet to actually test this idea since he already had a lot of kaijin to keep track of for the ti being, but he was fairly certain that this new trick of his would end up creating significantly stronger bodies for those slumbering divine fragnts.

’Hmmm.’

Tossing a glance to his side, Zhen Liu expected that the sudden surge of energy would’ve stirred the slumbering figures. Evidently, this wasn’t the case.

Chalking it up to groginess, Zhen Liu brought his attention back to the crucible that was now filled with molten tal.

’I feel like, I’m missing sothing...ah, right.’

Molten tal, especially magic tals full of unstable energies, couldn’t be crafted by hand.

As much as Zhen Liu was probably immune to such burn damage, he couldn’t simply sculpt it like clay or blow it like glass; he needed to pour the tal into a specialized cast where it could cool into a particular shape.

In this case, he needed shapes that could be joined together into the form of a fully articulated body.

Thankfully, Zhen Liu didn’t need to do all of that work, because Logos and Pathos had already done so.

Granted, he wasn’t aware of that fact until the aforentioned spirits of logic and emotion personally told him.

’Alright, I’m pretty sure I can just leave the crucible burning while I go and get an appropriate cast. Hmm, I wonder if I could just use one of the many—

Pathos suddenly called out in Zhen Liu’s brain just as he was about to go and find a suitable piece of stone that probably still had his imprint sowhere.

’Eh?’

As soon as Zhen Liu questioned how that was even possible, the floor behind him suddenly opened up, and three rectangular pedestals rose one after the other. Using the light of the forge, Zhen Liu could make out several indents that could be brought together to make a vaguely humanoid figure.

Although, due to the aura of the flas or possibly the sickly green shade, the aforentioned indentations had a horror movie feel to them.

Zhen Liu could practically imagine so poor schmuck being dismantled and then used to make the molds, like so kind of cheap slasher film that ended with either cannibalism or so stitched-together human doll that was made from harvested body parts.

...anwhile...

[Achoo!]

[Hmmm? What’s up, CD? Are you sick? Wait, can we even get sick?]

[Nothing, PD,] Corpse Doll answered her worrying twin sister. [Let’s just get back to playing this... what did they call it? Fideogaem?]

[Videoga.]

[Yeah, that.]

...Now back to the forge...

’Alright, partially loaded question: when and how did you get these oddly appropriate molds? Did you make them or are they a leftover inheritance from one of my predecessors?’ Zhen Liu asked as he studied the casts.

All three of them were incredibly detailed and were even labelled with the nas of the fragnts that they were going to make bodies for.

However, the stone that these molds were made from felt...ancient.

=A little of column A and a little of column B, milord,= Logos answered. =These stones were a favorite of the Mad Tinkerer. A Kaijin Lord who specialized in turning handmade aether puppets into kaijin.=

Pathos teased.

=Thankfully, I still rember how their original hosts felt whenever I touched their skins.=

’That...you two really need to tell your ancient backstory one of these days.’

Now that he had the molds ready, all Zhen Liu had to do now was to pour in the molten mixture and go from there.

’Wait...should I have made a unique mix of tals per mold, or do you guys think I could get away with just using a universal one?’ Zhen Liu realized just as he was about to pour what he knew to be predominantly molten [Malevolent Gold] with only a smattering of other cursed tals mixed in, into the body dedicated to Xipe Totec.

A part of him figured that the Flayed One would very much prefer his body to be made of silver or copper, tals known for their antimicrobial properties.

Incidentally, he was right.

=Your current mixture would probably work best for Quetzalcoatl’s body. Since out of everyone present, that guy has always been more closely related to the sun than anyone we’ve known.=

’Makes sense.’

Following this idea, Zhen Liu carefully poured in the first of three molten tal mixtures into the mold dedicated to Quetzalcoatl’s body.

Following that, Zhen Liu prepared two more crucibles with different tals being the main focus.

For Xipe Totec, Zhen Liu made sure to add more [Sinful Copper], due to fact that copper had always been famous for its antimicrobial properties. Well, that,the fact that it’s a nutrient for the body, and because whenever Zhen Liu had seen objects made of copper they usually had a mottled pattern that was very similar to how the Flayed One’s body looked when statues were made in his honor.

As for Huitzilopochtli, Zhen Liu mostly used [Diabolic Silver] and [Azure Lead], due to the fact that those exposed to excessive amounts of silver and lead have been known to turn blue. Of course, there’s also the historical aspect of silver often being used to make weapons designed to fight the forces of evil, or in the case of a particular ga that focused on dwarves building a ho in the middle of nowhere, incredibly effective warhamrs and maces.

Regardless, once all of the crucibles were filled with their dedicated mixtures, and poured into their respective molds, Zhen Liu’s work was done...for the ti being.

He could’ve technically attempted to try and use his abilities to cool down the newly minted bodies at a faster rate, but he didn’t want to risk going gung-ho about it and accidentally ruining everything in the process.

He may have had access to a whole mine of these cursed tals, but he didn’t want to overburden the people with his creative endeavours.

Especially since many of them would be living in the mines full ti and planned to...wait a minute.

’Ah, fuck, I just realized sothing important.’

=Hmmm? What’s the matter, milord?=

’Dante had been one of the greatest suppliers of cursed tals and purchasers of discarded slaves for the underworld markets, right?,’ Zhen Liu rhetorically asked. ’At least, that’s the impression I got when the Kaijin and I parsed through his paperwork.’

’And we just violently couped his ass without anyone but the imdiate locals in the area knowing. aning that if any of those underworld-related caravans show up, those people are kind of fucked due to their lack of hard power and my lack of being able to provide protective soft power,’ Zhen Liu elaborated once he received the answer he was expecting. ’Alright, I got to have the Kaijin Lord persona make an even grander entrance in the future. Hopefully sowhere with a high populace.’

=To be fair milord, you do technically have one reputation barrier.=

’I do?"

’...ah.’