"Well?"
"Hmmm..."
After Zhen Liu had, more or less, gotten his shit together, he had summoned his cousins, his lovers, and his friends to one of the long tables in the [Library of Nowhere].
Zhen Liu seated himself at the head of the table while his allies seated themselves to the left and right, in their own respective groups.
Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai, his cousins, were seated together to his left, while across from them were Taurna and Lyona.
Further down the table, Olstenna was sitting with Axer, Lythero, and Antonio, while Alice, Alicia, Bellona, and Harriet were seated across from them.
Rianna didn’t feel like sitting, so she opted to stand by in earshot, while Jinju Ren took a seat to Zhen Liu’s imdiate right.
Literally, as she made it a point to pull up a chair right next to Zhen Liu.
As for the kaijin, they had all opted to go into accessory mode and hang off of Zhen Liu’s person.
"Are you sure it’s even remotely safe for us to go back to Rainbowden? I’m fairly certain that neither Alain nor Smoking Mirror will simply leave after you blast them to hell and back," Alice pointed out.
"Not to ntion, my fucking cousin is there too. I didn’t expect him to beco friends with Alain and Buzza of all people..." Bellona added, with a touch more vinegar in her voice once she learned how he tried to hit on her man from Jinju Ren. Granted, her man was a woman at the ti, but it was the principle of it all that mattered.
"If it makes you feel any better, your cousin couldn’t flirt for shit," Jinju Ren comnted after hearing Bellona’s words.
"A little."
"Also, we don’t know for sure if he knows about Buzza. All we know is that he’s bosom buddies with Alain...so your cousin might co back with extra Kaijin bits attached."
"Great..." Bellona grumbled while fiddling with the majin charm in her hands.
"Actually we won’t have to worry about them in the imdiate future," Zhen Liu explained to the group. "So guy nad Saint Devourer scared them all off. Also, he can’t detect [Chaos] for shit."
"Why...why do you know that?"
"I had a zako quite literally in spitting distance of him and his disciples about ten minutes ago," Zhen Liu stated as if it were the most natural fact in the world. "Not going to lie, he is a surprisingly skinny motherfucker with a na that glutton-like."
"Huh..."
Once again, the group was reminded that under different circumstances, Zhen Liu would’ve been the most dangerous information broker in existence.
"Wait, Zhen Liu, are you sure you need to get yourself in this war to acquire the Mother Sun Fla?" Zhen Xing asked. "Can’t that [Chaos] stuff be used to mimic its properties? Or outright recreate it?"
Zhen Xing’s suggestion wasn’t wrong, as Zhen Liu had demonstrated in the past how [Chaos] could be used to mimic aether formula pathways and perform very odd "miracles." However, it wasn’t right because [Chaos] was incredibly volatile. That, and Zhen Liu had no fra of reference when it ca to this Mother Sun Fla.
Which is what Zhen Liu explained to his cousin.
"I actually did try to do sothing similar using the aether flas I have on hand via Blazejudicator and my own [Chaos] abilities, but the results were...inadequate."
Feeling that a visual and physical demonstration would serve as a better explanation, Zhen Liu proceeded to channel power into his fingertips and produce a small orange fireball.
The Mother Sun Fla was said to be a holy fla that caused even the most insane berserker to beco instantly sane and regretful in its presence.
The fla on Zhen Liu’s finger, on the other hand, well...
"Why do I feel an incredible amount of anxiety while staring at that fireball?" Taurna asked.
"Really? I feel incredibly lancholic," Harriet added.
"And there ya go."
Getting his point across, Zhen Liu dismissed the fireball.
"I can’t exactly mimic or make sothing I have very little information on. So even if wanted to make my own Mother Sun Fla, I would still need to actually see the damn thing first."
"Ah."
"So does that an you’re joining up in that war between the Erupters and the Sacred Sparks?" Olstenna asked. "Can’t say I wouldn’t mind throwing myself into a war that grand."
"Speak for yourself," Antonio retorted while eyeing Zhen Liu. "I almost got my ass killed the last ti I was mobilized to war."
"If it makes you feel better, I wouldn’t have killed you," Zhen Liu responded to Antonio’s gaze. "Blazejudicator would’ve."
"Not better."
Olstenna was battle hungry, so the concept of participating in a war was more than appealing. Especially since there was a very high chance of him being able to fight warriors on both sides of the conflict.
Antonio, on the other hand, was a forr sellsword soldier and understood that such conflicts never ended without copious amounts of irreversibly tainted bloodshed. Not only that, but they also rarely ended profitably for any soldier foolish enough to sign up to participate. Not a lot of coin to spread around once warti economies adjusted to peaceti.
"So with whose lot are you going to be throwing your Kaijin with?" Lythero asked. "The Erupting Dawn Empire or the Sacred Fla Theocracy?"
"Oh, that’s easy...neither," Zhen Liu answered.
"What?"
"Oooh, are you going to be picking fights with two different continental powers at once?" Jinju Ren asked with an odd amount of excitent in her voice. "My papa did that when he first established the Pearl Scale Empire. Are you going to establish a Kaijin Empire?"
"If I were going to do that, I would prefer to do so in my ho territory and not in soone else’s backyard."
"Wait, say what?" Zhen Tai asked, once he heard Zhen Liu’s empire comnt. Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to be receiving any elaborations on that statent from his cousin.
"To better explain myself, I have co to the realization that if I attempt to assist either side, it would probably lead to a level of karmic backlash that would probably snowball into my ass being hunted down by the remnants of the defeated faction or worse. To be honest, I’m pretty sure that once we see Smoking Mirror and Alain again, it’s going to lead to a conflict that makes our previous encounters look like nothing but a slap fight. Either way, I would like to keep my growing list of enemies to a minimum...or until I can permanently take care of so of them..."
"..."
The mortals present looked at Zhen Liu with a wary eye, wondering if this was the start of their "rciless killer" era, but quickly dismissed the thought when they looked at the man’s face. The man wasn’t exactly a killer.
...
[You know... I don’t think we’ve ever done an assassination before,] Hurricroak comnted to her fellow kaijin. [You think we’d be any good at it?]
[That’s...kind of untrue,] Nepherage corrected her frog-like companion. [Frosttuk hijacked and put the fear of divine retribution in the matriarch of the Corrada Clan awhile back.]
[I...rember...]Frosttusk agreed. [Made...her...regret...deep...almost...killed her...that way.]
[I don’t think that counts as assasination, though,] Hurricroak retorted. [Most assassinations involve knives, poisons, being sneaky, or so level of curse-slinging abilities. I think what Frosttusk did is more akin to...a vicious haunting.]
[I...feel like I should be offended by that, but I’m not entirely sure why...] Screamira comnted in regard to the bit about "vicious haunting."
[Wait...technically speaking, Springerdermain and I are actually good at this whole assassination thing then,] Razorstella pointed out after she digested Hurricroak’s weird logic. [I am made of nothing but sharp implents, and Springerdermain is signficaintly trickier now.]
[I...I highly doubt the Ringmaster would send us to perform assassinations, though,] Springerdermain added.
[PD...I’m confused. Are we going to be killing people through clandestine ans?]
[I think so, CD... that or Caretaker wants us to use our stealth abilities to try and steal that so-called Mothe Sun Fla].
[Are we actually going to be stealing it, though? Caretakers sounds like he actually has a weird plan...]
...
"As Zhen Xing pointed out earlier, I can technically mimic the effects and appearance of an aether ability as long as I have a fra of reference to work with," Zhen Liu reminded the room before moving on. "As such, the kaijin and I are going to try and get our grubby little hands on it just long enough for to try and mimic it on-site or have Blazejudicator devour a tiny portion of the flas. Any questions or concerns?"
Zhen Liu had hoped no one would raise their hands. Due to his luck or lack of actual planning, everyone at the table had raised their hands.
"Okay, I feel like part of these questions might just be asking if I had gone insane...please lower your hands if that is the case."
Surprisingly, nobody lowered their hands.
"Huh...okay, let’s start with the hand closest to . Jinju Ren, you had a question?"
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