*Bing-Bong*
We interrupt this chapter to inform the reader that before we continue the main story, the writer of this work would like to issue a small apology.
There was supposed to be a scene providing background to what had just occurred in the last chapter, i.e., explaining why the place was empty and what the fuck that Armor Puppet Parasite was, hence the title of this one, but it had apparently gotten lost sowhere before being properly released.
As such, instead of having Logos and Pathos explain what the fuck was going on, we thought it prudent to just...show you what the fuck happened.
We now return to your regularly scheduled chapter; thank you.
...
How the hell do you forget sothing this hefty?!
|IDK, shit happens!|
Don't you shout abbreviations at , you hack writer!
*Bing-Bong*
___________________________________
'Damnit, damnit, damnit! Why the hell did this happen?!' Smoker cursed as he finally managed to find a mont alone from his subordinates. 'Why is everything going wrong?!'
Smoke Redoxa was having a terrible week.
This week started with a simple account needing to be closed.
Lowblade's apprentice, Axer, had failed to pay the new protection rate and needed to be brought in for an "indeterminate debt repaynt plan," aka, slavery. Granted, the main reason why Axer had failed to pay the new rate was a mix of Smoker raising the prices and then making it near impossible for the man to get the raw materials he needed for his work, but that was simply a minor detail.
However, this simple transaction got fucked over when so rich girl showed up out of nowhere and began to help Axer secure the materials he needed to finish his commission work.
Smoker had no idea that Axer had such wealthy connections, but this wasn't an unsolvable issue. All he had to do was send so of his legbreakers to go and break so legs…and maybe more. As an added bonus, he had also received reports that a target of interest to the Shadow Garden had been sighted at the shop, and he figured that these n would be more than enough to subdue everyone inside.
But alas, even that idea was thrown out the window and into a furnace.
The Redoxa leader wasn't entirely clear on the details, but he had heard that not only had the Calamity Triplets been defeated, but the n he had sent to act as cleaners were also defeated by so unknown warriors that the aforentioned rich girl had apparently made friends with while in the city.
And to top it all off, Smoker didn't even have the chance to recover his n due to a sudden battle breaking out between the Rainbowden's leaders and so upstart idiot calling himself "Foggy Glass" and so weird motherfucker with wings made of light, which was then imdiately followed by the arrival of Saint Devourer making an absolute ss of things. Then again, it probably didn't help that with the sudden disappearance of Foggy Glass and his forces, Rainbowden's underworld had gotten thrown into an even greater disarray than before, and so of those underworld elents were acutely aware that the Redoxa Family was vulnerable at this point in ti.
The situation at that point had gotten so hot that the smartest move to avoid all of this shit was to simply move the operations into the catacombs and away from prying eyes.
'No…it's okay,' Smoker eventually concluded after being able to take a break and breathe from everything. 'We just need to lay low and wait for everything to blow over. Simple as that.'
Unfortunately for him, things were not going to be that simple at all.
The reason being?
The location of the Redoxa catacombs base and the fact that he made the dumbass decision of relocating most, if not all, of the Redoxa Family forces to this underground hellhole.
"Fuck it, I need a drink," Smoker eventually said aloud. "Aiden, fetch so whiskey."
"..."
"Aiden?"
Ages ago, a prior leader of the Redoxa Family had claid this underground space to serve as a vault for powerful aether treasures and rare aether arts.
"Aiden, where are you?"
However, to keep these items safe, that leader of the Redoxa Family employed a secret defensive asure that was known only to him, his successor, and their future successors as well.
Unfortunately, Smoker didn't know about this little secret.
Why?
Because he had made the terrible, stupid decision of usurping control from his brother, the only one in the family who knew about this one particular little detail.
And to make matters worst, because he didn't know about this little defensive asure, he didn't know about the secret thod needed to pacify the defense system.
"Aiden, I swear to—AH!"
____And now, back to the present_____
Na: Armor Puppet Parasite
Affinity: tal
Type: Fungal Flatworm
Description:
In the wild, this strange creature would normally inhabit the discarded shells of mollusks, crustaceans, and the occasional turtle shell. Using their strange bodies, these parasites would flatten themselves against their chosen shell and cover the internals with a complex network of nerves and tendrils.
This network is then used by the parasite to control the shell in a stilted manner or to control whatever poor beastie cos to make use of the discarded animal shell.
In dosticated settings, or at least in areas in which humanity thrived, the Fungal Flatworm will find the most complete set of discarded armor it can find and transform it into sothing that looks and feels much more luxurious in order to lure humans.
Once a human is foolish enough to don the armor without checking, the true power of this parasite is revealed.
First, it will produce a series of needles across its body in order to lock down the poor bastard's aether channels by puncturing key pressure points. These needles also serve as a ans for the parasite to siphon energy from their host.
Second, once the host is fully punctured, the parasite will then begin to force the poor bastard to walk and move. Usually, this ans it will begin to force the mortal to either find new victims or find others of its kind.
Either way, once the victim is infected by the Armor Puppet Parasite long enough, they will eventually rge into one being and form...sothing that isn't human or parasite anymore. It becos...sothing else.
Sothing that is then able to use the original power of the host alongside so new ones that weren't present before.
On the plus side, as long as this fusion state isn't achieved, attacks that can focus on a target's mind or spirit can fully remove the parasite.
-An excerpt from the book, Aether Parasites Vol. 2: Human Threats, First Edition.
...
"What the fuck?!" Zhen Liu exclaid aloud once the information that Logos and Pathos bestowed upon him had beco fully digested. "Why the hell would you have one of these damn things as a security system?!"
"Fuck!"
"Oh no..."
Based on past experiences of travelling with the man, hearing Zhen Liu suddenly curse and shout usually ant that whatever information he just learned in regards to their current situation was probably sothing very important but also very bad. In other words, it was a damn good thing that they already had their guards up and were ready to fight.
Especially after Zhen Liu inford them about what their future opponents are going to be.
"What the fuck?" Zhen Xing exclaid once Zhen Liu finished explaining about the Armor Puppet Parasites. "Why would anyone want to use that as a security system?!"
"Right?!"
"I can kind of see the logic," Jinju Ren retorted. "If you have an armory and wanted to make sure nobody fucked with it, sothing like that would be like hiding a snake in the grass."
"Hah, guard snake," Zhen Tai mused in agreent. "I can see that working."
"Wait, is that why we can't seem to sense them?" Olstenna asked. "Their aether is being sapped by a weird parasite?"
"From the looks of it, yes," Zhen Liu agreed. "Thankfully, I can still hear them coming. Well, Hurricroak can."
"Then how many of these weird parasites are about to co our way?" Lythero asked, not fully realizing that he had just jinxed them.
Monts he had asked this question, a cacophony of high-pitched screeching could be heard coming from the darkened entrance of the fortress. A cacophony of screeching that was then followed by the pounding of armored feet.
A lot of armored feet.
"Oh fuck ..."
Out of the darkened entrance, Zhen Liu and his allies soon found themselves being outnumbered ten to one.
"Okay, they just have numbers on their side," Antonio noted. "That isn't too—wait a minute, what the fuck?!"
Before the man could finish his dumb ass observation, several auras with power equivalent to that of an Aether King appeared out of nowhere. However, this aura didn't seem to co from any of the warriors currently present.
"Looks like we have so stage two parasites..."
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