As Zhen Liu attempted to enter the weird mind state and do...whatever the hell happens when he blacks out during these sessions, he was greeted by an error message of all things.
A literal error message appeared in his vision, while a computer-like voice began to read it.
Immediately beneath this message, was a timer counting down from 24 hours.
Zhen Liu’s eye began to twitch at the sight.
’Formulas have cool down timers? How?!’ {Refractory periods are unnecessary!}
’Great...’{Now blow me.}
Nepherage had already come to Zhen Liu’s side as the latter argued(conversed?) with his brain buddy.
"I’m here milord. Need me to do anything extra?"
{Bend over}"No no, change of plans. Apparently we can’t level you up yet...hmm."
Zhen Liu scratched his chin in thought for a moment before settling on his next course of action, namely remembering something that the voice told him he could do now.
’Hey, how does this [Possession] thing work?’ {Presumably with lube and very carefully}.
Zhen Liu assumed that the voice in his head would give him a tutorial or mess with his eyeballs again, instead he was given a very simple set of instructions.
’That’s it?’ {No foreplay?}
’Alright...let me just...’
(Un)surprisingly, Zhen Liu was familiar with channeling [Chaos] through his body.
The first time he did so was when he eighty-sixed the Marquis De Howlite. Despite being done when he was basically half-concious, one doesn’t really forget the feeling of having weird universal(multiversal?) forces flow through one’s body.
Zhen Liu didn’t close his eyes, but he did point a palm towards Nepherage as a way to direct his focus.
The red jade kaijin was a bit confused about her lord’s actions, but didn’t question it. He hasn’t lead them wrong yet, and she doubted he would start doing so now.
’Alright where is-there it is.’
Eventually, sparks of black and rainbow energy began to leap between his finger tips as the power of [Chaos] began to build up inside him.
He took a deep breath before focusing on the keyword.
In the blink of an eye, Nepherage had suddenly transformed from a kaijin warrior...into a trading card that flew into Zhen Liu’s outstretched hand. He had a rather confused look on his face as he flipped Nepherage’s card back and forth.
While Nepherage was mobile on the front, even looking confused, the back of the card had the words [Kaijin Lord] written on the back in fancy font on an artistic background, complete with barcodes in the sides. Zhen Liu had questions.
[Milord, I feel like I just lost some character dimensions.]
’Alright, what the fuck{me now}?’
’No, I’m wondering why this looks a trading card designed for a cardass machine.’
[Is this permanent?,] Nepherage asked.
Tired of arguing, Zhen Liu just rolled his eyes and placed the card to his forehead. At which point, the cars started glowing.
"Huh. Feels kinda w-WHOOP!"
The next thing Zhen Liu knew, a surge of aether entered into his forehead and he suddenly felt like his body wasn’t his anymore, rather...it wasn’t "just" his anymore.
"Milord?! Why do I-why am I in your body?!," Nepherage said in Zhen Liu’s voice.
"I have no idea, but I-we? Feel hot?"
________________________________________________
From the outside POV.
"Huh? What’s Xiao Liu doing over there?," Jin Fang asked the other kaijin as soon as she saw Zhen Liu stick an arm towards Nepherage.
Jin Fang had been expecting the giant marionette thing to appear again and forcing the two to start dancing again.
She did not expect him to condense a weird energy she could see but not feel in the palm of his hand.
Nor did she expect Nepherage to suddenly transform into what looked like a playing card.
The next thing she knew Zhen Liu had placed the transformed playing card to his forehead, and his aura suddenly disappeared, replaced by an amplified Nepherage aura.
She was about to rush over and see what the hell was going on with her boyfriend now, but was stopped by Hurricroak.
"Feel it again, girlie. Maestro is still there."
Confused by the frog kaijin’s words, Jin Fang hesitated before checking more carefully.
"Wait...what on Valresta?"
When Jin Fang put more effort into her aether sensing ability, she noticed that Zhen Liu’s aura wasn’t consumed by Nepherage’s aura like she had feared, rather they had merged into an almost homogenous state, to the point that most people would assume it was a single aura.
Before she could ask about what was going on, Zhen Liu had suddenly rushed from his spot to where Jin Fang, Frosttusk, Hurricroak and the Razor Maiden were standing.
When Jin Fang stared at Zhen Liu, she was taken aback at the fact that his normally black hair had turned slightly red at the tips, with his eyes now taking on an orange-red color like magma. For some reason, Zhen Liu was looking at her with a weird look of wonderment.
"Huh...," Zhen Liu said in a voice that sounded like Nepherage’s voice was mixed in, "so that’s what milord sees about you. You’re beautiful."
Jin Fang wasn’t sure why, but she felt simultaneously embarrassed and flattered.
’Wait, this is just Zhen Liu right? Why does it feel like I’m speaking to a stranger?’
Thankfully, Hurricroak decided to voice the group’s thoughts.
"Huh... Nepherage? Are you...inside of the Maestro’s body?"
Zhen Liu looked over his hands, feet and even pinched his cheeks before answering the question.
Like a mental thunderbolt, the group was stunned silent at this answer. This was new territory and everyone was confused... especially the ones causing it.
"If it helps, I’m still in control too...somehow," Zhen Liu repeated, but in his own voice this time.
Evidently, it did not.