Date: First day of the Seventh Month, Azure Kings Era - Year 56 - Part 2
It was a secret known only to the immediate Anterio Family at the time, but...Solomon Anterio was injured.
The famed war hero had apparently reached the cusp of breaking into the next rank a few months back. If he succeeded, he would achieve a strength surpassing even the Four Great Sect leaders, and would be eligible step to become one of the famed Colored Saints of the country.
However, something went wrong.
During the ascension process, the Anterio’s estate was attacked by unknown assailants. The running theory is that they were remnants of the Ten Eyed Warlords’ armies who wanted revenge.
The Anterio Family was taken by surprise by the attackers, so much so that it almost collpased that day.
However, just as things were about to get from bad to worst for the Anterio Family, the General had managed to break through to the next ranking and had single handedly turned the tide of the battle all by himself.
It should have been a moment of glory and victory at that moment. Keyword: should.
As a final "fuck you" to the Anterio Family, one of the soldiers present had fired a crossbow bolt at the General while his back was turned.
The bolt didn’t hit the General head on, only scratched his cheek at most, but that was all the soldier needed.
The soldiers had known they were probably going to die that day, so they had coated every blade, bolt, arrow and even themselves with poison and plague. If they were going to die anyways, they might as well take their enemies with them.
The general soon fell sick as the plague mingled with his aether and used it as fuel to become more violent, turbulent and turn the proud war hero into a monster of disease and death.
From hero to monster, in only a second.
They managed to subdue him after a spell, but only after suffering even heavier losses than before.
The General was now comatose, as his aether channels were shot and burnt out from the incident, and now the family couldn’t even afford to restore him to his prior state.
For all intents and purposes, the soldiers had gotten their revenge and the Anterio Family was set to fall as the General was slowly, and surely dying bit by bit.
But then...a miracle of sorts happened.
A mysterious alchemist appeared out of nowhere and managed to stabilize the general’s condition as if it was nothing.
The alchemist then presented the family a list, the ingredients necessary to create a medicine that would cure the general’s condition and perhaps even make him stronger than before.
With this in mind, Frederick and his brothers each took a part of the list and went off in search of the ingredients needed.
Perhaps it was foolish to try...but it was better than nothing.
Frederick had shed a single, passionate tear as he finished telling us the tale, and we were all throughly moved.
He may have lied to us as to why we were here, but it was clear it wasn’t for ill-intent.
With everything laid bare, we agreed whole heartedly to help.
This was going to be exciting!
Writing: Barely legible.
Why is it now I realize we’d all been played like goddamn fiddles?!
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’Well...this is a markedly different feeling from being possessed,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he flexed his new armored bits.
Gauntlets, greaves, a chest piece and a mouth piece.
These were the bits of armor that Frosttusk had turned into when the [Kaijin Armor] protocol was activated.
Despite looking incredibly heavy, the pieces of armor were actually surprisingly light. It was like wearing a second skin. Granted, that could be due to Frosttusk’s consciousness helping to do so.
[Minn Jarl...this feels...odd, but...not... unpleasant.]
’Thats good to hear,’ Zhen Liu nodded, ’,Logos, Pathos, mind giving me the run down on this armor stuff? I get that Frosttusk became armor for me, but aren’t I only swinging at Master rank right now?"
=You are. However, the kaijins being Grandmasters allow you to circumvent the normal conditions in a psuedomanner by becoming your armor instead. They can also become armor for each other, so have fun doing that in the future.=
=But you now have access to the kaijinss physical little quirks. Nepherage’s heightened physical stats, Frosttusk’s thermoacoustic vents and Hurricroak’s transformations. You won’t be able to unlock the full extent of these powers until after you get your own Aether Armor, but this works as a stopgap.=
’Foreshadowing, love it. So...how does this help me get inside the big spider here?’
=Simply put, Frosttusk will be acting as a filter of sorts, making it so you can breathe down there without a bad case of death hitting you.=
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"Wait...what do you mean ’on our way’?"
Zhen Liu stood before the Spider Queen’s leg as Nepherage and Hurricroak came up beside him.
Nausicaa looked to see if those "zakos" would go up and join them to, but instead saw them stand there looking rather inert.
"What’s the deal with those guys?"
"Oh then? Those four will be keeping watch for us. Making sure nothing and nobody come to try and attack us while we’re inside."
"I-wait...fucking what?"
"On it. [Magna-Piercer!]"
Hurricroak transformed her arms into her hornet stingers mode and fired off a few of the aforementioned stingers up the length of the spider leg, making sure to keep it at least several dozen feet away from the rest of the group.
As the stingers pierced the shell and released the miasma inside, something odd occured.
Instead of escaping from every single available hole that Hurricroak just produced, the miasma escaped only from the topmost hole.
The group watched only for a moment as the holes began to regenerate, one by one, starting from the bottom.
"At once, milord. [Eruption Barrage!]"
Nepherage’s aether started to circulate like crazy as multiple balls of burning hot lava manifested around her in a halo-like formation, moments before she fired them off one by one at the topmost hole Hurricroak had made.
The balls of lava proceeded to stick to the edges of the hole like glue and began to burn it wider and wider, causing even more of the sickly purple miasma inside to pour out upward and spread out like a mushroom cloud. It was at this point, Zhen Liu/Frosttusk stepped in.
Raising a gauntlet, Zhen Liu pointed it at the burning blobs of magma while the other gauntlet pointed down at the ground. At which point, Zhen Liu turned on his vents.
"Huh? What the-FUCKING COLD!"
Nausicaa jumped back as underneath Zhen Liu was an expanding circle of frost, as the heat around him was rapidly absorbed into the Frosttusk armor.
Zhen Liu released a blast of super cold air that instantly froze the magma into solid rock and even covered them in a thick layer of ice.
In essence, the three of them had created a massive vent in the side of this giant spider leg, creating a means for the miasma inside to escape and hopefully thin the amount to a breathable degree.
Or at least, breathable if one has a mask on.
The group watched on for a few moments before the miasma stopped escaping from the top vent they had just made, thinning out until just little wisps came out.
"Now then, let’s see if it worked...HYAH!"
With the "vent" now in place, Zhen Liu proceeded to walk up to the leg and rip open a passageway as big as standard door in the chitin.
Nausicaa was about to cuss him out for causing such a big opening for the miasma to escape...but then she saw that nothing was coming out of the new doorway.
Zhen Liu stuck his hand into the new opening, staying silent as he did.
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=Miasma level has now reached a breathable level. The group may now proceed to desecrate the remains of these titanic monstrosities.=
’Cool...wait, couldn’t Frosttusk have done what I just did without turning into armor for me? What was the point of this?’
’...as opposed to dying from erotic asphyxiation?’
’MOVING ON NOW, THANK YOU!’