Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1548: Of Creators and their strange Creations
<Well, it appears our Lord is finally getting around to making his first batch of divine bodies. How oddly nostalgic. >
=Yup.=
<Huh...I just had a weird thought. You know how Buzza has been using the body parts of deceased kaijin to create his grafted warriors? Do you ever think about the possibility of them using the remnants of all those divine vessels our previous lords made? >
=That thought actually had popped into my mind a couple of times, but... probably not? You know how many times those remains get enshrined in some temple complex in the middle of nowhere or used by some other crazy powerful aether warrior who just so happened to stumble upon the damn things? Need I remind you about the rainbow serpent? =
<Fair point...wait, wasn’t there some inquisitor dude who tried to gank our Lord when Olstenna tried to kill him a couple months back? Whatever happened to that guy? >
=Wait, I think I know this...=
...
"What the hell..."
The clockwork being staring back at Axer was unlike anything he had ever seen before, which was saying something.
As someone who spent their entire life in Rainbowden, Axer had seen all manner of amateurish and professional craftsmen ply their trades and showcase their skills for all to see.
Axer had seen sculptors create a million pieces of junk before creating a singular masterpiece that defined their legacies.
He had witnessed weavers sew everything from simple clothes for children to magnificent gowns worn by empresses and simple maidens on their wedding days and more.
And of course, he had witnessed practitioners of the puppet arts go from simple marionettes that moved as gracefully as newborn calves to fantastically strange automatons with limbs that defied the very concept of natural movement.
This automaton made of energy that surrounded Zhen Liu’s being as he worked to create the most unusual metallic bodies he had ever seen outshone practically everything in his memories in an incredibly contradictory manner.
The automaton looked simple, so simple that even a child could assemble one with just a few moments of time and a modicum of brainpower. At the same time, it looked so incredibly complex to the point that Axer felt that even if he managed to gather the wisest sages from across the world to study this mechanical marvel, they would all be driven to the greatest depths of madness.
It was an ugly, utilitarian piece of machinery, never to be gazed at but always used due to just how powerful and useful it was when properly leveraged.
It was a delicate piece of art, something to be beheld and adored, but never touched in fear of breaking it into a million delicate pieces.
And right now, this beautiful, disgusting, amateurish masterpiece was staring directly at Axer with a pair of eyes that seemed to be deeper than even the darkest pits of hell...and yet, had a gentleness to them that was softer than any mother he had ever met.
’How the hell...’
Staring out of the corner of his eye, Axer could see that Zhen Liu hadn’t noticed him.Instead, he could still see the young man focused intently on adding what appeared to be thousands of tiny pockmarks against a golden body, and that the automaton surrounding him was performing these actions in perfect tandem.
Oddly enough, Zhen Liu didn’t even seem to notice the giant mechanical being mimicking his every move.
’Wait...is Zhen Liu not even aware of—’
Shhhh...
Before Axer could even finish his thought, the strange automaton lifted a finger to its frozen lips and hushed the young blacksmith.
This was not something that Zhen Liu needed to be privy to...not yet, anyways.
Understanding the automaton’s intentions and a little bit of ambient [Chaos] affecting his ability to think properly, Axer agreed to keep quiet and to simply watch.
Then again, Axer was going to watch anyways due to the grand feeling of inspiration and enlightenment washing over him as he watched Zhen Liu continue to build this pock-covered body.
’Ah...wait, he’s almost done.’
And then move on to make a pair of equally wondrous vessels.
...
’Okay...this should be about done. I hope Xipe Totec likes it.’
Zhen Liu could not rely on his own memories on how Xipe Totect looked while building this body.
Why?
Because all of the statues and depictions of the Flayed One back in his old world were mildly abstract. They got the point across, carried plenty of symbolism, but weren’t exactly detailed in the face and anatomy departments.
As such, Zhen Liu took a few artistic liberties in designing a proper face for the fragment and general body shape.
Thankfully, the casting mold was surprisingly forgiving when it came to that latter portion.
’[Chaos] is fluid, so should bodies infused with the stuff,’ Zhen Liu concluded once he saw how pliable the completed body was. ’Let’s move on to the other two then.’
Zhen Liu proceeded to perform this ritual of his two more times; that is, he used the [Flames of Vice and Virtue] to break down the materials before using the remnants to make bodies, once for Huitzilopochtli and once for Quetzalcoatl, by shoving all the materials into the casting mold before him.
Unlike with Xipe Totec, though, he didn’t have to use contradictory materials.
Huitzilopochtli’s materials just needed a light application of the [Flame of Patience], while Quetzalcoatl’s materials were...a little trickier to melt down, actually.
None of the latter’s materials were as "conceptual"; they were viciously more "elemental," so Zhen Liu had to use Nepherage’s innate earthiness to break them down.
Either way, once everything was prepared, Zhen Liu now had three pristine vessels for three, somehow still slumbering fragments. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺
They had slightly stirred and showed some form of activity once Zhen Liu had completed each of their bodies, but they weren’t exactly chomping at the bit to be wakened up first.
Which made this next part a little...tricky.
Conceptually, Zhen Liu understood that the final step was to simply shove the divine fragments inside of their assigned bodies and that they should, hypothetically, form into "complete" beings like Smoking Mirror.
Realistically, Zhen Liu had no idea how to properly do that short of just shoving the fragments into their chosen chassis and hoping for the best.
Whenever Zhen Liu made his kaijin, the process of fusing their bodies with a [Core] and formula was technically automatic and relied on principles that were entirely different from godly fragments...mostly. He vaguely remembered how Smoking Mirror did it in the [City of Mirrors], but it was hard to remember the important details.
’Wait...maybe those details don’t really matter?’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as his mind wandered to the memories of what occurred when he stuck his head into a hole in reality all those months ago.
In that little hole in reality, despite it being only a glimpse, he saw how several primordial beings went about the act of creation, turning discordant madness into understandable order, into creation.
He saw how some merely thought things into existence, how others carved pieces of their own flesh to make a world and its inhabitants, and how even more took what was already there and just gave the shapeless and meaningless some form and some meaning.
’If the power of [Chaos] is the power of creation, then I should just...let it flow?’
Following his instincts at this point, Zhen Liu simply began to channel [Chaos] from himself to the bodies and fragments before him.
...Outsider time...
’What the fuck...’
After being enraptured by Zhen Liu and the automaton’s progress in turning those eclectic mixes of materials into humanoid forms that were distinctly inhuman but not monstrous. However, that was before Zhen Liu and the automaton entered this next step.
Before his eyes, the automaton began to transform itself, developing arms and tools that were beyond his understanding and yet made complete sense.
With these new appendages, the automaton followed whatever plans Zhen Liu had in mind and began to fiddle and tinker with the bodies before them, altering the metallic bodies before them with the greatest of ease.
At the same time, the automaton began to energize and manipulate the strange little fragments that were in their other hands.
’Holy...’
Empowered by this strange machine spirit, a trio of shadows began to manifest and grow on the wall opposite to the bodies.
One shadow resembled a giant feathered serpent, another resembled a fierce warrior with the wings of a hummingbird, while the last had mottled skin yet an oddly gentle silhouette.
The shadows lingered for only a moment, though, before retreating into the fragments that were then absorbed into the automaton. Once they were inside of the machine, one of the appendages extended a long needle-like finger and began to inject the absorbed fragments into the bodies before them.
Axer was reminded of a tattoo artist plying their craft.
’Huh...that oddly makes sense, but...wait...what the fuck am I sensing? Wait, why am I cussing?’
