Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?

Chapter 1644 - 1644: Falling into my Madness

The following is a diary entry of someone who once fought a Kaijin Lord in the Demon's Archive. He was the only survivor of a group of one thousand warriors....

I used to have nightmares.

Terrible nightmares.

My grandmother once told me that nightmares are the way our inner selves train themselves in order to face the horrors of this world and the next.

That by exaggerating the very fears that held us back, our spirits can become stronger than even the finest of steel shields.

I used to believe that.

But what I saw happen that day, what I saw those monsters did to my brothers and sisters in arms, what they did to my master and my master's masters...was terrible.

Truly terrible.

The funny thing was that after that day, I never had nightmares again.

My friends, the ones that weren't part of the massacre, say that it was a sign that my spirit was now stronger than anything this world could throw at me.

To me, though, I think it's because what I saw that day was so horrifically terrible that my mind could no longer exaggerate any other fears I may have.

How can someone dream up a nightmare when something worse than them already exists?

________________________________________

'Thank you for your assistance, Screamira.'

[It was nothing, producer. Do you want me to stick around to help with voice modulation?]

'That would be perfect, thank you.'

…

"So, I can see that you are all still in shock that I turned your military corps back into corpses," the newcomer said in a voice that sounded more like the whispers of a living skeleton than a normal man. "I'll give you some time to process everything."

'How the fuck did he do that?!'

'Where the fuck did he come from?!'

'Wait…why the fuck am I cursing so much?!'

As veteran aether warriors, the princes of the Erupting Dawn Empire and the abbots of the Sacred Flame Theocracy were used to seeing things such as a singular attack taking out multiple opponents or warriors with the ability to instantly teleport.

But the difference between those moments and this specific instance was that they could at least sense it was going to happen or that they could sense the aftermath.

In the case of this particular individual, though, they couldn't sense jack shit.

Even the abbots working with the [Flame of Ambition], who were technically aware of what [Chaos] was, couldn't sense any of this happening until it was over and their soldiers were more or less annihilated.

Despite this shock, they still managed to recover fast enough to get a measure of this newcomer, whom they assumed to be the Kaijin Lord that sent them the letters.

Their initial evaluation of this mysterious warrior: he looked way too fucking casual for someone who openly declared and opened their introduction with a damning scream.

The Kaijin Lord wasn't dressed in flowing robes that made his figure look ominously majestic, nor was he clad in armor that made him appear larger than life. Instead, the Kaijin Lord appeared to be dressed in casual clothes that would fit a young scion more so than the embodiment of nightmares.

However, there was one thing about the Kaijin Lord's appearance that did conform to the idea that he was beyond normal understanding: his face, or rather, the lack thereof.

Upon the Kaijin Lord's head were a pair of scarves, one that was clearly an [Astra] while the other was made of that same unfathomable energy that had taken out the soldiers, and a strange-looking bone mask.

This mask was modeled after some nightmare creature none of them had ever seen before, but they could swear that the damn thing was alive. Especially since when Prince Galban started to look at it more intently, he and his brothers saw how the eyes on the mask suddenly focused on them.

"It's staring at me. I don't know what the fuck it is I'm looking at, but it's staring directly at me!"

Eventually, enough time passed that the Kaijin Lord figured it was time to fill the tense silence.

"Alright, that's enough stunned silence," the Kaijin Lord declared after a few moments. "Now, I don't think I have to tell you why I sent those letters, and I'm pretty sure you didn't come here to hash out a peace agreement. So, should I explain the rules of this little game or does anyone have any questions?"

These words worked wonders in making everyone present remember the whole reason for their appearance, and needless to say, they wanted to make sure that they weren't being jerked around.

"Arrogantly declaring that you were going to end this war between us is one thing," Lauvanne suddenly said once he and the others had gotten their wits back. "But stating that you have the ability to force it is another thing entirely. You said you had the tools to do so, so why don't you prove it?"

"Proof?" the Kaijin Lord repeated. "You want proof that I have…these?"

Without saying another word, the Kaijin Lord snapped his fingers and three majestic auras filled the area.

"Holy shit!"

"He does have them!"

"This…this changes things!"

The bellows, the poker, and the black stone that composed the [Hearth Tender Trio] were floating directly above his head like it was the most natural thing in the world.

The sight of these treasures sparked feelings of deep greed from the on-looking warriors from both the Erupting Dawn Empire and the Sacred Flame Theocracy traitors.

So much so that they were about to do something incredibly, life-shorteningly stupid.

(Note that the following is being siad with voices cloaked in aether so that only certain parties can hear it.)

"Are we actually going to listen to what this guy has to say, or…"

"Fuck that, we outnumber him."

"So do we attack now, or when?"

"Wait for my signal…"

"Now that you guys know that I'm serious about making these items a prize to be won, I'm going to now give you the rules to the—"

"NOW!"

Before the Kaijin Lord could get out another word, the warriors from both the Erupting Dawn Empire and the Sacred Flame Theocracy made moves to try and attack the Kaijin Lord at the same time.

Every single one of these bastards was at least at the Aether Grandmaster level, so they had all activated their [Regalia] before moving into attack.

And as for the ones that were at the Aether Lord stage, they had made sure to summon their [Astra] in order to attack as well.

This many high-level opponents would heavily injure or outright kill anybody that was only at the same stage or below them, with even warriors of a higher rank probably coming away from such a surprise attack with quite a few injuries.

However, there were two very important factors that this gaggle of greedy fuckwits failed to consider when they tried to jump the Kaijin Lord, Zhen Liu.

First, the power of [Chaos] drastically weakened or outright erased attacks, enhancements, defenses, or probes that were based on aether.

Zhen Liu didn't mask his [Chaos] in the slightest this time around, so the aura of [Chaos] surrounding his body was actually much denser than usual and had already begun to drastically weaken the [Astra] and [Regalia] of the attackers once they had gotten close enough.

Second, and more importantly, Zhen Liu had a contingency plan in mind in case these stupid motherfuckers decided to act like greedy motherfuckers.

"I fucking knew you morons would try something like this," Zhen Liu said with a smirk underneath the bone mask that Screamira had transformed herself into. "Good thing I already prepared the doorway."

Zhen Liu didn't make a move to dodge or counter as combined forces of the Erupting Dawn Empire and Sacred Flame Theocracy got close enough that he could practically smell them. Instead, with a lazy drop of the wrist, he dropped the [Key to Anywhere] so that it landed directly into a keyhole-shaped indent that he made earlier in the day.

The moment key made contact, all hell broke loose.

To be more precise, Zhen Liu had spent a good chunk of the day drawing a giant door to the [Library of Nowhere] in the ground at this so-called clearing and had it ready to drop not just himself but every other motherfucker who had just attempted to kill his ass before they had even a ghost of a chance to try.

And as far as Zhen Liu could tell, everyone who showed up to this meeting had decided to try and make a play for his head.

"Mind the fall, assholes!" Zhen Liu called out as he more or less fell into the [Library of Nowhere] like it was a casual case of hang-gliding.

The stunned and confused warriors were taken aback by the sudden appearance of the door beneath their feet and were just about to use a bit of aether to float away. However, that's when they noticed something truly terrible: the [Chaos] coming out of this doorway was even thicker than what Zhen Liu had used to weaken their attacks, and this [Chaos] was basically making it impossible for them to float.

"Uh oh."

The next thing any of these fuckers knew, they were in the middle of a free-fall.