9 A monster(hero) is born!

Earlier

As Zhen Liu circulated the aether throughout his body and the jagged diagram, a strange voice spoke in his head.

"What the hell?", Zhen Liu thought. A moment later, he heard the same words that young woman was saying repeating in his head again.

"I want to live. Someone. Anyone. Save me. Please..."

Zhen Liu felt his head pound as a cascade of memories flashed through his mind. Moments of helplessness as someone cried out for help on the news broacasts, times where he ignored someone in need of a few bucks to stave off starvation for a few days, the times where he wanted to help his friends but couldn't because he was too scared to act. In essence, times where he asked himself: "Why didn't you do anything?"

"What the hell?," he groaned in pain. The pain and memories eventually subsided as the voice spoke up again.

A ball of rainbow-colored light suddenly grew into existence in front of the meditating Zhen Liu. He didn't know what it was exactly, but he had the feeling he was standing in front of someone who would recklessly endanger themselves to save one. In essence, someone heroic.

<Kaijin Core Manifested. Proceed to the next step of the Chaos Body Forge>, the voice instructed.

"Kaijin core? The next ste-oh the words. Right", Zhen Liu thought for a moment before proceeding to recite the same words he heard that strange guy say in his dream.

[With my power I forge your body.]

<10,000 year old Crimson Jade...suitable.>

Images of a winged warrior woman and large brutish monster flitted through his mind before melding together into a single cohesive image.

Aether began to flow from the diagram surrounding Zhen Liu and into the surrounding jade that he was currently embedded in.

As chunks of Crimson Jade began to float and collide with the "core" in front of him, Zhen Liu began to feel a little sick as for the first time in his life he was actually making use of aether for an art...at least he thought it was. He wasn't sure what exactly was this thing he was doing.

The chunks of jade eventually stopped slamming into each other as they took on a vaguely humanoid shape that seemed to fluctuate in proportion and size.

[With my wisdom, I forge your mind.]

The ring on Zhen Liu's left hand began to glow as he said those words, releasing mysterious fluctuations of aether. A moment later, several art scrolls and an aether formula magically appeared from the ring and flew towards the forming humanoid body. The reading material turning into wisps of energy that fused with the body and forming an aether formula over the core.

Zhen Liu was surprised about the sudden appearance of the literature, but he didn't have time to wonder where they originated from.

He was preparing to say the last line of the mantra before the mysterious voice interrupted him.

"What?"

"Oh...okay."

Zhen Liu thought for a few moments as he quickly looked over the incomplete kaijin in front of him. Once his eyes settled on the formula diagram, he perked up as he settled on a name.

"Got it."

<Good. Now keep the name in mind as you say the final line.>

"Right."

[And with my will, I pull your soul from Chaos.]

A hand made of aether quickly manifested in front of Zhen Liu moments before it shot forward and went through the kaijin in front of him.

While Zhen Liu couldn't see where the hand went, he could feel that it went somewhere that was not of this world or any other and take a small portion of something that shouldn't be touchable in the first place.

The hand quickly retracted from this unknown space and deposited the thing it had stolen into the kaijin core. As a result of this sudden addition, the figure's eyes flared to life.

The humanoid figure soon became more and more defined as whatever the hell that hand had deposited within the core caused the aether in the area to go absolutely haywire. Zhen Liu didn't know what was going on, but he knew it was going to be a good.

"Ohhhh, this is going to be awesome!"

_________________________________________________

"What the hell is that?!", Fergus exclaimed as he felt the violent surges of aether coming from the direction of the boy he just sent flying.

He didn't know who or what a "Kaijin Lord" was but he didn't want to find out.

Fergus quickly turned towards his subordinate and began to shout orders.

"Jacob! Stow the blade and get ready to-"

Before he could finish giving the order, an armored red demonic figure with three green eyes, large downturn horns and feathered pauldrons suddenly streaked right pass him and slammed a heavy fist into the Bloody Boilers' head.

"What the sh-"

In a blurry of motion, the Bloody Boiler was sent flying as the demonic being proceeded to grab the young woman, princess-carry her and leap away with her back to the direction it had just rushed forward from.

Fergus could only watch as all of this unfolded, the demonic being too fast for him to just barely comprehend.

What the hell was that thing?!

_________________________________________________

Carried away in the arms of a strange demon, Alicia was stunned silent at this sudden turn of events, at this whole day really.

First, her entourage got ambushed and annihilated by the Bloody Boilers despite being nowhere near their territory.

Second, despite putting up a decent fight, she had been rendered helpless due to the Boilers using a strange poison that stifled her aether flow.

And now in the most harrowing half hour in her life, she was rescued by a vagabond boy, watched him explode twice and she was now being rescued (kidnapped) by a strange demonic warrior that appeared to be made of red jade.

All in all, she was having a rather stressful day.

"Um..."

"Are you okay?", the demonic being asked in a soft grinding voice. It was rather strange for Alicia to hear but it wasn't unpleasant either.

"Uh...yes. I am now", she replied with a short nod.

"Good. My lord requested that I save you first and foremost before I bury that asshole in the ground", the demonic being said as the two of them landed quite a bit away from Fergus.

"Um...your lord?," Alicia asked confused.

After placing Alicia back on her feet, the demonic warrior pointed towards a Crimson Jade pillar.

"Him."

Alicia's vision followed the demon's finger, only to see a rather unexpected sight.

"You're alive!"

_________________________________________________

"So this monster is your doing?", Fergus shouted once he managed to catch up with the monster and his prey.

Standing before him was the red horned demon, the girl he had been contracted to "take care of" and that annoying boy from before.

Zhen Liu stood there with a rather smug look of triumph on his face as he saw Fergus' floundering at the the situation.

"Well, we both know that I am unable to decisively kick your teeth", Zhen Liu began to say, "So I figured I might as well have someone your size do it for me."

"Granted, Nepherage is only a ring stronger than me", he mentally noted.

"You coward! Why don't you-"

[Landslide Kick!]

But before Fergus could goad Zhen Liu further, the demonic being had rushed him and landed a solid kick to his gut.

Aether began to violently surge around the demon before condensing into her leg, moments before a huge wave of force shot out from it and pushed Fergus several steps away from them. The large bandit leader coughed up several mouthfuls of blood from the sudden attack.

"Do not speak ill of the Kaijin Lord you insolent oaf!", the demonic being shouted.

"My name is Nepherage, the Rumbling Mountain Maiden! And I shall be the one to crush your skull to dust!"

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