Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1292: Coincidental Rescue

'And... we're out!'

[Get back here, you little pest!]

'OH COME ON!'

Once Zhen Liu and the stone zako he was instructing had determined that the vent to the furnace room was their only way out, they committed to just travelling up the thing regardless of where it wound up.

Zhen Liu had initially hoped it was a straightforward run to the top with very minimal detours involved, but that wasn't the case in the slightest.

For whatever dumb reason, the climb out of the exhaust vent was winding, long and took the occasional unexpected turn. On the plus side, the smoke got visibly thinner as Zhen Liu climbed further up the exhaust due to the presence of several smaller exhaust vents perforating the sides of the main one.

They were also fairly small, though, which made it nigh impossible for the zako to wriggle its stone body through.

Evidently, that was going to be the least of his problems.

Partway through their escape, an enemy Kaijin resembling a giant centipede had started chasing them through the exhaust vents until they had reached the surface.

Once they had both exited out of the exhaust vent, Zhen Liu's stone zako maintained his small spider-like form while the enemy Kaijin had transformed into its more humanoid shape...which was significantly uglier than it's giant centipede form.

Then again, it probably didn't help that the kaijin's torso resembled a screaming hyena's face with hundreds of centipedes crawling out of every orifice to form limbs made of bundled tentacles.

[Ya think that just because we're out in the open like this that you'll have a chance to escape?! Fat chance!]

'Can this guy just give up already?!'

Evidently, he could not. Shortly after making their intention known, the centipede Kaijin proceeded to plunge his limbs into the ground and send a surge of centipedes towards the stone zako.

'Why are there so many tentacle bastards lately?!' Zhen Liu complained while in the head of the stone zako. 'Did I piss off the ghost of H.P. Lovecraft or Hokusai or something?!'

_________________

*Bing-Bong*

...

|What?|

Most of our audience is marked as being from an unknown part of the world, does that joke even work?

|Most people didn't know about the Trung Sisters until they were added to a mobile game where King Arthur is a woman, so...I'm going with yes.|

...fair enough.

*Bing-Bong*

_________________

'Jump to the right, now!'

RUMBLE!

Heeding Zhen Liu's orders, the stone zako proceeded to leap to the right as several dozen centipedes burst out of the ground and attempted to lock the stone zako down.

The warning came just in time, as the zako managed to avoid getting entangled. Unfortunately, the zako was physically too slow.

One of its legs got caught up in the centipede surge and was viciously smashed into pieces.

'Hrk!'

Zhen Liu had to bite his tongue in order not to scream out in pain as the leg of the stone zako was crushed into mineral powder.

[Whoopsies,] the centipede Kaijin chuckled. [Looks like I have to adjust my grip to be just a touch lighter.]

Had the attack been made with just aether, the stone zako would've been able to ignore it entirely and just be on its merry way. Unfortunately, the attack had been laced with [Chaos]; therefore, it did a lot more damage than he had anticipated.

'Son of a bitch!' Zhen Liu cursed. 'I need some Kaijin power or something in order to—wait a minute.'

Evidently, the pain of feeling the zako's leg getting crushed was just enough to remind Zhen Liu that he had purposely left the Kaijin outside for moments like this.

'Alright, I need to get Logos and Pathos back into my head as soon as possible. I need someone to remind me of crap like this...or I need a breakthrough...'

...Meanwhile...

^What the fuck is a movie?^ Maggie asked, bewildered by the term, and encouraged by the ambient [Chaos] to ask such an unrelated question.

[Oh, well, a movie is like a play,] Springerdermain answered. [But it's like...they use illusion producing technologies to make the play more believable.]

[And unlike plays, they're recorded moments of time,] Screamira added. [So it's like you get experience the exact same performance over and over again.]

^That sounds—^

[Hold up,] Blazejudicator suddenly interrupted. [I think I just heard Executor ring into my head.]

[You did?!]

[How is he?!]

[Is he okay?]

^What the what?^

As soon as Blazejudicator mentioned the name "Executor," the air of misery and sadness surrounding the Kaijin had suddenly disappeared in an instant.

Needless to say, Maggie was confused at this sudden change in behavior.

^Why the hell are they suddenly so giddy about some guy named Executor?^ Maggie asked Antonio.

^Oh, yeah, each of the kaijin has their own nickname for Zhen Liu,^ Antonio answered. ^No idea why.^

^Huh…^

Shortly after answering this question, Antonio noticed something was off.

'Wait a minute… how the hell is she able to—'

[Blazejudicator, with me.]

[On it.]

Before Antonio could think further on this problem though, Blazejudicator and Nepherage had already left the scene to go…somewhere.

…Meanwhile…

'Damnit!'

Swish!

'Damnit!!'

Swish!

'Damnit!!!'

SNATCHED LIKE A PURSE!

'GODSDAMNIT FUCKING CURSED EARTH!'

After managing to avoid the centipede tentacles over a dozen time, the stone zako had finally faltered after tripping over a wild flower that just randomly sprouted directly beneath their feet.

Before he could even attempt to amputate a limb in order to escape, the stone zako was wrapped head to toe in writhing centipedes.

The kaijin that these crawlers were attached to let out a sick snicker as he approached the bound zako.

[Nowhere to run now, little guy. Now, I wonder why you're able to channel Chaos like the bastards down below?]

'Not good.'

In the span of about seven steps, the zako would be fully captured and probably be used as a test subject to that knock-off lord, possibly helping him to become a real one or something stupid like that.

However, before such a fate could play out, something dramatic happened.

For the first three steps, nothing happened to the enemy kaijin.

Four steps in though, [Chaos] ran rampant.

A pair of blades made of multicolored flames dropped down like guillotines and severed the centipede kaijin's limbs from his body. Needless to say, the stone zako was freed in this instance.

[What the fuck?!]

The centipede Kaijin was stunned by this sudden amputation and stumbled forward into his fifth and sixth step while in excruciating pain.

Which is why he failed to notice that, on his seventh and final step, a pair of crimson jade arms had popped out of the ground to pull him partially into the ground.

[W-what the fuck?!]

This series of actions was so brutally fast, that the enemy Kaijin didn't even have time to register that he had been assaulted...until he felt the burning pain crawling up his tendrils, and the cursed insects biting at his bottom.

[YEOW!]

And while he suffered, the stone zako had been whisked away by Blazejudicator and Nepeherage.

'Thanks for the save, guys.'

[You're welcome,] Blazejudicator said for both himself and Nepeherage, as the latter's connection was still muted.

That stated, it didn't stop the valkyrie of a Kaijin to share her thoughts and concerns.

[Milord, is there any particular reason why you're just using a zako instead of escaping yourself?] Nepeherage asked. [Just say the word and we can probably cause a big enough ruckus to—]

'Blazejudicator, convey these answers for me.'

[Of course, Executor.]

'Nepherage, that would completely defeat the purpose of me pretending to be a run-of-the-mill servant. Besides, even if we got quality on our side, this asshole has quantity up the wazoo. I'm counting six to seven enemy kaijin per one of you guys. Not to mention, some of them are just straight up a rank higher than y'all too. Not to mention the whole regeneration thing, effectively doubling, tripling or quadrupling the number of enemy kaijin.'

[So? We've fought harder odds before. We can probably take them out faster than they can do that weird regeneration trick,] Nepeherage started with certainty.

'That might be the case, but there's something...weird about this place. Beyond the whole slaves having their hopes, dreams and desires literally drained from them as they toil away and dig up objectively evil nuggets of gold,' Zhen Liu retorted.

[Is it more divine shards or another one of those odd instances of stuff from a version of your old world appearing here, milord?]

'I think it's just something from my world, full stop. No variance in history, no portal to a different reality. Just...something from home, I guess.'

[Oh.]

'And to top the entire monument of strange that I've been feeling since I got here, I think that same something from my world is the reason why that other Kaijin Lord exists in the first place.'

[Really? Why?]

'Because if the thing that's here is what I think it is...then it's no wonder that so much [Despair] is gathering here. World's trying to overcorrect.'