Chapter 1621: Coincidental Conspiracy?
[Logos, Pathos,] Nepherage called back to the library curators, [do you guys know what the fuck we’re staring at? Is this thing an Abomination or an UMA?]
=Surprisingly, neither. This is a naturally occurring type of slime aether beast known as a Puppet Plasmoid. And a fairly high-tiered one at that.
[The fuck is a Puppet Plasmoid?]
<They’re kind of like...you know how there’s that weird fungus that hijacks the brains of ants and turns them into weird mushroom zombies? Same concept, but the Puppet Plasmoid hijacks a corpse before eventually consuming it entirely and growing stronger. >
[Is...isn’t that the same thing as the Spinal Worm? Why is there more than one thing capable of using bodies in such a manner? ] Nepherage asked.
=For the same reason Sugar Gliders and Flying Squirrels exist at the same time. Mother nature is weird and gets a little repetitive. Humans more so; there are like a dozen different types of spears, despite them all being fundamentally a sharp stick meant to kill someone. =
[Fair enough...]
[Well, that makes my report all the more weirdly relevant,] Springerdermain interjected. [Thanks to that battle the Ringmaster got involved in, Screamira, Razorstella and I managed to sneak into that doorway that blocked the Doll Twins.]
<Is...is it safe to assume that y’all have found out how the Sacred Flame Theocracy is making their corpse warriors?>
[Yes.]
[And funnily enough, we were there to witness those same activities,] Blazejudicator added.
<=Oh boy...=>
...Different sources, same result...
After the hasty retreat of the Erupting Dawn Empire warriors, the people of Mercenary Town didn’t immediately return to their hovel/home. Instead, the Temple Guard and various officials of Emberona’s main city had taken it upon themselves to do some after-battle clean-up.
Technically it was a theocracy-wide policy that any dead had to be consecrated by the nearest central church before being handled by individual cults and sects, but it was still nice of the ruling class to take care of such a macabre labor.
Well... it would be nice if there wasn’t a hidden motive behind this action.
The battlefield was cleaned up and the corpses were carted away under the public gaze of civilians and visitors alike, but where the bodies ended up after being removed from sight wasn’t seen by anyone save two groups.
The temple guard who performed the dirty deed under the direction of Abbot Feroxa and the Mysticlassic Kaijin who were tasked with stalking him.
The trio were still in their shrunken states when they had seen a cart of corpses being dragged by Temple Guards to a place that they had seen Abbott Feroxa enter moments before. Once they saw this, they immediately confirmed with the curators and Zhen Liu about the origins of the cart.
[See? I knew that weirdly violent guy was doing something dirty,] Razorstella said to her fellow kaijin. [I bet you that he purposefully harassed and severly injured some of those mercenary bastards so that he and the church could turn them into loyal corpse warrriors.]
[I would be more inclined to believe that if some of those aforementioned mercenary bodies weren’t just stolen by the Erupting Dawn Empire,] Springerdermain pointed out. [There had to be more efficient ways of securing corpses other than that, right?]
[Springer, you’re trying to apply actual logic and reasoning to people turning corpses into puppets for the sake of some dumb "holy war" or something like that,] Screamira retorted. [And yes, I am aware of the utter irony of me saying that.]
[I didn’t say anything...]
[Okay, we know there’s something wrong in the air when I am the voice of reason,] Razorstella interrupted her arguing allies. [Let’s just get on that cart and see if it leads us back to that weird doorway we couldn’t cross before.]
[Why would you assume it would take us there?] Springerdermain asked.
[Call it a feeling.]
While the cart was parked in front of the building, the Mysticlassic kaijin hopped in, hid themselves under the body pile, and did their best to appear inconspicuous.
From their new hiding spot, they saw Feroxa exit the building and begin to lead the cart to its next destination: the doorway that had repelled them several nights before.
Only this time, under the guidance of Abbot Feroxa and the cover of a dozen or so dead bodies, the kaijin were able to enter this hidden alcove and learn a dark truth about the Sacred Flame Theocracy...and an unexpected bonus in regard to the true governance of the theocracy.
[Alright, looks like we were right about Abbot Feroxa being involved,] Razorstella confirmed as she poked her head out of her hiding spot in order to take in their new surroundings.
The cart had been dragged for about five minutes pass that initial threshold into the cathedral’s inner workings, and then left to park...somewhere inside.
The kaijin needed to actually see what they were dealing with before taking a guess as to where they were actually located.
If she had to take a guess, though, they were inside of a catacomb.
[This place looks hella creepy.]
Creepy, solemn, macabre.
These were the words that Razorstella immediately thought of the moment she popped her head out and saw—
[ Blazejudicator? Doll Twins? What are you guys doing here?]
The moment Razorstella popped her head out to take in the creepy, religious architecture of the Sacred Flame catacombs, she found herself staring at an identical corpse cart where a shrunken Blazejudicator, Corpse Doll, and Porcelain Doll were hiding away.
Evidently, Blazejudicator and the dolls were just as surprised to see her as she was to see them.
[We followed the free love guy after he suddenly decided to escort a corpse cart all the way to that cathedral from the last time we stalked a corpse cart,] Corpse Doll answered. [We didn’t expect to see you guys here either.]
[Huh...]
The curators had suggested the possibility that the whole corpse soldier thing that happened earlier may have very well been not the result of a specific individual’s clandestine machinations, but a whole theocracy-wide conspiracy that Serena may or may not be aware of.
Thankfully, the kaijin weren’t going to have to wait long to get that answer.
Click.
[Did...did you guys just hear an ominous click—]
Rumble.
[Ah. Of course.]
A hidden mechanism had been pulled beyond the senses of the kaijin, causing the entire catacomb that they were inside of to transform into an elevator that led further underground.
The kaijin were about to speculate the reason for all of this hidden temple bullshit, until they felt it.
A strange, unrelenting heat.
[This feeling...]
[This heat...]
[It’s just like...whoa.]
The elevator that they were riding on was more or less enclosed until about two or so minutes of riding, where it finally opened up to anabeea that reminded them of an imperial tomb from their creator’s memories.
Rows and rows of soldiers in perfect, pristine uniforms stood at the ready, surrounding a central pedestal where there should’ve been an entombed emperor.
Instead, what the kaijin saw, was a giant bonfire that burned with an unusual colored flame.
This flame reminded them of the [Sacred Flame] bits that Zhen Liu had extracted from Bishop Olma, that more or less touched the fire tending tools that Zhen Liu now had in his possession.
However, there was something...off about this flame.
[Blazejudicator, you’re the expert when it comes to aether flames,] Screamira stated as she stared at the central bonfire, remembering Blazejudicator’s old form and identity. [Why does that bonfire look...sick?]
[That’s because it is,] Blazejudicator answered with certainty. [Looks like someone tried to combine aether flames with different affinities without care, reason, or knowledge on how to do so without creating internal conflicts. I’m surprised it hasn’t outright exploded.]
[I think it’s because those conflicting energies are being siphoned before it can be a problem,] Porcelain Doll observed. [Look.]
Following the protokaijin’s direction, the kaijin saw a pile of solid black orbs at the center of the bonfire, piled there like they were bits of charcoal or coal being used to make a questionable pyre.
Stretching their senses towards black orbs, the kaijin could indeed sense that inside of them was concentrated energy siphoned directly from the conflicting types of aether flame burning around them.
[This feels...a lot like the situation with Dante and his pseudo-cores,] Razorstella pointed out. [But I don’t get it. Those corpses didn’t feel like they had a lick of [Chaos] inside them and yet I can feel the slightest twinges of [Chaos] coming from that bonfire. Why?]
[Maybe he stole the technique of how to do what he did from these guys?] Springerdermain guessed. [Or maybe they figured out how to do this all on their own?]
[I think it’s a case of the latter,] Porcelain Doll answered. [Because I’m seeing Ferroxa and Hulna approaching the central pyre in a weirdly coordinated manner.]
[Oh shit.]
