Chapter 1730: Justified Paranoia - Nepherage

[Neffy, I understand that being paranoid is the Maestro’s thing, but I don’t think we need to replicate such behaviors ourselves,] Hurricroak complained. [I mean nothing’s happened for several days now.]

[Which is precisely the reason why we’re patrolling,] I told Hurricroak. [Shit happens when you least suspect it.]

[...]

[What?]

[Nothing, I just figured you would try to be a bit more philosophical about the whole thing. Well, sound philosophical, I mean.]

[Meh. Keep it simple, stupid. KISS.]

[Huh.]

After the initial excitement of retrieving the axe and celebrating with the Storm Singers had died down, our next goal was to take out the Collectrix.

Doing so, however, required more careful planning.

The kind of planning that I would’ve preferred to have milord and the curators with us.

But alas, milord was in the process of dealing with...something.

And the curators themselves were being unnecessarily cagey...again.

Either way, this meant that we could only rely on ourselves when it came to planning the attack on the Collectrix’s base of operations.

Well, it meant that we had to rely on the tactical thinking of Zhen Xun Tian and the Storm Singer leadership.

Despite her lackadaisical and bombastic nature, Zhen Xun Tian turned out to be very competent when it came to military tactics and not just fighting.

Her epitaph as the [Inked Asura] made a lot more sense now.

Regardless of the mortal planning, though, it meant that we kaijin were left to our own devices.

Slug-at-Arms and Terra took it upon themselves to continue guarding the Storm Singers, while Frosttusk had finally decided to get over his odd feelings and start teaching Hakon how to not only properly use the [Frozen Blossoms Axe], but several of the songs that the Storm Singers used to sing before they were apparently lost to time.

As for Hurricroak and myself, I had dragged the former out to go and patrol around the area...as I had been for the past few days.

We had been certain that the Collectrix would’ve heard about her recent string of losses and sent people to attack us by now, so we were a little surprised when that didn’t happen the day after we crippled three of the tribes under her command.

Granted, she apparently had several dozen under her command but still.

Then again, perhaps she had learned from those previous failures and decided that training up the tribals to military standards was probably the best way to move forward.

At least, that’s what I thought.

Regardless of our personal thoughts and fantasies, Hurricroak and I continued to patrol a mile radius from where we had made camp, making sure that no one and nothing got too close to be a threat.

Granted, there was a lot of nothing for us to deal with.

[Man...this is boring as fuck,] Hurricroak complained. [Can’t we just pass the duty on to the zakos by now? They’re literally made and born for this kind of duty.]

[Well, you’re not wrong about that,] I admitted to Hurricroak. [I suppose it would also be a good idea to have them develop more independent...hang on a minute...do you sense that?]

[Sense... oh, that ain’t right,] Hurricroak said as soon as she noticed what Nepherage was sensing. [That really ain’t right.]

Prickling our senses was the feeling of [Chaos], but it was a version of it that we detested the most. ℯℯ𝘭.

[Grafted...]

[Chaos], depending on its source, felt different to us.

From a fellow kaijin or a zako, it was like noticing a familiar song in the background of a walk.

It was unintrusive and oddly familiar.

The only exception to this were those weird pseudo-kaijin made by that knock-off Kaijin Lord, Dante. The [Chaos] they produced always felt...angry, sticky, and wrong.

From a mortal who started cultivating it, it was like a song that had been remixed due to the personal influences of the person itself. A twist that was neither good nor bad, just interesting.

The [Grafted] though...they were worse than the pseudo-kaijin.

Many mortal myths from our lord’s old world discussed the idea of hearing voices of the dead and damned and how they drove people mad because they were the sounds of spirits that should’ve been allowed to rest.

That metaphorical, maybe literal, scream was something that we kaijin heard every time we interacted with a [Grafted] warrior.

We kaijin don’t really have souls, so when we pass on, we’re just...gone.

Mostly.

So being forced to suddenly come back into existence, to come back from one extreme of oblivion, to being forced to feel everything again is...maddening.

Hearing them is even worse.

At this moment, Hurricroak and I could sense two auras that were distinctive to the [Grafted], but...there was some strange added on top of it.

Like a feeling of artificiality.

Well...a feeling more artificial than usual, I mean.

[I’m sending them over in that direction. Should we investigate?] I asked Hurricroak.

[Yeah...let’s figure out whether or not that eight-winged fuck is here or if it’s someone else entirely...]

...

[What the fuck...]

[Well, it looks like it’s someone else entirely.]

When the two of us approached the strange [Grafted] auras, we were expecting what we had seen the last time we fought them back in the [Abyssal Lands].

Namely, a bunch of fucked-up mortals with ill-fitting body parts harvested from dead kaijin.

Ill-fitting still applied, but the body parts weren’t as...fleshy...as last time.

These two warriors, who appeared to be from different tribes, didn’t have any body parts replaced like the previous [Grafted]. Instead, these two had pieces of metal attached to their bodies.

Not just random pieces, though, but weapons attached to their arms.

Not only that, but the usual aura felt... different.

[Hey... we’re sure they’re Grafted, right?] I asked Hurricroak. [ Because those attached weapons...they don’t feel like kaijin body parts to me.]

[They’re Grafted alright, but they’re not like the ones we fought in the Abyssal Lands,] Hurricroak said. [Fuck it, I don’t think we’re going to get any good answers unless we capture them or kill them.]

[Agreed!]

Both Hurricroak and I channeled [Chaos] at the bottoms of our feet in order to launch ourselves like rockets at the pair of Grafted(?) warriors.

Our approach wasn’t subtle in the slightest, but it still caught them by surprise.

"Oh fuck, they found us!"

"Who cares?! We got these new powers, so let’s use them!"

Now that we were closer, we could see that both of these Grafted(?) warriors had hammers attached to their arms.

Not only that, but these hammers were actually aether treasures.

The ones that had bravely challenged the two of us had leaped forward while making sure to slam their hammer fist into the ground.

[Earth Spike!]

[Look out!]

[Whoa!]

A spike of [Chaos]-infused earth shot out of the ground and actually scratched Hurricroak by the cheek, drawing blood from her.

I could feel that she had suffered a small twinge of pain from the attack, but the bigger feeling I was getting from her was surprise.

A surprise that was bubbling in my stomach as well.

[Oh, they can hurt us!]

[That means it might actually be fun!]

After we had dodged the spikes, the other guy attempted to swing his hammer fist forward to blast us with a wave of force.

Unfortunately for them, we were faster than them.

"Shit!"

[Magma Fist!]

[Thunder Palm!]

Now that we were in close combat quarters, Hurricroak and I proceeded to launch heavy blows aimed at the bottom of their jaws.

Since their anatomy hadn’t changed that much in comparison to the other Grafted we fought before, we figured that they still had the very human weakness of having to breathe.

One solid blow to the bottom of the jaw would cut airflow to the brain and knock them out in an instant.

Unfortunately, we were the ones that soon became too slow to react.

Moments before our fists could make contact, the jaws of our respective opponents suddenly transformed into what we could recognize as speakers.

[How the—]

Before we could curse our foul luck and wonder aloud how they knew what a speaker was, they point-blank blasted us with a weird technique that caused us to recoil in shock and pain.

[Ah!]

[Gah!]

"Fucking bail, now!"

In the confusion, the two Grafted warriors actually decided to bail as opposed to pressing their advantage, probably sensing that once we recovered, we would’ve shown them the wrath of true monsters.

[Oh, you stupid mother-wait...]

I was about to give chase and bury those two motherfuckers into the dirt when I sensed something was off about Hurricroak.

[Hurricroak, what’s wrong?]

The chimeric kaijin was curled up on the ground in a fetal position and muttering to herself as if she had just been shown her worst fear.

No...she was shown her worst fear.

As she muttered to herself, I focused on my connection with her, and I could see and feel what she had been shown by that weird scream.

[I...I didn’t mean to...]

[Oh...Hurricroak...]

She had been shown an image of herself, killing her beloved.

[Let’s...head back. We’re done for today.]