NOVPUB<<Wait...I just realized how messed up that sounded,>> Zhen Xun Tian said as she palmed her forehead and laughed. <<The branch clan isn’t going to be the ones to kill me. They’re going to be the ones seeing me off.>>
Evidently, this statement did nothing to assuage Nun Hua’s fears in the slightest. If anything, it just made her more curious. That stated, she understood that she would never get a straight answer unless she was as blunt as Zhen Xun Tian.
Which is why she decided to ask the following question.
<<Okay...how...do you know you’re going to be dying soon?>>
<<Oh, uh...remember that cult that old lizard sent me to go and eradicate? It was from like...thirty or so years ago?>>
<<The one being led by the Heaven’s Lawbringer Fox bloodliner or the one led by the guy with the demonic clam shell treasure?>>
<<The latter.>>
<<Ah.>>
<<Anyways,>> Zhen Xun Tian continued. <<Shortly before I finished the guy off, he gave me a "prophecy" of destined death. Where he said...what was it...>>
Zhen Xun Tian was silent as she stared upward while trying to recall this moment from several decades ago.
One would think a personalized death prophecy would haunt someone moreso than anything else, but alas, she wasn’t one of those people.
Nun Hua was all set to dismiss Zhen Xun Tian’s words at this point, until...
<<Okay, if you don’t remember then->>
<<Neither fang nor claw will mar thy skin, neither hand nor blade will wound thy flesh, but in the lands of dark water, you’ll face your death, surrounded by familiar strangers,>> Zhen Xun Tian eventually recited. <<And before the maw of an ancient beast, you will have to decide, life or death.>>
<<Or it was something like that, I don’t know. Why can’t soothsayers be direct about their shit?>>
<<Huh...>>
After hearing Zhen Xun Tian’s death prophecy, Nun Hua couldn’t help but be just...the slightest bit suspicious.
The amount of formulas, abilities and treasures out there that reportedly allowed the user to see the future were rare, and the ones that could see the futures of others were even rarer. Even then though, there was a chance those kind prophecies could just be full of smoke, mirrors and bullshit.
Especially something as vague as the one she heard.
<<Xun Tian...I don’t mean to discredit the motivator that turned you into a terror on the battlefield, but are you sure that that prophecy is true? I mean, it sounds a bit... vague.>>
<<I mean...ain’t that the point of prophecies and the like? To convey a very muddled message of the future while not explaining any of it?>>
<<I guess,>> Nun Hua capitulated. <<It’s just...if your death is going to be somewhere with "dark water", shouldn’t you just avoid the Abyssal Lands and, probably, parts of the Umbral Spider continent?>>
<<Thought about that, once or twice,>> Zhen Xun Tian agreed. <<But then I realized, why?>>
<<Why?>>
<<Why bother living in such a way to avoid my death at every turn? If I live, I live. If I die, I die. Hell, just the fact that I know when and where my death is going to occur is luxury that many other people can’t afford.>>
<<Luxury?>>
<<Think about it. How many people, do you know, have stopped themselves from doing something, talking to someone, eating something, all because they were either afraid of death, or believed that they had their whole life and then some to not worry about such things?>>
<<That...>>
<<Whereas I,>> Zhen Xun Tian said with dramatic flair and a hand on her chest, <<have the luxury of knowing that my ticket will only get punched at a specific point in time. Meaning that I can just...live. Consequences be damned.>>
<<Huh.>>
This was the first time Nun Hua had heard Zhen Xun Tian be surprisingly philosophical with her words, to the point that she almost agreed with her.
Not that she would ever to admit that.
<<Now then, I don’t know about you, but I recall my dear great grandnephew mention something about a weird eatery called a diner, and I want to try it,>> Zhen Xun Tian declared before walking in a manner that prompted Nun Hua to follow.
<<H-hey.>>
Zhen Xun Tian had accepted this prophecy as an inevitability ever since she heard, to the point of becoming hedonistic and flippant as a result.
The thing is though...prophecies are never set in stone. Especially when the ones that could defy such prophecies just so happened to be a hop, skip and a hippo ride away....
________________________________________
Kaijin Preparation
[Finally! I never thought we’d finally get to go to the Abyssal Lands!,] Hurricroak yelled with glee while using a couch as a foothold. [A place where we don’t have to pretend to be puppets for once, and I can show of my sexy electric blue body for everyone to see!]
[Hurricroak, please sit down,] Nepherage chided. [I’m trying to read up on what little access we have to the Undertow Kingdom.]
While Zhen Liu was at the estate, dealing with familial shenanigans, the kaijin were left alone to their own devices. However, in preparation to the big expedition into the [Abyssal Lands], where some of their predecessors once fought against the powers that be, they decided to do the one thing that they never thought they’d do.
Study.
However, there was an issue.
For reasons that Logos and Pathos couldn’t elaborate on for some reason, all firsthand sources on the history of Undertow Kingdom were...inaccessible.
As such, the kaijin were forced to look through a bunch of secondary sources that had...questionable biases.
Case and point, one of the books in regards to Undertow called it, "a haven for the depraved, unwashed and uneducated masses of lessers that needed to be elevated through the elegance of slavery".
Neither the kaijin nor their lord was a big fan of this text, but it did provide some insight on the type of people that didn’t like Undertow’s existence.
However, these books were also balanced out by a lot of grassroot accounts that praised Undertow as being a safe haven, a bastion against a cruel world.
Of course, the one thing connecting all of these accounts together were the Invulnerable Storm Queen and her Storm Knights.
Although...the accounts on them were weird.
[The Storm Queen arrived, wreathed in storm clouds and trumpeted by the thunder. Her trident came down like the judgement of heaven, annihilating the Bronze Raiders...yeah, I can believe that,] Nepherage read.
[With eyes as gray as stormy seas, and hair as wild as a tornado, the Storm Queen came and sunk the First Admiral like he was nothing more than a fish in a barrel...poetic,] Hurricroak commented.
[She was a cruel and heartless bitch...and I loved her for it....okay that’s just...wow,] Razorstella shook her head.
[Wait...hey guys!,] Screamira called out. [I think I found something a touch more interesting than those weird accounts.]
[Really?]
[What?]
[The identities of the Storm Knights.]
[Ooooh!]
[Lemme read, lemme see!]
Once Screamira made the information public, the kaijin all got up from their respective seats and made their way over to look at whatever archival knowledge the boney kaijin girl managed to dig up.
It came in the form of a diary.
...
Dear diary,
I always assumed that the story of the Storm Knights was merely a folktale, something that gave slaves and peasants hope in times of darkness.
But now, I know that they weren’t just rumors. That these stories were true!
Our village was in the brink of annihilation until, like a bolt of lightning, the Storm Knights came and saved us all.
They were as every bit as monstrous and strange as the rumors say, but I liked them more than any of the nobles that left the moment the invaders came.
Regardless, I made it a point to record all of their names, so I can remember who they were and how they hard they fought for us, even if I were to grow frail and gray.
That, and remembering twelve names of the top of my head would be...absurd.
...
Sir Tortallion, the Unbreakable.
Sir Krakelios, the Tricky.
Sir Grand Blue, the Gentle
Sir Marlancer, the Swift.
Sir Grand Fang, Sir Hammer Fang and Sir Saw Fang, the Fang Brothers, who insisted I kept them as such.
Lady Medusina, the Beguiling.
Lady Shockheel, the Shocking.
Lord Viceshell, the Stubborn
Lady Clobstar, the Resilient
Lord Puffer, the Large.
...
[Huh...think we’ll ever be remembered so fondly?]
[Maybe. Maybe not.]
[Well, at least we can say...these guys knew how to live.]
[Hmmm.]
As the rest of the kaijin continued to learn more about how others saw their predecessors, Spring Brawler turned his attention towards the old banner that the Storm Knights used to fly under.
[Maybe...we need something like that...]
________________________________________
A couple days later, and one broken leg finally healing...
"Okay... today’s the day," Zhen Liu told himself as he clapped his cheeks together. "Time to go and raid a tomb."
