NOVPUBNine times out of ten, when a pair of warriors about as strong as Aether Grandmasters go up against a warrior as powerful as an Aether King, the King wins.
On paper, Jin Fang and Jinju Ren should’ve been wiped off the face of the planet by Gao Shen Yuan’s attacks awhile ago. Instead, they had not only managed to stay alive much longer than either had anticipated, but also inflict a decent amount of damage.
Of course, this damage wasn’t due to them using normal aether attacks.
Jin Fang was making use of her recently polished [Chaos] abilities to break through Gao Shen Yuan’s defenses, while Jinju Ren followed up with even heavier attacks empowered with dragon force.
The two of them were initially afraid of their abilities cancelling each other out, but that turned out to be an unnecessary fear.
Especially when they figured out that the area Jin Fang infected with [Chaos] on Gao Shen Yuan’s person were even more vulnerable to dragon force than usual.
In other words, they were able to keep pace with Gao Shen Yuan and occasionally do damage to her...before the [Shadow Sovereign] launched it’s attack.
After that, everything went bananas.
The sudden surge in dragon force in the area threw all three of them for a loop, but the following surge of [Chaos] made things incredibly disorienting.
Before, Gao Shen Yuan, and Jinju Ren to a lesser extent, were being subtly empowered by the dragon force being released by the [Shadow Sovereign]. This was due to them having attributes that actually aligned with the [Shadow Sovereign].
But, when the [Shadow Sovereign] attacked and Tor____ turned himself into a giant monster to block it, the environment became inundated with [Chaos].
To Jinju Ren and Gao Shen Yuan, this sudden flood in [Chaos] caused the two of them to instinctually coat themselves in a layer of dragon force. Neither understood why they did so, but it just felt right to do so.
Although, Gao Shen Yuan was a little annoyed to have to leverage the power of her seal in a defensive manner instead of an offensive manner.
As for Jinju Ren though, she was feeling strangely energized. 𝓃𝓸𝓿𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝓬ℴ𝓶
More specifically, she could feel that her familiar, Coral, was actively absorbing the surrounding [Chaos] and processing it into a form that was more digestible to Jin Fang’s constitution.
As well, she swore that there was yet another source of [Chaos] being processed in her person, but she couldn’t put a finger on what it was...but it felt familiar.
Either way, this flood of energy made her body was being actively saturated with high quality aether, and that she could just breakthrough by simply flexing her arm in a certain way.
Granted, she had no idea if this was a permanent gain or a temporary one due to the environment.
That was something that would have to be addressed after the battle had ended...which was easier said than done at the moment.
At this moment in time, despite most of her dragon force being used to make a protective coating, Gao Shen Yuan was still doing her damndest to kill Jin Fang and Jinju Ren. She had technically already won due to the [Shadow Sovereign] firing off it’s attack, but the sudden interference by Tortallion had threw a wrench in her plans and created a gap that could be exploited by her enemies.
As such, she figured it’d be best to kill any possible outside influences before they managed to reverse the situation in their favor. Especially when thosw outside factors just so happened to be descendants of
So far...she was doing a decent job.
"How is she still standing despite all of the damage we managed to do?," Jinju Ren shouted as she slashed away an attack in the form of a serpent made of shadows. "Seriously, what the fuck?!"
"Well for starters, she is an Aether King," Jin Fang replied. "It’s honestly impressive that we’ve managed to last this long."
"I know, but still it’s kind of -DODGE!"
"WHOA!"
Before Jinju Ren could finish her thought, both she and Jin Fang had to immediately split to the left and right as a beam of dragon force almost blasted them in the back.
"STAND STILL, YOU BRATS!"
"FUCK YOU!"
"No!"
As Jin Fang and Jinju Ren continued their aerial death of dance with Gao Shen Yuan, the [Chaos] surrounding them began to feel thicker and thicker.
At first, this change wasn’t all too noticeable. Aside from Jin Fang, none of the fighters present were too familiar with [Chaos], so they couldn’t tell how thick or thin its concentration was.
That, is until there was a very obvious sign that the [Chaos] was getting dense.
"Fucking die al-wait a minute, what the fuck?"
Just as Gao Shen Yuan fired off her fifth burst of dragon force, the beam suddenly tapered off and die before it got even within a foot of Jin Fang and Jinju Ren’s airspace.
Initially, Gao Shen Yuan thought that she didn’t put enough power into the attack.
Until she did it three more times...only for it to happen three times in a row.
"Alright, what the fuck?"
Eventually, Jin Fang and Jinju Ren noticed this unusual change in the battle as well...but they weren’t going to stop and chat with Gao Shen Yuan about it.
Especially since they had a clear idea as to why this was happening.
Sort of.
...
"Alright, now I’m sure I’m surrounded by a bubble of [Chaos]. Jin Fang, how are you doing this?"
"It’s not my doing actually," Jin Fang readily admitted. "I don’t know where this bubble is coming from, but it sure is helpful."
"Wait, it’s not coming from that magic stick of yours?"
"Nah, Coral is more geared towards offense than defense."
[It’s true,] Jin Fang’s bird turned bat added. [I take out eyes, not take blows.]
"Fair enough...then where is it coming from?"
"I don’t...wait a minute..."
When Jin Fang, Jinju Ren and Cornileus first arrived to Undertow, they made sure to bring pouches and/or spatial treasures filled with items that they figured they would need in battle.
Later on, when Jin Fang activated the [Chaos] treasure that Logos and Pathos gifted her, her pouch had transformed into being a part of her outfit.
And it was from this pouch that Jinju Ren and Jin Fang found their answer in the form of a glowing ball and hairpin.
"What the hell? Where’d you get those? They’re radiating a lot of [Chaos]..."
"Would you believe me if I said got it from an old man on the street?"
"At this point, yes."
A ball and hairpin that the latter was given to by an old man...who Jin Fang was now realizing was probably more significant to her life than she expected.
"Wait a minute, is the glowing starting to-"
BWOOM!
"What the shit?!"
"Whoa!"
"BAH! WHAT THE FUCK?!"
The next thing either of them knew, the aforementioned ball and hairpin suddenly released a burst of light that then turned into a two tone colored bubble surrounding Jin Fang, specifically.
And, to add hilarity to a strange situation, Gao Shen Yuan’s bubble of dragon force had collided and bounced off the [Chaos] bubble surrounding Jin Fang.
Evidently, this bounce gave Jin Fang and Jinju Ren to exchange a few more words...
"What the fuck is up with the bubble?"
"I still don’t know!"
"I’m gonna cut it!"
"Wait, wait, wait!"
ZOOM!
"Ey yo, what?"
...before the aforementioned magic bubble flew out of there like a bat out of hell.
Now, a part of Jinju Ren and Gao Shen Yuan assumed that this bubble thing was an evacuation style aether treasure, something meant to get Jin Fang out of any possible signs of danger.
"Cowardly little -wait...what the fuck?"
"Why is it going there?!"
Which is why they were both incredibly confused by the sight of Jin Fang and her mysterious magic bubble flying towarss where Tor___ and the [Shadow Sovereign] were colliding with one another.
Gao Shen Yuan thought she had a death wish.
Jinju Ren thought she was just being brave.
As for Jin Fang...she was confused all hell and then some.
...
’Huh...now I understand why Xiao Liu is perpetually annoyed all the time whenever [Chaos] anything is involved...how he hasn’t completely lost it yet is...wait, did he actually lose his marbles ages ago?’
As Jin Fang sailed through the air in the captivity of a magic bubble made of [Chaos], she took a page out of Zhen Liu’s book and did he best I make light of the situation....which actually became fairly easy when she started hearing voices in her head.
Again.
[Ooooh, look at ya! The little bambina is all grown up now!]
[Yes, yes. Too bad we couldn’t be there for her.]
[Well, we were non-existent for...several decades? Several centuries? What year is it? Which pope is in charge?]
’Pope?’
[Wrong country.]
