Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1169: A Turned Back is a sign of Trust
’Alright, why do these flames taste like bitter melon and unripe mangoes? I’m not a big fan of either.’
[From what I can tell, the flames you’re currently absorbing have this weird quality of...purity or something.]
’Like it’s pure fire aether or something else?’
[Something else,] Blazejudicator. [It’s like these flames are meant to purify anything they burn. Or, at least it should.]
’Wait, does that mean I’m swallowing the fire equivalent of like...antibacterial holy water?’
[Kind of.]
’Man, this better not have any side effects or I’m going to be pissed.]
...Side effects still exist...
^Is...is that guy’s back glowing or am I going crazy?^
^Former.^
^Huh...^
Having their asses saved by someone their leaders were treating as an enemy just moments ago was...strange to the Cortez Company army.
This world was one where the strong made the rules and those with sufficient power tended to look down upon those of lesser status, sometimes quite literally.
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It was hard not to get into that mindset when reaching certain cultivation stages gave the practitioner things like the strength to throw mountains, the endurance to survive volcanoes and even the ability to stop aging altogether.
At some point, warriors who reach these higher stages of existence, stop seeing people as people and start seeing people as ants.
Or worse.
Many people knew that this disconnect sounded wrong, but couldn’t help but to understand it at the same time.
So the fact that one of these powerful beings, an enemy no less, had gone out of their way to protect them was...confusing.
To most.
To one soldier in particular though, he saw an opportunity...and a choice.
...
’If I just stab forward at the right time, then the Boss will be sure to reward me!,’ Antonio thought to himself as he tightly gripped the spear in his hands.
Antonio, for lack of a better term, was an ordinary soldier.
He grew up in a large family of farmers, left in order to find his way in the world, saw an opportunity in becoming a decently paid soldier for a private company and more or less spent his money and free time on basic carnal pleasures.
A perfectly ordinary life for a perfectly ordinary warrior, whose formula would only allow him to reach Aether Acolyte at most.
But...regular routine has a habit of producing fatigue.
Especially when one saw an example of what a dead-end future looks like.
As a member of the Cortez Company, Antonio had been there on the day that the vagabond bastard known as Lythero blew into town.
He knew about how the Honor Ancestor wanted the company to keep this boh suppressed until the day he died, and he was more than happy to oblige since it seemed like easy money.
Keeping an eye on this young man, someone who had lost everything after being on the path to greatness and was now essentially as faceless and as ordinary as everyone else was strangely comforting to Antonio.
’Just like the rest of…makes sense. Only those who were born in the right circumstances can have a shot at greatness and immortality.’
But then…this worldview was shattered in the span of a singular hour.
First, they were told to deploy because someone had done the unthinkable and broke the bastard’s seal.
Then, he and two of his fellow soldiers were sent to figure out what was going on and forced into a dialogue with the instigator of this entire affair, Dealmaker.
A dialogue that caused two of them to have a mental breakdown, while he himself became incredibly introspective.
Not enough to be sent to the medical tent, so he was forced to half-heartedly stand in formation with the rest of the soldiers.
Antonio would’ve spent the whole night like this, lost in his thoughts while standing with his comrades but shortly after Boss Kendana and the other leader entered the mirage barrier, all hell broke loose.
They could feel the surges of aether and other strange energies leaking through the barrier, and when it finally fell apart and he saw the state of affairs they were all in, Antonio realized something.
He realized how powerless he was, and how he would never be able to reach those vaunted heights, so he might as well die by the inferno pillar created by someone that had a brighter future than himself...until the opportunity presented itself.
For a reason Antonio couldn’t understand, Dealmaker had placed himself in-between the pillar of flames and the Cortez Company army. Making things even more convenient, he was right in front of Antonio.
Antonio could feel that Dealmaker was using his abilities to keep the Cortez Company army safe from the flames, but he couldn’t comprehend why.
What he could comprehend though, was that this was the perfect opportunity to strike this guy in the back.
Sure there was a possibility he wouldn’t be able to do anything meaningful in terms of damage, but he could also slay the warrior that the bosses had trouble slaying.
After all, Dealmaker ’s back was turned and he could see a huge glowing weak spot on it.
In one brilliant strike, he could become someone with a bright future himself.
Alternatively, by doing so, he could very well be damning himself and his fellow soldiers by being a backstabbing bastard.
All it would take it one stroke, one stab, one piercing through the back and his entire life could-
^Hey! What do you think you’re doing with that?!^
^Huh?^
Antonio snapped back to his senses, realizing that his spear was being held by another person’s hand.
Correction, more than one hand was holding his spear back.
In this moment, Antonio realized that he had almost stabbed Dealmaker in the back but that we was stopped by his fellow soldiers.
^Are you trying to get us killed?!^
^That guy just saved us, and you want to stab him in the back? What the fuck man?!^
^I...I...^
Antonio couldn’t figure out what he could say to justify his actions. He knew how it would sound if he expressed his reasoning, so he defaulted to one that has worked for practically everyone he knew.
Blame the higher-ups.
^B-but the bosses were fighting this guy earlier, so I figured-^
^The bosses? The bosses?! Man, fuck the bosses, they left us to die from something we’re barely related to,^ one of the soldiers chided as he pushed away Antonio’s spear. ^As far as I care, they can go and suck a poison spider egg.^
^Diego!^
^You know I’m right! We’ve been wasting our time and life keeping eye on a bastard that just did the impossible. I don’t know about you, but I’m quitting after this...if I get out of this alive.^
Hearing the others express dissatisfaction about their lives as well made Antonio feel mixed.
They had been colleagues, brothers-in-arms for years and he had never heard them be so...antagonistic about their lot in life.
He had assumed that they were like him and just...used to the humdrum and the burnt out drive.
Had they actually managed to maintain their desire to grow after all this-
^Hey! Something’s happening!^
^Not just something, the fires are going out!^
^Finally!^
Before his very eyes, Antonio saw that his window of opportunity had closed.
As soon as those strange flames disappeared, Dealmaker had stopped channeling his power to defend them as well.
Antonio couldn’t help but to stare at Dealmaker’s back at this moment in time and couldn’t help but to wonder something...strange.
’This man is no bigger than any other man I know, and yet his back is wider and taller than any other man I know. Could I reach those heights in my lifetime as well?’
As these old thoughts, thoughts he had long since believed to be dead because of the rigors of mundanity, Antonio could feel something stirring inside of his soul.
Not just that, but he felt as if something else started stirring too.
That something being his own memories.
’I grew up on a farm, I grew up as the eldest of thirteen children and went off to find my own...wait...that’s not right. I wasn’t a farmer’s kid, I was a...what...what was [I]?’
...Time’s up...
’Oh thank the maker, that’s finally over...,’ Zhen Liu mentally sighed as he dismissed the bone vaccuum straw. ’Man alive, it feels like my internals might bust a gasket or something.’
[We’ll do a sync-up after this is over.]
’This meaning...’
[Whatever the hell might happen between Lythero and those Cortez Company guys.]
’Hmm. Oh wait a minute, I’m picking up even more desires...wait...this one feels weird...why does it feel weird?’
...
|Powerful Desires have been detected.|
|Consolidating into cores...ERROR! ERROR! Powerful desire sourced from someone with suppressed [Chaos] has been detected, superceding other sources of desire...complete.|
|Core of [$+#!_; Ambition] has been consolidated, please use at your earliest convenience.|
...Meanwhile...
<=What the flaming fuck nuggets?=>
