Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1238 : Garden of Bloody Glass(2)
Ding-a-ling
[Epidemic Echo]
A delicate sound like a feather falling on to a lake's surface, echoed throughout the garden as Harriet rang her silver bell.
The technique she was using, [Epidemic Echo], wasn't a traditional aether art, rather it was something along the lines of an aether formula feature that could be taught to those with support type formulas.
Regardless, the way this trick was normally employed was for the purpose of diagnosis.
By extracting the blood of a patient,placing it in a glass tube or glass dish and using an instrument of some kind to produce a very specific frequency enhanced with aether, the resulting sound can resonate with the glass and produce an even louder tone.
At the basic level, this technique can just determine whether or not someone is sick and produce a resonating note that is louder than it's originator.
At a more advanced level though, the sound can be used to identify specific diseases.
Depending on what kind of vector is being stored on the glass, the [Epidemic Echo] will produce a different tone.
An illness that causes chill will produce low notes.
An illness that causes high fevers will produce high notes.
Paralysis and soreness sounds dull, while uncontrollable muscle movements will sound like a quivering note and the uncontrollable release of various bodily fluids sound absolutely sickening.
By themselves, every sound is unique and can provide a variety of information to healers, doctors and alchemists alike.
However, if one were to use this technique in the presence of multiple different vectors at once, then it produces a symphony that is both beautiful and haunting all at the same time.
And as of this moment, shortly after Harriet casted her technique and released the most beautiful ringing tone for all to hear, every single glass orchid in the garden began to sing in ways that caused the spines of all to hear it to shiver in ways they didn't think was possible.
"I am going to be completely honest with you girls," Harriet began to say as the symphony of sickness continued to play around them. "I have only heard a sound like this once in the special disease study workshop back at the academy, and even that failed in comparison to the sounds being played at this moment."
"What do you mean by that?" Alice asked while being understandably unnerved by the continuous echoes still playing around her.
"I think she's saying that this place is loaded with brand new illnesses and diseases that haven't been properly recorded yet," Alicia guessed.
"I think she means that some of these illnesses were hearing are older than some civilizations and some dragons," Bellona added.
"Both, actually," Harriet confirmed to the comfort of no one. "I can recognize most of these sounds, but the rest are either so ancient that I can only reference their modern descendants or so new that I can't identity them at all. Either way, we need to stay far away from these glass orchids or we're going to end up like them!"
"AAAAAHHHHH!"×2
At this point in time, the diseases afflicting the Peony Brothers had reached some form of unknown apex and were now at the terminal stages, at least by Harriet's estimation.
The one afflicted with Scorching Plague had actually caught fire at this point as the pustules on his body started gathering Ignarii aether and igniting the fluids they were leaking. Meanwhile, the one afflicted with Bleeding Frost was starting to look more and more like a living ice sculpture.
"AAAAAAaaaahhhh..."
Eventually, the Peony Brothers succumbed to their respective illness and died standing...or so the girls thought.
"Are...are they dead?"
"I don't know...."
"They look dead but they don't feel dead..."
Several tense, quiet moments passed as the girls kept a close eye on the Peony Brothers. At this point in time, they could feel the aether being released by these two sickened warriors starting to slow.
When an aether warrior dies, they either release all of their aether at once or it slowly disappears like grains of sand being dumped into an ocean. Of these two events though, the former was always a sign of fatality while the the latter could be a sign of possible recovery.
Right now, it was feeling like the latter, so the girls were waiting for the Peony Brothers to drop over dead or suddenly come back to life.
...crack
"Oh fuck."
Evidently, this was going to be a terrible case of the latter.
^Brother...^
^I know...I feel it too...^
The Peony Brothers suddenly started moving again after their respective diseases ran their course as a strange aether building inside them and changing the demeanor they presented to the world.
The Scorching Plague Peony Brother had developed a significantly more vicious air to them, reminding the girls of a volcano that was just about to erupt.
Meanwhile, the Freezing Blood Peony Brother had developed a cold, quiet demeanor that made one shiver just by being near them.
Accompanying these odd visual deformities, the aether of both of the Peony Brothers took on different characteristic that matched their respective changes.
On top of all of this, the eyes of both of them turned dark red, as if the inside of their eyes were flooded with blood.
^Ah...I see it now," the Scorching Plague Peony Brother said in a strange strained voice. ^The beauty of this world.^
^I see it too...^the Freezing Blood Peony Brother whispered in response. ^The beauty that can only come from life after death and disease...^
"What the fuck..." Alice cursed as she readied her [Astra], the feeling of danger crawling up the back of her neck.
^We must spread this beauty...^
^Yes, we must.^
After making this ominous declaration, the diseases Peony Brothers directed their gazes towards the girls.
Before, their gaze felt creepy and only a tad unsettling.
Now though, the gazes of the Peony Brothers just felt...wrong.
Whether it was due to the crimson orbs that replaced their eyes or their general aura, everything about the Peony Brothers seemed to now embody the idea of the uncanny valley.
Unfortunately, they didn't have the time to determine as to why they felt the way they did.
^Join us!^
"Shit!"
"Look out!"
The diseased Peony Brothers rushed towards the girls at speeds that was exceeded their previous assaults, yet their action didn't disturb the glass orchids in the slightest.
The only orchids that were disturbed the diseased brothers were the ones that they decided to pluck on their charge forward and began to wield like makeshift glass claws.
This would've been the part where the girls scatter in different directions to draw away the Peony Brothers attention in order to take them down two to one, but their instincts as warriors told them that was a bad idea.
After all, they were still surrounded by glass orchids that were rich in disease and the only safe path were the paved areas, which included a rather sizeable gazebo.
...
Wait a minute.
"Get to the gazebo!" Alice ordered the rest of her group, we're going to need more space if we're going to be fighting these bastards!
"On it!" Alicia nodded.
"Agreed!" Harriet confirmed while running after Alicia.
Bellona didn't say anything because she knew exactly what Alice had in mind.
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As the diseased brothers got closer and closer, Alice proceeded to empower her [Astra] before swinging it wide and fast.
[Lighting Reaper!]
Except this time, she had swung faster than the brothers could react.
Krick!
"What the fuck?!"
Except, her attack didn't make contact with the brothers.
In the moments before the scythe could cut through the Peony Brothers, several strange humanoid figures suddenly popped out of the ground and literally threw themselves in the path of the swinging scythe.
These strange beings looked like diseased corpses that had glass orchids growing out of their bodies, with the roots of said flowers taking the place of tendon and nerves.
Alice's scythe managed to cut down several of these diseased corpses with relative ease, but they also had the effect of slowing down Alice's attack just long enough for the diseased Peony Brothers to get in Alice's personal space...
"Shit!"
...and run right pass her.
"Wait, what?"
The diseased Peony Brothers tactically ignored Alice due to their senses telling them that Alicia, Bellona and Harriet were several stages weaker than the former.
In essence, they believed they had a better chance of infecting the girls going for the gazebo then the one that had almost killed them in the first place.
"You fucking cowards!"
Groan...
"Oh...shit."
However, just because they weren't attacking Alice, didn't mean she was going to be left alone to her own devices.
From the ground where the glass orchids grew, more and more of those weird root-covered corpses started to pop up from the ground, one after the other.
Each of the corpses showed various scars of a multitude of diseases.
"Okay, I'm staring to understand how these orchids got infected now..."
