"What the hell kind of monsters are they?!" a soldier cried out in shock and fear as he tried and failed to overpower a zako made of hardwood.

Once the initial shock of being ambushed had subsided, the soldiers of the Punishing Hounds Platoon did their best to coordinate with their elite warriors and push back against the Kaijin. Unfortunately, before they could even try to intervene, the aforementioned kaijin threw out several fistful of zako marbles.

The marbles weren't noticed at first, but everyone soon paid attention once the marbles had transformed into monstrous warriors that matched the enemy army before them.

As for the kaijin themselves and the elite warriors they targeted for this battle, the ones that had strength ranging from Aether Grandmaster rank to Aether Lord, they were in the middle of a stalemate.

Each of the kaijin had picked a fight with not just a single Aether Lord each, but several of the Aether Grandmasters as well, purposefully putting themselves in situations where they were outnumbered four to one at minimum.

Did they do this because they had death wishes?

No.

Did they do this because they were confident in their fighting abilities?

Yes.

But they also decided to fight like this because they also wanted to make sure that their creator/leader only had to deal with this army's leader and nobody else.

After all, he was technically going to be fighting above his weight class.

…

'Frosttusk, are you doing okay?'

[Never better, minn jarl. This guy is doing nothing but giving me a power boost,] Frosttusk rumbled in Zhen Liu's head.

'Alright, tell me when you're fully charged, then we'll switch to offense. Hurricroak, you know what to do when we're ready to fire.'

[Yes indeedy!]

'And with the plan settled… Nepherage, get inside me.'

[As you command, milord.]

…

^You filthy heretic! I'll make sure you burn to cinders! ^ Bishop Olmen roared despite his [Astra] being stuck in Zhen Liu's shield.

Influenced by Zhen Liu's [Chaos], and his own frustrations over the matter, Bishop Olmen began to channel his aether into his axe. As energy flowed into the [Astra], its edge grew sharper, and the heat coming off of it became even more intense.

At least, that was supposed to be the case.

Alas, this endeavor turned out to be rather useless. In fact, it was downright detrimental.

'Wait…something's wrong,' Bishop Olmen realized as he felt the air around him getting colder rather than hotter. 'What in the world?!'

As Bishop Olmen pumped heat into his axe, the shield it was embedded in simply sucked away the heat and began to reinforce itself several times over with progressively thicker layers of ice. In a couple of moments, the ice was going to overpower Olmen's flames and freeze his axe in place. Of course, this scenario would only be the case if the axe in question weren't an [Astra].

'Should I summon my [Icon]? No, not yet. I can just recall my weapon anyways.'

Understanding that keeping in contact with the shield was just asking for trouble at this point, Bishop Olmen dismissed his [Astra] and took a step back to launch an attack from a better angle. However, what he saw next was so confusing that it stunned him into inaction for a brief few moments.

'What the fuck?!'

Before his very eyes, the weird horned woman made of crimson jade had transformed into a wisp of energy that quickly flowed into Zhen Liu's body.

In an instant Zhen Liu's whole demeanor seemed to transform as his innate aura suddenly spiked in power as well.

From Bishop Olmen's perspective, it was almost as if the young warrior's formula had undergone a foundational change.

Unfortunately, he wasn't going to be able to ponder over this change for long.

"Hey! Don't you know it's dangerous to pause in the middle of a fight?" Zhen Liu called out, his voice sounding layered with that of a heroic warrior woman's voice. "Otherwise, you're going to find yourself in the middle of an electric blizzard!"

Soon after Zhen Liu had combined with Nepherage, he had ordered Frosttusk to change from his shield form into that of a hand-held cannon that vaguely resembled a trumpeting mammoth head.

Once the cannon had formed, Zhen Liu pumped [Chaos], aether, and heat into it and caused massive chunks of ice to fork around the mouth of the barrel. At the same time, Hurricroak began to electrically charge both barrel and ammo.

Once both were fully charged with electrical might, Zhen Liu unleashed that aforementioned electric blizzard he promised just moments ago.

"Break for me!"

With a pull of the trigger, over a dozen chunks of ice the size of baseballs and infused with electricity were unleashed from the cannon and soared through the air as fast as lighting bolts towards Bishop Olmen.

The holy man was able to react in time to cut through several of the ice chunks with his resummoned [Astra], but that turned out to be a bad idea.

Natural ice, when mechanically stressed, has the ability to produce small amounts of electricity. The ice that Zhen Liu, Frosttusk, and Hurricroak, made however, had the power to produce enough electricity to rival a fucking thunderbolt from a block of ice as big as those baseballs that were just fired.

And Bishop Olmen had shattered, not melted, about a dozen or so balls of ice at the same time.

In other words, he just subjected himself to the same amount of electricity as being struck by a dozen bolts of lighting at the same time.

"GAAAAHHH!"

Not only that, but because he was stunned by his own electric hubris, he neglected the remaining balls of ice that slammed right into him.

If he didn't have his [Regalia] active at this time, the injuries he would've been suffering would be beyond fatal.

...

'Damn! That looked like a critical hit!' Zhen Liu noted with surprise.

[That's not going to be enough to take him down though, is it?] Hurricroak asked.

[No,] Nepherage answered. [If anything, it seems like Bishop Olmen is even angrier than before.]

[Good,] Frosttusk rumbled. [I enjoy a challenge.]

'In that case, y'all better get ready to switch-up. He's coming back for a second round!'

...

An angry grimace formed under Olmen's [Regalia] as he tanked the ice balls and stabilized his footing. Once he had done so, Olmen wasted no time to summon his [Icon].

An [Icon] could be used in one of two ways.

The first was an area of effect ability that varied from warrior to warrior, but could always count on having a beneficial effect to allies and a detrimental effect on enemies.

Zhen Liu equated this ability to totems used by a certain class in a videogame he used to play when he was younger.

The second ability, which Bishop Olmen was leveraging, was a straightforward empowerment effect that was not unlike the kaijin [Possession] ability. However, the point of an [Icon] was to take what was already there and enhance it to an absurd degree.

A stylized crying skull covered in flames and barbed wire manifested upon Olmen's chest, giving the man's holy armor a decidedly ghastly aura instead.

The moment this [Icon] formed, Olmen's aether grew significantly hotter and gave off this feeling that he had transformed from a crusader into an executioner of divine wrath. Then again, that might've been due to his axe-like [Astra] suddenly transforming into a significantly more vicious form.

^Praise be to the Sacred Flame, and woe be on to you, oh foul blasphemer,^ Olmen said with a deep growl. ^You shall now burn before my wrath!^

Lifting the axe into the air, Olmen made a mighty swing and released a torrent of flames that threatened to engulf Zhen Liu in a holy rage.

Unfortunately for him, that didn't happen.

"Shit, things are getting hot," Zhen Liu cursed in a strangely jovial sounding voice. "Looks I'm going to need much cooler attire!"

Moments before the flames impact him, Zhen Liu decided to show off his transformation ability.

Frosttusk and Hurricroak simultaneously unequipped themselves and transformed into cards that Zhen Liu resettled into his [MY Driver].

[Frozen Stigma, set!]

[Electric Taboo, set!]

[Engage!]

In an instant, Zhen Liu's electric neon blue armor was replaced by an ice blue visage that vaguely resembled a viking berserker. At the same time, his mammoth-like ice gun had been replaced by an electric guitar that was decorated in animal carvings.

The moment the flames touched Zhen Liu's new armor, several vents built into it began absorbing the flames in a greedy manner.

"Shit!"

Olmen, seeing this sight, prepared himself for another salvo of ice, despite seeing the lack of an ice gun being present.

What happened instead was that several ports revealing speakers appeared all over Zhen Liu's body, and a cord suddenly connected itself to both the speakers and the electric guitar in Zhen Liu's hands.

A quick strum of his fingers later, and a huge wave of thunder impacted Olmen.

Needless to say, Olmen was confused as fuck over the sudden switch up.

"What the fuck is happening?!"