Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?-Chapter 1220: Freaky Ahh Gallery

’Why do I get the feeling that this entire ruin is going to be like something out of a scary story?’ Zhen Liu asked his kaijin as soon as he and his cousins arrived to their destination,

’Because I am reminded of the time we went to visit the Duke de Howlite...’

[Probably because this place looks like something out of those old horror movies,] Nepeherage concurred. [Kind of reminds me of something out of the Aztec Mummy.]

[Really? I was going to say the original Mummy movie,] Razorstella followed up. [The one in black and white, not the one with the oddball trilogy with the sudden shift in lead actress in the third movie.]

[This place does have more of a B-grade horror vibe,] Screamira pointed out.

[The Mummies of Guanajuato,] Springerdermain simply stated without elaborating further.

’Did y’all just watch even more movies since I’ve been missing?’

[Partially.]

[Only a little.]

[You were missing for several weeks at a time and we were worried that the worst had occurred.]

[We needed the distraction.]

[What’s a movie?,] the Corpse Doll eventually asked Blazejudicator in the midst of all this cinema talk.

[It’s… kind of like a street play, but it’s recorded in a way that it can be performed over and over again at the moment of creation.]

[Interesting...]

...

For some unknown reason, Zhen Liu, his cousins, Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai (and his kaijin), were sent to a location named the [Gallery of Cloaked Mirrors].

A part of Zhen Liu had assumed that the name was probably a metaphor or just a clever pun title of some kind.

That wasn’t the case at all; in fact, Zhen Liu was going to discover that this was a very literal title.

The gallery’s exterior was a pyramid-shaped building that was covered in intricate carvings and whose entrance was flanked by stone statues of jaguars.

The jaguars were posed in a manner similar to the guardian lion statues that the Zhen Clan had commissioned for their own estate’s entryway, but these jaguar statues were also inlained with pieces of obsidian and semi-precious stones.

"Huh...ya think we could renovate the statues at home to include more jewels and stuff?," Zhen Xing asked, admiring the aesthetics of the statues at the time.

"That depends," Zhen Liu answered. "Do you want those statues upgraded my way or hire a professional?"

"What happens if we do it your way?," Zhen Tai asked.

"Non-zero chance it might just turn into a statue of a duck."

"The fuck?"

"Exactly."

Based on the fact that the exterior was rather extravagant, the Zhen Clan warriors assumed that the interior was going to be equally extravagant. Turns out the interior was the exact opposite of the exterior.

...

[Revising my answer, this is like if the Picture of Dorian Gray became significantly more serial killer focused.]

[No shit.]

...

The interior of the gallery was...gloomy, to say the least.

The main foyer of a gallery would normally be home to a couple select statues and have its walls covered in paintings.

In this particular instance, though, there were no statues, and the walls were covered in mirrors that were covered in pieces of cloth.

But not just any ordinary pieces of cloth.

"Wait a minute."

At this moment in time, Zhen Tai was the closest to one of these strange gallery mirrors, so he was the first to notice that the pieces of cloth were embossed with aether arrays. He just didn’t know what kind.

"Hey, I’m not exactly the most scholarly among us," Zhen Tai called out to his cousins. "But these cloth covers look like they’ve been embossed with sealing arrays."

"Well, that’s incredibly ominous," Zhen Liu noted. "I guess we should probably take that as a sign to not touch any of these mirrors then."

"I don’t think we can," Zhen Xing added as he took a closer look at the cloth-covered mirrors. "If you look at the edges, you can make out that there are smaller conditional sealing arrays. I don’t know what that condition might be, but unless it’s met, these things will be stuck here until the end of time...probably."

"You mean, they’ll be stuck there unless I get involved," Zhen Liu teased while wiggling his fingers with bits of [Chaos] flowing through them.

"Please don’t set off a possible trap with that [Chaos] stuff of yours."

"I know, I know."

The Zhen Clan group decided to not push their luck any further and figured that going deeper into the gallery was a better idea than standing around.

As they did though, Zhen Liu took this opportunity to ask something he forgot to do the night prior.

"So, since you guys are now aware of the kaijin and the fact that my main force of power is [Chaos], have you guys learned how to use it yourself yet? I mean, I know y’all are learning the [Primordial Beast Scripture]. How is that going?"

Zhen Liu expected his cousins to be reluctant in sharing this type of information with him, perhaps even a little cagey.

This was the case in a lot of media he had consumed prior to now, where a sudden change in powers causes issues to arise and significantly more secret-keeping behavior.

But much to his surprise and delight, this didn’t occur.

"Oh, it’s actually going great," Zhen Xing admitted. "Felt weird at first, and we did have questions, but Zhen Hai and Zhen Feng were actually pretty straightforward in sharing this information and answered most of them."

"Yeah, I even figured out how to do a combination move with my father," Zhen Tai added. "Although, there are a few questions I have that I couldn’t get answers for."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Well..."

...Q&A Time...

Q1. Is it normal for me to be hearing voices in my head whenever I make use of [Chaos]?

A1: Kind of. Although I’m not the best authority on that because of the fact, I have multiple of them in my head that are sentient.

Q2: How come this [Chaos] stuff doesn’t conflict with my own cultivation exactly? I thought this stuff cancelled aether altogether.

A2: A bit of a misconception. [Chaos] reacts to the intent of the aether. If it’s hostile, it’ll act defensive. If it’s assistive, it’ll try to amplify. Kind of why I’m extra sensitive to sound-based aether arts.

Q3: Are we going to turn into kaijin if we keep cultivating this stuff?

A3: No. I would have to do that.

Q4: If my cultivation ever gets compromised, can I use this [Chaos] stuff to repair and/or replace it?

A4: Massive maybe. In the same way an Anima wielder could just rely on that to fight like an aether warrior of the same cultivation stage, [Chaos] has it’s own thing. Also, the fact that I can use it to replace my lack of aether channels should probably be enough to tell you how it could go if your cultivation ever gets hampered.

...Now back to the story...

"Anything more?"

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"Nah."

"We’re good."

"Cool...wait a minute. What the fuck?"

As the Zhen Clan scions continued their way through the gallery, they eventually came across something that stuck out in this environment.

One of the covered mirrors wasn’t completely covered.

"That...can’t be good," Zhen Xing noted.

The mirror in question was rectangular in design and was exposed in such a manner that the upper right-hand corner of the cloth was now sagging downward and inward, exposing the glass surface of the mirror behind it.

As they stared at the partially exposed mirror, they could sense a sinister energy coming out of it like heat from an open fire.

Needless to say, all three of them proceeded to take on fighting stances.

"Okay, I have a couple of ideas as to what these covered mirrors do, ready to hear them?"

"Yup."

"Mhmm."

"Either these covered mirrors have something sealed inside them that will try to kill us the moment we expose them to the light, hence the covers, or these mirrors have something on them that will copy our appearances and force us to fight demented clones of ourselves and each other."

"What the difference between the two?," Zhen Xing asked, figuring there was no difference.

"Former we could maybe use diplomacy to prevent issues, the latter is probably gonna be some body snatching bullshit, and we’d definitely have to fight while probably having to know intimate details with one another."

"How...how do you know that?"

"I have a deep-seated paranoia when it comes to the matter of mind control and being possibly replaced by a body double," Zhen Liu admitted.

"Okay, so what do we do?," Zhen Tai asked while impatiently bouncing between his feet.

He had wanted to go in and attack, but his instincts were telling him otherwise.

"Since it’s probably an aether based copy...I’ll do it. I don’t have any aether based abilities for it to copy anyways," Zhen Liu pointed out.

Spoiler alert, yes he did.