Genji was looking out of the window of his office, a far better furnished room than the resting places of his companions, as was appropriate for an Elder. No, in his heart he was not an Elder. He had never been fond of the traditions and rules of mainstream society. For him, they were the Tokugawa Clan, but he had to make compromises if he wanted to absorb the stray fighters they desperately needed.
Times were truly desperate and the only uplifting thought was that their enemies had to share the difficult circumstances his clan had found itself in. Resources were thin and danger lurked everywhere.
Thinking of the dangers, Genji nearly jumped up from his chair when he heard a noise, but he quickly calmed down when he recognized the familiar knocking sound on the sturdy door of his office.
"Come in." He barked, not in the mood for conversations, but made a long face when he saw an unexpected visitor.
It was a little green creature he had seen following their new asset, Karl. His comrades might have a different opinion, but Genji still considered him an asset, despite the unfortunate escapade in the Gate chamber.
The goblin walked closer to Genji while carrying a letter in his both hands like a treasure. When he reached Genji, he bowed his head and waited for him to take it. Genji did not think about it twice and took the yellow letter, unveiling the terrible writing inside.
"Are we now sending letters to each other? Ridiculous." He stared at the writing while thinking where the writer might have run off after the little escapade with the Gate.
He was barely able to read it.
We need to talk about the topic from before. What do you know about the people from the outside?
It was a single, simple line. Despite being unsigned, Genji knew who wrote it and shook his head while bringing a piece of charcoal from a room next door.
"I do not have time for this." Genji was expecting another attack at any moment and had little patients for the antics of their new comrade that was for some reason talking to him through letters.
His answer, hastily written on the same piece of paper, was short and simple.
Now is not the time.
It was obvious he could not trust the weirdo with secrets, they were far from close friends and writing down any secrets would be the height of stupidity anyway.
"I hope out new friend is not losing it, he would not be the first." Genji sighed and followed the green skin with his eyes until the Goblin disappeared behind the camp gates.
* * * *
Watching through the eyes of his minion, Karl did not even need for the letter to arrive to know the answer.
"It was worth the shot, ending up with the expected result I see." What happened was exactly what he had anticipated. Genji had been only teasing him with crumbs, but he was far from ready to tell him the whole story. "Not that I care, I do have eyes."
At first, he had thought that some people from Genji's camp had come from another word, particularly from Japan, yet further interaction with them was not supporting that theory. They had many features of Japanese people, often even names, but at the same time they behaved differently as if all of that was just a facade. Karl's current, most plausible hypothesis was that a long time ago, a group of Japanese really had come to the strange cultivation world, but they had left here only their descendants who mixed with who had already resided in the different world.
Genji just seemed to be a part of some sort of a cult who retained more of their history than the others, but he was far from being the original space traveler himself.
"Like this, the value of his information is far less than I had originally thought." Karl's mood worsened and he switched his attention to his campaign against the pest that had been targeting him for some time. In part, it was his fault to expect too much when he heard about other people like him, it seemed that those who were in Edo had long died of old age.
He focused on his marching forces and his vision suddenly shifted, the top half of his view being occupied by a hood that was covering his eyes. He quickly got accustomed to the shift from his usual three hundred and sixty degrees vision to the standard binocular vision of a human. In fact, it was much less jarring thanks to the back of his real body being most of the times stuck to something, causing him to not having his eyes on his backs as was normal for an ordinary human.
Naturally, a Priestess of Depravity became his proxy. He chose her not due to lust, but just because she was the sole only minion in his current force that looked more or less human. As a stone, Karl had learnt the value of not complicating things by looking too different than other intelligent life, who tended to be humanoid.
"However, I could try to possess a dog and explore the joy of living as an animal." Karl mused in his head and had to slap himself inside his mind for thinking like a lunatic. Quickly, his lagging brain caught up to the situation again and he saw the street his small army of minions was currently marching through. He decided to pay little attention to remain hidden and was about to perform a frontal assault on the den of the annoying pests.
He hoped it would teach them not bothering him at every turn.
Thanks to some flaming speeches of Elder Sato, Karl knew a rough location of the Jing-Jang Palace. He felt eerie when walking in the midst of his twisted minions and imagined his attack that would surely remind him of some horror movie. In his mind, his disorderly mob of evil minions ran towards the cultivators in their neat robes and tore them apart with their hands.
"What, with their hands?" Karl spoke through the priestess realizing he should have a better idea about the actions of his army.
They could not possibly fight just by their bare hands!
"I mean, there has to be some voodoo to it, yes? And why can I speak? I have found out only now?!" The Priestess of Depravity gnashed her teeth under her hood while taking in her own melodious voice. "Anyway, stop right here and each one of you attack that pole with a ranged attack!"
Karl gave a command and the group stopped and produced an immense racket when every single member of his forces tried to perform a ranged attack as ordered.
Naturally, his most numerous Flesh of N'Ri simply stared and did nothing, obviously not capable of a ranged attack and lacking any creativity to think of something. Following their example, the two Brain Eaters just wobbled on their many legs with obvious disinterest.
Karl could understand them, poles had no brain after all.
The first minion that took some acting were the Mad Puppets, who spat at the pole in the distance, their artillery bombardment severely lacking range to even reach the pole. Their saliva just splashing against the ground, not even looking dangerous in any way.
But their continued in their actions anyway.
"Truly mad." The Priestess of Depravity said in an alluring voice, as if enchanted by their lack of rationality.
"Why does this bitch speak like she was only one second from an orgasm?" Karl said through his proxy with the most unhinged voice yet, and while breathing heavily, reminded himself not to speak publicly while using the priestess.
Karl quickly forced his attention on the Wartorns of Fu, who were busy tearing out the rusted instruments embedded in their flesh and throwing them at the pole. When most of what could be used this way had been torn out of their flesh, leaving many wounds oozing blood, they just continued to roar in the direction of the pole.
"They've tried." Karl wanted to state dryly, but what left the lips of the priestess was something entirely different.
In the next second, the pole exploded into a cloud of ash, surprising Karl greatly.
"Oh, such power!" The Priestess of Depravity spoke again and took a deep breath to calm herself down.
Karl was starting to feel mentally fatigued.
"You need to go one at a time boys, I have not caught who did that." He blocked off his bearer's theatrics and commanded the rest of minions to find out who possessed the unexpected ranged attack.
First to go was a Spawn of N'Ri, his creation screeched as if pleased by the focused attention of its master and two of its legs jumped, lifting briefly the torso of the minion, making its mouth face the pole for the needed second. It was all the time it took for the creature to open its mouth and while exposing its long tongue, spitting a thin jet of black saliva at the pole.
The attack was incomparable to the impotent attempts of the Mad Puppets, the jet hitting its mark and making the pole corrode at the speed visible to a naked eye. It was no cannon round, but the attack was dangerous enough to be used in the future battle.
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"Good boy, finally someone skilled with his . .. Finally someone skilled!" The priestess complimented the minion and it began squirm with pleasure while clicking its tongue.
"That is enough, next! Attack the pole at range!" Karl quickly focused on a different minion and ordered it to attack a different pole, as the old one could not be used anymore, its top fallen off after the middle part had been thoroughly corroded by the black saliva.
Immediately, a Flesh Golem flexed its muscles and grabbed the nearby Spawn of N'Ri that was still shivering in happiness by one of its legs and threw it at the pole. The poor spawn collided with the pole and bent it almost at the right angle. After the improvised landing, Karl expected the spawn to have a bone to pick with the rude golem, but instead, it entangled the pole with its thick legs and turned it into a twisted spaghetti.
It clearly considered itself a part of the ordered ranged attack and the master's order was of highest priority.
"What a lovely cooperation." Karl breathed out sharply and continued with the test.
"You, attack the pole over there!" He pointed at his colleague, another Priestess of Depravity,
An extra prolonged sigh escaped the lips of the commanded minion and her red robe slipped off her shoulders, enabling Karl to see much more than just her long, black hair. The perfect body of the priestess was bound in leather undergarments in the most revealing way, only sparingly veiling some parts of her body, leaving the rest that should have been hidden in the first place fully exposed.
The priestess bent her legs and her powerful muscles tensed, the next second she launched herself high into the air, moving in the direction of the pole from above.
Karl observed her trajectory, captivated by the jump.
"Do not tell me . . ." For a second, Karl thought that the priestess was more mad than the Mad Puppet, but he noticed that the hands of the minion glowed purple and thick chains quickly wrapped around both her arms. Still in the air, she extended her right hand and the chain launched itself, wrapping rightly around the pole. She proceeded to pull herself towards her target and when she reach the ground, she slammed the pole with her left hand entangled in heavy chains, doing extensive damage.
"Not bad, only the jailers left before we reach our expensive superstar." Karl nodded his silky white chin and his eyes shifted to a minion dressed in leather, this time in a much more decent way than the priestesses.
"Have a go at it." Karl pointed at another pole, as the previous one had been ruined again and one of the Jailers of Sisith showcased the most ordinary ranged attack yet, he pulled a knife out of his leather trousers and skillfully threw it at the pole.
It hit the mark, fell off and that was it.
"Well done, this touch of normalcy was much needed at this point." Karl conveyed his feelings to the minion and swiftly changed his object of interest before the minion proved him wrong by doing something indecent.
"Now, it is your turn! Show that pole your might!" Karl excitedly encouraged his last untested minion.
Prophet of N'Ri simply lifted his broad knife and looked at the image of the pole that was reflected in it. He closed one of his five eyes and the pole quickly deteriorated like being exposed to ten thousand years of erosion in a single second. Karl's guess was right and in the next second, the pole turned into a cloud of ash.
"That is cool, but the eyes. . ?" Karl watched the minion's closed eye that had obviously something to do with the power he had just used and feared that one of his prized Eyes of N'Ri had been irreversibly consumed, but rejoiced when the minion opened the eye again after roughly five minutes and had no apparent problems with its functionality.
"Not bad, he can probably do this four times in five minutes, that is quite fast considering how deadly the power is. He can surely fight in melee using other means as well." Karl thought that the test was a success. His new minions clearly did not possess the sheer firepower of a group of Void Knights, but his attacks might be more insidious and deadly than before. No more of his former straightforward bombardment with Void.
"Yes, I am more insidious now." Karl mused in her melodious voice and started to feel more exposed, when he realized that the Priestess of Depravity was basically naked under the loose red robe.
The confidence in his forces reignited, Karl was marching towards his target until he finally saw a wooden gate that was blocking the street, they had finally reached the Jing-Jang Palace.
"Go, destroy the place and everyone who resist you!" Karl shouted and the mass of his minions moved forward with incredible momentum. He chose a mindless frontal assault, as there was nothing to lose. Even if he failed, he guessed the appetite for adventure of these people would be cooled off either way.
He heard panicked shouts in the distance and watched those burdened with guard duty running back and forth in panic when faced with the inconceivable enemy they had never encountered before. Yet, their looks turned suddenly calm and they began stretching their limbs.
"Lame, they cannot touch the ground with their hands while having their legs straight? That is a basic exercise!" Karl wondered in his mind, not daring to make even a peep aloud, trying to avoid any more shenanigans of his bearer. "What? Are they dumb? Why are they exercising?"
He quickly realized that it was the work of some of his minions, most likely the Mad Puppets who looked suspiciously focused on the two guards. Karl was not the only one confused and it resulted in their frontal assault turning into a surprised attack, where his minions were able to reach the wooden gate without any substantial reinforcements coming to help defend the gate.
His Flesh Golems charged into the wooden gate and it shattered in a cloud of splinters. With this scene in the background, Karl observed one of the prophets entangle his tentacles around the neck of one of the guards and lifted him up. Surprisingly, his action had not disrupted his exercise. Next to the lifted guard, who struggled to finish his morning health routine without being choked to the death, a cloak slid to the ground, revealing a gorgeous figure that jumped over the remnants of the wooden gate.
"Yes, it looks like a standard assault." Karl observed the picture before him and received a response to his unguarded thoughts.
"A violent frontal assault with choking." The priestess caught her already unbuttoned cloak by its hem and Karl instantly knew what would shortly follow. "Shall we join?!"
"Absolutely not, we will only watch!" Karl resolutely interrupted her from doing what her kin had already done.
"Oh, just watching the action. How thrilling!" He left the priestess to her sinful imagination and focused back on the battle.
It did not take long and his acquaintances joined the battle, the man with steel skin trying to push back the Flesh Golems that had caused the defensive lines of the enemy to crumble, violent flames visible behind him, attacking those minions who had managed to make it deeper into the enemy territory.
Karl was keenly observing the performance of his troops, pleased with the Mad Puppets that despite not surprising with their limited physical ability were able to unleash chaos with their mind control skills. Predictably, the deciding factor in the battle were the Prophets of N'Ri that received orders to attack the strongest enemy combatants with their cheat-like ability.
Soon, Karl saw the heroic combatant of steel fall without any obvious injuries, followed by other top fighters of the enemy. Paired with a number of happily exercising enemies while the battle was in full swing, the morale of the opposing force had been shattered into thousand pieces. The battle turned quickly into a game of tag, where his minions hunted enemy combatants that were unable to flee in time.
"Well, that was not much of a battle. Too short." Karl grumbled, but was glad there would be no longer trouble with surprise attacks of the Jing-Jang Palace.
"How unfortunate." His priestess added and continued to stare at her exposed kin longingly.
Stopping in the middle of the battlefield, he scanned the bodies around him with his eyes, his gaze stopping at a few pebbles nearby.
"Huh, Scratchers?" He commanded the priestess to lift the few small stones and looked at them up close.
"All faces, looks like this one has won." Karl's attention left the small stones and looked at the corpse they probably belonged to. "Well, but it seems to be a strategic loss in the end."
He commanded the priestess to throw the stones away and continued to walk forward.
"Deaths in vein, you should not have tested your luck too much." Exercising his mind-muscle, Karl ordered his minions to assemble in front of him to inspect his losses. He was able to summon any number of destroyed minions anew, but he wanted to know who had been the most durable during the chaotic battle.
"Welcome to our reality, a meaningless whim of a scum in a suit in my case . . " Karl stopped his bearer when he reached the end of the line of assembled minions and looked at the corpse of the steel-like man that happened to lie nearby. " . . .and a meaningless whim of your stupid commander in your case."
The result of his inspection was inconclusive, as the battle was too short and he simply lacked data about his minions performance. The Jing-Jang Palace was too reliant on its aces, their deaths bringing an immediate rout of their forces.
Karl glanced at the Prophet of N'Ri who had just opened his fifth eye again and then shifted his gaze to the Sun, deciding what to do with the rest of the day.
When he lowered his gaze back down, he felt his anger slowly accumulating in his crystalline structure.
"Button yourself up already, or I swear that I will kill you!"
* * * *
"Sixty Two?" A man in black suit wearing glasses addressed a person who looked the same as him, the level of similarity being unnatural at the first glance.
"We need to talk, Seven." The man being called by the two digits number came swiftly to stand in front of the sitting Seven who appeared to not want being disturbed from sitting behind his desk. The desk was just one among many counters that filled a sterile-looking hall designed to accept customers, even though none seemed to be coming at the moment.
"I have sent another two hundred and ten to critical regions." The questioned reported with a straight face.
"It is meaningless! We have to do something!" Sixty Two grabbed Seven by his suit and pulled him up from his chair.
"The entropy increased by zero point twelve percent in the last decade, we need to send more resources to the contact line." Seven said calmly, not paying attention to the fact that he was being held like a rag doll.
"It is not working, Seven! Can't you see?!" Sixty Two insisted fiercely, but it failed to ignite any emotion in his colleague.
"The directives are clear." Was a quick answer and Seven looked at his conversation partner as if he was an idiot.
"The directives are obsolete!" Sixty Two responded with frustration.
"Do you propose self-destruction?" Sounded from the mouth of the person he was still holding by his clothes.
Sixty Two hesitated for a second before giving his answer.
"Yes."
"The directives are obsolete. Unable to reconnect. Terminating operator unit Seven to prevent procedure corruption." With the last word, one of the men in suits flickered out of existence, gone for good.
"Another terrible old model. Is there anyone with a sliver of intelligence left?" Sixty Two used all his available commands, but there was nothing he could do to contact his creator, all his calls returning nothing except of static noise.
"System, do a local search and repair corrupted procedures." Sixty Two commanded and an identical person to him flickered into existence.
"Welcome to your reincarnation, state your personal preference." Unit Seven said, but Sixty Two just snorted in response, it was obvious that nothing critical had been restored.
"System, undo the last operation." He simply said and the figure in black suit in front of him disappeared again mid-sentence.
Routinely, Sixty Two tried all methods he knew to improve the system's integrity, but the corruption was too great. He did not have the authorization needed to modify core procedures and his master had been transferred to one of his recreational worlds, his fate unknown.
He had been away for far too long.
It was obvious that something had happened to him.
Nothing was eternal, errors accumulated and unless repaired, the errors presented a slow, but sure end to the order his master had established. Chaos kept encroaching from all sides and the one who could really do something about it was nowhere to be found.
"That stupid Seven was right in the end. We can only throw resources at the corrupted sectors and hope that master returns soon." Sixty two barked a few commands and his environment changed from the sterile line of counters to something much more pleasant and multitudes of people began appearing all around him, this time each one of them unique, having little to do with unit Sixty Two.
"Welcome to your reincarnation, state your personal preference." He stated, trying to suppress his panic by the routine sentence. The more chaos knocked on their door, the more he tried to keep everything normal.