A few minutes had passed, and the Eunuch had questions, "Masters. I have not been released from the slave seal. When my owners find out, I will be killed by the contract."
Qu was quick to respond. "Once you entered the Pagoda, you were safe. However when you leave if the seal has not been resolved, you will surely die. The matter is simple enough, come over here."
Qu took out a book from the copies of Master Jiang's selection and then started gathering materials together. Looking over at Mike and then to one of the attendants, Qu sighed and waved his hand to disappear then reappear with Xuan Kim Li.
Confused, Kim Li stood still and waited for an instruction, the Tower was in motion but they couldn't tell what was going on outside or feel any reorientation. He had questions of his own, but still knew that Qu would eventually get to his point. In the eyes of Xuan Kim Li, Qu was an AI that needed time to process everything vocally.
"I want you to direct an electrical charge in a fine point at this spot, this one, this one and over here too. The measured amount doesn't matter, you just have to disrupt the formation enough and it will destabilize." Qu was reluctant to reveal the information openly, if the new arrivals got the wrong idea..
"Are you sure?" Kim Li started to focus, but had some issues with keeping the damage down.
The Eunuch cried each time he was hit with the electricity. By the end, he looked rather crippled. Qu took out another healing potion, drowning the wounds to close them up and wash the scars away. It wasn't enough to regrow limbs, but it was definitely enough to fix the muscle and surrounding skin.
The Eunuch was finally freed, and it was just in time.
Zao Wu Hai had finished enlarging the pagoda, they had arrived at the Sect.
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A large crowd had gathered, the Tower had been gone for just a few days but already they had returned entirely. Wu Hai started ushering out the many that they had liberated, in his opinion most of them would do well with the change. Qu's few secretaries had their own quarters on the 15th floor.
When Wu Hai was about to finish, the boy that had caused so much fuss was about to step into the City when he pulled at Zao Wu Hai's wrist. He didn't speak, but his actions showed his fear.
Wu Hai wanted to show him it was alright, the Cheng Twins even tried to coax him out.
"Come, little brother it will be alright." Mu outstretched his arm.
"NO!, He will see me!" The boy shirked and ran deeper into the Pagoda, refusing to leave.
"Hold on." Wu Hai had an eerie feeling.
"Hey guys.. go on without me, I have to deal with this." Wu Hai waved his hand and disappeared.
"Brother Wu does too much. I think there is trouble, go tell the Patriarch." Cheng Yu wanted to help, but the child ran before he could do any good.
"Yes. lets go. I bet there will be lots to drink." Cheng Mu shoulder checked his brother and flew toward the Palace.
The numbers were dramatically different than the last time, upon their arrival they could see less than one thousand slaves had come back with Zao Wu Hai this time.
Patriarch Ooran had expected a lot more, he had even prepared extra food this time just in case. Although nothing would go to waste because of the utility of storage rings, they would have quite a surplus for a while.
"Did something happen?" Patriarch Ooran was confused.
"Something like that." Mike started to explain.
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Wu Hai appeared in front of the child, it startled him. In a reflexive technique, the child blipped across the hallway and out of Wu Hai's grasp.
It was comical, but the child was definitely afraid.
'huh?' Wu Hai turned around and followed after him.
He could wave his hand and appear next to him, but the child was equally able to move around. 'Its not teleportation' Wu Hai studied the movement while in chase.
The Prince was pretty quick, but Qu was enjoying the scene on his projections and Kim Li couldn't be bothered any further for the day. Qu wondered if he should send out his secretaries to calm the child down, but threw the idea away when he was enjoying the show.
Wu Hai pulled out the Cup and Die.
The moment they materialized, the boy stopped cold in his tracks.
"You, how do you have those. Demons have no use for those, GIVE THEM BACK!" The Child lunged at Wu Hai but the prince knew better.
Wu Hai stored them away and used the Tower Token to stop the child's movements entirely. It wasn't a nice thing to do, and so he had refrained thus far. Qu didn't even have this function without the Token in his possession, it was extremely convenient.
"What do you know about the Gygax?" Zao Wu Hai stared at the boy and surprised him.
Wu Hai stood there tossing the die and letting it come to rest in his hands. Again and Again, he swapped bodies.
"Tell me what you know. Right now." Wu Hai stopped when the die stopped on Devil.
A Strange thing happened, and Wu Hai started to grab his head. The token fell from his grasp. Qu could feel the instability and rushed to his position. When he saw the token on the ground he stored it away and did his best to determine the situation.
"Devil." The child spoke with an blank and dead tone.
"Make him cast the gygax again, his mind was unprepared." The child was insistent while he hung midair.
"Practical." Qu waved his hand and collected the loose form die.
"Master, Roll this." The Tower Spirit held the die in front of Wu Hai, but something else happened.
Wu Hai slapped the hand away and rushed toward the exit of the Pagoda at full speed.
He couldn't escape, but it didn't stop him from bashing against the exit wall repeatedly. There was no damage that could be done, whatever cosmetic misalignment's of the materials would return to normal after a while.
"This is serious." Qu was actually a little worried.
Waving his hand, he collected the die once more and looked at the child.
"Child. You know what these are yes? Then I can assume you know more, yes? If I release you from your restraint, will you assist me this once? I already know you don't wish to leave this place, So if you trust this place.. then you trust me, because I am the Tower Spirit." Qu tried a bit of diplomacy, sometimes a little went very far.
"... " The Child didn't answer, but instead relaxed and freed himself.
"Hmm. Interesting." Qu waved his hands and released the remaining restraint spells, the layers for the levitation effect had been shattered.
"You must get him to recast the Gygax. You said you're familiar, but I can't restrain the Prince myself. I need you to lure him away from the entrance so I can send for help." Qu didn't hesistate, he Summoned Kim Li while he was working, a Vial was still in his hand for testing.
"FUCK! SEND ME BACK! At least let me put this stuff down!" Qu waved his hand and the vial disappeared from the panicking Kim Li's hands, an explosion could be heard in the distance.
"No Time!, Get Kuzunoha here, NOW!!" The doors swung open the moment Wu Hai's attention was diverted from escape, Kim Li was flung out of the door and it was sealed again.
The Boy was teleporting around the room, evading the strikes from the Prince. Some of the interior decorations were shattered briefly, but most of them returned to normal after being smashed. The towers regeneration was a mystical effect, it was constant but sometimes slower than damage that could accumulate. That was one of the reasons Qu was panicking himself.
Zao Wu Hai would be lost to himself until he was calmed down and re-rolled, if he lost his mind to the forces of his current bloodline he would eventually start indiscriminately destroying things. If the Tower's Core were damaged, it couldn't be duplicated or recovered.
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The Patriarch was standing in front of the procession, there wasn't a lot for him to do other than introduce himself. After the arrival of so many the previous time that Wu Hai had returned, the Sect Elders had learned their lesson. People were already assigned to the intake of the new guests, their efficiency wasn't fantastic but at least this time they had a system.
Patriarch Ooran was about to give his speech when the Cheng Twins landed on the stage and whispered something to the Patriarch. Moments later, an muffled explosion could be heard from within the tower.
"There is an urgent matter I must attend to." Patriarch Ooran nodded to the Elders who had shown up and was about to leave with the Twins.
Kim Li was seen yelling in the back as he sprinted with his lightning movement abilities. He didn't have much practice so he was quite sloppy.
"Qu sent me to get Kuzunoha, he made it seem like an emergency." Xuan Kim Li panted, the movement techniques cultivation requirements for exercise hadn't been met in a long time.
Kim Li knelt to the ground when he noticed that he had been heard and did his best to catch his breath.
"Something went wrong, We should get Kuzunoha and return immediately." Finishing his statement, the scientist got to his feet and found a more dignified stance before turning to the tower in the distance.
"Yu! Mu! Get Miss Nara there." Patriarch Ooran stepped back and had the Twins grab Kuzunoha instead.
"Take Harris. He might have a solution we don't know about." Kim Li didn't lay out the details but sending Harris meant that the situation wasn't good.
"Go." Patriarch Ooran rushed them all off and looked at the crowd.
"Okay. Developments have changed, such is the state of emergencies. We don't know what the situation is, but we will resolve it. Please, come inside and lets finish the interviews," The Matriarch stepped up, Calistown had been looking forward to hearing news of Xue but she would have to wait longer if they had anything.
"A banquet has been prepared, I'm sure you're all hungry." A voice came from no where, Guzhe had the stealth Corp put on a display by making the food appear.
It got the effect he wanted, people stared in awe and then in salivation. The food was enough to feed a small army at least once. The remaining Elders all had peculiar looks on their faces, none of them knew the situation and the Sect Leader was not particularly happy.
'My son, what is going on in there?' the Patriarch thought to himself while staring in the direction of the group rushing to the Tower.
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The Bent Tower was sealed, there was an observation deck and a roof though. Nara had the Twins fly them to the decking that surrounded the outcropped Arena and they burst through the doors.
As if an alarm was going off inside of his head, Qu sent a portion of his conciousness to seal the upper entrances and then waved his hand to bring the group inside.
The Cheng Twins had seen Wu Hai on a rampage before. When Wu Hai had first used a Demonkin body, he had nearly gone overboard in a practice battle with Khan Ni. Khan Ni was pretty injured from that fight, but the Cheng Twins were the ones who had stopped him in his tracks. Wu Hai was going all out and with more power than either of them had ever seen before.
"The kid is pretty fast" Yu was the first to speak.
"Aye, Bro.. We gotta stop em. Qu looks freaked out." Mu pointed over his shoulder and continued.
"Why bring Nara and Harris?" Mu was a bit of a meathead but he thought maybe him and his brother would have a better chance.
Before saying anything further, he leapt into the air and tried to intercept Wu Hai during the battle. If he was able to knock him off center, then the fight would be an easy one.
Just as he was about to get near the brawl, Wu Hai turned and kicked in the direction that Mu was coming from. There was no time to dodge. Mu crashed into the floor and down an entire level before throwing up some blood.
"Bro." Yu wanted to help, but Qu stopped him.
"Miss Nara will have a better chance. Harris. here is a storage ring. Make sure you don't leave any of his blood laying around, its problematic." Qu flicked the ring to Harris and waited for Kuzunoha to act.
It didn't take long for her to judge the situation and she pulled the magic scroll from her ring. Throwing it into the air she began chanting. Binding him was the most appropriate action if they wanted to help the Prince.
The scroll came to life, wriggling and writhing for action. The mystical senses of the scroll were beyond the scope of a humans perceptions, so its accuracy was much greater and beyond what humans could comprehend or understand. When it lashed out, it would seem to be in a random spot, but just as Wu Hai had kicked away Mu earlier, The Scroll latched onto the Prince just as easily.
It was all for nothing however, the scroll was soon out of range and lifted Miss Nara from the ground. She was flung against a corridor and laid there motionless for a moment, a victim of her own pride.
Nara needed to get closer.
"Qu! Close him in." Nara had a decent idea, but Qu had been reluctant to place walls in front of the Devil version of his Master from fear.
Fear that quickly subsided when he thought about losing his Master to a Devil.
"Done." Qu cried out.
Nara only had 10 more paces when a gush of wind threw her back again. She pushed forward and found a space with a support beam. It was wide enough to hold her position, but the next sight had her confused.
The Child.
A child was fighting the Prince, and doing a fantastic job of evading his attacks. The Child seemed very strange but it didn't matter. She had to restrain the Prince.
"*%*$!_#)$!*@#*_()" An indistinct chanting was resonating in the area and all movement slowed considerably. the chanting came into focus and the scroll glowed with a higher intensity. It struck out, weaving itself across the two that were fighting.only the struggling heads of the pair were left free to move. Wu Hai motioned to try to bite at the child, and when he realized he couldn't bite him, he tried a breath attack.
The breath attack didn't fire.
The magical abilities of the scroll had neutralized his power. Not only that, it seemed like the child was equally contained. It frightened Kuzunoha a bit.
"QU!" Miss Nara didn't know how long she could hold the pair.
Harris had done as Qu asked and followed the pairs trajectory to look for strayed bloodstains and other samples.
"What? So quickly?" Qu appeared next to her with the Gygax in his hands.
"Young Master. Forgive me." With another wave, a ring containing holy water appeared.
Like a Flood, the holy water was shed onto the pair and the scroll. The Scroll took in the holy water, it seemed to revitalize it's appearance just a bit. The strengthened scroll and the holy waters affect on Devils and demonkin made the struggle even more pointless for the two that were tied up.
"It seems like I was wrong about your origins child. But I will keep my word." Qu put the dice in Wu Hai's lips and punched his stomach.
When the demon spat the Gygax out, it landed on Vampire. It was a considerable change in his personality that helped make the situation manageable. Qu wasn't done. He didn't know what would happen but he shoved the Gygax into the child's mouth. The kid spit it out like he was suppose to, he didn't want to be punched. The Die stopped on Human.. Nothing Happened. The die wasn't lit.
"The Cup." Wu Hai was still recovering from his headache and subsequent detachment from reality.
Passing the Gygax Cup over to Qu the die tumbled into the cup. Qu watched the die come to a stop. It rest on Echinomon, the Dragon-Eater Race.
The boy's body started to change rapidly. He gained a longer tail, his head became more rounded and his fur a solid color. His wings remained, but changed their design. The horn on his forehead changed somewhat and the scales turned to soft plush.
The Dragon-eater race were Water-Rats.. Their ability to change their appearance was one of their greater defense mechanism but it didn't stop them from being driven into extinction.
"So.Strange." The child stopped fidgeting and the scroll released him.
The power of the scroll was only suppose to pertain to evil, but before it had wrapped up both Wu Hai and himself. The Child was curious about the binding and picked up the loosened bolt of cloth scrollwork at his feet.
"Very interesting." The Child sat down cross legged and studied the fibers.
"Excuse me" Kuzunoha was a little busy, but every time the child touched the scroll she could feel it.
"Wu Hai, Are you back with us?" Miss Nara walked up to the Prince and stared at his eyes.
There was a loneliness in them that she couldn't escape, she wanted to reach out and comfort him.
"Stop." Qu erected a wall, waved his hand and stuffed the die back into Wu Hai's mouth.
Punching him in the gut once more, Qu tried to get the Prince to spit it out but Wu Hai smiled with the Die spinning on his teeth. And then he spit it out.
Wu Hai was rational, but a bit taken over by his mental status. When the die finally stopped on Human, Qu finally relaxed.
"This Die has too many dangerous transformations, you could lose yourself." Qu started chiding at Zao Wu Hai.
It was true, this was not the first instance where he had trouble controlling himself because of the bloodlines. Every single bloodline had its own drawbacks, even the Cheng Twins had changed considerably after their transformation and they were the first. It took some effort for them to understand their new lives and abilities. Some bloodline transformations were much more demanding on the body and mind, in the case of hybrids the alterations are far more complex.
"This body, Its now partly Echinomon." The boy seemed to know a lot more than anyone present had anticipated.
"Give the Gygax to me." The boy seemed to be insistent but the Prince wasn't stupid either.
"I may have lost myself briefly but that doesn't mean I will give you the source of my power just for the asking." Wu Hai grabbed the loose die from the ground before he finished his statement.
Stowing it away he asked yet again. "What do you know?
The Boy tried to flicker away like before, but his bloodline had changed and his speed was much slower. To the onlookers in the tower, the child looked like he was about to break into song and dance. The situation was difficult to keep a straight face, even the child started to laugh a bit. A few minutes later they were finally talking.
"My name is Ibuwere. I am from the Gemini Clan. It feels strange to have this body. It feels like I can become anything, just by thinking about it." Ibuwere shape changed a few times rapidly to creatures that Wu Hai didn't recognize from his travels.
"What do you know of the Gygax?" Prince Wu Hai was getting annoyed at the child's persistence in evading the question.
"Ah.. The Gygax. Grandfather told me that our ancestors were loyalists to the Guardians after the War. The Gygax were created by the Creator as an element of Chaos and agents of his trust in chance. There is a Story that Munidod, one of the first creations of this world knew the most, he is much older than the others. But Munidod disappeared long ago."
"Did Munidod Die?" Harris had a question, he had completed his duties and felt confident in asking.
"No one claimed to have slain him, not even Evil God Ammuru himself could have predicted the fall of the Custodians. Their betrayal has impacted the world for more than 10,000 years." The Child stopped talking for a moment when he noticed that Qu was about to interrupt.
"Amurru still lives?" Qu's tone showed his great fear.
"Yes. And he is gathering forces. In ten years time, maybe before.. we will be in a full scale war against the Devils and Custodian remnants." Ibuwere felt like he had explained a lot, but it really only left more to ask.
"How do you know these things?" Kuzunoha's interests were piqued, she spent her whole life hunting down demons and devils.
"Because.. I escaped his prison, that is why I do not want to go back outside. Amurru will see me." Ibuwere finished talking, hanging his head in shame.
He knew he had brought problems to this liberator and was prepared to tell them everything.
A pounding came on the door to the Tower, Qu allowed the Elders of the Sect to enter.
"I thought you would be doing interviews? Wu Hai looked at his father and then at Abi and Genba, the Mi family, and the Prince Quartet standing with dumbfounded looks on their face.
"Xuan Kim Li said it was an emergency, I brought backup." Genba grabbed his wife's ass and ushered her forward.
"Abi insisted. I guess you guys fixed the problem? What's with the kid?" Genba had his own inquiries, but the group was just starting to settle down.
"I'll explain everything, but I don't want to do it twice. Get whoever needs to hear this and then we can get on with it." Ibuwere was slightly annoyed, but he felt safe in the Tower.
"This Tower. Its it a Pocket Dimension?" a few observations led the child to ask more questions during the wait.
"I was created before the Creators rest, my properties are without measure. This tower exists outside of other realms, dimensional pocket? Not really. We are in the same dimension, this tower exists beyond a single pocket. If you had to use the word pocket to describe this tower, we're closer to a giant storage ring." Qu made the distinction, then looked at the damage to the tower's interior that had yet to finish regenerating.
"No more shape-shifting for a little while, and you.. child. You're now stuck in this tower till we figure out if you're tagged." Prince Wu Hai was pissed off, the transformation was over but his blood was raging.
"Don't make this confusing." Yu cut in and asked his brother for his gourd.
The twins swapped drinks and steadied themselves against a beam in the lobby. The debris had started to disappear, like an eraser cutting away the rubble and painting it back to normal the pagoda returned to its previous state.
"Father, It seems we have some things to discuss. How much did Mike tell you?" the Prince spoke to the Patriarch, his assumptions were right.
"Enough to know that something bad would have happened. Amurru is the devil in a lot of the stories your mother use to read. For once I agree with Qu entirely. Ibuwere, you should remain here. If a Greater Devil is looking for you then you are a threat. Swear to me now, that you will obey Qu. If he rejects you, only death awaits." The Patriarch turned from Wu Hai to Ibuwere with a stern look.
"Fantastic. There is much to learn here." Ibuwere's sneer turned into a grin and he disappeared into the library.
Zao Wu Hai consoled his father and walked into the library, there was a lot that needed to be said.
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