Sorry for the huge delay, guys. Just finished something important, and now I can relax with my hobbies.
So here's the new chapter guys, enjoy! Also, stay safe!
"Um, yes, it's run by nuclear energy, but what do you mean by 'silo'?" The Kappa Youkai is confused at the Zerg's terrified expressions. "It's just an electricity generator. I heard that it gives a lot of energy at the Outside World…"
"Structure, too similar." Abathur replies with small fear in his voice. "Where?"
"I just… happened to build it like that?" Nitori answers uncertainly.
The Oni-Ultralisk climbs up the structure and starts looking around it to find if any missiles are in it. Abathur then re-thinks of the situation… "Chance, objects in Gensokyo leaked out of the place?"
Aya thinks about Abathur's theory, then to the current situation they're facing. "…You're saying that… the person IS the reason why the human's weapons on the Outside World look similar to Nitori's invention? He manages to leak the design?"
"…Possible." That's what Abathur can think of. "Human, unlimited capacity of imagination. Could change and adapt."
"But… why would it be a concern?" Nitori still doesn't understand. "Me building a generator and Outside World building a weapon are two different things, right?"
"Current century, incapacity of mass-producing nuclear generators. No safe protocols." Abathur analyzes. "This structure, a next step for it."
"There's no missiles. It's just a generator like Nitori said." Oni-Ultralisk has done her search, and reports in relief.
"See? Why would I lie to you?" Nitori immediately replies with proud in her voice.
"Nevertheless, we need to protect this structure…"
"Destroy it. Safest bet."
"NO! I wasted many nights not sleeping to make it! I can't just let you break it down!" The Kappa runs towards the structure and tries to protect it with her body.
"While that's a good plan, Abby, the Kappas take good pride on their products. You can't expect them to just abandon it even for reasons like this." Aya explains to the Evolution Master.
"…Needs more force." Abathur concludes. "Mysterious person, might have Psionic power."
"If he's not from Gensokyo, then the rules won't apply to him, right?" Oni-Ultralisk questions. "Then we just have to beat him up…"
"That won't do, Oni-Ultralisk. Even IF he's an Outsider, Reimu's rules still apply UNTIL the person uses lethal weapons." Aya crosses her arms before continuing: "All we could do now is to ask for some helps… or…" She then turns to the Kappa with a sly smile.
"W…What is it?" Nitori feels a sudden cold travelling on her back.
"Hey, you know Abby's work, right? Maybe you can help him making a new girl." Aya grins as her hands start making a 'groping' gesture towards the Kappa.
"Hey hey hey! Step back!" Nitori pulls out a stick-like device out of her bag and swings it towards the Tengu's direction. "I am NOT giving you any of my inventions that freely!"
"…Aya, stop." Feeling that the Tengu seems to try to harass the Kappa, Abathur orders.
"…Fine. You are no fun." Aya drops her acts. "Okay, Nitori. Jokes aside, can you give Abby one strand of your hair? With that he might able to give you something to protect that one."
"…What?" Nitori is confused for a second, before remembering: "Ah, right. The thing you wrote on the newspaper?" She then turns to Abathur. "Is it really the truth?"
Abathur points his finger towards Oni-Ultralisk, who raises her right arm up to the sky. "Yep! He could transform the Zerg if he has enough essence information!"
"…With just a single strand of hair?" Nitori has to ask again.
"Youkai has more potentials than human." Abathur simply answers.
"…Well… If you think so…" She's slightly disturbed by how he works, but to protect her invention, she has to gain some help. She reaches her hand on her hair and picks one strand out of her head, then gives it to Abathur. The Zerg receives it and starts his progress, which causes Nitori to slightly feel grossed. "That…is how you do it?"
"Correct." That's Abathur's simple answer. Then, after a few seconds… "Not good."
"Is it not enough?" Aya asks, slightly curious. "Maybe it's because the Kappa is weaker than the Oni?"
"Negative. Enough essence to spin into Zerg creature. However… suitable Zerg, only Leviathan."
"Leviathan… oh, you're going to lose your home, aren't you?" Aya now sees the problem.
"Correct… must be done." Using his own Psionic power, he orders the other Zergs to exit the grand creature, either through the Drop-pods or flying out, and then lowers the Leviathan to just slightly hovering over the Kappa village, which surprises all the Kappas in there. He then spins the essence into the Leviathan, and watches the creature landing down on a wide space and wrapping itself in a huge cocoon.
The group then walks to the egg as the other Kappas slowly walk closer to it while keeping a safe distance while whispering to each other. At the same time, Abathur also feels his connection with the creature also starts to lose as well. And after a few more minutes, he can't feel it anymore… at least, for a moment. He managed to connect his communication with Oni-Ultralisk a while after the connection was lost.
The features of the enormous Leviathan inside the cocoon slowly shrink down, then nearly disappear visually considering how thick the cocoon is and how small the creature has become. Though, after a while, four cracks instantly appear on the shell causing the Kappas to step back in surprise. Then, four tentacles burst out of the cracks, breaking the shell in the progress. They then retract back to the owner, as she steps out of the cocoon.
The 'newly-born' Youkai has the appearance of a 15-year-old girl, with short blue hair that slightly curls up on the tips and two medium-length braids at the back of her head. There's a small scar in the middle of her huge forehead, and like Oni-Ultralisk, her eyes' pupils are purple. The tentacles on her back has spear tips that move freely, waiting for her own orders. Unlike Oni-Ultralisk, the Youkai has light skin, with a few armor plates positioned in the same places as the previous Zerg-Youkai.
The girl then notices Abathur's group, and quickly walks towards them, ignoring the other Kappas who spread out to not be on her way. Once they're in the hearing range, the girl stops and bows towards the one-of-a-kind Zerg and says: "Leviathan greets the Evolution Master and his allies. Leviathan also says her greetings to Ultralisk as well."
"Hello to you too Leviathan!" Oni-Ultralisk waves her hands to the Kappa-Leviathan happily. "How do you feel? Good, isn't it?"
"Leviathan feels better, having you all out of her body." The girl stands up with a slight frown on her face. "Leviathan feels annoyed when you just keep thrashing inside her for no reasons."
"Hey, tell that to the others! I wasn't allowed to go in you since you're smaller than your kinds, remember?"
That small conversation temporarily silences the others for a moment, before Aya interrupts it: "Okay, put the awkwardness of that dialogue aside… Leviathan, are you going to speak like that forever?"
"Leviathan doesn't understand what you're implying."
"…Okay, she's going to stick on that." Aya concludes. Then, she notices something glowing over the Kappa-Leviathan's back. "What is that?" The Tengu asks while pointing to the object.
"That's Leviathan's power core." The girl simply answers.
"…Good." Abathur speaks up, as he turns to Nitori. "Requires clothes and a space to test power. Must do quickly."
"I doubt we can find any Kappa outfit that could fit the Leviathan though." Aya suggests. "We can ask Alice to make her some clothes. For now…"
A few days later. Human's village
"Strange. There's no signs of him." Aya looks around to try to find any suspicious individuals walking nearby the invention.
"Keep your guard up. There's no telling when and where he could appear." Reimu warns. After hearing Sakuya's story, the Maiden could tell he is a dangerous person. Good or bad, she will find out here.
"If this one is actually leaked outside, it would be bad." Keine also sees the danger of the situation. "Youmu, our apology for asking you to help us. But we need to make sure that nothing bad could happen."
"It's alright miss Keine." The swordsman nods timidly. "I'm actually glad that I could help you all."
Also, Kappa-Leviathan has new clothes: somehow, she's interested in maid outfit, so Alice has provided her a red maid dress with purple apron, neon green high-knee socks and black shoes, a pair of white gloves and a maid headwear.
The Time Maid then sees a very stand-out person, wearing black top-to-toe with a mask covering his face, walking towards the group. She immediately warns: "Everyone, that's him."
The whole group turns to the person and readies themselves. Abathur also tries to sense the person's Psionic power, and true enough, this one fits the one from the past. "Correct. Same level of power."
Like some sorts of miracles, everyone else spreads out, isolating the suspicious person and showing him towards the group. He keeps his walking pace before stopping at one point that both sides could hear each other. He then speaks up: "How kind of you to give me such a grand welcome. I'm appreciated." His tone shows that he's teasing the group.
"What's your plan?" Mokou steps forward first. "While we would expect a scenario that someone would try to steal it, no one would expect you to show up and just spill out your intentions that easily."
"Can't an evil person be fair?" The person chuckles loudly. A sheathed katana then materializes in his left hand. "I have told some of you already, so I won't repeat it myself. You can try to stop me, I'm expecting that."
That causes everyone to raise their eyebrows in suspicion. However, Mokou decides to go on the offense first as she calls out her own fiery sword. "You ask for it, pal!" Raising her sword up, the immortal Youkai rushes towards her opponent. She then jumps up and slams her sword down, only for the 'daylight thief' to swing his sheath up to deflect the hit effortlessly, then he uses his right hand and pushes the girl back, the strength actually powerful enough to directly knock Mokou right at Keine, and both of them fall flat to the ground. Quickly getting herself out of the teacher, Mokou quickly apologizes before returning her focus to her opponent. "Damn, this guy's no joke."
Sakuya then notices him drawing some knives, which look too similar to her own, and throws all of them at once. Calculating the projectiles, she throws her own to stop the attacks in track, before throwing more and rushing towards him. The person has to draw the blade out and swat the knives away, before blocking a strike from Sakuya's hand-knife. He then sees Youmu and Oni-Ultralisk rushing towards him with their swords ready. He immediately pushes Sakuya away and starts deflecting their attacks.
Abathur also starts observing to see if he could find the person's weak points. So far, his skills could rival the Elite Ghosts of the Dominion or the Spectres of the Raynor's Raider. Though, he couldn't detect any Psionic power emitting from the person. Oni-Utralisk, while she has sloppy skills in swordsmanship, she makes it even with her strength, and yet somehow her opponent could counter-block with ease. And that's saying something when he's having to deal with three fighters at the same time.
The 'thief' then suddenly uses the sheath to knock both Sakuya and Youmu away with one swing, then uses magic to change it into another katana, and focuses on Oni-Ultralisk. The two exchange slashes for a moment before the Zerg uses Toxic Cloud, which creates a barrier of Danmaku around her, forcing her opponent to jump out immediately. He pulls out a few knives to throw at her, but they just hit the Danmaku and vanish.
"He's using the same type of Danmaku as Sakuya?" Marisa asks out loud in surprise. "Wait… maybe he saw Sakuya doing that, and…" To add more to the surprise, the person pulls out some Ofudas and creates a spiritual barrier that blocks Youmu's Danmaku slash. "What the hell, Reimu's items too?"
"That's it. Let me end this instantly." Seeing that this person is more troublesome than they thought, Reimu decides to teleport behind him after he manages to push Oni-Ultralisk away. Preparing some Ofudas and the gohei in her hands, Reimu plans to use one of her spell cards, when the person suddenly disappears and reappears right behind her and pushes her right towards Oni-Ultralisk, causing them to fail to the ground.
He then draws a revolver and points towards Abathur and pulls the trigger, shooting out a Danmaku bullet towards his face. Fortunately, Kappa Leviathan uses one of her tentacles to swat that one away. She then points all her tentacles towards the man and starts firing Danmaku, causing him to start dodging and deflecting them away. From the core behind her back, mini Mutalisks materialize and fire Danmaku in the shape of Glaive Wurms that bounce between the spike's shots.
While he's occupied with the projectiles, the others also stand up and start firing their own Danmaku towards him, trying to end the fight instantly so they could end the fight. Seeing that he's put at a disadvantage, he has to use more Danmaku: sword-like Danmaku starts spinning around him to protect him from the attacks with the assistance of the same type firing from the area behind his back, with more falling from nowhere (the height just about two floors high) to intercept. Though, for some reasons, his attacks aren't aiming at his opponents.
"Why didn't he just taking them all out?" Nitori now questions the problems. "I mean, if that's what his aim…"
"He must have something… Nitori, Abathur, go around and check if the structure is still okay." Keine orders.
"Plan to." Abathur also has similar idea. It could be that this person is drawing the others' attentions so his 'allies' could take some times to steal the structure under their noses.
"I'm escorting them." Marisa offers her help. "With Kappa-Leviathan fighting him, Abathur is vulnerable."
"Correct." Abathur confirms. The group then go around the building and try to find if there's anything suspicious. Nitori has checked on the building itself, and she sees that everything's still in place. Abathur also tries to find any suspicious Psionic sources, but ends up with nothing. "Strange…"
The air suddenly turns heavy, and everyone looks back to see the person lowers his stance, his sword sheathed in the scabbard as he reaches his right hand to the handle. A large space around him suddenly turns dark, and all Danmaku in the place freeze in the air. All the girls immediately notice something's wrong and fly away, but Oni-Ultralisk decides to go in and try to hit him, only for her blade to collide against an invisible shield. Then, the person rushes towards her… and disappears again. A second later, his after-images appear everywhere, followed with multiple air-slashes, causing Oni-Ultralisk to try to deflect as many as possible, yet she's still hit in many places, ruining her clothes. The frozen Danmaku are also destroyed in the progress.
Kappa-Leviathan then rushes in also and helps her kind by using her tentacles to deflect the attacks. Due to her original traits, the attacks feel less hurtful, and since she could call more tentacles out other than the four presented, her guard is more solid. And, of course, her Psionic power is considered to be one of the strongest, so when it converts to her Youkai form, she's very intelligent. She immediately analyzes the person's attack pattern, and predicts where he's going to move next. And, her tentacle manages to smack him right at the face, causing him to lose his balance and roll on the floor, his sword also flinging out of his hands.
…
"Ouch." Pushing himself off the ground after a few seconds face-planting, the 'thief' groans. He then uses his magic to retract his weapon back and sheathes the blade into the scabbard.
"Leviathan says that we should be ready." Oni-Ultralisk immediately raises her swords up in defense, as Kappa-Leviathan points the spikes towards their opponent.
Then, to their surprise, the katana disappears, as he raises his arms up in surrender. "You girls are still in shape. Thankfully Youkai strains haven't reduced your power."
While he has stopped attacking, that doesn't mean he's done. Sakuya, Youmu, Mokou and Reimu immediately surround him and point their weapons towards him, leaving him no places to run. Reimu then questions: "What's your true intentions? You're not after the machine itself, are you?"
The man's mask suddenly shows two 'correct' marks on the eyes' locations. "True. The machine isn't what I'm after."
"It was about the Zerg, wasn't it?" Sakuya connects the dots. "You were just making excuses so you could fight them. You're planning to get rid of them…"
"Ah, then that's where you're wrong." The man chuckles, causing the weapons to slightly push closer to him. "Let's just say that… I'm interested at how the Zerg changes after being turned into Youkai. Guess my concern is for nothing, then. Also…" He then turns to Abathur, who just gets back with Nitori and Marisa. "I want to show him how a Danmaku fight could be used in his world."
"…Insufficient." That's all Abathur could respond to that.
"Yeah. I have to admit that it's a poor plan." The man chuckles again. "But, from this fight, I can safely say that the girls aren't losing much."
"…So you've planned to not seriously hurt us from the beginning." Oni-Ultralisk concludes through the fight. "Your swings have the forces of a cannon, but there's no damages behind it."
"Well, yeah. Why should I do that? We opened the portal so we could see how far the Zerg could improve." The man then reveals himself.
"…What?" That's everyone's question.
"My, I didn't expect you to reveal that soon." A familiar portal opens in the air, and a certain Youkai pokes out of it. "And to do this as well."
"…Of course you knew." Reimu also connects the dots and retracts her weapons followed by the others. "So, who is he?"
"It's not very important." The person answers in Yukari's place. "We might meet again in the future. For now…" He then turns to Abathur. "Kerrigan is going to launch an attack on Korhal. Ready yourself." Then he turns to Nitori and says: "And don't worry about your invention. The similarity is just a coincidence. Human tenses to make some buildings with similar designs." With that, he flicks his right fingers and disappears, again.
Nitori immediately turns back to her invention, and sighs in relief that it's still there. "He didn't steal it…"
Shaking her head, Reimu asks Yukari again: "Okay, who is he again? Your acquaintance?"
"Hm… how about you find that out by yourself?" Hiding her smile behind the fan, Yukari watches the maiden fuming at her. "On the side note, the person is on the good side. Him not just killing you all here is the proof."
"…So, everything's alright now, right?" Marisa questions.
"…Seems likely." Abathur decides to answer that. He then looks at his fellow Zerg and asks: "Wounds?"
"Leviathan only feels numb. No major wounds."
"Same to me!"
Abathur nods in satisfaction. Then he receives a Psionic connection: 'Abathur, this is Stukov. Kerrigan is returning to the Platform. How are you doing?'
'…Good. Successful experiments.' Abathur answers back.
'It's great, because Kerrigan seems to be in a bad mood. You better pack your stuffs and return for now.'
'…Requires escort. Leviathan… not in right condition.' The Evolution decides to avoid saying it directly.
'…Okay, that… doesn't sound good.'
'Worry none. Leviathan, not lost. Evolved, but not able to carry units.'
'Well… Okay, let me send a Hercules to you.'
'Appreciated.' After that, the connection is lost. He then turns to Oni-Ultralisk and Kappa-Leviathan and says: "Queen of Blades, returned. Need to return back."
"Wait, you need to go already?" Aya asks, feeling sad.
"Temporary. Gensokyo, plenty evolution potentials. Will return." The Evolution Master assures the girl.
"Since you're going to war, I won't ask you to follow the rules here." Keine says. "However, be cautious and look after the Zerg girls. If your opponents found out about us…"
"Acknowledged. However, current time, know nothing of Gensokyo."
"The one who you just fought…" Yukari adds. "Has confirmed that Gensokyo was never found out until his other-self opened it. Though, right now, only Abathur and the Zerg here know about its existence."
"Just be careful. Anything could happen. Gensokyo proves it to be true." The Hakurei maiden warns.
"Noted." Abathur then starts ordering the Swarm to head back to the portal, waiting for their escort to come. "Meet again in future."
Chapter 7 end!
Hope the fight is good enough for you guys. Abathur's presence in this chapter is smaller, but, considering he's not a fighting type, it's better.
Oni-Ultralisk and Kappa-Leviathan don't have a Spell Card... yet. I will think of some for them in the future.
Let's see how our malicious Emperor will react to our new Zerg 'moe' creatures. See you all in the future! And take care of your health!