CHAPTER 1346: LIKE DOMINOES

[Okay everybody, time to start this show for real.]

[Aye, aye!]

[Let’s kick these mortals into gear then, yes?]

...

"Charges blown, charges blown! All original entrances have been shuttered. Enemy forces have been reduced to managable groups," a rebelling slave with anima notified his compatriots via telepathy. "Tertiary squads, prepare for extraction. Secondary squads, prepare for elimination. Primary force, prepare for confrontation."

The moment the explosives blew their payload, the rebel army began to move like clockwork.

Over the last three months, the rebels had worked tirelessly in creating a secondary network of hidden pathways throughout the entire mine that only they could use and navigate through.

This network connected all of the secondary caves where the slaves were forced to live and anguish in, alongside the cave full of sealed warriors.

The only caves not connected to this network, not yet anyways, included the smelting room and the corpse pit, as no mortal slaves were alive in either of those places... presumably.

Regardless, once the tunnels that connected the main cavern to these secondary ones collapsed, the rebels began to make use of this hidden network to perform one of two sneaky activities.

...First: Elimination...

[What—]

[—the—]

[—hell?!]

Throughout the entire mine, the enemy kaijin began to shout expletives and curses of frustration.

One moment, they were simply watching over the slaves while their colleagues were attempting to deal with some strange pest.

The next, they found themselves either getting crushed by a cave-in composed of cursed stones, or blocked in alongside those same slaves.

Some of the kaijin had fellows with them, while others were completely isolated.

The caves with the latter population of kaijin was soon going to be zero, though.

[Fucking hell!]

[How am I supposed to dig through all this?!]

’That’s right you monsters, keeping focusing on what’s in front of you...’

Using hidden tunnels and the loud noises that the kaijin naturally released, rebel warriors that had learned the most basic enhancement abilities of [Chaos] began to enter these isolated caves.

With carefully measured steps, these rebels snuck up on the kaijin banging at the rubble until they were directly behind them.

Once they were in position, the rebels struck like scorpions.

[Chaos Art: Wavering Palm!]

[Guh?!]

A single palm strike covered in [Chaos] was enough to entirely dislodge a [Core] from an unsuspecting kaijin, effectively neutralizing their ability to react to a follow-up strike from another, much more proficient [Chaos] user, that turned the orbs of [Malevolent Gold] into gold flakes.

[Ah...]

With their cores no longer embedded, the defeated kaijin immediately either turned back into heavily wounded aether beasts, or as some very unfortunate rebels learned from firsthand trauma, rapidly died and decayed into rotten corpses.

"Oh! That’s...that’s disgusting!"

"The smell! The smell!"

Regardless of the stench and emotional trauma, though, the rebels had managed to secure their first few victories this way.

Plus, it made it easier for the extractors to their work.

"Hey! Coast is clear! Get these guys out of here!"

...Second: Extraction...

Some of the caverns sealed up by the coordinated explosions had the terrible luck of encasing more than one kaijin.

These larger groups had to be taken down with significantly more violent methods than the isolated members, as such, more rebel warriors were needed.

However, these same caverns were filled wall-to-wall with slaves in various states of mental decline.

In other words, unwitting collateral damage.

Having slaves die during a rebellion like this was kind of anathema to the whole movement, as such, these especially full caverns had to be emptied of people before things got hairy.

^Alright, we start with the closest and go from there, right?^

^Yes.^

Using the hidden tunnel network, the rebels managed to get multiple, disturbingly compliant slaves to exit the cave and swap them with rebel warriors.

^Slowly, slowly...^

Once they reached a critical ratio of warriors to civilians, the warriors would strike and one.

After all, they didn’t want any intruders for the main performance.

...Third: Confrontation...

[Who cares to entrap us in our own mine?!]

[Fucking mortals!]

[Hey, wait. Why aren’t all of the tunnels caving in?]

As Dante and his remaining forces continued to watch and wait for the explosions to stop, they soon realized that these strikes were incredibly precise.

Too precise.

This level of precision wasn’t something that a bunch of slaves could come up with in a heat of the moment.

No, this level of precision, this level of isolating tactics required information and details that only someone with a mind like a library could figure out.

[Oh ho...]

It was in this exact moment that Dante correctly guessed what was going on...mostly.

That stated, Dante didn’t immediately make this guess of his known until the last of the explosions finally stopped, and nothing but silence befell the mines once more.

[It appears that there is a grand mastermind behind this attack, my dear monsters. Someone who has been watching us for a very long time,] Dante called out in a [Chaos] enhanced voice, hoping to bait out his fated enemy. [Why don’t you make yourself known so that we can finally fight like true Kaijin Lords?!]

’Oh, I would love to,’ Zhen Liu mentally mused. ’But I think the girl who’s about to show up now has a bigger axe to grind than little old me.’

[DANTE!]

[Oh?]

From a ledge overlooking the ground floor of the central cavern, a brawler-like lion Bloodliner woman appeared, wearing simple gladiator clothes but radiating a golden aura that seemed to be a mash-up between aether, anima, and [Chaos].

From what Dante and his horde could sense, this woman was an Aether Lord and an Anima Wielder of the third lock.

Her understanding of [Chaos], though, was much too shallow and much too ferocious to be related to the Kaijin Lord that Dante was hoping to face.

Oh well.

He might as well see just how vicious this lioness is.

[And you are...]

[Years ago, the Galdum Brothers once led a rebellion against your tyranny in an attempt to make things better for all of us here in the mines,] the lioness Bloodliner roared from her spot, her voice laced with just enough [Chaos] to cause the listening kaijin to become more and more irritated alongside their creator.

[They ultimately failed in the end, and your demon knights were the ones to execute them in cold blood!]

[Which ones were that again?] Slavina asked her fellow knights. [We’ve killed so many people over the years.]

[Galdum, Galdum...]Delictum repeated to himself a couple times over. [Wait...I think that was the name of those silly nomad brothers who thought they had a a chance against us! I remember cutting one of them into a million little pieces!]

[Oh yeah!] Gumba affirmed. [The little one’s wind was extra squishy. His eyeball flew like a dart!]

[You hate us because we killed these foolish brothers?] Obsidious called out. [How shallow! What were you? Their lover or something?]

[They were my dear brothers, and you bastards took away their freedom, hopes, and dreams for no reason other than your cruelty!] Lyona yelled back, the killing intent rising with every word. [Now we’re going to make sure that you, your fellow monsters, and that knock-off Kaijin Lord are buried here in this awful pit. A fitting tribute to my fallen brothers!]

Before the kaijin or Dante could fire off any snide remarks, clamoring about how Lyona was just a little cat that couldn’t do anything to them, she struck first.

More specifically, she roared first.

[Bellow of the Liger King!]

The brief shadow of a giant lion monster, one that seemed to stretch the limit of what could be considered a lion, manifested around Lyona before releasing an ear-shattering roar that echoed in the caverns.

Unsurprisingly this attack was ultra effective against the kaijin.

[GAH! MY EVERYTHING!?]

[GUH!

[MY SIXTEEN EARS!]

That roar attack was technically a musical aether art, as such, it was extra effective against beings made of [Chaos], or even animals mutated by [Chaos].

On top of that, the attack had been enhanced with [Chaos] and a touch of anima.

In other words, if the explosions form before were just an uncomfortably distant sound, this roar was like someone decided to wrap a speaker next to their heads and play music that was loud enough to wake dead long enough to kill them again.

In other words, every single kaijin and [Chaos] shaper was definitively stunned at worst or feeling incredibly uncomfortable at best.

Which made them perfect targets for a surprise attack.

[They’re stunned, now charge you bastards!] Lyona called out before leaping off of her ledge.

...

’Wait...that soft-looking guy with the hammer is your maker?’ Lyona asked Nepherage as she leapt from the ledge.

[Indeed, he is,] Nepherage confirmed. [And since I already know your thoughts, you should probably know that he is significantly tougher than he appears.]

’It looks like my roar stunned him too.’

...

’SWEET BABY DEITIES! MY EARS!’