A little after Corpse Doll and Porcelain Doll were defeated during the pitch battle between Dante and Zhen Liu, the twin proto-kaijin got a little...mopey for the next few days.

Then again, it probably didn't help that as proto-kaijin, the Doll Twins had the same mental development as young children.

Making matters worse, Zhen Liu was unconscious at this point in time, so he wasn't able to help the duo process their big emotions.

[WE'RE FAILURES!] Corpse Doll cried like a banshee as she threw herself to the ground and cried.

[We don't deserve the lives we have been bestowed,] Porcelain Doll sniffled as she sat on the ground and cried literal tears of molten gold.

The Kaijin tried their best to act like emotionally supportive siblings for the duo, but they weren't exactly built for such things.

[It's okay, it's okay...you guys will be able to mutilate the next bastard that thinks they can use us as a stepping down for their ascension to godhood.]

[But when?!]

[Probably when you both mature into being full Kaijin?]

[We reiterate, when?!]

Thankfully, the twins were shaken out of their funk thanks to a very timely suggestion on the part of the curators.

If you feel bad about losing, you guys could make it up to our Lord through physical labor or something like that.

[How does that help?!]

=She's suggesting that you two go and scavenge the area until you find something valuable enough to make up for your loss.=

[Oh…say that first!]

With a clear goal in mind, the Doll Twins proceeded to spend their time at the [Mines of Malevolence], parsing through and scavenging for anything that could be considered even a little bit valuable to their Caretaker.

The results so far were…rather mixed.

Due to recent events, there were a lot of dead aether beast corpses that could be processed and harvested on-site. However, a good chunk of these corpses were the type that had to be processed under very strict conditions, or anything worth a damn would degrade into nothingness incredibly fast.

Granted, this was not a massive deal to someone like Zhen Liu, whose kaijin creation abilities had been kicked up a notch since he had broken through, but that was neither here nor there at the moment.

What mattered was that Corpse Doll and Porcelain Doll had basically gathered all sorts of weird goodies from both inside and outside of the mines, and were more or less in the mindset that they had managed to find enough stuff that they believed warranted forgiveness from their earlier defeat.

Although…if a certain aforementioned Caretaker had been conscious around the time this suggestion was made, they would've just laughed it off and thought it was an unnecessary but thoughtful gesture.

[You think this is enough stuff, or do you think we should try and at least secure another elephant carcass?] Corpse Doll asked as she tossed what appeared to be the severed head of a tiger beast on top of a pile of random items on her back.

[Probably,] Porcelain Doll agreed as she quickly made sure that the stuff her sister was carrying was properly balanced. [Let's head back and see if…wait a minute, do you sense that?]

[Sense what?]

[It's like something that's a mix between our lord and that other guy who he just killed,] Porcelain Doll explained. [It feels like its…over there!]

Leaving her sister behind for the briefest of moments, Porcelain Doll darted off into the jungle before returning with the prize that she was sensing.

It turned out to be a small golden orb no bigger than a jawbreaker.

[Wait…isn't that one of those cores that the false lord was using?] Corpse Doll pointed out once she saw the retrieved prize.

[It is, but it looks and feels like something our Caretaker would make instead of whatever that guy did], Porcelain explained. [I think we should take it back for him to look at.]

[Meh. Works for me.]

And so, with prizes in hand, the twin proto-kaijin returned to their creator's side, awaiting forgiveness and praise for a job well done.

…One brief return montage later…

"Huh…well, looks like I won't have to look around for supplemental materials now. Good job, girls."

[Yay!]

[We did a good job!]

"How the hell did they manage to come back with all of this stuff?" Lythero asked in disbelief as he compared the relatively human-sized frames of the kaijin to the mountains of crap they brought back.

"You have told me multiple times that we really shouldn't question the weird capabilities of the kaijn," Antonio answered. "At this point, I'm shocked that they didn't come back with even more on their backs."

It took a bit of time for Zhen Liu to disentangle himself from the thankful freedmen that he had bestowed the ability to make a choice for their futures, but once he did, he managed to wrangle both Lythero and Antonio to join him.

Since he was planning to use some of the materials to fix up his [Key to Nowhere], he figured these two guys would want to be nearbyin order to enter the library as soon as possible.

After all, Lythero needed information on what kind of materials he needed to fix up his masters' swords and to see if it was even possible to do so, while Antonio needed Logos and Pathos to scan his memories.

On top of that, he also needed to gather materials needed for the three tezcatlipocas.

Thankfully, Corpse Doll and Porcelain Doll ended up resolving that issue for him.

Staring up at the pile of aether beast corpse parts and other scavenged materials of various origins, Zhen Liu had the distinct feeling that he would be able to resolve a lot of his current issues and handle a lot of future problems to come.

This unexpected trip through the Dozing Salamander continent turned out to be rather profitable… granted, it came at a cost he wasn't expecting to pay.

'Too bad I couldn't fix up Arabalest when I had the chance to do so. Damn the timing,' Zhen Liu inwardly cursed as he thought back on the Dante-brand kaijin he had "accidentally" corrupted but never got around to properly fixing.

A part of him had expected the porcupine-like bastard to stay out of the fighting until it was all over, only to suffer a breakdown partway through due to losing their lord/anchor.

At which point, Zhen Liu would then swoop in and finish making the kaijin one of his own instead.

Alas, Arabalest decided to go down swinging and created a weak point in Dante that turned out to be crucial in the final battle...at the cost of his life.

Zhen Liu and the kaijin held a small, private funeral for the guy, but it didn't feel right to them for some reason.

Evidently, Zhen Liu was going to find out why in a few moments.

[Oh, Caretaker, one last thing,] Porcelain Doll suddenly said before reaching into the folds of her robes. [We found this thing while we were scavenging. It felt familiar and we thought that you should probably have it for some reason.]

'Huh?'

From the folds of her robe, Porcelain Doll produced a small golden jawbreaker that looked incredibly smooth at a glance but was actually deeply etched with all manner of patterns on it that radiated unknowable power.

'Huh. That looks like one of… wait a minute…'

Zhen Liu initially thought that the proto-kaijin twins had stumbled upon one of Dante's stray [Cores] that had somehow not been absorbed or incorporated into a kaijin yet.

When that bastard went all oily and blobby, he had decided to absorb every single last one of his [Cores] in an attempt to boost his power, ultimately failing in the end.

However, once he swept his senses over it, he realized that this [Core] was actually rather familiar.

Gently receiving the orb from Porcelain Doll, Zhen Liu peered deeper into the orb and sensed a presence he wasn't expecting to find.

"Holy shit, Arbalest is alive."

"Wait, the porcupine guy?" Lythero asked since he overheard his friend's comment. "I saw him get swallowed up by Dante and his freaky blob of a kaijin horde; are you sure that's him?"

"Okay, rephrasing. He appears to be…partially alive," Zhen Liu followed up as he looked over the core deeper.

This orb, whatever it truly was, had echoes of Arbalest's consciousness in it but only barely.

If Zhen Liu had to compare what he was seeing with what he understood, it was like he was looking at the corrupted data file of someone's existence.

Most, if not all, of the data was present and accounted for, but they were in a weird state of disrepair that required addressing.

Luckily, he was about to go and make contact with the best fixers in this world or any other…probably.

"Alright, looks like I have to fix this key double time," Zhen Liu stated aloud as he pocketed the orb for later. "Somebody get me some of that gold!"