Chapter 9: A monster(hero) is born!

Earlier

As Zhen Liu circulated the aether throughout his body and the jagged diagram, a strange voice spoke in his head.

"What the hell?", Zhen Liu thought. A moment later, he heard the same words that young woman was saying repeating in his head again.

"I want to live. Someone. Anyone. Save me. Please..."

<Condensing desire...Error. Desire is unstable, stabilizing with memories of the cultivator.>

Zhen Liu felt his head pound as a cascade of memories flashed through his mind. Moments of helplessness as someone cried out for help on the news broacasts, times where he ignored someone in need of a few bucks to stave off starvation for a few days, the times where he wanted to help his friends but couldn't because he was too scared to act. In essence, times where he asked himself: "Why didn't you do anything?"

"What the hell?," he groaned in pain. The pain and memories eventually subsided as the voice spoke up again.

<Desire core stabilized. Manifesting Core: Heroic>

A ball of rainbow-colored light suddenly grew into existence in front of the meditating Zhen Liu. He didn't know what it was exactly, but he had the feeling he was standing in front of someone who would recklessly endanger themselves to save one. In essence, someone heroic.

<Kaijin Core Manifested. Proceed to the next step of the Chaos Body Forge>, the voice instructed.

"Kaijin core? The next ste-oh the words. Right", Zhen Liu thought for a moment before proceeding to recite the same words he heard that strange guy say in his dream.

[With my power I forge your body.]

<Analyzing area for material...complete.>

<10,000 year old Crimson Jade...suitable.>

<Selecting memories for design...complete.>

<Memories of "Valkyrie" and "Ogre" selected, creating vessel now.>

Images of a winged warrior woman and large brutish monster flitted through his mind before melding together into a single cohesive image.

Aether began to flow from the diagram surrounding Zhen Liu and into the surrounding jade that he was currently embedded in.

As chunks of Crimson Jade began to float and collide with the "core" in front of him, Zhen Liu began to feel a little sick as for the first time in his life he was actually making use of aether for an art...at least he thought it was. He wasn't sure what exactly was this thing he was doing.

The chunks of jade eventually stopped slamming into each other as they took on a vaguely humanoid shape that seemed to fluctuate in proportion and size.

[With my wisdom, I forge your mind.]

The ring on Zhen Liu's left hand began to glow as he said those words, releasing mysterious fluctuations of aether. A moment later, several art scrolls and an aether formula magically appeared from the ring and flew towards the forming humanoid body. The reading material turning into wisps of energy that fused with the body and forming an aether formula over the core.

Zhen Liu was surprised about the sudden appearance of the literature, but he didn't have time to wonder where they originated from.

He was preparing to say the last line of the mantra before the mysterious voice interrupted him.

<Give them a name.>

"What?"