Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?

Dante's hunting expeditions were a regular occurrence at the [Mines of Malevolence].

Every now and then, Dante would disappear with several dozen or so of his kaijin in tow, and then come back with some new ones replacing several of the ones he had brought along with him.

It should be noted that none of these replaced kaijin represented a net loss in power for the mines, more like a reallocation of resources.

Now, one would think that since that there were less kaijin in the mines and that the overseer wasn't around to coordinate this mess, that the slaves of mine would have an easier time, right?

Wrong.

The Kaijin left behind in the mines had less oversight, less competition and even more opportunities to fuck with the slaves themselves.

In other words, now that they didn't have to worry about their fellow monsters attempting to eat them they were free to be more creative with their abuses than before.

Such atrocities can not be transcribed for the sake of human decency, but the casualty rate during these expeditions were at least triple in comparison to regular operations.

Then again, it was rather tricky to keep track of such numbers when the turnover rate of slaves was so absurdly high.

This lack of oversight was actually an opportunity for not just the kaijin that ran this wretched worksite.

Decades ago, a rambunctious band of brothers used these odd lulls to organize a rebellion against Dante and his horde of kaijin.

They had spent weeks, months, encouraging the others, bolstering their spirits with ideas and stories filled with [Hope], [Freedom] and [Wonder], hid away weapons and tools that could be used and drafted up a plan of attack.

Ultimately, the plan failed.

The rebellion was quelled, the brothers were executed for all to see and Dante cranked up the cruelty to its current state of hellishness.

Before the rebellion, the slaves had a settlement on the surface.

After the rebellion, they were all forced to live underground.

It had actually gotten to the point that some of the populace had forgotten what the sky even looked like, while others began to believe that there was no life beyond the cavern walls.

However, not all of them were like this.

Many of the slaves that had participated in that failed rebellion had become defiant enough that they didn't seem to buckle or break in the face of the kaijin and their strange aura.

In the face of such defiance, executions or banishment would be considered appropriate punishment.

Instead, these sorry sods were cocooned, drugged and kept in suspended animation in chamber directly connected to the smelting room.

As to why they were left in such a state, well...that's better explained by the investigators.

...To any teens reading this, learn to enjoy Third Person Omniscience...

[Hey. Hey. Hey!]

[Meh?]

[That asshole, the horde and the caretaker are gone.]

[Woo.]

Keeping watch from an overturned mining cart, Porcelain Doll and Corpse Doll were watching and waiting for the False Lord and his horde to leave.

Well, to be more precise, Porcelain Doll was keeping watch.

Some of the pieces composing Corpse Doll's body consisted of those infused with sleep-type curses, and they had a nasty habit of kicking in at random times...or whenever she got bored.

Evidently, this random curse manifestation was also why Corpse Doll would eat anything and everything that could be considered remotely edible.

The other kaijin, and Logos, had speculated that these habits would mellow out when the Doll Twins finally became true Kaijin, but Pathos and Porcelain Doll was pretty certain that these habits would actually become a core part of her [Core].

Regardless, once Porcelain Doll woke up her twin, the two immediately got to work with...with...

[Uh...PD? I don't remember what we're supposed to be doing.]

[Corpse Doll, we're supposed to be...wait, wait, wait, PD? As in, shorthand for Porcelain Doll.]

[Yeah,] Corpse Doll nodded. [It's a nickname. The other kaijin mentioned that one of our other siblings uses them. So I figured we can refer to each other as such too. Yours is PD, mine is CD.]

[CD as in...Corpse Doll?].

[Yes!] CD nodded. [Isn't it cute?]

After posing this question, CD was doing her best puppy dog impression...which was a little odd given that she wasn't built to be adorable.

She, kind of like Screamira, was built like a brick house.

Regardless, the expression did wonders in convincing PD in accepting the nickname.

[Alright, it is a bit cute,] PD agreed. [But you do realize we may have to ditch these nicknames once we fully develop and get true names, right? Well, unless our true names can be shortened to PD and CD.]

[Oh yeah...]CD trailed off when she thought about their future as badass kaijin twins. [Well, in that case, these nicknames can just be how we refer to each other.]

[That...makes a remarkable amount of sense, CD.]

[Yee!]

[Wait...right!]

After this moment, PD finally remembered the main point of this conversation.

[Alright, so the caretaker and the others had figured out that the best way for us to deal with the False Lord is to steal that weird probe thing that helps him make those Cores of his out of Malevolent Gold,] PD began to explain.

[Wait, "steal"? Not "destroy"? Why?]

[Something about the caretaker seeing the probe as being spiritually similar to himself.]

[Oh...okay,] CD nodded.

[Back on topic, due to all the kaijin guarding the place and the giant ass blaze that seems to be able to burn us, we have no choice but to do some sneaky shit in order to snuff out the flame and steal it without anyone noticing,] PD continued. [Or at least, create a path that's more beneficial to us than them.]

[Okay,] CD nodded. [Still confused why were up here instead of underground. Because it sounds like we need to be underground in order to secure a tunnel as our escape route.]

[I was getting there; since the entire underground is enemy territory, we're going to try and find a tunnel that connects to the surface. More specifically, we're going to ride that exhaustion vent we used as an entrance to find a tunnel that connects us to one of two destinations: the smelter room or the prison cavern connected to it.]

[I see, I see...wait, what again? Why the prison cave?]

[I...I think it was either because the flames ensnaring the probe was actually feeding off the wills of the imprisoned, or because the prison tunnel is directly connected to the smelter and those assholes will not expect us to run deeper into the cave as opposed to out.]

[Ah...wait, what was that former bit?]

...No, seriously, what?...

"Are...are you sure what you're describing isn't just soul draining?"

"Yes,"Lythero and Olstenna answered simultaneously.

"That was disturbingly quick."

Eight hours had passed since the kaijin had deposited a recently freed, and now mostly sober, Olstenna and Lythero to Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai.

The two Dozing Salamander natives were comatose for the majority of those hours, but then they both woke up screaming.

Thankfully, the screaming merely blended in with the ambient noises of the mine.

Once they settled down though, the information they shared with the Zhen Clan scions and their allies was...unnerving.

"So the reason why this Kaijin Lord is keeping a bunch of rebellious prisoners drugged and cocooned, is because he's been sapping their will to live in order to empower that flame?"

"Not exactly that," Lythero answered. "It's more like...the flame sapped away our ability to...care?"

"Your ability to care?"a young Aether Acolyte asked from the crowd in the cave. "You mean like how those Buddhist monks attempt to let go of worldly desire?"

"No," Olstenna answered this time. "They're earnestly and willingly surrendering their desires and wants in order to achieve greater power. This was like someone was trying to harvest my organs while I was alive and then replace those organs with failed copies. But worse."

"Oh..."

To be more precise with Olstenna's words, the duo had literally felt like they were slowly becoming prisoners to their own bodies.

They knew that something was wrong with them, they knew that they could fix it with just simplest of medicines, but they also felt as if it was impossible to do so.

They felt as if every single cell in their body had slowly given up on the idea of being alive but didn't even have the damn courtesy to die

They didn't care enough to live and they didn't care enough to die.

It was just constant state of ennui, hate and disgust.

It was as if everything that made them "human" was being stripped away.

"I'm going to be honest, if I ever end up like that again," Olstenna told Lythero. "I what you to kill me."

"Agreed. No one deserves to live like that."