5th Event, Day 2:

Zaria's PoV:

"...hey, wasn't this place supposed to be crushed? As in, literally? Into pieces" - Zaria

"That is what the rumor mill says." - Iron

After several encounters with more glass-fakers (who didn't give any EXP, mind if I say so), we reached the Sessei Jiin, the place where Lily's third Festival Event took place. 

Except, nothing here seems to be the trail of a dangerous Calamity-level creature. Just the reverse. It looks brand new. Great walls that are painted in crimson colors, newly carved-out statues that show birds of various species, and newly laid brick roads.

"Did somebody come and tag Lily with rebuilding this place?" - Zaria

"No other way but to see it for ourselves," said Iron as he opened the doors.

"Ha! Hi! Hai-yaa!!" 

*Closing the door*

"...... Wrong address." - Iron

"No, it wasn't!" I said and opened the doors again.

We weren't wrong the first time. The temple had been splendidly rebuilt in the few days since we lost contact with Lily. Now it was several times its supposed size, with walls of crimson and gold and with more bird-shaped statues all over the place.

Most importantly, a martial arts ring is placed right in front of the temple! This place has changed from a temple that provides spiritual enlightenment into something from a martial arts cult!

And in the middle of the ring were two characters. One is the familiar tentacled, horned, and tailed humanoid I know and even fought not too long ago! Well, that one was a fake...this Lily's not a fake, right?

But the other guy is new to me...sort of. He's a bear-type Beastkin, and the color of his fur reveals that he is from the panda species. He is clothed in a wandering monk's outfit with a straw hat and a cheap-looking battle staff, currently pointed toward Lily. But the most surprising thing is what surrounds the guy!

"Iron? Isn't that black haze..." - Zaria

"No doubt about it. It's Lady Garami's [Aura of Darkness]. I always wanted something like that..." - Iron

Too much info, but glad to know why you know...maybe.

"Alright, everybody freeze!" I shouted while stopping the two combatants by throwing some [Wind Needles] on the ground in front of them.

"Who did-, Iron! And, eh...Zaria! Why're you here?" - Lily

Lily answered us, but the glass-fake is still fresh in my mind. How to confirm...

"Lily, do you want lu-" - Zaria

"I WANT!!" shouted the Lily when I retrieved the picnic basket with food I had bought before reaching the mountain.

"That is Lily. No doubt about it. No one can replicate that primate aura of starvation." - Iron

"Yeah, that's...hey, what do you mean by that!?" - Lily

Okay, I am convinced. 

While feeding Lily, who was downhearted over the food not being handmade by Revi, Lily told her story. She did plan on going after the Nian, but she wanted to repair the temple first. Not that she had the ability or knowledge to do that.

"That is when Master arrived!" said Lily and made us turn to the panda Beastkin who was drinking his tea poured by the old monk that lived in the temple...

"Excuse me, but you're...not a Beastkin, right?" I asked the panda-looking monk after taking a better look at "him".

"Oh, excuse me. It's a bad habit of mine." - Panda

With that, most of the fur and muscles of the panda started to disappear, or better said, "shrink away", revealing a feminine body, furry limbs revealed by the baggy yet skimpy monk-clothing, and a pair of black ears on top of a head with white hair.

"...I should have guessed. You're a Therianthrope like me." - Zaria

It was confusing at first since bear-type Beastkin looks almost the same as their beastly counterpart standing on two legs, except for their hands. Bear-type creatures have paws, but the Beastkin have something that resembles a cross between a hand and a paw, with dextrous fingers and sharp claws. 

"A-hahaha! Yes, that's right! This poor little sapling has no ghost of a chance against me if I don't give her the handicap of fighting with my bear paws!" - Panda-girl

"Mhm. And who are you? I got a hunch though." - Zaria

The panda-Therianthrope laughed under her breath and walked away from the table and did some strange poses.

"Hm-hm-hm. That's right! My name is Ren Hoyoutei! The greatest freedom-lover of Luxuria and the Champion of Chaos!! Also, I am the master architect who built this Ho-oh Jiin and the sensei of all hungry chimera-girls!!" - Ren

I knew it. The no-good Champion who left the continent right before the Disasters struck. Also known as the Champion in missing big events. 

...and you stealthy changed the name of the temple, didn't you? It's related to the phoenix hatchling that's eating lunch with the pelican and the overgrown chicken...that's no hatchling. It has evolved. Seriously?

But my thoughts about Lily's birds were thrown away when I heard her next line:

"You were a Champion like Garami!?" - Lily

...seriously?

"Shouldn't you have noticed that? As her student? She even used that unique skill Garami always using in close combat." - Zaria

"The difference is too big. Garami is constantly occupied with something, while Ren is always free from responsibilities." - Lily

"Call me sensei!" - Ren

Okay, I can see the difference between them. Garami's not that idiotic.

After the introductions, Iron and I started to explain what had happened since the time Lily encountered the Nian.

"Azi Dahaka!? Demonic Seas!? A fake me!!?" - Lily

A sensible reaction. Lily looked like she was told that Christmas was suspended this year. Ah, Christmas. The time of the year where delivery firms are blessed with both work and trials.

"Lily, please focus. Why are there rumors about you leaving this temple when you didn't." - Iron

"That's...I don't know. I wanted to hunt that bastard down, but rebuilding the temple was more difficult than I first expected. Then Ren came along and told me how dangerous that bastard is." - Lily

"And that's when I got this cutie-pie to agree on not doing anything stupid until she could beat me at least~~," said Ren while glomping Lily. 

"In return, I had her promise to help with fixing this place," said Lily with the face of a cat that's trying to withstand the overwhelming cuddling from its owner.

"Okay, but you're fine with leaving? Unless you want to face a Calamity that's free as the bird compared to the one that's still in captivity?" - Zaria

"No, I'm fine. The temple is fixed, Figaro even got to evolve while we were hunting in the mountains for dinner, and hearing all these stories, I'm scared of being anywhere close to that food-wasting bastard..." - Lily

"You still got the guts to talk shit about it." - Iron

"That's because he is a food-wasting bastard!!" shouted Lily while revealing her fangs. 

"Then make use of this situation and learn something about Calamities. If you get strong enough, maybe you can teach that "bastard" a lesson." - Iron

"...Iron, this is a Calamity we are speaking of." - Lily

And that is the cue for the walking armor to collapse on the table from the shame. Poor guy. 

"It still doesn't explain why the rumors say you were running around after it-" - Zaria

"Oh, that must be those blokes I busted before meeting Lily." - Ren

We all looked at the panda girl as she told her story. About how she had encountered a group of glass-like golems before reaching the destroyed temple and how one of the golems had escaped her wrath.

"Thinking about it now, it looked like they were coming from this place. I thought some alchemist had failed an experiment so I never gave it much thought~." - Ren

"Okay...and why's that related to the rumors?" - Zaria

"Wait, you haven't heard the old fairy tale? "The Queen and the Glass Throne"?" - Ren

"? Glass throne?" - Zaria

"Is she talking about the story you mentioned before?" asked Iron as he looked up from the table.

"No, that one didn't mention any special thrones..." - Zaria

"No wonder. The Glass Throne is only mentioned in the special version of the story of the Monster Princess. Albeit, the Glass Throne is part of the original script." - Ren

"Original? How do you know about that?" - Zaira

"Kukuku. Listen and be impressed! This [Story Seeker] Ren found the secret texts about this Millennium-old story hidden in the mansion of a noble of the now destroyed Arahana kingdom! Before it was destroyed, of course," said Ren as she took out a scroll from her shadow. Hey, we have matching Storage-type skills.

"...you stole them?" - Lily

"Hey, it's the Arahanas we are talking about. People would be angry if I didn't do it." - Ren

True. The Arahana kingdom used to be a den of self-obsessed fools who would increase the taxes of anyone not born and raised in their country. Thievery and fraud were the common greetings if you visited that place. It's a miracle that they never went to war for some petty reason. 

It may have come from the fact that the Arahanas were dedicated followers to the Ultimate Goddess of Life. Thanks to their belief, the goddess granted them fruitful soils, long lifespans, and much more that allowed the kingdom to not depend on trade with its neighbors for its necessary goods. I heard that they were even granted summoned heroes from other worlds to take care of anything that could come to threaten their kingdom.

Nevertheless, they went too far one day. Nobody knows really why, but on that day, their kingdom turned into the first victim of the Disaster of Life, an ever-growing lump of grey sludge that ate anything it touched. And the Arahanas were right for the picking. Good riddance.

"Why were you in that kingdom then?" asked Iron after I gave the two non-Luxurians a quick run-down.

"Because my nose for adventure led me there!" - Ren

...what the fuck's that supposed to mean?

"Not that it always works. It lured me away from the continent when the two Disasters struck. As a Luxuria-born, I feel ashamed. And as if that wasn't enough, some random black-clothed man came to me one day and shouted complaints about not obtaining something he calls "proofs" because I always end up dodging any big events. Though, for some reason, I got one of those "proofs" right after that man left. Wonder why?" - Ren

So this is the Champion of Chaos: someone who instinctively escapes any type of chaos.

Ren then made us focus on the scroll she had laid out on the table.

"Back to the story; this original script that I found says more about it. The princess owned a beautiful throne made completely out of glass, but it was cursed by the dying will of a vile king from many years ago. The cursed throne tricked one of the princess' subjects and had them mix a potion that turned the princess into the monster the original story told of when she was crowned queen.

"After that, things went just as the original story told, the subjects felt disgusted for their Queen and killed her in cold blood. The difference here is with the queen's sole loyal vassal. It's the same guy who poisoned the queen with the potion. Overcome with grief and guilt, the vassal tried to take his own life by the feet of his queen's throne, but the cursed regalia had different ideas.

"Sharp shards of glass were shot out from the throne and gorged themselves into the vassal's body. The shards destroyed the mind of the vassal, which allowed the throne to control his body and use it as an instrument to create more tragedy and despair. The end." - Ren

"............that's it?" - Zaira & Iron & Lily

"No, but the rest is just as the, what should I call it..., just as the official version tells. Everyone was turned into a monster and the kingdom was destroyed. The difference is that the curse wasn't limited to when they looked in the mirror." - Ren

That's...different. Why did they remove the parts regarding the throne? However...

"Why is that related to those glass golems you talked about?" - Zaria

"Aren't they sort of similar to the throne in the story?" - Ren

"Nope." - Zaria

"Not really." - Lily

"Cannot compute." - Iron

"Come oooon! It sure is!" - Ren

Let's ignore this girl. We have more important things to do. Such as returning to the city and tell Flint's group about what we have learned.

"If it wasn't for this damn interference...," I  muttered while trying to make the portable Terminal work.

"You talking about the bad mojo coming from that new tower at the foot of the mountain?" - Ren

Tower...oh, that new-looking one. I saw it while flying to the mountain. It looked like there had been a huge battle there, with the remains of various monsters, even wyverns, still spread around its surroundings. 

Well, we could take a look at it. I mean, it's on the road back to the city. What could go wrong~?

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Kigal-Note/Humanoid: Therianthrope (Yin-Yang Panda)