Events within the memory,
Randidly reflected as he took in the chaos and devastation around him,
Are spiraling out of control quite quickly. And this time, itâs not even my fault.
With the power of Westrisser rushing down at him, he reflected on what had led him to this point.
After furiously training to gather PP and then discovering his new Fatepiece, he had rushed toward Malloon due to the rapid gathering of significance around the city. Just as he approached, the voice of Westrisser had boomed out with orders to bar the gates to him. To his surprise, several individuals in official robes had stepped in front of him to block his path. Full of fury, Randidly stopped and weighed the consequences. On the one hand, antagonizing Westrisser had consequences, both for remaining in the area and for keeping him from destabilizing the memory. Him punching his way through the gates of Malloon obviously hadnât occurred in true history.
On the other hand, even through the walls he could feel Elhume losing his temper. That manâs righteous fury was truly a sight to behold, warping the sky with its presence. As more and more significance tied itself into a vicious, throbbing knot in the sky, Randidly resolved himself and clenched a fist. The exhausting spot on his left hand throbbed, but he ignored it. Whatever the consequences, he needed to be inside Malloon for this; this was the most powerful pivot moment he had felt in the memory, by far.
The Grey Creature growled as Randidly raised his hand, but then he felt the stirrings from the first Phaea he had created. Trusting the Nether Herald, he accepted the summons.
In the aftermath, Randidlyâs
teeth
ached. It was a strange feeling, the most annoying of the various aches that plagued him after the strange ability activated. Despite that, he felt more than capable of rebuffing Westrisser long enough for Elhume to finish checking on the Patron of the Deepâs condition and thunder over for vengeance.
Now, apparently, Westrisser considered it sufficient to send
guards
after him. Randidly felt vaguely insulted.
Booms wracked the house around him as Elhume and Westrisser clashed a half dozen times in quick succession. Elhumeâs image slammed again and again into Westrisserâs dominance over the area, loosening its hold. For his part, Westrisserâs response was surprisingly tame; he didnât attempt to bring to bear the full force of his image that Randidly sensed he possessed. Instead, he simply held fast to the current status quo, but the rising tide of fury he felt within the ivory-winged serpent likely meant that would soon change.
He doesnât want to display his full powers?
Randidlyâs gaze flickered.
Ah, of course. Outside of Malloon, Nether King Bleak Sky is lurking.
Tame in this context was a matter of perception; the civilian population of Malloon continued to flee. Buildings swayed, one good push away from collapse. Warnings continued to blare across the city.
Demetrius touched Randidly on his shoulder, shaking him out of his thoughts. The Nether Herald looked at him with concern. âMy liege, lean on me if you need to. I understand how difficult it is to travel through the Phaea, even if you have only a single connection to pull through with you.â
That, at least, explained the strange ache that reached even his teeth. But Randidly shook himself lightly. âDonât worry about me. My body can handle a lot. For now, stay here and take care of Jotem. I need to-â
Someone kicked down the last remaining wall of their crumbling building. Randidly pivoted and saw two stone-skinned humanoids standing there, the front one practically licking his granite lips. The aggressorâs voice sounded low and violent. âNether King Hungry Eye. You are disturbing the Lordâs peace in Malloon and as such are under arrest. If you resist⊠we will not hesitate to break you.â
Randidly felt more guards swarming out to surround this house and also reinforce Westrisser himself in the confrontation against Elhume. Mass images began to gather in the tightly clumped groups at the sides of the formation. Yet he felt a flicker of recognition as he looked at these two individuals. âAh, Kopal. You were idiot enough to take your threat of vengeance against me seriously?â
The two in front of him were Kopal and Dogoel, the two Randidly had clashed against directly when he had first encountered Mae Myrna and the other Patrons in the outskirts of the underground market. Both possessed powerful bodies and used image physicalizations to empower them further. And yet-
Kopalâs grim glee slid off his face at Randidlyâs words. He took a step forward, debris crunching underneath his foot. âI will not underestimate you again, Nether scum. This place will be your grave, if you give me even a hint of a justification.â
Randidly almost laughed. But right now, his own anger began rising as a reflection of Elhumeâs; he also felt vaguely protective of the Patron of the Deep who had taken over the aesthetic of his skyislands.
Randidlyâs eyes narrowed as his Nether Core began to rapidly rotate in his chest. He exchanged a glance with Demetrius; he would need to protect Jotem from the reverberations of what was about to happen. Then he stepped forward. âCareful, Iâve made several improvements since we last fought.â
âPosturing is unbecoming, Nether King,â Dogoel finally spoke up, the real dangerous foe of the duo.
Clicking his tongue, Randidly felt pity that his warning was ignored. He didnât know why he bothered. Nether coiled in his chest. His three images exchanged almost gleeful acknowledgments with each other, Stillborn Phoenixâs darkness pulsing, Yggdrasilâs roots creaking ominously as they arranged themselves, and finally Grey Creature very directly letting its tongue out to taste the air. Already, Randidly had been reaching out and grasping at the kinetic waves released by the conflict between Elhume and Westrisser. A storm of force brewed over their heads, a growing store of power before he even had to flex a single muscle.
His images and Nether stretched out from his form, testing the environment. The memory around him barely rippled as he began gathering his weapons. His Nether Core began to rev, establishing an even firmer foundation. A wicked grin tugged at the corners of his mouth.
Randidly Ghosthound suspected he could still tear the memory to pieces if he gathered up all his newfound emotional force and pulled as deeply as he could on his Nether Core in one massive surge. A Nether Ritual about fivefold larger than his weather control arrangement would do it. However, he felt confident that he could safely wield the power he used outside of the memory to slay Commandant Wick and overcome Duulys Ambar.
His bare toes flexed. Now was finally the time to prove the lie of the moniker he had earned in the memory, Nether King Hungry Eye.
His image physicalizations snapped into place across his body. He chose the original arrangement of his images, golden veins running through translucent skin, gnarled and armored chitin across his arms and joins, and his left eye becoming a swirling mass of darkness. He also sucked in a light breath and release Nether into the atmosphere, utilizing the swirling mass of force above his head to push back Westrisserâs image dominance in Malloon, almost casually.
With the leaderâs attention on Elhume, he couldnât even put up much resistance.
âYou choose death, eh? Even offering these farces of images, and three at once? You dumb Nether cunt, stealing more images into your body wonât make you more powerful.â Kopal cackled and spread his arms wide. His image of martial dominance flared around his body. âI will break-â
Dawn Opens the Sky and Reality Stirs. Wicked Waltz of Tartarus. The Vindictive Chimera Smites.
Raise hand. Step. Smite.
Congratulations! Your Skill The Vindictive Chimera Smites (M) has grown to Level 835!
The air around him blazed with the pale light of dawn.
Three images came together in Randidlyâs body, all with the intensified emotional affect he had earned by overcoming the emotional tumors brought into his subconscious by the Alpha Cosmos. He stepped forward and punched Kopal in his rocky chest. Almost instinctively, the rockmanâs image spread out in a buzzing manner designed to resist the invasion of Nether.
But right now, Nether no longer had to be half of Randidlyâs force. Now it was his blood, cycling quickly through his body and empowering his muscles. His image physicalizations gleamed and intensified, seeming so vivid their power bled into the space around his body.
A defense designed against Nether crumpled helplessly before concentrated Aether. Kopalâs chest caved in and his body skidded three times across the ground before bouncing off bits of broken stone and tumbling through the air. Several of Malloonâs weaker guards that had been surrounding the house were knocked off their feet by the sudden stone-man projectile.
Only a meter away from Randidlyâs current position, Dogeolâs own image rose. The guard didnât retreat, just watched Randidly with serious eyes; this one wouldnât be foolish enough to underestimate Randidly, especially not after seeking his subordinate getting his chest caved in.
The rockmanâs body visibly became heavier as Randidly planted his foot and spun around. Dogeol channeled his entire image into his thick arm and punched. Yet despite how much enhancement Dogeolâs body possessed, it was nothing to Randidlyâs Dreadful Alacrity. He sidestepped the strike and brought his arm whipped upward to his Dogeolâs forearm, intent on snapping it in half.
The sound of the impact was a heavy crack. The rockman grunted in pain and took a half step backward, but the limb did not break as he had imagined. Randidlyâs expression twitched.
What a tough bastard.
The other guards in the area finally marshaled their own images and charged forward to join the fray, but the Randidly mentally unleashed the storm of force he had been accumulating above their heads. Sharp blades of wind and Nether howled out and cut off the lizardman frontrunnerâs legs. The second guard got her arms up and her image flared enough to block the next blade, but she got kicked back and cracked into the unfortunate building on the opposite side of the street for her trouble. The dozen guards behind her didnât fare much better, although they crouched down to weather the attacks.
Almost absently, Randidly gathered up all the kinetic force and distorted reactions from Aether and Nether interacting. His whirling storm above his head grew even stronger as it gobbled down the energy. Meanwhile, he adjusted his strategy against Dogeol. With Aether and Nether both singing in his body, he spun around the second blow and kicked the rockmanâs legs out from under him.
The rockman reacted quickly and twisted around to land on all fours like some sort of cubist cat, which was both oddly impressive and disturbing to watch, but Randidly had already blurred into motion. He stood above Dogeol, ripping apart the manâs image, and stomped down with all the force he could muster. The rockmanâs head shattered the ground and buried itself up to his neck. His spine didnât snap and Randidly admitted to himself that it would take quite a bit of time and effort to actually inflict a deep wound.
Instead, he plucked up the stunned rockman and whipped him around through the air. Dogeol made quite the projectile, zipping through the air⊠right at Westrisserâs back as the Winged Serpent paused to block another thunderous blow from Elhume.
At the last second, Westrisser glanced sideways and cut sharply with his hand. A blast of wind solidified in front of the guard and kept him from impacting his master. But that gave Elhume another moment to plant his foot, lower his arm, then unleash a punch from his waist that erupted forward with all the subtlety of a volcano.
Randidlyâs eyes flickered at the perfect transfer of force of the attack.
That attack⊠looks just like Vuallaâs.
Westrisserâs hand-painted a smooth circle in front of the punch, his image suppressing the attack before it could build up too much momentum. The ivory-winged individualâs grip on the environment shuddered but held. Yet even though he had easily dispensed with the image power, he then had to physically block the attack. On impact, the street beneath them cracked and seethed. The surrounding buildings shuddered and began to groan. The higher floors shook themselves to pieces.
Randidly gathered the force from the conflict into his storm, but simply watched for a moment. His eyes narrowed.
If this keeps up much longer, we are going to destroy quite a bit of Malloonâs infrastructure. Westrisser is still hesitating to use his full power with the hunter waiting outside of the city, but surely this isnât all the defenses-
On cue, Dogeol forced himself up off the ground. Despite enduring several of Randidlyâs blows directly, he seemed uninjured. âCode Divinity! Activate the defensive array! Crush the intruders into paste!â