Chapter 1477 (Patreon)

 ToC: https://www.patreon.com/posts/23899958 

Kharon hummed around Randidly Ghosthound at full and furious capacity. In various small meeting rooms across the city, the assembled teachers began refining the curriculum plans for Kharon Academy. Tatiana invited  various agricultural groups of Kharon to her high-windowed office to talk about the acquisition of a floating island dedicated to growing the Wandering City’s food. Commissioner Arrietti led an investigation into abuses of power within the Kharon government, starting with his own police force. In the belly of the city, the Order Ducis began to ramp up the difficulty of its training assignments as the many applicants prepared to seize the five openings.

But that was just the tip of the iceberg. A cohort of immigration applicants were finally approved and given full status as Kharon’s citizens. The metal working complex made a recent breakthrough, using a strange fluid obtained from a mysterious pool in Zone 11 to create a metal that could be recast with ease.  Competition was heating up between the restauranteurs of Kharon, who had enjoyed the explosive demand during the tournament but now had to return to only the population within the city. The cities park service dubiously prepared for the arrival of a true winter.

Meanwhile, Randidly quietly stood on his floating island and felt waves of significance pass beneath him like wrinkles on silk as Kharon rapidly began to evolve. But still, as it had been since the tournament, there was something else producing significance on Expira. He frowned slightly, using his delicate senses to try and trace the source. But while significance slowly accumulated around Kharon, Randidly couldn’t sniff out the reason for the gradual shift.

Of course, Randidly wanted what Kharon did to be significant. But he sensed that this was not completely the doing of his city. So before he moved toward training, he took some time to dedicate his whole attention to the change..

After a few seconds of standing at attention like a german shepherd that had caught the scent of a groundhog, Randidly huffed out a breath and then shook himself. He turned and glanced over at his now partially renovated home. On the demolished third floor, seven trees stood tall with quite a bit of space between them. After almost a day of periodic blasts of his Yggdrasil image, it was clear the plant life was beginning to shift toward something that should exist partially in myth.

There was an ethereal quality to the air within this ‘grove. In addition, Randidly would occasionally catch a smolder of golden light from the root systems these trees were creating. But it wasn’t quite there yet.

Randidly cracked the knuckles of his right hand and then produced his Philosopher’s Key. Honestly, Tatiana had taken the news that he decided to redecorate the top floor very well, considering what it had cost to employ Mareen. She just emphasized that any changes he was making needed to be done before he left for the Nexus; she refused to finish any half-made mess. And considering the fact that this would be a working of image, Randidly would prefer to handle the details himself.

When his mind insistently continued to fuss over the issue of the changing layer of significance across Expira, Randidly walked through the portal and found himself met by the soft rush of waves hitting a shoreline. They lapped forward over his toes and frothed onto his ankles. He took a deep breath, tasting the heavy tang of salt carried by the wind.

For this training session, Randidly chose to head to the Nemesai’s old base in the middle of the sea. Since Thea’s breakdown and due to the fact that the world now accepted them, the Nemesai now moved more openly into the Zones. Being also citizens underneath the fucked up Nexus, they honestly got along rather well with their Champion counterparts Which meant that the abandoned and desolate secret hideout could be freely used.

And Randidly wouldn’t need to worry about polluting the surrounding space. Or about leaving the ground torn and charred.

Randidly walked away from the shoreline but didn’t head down into the dizzying network of tunnels and caves than ran beneath the island. Randidly grinned up at the pure azure sky above him, lightly dotted with quickly moving clouds. Setting aside the danger of causing a cavin-in on himself, he genuinely wanted to remain out here. The color of the sky reminded him of Vualla’s eyes.

Still, he had to push all those little distractions away as soon as he settled down into a sitting position. Today would hopefully be the beginning of a shift that had been a long time coming; today, Randidly Ghosthound would work very seriously on the image of the Grim Chimera.

The air around him cracked as his body quickly began to produce more heat. His heartbeat quickened. His blood positively sizzled as it rushed around his body and passed oxygen on to his muscles. As the changes to his cardiovascular system grew more drastic, a tremor ran through Randidly’s body. A low growl escaped his lips. His eyes narrowed into slits as the pain began.

Unlike during a triple image activation which had become increasingly habitual, Randidly kept a lid on both the Stillborn Phoenix and Yggdrasil as the Grim Chimera expanded freely through his body. Previously, he had carefully allocated space in his person for each of the images to coexist. But now, he didn’t require that careful calculus. He could simply explode with a single-minded power. So the Grim Chimera gleefully expanded and manifested across the entirety of Randidly’s person.

His metal left arm rippled and a bulging arm of muscle appeared in its place, ending in a massive claw with talons as long as a human hand. Those talons stretched out lazily, almost as though it was testing the laws of physics in the surrounding space. His right arm slowly withered and stretched until a spear of bone covered in dried blood extended out from his elbow. His shoulders and spine cracked and twisted as he grew slightly taller and broader. His two bone tails flicked back and forth from his neck and waist. His heart rate continued to rise.

Randidly eyes blazed with emerald fire. His mouth stretched wider and wider, less as any display of emotion but acting more like the side effect from his jaw cracking and grinding into a new joint formation. His heartbeat accelerated even further, thundering in his chest. The skin of his torso turned pale as the skin of his extremities darkened. The air around him hissed as Randidly breathed out and released blasts of steam.

His larger shoulders rose as his new lungs inflated to fill his new rib cage. When he breathed out the steam, it was slightly luminous, although the effect was mostly lost in the broad daylight underneath the brilliant azure sky. Then his whole body trembled; a split second later, the Grim Chimera raised its head and roared toward the sky, blasting out steam like a dragon whose treasure horde had been pilfered. 

A flock of birds on the far side of the island took flight as sound waves and image reverberations echoed outward. Randidly sensed fish quickly zipped out of the nearby shadows toward deeper waters and couldn’t stop the surging glee in his heart. This was the raw dominance that the Grim Chimera wielded. The trials that had nearly killed it left it unfathomably strong. For good measure, Randidly roared once more. The remaining animals in the surrounding area fled.

The roar of a predator is a universal signal, Randidly thought idly. Then he rolled his shoulders and took a step forward. His ankle and knee bent slightly and he savored the sensation of power that flooded through him. The physical limitation of the System was practically nonexistent now, although Randidly could still vaguely feel where it lay coiled like an untied rope around his body. But with that awareness was also a certainty that he could stop his foot and break past that limit almost immediately, hitting the ground and sundering the surrounding island in an explosion of violence.

The realization brought the Grim Chimera a great deal of joy. While Randidly was now his image personified, he still possessed an independent perspective that watched the inner machinations of the Grim Chimera’s mind. Likely, the uncontrolled emotions were a reflection of the parts of Randidly that resided within his other his image. But this observational Randidly was somewhat amused by the Grim Chimera’s easy joy and ferocity. If you don’t control that hunger, you’ll soon bite off more than you can chew. Probably sooner than you think.

The Grim Chimera breathed in, sucking in oxygen and energy from the surrounding. 

Congratulations! Your Skill Cursed Appetite of a Wraith (L) has grown to Level 299!

The relatively thick Aether that blanketed Expira rushed into the Grim Chimera’s body. The thin film of Nether provided an almost nonexistent boost to his Nether Nebula. But the real effect was the way that the surrounding air of the island seemed to grow dim for a few seconds. Randidly could notice trace weakenings of the stone beneath him as the Grim Chimera stole something vital from everything touched by its breath.

The Grim Chimera held that breath in his chest for a few seconds that gradually released it. Then he breathed in again.

Still, all that energy made the Grim Chimera practically glow. Randidly took a few more steps forward, savoring the intoxicating feeling of power within this physical form. Then, before he was carried away by the sensation, Randidly stretched out his right arm. The subtle strand of rope wrapped around his wrist trembled and then unfolded into the air. Soon, the complex matrices of the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night hovered in front of him.

The Grim Chimera, burning with fighting spirit, slipped into the strange space of lights and echoing resonances. The observing Randidly felt a small amount of pity. You believe this is necessary to prove yourself and we believe it is necessary so you might be broken and then reforged, but… be careful.

Without any hesitation, the Grim Chimera called a moment to mind and it grew bright and rushed to hover in front of him. Of the moments within the Dreamcatcher, it was clear from the shrill keening of it t this was one of the most powerful. Randidly carefully wove a protective film of Aether and Nether tightly around his Class, then allowed the eager Grim Chimera to reach forward and touch that heavy moment. There was a brief sense of disorientation and then Randidly was there, floating.

It was an extended, empty moment. The Grim Chimera grinned in anticipation. Randidly Ghosthound released a breath while the Stillborn Phoenix and Yggdrasil prepared themselves. And then that flitting Perception came upon his person as Elhume looked for Yystrix.

If anything, Randidly’s first impression of that contact was a sense of awe. In their previous brush, he hadn’t possessed the same familiarity with Aether and Nether that he did now. So when this time, that massive landmass of crystalized Aether appeared in front of him, he could truly appreciate the feat it represented. The fossilized power there was enough to rival what one million Randidly Ghosthound’s could currently accomplish. There were mountain ranges and valleys and plateaus and rough edges ravines within that landmass sized crystal, all possessing more raw power than Randidly could generate.

Looking at it, it seemed impossible.

Even more intimidatingly, this time Randidly could sense what lay beneath that huge and eye-catching piece of crystal Aether. It rested on a swirling swamp of Nether. It was a sinister tar that sizzled against the bottom of the crystalized Aether, representing an equally staggering gathering of significance to mirror the meaning that Elhume possessed.

But the sizzle made Randidly frown. Why-

Something that was deeply locked away within all that crystalized Aether stirred. The movement created a minuscule crack. That silent slithered across the continent of crystal. And suddenly all that Randidly could sense was a distant buzzing.

When he came to, his Absolute Timing told him that he had been unconscious for four minutes and eleven seconds. He sat up with a groan, a vicious headache pounding at the periphery of his awareness. That brief brush with Elhume had apparently knocked him directly out of the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night.

He glanced around. It seemed that the process had also melted the only-now cooling sand on which he had been standing

Randidly turned his attention inward and then sighed with relief; although his Class was shaken, it hadn’t been stripped barren as it had in the past. Perhaps being knocked out of the memory and not having to remain underneath Elhume’s scrutiny weakened the permanent damage. Or, quite depressingly, perhaps he had finally become powerful enough to survive a single glance from Elhume.

At that point, Randidly became aware of the low whine that was coming from the Grim Chimera. What he found in his image was somewhat shocking: even the most core detail of that confident Grim Chimera was now blurry and indistinct. The impact of Elhume’s attention had smashed it to smithereens. If it hadn’t been the image focused on survival, it likely would have been completely annihilated, the remnants now uselessly drifting apart.

Yggdrasil was also wounded from the brush, but much less so than the Grim Chimera. So it quickly marshaled its energy and prepared to heal its fellow image. But Randidly shook his head and stopped it. The Grim Chimera chose this. Let it heal on its own. It needs this.

Meanwhile, the keening cry of suffering continued. But more than a lament, the noise was a promise. The Grim Chimera swore vengeance with every moment of his strained suffering.