Chapter 1939 (Patreon)

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

Interesting that Nether and Aether can affect each other so directly… or is it only because I received this reward while in the Alpha Cosmos? The Pantheon is hard at work while I’m moving through my Tithe.

Randidly rubbed his neck and considered his neck options. After grabbing the two Paths related to his improved Yggdrasil Skill, he still had quite a bit of PP. He briefly considered an additional refinement of his emotional abilities, through Bubbling Emotional Accumulation I Path. However, the 10,000 PP price tag and the fact he could improve using Helen’s method gave him pause. Rather than that, he was more inclined to complete either the Architecture of Yggdrasil I or the Throne of Nether Homage I Paths.

Both were concerned with the ability to create a framework with the two energies. Both should improve his understandings of the way these energies behaved. Randidly spent more time perfecting his Nether handling right now, but he required understanding of both to keep improving and weaving them together. Plus, increasing his Skill with Engraving wouldn’t directly help his image, but he did suspect it would provide some assistance.

Clicking his tongue, Randidly started with the Throne of Nether Homage Path. At the very least, it cost only 1000 PP to Architecture’s 2000. And when it came to Nether, he was aware of only the Nether King that was more talented in this area.

Congratulations! You have completed the Throne of Nether Homage I Path! You strike out on a very lightly used Path in the Nexus; as you look forward, you can only faintly detect a single other set of footprints heading toward your destination. The air is still and stale. This is a lost and isolated location. You raise your eyes and peer toward the horizon. The world curls away from you like a frowning mouth, as though it understands your decision to strike out on this heading and disapproves. But this might take you away from the well-traversed areas, you do not hesitate. Your Path is your own. Your feet carry you forward, even if no one else believes in your journey.

Congratulations! Free Stats +50. Some stirrings begin to accumulate within your Nether Core! Significance deepens! A change is building within your Nether flows.

Congratulations! You have completed the Throne of Nether Homage II Path! The terrain has become rough; the path is lined with broken stone obelisks and the black sludge remnants of innumerable Nether Beasts left to congeal. As you cast your gaze around, you see you stand on a vast battlefield. On the one hand, this can be considered a mass grave. But there is no respect or reverence in how these bodies were treated. This place was simply convenient and the bodies were abandoned here, to their own devices. The air sticks in your throat as you breathe. This is not a place to rest, but of regrets. You hurry onward, wading deeper into the aura of death.

Synchronicity detected! Recalculating…

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Recalculating…

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Recalculating…

*****

“Are…” Alta’s eyes burned as she tried to follow the complex network of meaning, karma, Aether, Nether, and various embedded influences Randidly Ghosthound seemed hellbent on collecting, as they all spun together to try and force a certain result from the Path. So much force surged together that everything smashed into itself and brought the process to a standstill. And now she needed to try and figure out what the hell they could do about it.

Very quickly, Alta’s vision became blurry as she tried to follow all the meaning. Energy was flowing too fast in too many different directions in order to parse it apart. Essentially, she couldn’t even figure out what the Path was trying to do. “-You fucking KIDDING me?!?”

She thought that their previous attempt to make adjustments to the Path was bad. She had spent almost a week with a throbbing headache and the dancing sight of Nether flows waiting on the inside of her eyelids when she closed her eyes. She had avoided all Path fulfillments except for some of her personal disciples that she favored. She had been irritable and exhausted for fully a month.

And now, right as she came back-

The Earth Golem Emperor rubbed his hands together. “Ha! This is why I could never give up being part of the Pantheon! Randidly Ghosthound produces results like nothing I’ve ever seen. How is this energy so dense? Should we just squeeze it all together”

You fucking meathead. Squeeze it?! Alta growled rather than responding. Unwilling to allow the straining moment to snap, and for the Ghosthound to lose access to this possible evolution, she stepped forward into the worst of the conflicting energies. Her chest began to glow cherry red as she served as a conduit to the force. With her projection, she could at least stall out the Path so it didn’t rip itself to shreds with its own lopsided weight.

Sensing the disturbance, another one of the Pantheon hurried over to tend to Randidly. Alta was exasperated to see that it was the Patron of the Abyss, the amorphous tentacle beast. Compared to the other newly arrived Patrons, it actually wasn’t so bad; the real problem was that the new arrivals didn’t understand some of the creativity and personal attention required to make an excellent Path. They had just spent too much time with the System holding their hand to have any ideas not related to their own image.

The Earth Golem Emperor began to cull out some of the weaker influences that distracted from the main thrust and aggregated the miscellaneous extra that Randidly seemed to carry around in his pockets. Alta groaned as her chest brightened from red to yellow. Even with a simplified flow of energy, too much was involved in this process. And when it came to Randidly Ghosthound, every bit was heavy with meaning.

“The knot’s complex,” the Emperor grunted, pausing in his efforts to scan the swirling meanings. Significance moved so quickly it blurred into a uniform surge of power.

Meanwhile, Alta just had eyes for the Patron of the Abyss. Her chest rippled and shifted toward the metallic body she had near the end of her life, as the strain proved too much. “Are you seriously just going to stand there? Get your body in here. Corral the significance.”

She whirled on the Emperor. “Just fucking hack your way through all this nonsense involving fealty and obedience. Focus on the significance from his Nether Core… the Stillborn Phoenix-” Pain pulled open Alta’s mouth. Her eyes flashed with fury as she wrestled back the conflicting energies into alignment. She smashed them together and earned herself a few more seconds to speak. “- and the Riders shit. And leave the rest up to him. He has enough of a vision for himself to handle the rest.”

Both the other members of the Pantheon surged to accomplish her orders. Alta’s vision swam. She hoped that Randidly would stop only after a few more Paths. She wasn’t sure if her body could take much more of this.

*****

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Recalculating…

Congratulations! Your Skill Animus Diffraction (M)(U) has grown to Level 2!

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Congratulations! Your Skill Animus Diffraction (M)(U) has grown to Level 34!

Congratulations! Your Fourth Authority manifests in the path and releases energy onto the souls of Nether Beasts that haven’t yet achieved peace. At your passage, they begin to surge and rise, flooding the Path behind you. They drag themselves with spectral fingers, addicted to the spark of life you carry. They crawl atop one another and stretch toward your back, attempting to catch up, until they flutter and billow like a massive cape of the damned, hanging just slightly back away from your person. They scream, but their insubstantial forms can only manage strained whispers.

Reward differed! Please finish the next Path in order to receive your reward.

Randidly pursed his lips. The notification had failed for almost two minutes, before finally kicking back into gear. He wondered if there was something wrong with the Pantheon. But in the end, he shrugged. There might not be a stated reward, but he felt the increased density in his Nether Core. He continued pouring PP into the Throne of Nether Homage Path series.

Congratulations! You have completed the Throne of Nether Homage III Path! Your existence ripped open the door between life and death. For so many slaughtered Nether Beasts, now barely retaining their sanity from life, this opportunity is one their grudge will not allow them to miss. They swarm like locusts, using the small fraction of power you released to rip through the veil of the living.

Branching Path! A powerful arm of remnants spirits seeks to use your abilities to breakthrough. At this point, your aura has already given them all the tools they need to ascend. Now, it just becomes a matter of time. Do you choose to pull these fields of damned around you like a cloak or allow them to flow to those who fly your banners, arming your hosts?

Will this give the Lancers some clinging Nether Beasts? Just like the Stillborn Phoenix has those two Unborn? Randidly hesitated as he looked at the choice. Not that he much desired to personally house all the animosity he sensed in the Path completion, but he wasn’t sure what the result would be.

However, what Randidly could clearly sense was the deep flow of significance that moved through the Path. Whatever had taken so long to finish for the notification now meant that something large was building, even beyond the current choice.

Alright, Lancers, let’s see what you can do, Randidly made his selection.

Congratulations! The damned flow freely through to your armies, strengthening their martial ability and deepening their Nether. Warning! There is a small chance of causing a deviation in the recipients. Fidelity of the Ascendant Moirae and Exquisite Piety +100! Congratulations! You have learned the Skill Armory of the Nether Damned (L)!

Armory of the Nether Damned (L): You house a door to a realm where Nether corpses stewed and decomposed until they formed a mass of ill-will. You have given the possibility of revival to these disparate souls, for which they are eternally grateful. In return, they flow through your connections and provide small enhancements to weaponry and armor. User may also condense a superior and personalized weapon for one individual per one hundred Skill Levels. Small chance of summoning the soul of a Nether Gatekeeper to reside within the weapon. Chance increases slightly with Skill Level. Power of the Superior Weapons increases with Skill Level. Enhancement provided to other equipment vastly increases with Skill Level.