Chapter 2236 (Patreon)

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

Unafraid of the prospect of the army of Nether Warriors around her, Neveah stomped around and created plenty of noise. Noise more than enough to wake an army, especially a powerful army that ran mostly on burning the ambient energy of their Nether Cores. Next to her, Quantas continued to whisper the enemies were sleeping and they had to remain quiet in order to sneak through their base. Smart stood very still between them and sweated, looking nervous.

The Nether Warriors kept their eyes stubbornly shut after the pronouncement they were sleeping. The not-wind squeezed at Neveah as she caused a ruckus, but she easily shrugged off its touch. She walked up to the nearest Nether Warrior, a bestial being with muscular legs, and pressed her hand against his shoulder.

And it flinched.

“We need to hurry,” Quantas continued to act as a strange mouthpiece for the wind. His eyes were faintly luminous in the mist-filled valley. “What if they wake? We’d be surrounded.”

Feeling oddly sick, Neveah let her hand to fall to her side. Truth be told, the prospect of protecting the two satyrs and fighting her way through an entire army did not appeal to her. She turned to her companions and nodded. “Alright, let’s get out of here.”

The group hurried through the mist, which thickened immediately behind them, hiding the Nether Warriors from view. If she hadn’t sped up as the weather had shifted, she might have sped right past them without even noticing their presence. Neveah felt her lip curl upward, slowly beginning to understand the forces at work in the Northeast.

Once they were back on the path, the strange not-wind pressed at their back. The route blurred around them, unnaturally sped up by the energy. They were somehow meant to go more quickly. Neveah’s senses carefully observed the environment, trying to figure out how it all functioned, yet the force continued to elude her. The result was unsatisfactory, but Neveah figured she would have a better answer when she reached her goal.

“Here it is,” Smart announced, only six hours after they had set off. Neveah felt glad she had asked for a guide, because the presence of the strange force of this place would have led her astray. “The Sanctuary.”

In front of them, a few massive trees rose up beyond the canopy of the jungle. Between their thick branches, she could see assembled bridges and buildings, the sprawling utopia of wood elves. Crystalline hydrons floated in the air, with dense halos of mist clinging to their sharp edges.

The not-wind flowed out hot and humid against Neveah’s face, like the breath of a beast.

*****

Randidly genuinely wasn’t sure what he expected to find when he returned to the farm. It had been a refugee for him at a time he had struggled emotionally, even if that stretch in the Sonara had been blessedly peaceful. Many nights he had meditated near the farm as he worked his way through his negative emotional cores. But he was aware of how intense the fighting had been around Malloon. Considering the farm supplied food to the city, it would have made sense for the Nether forces to burn it all to the ground.

Yet when the trio arrived at the farm, they were greeted by a prowling group of Arakis Beasts and the comforting puff of smoke out of the farmhouse chimney. The edges had been charred and scarred, but the heart of the farm seemed to have persisted. With a series of yips, the unfamiliar beasts sent the signal back and soon the three Arakis Beasts that had absorbed portions of his images galloped from the area behind the farm, as large as horses but flopping onto their backs and letting their tongues loll out of their mouth like loyal hounds.

Randidly chuckled as he crouched down and rubbed the belly of the nearest one. “You protected the farm?”

They nodded vigorously, even while flopping side to side in front of him. His smile shrank somewhat as his senses spread out discovered the charring at the edges of the grounds hid a deeper truth; he felt the significance and blood that had seeped into the ground over the last month. The protection had not come without cost, but they had managed to keep the farm safe

For a while at least, it could once more serve as a refuge for him..

One of the Arakis Beasts hopped up and sauntered up to Devick, eyeing her with open disdain. However, Devick walked past the challenge without even acknowledging it. Randidly watched her go with worried eyes; she hadn’t spoken at all since he had reprimanded her. For such an expressive woman, the silence became increasingly warped and alarming.

He kept running through the conversation in his mind, but he didn’t regret what he had said. She had been pointlessly aggressive and seemed to have lost touch with consequences. But after enjoying the company of the cheery Devick within the memory, he wondered if he had hastened her transformation into the monster of the future.

He shook his head; he refused to allow himself to dwell too deeply on it. Besides, he had other concerns. Neveah pursued the Patron of Truth at this very moment and he needed to sharpen several parts of himself before events in the memory came to a head. Based on the new storm of significance brewing, a renewed offensive from Nether forces would begin soon and this small time of peace would be lost.

So Randidly set his troubles aside and resumed training. When he wasn’t sure how to advance on his Path, he worked hard. It had, after all, been a very effective coping mechanism in the past.

In the mornings he did some maintenance and touchup work on his functioning aspects. Randidly refined Nether, pursuing the sort of purity he had encountered in Enmya and Lowanna. His Nether Core happily accelerated to new speeds. He strengthened the Nether Weight enhancement rituals he maintained around his Nether Core, incorporating aspects of Synechdochence to slightly empower each.

He honed the edges of Yggdrasil and the Dread Homunculus. In terms of detail and the amount of emotional affect they could handle, both images advanced. He also poured quite a bit of time into advancing the Codex Hexahedron, pushing it to Level 60, where it became able to scan Skills and Nether Rituals.

Occasionally Randidly utilized this capability, raising its Level to 63, but complex Skills left him with such a headache he decided to give up on the Fatepiece for now and focus on other areas. With his mental Stats as high as they had become, once he had earned himself a headache, it took its sweet time dissipating.

In the afternoons, he worked with Lowanna, going over the three different Nether bonds. She begun telling Randidly literal stories about two fabricated, or perhaps historical, individuals to keep him focused. Then both he and she would make a bond to try and capture the spirit between the two described individuals. It ended up being fruitful experience in perceiving Nether in new contextual ways, but Randidly felt frustrated by how obvious his blind spots became when compared to Lowanna’s work.

Apparently, the Pantheon of the Alpha Cosmos agreed because it had even generated a template for judging his failures.

Bond Type: Phaea

Story Tone: Indifferent

Ghosthound’s Adjustment: Minimal

Estimated Compatibility: 31%

Randidly growled at the unimpressed assessment and Lowanna laughed, although she couldn’t see the grade he had earned. Still, the comparison between her own bond made the result obvious. “You are a profoundly talented individual, Nether King Hungry Eye. But you’ve exploded in growth, yes? Mostly relying upon yourself. Bonds not involving your Nether Core are difficult to judge, which is why they are such excellent practice. It is one thing to possess basic empathy for the sufferings of another, you already can be considered experienced in that field, which is no small accomplishment given the harsh environment of the System. Yet to know the textured history of pain and scars upon the soul of another… to account for those elements you must be able to truly see and live, with just a glance. To sip from the Nether of another and know their whole house, as they say.”

Randidly scratched his cheek. “I’d settle for just getting a single room right.”

To test the point, Randidly instead told Lowanna a story. About how an alien power, coming to an unsuspecting planet, making  small adjustments to the environment, creating a small space where a deviation from normal System development could occur. Of how a normal individual thrust into extraordinary circumstances could thrash and grow within that manipulated cavity. About how every step of the way, the alien would pressure the individual, demanding his compliance with her wishes.

Again and again, as he grew, her tests grew more wicked and vicious. She sought to guide his growth with cruel fingers and twisted cages. The individual had to use every advantage he had accumulated to resist her grip.

In the end, he explained the confrontation between them when the normal individual had, against all odds, become as powerful as the alien power in her twilight years. He told Lowanna about a great, inevitable sickness that weakened the alien and the explanation eventually given of her own fear of a greater enemy.

He spoke of Yystrix Yule. And despite the time that had passed, his heart still clenched when he thought of what she had done to him.

Lowanna listened to Randidly description and then simply sat for several minutes. When she began to weave her Nether bond, she began slowly. She took great care with the details, eventually weaving together a harsh and bristling bond that resembled a donut-shaped sea anemone. Randidly looked at the result and his lips twitched.

Bond Type: Maala

Story Tone: Predatory

Nether Arbiter Adjustment: Significant

Estimated compatibility: 84%

“I’m not quite satisfied with this result,” Lowanna clicked her tongue and shook her head. “I suppose I feel something like a fool, now. Obviously, the process is difficult, but I didn’t recognize how awkward it is, only being the one to listen to the story. Honestly, this just proves to me your talent. Your previous efforts were indeed impressive.”

Randidly wanted to tear out his hair at the difference between the second-hand bonds they had made. But he didn’t volunteer the information provided by the Pantheon and bitterly swore he would do better next time.

In the evenings, he spent his time massaging the damaged Stillborn Phoenix. The pause from his brief Reverie had already begun to fade, so Randidly’s first night felt hectic. He pulled apart the conflicting elements and tried to maintain the specificity of the shape. The heartbeat of Stillness, the gravitation imposition, Randidly polished and refined until it became a massive celestial phenomenon from within the depths of the event horizon, gripping the surrounding space and warning of an impending arrival of a cataclysmic entity.

However, Randidly still couldn’t quite see how he could have a Stillborn Entity be born. So for now, he allowed the pieces to grow a bit fuzzy at the edges. He knew he needed access to his third image, but he didn’t know the answer. And a hasty solution in times like this would only weaken him in the long run.

For four days, Randidly satisfied himself with training. Devick trained as well, nearby but continually subdued. The Nether Arbiter praised his efforts, which had the unintended side effect of infuriating him, but he did improve. His Nether thickened and his experience with the bonds grew. His average estimated compatibility started breaking 50%, even from whimsical stories told to him by Lowanna.

On the fifth day, the horizon darkened with crashing swells of significance; the new Nether offensive had begun.

Simultaneously, Randidly received word from Neveah: she had arrived in Sanctuary and met Mae Myrna.