Chapter 208 (2/2)

It came to him, first in spurts, then it a crashing rush, four strange rivers of meaning, and those rivers flowed upwards through the wisps, grabbing them and dragging them away, throwing them on the crust that Randidly had assembled.

The ones swept up in the meaning from Annie were deposited on the world as a strange creature that resembled a centaur, except with a four legged insect as a body, rather than a horse. Their legs were dangerously sharp, and their arms were long and willowy. Their heads were slightly insect-like too, flat and with strange eyes. There were not many of these, but they grouped together and began to explore the world around them.

Sam’s meaning made a small, hardy people similar to dwarves or gnomes. There arms were thick and powerful, and their fingers were long and dextrous. They immediately stumbled out of their stream of energy and looked around, and began to build and dig.

Alana’s people were almost golem like, thick, strong people that seemed to be formed of rock and clay. They immediately began fighting each other as they were created, and split into factions.

Mrs. Hamiton’s people were the most numerous, and the most secretive. They were spiders, but slimey spiders that appeared to be aquatic, although they could survive on land for amounts of time. They crept into the oceans and rivers and swamps, slowly building kingdoms underneath the water.

As all of the wisps were consumed, and transformed into different forms of life for his Soul Skill, Randidly felt a twinge of regret already. They had certainly lost something, those wisps, as he changed them. They had lost their innocence, their ability to freely live and split without any worries. Now there would be strife among them, be war. But they now also had meaning.

Their life had been bound, but now they had bodies. Hopefully that was enough compensation.

There was another tremble, and another huge noise, and Randidly knew that the rejection bubble had been completely destroyed by the creature, and that it was rushing towards him. But he couldn’t look away from this exceedingly intricate world he had created. Spreading his hands, he let images from his skills fall to the world, populating it with unique things, transforming a small area around where they landed. Plants grew more common everywhere as he created a giant image of his Root Control and pressed.

He couldn’t use the Golden Roots of Yggdrasil, but he could will that image into the world, and roots slowly grew down from the crust, thickening it, and binding the energy producing core to the world. These would hopefully continue to grow and evolve, as the clockwork continued to move.

Then Randidly relaxed.

A new Soul Skill has been created. Would you like to assimilate this Soul Skill? Warning, if you have insufficient fuel, or your body lacks the requisite strength, there may be negative consequences.

“YOU-----------!” The Creature howled as it rushed towards his back, but Randidly simply smiled.

“Yes, let’s do it.”

There was a strange spark in his inner world, as everything became so bright that everything became insubstantial. The light was of such a magnitude that it eliminated matter, and just left itself, and Randidly’s flimsy understanding of existence. Soon, that too was knocked away, leaving him free. Simultaneously, a wave smashed outwards, a powerful wave as something shifted.

The wave passed Randidly like a warm, familiar hand, formed of Aether. It was extremely gentle and welcoming, and tousled his hair. But as it rushed further past him, it turned into a gale that smashed the creature, even as it continued to howl and form shapes of Aether. Unfortunately, the light even made the Creature’s Aether irrelevant.

For a moment Randidly was in awe of the power of the thing he created, but then he realized that wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t that his Soul Skill was all powerful, but simply that the assimilation of the Soul Skill was a process somehow condoned and aided by the system. This light was the system acting, eliminating interference as the process started.

Which chilled Randidly even further. Because the creature was so far beyond his current level, and yet it was so casually pushed back by a normal process of the system. Although the creature might be holding back some of its strength rather than clash directly against the system, so as not to alert the being that started this all, it was still unable to get around it.

But then the light brightened further, and Randidly couldn’t stand it any longer, and was forced out of his own inner world, abruptly waking up in his own body, breathing heavily.

Then his chest began to burn, and it wasn’t the icy hot burn of Aether, or the ripping, tearing feeling he had experienced as he grew too powerful with his Soul Skill, but something else entirely.

It was the feeling of release somehow, but also of danger. His hastily assembled world sunk into his heart, aligning with his physical heart, and now also with the hole in his chest that was the core of his Aether Crossroads.

His body began to tremble, first only slightly, then violently.