Chapter 395 (2/2)

Randidly wouldn’t say that he laughed, but he was decidedly amused at the strange expression on her face. “We were too light. We were too cautious. The Class would have destroyed itself as I demanded more and more out of it. Better to go the other way, and make it too heavy.”

“You fool,” Lucretia hissed. “How can you just say that? Do you think we didn’t already think of that? But beyond what we had, the complexity of doing it on your own-”

“Why do we need to make it on our own?” Randidly asked, his smile sharp. More and more Aether was snapping into motion, drawn upwards by the momentum of the surrounding Aether, and slowly, Randidly realized, something more. There was… a gravity to the gathered Aether, a presence to it that pressed down over them all.

It felt… strangely familiar. It took Randidly several long moments of examining the sensation to realize that it was a strange combination of his past Skills, a lot of which had been absorbed into his new Yggdrasil themed Skills. He could feel the dull burn of Agony, the strange whisper of Bacterial Regeneration, even the extremely old Grasping Roots. Everything he had experienced was wrapped up in this Aether that had surrounded him for years now.

Although it was easy to forget, even in the beginning the Aether Crossroads had been in him since he had killed the Tribulation of Turtletown. Ever since then, every breath that he took, every thought that he had, every interaction, every image, every ounce of strife and every desperate fight, everything passed through the Aether that was at his core.

And though not much at all was taken each time, that slowly added up. The struggle to figure out how to reach out to people, the long days of fighting in the prison, Randidly’s struggle in Shal’s tournament… the slow and agonizing recovery…

There were more and more moments and images rushing by as the Aether gathered above them, filling Randidly, making him feel a strange profound joy. This was his, this was his and only his, unlike the static thing that Lucretia had been creating, this would have the strength to support him.

Lucretia was still gazing at him incredulously. “The whole basis of this was that you refused to get a Class from a Village! If you hadn’t stubbornly insisted on such a foolish, prideful move-”

Calm. Bigger Skill-

“Both of you are fools! If we miss this chance, if we waste this much Aether, if your soul space implodes based upon the weight of this Aether… We know nothing about how to handle this! Can you feel that? Look at how it's changing! That’s not an energy source anymore, it’s a fucking bomb!”

It’s… life….

“It’s me,” Randidly said, his face twisting further, his eyes brilliant and emerald, illuminating even the soul space. Lucretia backed away, her face drawn as she watched the last of the layers she made being slowly absorbed into the old anchor.

“You are right, I didn’t want to get a Class from a Village. But I realized…” Randidly stared intently at the huge sphere of Aether that he had created, infusing with his images. Very rapidly, it started to shrink, losing size and gaining density, as well as qualitative increases in the strangely heavy aura it threw off, the baleful weight of it.

This continued until it was the size of a marble. A marble that felt like it would crack and sunder the earth if it was allowed to touch the ground, such was the weight and gravitas contained within it.

“I realized that the System isn’t the enemy, it’s just a shape. What we hate… is the dirty fuel that the System runs on. So as long as we borrow the shape and use our fuel…”

The last of the layers were absorbed into the anchor, which pulsed strangely in the aftermath of it, plaintive. The marble of Aether that Randidly had created this time around pulsed in response, almost in answer to the first. The two were still for a second, and then the higher marble of Aether exploded, long spikes of Aether rushing down, crashing into the already gathered Aether, the whole of Randidly’s soul space vibrating with the force of it.

But the anchor held up, devouring it all, greedily lapping up every last strand of Aether. First 5 or so, then a dozen, then hundreds of these spikes shot out of the marble and aimed downwards, crashing towards the anchor.

Give me weight! Randidly’s burning eyes said for him, as his voice remained silent. Ground me!

The soul space began to warp with the force of it, everything twisting and winding its way inwards, everything drawn towards the anchor. Even the Skills began to be pulled, inexorably drawn by the force. Randidly went to smile, but that smile froze on his face.

Because his body was warping. Well, his soul version of his body.

“Fool,” Lucretia snorted disdainfully. “This is what you get.”

The world twisted further, and all three of them along with the remaining Aether, were ripped from the soul space and pressed into a singularity of possibilities.