Chapter 436 (1/2)

Randidly cracked his neck and then looked behind him. The constant drizzle had kept up through the night, and the Raid Party looked especially bedraggled this morning. Well, specifically Chrysanthemum looked like a much less fluffy version of herself, with her fur soaked to her skin.

Which, in a way, made her more terrifying. Because without the fur there, it was easy to see just what a monstrous creature she had begun evolving into. Her size was on par with a small SUV at this point, although she wasn’t as tall as one on four legs. But when she stood straight up… she positively towered over most normal enemies. The monsters that were foolish enough to attack them were annihilated by her extra long reach and powerful muscles.

“We have our groups?” Randidly asked, looking at Rose.

She nodded. “Thea, Clarissa, and Annie. Then Ace, Lucifer, and Ptolemy. Finally, myself, Alana, and Drake. And I assume… you will go on your own?”

Randidly snorted lightly. Then he turned to gaze up at the Eyrie in front of them.

Truly, it was a wonder. It looked a little like an impaled, blackened lung, slowly growing and then shrinking, depending on what direction the wind blew. Apparently, there had once been a giant tree here, all across the area, a leftover from before. But after this land had been transported here, all that had been left was a husk.

Over time, the Death Cultists had climbed to the top, torn off all of the branches, and covered it in leather and canvas, creating a strange… almost living seeming building. It was also gargantuan: the tree must stretch at least 20 stories high, and some framework had been erected for the main part of the dwelling, creating more width to it. Quite a bit of width, in fact, so that it looked like an entire football field could fit comfortably on one of the levels, while the wind was blowing the Eyrie open.

A fragile hideout, perhaps, but it would be just as fragile as footing for any attackers. And it seemed relatively low value. Aratta had warned them that many times the Eyrie had been burned down, but the trunk of the ancient tree was extremely hard to damage, so the Death Cultists had simply waited until the attackers left, and then rebuilt the thing.

It made Randidly wonder how the village had so easily gone and captured Death Cultists earlier, especially in the numbers that Annie reported. Was their strength that much higher than he expected…? Although about 40 people went to fight against the Death Cultists, they had returned with just as many prisoners; that meant that they defeated at least that many, more likely double that to capture so many.

The only person Randidly had seen among them that even seemed like they were capable was Cyndra. Yet…

Randidly’s battle last night against the Red Death Cultist had been illuminating. Fighting against it was similar in Randidly’s mind to his battles against some of the finalists in the tournament in Shal’s world. Their strength was incredibly impressive, but they didn’t have the skill to make true use of it. And the difference in strength wasn’t so much that they could use it to oppress Randidly, giving him free reign to harry them and slowly drag out the fights.

Of course, at this point Randidly didn’t even need to take such roundabout methods; he had improved by leaps and bounds since the tournament. Especially in his support and spells. The damage that he could produce with his Plant Dominance was about five times as much as he could have done with his previous Root Manipulation.

Alana, especially with the edge given to her by her Fate, could pretty safely defeat it in a 1 v 1 situation. Hell, even if it had some support, she would take it down with a bit of effort, and the use of her new Skills.

Then Randidly winced. Thinking about Fates made him remember that he was swayed by Lucretia’s argument and just basically told Lucifer and Clarissa the process for condensing a Fate in the manner the System wanted. But he would be flooding both of them with Aether as best he could prior to their Level up...

“...Yes, I will be going alone. But it seems that we won’t have to barge right in,” Randidly said, his mouth curling upwards at the edges. Because above them, the Eyrie stilled. Then, all of a sudden, dozens and dozens of black shadows flew outwards, filling the surrounding air with the sharp flap of wings.

Randidly’s eyes narrowed as he looked up at the slowly increasing number of bats. There was one issue… a familiar one, but one that made him profoundly wary of the Death Cultists; like with Aratta, he caught faint whiffs of Aether around them. At first, when he felt it on them as well, he had assumed that it was the influence of the method the Creature had taught them to be Heretics, but the more he had studied the Red Death Cultist in the fight…

That wasn’t correct, it wasn’t there constantly. It seemed only to activate when the Cultist was using Skills, which was even more foreboding. Could she have somehow boosted the strength or Rarity of their Skills...? Something to look into, to be sure. If it was possible to replicate what had happened to Thea...

Finally, the bat horde seemed to reach critical mass, and they began to swirl around, flying in a spiral. Everyone drew their weapons. Randidly just tightened his hands into fists and grinned. It was time…. to let loose.

Instantly, he activated the active version of Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil and launched himself upward, heading directly into the throng of bodies gliding around in the air, screeching at each other. By the time Randidly produced his large spear, he had arrived in front of the first Death Cultist, who was stupidly turning to face him.