Chapter 583 (2/2)

“By the sea god’s tits,” the man swore, but he ignored Lucifer and faced Sydney. She raised her hands. Both glowed blue. But the right hand was what she was known for. It was a deathly cold, and ice was creeping down that arm. But her left hand was a different sort of blue.

There was a crash that hit Lucifer like a physical force, and then the searing vision that was a bolt of lighting sliding down from the sky and into Sydney’s hand blinded him. He blinked rapidly, and then found her standing there proudly. One arm was covered in frost while the other was crackling with electricity.

“The way you are looking at me…” Sydney paused, seeming to cast around for the right word. “...well, whatever. It’s a good feeling.”

*****

Randidly smashed Thea to the side, and as he did so he felt that pressure on his chest. Was he really preparing to kill…. Thea?

Yes.

But still, Randidly simply smashed Thea to the side. The opening was there, his spear was fast enough, but he didn’t attack her weakness. He just smashed her back, knocking aside her strength. Then he scanned around at the four combatants. Another goal was to finish Father Foster, and he had just cut off her arm. Aside from her, the real problem was Chrysanthemum. Physically, she was just as obnoxious as the Level 70 three headed ogre in terms of defense. And offensively, she was even more physically earth shattering. If Chrysanthemum was alone, he could probably handle it-

If I kill Thea, Chrysanthemum will-

Yes. A spear only advances.

Father Foster was scrambling backwards, splashing as she tried to open up distance. The strange man who was covered in the black tar like material was lumbering towards Randidly. Chrysanthemum was barreling towards him. The moment stretched. Randidly blinked once, slowly. They all… seemed so slow.

He had the ability, he was just refusing to squeeze the last bit of effort into moving against them. It was one thing to fight and kill the Creature, or the monsters that the System had arrayed against him. Or even people who were the in the midst of acts of violence. But now, he was considering that Thea was a tool of the Creature, and what that meant. And to Randidly, it meant that leaving her alive… was a threat to the whole of the Zone. The World.

Then Randidly realized why he was hesitating. In his thoughts of Sydney in the past, his words closely mirrored that of another individual. Someone that he deeply despised, albeit briefly, who used his powerful Class to dominate an entire Village before Randidly intervened.

...A king has three burdens, and three tools…

The tar guy arrived and Randidly met him with an Inevitable Phantom Arrives. Weak blows didn’t do much to displace his strange armor fluid, but this thrust ripped a deep hole in the armor. Chrysanthemum was hard on his heels, but Randidly just leaped up and jumped off the bear to cross the distance to Father Foster.

With predictable timing, Thea, leaped in the way of Randidly with her hammer raised. He remembered how cool her eyes were when she was faced with the truth that Father Foster would probably kill even more. That weight on his chest grew stronger. This decision affected someone else’s life. And it was final. He couldn’t take it back-

And what he was worried about was becoming a twisted man like the King of Turtletown. As he slowly came closer to using something like those tools, Randidly felt the burden growing increasingly cumbersome to handle.

A spear always advances.

Something loosened in him, Randidly raised his spear. “The Spear Advances, Ash Trails.”

In a blazing line, Randidly rushed forward. He kept his spear aloft, so instead of impaling Thea, he physically smashed her backwards with his body. She grunted softly, and there was the brief realization of how small her body truly was, and then Randidly’s momentum carried him forward and he rammed his spear into Father Foster’s chest.

To his surprise, Father Foster’s chest was extremely durable, and cracked only after extreme pressure. Although Randidly had been able to pierce into her chest briefly, the momentum then threw her further away, where she splashed and choked in the water.

Thea staggered to the side, clearly stunned from the collision, and Randidly looked down at her. Again, she was open for a strike. Randidly didn’t take it.

It was one thing to live your own life by your codes. It was another entirely to enforce your codes of living upon the world, or force the world to change to you. That was the line Randidly was now considering crossing.

But his vines were soaked in the blood of bodies of… things that had been deemed “human” by the System, based on the small amount of experience he gained for killing them. His fists tightened on the shaft of his spear. The weight on his chest was unbearable.

That… couldn’t be allowed to continue. They made this choice, that was clear. Then they wouldn’t leave this lake alive.