Chapter 625 (1/2)

With his attention in front of the Skill, he paused, then reached out and touched Ashes to Ashes. Immediately, System notifications popped up in front of him.

Congratulations! There is currently a resonance between two of your Skills. It becomes possible to allow this resonance to grow. Warning, results of allowing the Skills to influence each other are unpredictable. Warning, if you possess insufficient energy, illness or death might result from the transformation.

The following two Skills are in resonance with each other: Ashes to Ashes and Scarlet Burst.

Only by utilizing both Skills at the same time will the resonance grow. If the resonance proves to be harmonies, Skills might change or merge.

Randidly scratched his chin as he considered the notifications. This… although the System didn’t say it, was this related to his Class? Or perhaps the image that he had been using for Scarlet Burst? It was true that he had borrowed some if from Ashes to Ashes. That strange, decimated world that he saw, filled with charred carbon and molten metal, had stuck with him ever since he had left the Patron of Ash’s world.

The only problem was that Randidly liked both of the Skills. Maybe merging into a more powerful form would be fine, but… if there was a bad reaction…

But then Randidly couldn’t help but shrug. First of all, he could recover from it. He could make his own Skills again, although it would be difficult. Second, with his source of Aether and pure images, very rarely were the warnings of the System worth anything to him. The only notable exception was the trouble he had with his Soul Skill early on in his career when it was the Cycle of Ash and Rot. Since then things had worked.

The possibility of damage to his Class gave Randidly some pause, but he doubted that such a Class that had been so painstakingly created would break so easily.

Pointing, the moss dome they were lounging in spread outward to cover a new circle of land. Calmly, Randidly stood and walked into this new area. Both Azriel and Skarch spared him a glance, but then returned to their own refinements. They all knew what they were here for, and trusted each other to do their job.

But that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t take great care to notice the other’s abilities. After all, if they performed well, they would need to face each other in the finals.

Randidly didn’t bother to close off his portion of the dome and block their vision, although he considered it. Azriel knew about Scarlet Burst and Ashes to Ashes for sure and even had ways to counter them. Skarch might learn something from watching, but with Randidly just activating the Skills, it would be hard to discern what the actual use was.

So Randidly stood still and closed his eyes. He breathed in, then breathed out. Then he activated Ashes to Ashes.

Instantly, the world that Randidly saw shifted. He was in a place of deep greys and fiery reds. Aether manifested in a weak wavering white light as if he was viewing it through water. Although he knew it wasn’t the case, the moss dome around him looked more like stone than plant matter. In this place, everything was stretched to its polar opposites.

It was a binary world, in a way, Randidly realized. This place pressed the world together and removed all of the depth to it. Perhaps that explained the strange effect of Randidly being able to avoid an attack…

But then his mind snapped into focus as he realized how much Mana he was wasting. So instead, Randidly used Scarlet Burst.

As he did so, the vista that Randidly saw around him shuddered. The flattened and contrasted world shuddered and trembled. But not in a way that reversed the effects of the Skill. If anything, it intensified the strange flattening effect, so colors bled away from the world, and all that remained was a burning monochrome wasteland.

Still, when he used the Skills at the same time, the song between the two Skills grew more intense. The volume was slowly growing, and under the vibrations, Randidly heard something akin to voices between the two Skills. There was a surprising about of subtlety in what was happening.

Only a second had passed, but Randidly winced. Using Ashes to Ashes for prolonged amounts of time was simply impossible; the cost was so high that even now Randidly could only maintain it for a few seconds. He used Scarlet Burst once more.

Again, the world shivered and flattened further. Randidly used it again, and again, and-

Foolish child, this is not a Path you are ready to see.