Chapter 665 (1/2)

With nothing else to do, Randidly began to walk. The direction was random. And likely, variable, as he couldn’t very well track anything in the darkness. There was just himself, and the feeling of his body, hanging in the deep abyss around him.

Honestly, the feeling of his body would quickly disappear if he didn’t keep his hands on himself. It was like he was unmoored, drifting around. The longer Randidly walked, the more it seemed like the darkness was more liquid than anything else, and it had buoyed him away from the ground to carry him off into the deep sea. It was a profoundly disconcerting feeling.

Randidly was also rather annoyed because although darkness wasn’t off-brand per se, it was a bit away from the typical MO for Patrons. Now he was slightly annoyed with himself for not asking Azriel and Skarch more pointedly about Patrons before he made the attempt. Perhaps his excitement got the better of him.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t be the last mistake Randidly had the pleasure of making.

To keep his mind moving, Randidly thought about drone designs and the making of Ghost’s physical body. He wondered what had happened on Earth with the different Zones, and whether more had connected. He wondered whether Tessa’s Orders became anything. He wondered what Lyra was up to, and why she refused to listen to reason. Randidly wondered about that strange cockroach being that seemed to be related to the Creature, but he had never been able to track down after the incident in the powerplant.

Randidly also wondered why the powerful Masters of Tellus didn’t move to stop the Wights. And once his mind was on the war, Randidly took great care to examine every memory he had of those that had fought by his side and died. Their mannerisms and names. Their Styles and spear Skills. Randidly immersed himself in it all.

Perhaps it was Visualization once more, but it was very easy to immerse himself in the images. They felt real around him. No longer was Randidly walking in darkness, but he was walking through his own memories. It was strange, because Randidly was like a ghost, and he watched himself move and talk with these people.

Then came fights he had in the past. It was almost painful to go back and watch his haphazard early fighting style. Although Shal had drilled Randidly on the principles during their time together in the dungeon, it wasn’t until he went to Tellus that he truly learned to use the spear. His fight against the Sphinx was almost comical.

Randidly watching himself run into the room and find Lyra’s human corpse, and the shapeshifter that would assume her face.

Randidly also saw the Creature in all of the faces she had shown him. Mostly, they were variants on Lyra’s face. But there was always a deepness to the Creature’s eyes, that for all her self-proclaimed wisdom, Lyra did not possess. Randidly might deeply hate his longtime enemy, but he couldn’t deny that it possessed great knowledge and capability.

Grimacing, Randidly amended an earlier thought. If more Zones connected, he hoped it would take as long as possible. The Creature would have incarnations in each Zone or some of them. Coming back to an active version of the Creature would be a headache, especially because Randidly suspected it wouldn’t do anything overtly against him until the third Calamity.

It would be content to prepare and watch until then.

After a while, the memories fell away and Randidly was in the darkness once more. But this was a brief stay; very soon the darkness had bled away into color. First maroons and golds, but then browns, dark greens, and finally navy blue. And once the dark colors made their appearance, there was an explosion, and the world around Randidly became a shifting land of color that moved like a lava lamp. Shades pooled on the ground and then floated upwards to separate and stain the sky.

Through it all, Randidly continued walking. Time began to twist. Randidly suspected it had been almost a day since he had arrived here, but it was difficult to track. Everything was a different shape than it normally was in his mind. Parts of his inner world seemed to be humming, even though he couldn’t utilize Skills as far as he could see. If anything, this made Randidly only more cautious.

Which was why he jumped when words split the darkness.

“This way.”

The voice was soft, and not one that Randidly recognized as the Patron of Ash, but it struck like a bolt of lightning in the darkness. For a second, the words seemed to burn a path into Randidly’s memory. Then it slowly began to fade. But it was enough.

Randidly turned to his left and began to move with more speed, trotting across the shifting ground. It felt like underneath the layer of ash was sand and each step grew more tiresome. Not that Randidly grew tired, but it seemed that his pace refused to increase as much as he would like to due to the terrain.

Now as Randidly ran, he thought about his father. About how he needed to consume human life or slowly weaken. In the wake of killing Father Foster, Randidly had spent some time looking for Ezekiel, and he spoke to Hank. But no one seemed to have seen him.

Perhaps it was familial affection, but Randidly did not force the issue or utilize Ghost’s information network. Because it occurred to Randidly that Ezekiel had killed hundreds of monsters knowing that the possessed the minds and hearts of humans. It weighed heavily on Randidly’s consciousness.

Where exactly had Ezekiel’s hunger come from…?