Chapter 666 (1/2)

As the Patron of Ash continued to speak, Randidly looked behind at the portal. Strange skittering bug creatures were exploding outwards, expanding in all directions. Strangely, Randidly felt his perspective lift up and shoot up into the sky. From just the field of grain, Randidly could now see the edges where the field touched a river and the thick jungle beyond that. A small distance from the edge of the jungle, a small village of the blue creatures that the Patron of Ash hailed from were working to gather fruit.

“To be fair, to call it yourself would be inaccurate. But that is how it feels to face the Second Calamity. ‘What if I had embraced the sword? What if I had focused on ice? What if my sibling had not died?’ Such questions that make up your fragile core will define the challenge. Sometimes, such questions might warp the reflection you must face beyond belief. The enemies you face might have no resemblance to you and your people. Such was the case with the Calamity that came to my world.”

The Patron of Ash inclined his head towards the jungles below Randidly. “My people worshipped the World Core. It is rumored that every plant, even the tiniest blade of grass, possesses a system of roots that lead to the World Core. Our take is to tend the growth of the World Core and life on its bounty. We were a stable and peaceful population, despite the arrival of the System. We persevered. Such was the strength of our culture that we weren’t shaken in the slightest…”

Randidly was slightly taken aback how… human the Patron of Ash seemed, Ulaat seemed, in his normal form. But his gaze on the images below turned stony. The bug-like creatures were moving farther afield, and eating everything in sight. In their wake, there was only barren ground.

“...why are you telling me this…?” Randidly whispered. He, of course, wanted to learn about the Second Calamity, and how to defeat it. But he purposefully reminded himself that the Calamity was a later challenge. At the moment, all of his attention was focused on passing through this trial with his life.

“To be an Initiate is to have my attention. To be Anointed is to carry my blessings, and touch the world of Woe that I had crafted for myself.” Ulaat said slowly. The bug creatures reached the village of Ulaat’s people. It took them by surprise, and viciously butchered those unsuspecting people. “To be Chosen means a different thing to each Patron, I believe. Other Patrons mean that the images of the proteges are sufficiently similar, so, therefore, they should inherit a portion of this cursed mantle we Patrons are made to bear.”

As his people were slaughtered below, the entire village to the man, Ulaat turned and gazed at Randidly. His ashen eyes continued to disintegrate. “Do you know the agony of being eternal? Of becoming an idea, and therefore unable to die or evolve? How could you? How fickle and bright your potential burns, Randidly Ghosthound. Your surety of success is admirable, if only for its continued existence without reliance on fact.”

Tightening his hands into fists, Ulaat leaned towards Randidly. As he did so, Randidly couldn’t help but notice that there were spots on Ulaat’s hand and shoulder that began to smoke and disintegrate. It seemed this body that he had conjured was slowly being consumed from the inside. “But no intelligent man who believes it impossible will reach the moon; you need a fool to not even think about it. To be chosen by me is to be asked to reach the moon.

“I am wracked by guilt. I cannot die. I cannot leave my world but to test fools like you, who have not heard of my reputation. I am so very tired. I am so, very, tired. And a Patron cannot cease… but I believe my consciousness can… if the mantle of what I am passes to another.”

Randidly just looked at Ulaat, now slowly burning away his body and reverting to the Patron of Ash. Below, the bug creatures were spreading across the world, murdering as they went. At some point, word got out and the people began to resist. Randidly saw grand ceremonies involving the exotic plants of the world, empowering the warriors of Ulaat’s people. It was a slow thing, as the bug’s expansion ground to a halt.

But, in a way, it reminded Randidly very much of how the Wights were overwhelming the spear users. There were simply too many of them. Randidly supposed that this might be a common theme in the second Calamity then, an unending tide of opponents. He made note of that but kept most of his attention on the Patron of Ash.

When the Patron continued to study the war being waged below, Randidly looked up slowly. “...you want to pass your power onto me? And based on the fact none has even been chosen before, the process-”

Then Randidly froze. He gritted his teeth. “No… you don’t want to give me the power. All you want to give is the…”

Smiling, the Patron of Ash held up his hand. Almost the entirety of his body was crusting and falling away now, as the burning heat at his core overwhelmed whatever glamour he had weaved. “Yes. This image. The one strong enough to emerge from the second Calamity without peer. All else had been devoured by this tiny image. Take it from me, Randidly, make me no more.”

Randidly just stared at the glowing red-orange coal in the Patron of Ash’s hand. Carefully, he thought through it. Based on his interaction with the Creature and the information he plundered from its memories, the System was looking for something very specific. On the way, it didn’t mind gathering strong images for its own purposes. If the Calamities were considered a way of intensifying or isolating images, then each process was a way of weeding out those that were useless to the Calamity.

First by strength, and then by… Randidly paused as he considered the second Calamity. It seemed to test the poignancy one more time, but also resilience. Because the Calamity itself was a personification of the deep fears of the world’s image.

Narrowing his eyes, Randidly tried to be very careful about what he said next. The Patron seemed to be waiting for something. The battles below grew increasingly bitter as the blue-tailed creatures stopped the bugs. What Randidly was suddenly struck by was that the Calamity was based on the worldwide image. It was very easy to see why the world’s fears could be terrible and perverse beyond what you would expect. It made Randidly wonder what Earth feared most right now.