Chapter 705 (1/2)

“Hey! Hey, kid! Isn’t your fight today? Shit- Althor, get over here. This fool has been stuck in that ice image for god knows how long.”

The voices were extremely clear, even as Randidly felt like he was hidden in a deep well. Noise and sensation reached him slowly, only after reverberating against the walls of the prison that Randidly had constructed for himself.

Some distant part of Randidly’s mind was strangely pleased by the number thirty-four for some reason, but the part of Randidly that was most in control of his body was puzzled by this number. Instead, the controlling Randidly swam through the frozen morass of a swamp that was his mind to turn woodenly around and look at the two acolytes who were staring at him with a worried expression.

Randidly’s head hurt, but it was just a small twinge. Everything was hollow and chilly. Sensations at first appeared to be occurring to someone else before Randidly belatedly realized that he was the subject of these feelings. Both of the acolytes looked at each other.

“Do you think he is alright…?”

“Didn’t you see him on your earlier patrol? How could you let him like this? From how pale he is, he might have broken the record for being stuck in that image…”

“This is why some people get so riled up about taking it down! It’s a danger to the supplicants who come into the Hall of Stances!”

“...He’s not even wearing shoes…”

“Do you think he lost them…? Well, I have a spare pair he can use.”

Randidly wasn’t exactly unable to walk, but his body took quite a while to obey the instructions of his mind. There was a freezing expanse of body between his brain and his muscles. As such, most of Randidly’s movements were simply wiggles.

Besides, Randidly could really figure out why he would want to move. He was torn. On the one hand, a part of him was very sure that what he was doing was helpful somehow. But another part of him seemed to recall that he had something he needed to be doing…

In the end, the two acolytes carried Randidly bodily up through the curving hallways. Every now and then, they would spare glances for Randidly’s glassy eyes and wince. At one point, one acolyte spoke a short phrase to the other one and the two stopped. With great care, they sat Randidly down on a stool. After rummaging in his interspatial ring, the man produced two fur boots.

He put the first boot on Randidly’s left foot and then began lifting Randidly’s other leg to place the other boot in its place. To everyone’s surprise, Randidly leaned down and grabbed the top of the boot on his foot. His fist tightened.

The boot acolyte frowned while the other acolyte wrung his hands. “What is he doing?”

“He probably has brain damage. He took the image too deep,” The hand-wringing acolyte said. “Let’s just hope that we aren’t blamed for this.”

Randidly began to pull upwards.

“You mean you hope you won’t be blamed for this,” The boot acolyte said while he shook his head. “You were the one who missed him on-”

Ripp.

After pulling for a few seconds, the leather of the boot failed and Randidly forcibly ripped it off his foot. He blinked slowly, trying to understand what was going on. Then he shrugged and dropped the ripped leather. This was not a good thing, he understood instinctually. Randidly did not need it.

“What the fuck?” The boot acolyte said. “Those cost a full gold coin!”

“Pah, Althor, when have you had a gold coin laying around? Don’t tell me your mother took up whoring again.” The hand-wringing acolyte said.

The other sent him a withering glance. “I hope that wit is enough to support you when you are kicked out of the Hall of Stances… Well, come on. Better just bring him up to the sun. Maybe that will warm him up.”