Chapter 745 (1/2)

Being a god was something like being an artist, Randidly thought idly. But the overtly genius kind, like Mozart. No, to be a god was to be Jackson Pollock. You take simple actions and there will be some that deem it trash. And yet there are others that see the simple moves you make as representative of broader themes, and lose themselves in your majesty.

This time when Randidly reached for the images, they accepted his will so quickly that it left him somewhat stunned. Before he had simply tapped a tuning fork and the world stilled. Now he beckoned, and it exploded.

Even as the wild energies surged around the city of Carthak in a howling tumult, Randidly scowled. It appeared he had started the Sandstorm Season.

That barely contained climate fury exploded. Above the land, the entirety of the land, a giant maelstrom began to slowly churn. Winds roared to life, cutting their way across the countryside. In other areas of the Earth Golem Land, Randidly felt the people looking to the sky with worried expressions. With their fears realized before their eyes, their spirits were slowly submerged in hopelessness.

But those images were lost as Randidly reached and grasped the vicious sharpness of the sandstorm winds. With his eyes burning emerald the wind smashed into the side of the mountain of Carthak. The wind greedily scoured the broken stone clean and then began to screech as it shoved itself into the cracks in the mountain.

Through his feet, Randidly could feel the stone underneath him shuddering as it barely withstood the assault of the wind. Gritting his teeth, Randidly gathered the scraps of wickedly sharp wind that passed through the cracks into a fist and prepared to bring it down upon the strange assailants that rushed toward Rejt. The longer he gripped the wind, the more it squirmed underneath his will. Very quickly, he felt his control slipping. If he was going to act, he needed to do it quickly.

But then Randidly paused, letting his gaze unfocus slightly. It would be easy for him to crush the attackers. However, that wasn’t the point, was it? What he needed was to set this world on a different path. And for that, he would need the people of his Soulskill to actually want the world to change. For all that Randidly was unwilling to risk Rejt’s death, just interceding might stifle his potential.

To be a god was to be an artist. A minimalist, because you didn’t want to spend your effort dominating the world. Small strokes to influence a complex web of societies. A delicate touch was needed.

Randidly gathered the growing mass of winds and smashed then downwards on top of Rejt.

Wincing, Randidly admitted to himself that perhaps subtlety wasn’t his strong suit. But to be honest, it was all Randidly could do to control the cutting wind to surround Rejt and not rip him to pieces. The force of the concentrated air exploded outward. Of the six assailants, three were ripped apart by the explosion of cutting winds. The other three were knocked backward into broken pillars, further producing rubble.

...But then the wind did not stop gathering. It continued to swirl around Carthak and then through the cracks to gather around Rejt. Honestly, Randidly couldn’t figure it out. It was like some sort of metaphysical groove had formed in the world that the images were suddenly following. Perhaps that was why the image was growing difficult for him to hold?

Around Rejt, the wind around him gathered in a circle, spinning with vicious intensity. A tornado formed at the center of the room, periodically producing deadly blades that ripped outward.

The frown on Randidly’s face deepened. When he had smashed the gathered wind on Rejt, he had meant it to be some sort of “sign-from-god” that would stop the hostilities. But putting Rejt in the center of a tornado was a bit…

The maelstrom above the land began to quicken with the tornado below. Although Randidly couldn't find the why, the two seemed irrevocable connected. Across time and space and mass, that danger surrounding Rejt became the danger hovering above all of the Earth Golems. Across the Land, sandstorms began to rumble into existence, picking up the scattered debris and turning them into deadly projections. The already vicious winds gleefully gathered more projectiles with which to inflict damage.

Inside the room, the other people were finally reacting to what was going on. Randidly’s summoning of the wind was too quick, and even quicker was the neutralization of the six attackers. By the time they had rushed forward, they were already being smashed backward. The Chancellor just stared at the growing tornado in horror, completely unable to rationalize what he was seeing. Lazar was a little more aware, quickly fleeing the room.

The ruined chapel was tall and dark, but as the wind forced itself into the room it opened the cracks in the ceiling and wall even wider. At the same time, more light found its way into the room through the enlarged cracks. It added to the illusion that the tornado itself was causing the illumination, and as it grew taller the light grew brighter.

Frowning, Randidly prodded the sharp energies that had surrounded Rejt in a swirling dance of ethereal blades. The tornado trembled, but something akin to momentum was fueling it now. Wind continued to pour in and feed it, and Rejt-

Randidly’s gaze sharpened. There were thin trails of blood in the tornado, flashes of crimson. They were tiny cuts, but it was clear that the obscured figure of Rejt was slowly becoming eviscerated.

No, Randidly thought powerfully, pressing down on the rebellious wind. To Randidly’s surprise, the tornado trembled but continued to doggedly spin. The flash of shock that Randidly felt was enough that he lightened the willpower he was pressing against the wind. This seemed to stumble it more than him actually resisting it had been, and the top part dispersed in a halo of cutting blades the scarred the nearby stone.

But wind continued to howl downwards and-

“Enough!”

The bellow came from Rejt and with it came a wicked image of sharpness that cut upwards from the tornado. The winds dispersed, blown apart by this deep sense of severing that Rejt produced.

And at that moment, Randidly felt something. Not a place where he should try to dominate the images, but where he could lend his weight. A moment of clarity where his senses could pick up the metaphysical groove that had caused this, and now enabled him to end it. As Progenitor, he could put his finger on the scales of a motion made by one of the inhabitants of his Soulskill.

Again, Randidly felt that strange sense of connection. Perhaps... being a Progenitor was not as simple as he had assumed. The images resonated with him of course... but these images were not completely his. They were of this world, and they grew due to the people here.

So he threw himself in support of Rejt's denial.