Chapter 784 (2/2)

To his surprise, Lyra smiled. “I am not. I should be clear, not that I wouldn’t. I still believe her experience in the matters of the System is invaluable. But… she is currently sleeping. As I’m sure your earlier victory against her taught you… she is constantly weakening. She currently rests to preserve her strength for later.”

“Later?” Quirking his brow up, Randidly’s expression turned increasingly dark. Both because of how much Lyra seemed to know about his knowledge and because of what the Creature resting implied.

Lyra continued to speak as if she hadn’t heard. “Let me offer you something; I’m willing to tell you exactly why she would rest, and why you need not to worry for quite a while about what the Creature is doing.”

Randidly’s eyebrows lowered once more. Randidly watched Lyra’s tongue flick out and wet her lips. “I’m… listening.”

Some part of him cursed himself for listening to her. Lyra was a professional liar, first and foremost. But… he couldn't forget how gentle his feelings for her had been before they soured. Betrayal couldn’t destroy everything he had felt. More than that, Randidly had been struggling against his looming fear of the Creature for quite some time. The fact that he hadn’t seen any trace of the Creature… aside from that strange power plant in Zone 1, made him anxious.

Lyra’s smile was brittle as if she could read Randidly’s doubts on his face and was intensely burdened by it. Honestly, she probably could, Randidly reflected. He was not very good at hiding his feelings.

“Because… because of the second Calamity.” Lyra lowered her voice to a whisper. “You chase purity. And your image will dominate Earth at this rate. You simply have too much influence. Even the Ogre invasion won’t change that. And do you know what you fear the most?”

Ogre Invasion…? Randidly thought with a frown. Then he recalled that in beating the Ogre Ravine, he had connected Earth to a world without Aether. His frown twisted further into a scowl. Did the Ogres discover the portal so soon? And they gathered up enough manpower for an invasion?

That would mean war on Earth, one which would be difficult to win, based on the Levels Randidly had seen on that other world. Well, maybe Donnyton had improved, and if Erickson Steel and Ghost worked together to make drones-

But with a shake of the head, Randidly focused on Lyra’s original question. He could contact Neveah to find out the truth of the matter. “What do I fear? The Earth being destroyed?”

Lyra grinned. “True. But those are big fears. Isn’t it most common that the fears at the core of people are the smallest?”

Randidly just looked at her.

Lyra couldn't resist rolling her eyes and then said, “I believe you will find, what you fear the most, is what would have happened if you accepted the Yystrix’s influence. The Randidly who is a puppet. A kept being. Doesn’t the thought set your teeth on edge? She doesn’t feel the need to move, because the System will create a version of her that could destroy you all on its own. Not one of us, including Yystrix, can escape our own demons.”

Randidly closed his eyes. For all that Randidly took everything Lyra said with a grain of salt, these words rang true.

Although perhaps Lyra was barking up the wrong tree in terms of him fearing himself taking the influence the most, he certainly had a deep fear of others giving themselves over to the Creature. Lyra was a very special case that he had hitherto ignored, but if there was a larger segment of the population following the Creature, Randidly wouldn’t know what to do.

“So this is what you came for? To shape my fears in the guise of warning me?” Randidly asked with a small smile. Lyra’s violet eyes just watched him. “Thank you, but it's unnecessary. The Creature is right; it is nothing before the System. That is why it lives an existence filled with fear. Perhaps I’m nothing too, but I’m going to fight this big fucker. For my whole world.”

“You would have the world gamble their lives on you?” Lyra asked quietly.

Would I? Randidly asked himself. For several seconds, he paused and considered.

Then he nodded. He would. That was what it meant to wear the Crown.

Seeing his nod, Lyra did something that surprised Randidly more than he would like to admit; she smiled and laughed. “Truly, this is why you stand at the pinnacle. The reasonable do not climb to your position. And I can see why you would assume this is done to shape you… but know that I would like nothing more than the Calamities to be simple. But think on this: everything you have faced thus far, and will face until the final Calamity descends, is something that was defeated by a Calamity.”

Then she was gone. Immediately, Randidly reached out to touch the small connection that Lyra had used between them to bridge the gap and tore it to shreds. Then Randidly erected a shifting barrier of Aether around his inner world to keep any interlopers out. But even then, he felt an uncomfortable prickling on the back of his neck.

She didn’t leave, Randidly said to himself as he stepped out of the Seventh Land and stood over the entire world tree. She simply is hiding. Somewhere inside the Soulskill, she bides her time. But for what?

But brooding would get Randidly nowhere. So he shook his head and departed from the Soulskill he had learned all he could for now, and there would be a little time before the conflict between Carthak and the Procession. For now, Randidly needed to spend some of the PP he had earned the past few days.