Chapter 812 (2/2)

“What now?” Rejt asked. “Oh great Progenitor, give us the briefest peek into your vast and intrepid psyche.”

“The factions of the Procession are still killing each other above,” Allica grunted. “For all that the Procession is well and fucked, they’ve spent years learning to hate each other. It won't’ be easy to resolve.”

“Most food sources are destroyed, apart from ours,” Rejt said with a shake of his head. “We fed the Monster Prince because he was a damn sight better than the Metal Queen, but it beggared us to do it. Hard enough to survive in this cave without supporting the bloated corpse of one of royal blood.”

“The Lands are widely destroyed and plundered,” Allica added.

“Can’t move the population without food, and food can’t grow enough food here.” Rejt piled on.

Randidly raised his hands. “I get it. I know. I’ll handle it. But…”

Glaring at Rejt, Randidly pointed at the deep crack that had been ripped in the golden symbols on the ground by Rejt’s final attack. “Was this really necessary?”

Rejt adopted a contemplative expression. “Hum. An interesting time to start asking whether things are necessary. Isn’t your world about to collapse on itself?”

A few minutes ago, as he held Alta, Randidly could have asked Alta to use her power to fuel the new world that he wanted to create for the people of the Soulskill. It would have been a less anticlimactic ending, for one. And she would have refused him in the same way she refused the forgiveness, but Randidly sensed she would have created a huge amount of energy in her rage.

That energy would have been tainted, but Randidly could have appropriated it to help form the new world. The energy he had stolen from the Wights would have been the other half. Together, it would be difficult to predict the consequencess going forward for his Soulskill.

There definitely would have been consequences, too.

But Randidly was tired of pushing off the payments he needed to make for his Soulskill to later. It was time to pay them in full.

“Well, I’ll find you later. I have work to do,” Randidly announced. The two nodded, and Randidly was gone. He flew up to his real body and contacted Io and Yonna, as well as the other leaders of those who had accepted his image in Tellus.

Very quickly, he had their agreement and they shifted to the formation around him that Randidly had indicated. Then, with a long sigh, he went inward to the many runes that made up who he was. Everything was there: Skills, Stats, Soulskill, images… they all coexisted, mixing and mingling.

Beyond them was the Aether Crossroads, continuing to flood him with Aether. It came readily to his command, willing to construct for him a world. But what Randidly wanted to do was not to create another world per se; what he wanted to bring another world here, to his Soulspace.

He would not shatter his Soulskill and remake it. He wanted to help it morph into something more complete and healthy. And to do that, something more than simply throwing energy at it was necessary. He needed an image. He needed a focus where the world would be born within himself and an idea for its shape.

But aside from the mental side of things, Randidly needed three elements in order to create the world.

The first was a vast sea of external energy on the physical side, so his body could be terraformed into something capable of supporting a world. Just thinking about the details made Randidly cross-eyed, but he could sense that it would work with the energy he had plundered from the Wights.

The second thing was the easiest: he needed something to be the physical core of his new world. The seed that was born of his ashen image would do wonderfully. Plus, it had been slowly snacking on other images that flowed into him with his Aether Crossroads. Of all the images he had access to, it was the most complete and balanced.

The final thing Randidly needed was another huge amount of energy on the Soulskill side, to push the inhabitants over to the physical realm.

Such was his energy need that he didn’t dare simply draw it from the Aether Crossroads; not only was there the danger of losing himself to the energy, but it would also take too long to gather. His Soulskill was rotting from the inside out. Everything had been expended to get the population of his Soulskill to this point. They had nothing left to give.

The reason he was taking this path was to save the lives of those that remained. If he had to wait… well.

He needed energy inside of himself, right now. But technically, it didn’t need to come from the people of his Soulskill.

With a shake of his head, Randidly’s consciousness floated into himself and felt the runes that created his Class. Then he slowly found his different Stats and Attributes. Randidly’s focus settled on one in particular.

Progenitor’s Influence. From it, threads of connection spread outward to a few different Paths and Skills. It even went to his current Path.

Randidly had already made this choice. He had given up his role as godling to be regarded as a person by his Soulskill. Like the Emperor, he was giving up the influence he had over his Soulskill.

And in exchange, found power.

“Break for me,” Randidly whispered.