Chapter 815 (1/2)

Silo yanked his spear from Darrune’s back. The desiccated corpse fell to the ground and cracked into pieces on the spot. Without the animating energy within it, the Spearsource’s different incarnations were quite fragile.

Silo tried not to imagine himself in just such a situation.

Hissing in displeasure, Silo looked at his Level. 98. One short of his goal.

For the first time in his life, Silo knew what his role was. He had to reach Level 99. And then he had to slay… someone.

Well, things weren’t crystal clear. But the headaches and confusion had passed when he had accepted his instincts. With the clarity, Silo felt some guilt for the lives he had taken over the past several months. But more than that, he realized that none of it was his fault; everything was just due to the world he was raised in.

He lived in a violent world, so he was violent. That was just the way things were.

It wasn’t his fault.

It wasn’t his fault.

Silo had been very thorough in his search of Hastam, which was made much easier because most of the city was celebrating and the leadership was conspicuously absent. He hunted down and killed every shard of the Spearsource. All but one.

“I’m sorry Rumi…” Silo whispered as his hands tightened on his spear. “But… I need it. This world needs it. It’s not my fault.”

*****

“You were looking for me?” Randidly asked, walking stiffly into the room where a pale-faced Platton was deflecting the Oracle’s questions.

The Oracle straightened, looking at Randidly with a frown. Evidently, her prophetic visions hadn’t informed her that he would be here. Slightly amusing. In fact, he had waited outside the room and overheard several minutes that consisted of the Oracle demanding to be shown where Randidly was hiding.

In addition to rather pointed questions about the runes that covered the mountain in connection with the sudden inactivity by the Wights.

...Well, to be honest, Randidly hadn’t just been listening to gain information. He had been recovering as rapidly as he could. The process of merging with the world that had been his Soulskill was not only mentally exhausting, but several of his images were very, very badly damaged. Not like As the Sun Stills had been his first trip to Tellus, but right before the point that the Skills would break. They all had hairline fractures. Critical weaknesses, in the short term.

Especially his Yggdrasil Skills. Those had taken the fall of the World Tree in his Soulskill hard. And that was with thousands of those that shared his images connected to him in a formation to bear the brunt of the damage.

Randidly grimaced. Everything had a cost. And Randidly hadn’t even had the spare time to investigate some of the changes that came along with his Soulskill in his new form.

But already his Skills were on the mend. It would not be long before they were back into usable shape. They were not currently so healed that Randidly wanted to fight for a few hours yet, but enough to put up a strong front to the Oracle.

The Oracle regarded him suspiciously. “Ah, Mr. Ghosthound. Were you taking a nap? I couldn’t sense you for a while. It was… peculiar.”

Randidly made a mental note of that. Was it a feature of his new merger, or a coincidence? “Apologies, I didn’t mean to make you wait. What can I do for you?”

With an intensity that made it difficult to meet her eyes, the Oracle stared at Randidly. With his jaw muscles bulging as he gritted his teeth, Randidly kept his gaze even and mild while they stared at each other. Seconds ticked past. Randidly became all too aware of the scent of Platton’s sweat.

Truly, the man was a good soldier, but this was well beyond his comfortable depth.

“....Hmmm, I have long ago seen that you have come to this land to find your equipment. I believe I have the intelligence on where such things would be stored. As I favor, I am willing to guide you there.”

Randidly smiled politely. “Thank you, but I assure you that I will be fine. Surely, a figure such as you has-”

“I must insist.” The Oracle’s smile displayed her sharp canines. “A recent… event has added turbulence to the fates. I believe you would have been informed that the Wights… appear to have suffered some disease or illness. But it is unclear how long it will last. As such, we must move quickly to take advantage of this weakness. So as to make sure such a… portentious individual wasn’t the victim of unfortunate circumstances during these unpredictable times.”

Is this a threat? Does she know it was me? Randidly wondered as he looked at the Oracle. Or is this a genuine offer by a confused old woman…?