Chapter 927 (2/2)

The unthinking act of a fool became the start of a slippery slope.

Because Randidly's Crown had been devouring Donnyton's image of invulnerability for the entire challenge. These images that weren’t calcified were relatively simple to plunder and absorb. He felt himself growing heavy with its weight, increasing its potency at a speed that had his eyebrows scrunched together.

This image of the Ashen Phantom was one that he was offering as a threat to Donnyton so these people could learn the necessity of strength in this world. It was a desperate path he had chosen, one where he was attempting to put Donnyton on the right path at any cost. This whole challenge was about them.

He would drag them, kicking and screaming, toward dominance under the System if it was the last thing he did.

Stan's actions had clearly indicated that he should be eliminated. Otherwise, his shortsightedness might prove ruinous to Donnyton's future developments. He was a man that could not even face himself. Perhaps for that reason, he possessed unusual insight into the truths of others. But without knowing oneself, what strength did he truly have?

Threats needed to die. Otherwise, all this effort might be wasted..

Yet... that was the Spearman's Path, was it not?

Grinding his teeth, Randidly stared at Stan. Without looking away for even enough time to blink, Randidly examined him. His emerald eyes seemed like a terrible inferno, intent on devouring all things. Stan stood frozen, held by the intensity that Randidly considered him.

A surprising branch in his Path, triggering all of the darker tendencies that he had allowed to grow within his Crown and his image. He wanted to use force during this process but was careful to arrange the Challenge against Donnyton in a way that would not result in any loss of life.

The Ashen Phantom was truly an image designed to kill. But it was not a weapon that Randidly meant to use against the people of Donnyton.

Randidly was callous in his strikes, but he wasn't aiming to kill. He had never believed that he possessed the right to determine who lived and who died. Randidly just believed that his experiences gave him a wider view on how to survive the System. By teaching Donnyton the danger of images, he was guiding them without seeking definite control.

If he killed Stan here, that fine distinction would be washed away by blood. He would have eliminated someone who threatened his plan. Someone who threatened all of Donnyton, in Randidly's mind, but that didn't make it necessarily correct.

So his images demanded Stan's death. He had created the Ashen Phantom in accordance with the pride of his Crown of Upheaval and Gloom. Both led to eliminating this known threat.

An image's strength was related to its purity and conviction. Refusing to follow what his image dictated would weaken the image immensely.

And so, Randidly paused.

Strangely, Randidly was reminded of the first time he had encountered the Creature, when it had buried him in darkness, intent on taking over his Aether Crossroad. Just like now, he felt lost and frustrated. Yet this time, what bound him was not darkness but the intersection of thousands of decisions. Many of which were his own making.

That weight he had gathered in the fight against Donnyton, which gave his images potency, now pulled him down toward a dark Path.

In the world of Earth before the System arrived, many people often discussed destiny and free will. Specifically, they discussed whether there was a grand design from which you couldn't stray, or whether humans had the capacity to control their Paths through life. Much of this was framed by religious undertones, but it was a secular philosophical argument as well.

But it was one that Randidly had never understood; Destiny and free will were two sides of the same coin. Humans were complicated, but it never seemed to Randidly that they were more than the sum of their parts. Being unable to quantify or understand inputs didn't mean that inputs didn't lead to discrete outputs.

Put more concretely, both destiny and free will existed. Destiny was the Path you took and free will was why you took it. No matter how detestable one found their lot in life, free will meant that you would choose it if given the choice again without the benefit of hindsight. Because that was who you were.

An omnipotent destiny could account for you trying to avoid it. Because inputs and outputs were always fixed.

Randidly closed his eyes. Rather than hearing it, he could feel Stan slump against the walls of the VIP section. Was there no magic in the world? Are we truly all inputs and outputs…? Will I truly walk this Path?