Chapter 1022 (2/2)

Thick branches covered in dense golden script twined amongst each other as they reached toward the sky. Leaves as luminous and radiant as emerald stars gleamed brightly in thick clumps. Vigorous roots buried themselves into the ground, rapidly burrowing outward and deeper until Yggdrasil was sipping on the life energy of the entire world. The vast trunk that appeared so close to their position was so thick that it seemed to be a wall of bark, likely several miles in diameter.

With much less fanfare, the Grim Chimera faded in to stand next to Randidly. Its left arm was a bloody claw and its right arm was a spear of bone covered in ash. The dark holes of its eyes and mouth were hidden beneath a thin film of pale skin. Its bent and twisted legs cracked as it loomed over Nathan, seeming to consider this strange interloper with frank curiosity.

A dense cluster of emerald flames appeared. Unlike the original form, these emerald flames were smaller and almost crystalline in their structure. And as they clustered together, they began to rapidly orbit around each other, blurring into a bright ball of humming energy. As time passed, those moving flames accelerated, approaching some catalytic level of motion.

Close to a transformation, pressing up against the cusp. Yet for now, the current vessel held.

Now that all of his images were present, Randidly nodded to Nathan.

Raising his hands, Nathan looked down at the seven gemstones and muttered to himself. “Anima Survey…”

Randidly watched with interest as bridges of Aether suddenly began to form with loose connections to his soul and stretch outward away from him. After a certain distance, they became invisible, but Randidly could sense them continuing outward. Seven went to the gemstones in the circle around him, but there were almost a dozen more that seemed to stretch outward into thin air, running off to some distant target.

At first Randidly’s gaze sharpened with grim chagrin, worried that these connections would bring him some unwanted attention. Especially because the Creature had a hand in the creation of his Class and therefore it seemed likely that one of the connections might lead to any remnant of it that existed in the world.

But the more that Randidly studied the sudden connections, the more at ease he became. Rather than establishing a connection, Nathan’s Skill seemed to illuminate past connections. If he hadn’t seen them being made, even Randidly might have missed the delicate touch of Aether stretching away from him.

These connections were old things, some of them long dead. He couldn’t precisely figure out where each one led, but it was enough to know that Nathan hadn’t created anything new.

Nathan gestured sharply with his hand, pulling Randidly’s focus back to the current task. “Invigorate. Capture.”

The connections began to tremble with a steadily growing energy. Very quickly, Randidly felt the resonance travel through the connection and to himself. And as he watched, his three images moved.

Yggdrasil shrank to a seed and then floated easily into the emerald. Instantly, the emerald cracked and shattered. But in its place, a walnut covered in dense and intricate golden script appeared.

The Grim Chimera raised its head and howled toward the sky. Then it stretched out one arm and snatched the diamond, while its right arm speared the piece of onyx. Both shook for a split second before the Chimera smashed the two gems into one another. Bits of sparkling gemstone caught the light as they scattered everywhere, radiating outward in a nova of glittering monochrome. When the dust settled, a plain piece of charcoal sat at the epicenter of the explosion.

After a second of hesitation, the Ignition Essence floated down into the ruby and forced itself into the crystal. Rapidly, the color of the ruby shifted toward emerald. Then, perhaps strangest of all, the now emerald ruby twisted. Very quickly, portions of the gemstone moved to form a small crablike creature. It scuttled over on short legs and used its claws to cut off a chunk of the amethyst, which it greedily devoured.

Then it settled down, reverting to an emerald colored stone with a fingertip of violet flame at its core.

Although the close connections had finished their meals, the dozen connections that led far away began to undulate wildly. But Randidly couldn’t relax and let the process continue; he noticed that Nathan rapidly began to pale. The Skill he was using had drawn too much Mana from him.

Randidly couldn’t help directly, but he spread his hands and began to force raw Mana out from the fingertips of his right hand and into the air. Gleaming motes of light that alternated between aquamarine and navy blue blasted outward to swirl around Nathan. As Randidly pumped out more and more Mana, some settled on Nathan’s skin and sunk into his body.

The boy looked thankfully at Randidly, then refocused on the connections. The undulations became wild swings, as though some force had gripped the other end of the connections that stretched out from Randidly and was ripping wildly at them with all of its strength.

“Invigorate….” Nathan’s teeth were chattering as he forced out the words. “And… Capture!”

There was a swirl of rainbow-colored energy, thin wisps of it coming from each of the dozen connections, that wove themselves together in a tight spiral. With a crack, they condensed into a small object in front of Randidly.

“Ugh… I feel like crap…” Nathan collapsed backward so that he was sitting down on the ground with his legs splayed. The connections dispersed and the area around them quieted. After several breaths, Nathan heaved himself up and hobbled up over to the four objects that were on the ground around Randidly. “Well that certainly was- eh?”

Randidly followed Nathan’s gaze to the final object that had been created from the majority of his connections. He cleared his throat awkwardly as he considered the object. “Is something like this… normal…?”

“Definitely not,” Nathan whispered. He reached out and picked up the fourth object, studying it closely. As soon as he touched it, Nathan’s eyes widened.

Frowning, Randidly studied the object without bothering to approach and see the description. It was clearly a cloth doll, a perfect replica of himself. It had his short black hair, his metallic left arm, and his bare feet sewn in exacting detail. But perhaps the most disturbing feature of the doll was that its skin was covered in thin lines of black thread. The formation of the thread made it seem like it was a language, but it wasn’t one that Randidly recognized.

It wasn’t Aether, and it wasn’t something that the System was helping to translate at all. That tattooed version of Randidly sat in Nathan’s trembling hands. Randidly frowned.