Chapter 1039 (1/2)
The Grim Chimera rubbed the side of his head, feeling decidedly strange. His vision swam as the space around him shifted and stretched before snapping back into place. The ground beneath him seemed to be trembling and stretching like taffy, only to snap back into place. This continued for about a minute before the Grim Chimera realized that it wasn’t just him; the environment was actually moving.
Breathing heavily, the Grim Chimera fell to his knees and touched the ground. His claws left deep gouges in the dirt as he tried to figure out what was going on around him.
After watching for a few minutes, it seemed that the ground was and wasn’t moving at the same time. Or at least, it wasn’t moving, but it looked like it was moving constantly. It was as though there were two layers to reality, that something was struggling to press them together into one layer, but some other force was presenting it. So there were constantly two visions that the Grim Chimera could see. The first was the actual reality, the other was an overlayer that swayed and slid away, distracting the eye with its movements.
But one thing the Grim Chimera did notice while it was digging its claws into the ground was that there were moments that the two layers appeared perfectly in line with one another. And during those short moments, the ground was abruptly a great deal more difficult to cut into with his claws than it was normally.
“What you are seeing is the destabilization effect,” A low voice said. “It’s the price this place pays for hosting the battle against those bastards.”
The Grim Chimera looked up. Abruptly, his awareness spread out from just the ground in front of him to the surrounding area. But the suddenness of that expansion and the flood of information that resulted once more sent a wave of dizziness through the Grim Chimera. Because everything he could see had its own spazzing second layer that continued to feed his gaze false information.
Worse still, each object had its own second layer that moved independently of all the other objects second layers. So the world was a kaleidoscope of shifting objects and lights that made it impossible to tell what was real and fake.
Narrowing his eyes, the Grim Chimera was able to focus on the speaker. A slender man with a salt-and-pepper beard stood behind a desk. His face rippled and shifted, jerking to the left and then drifting downward. Then it was back as if nothing had changed. The ground around him was covered with a spiraling sort of Engraving array, and behind the man-
The Grim Chimera had to press his eyes closed. It was too much, too fast.
“Take your time, you’ll have a few days to get used to it before I ask you to do battle,” The Grim Chimera could hear the smile in the bearded man’s voice and was immediately suspicious of it. “I know you must be confused, but just know that an old friend of mine donated his images to the war effort; that’s you, you’re those images. But I hope we can become comrades in the future; after all, we will be relying on each other for the next year.”
An old friend… donated images.? We were… are… images.
We were…
Randidly Ghosthound’s-
“Ah!” The Grim Chimera gasped, falling to his knees. His black eyes trembled and he pressed his eyelids shut. The older man stopped talking, regarding the fallen image with an easy smile.
“...like I said, don’t push yourself. It’s truly a hard thing to grow used the environment here. But still, I like to meet with you and check-in with the new arrivals. Before I allow my subordinate to escort you away… do you have any questions…?”
“I…. no….” When the Grim Chimera’s eyes opened, the irises were now a luminous emerald. Randidly Ghosthound’s eyes flashed with cold fury, but he kept careful control over his facial features. Luckily, the Grim Chimera’s rather humongous claw was already wrapped around his face and obscuring most of his features.
Pretty easy to hide my features with this body, Randidly thought with dark amusement. That fucking Judgment, what sort of messed up situation did it throw me into…? I’ll kill it the next time I catch it without the System giving its dumbass Skills juice...
The man nodded softly. Then he turned to regard another figure standing next to Randidly. “And you two? I can sense that you are both… handling this better and worse than your friend here. Do either of you have any questions?”
Randidly’s eyes flicked to the side. His eyes widened. Standing next to him was a tall and majestic tree covered in golden script. And cradled in the trees outstretched branches was a flickering tongue of emerald flame.
“No… I believe… we simply need… rest….” Yggdrasil said slowly.
“Fine, Zagnal, take them to their tent.” The salt and pepper bearded man said sharply. A strange man with the head of a red dragon gave a sharp salute and gestured for the three to follow. Before they left, there was a single moment where Randidly’s eyes met Zagnal’s
As Randidly turned back for one last look, his eyes scanned the ground and the area behind the bearded man. Compared to the Grim Chimera’s nascent consciousness, Randidly had a much easier time parsing apart what he saw. Although he didn’t want to reveal the return of his clarity yet, he still wanted to determine something. Sure enough, on the wall behind the man were a series of heavily Engraved pods. Within one, Randidly spotted his own short dark hair and familiar face with closed eyes.