Chapter 1043 (2/2)

Zagnal spared Randidly a glance as they moved off down a sloping hill past the parade grounds. ”And I'll be honest; I'll also earn some merits if you do well. And you seem more aware than most, so you might be the chance I'm waiting for. Don't disappoint me.”

”Oh, don't worry, I have no intention of dying,” Randidly said dryly. Zagnal shook his head and led Randidly further down the slope and toward a veritable city of floating stone pillars.

”This is the staging area,” Zagnal said shortly. He gestured with his hand, as though Randidly couldn’t figure out that the stone pillars were the strange construction here. Then his eyes quickly flicked in several directions before he pointed decisively toward the center of the tightly clustered pillars. ”There. Follow me.”

While from afar, there were so many stone pillars that they appeared as a forest, they resolved themselves into an understandable pattern as Randidly drew nearer. There were probably hundreds of pillars, but each was part of a pentagram with a pillar at each point of the star. The pillars themselves were covered in a complicated Engraving that Randidly studiously memorized, although they didn't mean anything to him currently.

This shit is useless to me now. But to the main body, and Lucretia...

Zagnal dragged Randidly through the maze of pillars to one of the central pentagrams. But as they wiggled their way through the small spaces between the pentagrams, for the first time since he had met Zagnal, Randidly saw him hesitate. ”Huh, Iellaya's is also open. Hmmm.”

With a familiar decisiveness, Zagnal spun on his heel and faced Randidly. His eyes glowed ominously. “Then you have a choice. This staging area is the one directly under the command of Lord Miln, but Iellaya... she is someone that I've wanted to establish a relationship with for quite some time. She arrived only five years ago, but her record speaks for itself. And she doesn’t have many close subordinates yet. Your quick feet earned this, so choose; to whom will you bind yourself?”

Randidly blinked. Other groups of liaison and image were hurrying down the rocky slope. Truly, those blank-faced images were slower than Randidly, but not by much. They would arrive soon... And it was clear from their determined movements that these other liaisons also had plans for which staging area to use.

But still, without any more information... Randidly hesitated. The other liaisons hurried closer. Zagnal's gaze grew flinty.

”...let's take the gamble then,” Randidly said. ”Take me to Iellaya's staging area.”

Although Randidly wanted to get near to Lord Miln to investigate more of his body, he was very far from having any sort of plan or capability to rescue it. As such, it seemed better to go to a distant area where Randidly's exploits wouldn't grab the attention of the very being that he hoped to dupe.

Not that I know for sure that I'll do well, especially without Nether Resistance. Randidly thought bitterly. But still. The more I can fly under his radar, the better. There is still so much that I don’t know about this battlefield.

”Anything else I need to know?” Randidly asked as Zagnal pushed him into a pentagram just as another liaison came dashing over to the same array of floating pillars.

”Don't lose yourself,” Zagnal said shortly as he passed Randidly a small item that reminded Randidly of a snow globe. Glittering energy spiraled around the glass orb given to him, grabbing Randidly's eye. ”That’s the Aether Key. Keep ahold of that. That will help your im- that will help you stabilize the space. And when the energy is inside of it is depleted, the formation will activate to teleport you back. So doubly so, don’t lose it.”

Before Randidly could open his mouth and ask additional questions, the array flared to life, and Randidly felt the familiar lurch in his stomach that came with teleportation. But as he traversed the distance to his destination, he barred his teeth at the twisting space around him.

Zagnal was about to say image and stopped himself... so he's complicit with whatever is going on...

Randidly's claw flexed. But it also means that if I can do earn him some benefits, he will be able to tell me the truth of the situation.