Chapter 1045 (1/2)

Once Randidly had the assistance of Nether Resistance, the battle became immensely easier. Although it could still blur the edges of the Grim Chimera image, much of its potency had been sucked from it. With the additional image strength from his victory in the Eidolon Crucible, his victory was no longer in doubt.

Of course, a sufficient amount of Nether would still be deadly to Randidly. Activating this Skill would not mean that Randidly could act with impunity in the front lines. The lingering damage to the image of the Grim Chimera was a testament to those tense first ten seconds of bitter confrontation.

But with the periodic pulses of Aether from the Aether Key in his hand, Randidly was nigh unstoppable in the current battle. He methodically used Molten Fang of the Pariah to eradicate the remainder of the black jellyfish that covered the ground of the arena. He even earned several additional Skill Levels in his Grim Chimera Skills and Nether Resistance.

But those notifications soon twisted his mouth into a scowl. I get the Skill Levels sure, and that will help. But without my main body, I won’t have any way to use the PP to follow Paths…

Yet that annoyance quickly gave way to hesitation. ...then again, I would have said the same thing about my ability to use non-Grim Chimera Skills. So perhaps it's doable, I just need to find a way to cause a resonance as happened with Nether Resist. But a resonance with my Status…?

But causing such a phenomenon was easier said than done. In this case, the direct cause was obvious; exposure to Nether. After that switch had been flicked inside of himself to grant access to Nether Resistance, it felt like a tenuous connection was established with his main body that allowed him to utilize the Skill. Perhaps it was due to whatever actions Yggdrasil used, but there was enough sympathy between the two of them that Randidly could probably worm his way into access to all of his main body’s Skills.

However, very few other Skills possessed the same extremely blunt activation pattern as the Resistance series of Skills did.

And of course, the traitorous Skill Pain Resistance doesn’t work at all from the pain resulting from Nether damage… Randidly gloomily regarded the burnt skin of his arm and chest. So torturing myself here is a waste of time.

Once the creature of Nether was gone, Randidly felt rather bored as the Aether Key continued to pulse out waves of energy into the surrounding air. Some wild part of himself almost wished more enemies would show up. Still, he had his hands rather full doing his best to repair some of the damage that Nether had done to the Grim Chimera and decided a peaceful conclusion to his trip out here wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Nether Resistance probably didn’t win the battle for Randidly, but it certainly saved him from a lot of pointless suffering. But even with that advantage, Randidly could feel portions of his image that had grown vague and blurry. While sitting on that imagined arena that Randidly had left destroyed in the past, he slowly repaired the damage to the Grim Chimera.

He reinforced the image of violence, added more detail and texture to the physical body of the Grim Chimera, and slowly upped the ravenous hunger than animated it. Even though the exertion left Randidly in a state that was close to dizzy, Randidly was able to quickly repair his image.

Of course, there were some spots that Randidly spotted the tenacious touch of Nether lingering despite his best efforts. It wasn’t pure Nether, as it had been mixed too thoroughly with Randidly’s energy into a strange mixture that was probably useless to both types of beings. But it became part of the fabric of his Grim Chimera. As Randidly examined it, it even seemed to strengthen the shadow of loneliness that covered the Grim Chimera.

This will be the part that becomes a star then… Randidly tapped his lip and then shrugged. Although he couldn’t remove it here, it might be possible to purify his image if he had access to his main body. Even if the strange process of transforming the Nether into a star didn’t pan out, Randidly didn’t believe he wouldn’t find a way to handle it.

With his repairs sorted, Randidly moved onto a restive type of meditation. His breathing evened out and Randidly let himself drift for quite some time. Some of the edge returned to his Willpower. Only after Randidly felt himself grounded and capable did Randidly open his eyes.

With most of his internal state sorted out, Randidly glanced around at the surrounding area. At the moment, he dearly wished he could find a way to cause resonance between himself and the Skill Absolute Timing because Randidly wasn’t sure how long he had been here. The battle against the being of Nether couldn’t have been long, but it left him drained. As for how long his recovery meditation lasted…

Randidly sighed and shook his head. Honestly, he had no idea. It could have been an hour since he was teleported here, it could have been a day. But it did seem like the energy within the Aether Key was slowly starting to die down, so the return should trigger sometime very soon…

With the being of Nether eradicated, the arena came back with perfect clarity. The point of impact, where the ground had been destabilized, slowly settled back together like a magical self-solving jigsaw puzzle. The pristine water of the quarry reflected the blue sky. But beyond that…

Randidly walked slowly with the Aether Key in his claw to the edge of the area. Just like it was with the frontlines, the edge of Randidly’s stabilized space ended with a sharp wall of ominous blackness. The azure veins added some depth, but the view still struck Randidly with a physical force. It was difficult to imagine what existence for the Nether beings was like, looking at those strange azure patterns flickering across the blackness.

Randidly glanced up. The blue sky ended sharply at the edge of the blackness. Rather than any true phenomenon, that color was likely created based upon his image. But it was still rather off-putting to see the stark line where the edge of Randidly’s small world ran up against the surrounding vast darkness.

“The Great Rift, huh…” Randidly mumbled. Then he shook his head and walked back to the center of the arena. Once there, he sat down once more and returned to meditation. This time, rather than trying to refine his image, Randidly let his mind go completely blank in order to recover from the strain of his confrontation with the being of Nether.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Don’t lose yourself.