Chapter 1053 (1/2)

Randidly examined the two tired and shredded individuals who were experiencing the process of using the Aether Fountain in front of him. Once again, his focus on the movement of Aether earned him a small resonance in his chest that he believed to be related to Aether Detection. However, both individuals finished their brief exposure to the Aether more quickly than Randidly could reactivate the Skill, and therefore the resonance quickly disappeared.

Three more missions, Randidly promised himself.

The Aether Fountain didn’t actually look like a fountain at all. Instead, it was a gleaming copper grate that was inlaid into the ground at the center of the camp behind the Commander’s tent. It was only a meter in diameter, but it was clearly a very complex work of Engraving. When activated, the brass would glow to the point of becoming almost golden as energy rushed through the material.

Without Aether Detection, Randidly wasn’t positive what occurred in the process, but even if those senses weren’t activated, he still had his eyes.

Two individuals used the Aether Fountain while Randidly watched. Abiodun briefly commented that they had rejected the opportunity yesterday, but they acquiesced this morning as their conditions worsened.

Truly, they looked ragged before they began. Like crayon drawings of real people that had been soaked in chilling river water for several hours before being recovered. They were grey and diminished beings that seemed to be flaking and disintegrating as Randidly watched. Then again, that might have been an effect of the strange visual phenomenon caused by the Great Rift rather than any real lingering damage to the image.

But after standing on the Aether Fountain, those images were soon swollen with color and power. There was a palpable strength that radiated off of them as they stepped off the copper grate and released booming laughter while slapping each other on the back in congratulations.

Randidly’s eyes narrowed. Of course, that strength radiating off of them is the very power that they just obtained leaking out through the flaws in a broken container. None of the damage that was done to them was repaired, and none of the fuzzy details were corrected. No, they were puffed up with empty power that will slowly leave them as time passes.

But from the System’s perspective, putting a little bit of energy in the hands of these broken but proven images is probably preferable to giving it to a planet that might not even survive a single Calamity…

“Yea, no,” Randidly said shortly as he turned to look at Abiodun. He flashed a predator’s smile at the granite man. “I don’t think such measures are necessary.”

“Yet it seems like they both enjoyed the feeling immensely. Perhaps they were even improved by the experience.” Abiodun rumbled, but you could tell from his open maw that the being was making a joke at the expense of these wounded and struggling images.

It was a cold and cruel joke, but Randidly felt the corners of his own mouth twitch upward in response. ”An easy joke for someone with a body to make. The wear and tear you endure heals with time.”

”An easy joke for someone with strength to make,” Abiodun countered. ”Or do you claim that you are like them? Will your eventual end be here, on this endless battlefield before the vast darkness?”

Randidly looked at Abiodun then for several minutes without speaking. The other man was content to allow it, standing still with his eyes independently fading in and out of his sockets like each one needed periodic holidays from the madness going on within Abiodun's mind in order to continue with its duties.

Finally, Randidly opened his mouth. ”You know, I thought you were a gentle being when I first met you.”

”And I thought you were wispy,” Abiodun's mouth stretched even wider. ”What a delight that we were both wrong, and we two monsters were able to meet here at the edge of the world. Nether will learn to rue this day.”

Randidly didn't bother to refute the label of a monster. Honestly, he wasn't even sure if he didn't believe it to be true. Instead, Randidly turned away from the Aether Fountain and began to walk back toward his tent.

Behind him, Abiodun called after Randidly's departing form. ”Remember that heeding the Beacon of Duty will not excuse you from your assigned missions. In two days you will participate in a defensive battle against the Nether. Make sure you rest well.”

Randidly continued without turning around. But he gritted his teeth in response to Abiodun's words.

When he arrived back at his tent, Randidly didn't head inside to sit and meditate with Yggdrasil and the feeble form of Ignition Essence. Instead, Randidly walked beyond the tent toward the edge of Iellaya's camp and the barren badlands.

They had been stationed near the right side of her camp, so it didn't take long to walk beyond the tight rows of tents and toward the empty space between this camp and the next one. Because the threats were existential rather than physical, there weren't any real defensive structures that served as a buffer against the Great Rift. It was only on the basis of potency of Aether that their defense was mounted.

But because of that lack of physical barriers, there was a wide-open space filled with pebbles and coppery dirt that no one bothered with. And it was there that Randidly released a long breath and raised his head to the strange sky of this land.

Randidly began slowly to move. And he began with, of all things, the Spear Phantom Style. With his right arm, Randidly moved smoothly through all forms he could recall Shal teaching him in that strange Dungeon. For a half-hour, Randidly let go of all of the fighting and bloodshed that he had endured over the last five years. He was just a foolish kid who was slowly learning the spear from someone who was muddled by generations worth of manipulation in his body.

The spear began to blur as Randidly accelerated.