Chapter 1073 (2/2)

Vualla turned her gaze back to the area in front of them, but her attention remained focused on the actions of Randidly behind her. Occasionally she was forced to throw out destructive punches to clear their way, but it seemed like the blue veins had parted and allowed them to accelerate rapidly forward for the time being. Almost reluctantly, Vualla increased the group’s speed.

With her attention behind, Vualla was able to ascertain that Randidly hadn’t just been following meekly along with the group; as soon as she had given him permission, he did his best to slip into the rotation of soldiers fending off attacks from the sides. When it came around to his turn, Vualla was aghast to see that he had to fight off only a single opponent, but that opponent was a three-star Nether Beast that looked like an oversized pitbull.

Even for soldiers with a body-

But Randidly Ghosthound also didn’t hesitate. He raised his bone spear and a strange spectral fire that filled Vualla with a deep sense of foreboding flickered into existence to cover his weapon. At the same time, his skin began to hiss and steam as Nether began to eat directly away at his image.

Vualla chewed on the inside of her cheek in confusion. Did his stars stop working? Why is he so suddenly open to the Nether damage where he hadn’t been previously?

Then he was a blur of momentum and that relatively fragile image body smashed forcefully into that three-star Nether Beast without a hint of warning. Immediately the Nether Beast roared and swiped out with its dangerous claw, but Randidly’s form seemed more shadow than substance as he slipped underneath the attack and dug deeply into the beast’s flank with his own claw on the way past.

Clearly earning all of the beast’s ire, Randidly followed up with a sharp kick to the side of the beast’s knee joint on its back leg. While Vualla twisted to watch, she saw that the black flames around his spear disappeared and suddenly his leg was wreathed in those same dangerous-looking flames. At the same time, the damage Nether was doing to his legs fell to basically nothing and his arms began to hiss and spit.

Vualla could feel her heartbeat slow in her chest as she studied Randidly. Can he truly control the stars as he wills? Turn them into weapons wherever he needs them?

This time when the beast screamed, its voice was filled with less rage and more fear. But as the Nether Beast scrambled to open up some space between them, Randidly struck almost eight times in quick succession with his spear. Huge gashes were torn in the Nether of the beast’s body. Then the talons on his left hand began to glow cherry red like a brand freshly taken from a fire and he raked it across the panicking Nether Beast’s eyes.

At that point, the beast seemed to realize that this relatively insubstantial foe was more dangerous than it had expected. Rather than continuing to engage at a distance and try to dogfight, the beast simply leapt forward to try and overwhelm Randidly with the weight of its Nether.

Randidly didn’t even flinch in the face of the beast’s charge. With a smile so insane that it infectiously spread to Vualla’s mouth, Randidly stood his ground and raised his arms to meet the Nether Beast directly. Their bodies smashed into each other and Vualla gasped as the Nether Beast seemed to pop and deflate while the image stood as straight and dangerous as a bared blade.

Lightning fast, Randidly struck out with his bone spear and pierced through the Nether to strike the beast’s core. There was a light tinkling, and then the surrounding Nether turned sluggish. Very soon, Randidly’s blurred form returned from the drifting Nether to rejoin the rest of the group.

To be frank, he was much slower compared to the other soldiers present. But he had made it back within a reasonable amount of time. Which bought the rest of the soldiers a few more precious seconds to recover. Right now, that was exactly what they needed.

Perhaps even more importantly, no one took him lightly after Randidly managed to defeat a three-star Nether Beast while only being an image. Vualla’s subordinates looked at him with newfound respect as he took his place in the rotation.

Twice more Randidly left the safety of Vualla’s image to fight against attacking images. But no matter the number of foes he was required to face, he triumphed over them and returned to the convoy with a heaving chest.

Still, Vualla couldn’t help but notice that Randidly’s long limbs were warped and fuzzy from his contests. It was not without cost that he continued to go out there and fight against Nether Beasts without a body to rely on. His status as an image was starting to catch up with him.

If, because of this, he dies… Vualla’s shoulders trembled. It would be her fault, primarily, of course. But that didn’t mean that she minded laying his wounds at the feet of the System. Because Vualla knew that all the vital energy and life she had felt was so suddenly injected into her after meeting Randidly would die along with them. And what would be left was only the grim purpose of her life’s work. First, I’ll personally take a limb from both Commander Terith and Lord Miln. And I’ll stop there only if I’m feeling fucking generous.

After Randidly returned from his third defense rotation, he gestured forward and spoke in a low and guttural voice. “Here. Soon.”

That brought Vualla’s attention swiftly back around to the are in front of them. Although she had no way of ascertaining that Randidly was correct, directly in front of the group there was a large space that was densely packed with those blue veins and supported on each side by planes of Nether so dense that they seemed to glow with pale flames. As Vualla peered closer to examine those flames that were so shockingly similar to the ones Randidly had created, Nether Beasts began to surge out from behind, above, and below them to crash toward them.

“Don’t worry boys, this one is mine,” Vualla hissed. After cracking her knuckles, she spread her arms wide. She sucked in a breath and suddenly Vualla was standing next to her mother in front of a gravestone that had her brother’s name written across it in large letters. Vualla tightly clutched at the thin silk of her mother’s maroon dress.

Several times the name on the gravestone changed. The fabric and color of her mother’s dress changed. But what didn’t change was that her brother was dead and her father never returned home.

You took everything from me. Vualla thought as she looked up at the vast Great Rift. Her gaze seemed to pierce through that non-space to see the looming specter of the System under which she was raised grinning down at her fighting its wars. Her rage was directed at anyone and everything that supported this behemoth of an institution that had devoured her brothers and was currently eating her father alive.

Then Vualla smiled defiantly. But all that did was teach me how to take.

Then Vualla took and all of the Nether Beasts in the surrounding area died with all of the noise of a little girl’s tears.