Chapter 1078 (1/2)

Of course, Randidly couldn’t benefit from the rather significant Endurance reward, which was quite unfortunate considering his current troubles relating to enduring the obnoxiously thick Nether. But the additional bonus for Nether related Skills would help, even if it was rather small change overall.

Of course, Nether Rituals as a Skill seemed rather dubious. Randidly wasn’t a fan of the fact that the term ‘religious’ popped up, even if it was prefaced by pseudo. But experiments with his new toy could wait until later; Randidly still needed to survive. His tail tightened around Vualla’s torso like a skittish boa constrictor while she continued to rest peacefully.

Almost unwillingly, Randidly glanced once quickly down at Vualla in amusement. Are you seriously able to sleep through this?

But then his focus came sharply back upward.

As Randidly predicted, Kel’ev gnashed his teeth but threw himself in front of the tentacle that was racing to meet the duo of Randidly and Vualla with a swift death. Once again, Randidly was left supremely impressed and not a little furious at Kel’ev’s sudden speed. Even though Randidly was moving forward as quickly as he could manage, Kel’ev still managed to catch up and interpose himself between the two charging forces.

In preparation for the collision, Kel’ev’s transformation intensified. His body increased in size even further, until he was about four meters tall and two meters wide. His quills became almost completely burnt orange, with a glimmer of gold at the tips. The aura he radiated triggered Grim Intuition’s warning against dangerous foes.

BOOOOOOM.

Despite all the preparations, Kel’ev was only barely able to deflect the tentacle. And even though he managed it in the end, the obsidian tip drew a deep and bloody line across his left side. Randidly continued to rush forward, using Chimeric Avoidance to shimmy just a little to the side and make it past the collision point without being buffeted too badly by the violent aftershocks.

Unfortunately, the dense Nether wafting off of the tentacle just ripped Randidly’s bubbles open and began eating into him. He pulled Vualla more closely to the other side of his body to protect her from the worst of it and hurried forward with a grimace.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you are doing,” Kel’ev hissed right into Randidly’s ear. Randidly didn’t bother to acknowledge him. “But it is a fool’s errand. If I die, this whole thing collapses. Your precious Vualla- @**(*(@ @(*#@, @*#(*@__)(!”

Like a curtain dropping across the stage, suddenly none of Kel’ev’s words were being translated by the System. More warning bells went off in Randidly’s fuzzy mind that this was much bigger than Kel’ev just being a dick, but Randidly was dipping down toward sleepwalking by now. The Nether Gatekeeper’s very presence brought too much Nether for Randidly to resist for much longer.

But he didn’t need much longer. His body continued to skip forward through the Nether. Twenty meters, fifteen meters. All he needed-

The Nether Gatekeeper roared again. The tentacles that had been waiting for Randidly to dodge no longer were poised in wait; now they struck from every direction like the patient vipers that they truly were.

“#([email protected](#!”

Kel’ev materialized in front of Randidly again. This time, he ignored the tentacles and reached out toward Vualla. With his huge body, there was barely a ghost of a chance that Randidly could get around him to his goal.

Randidly’s gaze was glassy as he considered Kel’ev’s monstrously muscled form. His thoughts clicked noisily together like copper pennies. It was increasingly hard to focus. There are no perfect Paths, just appropriate ends.

A spear can only advance.

Chimeric Avoidance.

But even Randidly tried to push his body one more time to get around Kel’ev’s huge orange hand, he felt his image tremble with the exertion. There was just no more mental strength that he could use. Even that extra weight he had gathered from repeated triumphs against the Eidolon Crucible was reaching its limits.

Not… yet… Randidly didn’t need to look down at Vualla to feel the rise and fall of her chest. Not… her...

But there was a pinch more. With Randidly shooting rapidly forward across the last dozen meters, Kel’ev trying to block his way and seize Vualla, and the Nether Gatekeeper unleashing an attack on the two of them with six of its tentacles, it was the time to put everything he had on the table.

All Things Succumb, Yet TIme Whirls the Earth.

Randidly felt his perception stretching. He was two Randidly’s, then three, then twenty, then a hundred and one, searching for that perfect combination of growth that would have made this situation possible to overcome.

It was hard. Too much was smothered by Nether. Almost as quickly as Randidly stretched himself to find a Path forward, some of the alternate Randidly’s disappeared as they drowned in Nether in those far-flung timelines and ceased to be. Numbers grew and shrunk. Each dragged away a little more of Randidly’s mental strength, each intensified the throbbing pain in his skull. The number of lives Randidly managed to sift through doubled and then dropped to one-tenth of their original amount as Randidly’s died like flies drowning in molasses.

Yet eventually, Randidly found that perfect Randidly. He took a step forward even as he felt something deep inside of himself rip and tear as it was overstrained.

Congratulations! Your Skill All Things Succumb, Yet Time Whirls the Earth (M) has grown to Level 144!

Congratulations! Your Skill All Things Succumb, Yet Time Whirls the Earth (M) has grown to Level 145!

Congratulations! Your Skill All Things Succumb, Yet Time Whirls the Earth (M) has grown to Level 146!

Congratulations! Your Skill All Things Succumb, Yet Time Whirls the Earth (M) has grown to Level 147!