Chapter 1086 (1/2)

BOOOOOOOM!

The ground cracked and shuddered as Randidly thrust with his bone spear, spurring the surrounding space to wildly gesticulate as the Nether in Randidly’s attack destabilized the surrounding area. Space seemed to shiver in pain from the passage of the strike, even as Randidly frantically fed Nether into the whirling trio of cores that were intangibly present in the tip of his spear.

Keeping his breathing even, Randidly took a step backward and surveyed his work.

The hole was large. Large enough that several horses could fall into the broken hole in the ground and with enough leftover that another could tumble down to join them. But perhaps even more important to Randidly was the fact that the damage was rather concentrated. Perhaps because the force came partially from Nether, the aftershocks decreased exponentially as it spread out into this Aether dominated area. It was only at the exact tip of his spear where the grim work was accomplished.

The ground that Randidly had struck directly had been completely annihilated. Naught but a memory was left. It was only as that tang of Nether was diluted that the physical impact and corrosion had time to take effect. Overall, it was an incredibly impressive display. Yet Randidly could only grimace as he maintained his breathing and tried to cope with the results.

The power was more than enough that Randidly had much more confidence dealing with foes, both those of the Nether and Aether. However…

Hissing, Randidly continued to channel power to the three cores as their frantic spinning eased down to a manageable rotation in his arm. His image body shivered in distaste as a large volume of Nether was freed up as required Nether to maintain the attack dropped sharply off, and Randidly hadn’t yet mastered the easy shift in managing his Nether Wells to match the amount he needed to control his cores. Nether spread out in haphazard waves as Randidly struggled to control its motion.

That incidental damage would be quickly healed by his cores passively, but it was still painful to experience. But perhaps even more annoying was the fact that it took time and conscious effort to ease the cores down from their destructive form.

More than that, Randidly had been able to sense two things while he pushed his cores up to that speed that could annihilate substance on impact. The first thing was that it was possible to provide an insufficient amount of Nether during the process and the attack would fail. Spectacularly, Randidly’s instincts assured him. He wasn’t exactly sure what form that failure would take, but it seemed likely that it would not be costless.

It wasn’t something that he wanted to experience if it could be avoided.

The second thing was that there was a qualitative transformation waiting if Randidly revolved the three cores at a sufficient speed. The Nether began to move erratically during the height of the attack. Just beyond that erratic movement there seemed to be a new plateau present that Randidly could reach if he would just push a little bit more.

Yet Randidly didn’t force himself toward that qualitative change in these experiments. Half because he feared damaging himself with rampant Nether and being unconscious for another mission and also half because he didn’t quite feel comfortable enough opening his Nether Wells up to the required amount to fuel that transformation.

As Randidly slowly acquired more cores and bubbles, more and more he felt strangely unphased by the Nether present in himself. Yet with three cores, it was not yet a complete transformation. And because the cores he possessed were ultimately created from an Aether formation, his immunity was ultimately a seeming and not a being. When Nether was left to press against his image, damage would slowly start to occur as it couldn’t quite prevent all damage.

Still, better than nothing. Randidly peered at the slowly dimming Nether flames around his bone spear and shook his head in wonder. And for whatever reason, my fourth star is already halfway done. I suppose it will be pretty soon that I find out whether I’ll be physically affected by possessing too many stars. Although it will be impossible to know if that’s because I’m simply an image or because I can sense and interact with Nether.

Yet that’s all premised on the fact I won’t be affected. Randidly mused. The more he thought about it, the sourer his mood became. Because if I am affected, I’ll need to start figuring out a way to get rid of the cores. Because with the Nether Wells inside of me, more cores will continue to form as long as I stay on the frontlines.

Coughing, Randidly shook his head ruefully. Of course, the main body will need to find a way to deal with the Nether without the grand formation once we return to Earth. Ha… it seems like our work never ceases.

Randidly turned away from the hole he had made in the ground and looked up at the sky. His thoughts followed the maroon clouds, and Randidly willingly allowed them to drift away until his mood had evened out once more. After narrowing his eyes, he nodded sharply to himself. He should still have a few more hours before he needed to head back. He had some time to attempt his other new Skill one more time, although not a lot.

After all, his next mission would take him back to Headquarters to engage in a mission with an Aether Key as support. Randidly needed to allow for time for the trek back to headquarters to receive his orders.

Randidly grinned. Gonna be a damn boring mission after fighting in the Nether Gatekeeper’s base…

A sound in the sky brought Randidly’s gaze sharply up. Then he sighed.

Titantically large, pitch-black tentacles smashed against the repaired golden dome that surrounded the camps. From his current vantage, they appeared to be extremely manageable, but Randidly still recalled how intimidating those tentacles had seemed as Iellaya and Terith struggled against them.

The noise was pretty subdued from the distance that he had tred beyond the supply route behind the camps, but Randidly could see the reverberations travel from the point of impact across the whole of the golden dome, spreading right and left and over like ripples from a stone thrown into a pond.

The attacks against the barrier had arrived sporadically since Commander Terith had managed to smash through the Nether bombardment portal and hastily repair the dome. The intermittent strikes seemed to be more of a mental attack than a physical one because it reminded the individuals of the two camps of the disastrous artillery strike they had suffered.

However…

Randidly turned his gaze back toward the rocky outcropping on top of which the Headquarters sat. He had been able to see ripples traveling from the other direction, as well. It seemed that it wasn’t just this flank that was enduring the attacks.

Even as the huge waves slid smoothly outward, Randidly turned away from the sky and the frontlines and focused on his own training. That tier of struggle was still beyond him. He needed to work his way up to that through training.

While utilizing Nether offensively and defensively had proceeded well, understanding his new Skill Nether Ritual had been nothing short of an experience akin to learning a language from a mute instructor. There was a strange instinct that he possessed that enabled Randidly to make some rather half-hearted attempts at the process, but it had gotten him nowhere. Just as soon as he attempted to form his ‘rituals’, they fizzled out and left him strangely drained.