Chapter 1091 (1/2)

It wasn’t that Randidly hadn’t believed the guards, not to mention his own extremely acute senses, that had informed him that his image body would have difficulty within the liquid Aether. He certainly believed them; what they were stating was unarguable fact. Liquid Aether was not only volatile but denser than anything he had encountered in the past.

Even if the tight control of Nadia and Kailm meant that the volatility wasn’t an issue, the density wouldn’t be easy to overcome. So he was aware it would be difficult.

But in the same way that Randidly had managed to endure the extremely dense Nether when they went to lure out the Nether Gatekeeper, Randidly believed he would be able to endure liquid Aether. If the issue was the structural integrity of his body, he trusted the trial he had experienced through the last few weeks and what it meant for his image. He had been refined to the point of being incomparable to his feeble images during his time on Tellus and later Earth.

It hadn’t occurred to him, however, to think about the very legitimate fact that if there was liquid Aether, there was probably liquid Nether. And that dense Nether he so struggled with certainly wasn’t liquid.

Randidly smashed into the surface of the liquid Aether and realized that this assumption was very, very wrong. It bowed under him, the surface tension refusing to allow him passage. Perhaps if he hadn’t been flailing and ripped the surface open with a claw, it wouldn’t have let him in at all.

As it was, the liquid Aether begrudgingly allowed him to sink into it, closing up quickly after him and leaving him completely suspended in the Aether.

In a way, it was quite a bit easier than handling Nether. After all, the Aether didn’t make any attempts to weaken and devour him. This was Randidly’s natural element. Although Randidly didn’t currently possess the many diverse Aether Skills of the main body, he could still move well enough through the liquid Aether.

After the initial shock had worn off, a gasp escaped Randidly’s lips. The world hidden beneath the surface of the azure energy was stunning.

Spirals of gleaming energy danced across his vision, providing some variance from the deep pool of azure that surrounded him. Small motes of golden light seemed to dance at the corners of his vision, disappearing as soon as he twisted to face them. Yet Randidly’s face became increasingly red as he took in the sights; it was not an easy thing for his body to persist here. Every second dragged past as it felt like Randidly was slowly being constricted by a fifteen-meter long python that thoroughly enjoyed his torment.

Suddenly the beauty became less of a wondrous treasure and more of a final gift from the world to Randidly before his journey to the afterlife. His focus narrowed as the crushing force of the liquid Aether demanded more and more of his attention.

Fucking… shit… Randidly panted. I… refuse… to die… like… this…

With burning emerald eyes, Randidly marshaled all of the Willpower and mental weight that he had gained from the Eidolon Crucible and from drinking Nadia’s smoky tea. His image body began to shimmer with concentrated strength. His chest expanded and Randidly raised his bone spear and claw in challenge against the surrounding liquid Aether.

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 228!

The Grim Chimera’s mouth spread wide and open. Its teeth were sharp and dripping with saliva. Its rakish grin was a challenge against the surrounding waters and the herald of an approaching triumph. Again this environmental enemy, the Grim Chimera would not bow. It would only adapt.

Of course, there was no response from the surrounding azure waters. The marvelous bright palette of colors continued their manic dance without any care toward its audience. The thin reverberating waves from Randidly’s arrival to this place slowly dispersed and Randidly could see more clearly the spiraling lights leading him deeper toward the true form of the armory. The stone walls of either side of the pool sloped quickly inward, but Randidly saw an opening spilling white light up toward him.

At first, he tried swimming, but Randidly realized with chagrin that rather than his motions, what he needed to do was expend more will in order to proceed deeper into the armory. It was only by displacing the rather vanilla image of the liquid Aether that Randidly was able to make room for his image body to proceed deeper. Which was much harder than it seemed initially.

So he stopped his flailing, hearing a noise suspiciously like Nadia’s laughter and focused all of his attention on making himself heavier. His jaw trembled from clenching. His chest was on fire. But a few seconds later, he had results.

Slowly but surely, he began to sink downward.

Randidly’s expression was extremely sour as he drifted toward the brilliant light below. I’ll be good for now, but if I need to move everywhere like this I’m gonna run out of steam before I have time to check out much…

Luckily, just as Randidly was beginning to wonder what his timelimit in this place would be, he felt a flash of heat from inside of himself that quickly sharpened into painful tiny pinpricks of fire seemed to ignite all across his body.

Congratulations! Your Skill Pain Resistance has grown to Level 110!

This must be Nadia’s work, Randidly twisted his mouth and relaxed his will as he began to speed rapidly downward toward the light without having to constantly think himself into doing so. Well, I’m just glad that passing their little test turned out to be worth it.

Of course, whether that was actually the case remained to be seen. There was still the issue of her daughter’s Fate, which Nadia had offered to Randidly. Her explanation had certainly raised more questions than it had answered.