Chapter 1098 (2/2)

The reason that everyone believed that this was a suicide mission was that the Nether would inevitably break through the Aether keys eventually, after they had weakened, so as to take the forces of Aether by surprise. It was partially a question of when, but it was also a calculated gamble on the part of the Nether.

Too early and they might take the forces of Aether by surprise, but the attack would be too costly. Too late and the forces of Aether would have basically finished their own preparations anyway and moving wouldn’t be worth it. But it also wasn’t like the Nether wanted to let Aether dictate the timings of their engagements.

Randidly chuckled darkly as he returned to his shack. I suppose both sides will be quite surprised when this Aether Key flickers out early. But it might be a problem if the massing Nether forces notice and attack while this thing is still dimly functioning.

There was one more piece of information that Randidly obtained from Zauna. Unlike the tactical grade Aether Keys which worked off of a timer, the strategic grade would only teleport back to the battlefront when all of the Aether in it was completely exhausted or if it was triggered by a powerful force of Nether.

Unfortunately for Randidly, the teleportation process for the later would be prefaced by a devastating explosion designed to punish those seeking to attack the Aether Key. So it probably wasn’t safe for him to trigger the Aether Key the second way, even assuming ample preparation time. The Grim Chimera was designed for survival, but none of its Skills were really defensive in nature. He could only deplete the energy the old fashioned way and hope for the best.

With everything confirmed, he got directly to work.

Slowly, Randidly’s days settled into a certain sort of routine. In the mornings, he focused on training up his Grim Chimera images. These Skill Levels came slowly, but it was the only time that Randidly could rid himself of the insidious hatred that was bubbling up toward Lord Miln and the ridiculous unfairness of the Great Rift battlefront. So much had been done to him, and Randidly was left with very few ways of refusing.

The price of being weak. The Grim Chimera whispered. The Fate blade in Randidly’s chest hummed in agreement.

After exercising, Randidly first spent some time communicating with the Fate blade and raising his intimacy. To his surprise, despite the continued erratic behavior out of the blade, he found himself getting along with it quite easy. Slowly but surely, Randidly could feel some of its defenses lowering and a warmer and more nurturing heat flowing out of the Fate blade to reinforce Randidly’s image body.

Of course, ‘warmer and more nurturing’, was simply a relative term.

Congratulations! Your Skill Fire Resistance has grown to Level 142!

It was still an extremely painful process. Even if the Fate was slowly feeding Randidly power willingly, it was still power from a blade with no handle; there was no way to get around the fact that this power would wound the user just as deeply as it would cut the enemy.

In addition, Randidly was somewhat surprised by the jumbled and contradictory answer he received when he timidly asked the Fate blade why it was willingly giving up its power.

Do you think I wanted this power? It is the reason I have not yet been able to die. Take it all from me, Tomo.

The Grim Chimera grew very still at that answer, and it wasn’t the fact that the blade had started weirdly referring to him as Tomo at some point. A deep kaleidoscope of emotions flashed out of the depths of the Fate blade as it spoke, a dense misture of hatred and fear and depression and an endless sea of loss drowning all of the rest. The blade began to glow cherry red with the force of the emotions and the will behind them. But then the emotions twisted and vanished. In the next moment, it seemed like the blade completely forgot what it had said.

Randidly didn’t ask about its motivations again.

From midday to midnight, Randidly practiced with Nether and wore away at the ivory lock on the chest. During this time, he didn’t forget to allow a significant amount of Nether to escape and deplete some of the surrounding Aether. These were the most… tedious of Randidly’s training methods, but he had no choice but to simply put the weight of his will against the lock and continue to force the issue. Unfortunately, progress was annoyingly slow. Some part of Randidly worried that the Aether Key would give out before the trunk did.

Once every day, Randidly would leave the shack and talk to his subordinates. To his surprise, both Salazar and Zauna seemed quite content to just savor the image and do their best attempts to harvest the image vegetables and fruits that grew in this place. They had almost doubled the size of the farm while Randidly kept himself locked away, and this action made some deep part of Randidly trembled. There were simply too many memories here-

Then, sharing a meal about two weeks after they had arrived in the Great Rift, Randidly realized something. He grinned up at the sky. The issue of escaping this place and the relative time difference had grabbed too much of his attention. He was stuck here, but that doesn’t mean he was blind.

Randidly still had Nether Rituals.