Chapter 1110 (1/2)
Abiodun’s eyes glowed and faded slowly as he considered Yggdrasil’s words. “...if we do so, you will really agree to cooperate? You will help Lady Iellaya with her… project?”
“Yes. It will be difficult alone… but I believe I will be able to craft a large enough Class to support the whole of the potential your lady has gathered to herself… given enough time to prepare,” Yggdrasil nodded slowly. When Abiodun pressed his mouth together and didn’t respond, Yggdrasil couldn’t resist releasing a chuckle.
“Suddenly you feel remorse over an unfair deal? I’m surprised at you, Abiodun. I had assumed you were more cutthroat than this. Have you not been very involved in Lady Iellaya’s recruitment?”
Abiodun barred his broad and flat stone teeth. “I will not mourn your death, you insubstantial tree. But if you agree to support Iellaya… I will be forever in your debt. Also, I worry that this agreement will mean you will be plundered by Lord Miln before you have sufficient time to craft what Lady Iellaya truly desires. It is not simply a Class; she wishes to be-”
As one of the wounded patients moaned and shifted onto his side, Abiodun fell silent and shook his head.
Yggdrasil chuckled again. “Perhaps better than anyone besides my own physical body, I understand the magnitude of what you are asking. And you might think it is a risk, but it’s a comically safe one to make. Both you and Lord Miln are underestimating the Grim Chimera. It was designed to endure through the fickle attentions of individuals like Lord Miln and Lady Iellaya. As long as there is a way to objectively determine if the Grim Chimera remains alive, it is a good course of action to accede to Lord Miln’s demands.”
Frowning, Abiodun slowly inclined his head. “...the process used to extract images from a physical body is extremely intricate. Especially in a case like yours, where there were three discrete images present. The array must constantly remain active to keep the images from naturally returning to the body… and that array can be used to ascertain the general status of an image.”
“Well then. We have ourselves a deal,” Yggdrasil said simply as he moved on to the wounded body on the next palette. After a few seconds of furious study, Abiodun turned away from Yggdrasil and strode rapidly out of the tent to leave the tree to its work.
Randidly hummed softly to himself as he continued to watch Yggdrasil focus his attention on the task of guiding his image into the bodies of these people to heal their images directly. So, what Lady Iellaya wants is basically a vast Class. Based on Abiodun’s tone, there is some other factor at play, but that desire certainly makes a certain amount of sense.
If Classes are a prayer to become the ideal version of yourself, the ‘ideal’ Lady Iellaya currently possesses is an individual. And even as she has stolen the potential and images of others to try and move closer to that goal, but its still an individual goal. What she wants now is to become not just an individual, but an entire Kingdom. Which would likely possess a much more powerful ideal version of itself waiting down the line…
Finally hearing this goal of Lady Iellaya’s did quite a bit to alleviate Randidly’s worries about Yggdrasil’s fate. After all, Randidly was uniquely poised to help Lady Iellaya achieve something like this. Despite the differences in power between Lord Miln and himself, Randidly possessed the tools to give Lady Iellaya exactly what she wanted.
Which was not a common thing, and would explain Lady Iellaya’s previous fascination with his ability to survive.
This stated goal might be a lie, of course. But it at least revealed something about Lady Iellaya’s focus that Randidly didn’t know before. Even if it was a distraction, there would be something in it that Lady Iellaya really wanted.
For a while, Randidly continued to watch Yggdrasil gently treating the wounded individuals. But ultimately, it didn’t give him much more information on what was occurring on the front lines. For that sort of information…
The Grim Chimera shivered. He hadn’t used Nether Ritual to look at Vualla since he had vaguely reached out to reassure her. Randidly didn’t even know if it had any effect. So as he closed down the Nether Ritual for Yggdrasil, he once more conjured his extremely poignant memories of Vualla to establish a connection.
Memory… and connection, Randidly reflected as he wove the ritual together. Those are the things that embody Nether.
Then the picture appeared and Randidly focused on the figure of Vualla before his eyes.
*****
Vualla awkwardly wiped blood from her mouth with her large iron gauntlets. Unfortunately, what she really accomplished was spreading a large amount of mud across her jaw that made the itching of her face even worse. Hissing her breath out of her nose, Vualla pressed her eyes closed and did her best to control the tightly leased fury bubbling inside of her.
I’m so, fucking, tired...
But then there was another Nether Beast in front of her and Vualla could only let her hands drop back into a fighting stance as she opened her eyes to face it. Her will narrowed to the sharp blade of a sword and her azure eyes began to glow. With the steadily accumulated intent. Destroy.