Chapter 1117 (2/2)

A tear gathered in each of Vualla’s eyes. She wanted to blink, but some part of her wanted to hold that salty liquid in the corners of her eyes. As though, as long as she didn’t actually shed the tears, they wouldn’t matter. She was so very, very afraid of being weak. She felt so very, very weak. Somehow, to release the tears was concrete proof that she was weak. Yet even now, Vualla could feel the warmth of Randidly’s hand on her back.

There is another Path, Vualla, Randidly seemed to whisper.

She began to cry. First sniffing, then sniffling, then sobbing, as more and more tears poured out of her and fell over her father’s grave.

...I wish I would have said something to him. I wish I wouldn’t have just enlisted as a nameless soldier to fight and defend his camp. I wish I could have talked to him about all the things I did in school, all the friends I had. I wish… I wish I told him how much I missed him-

Vualla was dimly aware that some other soldiers were crossing on the supply track behind her and slowing down as they heard the sound of her cries. The grand and endless cemetery of the Aether forces was directly below the headquarters, spreading almost as long as the frontlines despite the fact that the bodies were mostly thrown into mass pits.

However, time had seen that these pits soon became insufficient. The only bright side was, as a Commander that had achieved great merits before he died, her father was prominently featured. As was his due.

Yet to be seen here, so visibly emotional-

I told Randidly once you couldn’t consider yourself alive if you always lived in fear… and that includes fear of being weak. Vualla wrapped her arms around herself. Being weak isn’t something to fear. None of us are perfect. So… so I shouldn’t feel this bad. I was just… just being human. So why…

So why…!

Father...

Vualla fell to her knees and continued to cry.

There was so much that she still wanted to say to him. So many things that she wanted to share about her life, that her father had been too distant to ever hear from Vualla as she was growing up. And despite the fact that her mother had expressly forbidden it, she had snuck out of the Nexus and enrolled as a foot soldier.

Now, she was almost strong enough that her father would have been proud. So why did he die now?

*****

Randidly looked down at the Nether Ritual that displayed Mrs. Hamilton. Frowning, he watched as she cast her vote without even batting an eyelash. Then, only a few seconds later as the votes were tallied, by unanimous decision, Theodora Greyman was crowned as the first Chairwoman of the World Summit.

Although the position only had a tenure of one year with an explicit rule against consecutive terms, it felt like a strange move to Randidly for Mrs. Hamilton to not try to seek the seat for herself. He hadn’t watched Mrs. Hamilton very often in the intervening month since the first World Summit, or three months for Randidly, but from Mrs. Hamilton’s satisfied expression it wasn’t that they had capitulated to the implied threat of Zone 1’s Mjolnir.

No, Mrs. Hamilton was playing a longer game than that. For now, all Randidly could do was trust that Mrs. Hamilton knew what she was doing.

Once they had selected a Chairwoman, the meeting moved much more quickly. They discussed the recent successes at the Ogre Gorge following Donnyton’s outfitting of an Ogre Raid Group. Everyone was also relieved that the bloodless murders had abruptly stopped, although everyone was still on edge because no one took credit for putting an end to the murderer. Then the discussion turned toward the Rakshasi.

It’s rapid growth, combined with the fact that it was often moving, meant that Mjolnir was not an effective weapon to deal with it. And aside from the absent Alana, no one wanted to suggest that any single person was capable of taking it on. Hank Howard’s name was brought up before the World Summit, but Theodora Greyman indicated that he had been granted the authority of special investigator, which mean that he chose his own projects. She would recommend it to him, but he would make the final decision.

Which is a smooth way of admitting that he refuses to listen to you, Randidly thought with a grin.

Although the World Summit continued, Randidly closed the Nether Ritual. The world moved in wide, slow cycles. He could tell from a look that there were a lot of undercurrents of tension on Earth, but dwelling on them now was a waste of his time. They would manifest on their own soon, and it was an open question how long it would be until Randidly could do something about them. So instead, Randidly returned to the rather tiresome task of using Nether to deplete the Aether Key to hasten his return.

Today, whimsy struck Randidly and he played around with using Nether’s Caress to try and actively damage the area around the Aether Key. He was careful that none of his attacks ever struck the Key itself and triggered its defenses, but he made sure the Nether was as dense as possible within the area.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether’s Caress (M) has grown to Level 111!

It is strange though. Randidly thought with a frown as he continued to corrode the surrounding Aether. Is the Mythic ranking due to its power? The rarity of the effect? Or is it just something dumb like the fact that the Skill intuitively opens a small hole to-

Randidly blinked. Then he activated Nether’s Caress again, this time allowing the portal that had caused him so much pain in his physical body to open rather than simply supplying the Nether himself from his cores. Thick Nether came through, forming to his will and sizzling against the ambient Aether.

Randidly examined the portal closely, then began to laugh.