Chapter 1146 (1/2)

It had been quite a while since Randidly had met the Creature face to face. He had seen the husk of its body that had been consumed by Zone 1 to create an infinite power plant, but its consciousness had already been consumed at that point. Which, as it turned out, ended up being eminently frustrating for Randidly who had so doggedly pursued the trace of the Creature’s Aether to that point.

Perhaps then, the last real confrontation between them had been the invasion of his Soulskill. Which had been a clash that had deeply scarred Randidly, not just due to the damage the Creature’s monsters had inflicted on his inner world, but because of the sacrifices that Randidly was forced to make among the people who worshipped him in order to win that bloody battle.

Before Randidly had shifted his land to make the Seven Lands, quite a bit of his Soulskill had been a graveyard.

Randidly pressed his eyes closed as he walked slowly down the stairs. The Nether continued to swirl around him, but he was no longer in any hurry to cut to the source of it. To be here was to feel that the Nether was a slowly building thing, even if it was obvious that the pressure here was building rapidly to something. Although the momentum Randidly had built with his gathered Nether was destroyed by this working, it had slowed this down and also severely depleted the Nether that was flowing to the surface.

Likely the dangerous areas of Nether saturation would recede in the short term, giving him enough time to deal with this threat.

Hopefully.

The other benefit of a slow descent was to feel out what was going on around him. As he was now among the thickest of the Nether flows, it was immediately clear that Randidly had underestimated the scope of what the Creature was hoping to accomplish. Even now, as he strained his Nether Sensation outward, it was difficult to get a picture of what this much Nether would do.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 59!

Barring his teeth, Randidly forced his feet to continue to carry him forward. He glanced downward once, having proceeded halfway down the spiral staircase in a few minutes. With the additional distance covered, his Grim Intuition allowed him to perceive several more details about the platform waiting below.

The platform itself only covered a relatively small space, perhaps the size of a basketball court, cast ritualistically in jade, obsidian, and silver. The three colors blended together in geometric lines that made it difficult to look at the platform for too long without growing dizzy. In the absolute center of the platform was a stone dais, on which Azriel was resting.

Floating above her was a swirling series of those same ivory metallic bars, whirring rhythmically to a pattern that Randidly couldn’t quite grasp. Small tendrils of extremely dense Nether spun delicately inward to join the extremely dense core of Nether floating in the middle of the metal which looked like a tiny black marble.

It was only when Randidly saw the source of those dense tendrils was through Azriel’s body that Randidly gritted his teeth. When he studied it more closely, it was possible to see a hole beneath her that allowed Nether upward to filter through her body.

Randidly twisted and glanced over the outside of the staircase, to see the huge flows of Nether that looked like black rivers, flowing down to join a huge mass of Nether that waited below. There was a matching series of ivory metal pieces swirling below, these built on a commensurately larger scale to manage the huge flows of Nether and condense them to tight strands that would flow upward.

They swirled around, appearing briefly like Skills, but then shifting to look like a ribcage that contained the huge mass of Nether. They spun and twisted, constantly on the move.

Then, far sooner than Randidly would have liked, it was time to face this foe one more time.

Dongggg.

The sound of Randidly’s footstep as he finally arrived on the platform echoed strangely in the empty space surrounding them. Space that was only filled by Nether. Yet the noise seemed like a deliberate sign because the Nether that was whirling around them began to accelerate. The small amount of time Randidly had bought by bringing counter-swirling Nether had been burned off. Some small portion of the Nether around them flowed down to the area next to the Creature and touched two discs of metal that were laying on the platform.

Different curved bars of metal spun upward, slowly manifesting themselves as two Nether Beasts shaped-like-Skills that were truly at the three-star level of strength. Bearing Lyra’s sharp and lovely features, grown into womanhood, the Creature smiled. “It’s been too long, Randidly Ghosthound. I’ve missed you.”

Randidly had prepared a sharp comeback, but the raw emotion in her tone stopped him. Slowly, his expression grew solemn. The Creature… legitimately means that. She missed me.

Somehow that made him even warier.

“You try to use me or control me every time we meet,” Randidly finally said. “I can say honestly that I had hoped I would never see you again.”

“You’re lying,” The Creature’s smile burned with genuine pleasure. “It was quite a disappointment, wasn’t it? To chase me and find nothing for so long? So long as you feel traces of my touch on you and the Earth, you will want to meet me. Such is your hypocrisy… and your charm, I suppose.”

“...maybe I would feel better if I could track you down on Earth. But it’s because I don’t want you to destroy any more lives with your machinations.” Randidly’s gaze hardened as he glanced over toward where Azriel lay, still in her crimson gown, with her hands folded over her chest. This wisps of Nether slithered up through her. And even if there were no negative side effects that Randidly could see, that didn’t mean he wasn’t worried. “And seeing this just confirms that I was correct to worry.”

“Such a convenient vessel,” Almost fondly, the Creature reached out toward Azriel. Then she shook her head and looked back toward Randidly. “Another has already hollowed her out to carry an image, so it was quite easy for me to do something similar. If things go as plan, she is the fertile soil I will use to grow my gift to you. But before you can save her, I’m afraid there is one more test for you to pass-”

Without waiting for the Creature to finish, Randidly reached out and pulled at the Nether that was flowing down into the two Nether Beasts beside her. Although they were truly composed of Nether, Randidly recognized that they were just as false as the Nether cores that the grand formation created. The runic engravings on the metal bands were what shaped the working. The Nether was not naturally drawn into those strange discs.

A false bubble was no bubble at all. So Randidly used his Willpower to make himself the core, and the false cores before them his bubble. And then they were his to pull freely. Engravings couldn’t stand up against his Willpower.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 85!