Chapter 1147 (1/2)

As the Creature spoke, the weirdest thing happened in Randidly’s chest. He felt a sliver of excitement. The strange sensation of disappointment wavered at the Creature’s fanatical words.

It wasn’t because it talked about giving him power. That poisoned prospect would never have excited him, despite how much he knew he needed some kind of power in the real world where Lord Miln and Ileot Swacc were watching him with greedy eyes.

No… the reason that Randidly felt briefly excited was because… this confrontation with the Creature had been profoundly boring. The threat to the Soulskill was a real thing, and this much Nether was extremely dangerous. And yet… to so quickly overwhelm the Creature in a fight…

It felt like he was missing something.

Perhaps it was because Randidly had built up the Creature in his mind, but Randidly was left somewhat at a loss to see him so easily overwhelm the Creature’s tests and then proceed to be able to suppress the Creature completely with his own strength. After all, the Creature had manipulated Randidly’s entrance into the System so he had initially appeared in a Dungeon. Through the Creature’s machinations, he had been given half of the Aether Crossroads that he now held in his chest.

Many parts of his Class, Soulskill, and Skills were tainted by the Creature’s touch. It had taken everything Randidly had to escape the Creature’s grasp previously.

But in retrospect… could the current Randidly have accomplished the same sort of manipulation with his current abilities? Combined with several thousand years to study and refine his knowledge of Aether apparati?

Yet that was what probably gummed his perception up, wasn’t it? The age of the Creature. Because now Randidly had met individuals like Nadia, Kailm, Lord Miln, and Cail Tweocs. He could see the potent power of images that could be achieved over time. Even if this was simply a projection… It should possess some of that power, shouldn’t it?

Had Randidly’s perspective gotten skewed by the foes that he now faced from the Nexus, or was there a dagger waiting within this trap the Creature laid?

No… something’s definitely wrong. Randidly assured himself. His eyes flicked from the decaying flesh of the Creature to Azriel on the dais and then up to swirling pieces of ivory metal. But what is it…?

Either way, Randidly didn’t intend on following the Creature’s intended conversation path, no matter how much he somehow was disappointed by this weak version of the Creature. “What I was saying earlier was true. I met a being that seemed suspended in a continent’s worth of crystalized Aether… surrounded by huge obsidian pillars. And when he felt me, he said ‘Yystrix! I’ve found you at last.’”

Lyra’s face twisted into confusion, but then a glimmer of understanding dawned there. The Creature’s gloating expression slid off of Lyra’s face almost instantly. For the first time, Randidly saw through the callousness built up through an eternity of escaping the System and saw a raw and gaping wound in the Creature’s expression. One that gurgled up blood at Randidly’s words.

Lyra’s lips twitched. “Elhume… found me…?”

Like Achilles struck at the ankle, everything about the Creature in front of him fell apart. A low thrum ran through the Nether Ritual around them and the movement of Nether once more turned sluggish. With a whisper, the glamour of Lyra unraveled around the Creature and revealed a thin and elderly woman with steel-grey hair done up in a bun above her head. There were deep lines at the corners of her mouth and eyes as her gaze grew dull and she considered the ground in front of her.

Her voice came out again, so soft that Randidly’s ears couldn’t pick it up. It was only with Grim Intuition that Randidly was able to snatch her words from disappearing into the abyss right after they passed her lips.

“Did he… miss me that much…? But I…” The Creature’s eyes fluttered and closed.

Randidly was somewhat stunned how well his offhand comment had cut to the core of the Creature. To see her so clearly vulnerable… was he wrong about missing something? Was the Creature he had so long feared-

“Well… that’s fine.” Just as quickly as the fissure in the Creature opened up, it snapped closed again. It was with clear eyes that the Creature looked up to regard Randidly with a newfound intensity from this elderly face. “I… cannot run away from my fate forever. You, boy… are proof of that, I suppose. Yet my statement remains unchanged. You cannot avoid the choice before you. Accept this gift I’ve prepared… or drown your Soulskill in Nether.”

Randidly’s jaw worked slowly as he took in the rapid return of determination to the Creature’s new, and maybe natural, features. “...I have a hard time believing that’s the case. And also… let’s not pretend as if you would ever prepare me a gift that didn’t come at a cost. So, what’s the cost?”

“Well, this vessel’s life and Fate,” The Creature said in a wry tone, and Randidly almost cracked his teeth as the muscles in his jaw flexed at the callous dismissal of Azriel’s death. Yet then the Creature continued to speak. “But… yes. There is a shape to what I’m making that you will not be able to escape.”

Randidly forced a snort out. “Is that so? Just like I shouldn’t have been able to pass your test…?”

After giving Randidly a reproachful look, the Creature shook its head. “You fool. Do not confuse variance with a grand miscalculation on my part. I have long prepared for this day. You… what truly can you do?”

Beat the shit out of you, Randidly thought in annoyance, but he let this monologuing Creature continue.

“The working before you is approaching its completion. When it reaches that moment of release, it will birth in the vessel a weapon that you may use to strike at the Nexus.” The Creature raised its hands high above its head. Its grey hair was strangely luminous in the light from the giant spinning ivory pieces that circled the platform. “And yet you are right; within this working lays a millennium of bitter hatred I have toward the Nexus. To bear this weapon is to labor under my geas. To carry the weapon will demand that you use it.”

Randidly flexed his hand. “...that’s a long time. So taking this… gift would mean allowing your image into me. That’s why you are willing to give such a ‘powerful’ gift.”

“Precisely,” The Creature’s hands dropped to its sides. “And if you don’t accept it… well, you will need to act quickly. And likely all the Nether that I’ve been slowly summoning to fuel it will explode out over your Soulskill.”