Chapter 1175 (1/2)
Lady Iellaya covered her smile with her hand as Lord Miln glared at the recently arrived Randidly Ghosthound. Lord Miln’s eyes were so cold that the temperature within the tent immediately dropped several degrees.
“You are late. Do you have any idea the energy I had to expend in order to maintain the balance? This is an incredibly delicate procedure, boy. Please don’t make me regret inviting you to join us.” Lorn Miln’s eyes were narrowed into slits as Randidly stood at attention in front of Lord Miln’s traditional desk.
As usual, Lord Miln leaned against his heavy wooden desk, looking down in annoyance at Randidly Ghosthound. He had only been late by a few scant minutes, but Lady Iellaya clearly knew that Lord Miln wouldn’t miss this chance to bully this Heretic who had managed to somehow recover his body. Due to the edge of genuine anger in Lord Miln’s eyes, Lady Iellaya mused that it must have really bothered their Supreme Commander that it had happened.
Good. Lady Iellaya flexed her feathers and banished the cold that had begun to coil around her. It cheers me to see him so vexed. It proves he has weaknesses.
Lady Iellaya prepared herself for the need to intervene when the moment of pressure stretched into thirty seconds as Lord Miln silently regarding Randidly with cruel intent. Some portion of his image swelled in the air, constricting the surrounding space and freezing the weakness out of the area. But Lady Iellaya was surprised to note that Randidly Ghosthound endured the pressure without comment. His eyes were clear and placid as he regarded Lord Miln’s ire, not giving an inch.
His clothes weren’t touched at all by the growing frost that crept across the ground.
It wasn’t like this was even a fraction of Lord MIln’s true strength. This was just the displeasure that he allowed himself as a Commander. But still, it proved that the Ghosthound’s strength had grown once again. Perhaps significantly. And the more that Lady Iellaya watched the way that pressure flowed around Randidly, the more she realized that he had finally done it; he had condensed his Fate.
About damn time. Which means that soon, I can finally make use of all of this strength that I have…!
It was Cail Tweocs’ dry cough that finally ended the moment of extended tension. Snorting, Lord Miln turned and scanned the room. “...well, I suppose there is no helping it. And no point in delaying any longer. Since all of us are present… let us begin. Gather around the central array.”
There were five people standing in the room. Lord Miln was obviously behind his desk, while Lady Iellaya and Randidly were before the desk. Off to the side was Cail, who had his arms folded and was weirdly sending smiles in Randidly’s direction whenever he could.
It was the fifth individual, standing to the side of Lord Miln’s desk, that Lady Iellaya scrutinized as everyone began to slowly move. He was tall and lightly muscled, looking more like a dancer than a warrior of any sort. At his waist were two ornate rapiers, the hilts so studded with gems that Iellaya had to imagine that they were almost uncomfortable to grip. He had short black hair, a straight nose, and dark green eyes.
Almost in spite of herself, another smile began pulling at the edges of Lady Iellaya’s mouth. She cast a sidelong smirk toward Randidly, who regarded the young man who had been standing at the edge of Lord Miln’s desk with a frown.
Because the other young man had more than a passing resemblance to Randidly Ghosthound. Although their builds were somewhat different, they were the same height and had a face that was close enough to confuse the two of them. When the group shuffled together around the array, the two young men were next to each other. For a brief moment, Randidly and this doppelganger made eye contact.
The doppelganger looked away first, seemingly without any interest in Randidly. Then he closed his eyes, apparently content to wait for Lord Miln to speak further instructions. For his part, Randidly’s mouth twisted into a frown.
In an extremely rare move, Lord Miln walked around his desk and joined the group in the center of the tent. he glared at everyone, in turn, his gaze softening somewhat when he looked at Cail Tweocs, who maintained some distance from the central four. “ I’ve maintained this precarious balance for long enough, so there isn’t much time. I assume you all have a… passing familiarity with Nether Princes…? Trust your instincts.”
With a wave of his hand, he activated the Aether array between the four of them and revealed the Nether Prince. Lady Iellaya wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but seeing an androgynous-looking child with blue skin laying at the center of the array was somewhat disconcerting. For a split second, Lady Iellaya would have sworn that she saw its chest moving. The thing was alive.
Without giving anyone a chance for anyone to grow fond of the delicate features of this Nether Prince, Lord Miln made a cutting motion with his hand and the entire body of the child was split in half. Its version of blood seeped across the ground. There was a terrible moan that seemed to echo through the air, and then several things happened at once.
A blue, black fog floated upward out of the corpse, cracking with bolts of cobalt electricity.
Across the whole of the frontlines, a terrible roar filled with grief and madness rumbled outward. Lady Iellaya couldn’t resist turned and looking toward the battle lines. As if they had been waiting for that signal, the Nether forces began to move.
It was a huge assault, with her initial scan putting the vanguard at almost one million Nether Beasts. More than enough to wipe them off the map.
“The dense energy will warp time to our advantage, so no need to rush within due to the attacks,” Lord Miln stated calmly while cleaning some ichor off the hand he used to split the Nether Prince. “Just reach out and touch the energy and you will enter into the dream. It will end naturally after 3 days pass within that space or one of us reaches the core of the memory or emotion. Of course, there is a lot of ambient energy present that you can refine to add to your image. Find something that seems valuable and stick to it. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.”
That last comment was accompanied by a sharp look at Randidly, who seemed relatively unconcerned. Lord Miln snorted and gestured sharply to the Randidly look-alike, who reached out and touched the energy. Instantly, his body was pulled into the fog of energy and disappeared from next to them.