Chapter 1198 (2/2)
Randidly’s eyes burned as he witnessed that darkness for the first time.
Hissing, Randidly brought a hand to his chest to stabilize the chaos occurring within his mental space. The effect was likely magnified because Randidly was standing directly next to Lady Iellaya, but that darkness the image produced…The darkness contained within was so complete and absolute that its existence seemed to grate against Randidly’s images. It was a darkness of devouring and destroying. Barely withstanding the reverberations, Randidly looked solemnly up at the beam of darkness, then to Lady Iellaya standing next to him.
Her eyes were bright and glassy as she witnessed the power of her own image. All across the battlefield below them, soldiers fell to their knees as they struggled to withstand the weight that their proximity to that darkness had earned them.
...still, the fact that I can stand here means I’m closing the gap. Soon, I’ll have this amount of power too…
The beam of darkness ripped upward. The motions from the veins became immediately frantic as a large portion had to swerve away from their original position and swirl together to form a defensive fortification against the darkness Lady Iellaya produced. Within a split second, the two substances encountered each other, the image of condensed darkness and the light blue veins of the Great Rift.
The collision was anticlimactic but effective. In a brief space in the Great Rift, everything disappeared. Or at least all of the veins had. The surrounding blue veins had been annihilated by an invisible and voracious darkness, leaving that portion of the Great Rift empty. In terms of the whole of the working, perhaps only one-tenth had been destroyed by the conflict. But it definitely grabbed the attention of the opposition.
The Nether King’s lantern-like eyes swept sideways. And that was all it took for the forces of Nether to surge into action.
A whole new sort of thick blue vein twisted sideways, grasping like the fingers of the undead in tight, vicious hooks down toward the land of Aether. Then those thick-veins-as-hooks flexed outward and unleashed a torrent of Nether comets that shot down toward the ground. The already weakened rock outcroppings nearest to the Great Rift collapsed completely as this dense wave of projectiles hit the stone near Lady Iellaya’s camp.
“Randidly?” Lady Iellaya said serenely as she raised her eyebrow. But Randidly didn’t miss the way there was a slight tremor in her voice.
Thank god creating such a powerful image wasn’t completely effortless. Randidly joked inwardly as he closed his eyes and let his Grim Intuition glide to the place where the Nether forces had made their descent. Otherwise, I might be tempted to see if this darkness was really powerful enough to be worth it…
Within a second, Randidly’s eyes opened again. “All below the Nether Gatekeeper tier. Just fodder, most likely.”
“Take care of them. If they won’t open up shop when we knocked, I guess I’ll just kick down the door. Give me a few seconds, if you please,” Lady Iellaya took a slow step forward. Randidly grimaced but kept pace with her while he began to use Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil to wound the recent arrivals to the battlefield.
Of course, there wasn’t any real danger that they would get close enough to Lady Iellaya to do any damage in a few seconds. The Aether forces were sitting in the way. But the sudden reinforcements were all at least nearing the four-star power level. Mostly, they would end up relying on Randidly anyway in order to finish them off quickly.
It was likely an elite squad, but it wasn’t enough. Since several hundred had come down at once, it was difficult for Randidly to cut through them quickly. But he put his mind toward the task, cashing in on a little bit of his mental strength in order to empower the offensive power of the roots.
Congratulations! You have reached Level 54! +8 Stats distributed between Vitality, Perception, Resist, Intelligence, and Control, +35 Free Stats! +1 Stat to a Mental Stat. +1 to a Physical Defense Stat. +1 to a Mental Support Stat. +2 Control. +36 Health, +45 Mana, +40 Stamina, +3.5 to all Regenerations! +1 to Health and Stamina Regeneration!
Due to Guidance of the Wraith Adder, +4 Agility and +2 Bonus Stats!
Due to the Philosopher’s Key, +3 Intelligence, Wisdom, and Focus!
Randidly quickly cut through enough of these powerful Nether Beasts to gain another Level. But his attention was so focused on the fighting that Randidly didn’t even have the chance to distribute his free Stat points. At the same time, the humming in the air around Lady Iellaya was growing intense once more. The weight of the images she was throwing off shook the surrounding space. Randidly’s chest buzzed with the barely contained power she wielded only a few meters away from him. Above, the stomach of her raven-winged serpent bulged outward, then it released a huge burp of darkness.
Again, Randidly had to endure several shuddering waves of pain from being so near to Lady Iellaya. There was a psychic static around her that was painful to handle in much of the same way that Cruel Indignation of Yggdrasil used to place mental strain on him. It was simply this vast sense of otherness that was present within the image that was just as damaging to the structure of Aether as Nether was.
...well, it’s probably just short of that. Randidly’s emerald eyes were locked onto the darkness that shot up toward the Great Rift. Pieces slowly clicked into place in his head. But its power is unbelievable. Lady Iellaya… her power shouldn’t have jumped up so sharply just from the potential that I sensed… Then this darkness… must really have come from...
That sense of certainty Randidly reached looking up at that darkness had some grim ramifications, but that wouldn’t mean he would turn away from this fight. Once more, blue veins were diverted to block the attack and once more the darkness devoured a portion of the grand working. Another huge bite was taken out of the Nether’s work. And Randidly didn’t miss how slow the edges that had been affected by Lady Iellaya were to heal.
This time, the blue veins in the sky threw out a single Nether comet. Rather than hitting the now largely stabilized ground, it exploded halfway to the ground, rapidly revealing a figure that sped forward directly toward Lady Iellaya.
As that figure moved, the space surrounding it warped; this foe was something a bit even beyond a Nether Gatekeeper.
Lady Iellaya showed her teeth. “Finally.”