Chapter 1207 (1/2)

Randidly snapped back awake, shocked to find that he was laying on battlements of Lady Iellaya’s camp. The ground was clearly slightly sloped beneath him, but his Absolute Timing informed him that he had only been unconscious for about a minute after the worst of it had passed.

Some of the foundations had been eroded, clearly, but… they had endured. They had survived. Randidly attempted to push himself up to a sitting position, but his arms seemed like rubber and complained painfully when he tried to move them. So Randidly simply focused on his breathing and tried to ascertain the extent of the damage he had endured.

“...Abiodun…?”

A voice filled with horror drifted over Randidly’s form. And in response to the question, there was only silence.

Randidly’s Grim Intuition was barely functioning with the clogged and overstimulated state of his brain, but he could sense the line of Lady Iellaya’s focus going to a figure that was standing in front of her fort with his arms crossed. As Randidly’s focus began to waver and drift apart, he felt that form in front of the fort’s base lean forward and then fall. Lady Iellaya instantly moved, leaping over the battlements and catching the figure below.

Then they were too distant for Randidly to follow further as the sphere of Grim Intuition slowly shrunk. Even capturing that much had been a supreme effort. Every part of Randidly hurt. Everything was throbbing, or rather Randidly’s own attention was throbbing after it had gone through so much in the last ten minutes. He was completely spent.

But even though Randidly was exhausted, that same pride that had let him endure through the Nether King’s final attack meant that his mind was buzzing; as much as he needed it, he couldn’t find it in him to rest right now.

If I was stronger… Even though I know its a futile thought...

His emerald eyes flickered open and stared mutely up at the swirling shadows above them. With the obvious devastation caused by the Nether King’s attack, that darkness conjured by the grand formation had grown fat and rich. Randidly’s Grim Intuition couldn’t currently give him a full report on how the entire battlefield had handled it, but the answer hanging above him was pretty clear evidence.

Thousands of people had died. With more slowly expiring every second. He could practically taste their hatred, fear, unwillingness, and regret that spiraled upward. The shadowy darkness seemed to be humming with it.

Although he was too far away to know what the last words they exchanged were, Randidly felt something change below. Lady Iellaya raised her head and let out a keening wail of grief, unlike anything that he had heard from the prideful figure before. Randidly’s eyes unfocused as even he responded to the death of Lady Iellaya’s right hand.

Abiodun, the solemn companion. The bloodthirsty executioner. Her most trustworthy ally. The first of the individuals to become part of her potential. The first of the individuals to sacrifice themselves for Lady Iellaya.

Just ten minutes ago, he had been glaring at Randidly as his orders took him away from Lady Iellaya’s side and left Randidly in his place. A little over four hours ago, he had been insisting Randidly take a break.

Is it better or worse that he made it back here before the end…? Randidly wondered.

While Randidly’s thoughts wandered, Lady Iellaya continued to cry. With the Great Rift looming above them, beyond the swirling shadow, it was certainly a bleak noise that fit a bleak landscape. The sound of crumbling stone and collapsing walls were the only other noises that reached Randidly’s ears. The emotion of Lady Iellaya’s cry slowly drifted upward, joining the chorus of thousands of others amongst that shadowy energy-

Within the energy, as the emotions began to flow through it, some of that shadowy substance began to condense into small drops of liquid. Randidly’s gaze sharpened immediately.

Is it really that simple…? Randidly’s heavy focus slowly shifted from the condensing drops of liquid above to his own inner world. Eventually, his drifting consciousness flowed into the area of himself dominated by the true Nether cores. Even though the Nether energy in himself was extremely dense, he hadn’t been able to condense another Nether core in a long time. Something was missing. Some glue that would hold the energy together at a density that couldn’t be achieved otherwise

Energy… and emotion. Memories and connection. The Nether at Randidly’s core began to slowly rotate. Is that enough… to become strong…?

*****

Grimacing, Lord Miln pressed his hand to his chest and injected some energy into the wound to knit the flesh back together. Despite the fact there was no one currently with the capability to watch him, he refused to even appear weak. Then he glanced around, considering the losses the Nether King’s last attack had inflicted.

There were only a few figures nearby that were staggering to their feet, but Lord Miln could sense that most of his elite soldiers were still alive underneath the crumbling debris. They were mostly just stunned. The presence of himself and Ileot Swacc had acted as a screen for most of them, allowing them to receive a much less concentrated dose of the Nether King’s power.

But the ground in the surrounding area was destabilized and levitating. Basically the kilometer of broken land that had been between them and the Great Rift originally had been devoured, and now they floated on one of a series of smaller stone islands that were directly before the maw of the Great Rift. And as Lord Miln looked around, the stones at the edge were slowly being corroded and devoured by the vast darkness in front of them.

The situation on the larger battlefield was even bleaker. It looked like the bulk of the Nether Beast forces had been annihilated by that terrible noise, but the real problem was that in other areas the Great Rift had advanced even further inland. The area in front of the Aether Headquarters was now a peninsula sticking out into the darkness.

Lord Miln’s gaze continued to slide sideways. Losses elsewhere were staggering. Aside from Lady Iellaya’s camp, which had inexplicably seemed to endure the force directly, about 50% of the Aether forces had been killed immediately by the attack. And it was difficult to tell how many more would die within the next few minutes.