Chapter 1218 (2/2)

Randidly strode quickly over and unleashed a direct blast of Aether into the air to try and aid in these soldiers’ recovery. For a brief second, Randidly was distracted by the way the Aether began to behave strangely only a meter away from his body. But after seeing that he could force the Aether to continue to diffuse out over the wounded crowd, he bent over and met the eyes of an individual with the body of an insect. Of them all, he seemed the most coherent. “You alright?”

The soldier nodded nervously, then abruptly straightened as he recognized Randidly a few seconds later.

Mirroring the nod, Randidly continued. “See if you can get the rest of the people up here up. Don’t leave anyone behind. Rouse everyone. And once you do… retreat. At least far enough that you can’t see any more cracks in the ground. I think… there isn’t much a point to defending this place any longer.”

The soldier nodded again.

Not super talkative, huh… probably for the best. Saves me time. Standing, Randidly turned away. But a voice manifested right as Randidly was about to accelerate toward the door to exit the fort.

“What about you? Why… why not come with us?”

Randidly grinned back at the soldier. “I have a weird feeling that today’s fighting isn’t over quite yet. Besides… my friends are fighting still. For now, I need to go out there.”

Although it was difficult to see through his insectoid face, Randidly could sense the soldier’s resolve firm. “...then we will stay too.”

Chuckling, Randidly allowed the image of the Grim Chimera to descend around him for a split second. The ghastly aura wafted away from him, filling the surrounding air. Randidly didn’t miss the way the buzzing intensified. His skin tingled pleasantly.

The soldier flinched.

“You are weak, soldier. This isn’t your fight.“ Randidly said lightly. “We all have roles. Yours right now is to follow orders. Withdraw, so you will be more prepared next time. Understood?”

Randidly didn’t even wait to hear the soldiers answer. He simply turned and accelerated out of Lady Iellaya’s fort. His limbs moved smoothly and blood pumped through his veins. The tingling bubbles continued but slowly grew less attention-grabbing. Beyond the gate were floating platforms and pillars of stone, which were all that remained of the edge of the continent.

Grinning in pleasure. Randidly leapt back and forth from to cross the intervening distance. The force of his steps and landings cracked and shattered the drifting pieces further, but he didn’t think his biggest worry would be the return journey.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Detection has grown to Level 179!

Randidly’s emerald eyes stretched sideways into crescents as he watched Aether sluggishly be forced out of the way by the speed of his acceleration. Again, the buzzing grew stronger. Then, when he reached the Great Rift, Randidly dived forward out into the vast darkness. At this point, it was almost instinctual to use Nether propel himself forward toward the rapidly diminishing fragments of stone floating out there.

That’s what the sensation is! The new Nether core creates a bubble around me that I can use as a defensive barrier. Randidly mused as he shot rapidly forward. If anything, he was faster in the Nether than when running through Aether space. But not only that… because the Nether is actually balanced with my Aether… it acts as a screen that keeps foreign Aether out completely. Not just Aether out, either...

Randidly flexed his hands and used Cursed Appetite of a Wraith to suck in a breath that absorbed some of the energy from the surrounding Nether. Yet when that Nether was pulled in toward his body, the energy needed to pass through the substantial energy field around him. For the Nether, it wasn’t the bubble that his core created that impeded its progress, but the pure Aether that filled the air between Randidly’s body and the bubble.

And the reason for the sensation of tingling that was slowly vanishing was that all of Randidly’s Skills now ran entirely on his own purified Aether. Not even a whiff of the System’s Aether was allowed near the balanced energies in Randidly’s body any longer. With only his pure Aether as fuel, Randidly had already noticed that his Skills were markedly more effective.

It would take time he didn’t currently have to see the extent that his Skills were improved, but it seemed that they were almost 30% more powerful just from removing the trace amounts of System Aether that Randidly had been subconsciously from the air. And the effect was especially noticeable when his Skills manifested within that two-meter sphere around Randidly…

But Randidly’s expression quickly grew serious as he continued onward. His eyes were on the distant battlefield, where the fading light and chaotic energies were making it difficult for his Grim Intuition. But even with those improvements, fighting against a Nether King… this won’t be easy.

As Randidly approached the battlefield, there was an extremely low-frequency noise that was steadily gaining volume. It wasn’t aggressive, but it was clearly some version of those noises that the Nether King produced. Worrying that it was building its strength for something, Randidly accelerated even faster.

His eyes narrowed as he attempted to gather what information he could. A little to the left there was a small platform of stone that had been the origin of that powerful earlier attack. Opposite that, there was an impenetrable grey cloud that was surrounded by white and black lightning. It was from that cloud that the low-frequency noise was emerging.

That’s the Nether King…? Randidly wondered. His eyes continued to search. Other than that, most of the surrounding area was just filled with drifting debris. For whatever reason, he still hadn’t managed to locate Vualla-

A blast of white lightning screamed across the battlefield. Taken by surprise, it was only when it was a short distance away that Randidly realized it was heading directly for his beating heart.

Randidly’s eyes burned emerald as his gaze fixed on his attacker. Ileot Swacc…!