Chapter 1288 (1/2)

After Randidly reviewed and approved of the form and material of the invitations, he had believed he would once more had free time on his hands to rather exhaustively train. And while he did have large stretches of the day where he wasn’t required to do anything, he still had some rather tedious responsibilities that cropped up. Planning a party turned out to be quite a bit of work.

Which he had planned to effortlessly avoid by distributing the invitations himself, but Arbor had very enthusiastically volunteered for the job. Such was the treants joy that Randidly regretfully allowed the plant to handle things.

Then Randidly had announced his plans to travel to the Danger Zones and approach the various populations on the other side, but, to his surprise, Neveah had rather quickly volunteered. She had apparently been paying attention to his actions and surprised him by making the offer rather out of the blue while Randidly was talking some plans over with Tatiana.

Not so much to do down by the World Crater anymore, so moving around a bit would be welcome. Plus… I had a lot of fun fighting against the Toad Lord. Hopefully, the other worlds have people just as strong.

Randidly felt more than a little pity for the leaders of the Danger Zones when Neveah arrived bearing his metal invitation. So regretfully he turned his attention to the party itself when he wasn’t working on his images.

Which, unfortunately, involved Randidly listening to Tatiana and Wolfram describe the amphitheater they would construct for his birthday. At certain intervals, he would then be required to make tiresome decisions about minor details regarding the venue. Randidly chose multiple smaller bathrooms rather than larger bathrooms. He selected a more classical style architecture. He also wasted several hours trying to come up with a comprehensive menu that reflected his personality.

At the end of him wracking his brain to think of his favorite food, Randidly had shaken his head in disgust. “Honestly, just serve whatever. The point is to gather them, not to wow them with cuisine.”

“But it’s your birthday, Mister Ghosthound,” Wolfram said with patient determination. All three heads still wore glasses as he looked carefully over the ledger in front of him. “This is a celebration of your majesty. Proving sub-par fare to your guests will result in you being mocked for a generation.”

Randidly gave Tatiana an aggrieved look that made her snort. “You’ll be in Kharon for a while anyway, right? Just come by for dinner for a few nights and I’ll arrange for the best Kharon has to offer to be delivered. Try some things and just pick your favorite. ...I think we will be able to avoid you being mocked for a generation.”

Throwing up his hands, Randidly left the chortling duo to their endless stacks of paperwork and their snide jokes; he was beginning to regret introducing the Ogre Lord Wolfram to Tatiana. The duo’s ability to quickly discover weaknesses and rather mildly antagonize Randidly was somewhat of a wonder. He honestly doubted if they ever had time to actually do the work that they were supposed to do with all the snarky lines they were thinking up.

But of course, the proof was in the pudding; the work was getting done. When Randidly stood on top of city hall and looked West, he could see hundreds of steelworkers rapidly converting one of the city’s smaller parks into the Kharon Amphitheater for his birthday. At this point, there was only a solemn ribcage of metal beams to hint at the building that would soon house Earth’s elites, but an extremely large shipment of marble from Donnyton’s mine should be arriving in the next few days to fill out the scaffolding.

With that shipment, the construction was scheduled to begin in earnest.

All this from the spur of the moment idea to receive a freely given gift from Ezekiel and acquire the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night… Randidly thought to himself. He shook his head. Although I could quickly figure out ways to get more benefits from the event… it’s somewhat scary that a sudden idea that I had could mobilize so much time and effort from these people.

I suppose that is what it means to lead an entire city...

After examining the general situation on Kharon, both of the image and of the continued proliferation of moss spirits, Randidly returned to his island and prepared to meditate more on the progression of his Ignition Essence image. But before he could get himself comfortable and clear his mind, a notification popped up in front of Randidly.

He had received a message. Vualla had replied to what he had sent after the night of the stadium attack.

He quickly closed the message without reading it as his heart seemed to literally squirm in his chest. But then Randidly looked blankly at the empty air in front of him and tried to figure out why he had done that. He was excited to receive a message from Vualla, wasn’t he? So why was he putting it off?

Disgruntled with himself, Randidly opened up the reply that Vualla had made.

Randidly,

This past week has been hectic. The entrance into the Xyrt Brigade has been… difficult. Really difficult. I barely have time to breathe with the tests they administered.

But in those rare moments of peace, I always remember the warmth of your hand on my shoulder. Because I know I’m not alone.

As for your guilt over your world… never punish yourself for the Path someone else has chosen. And the source is unfortunate, but your Nether being more powerful is a good thing. After seeing the people here… if we really want to change something, if we want to destroy this damned System, we will need to be more than exceptional.

We will need to be singularly overwhelming. Because that is what awaits at the Pinnacle of the Nexus.

I’ll be waiting for you,

Vualla