Chapter 1295 (2/2)

Snorting, Randidly turned his attention back to the voice of the Creature.

“I mean, you will point to my various attempts to use Earth to accomplish my goals. Which is fair. And I would say it because you led a life without trying to kill you; the very idea insulted you deeply. But while you definitely hate what I represent, you also hate me personally. You revile me. Makes me wonder how your relationship with your biological mother is because I have definitely been some sort of maternal figure to you…”

Randidly twitched.

“Well anyway, I need to get to the point, I know. Knowing you, you already suspect a trap has been laid around you. No traps here. Just an... Opportunity. A chance to create a dialogue. Because I really am dying. And it’s made me slightly… lost. There is so much I meant to accomplish with my life and yet…”

There was a long sigh and then another pause.

“Age brings with it two things: the knowledge that you will eventually cease to exist and a plethora of life experiences that teach you that taking risks is dangerous. Toward the end, it becomes increasingly difficult not to just… coast forward. For those reasons, I chose to hide from the System and avoid the mistakes I made in the past… and yet… yet I was tempted by what you represented. A completely novel way of existing within the System… Something stumbled onto by luck, but that opened so many possibilities. A brief spark of hope.

“So I’ve decided that I will be the one to lay down my hatred and frustration for you and bare everything I can about the truth of this System you hate. As I’m dying, I’m too tired to do otherwise. What I do today I hope you will see as the benefit that I meant to give you… and I hope that will make you more willing to consider my point of view.

“Hear me now, Randidly Ghosthound. This I promise by all of the images and Skills that I have gathered in my long life; I truly am going to cease to be, I have left no plans in motion that will harm you, and I have made no moves to cause the Earth to fail the Calamities.”

This stream of words was punctuated by that soft glow around the paper erupting into a pillar of white light that shot up and smashed into the ceiling of the cavern. Spinning motes of light drifted downard in a pretty close approximation of fireworks. The still air in the surrounding space stirred as Yystrix’s voice spoke the last line. Her conviction pulsed to become a physical thing in the around Randidly.

Although Randidly was looking at the ground with clenched fists as she spoke, even he couldn’t help but be affected as the image continued to pulse.

As though it was waiting for something. The image steadily pulsed for almost ten seconds. The silence stretched.

Randidly-

“I get it,” Randidly interrupted. Then he raised his head and looked toward the podium. The page had floated a little bit off of the wooden base and was the source of the image. The curling motes of light had almost drifted down to the ground, like a vast tree of brightness. Feeling extremely annoyed, Randidly spoke aloud. “I… feel your intentions.”

Randidly had meant to say that he believed her but knew that this strange manifestation of the image would probably sense the falsehood in his voice as soon as he said it. So he switched up his wording. But it seemed like what he said was enough because the light faded and the glowing piece of paper settled back down on the podium.

In a rather conversational tone, the Creature’s voice continued to echo out into the surrounding area. The earlier light began to fade. “I know how meandering this has been, but I’ve just… just been trying to figure out where I went wrong. The sharp pivots where I went from a lost teenager, to a girl in love, to a mother, and then finally to the monster experimenting with lives. On the one had it feels like it happened so fast I almost missed it, but… if that were true, would I really feel this tired? No, the years I lived through were long.

“Ah, that’s it! One last thing before I tell you my story. I know why I hate you so. The reason above all the reasons. It isn’t just because you are like me… but it’s because you have the same burning fire that I saw in my husband.”

Randidly flexed his hands. “What…?”

Almost like she had heard Randidly’s question, there was a pause in the speaking. It made him worry that the Creature had either predicted his response or the image was conscious enough to recognize what he was saying. It might have been his imagination, but Randidly felt a profound sense of sadness sweeping through the vast cavern.

By this point, the light her image had produced during the Creature’s vows had completely faded. It certainly was an extremely lonely place to die. Notwithstanding the four strange images that the Creature was hiding… if her claims were true, she died here alone after fleeing from the System for thousands of years. And if he was being honest, if he had to guess at a cause of death...

Even through Randidly’s own turbulent emotions, he felt a flicker of pity for Yystrix.

Randidly raised his left arm and pressed his cool, metal fingertips against his closed eyelids. I’m supposed to be calm.

Then the Creature’s voice continued without any sort of emotional affect and Randidly wondered whether he had completely misread the silence.

“Let me introduce myself two more times. I am Yystrix Yule. A surrogate parent to you. I am also the cruel Creature that destroyed thousands of lives in an attempt to escape my past. And that past is the history of the System itself, and the “Nexus” that is my husband’s great ‘fuck you’ to all the trust I placed in him, all of the dreams we swore we’d build.

“And for the final time, I am Yystrix Yule. My husband is Elhume Yule, one of only two beings that have ever experienced the Pinnacle that the Nexus seeks. And my son… a bastard son I had with a Nether King, is the energy being that powers the whole of the System.”