Chapter 1297 (1/2)

After a time, Randidly’s body twitched and the resulting movement jerked his consciousness back to wakefulness. He released a breath that had been held in his chest for a long time. It was only after consulting Absolute Timing that he realized he had been dazedly standing and looking at the far wall of the cavern for a few seconds short of thirty-six minutes. But that didn’t mean that the time had been completely wasted.

Sighing, Randidly reached up and rubbed the residue of his tears from his face. For the first time since he had come into this base of Yystrix with the intention to confront her, he was truly calm.

It was a numb calm, perhaps, but his eyes were clear as he looked around.

Neveah, apparently deciding that it was best to leave Randidly to the task of coping with the information dump he just experienced, had actually come to this location with her physical body n while Randidly had been daydreaming. She now was pouring over the softly glowing Engraving than ran the length of the cavern, completely enthralled with the tiny crevices. From what little Randidly could glean through their connection, the entire thing was designed to be an extremely extended lesson in how Aether could be shaped.

Interesting, but just one of many things that Randidly wanted to address…

Shaking his head, Randidly turned away from the emptiness of the cavern and walked up to the coffin that held Yystrix and looked down at the enemy that he had spent so much time hating and fretting about. And even now, Randidly’s instincts urged him to be careful. Because despite all of the evidence to the contrary, all of the emotion in the letter and the information that he could find at this location, it was hard to believe that the Creature, that Yystrix, would just… die like this.

And the story she told-

Randidly sighed; he sensed that today would be a day where he would sigh quite a bit. But instead of dwelling on the empty feeling in his chest, he produced his Philosopher’s Key. Closing his eyes, he moved the key through the air in front of him and felt the threads of karma that were present in this place. Previously, he had been wary of sounding out the karma between them, lest it alert Yystrix that he was planning on moving against him. But now…

Very quickly, Randidly located the familiar tang of his karma with Yystrix. It was very difficult to describe the sensation of what the karma actually was, but as he brushed against it with his key he felt that same frustration and helpless wrath that the Creature had always conjured in his heart. This was the bond that bound them so tightly.

He could clearly feel the karma that led him here, but he also felt another line of karma leading off into the distance, beyond the limits of New Earth. Randidly could build a bridge to that location, but as he moved his key to do so, he noticed two things. The first was the fact that the gleaming karma between Randidly and these places related to the Creature was slowly fading.

The second thing was the whiff of Yystrix’s image was there around that line of karma that led away, as though she had predicted Randidly would search for it. That image just conveyed a deep sense of warning that he wasn’t ready for what lay on the other side and then dispersed.

Randidly slowly lowered the key and opened his eyes. He was too tired to get upset that Yystrix had left an image to prevent him from following the trail of karma, instead resolving to check it later. Besides, I should consult with Lucretia about whether I should read into the fading brilliance of our karma sometime… that can happen before I investigate.

Begrudgingly, Randidly turned to the empty ivory bowl and investigated it more directly. There had clearly been a powerful source of the Creature’s image here in the past, but it wasn’t there now. Randidly investigated with Grim Intuition, Aether Perception, and then finally lifted up the bowl and examined it from every angle. He found nothing. He put the bowl in his interspatial ring, planning on creating some Engravings to investigate further, but it really seemed like whatever item had been left here containing Yystrix’s memories were gone.

And considering that the image traces had been masked by Yystrix herself…

Rather idly, Randidly began walking to the podium. Even now, some of the subject matter and names brought up in her letter were banging around Randidly’s head.

Elhume. Pine. Eden. The Pinnacle. The Nexus. Shallah.

Each term carried quite a bit of weight. And knowing them, Randidly was slowly realizing how much danger he truly was in during his brief brush with Elhume. He had begun to hope during his time at the frontlines whether Elhume was special in terms of his power level, and he felt somewhat relieved that it turned out that Elhume was certainly an exemplary individual.

And now I know that if I want to change the System… he is probably the one I will have to beat. Randidly smiled bitterly as he casually glanced down at the letter. To his surprise, Yystrix’s handwriting was rather lovely to look at. Crystalized Aether… And an image so heavy that being brushed by it shattered my Class-

Suddenly, Randidly’s train of thought halted as he noticed that the letter continued on for two lines after where the oration had stopped. But these letters were shaky and slanted along the side of the page toward the bottom.

As though they had been added later, right near the end of Yyxtrix’s life.