Chapter 1303 (1/2)

When Randidly returned to his island, the first thing that he did was take some time to breathe. It had definitely felt good to completely let loose and fight without relying on his mind at all. He became a body incarnate, striking and moving as his instinct dictated. Which turned out to be an extremely frustrating way of fighting, after he had grown used to relying on his powerful ranged Skills and images, but that difficulty was part of the point.

Still, that exertion had largely spent the emotion that had been steadily bubbling up in his chest for the last twenty-four hours. Finally, he had regained a bit of clarity.

Of course, that wasn’t the only benefit; there is definitely something about not using an image that triggered Illym in the Ignition Essence again… Randidly narrowed his eyes, then hurriedly shook his head. That was an interesting development and one he hadn’t expected, but it wasn’t the most pressing issue right now.

No, what Randidly had to figure out now was what to do about… how weirdly sad he was. Neveah was right, he was grieving the Creature as though he was sure that she had actually died and as though they really were more than enemies.

And even if part of him insisted that the Creature was likely unharmed and just fooling him, somehow he felt-

Pressing his eyes shut, Randidly ended that train of thought immediately. Instead, he focused his attention inward and shifted to his Alpha Cosmos. Since replacing the overlay System in his Alpha Cosmos, Randidly had largely been distracted by other issues, but he had still checked in occasionally to make sure everything was going okay.

Once the overseers agreed to some rules of what Paths and Classes they could give out, it seemed like things stabilized immensely. Or at least, returned to a situation that was similarly stable to the bubbling cauldron of tensions that had been present in the Alpha Cosmos previously. A status quo that involved two empires that were only a miscommunication or two away from a costly and horrifying war.

Luckily there are now a whole slew of very mortal gods wandering around granting powers, Randidly thought sardonically as he held his Philosopher’s Key and felt in the surrounding air for karma. After a few minutes, he located the signature he wanted and opened a wide passageway to visit Lucretia.

If she was surprised when Randidly appeared on the hillside next to her, Lucretia didn’t show it. She kept her eyes lowered and continued the steady process of drawing her fingers across the iron stele in front of her. The two were alone on the top of the hill with a cherry tree and the metal protrusion, the only non-plant entities around for what seemed like miles. The wind rustled through the forest below the hill, giving the strange impression of the world beneath them was breathing.

Although Randidly wanted to address the issue as quickly as possible, it wasn’t something that he would interrupt Lucretia for. Instead, he was content to sit down and study the patterns that Lucretia drew upon the stele. He wasn’t as talented as Neveah was, but their connection did give Randidly something of a natural advantage when it came to Engraving. Especially because of his exposure to Nether Rituals recently.

But as Randidly watched Lucretia drawing curving patterns across the stele, Randidly was… left confused. So he leaned closer and studied the shapes more intently. And of course, when he finally realized what she was doing, he felt almost stupid for not realizing it immediately. She’s trying… to mimick the effects of karma with Aether and Mana? To connect-

Crack!

The stele shattered into pieces as though it had been some sort of jigsaw puzzle rather than a solid piece of metal as Randidly had clearly sensed earlier. Lucretia waved her hand and produce a barrier of Mana in front of herself, but Randidly was quite a bit faster. Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil sent a hundred roots surging out of the ground to snag each jagged piece out of the air and lay it delicately on the ground. The peace of the hill had been cut by the abrupt noise, but Randidly didn’t really want the tree to be scarred by it too.

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil (T) has grown to Level 286!

“Thank you, Randidly,” Lucretia said as she finally looked over toward him. Then she sighed and waved her hand at the pieces. “Don’t worry about keeping them gathered together- so far as I can tell, the sundering that accompanies my failures makes the pieces somehow… inoculated against further Engraving. In terms of their usefulness… those scraps are worse than garbage.”

Shrugging, Randidly gathered up all the metal pieces and produced tongues of Ignition Essence underneath them. While they melted, he glanced at Lucretia. “You are trying to make an Engraving with karma? Why?”

Lucretia threw her lavender hair over her shoulder. It caught the wind and fluttered across her face as the trees below rustled. “Well… because I’ve been trying to deepen my understanding of Karma. And at every turn, I’ve come up against the same question: what exactly is karma? I can describe how it functions, but when it comes to what it is… well, if I can create something to mimic its effects, then I hope to be that much closer to answering the question.”

While Lucretia had been speaking, the metal he was manipulating had melted. Then Randidly rapidly cooled it with a chilling image from Grim Chimera, creating an ugly looking sphere of metal. Then he pressed his fingers against the surface and injected Mana into the material; immediately, Randidly grimaced.

His Engraving warped as soon as it was made, the Mana going haywire and dissipating before he could even complete a single line. Interesting...

“As I said, trash,” Lucretia said lightly. Then she gave Randidly a long look. “But anyway, I doubt you are here to discuss the finer points of karma; even at your most understanding, you view it with suspicion. So what are you here to discuss? Is it… due to the death of Yystrix? I’ve spoken to Neveah about it when she visited. Quite unexpected.”

“You’ve spoken-” Randidly blinked. “You’ve spoken to Neveah? Recently?”