Chapter 1334 (1/2)

If Randidly possessed a glaring weakness, it was social interaction with others. He had definitely developed some coping mechanisms that let him talk relatively normally with other people, but that didn’t remove this glaring weakness from his personality. It simply covered it up.

Most of Randidly’s strategy for developing relationships with people was to be near enough to them for long enough due to innocuous reasons that he would either relax and connect with them or that the other person would take the initiative to make the connection themselves. Perhaps due to Randidly’s personality, he very rarely had the impulse to quickly establish a connection.

Perhaps it was a testament to powerfully Vualla had struck him that Randidly tried to establish a connection after meeting her twice.

But this was Alta Bounty.

Certainly, Randidly was familiar with her; honestly, he was more familiar with her than he was with Vualla. But he definitely had not found cause to relax around her. Randidly had managed to avert disaster when Alta made her attempt to destroy his Soulskill, but it hadn’t exactly engendered positive feelings toward the young woman. Even with Lucretia being strangely fond of her, Randidly didn’t share those sentiments.

Still, Randidly could understand the emotions that Alta felt. In a weird way, it reminded Randidly of the way he felt about his own mother. Those nights when his mother had another man over and Randidly could only sit quietly in his room and wait it out… The only difference was that Alta had responded by lashing out. And Randidly… Randidly had just let his own family slowly drift apart around him-

As Randidly’s thoughts wandered, the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night once more reacted. Suddenly, there were three distinct chimes that buzzed against his wrist, beckoning him closer. Instantly, Randidly’s expression turned ashen. So the Fatepiece follows my lines of thought and provides me with the frozen moments that are related to them…? So there are at least three moments related to my family, with likely my mother being involved in most of them…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 34!

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 35!

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 36!

Immediately, Randidly pressed his eyes closed and concentrated on trying to understand Illym. Now was not the time to deal with his lingering familial issues. After a few seconds of discordant notes, the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night returned to its previous state, with only a single chime corresponding to Illym’s suicide moment sounding out.

Then Randidly opened his eyes and looked at Alta with her lowered gaze. He did his best to banish all of his thoughts and simply looked at her as she was now. At the almost claw-like set of her hands. At the way her hair trailed down over her shoulders. At her hunched shoulders and obvious sense of discomfort as she apologized. At the deep shadow cast over her face.

And Randidly responded as honestly as he could when he spoke. “Thank you. But you know… life is more complicated than that. It is not just whether I should or shouldn’t have done something… or whether I did or didn’t have an excuse. I hurt you; the context to that event is just that, context. It will never change the fact that I hurt… that I hurt so many people in my old Soulskills. And I’d like to think…”

For a second, Randidly hesitated as he searched for the right words. “...that I’m man enough to admit the mistakes I’ve made and live with them, without needing to excuse them. And this is the truth: I hurt you. So… I’m sorry too.”

Randidly didn’t know what he expected but was rather nonplussed when there seemed to be no response from the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night. His Nether continued to smoothly flow through his inner Nebula without a change. He felt a flicker of disappointment, but quickly masked it and focused on Alta in front of him. Honestly, hard to know how the ability to return to this moment would be useful. Better to just concentrate on… being honest. That’s the best that I can do right now.

For her part, Alta didn’t react for several seconds. But then she slowly raised her head and looked at Randidly with a puzzled expression that slowly began to warp once more. “You… think you’re man enough… to admit you did it and live with it? What the HELL does that mean?!?”

By the end of her phrase, Alta’s murderous aura had returned in full force. The slow rusting of the metal beneath her feet continued. A cool wind whipped around the two of them, standing as they were about thirty meters off the ground. Kharon’s flag awkwardly fluttered and then fell still.

“You… you think you can just bear the weight of all those lives?!” Alta Bounty’s face began to twist into the familiar form of the Metal Queen. A fiery light began to emerge from the spot where her heart should have been. “You are one man! How large is your ego that you think you can bear the weight of all their deaths! An arrogant weakling like you will be crushed by the weight of those wasted lives! You will be devoured by the howling damned! A single death holds the weight of every possibility that person might have accomplished in all their lives. All that potential… you are too small a man to bear that weight, Randidly Ghosthound!”

The sky around them darkened with Alta’s image. So much so that some of the more perceptive people in the nearby industrial businesses detected the shift. Moss spirits began to drift upwards, curious and confused by what was going on.

Randidly kept all of his images suppressed. Because he sensed a tremor through that thin crack in which Nether existed in the real world. For the first time, he had an inkling about how it could be used. So he just kept his gaze on Alta. Keep answering honestly…

Perhaps her reaction should have indicated that something was wrong with his prior response, but he didn’t believe that he was wrong on this count. Yes, the deaths were weighty. But still…

You can’t let the weight of what might of been stop you from making the world better. You simply learn to bear that weight.

A smile slowly formed on Randidly’s face. And when he spoke, he unleashed all the certainty and world bending confidence that allowed him to reach his current tier of power with the images of Yggdrasil and the Grim Chimera. “I can bear the weight of those deaths, Alta Bounty. Do you think those lives were the only ones that I’ve been forced to bear on my conscience? When we fought… didn’t you sense all the purposeless deaths that I already carried with me?”

This time, Randidly purposely created a tremor to run through his Nether. The core of the nebula grew a small amount in size. Randidly felt the weight in what he was saying. In addition… he followed the strange reflection of the earlier feeling. Although he wasn’t filling the surrounding space with his Nether, he could feel himself becoming increasingly connected to this area. In particular, that connection centered on Alta Bounty in front of him.

The branches of Nether spread invisibly outward. The surrounding space shook a little. But Randidly’s Nether was insistent, and this time he knew what he was trying to accomplish.

There isn’t any actual connection but… it’s like it constitutes access to a so-thin-it’s-invisible layer of Nether to the System… which I suppose makes sense. It isn’t as direct as the bonds I establish with Aether, but still… seems like it functions more like gravity. The larger the Nether I possess, the easier it will be to affect or examine others in this manner…