Chapter 1381 (2/2)

He couldn’t help but chuckle and spread his hands outward. Quickly realizing what he wanted, the moonlight spirits surged forward in a wave. They immersed his body and lightly picked up him. Each was cool against Randidly’s skin. They buoyed him away in silver light and Randidly allowed himself to relax for a while.

But eventually, the rest had to end.

Randidly snorted and shook his head as the moonlight spirits sensed his intensions and set him down. He had already gathered Heiffal’s group and stored them within his Alpha Cosmos. Within the next six hours or so, the Xyrt Brigade should arrive on Earth. The darkness in the night sky that was the Nether incursion, hanging like the shadowy brother of the moon in the night sky, had not launched any more probing strikes against the Earth. Instead, its efforts to break through the Cohort’s defenses had intensified.

Closely studying the methodology of Nether assault might have given Randidly some inspiration, but whenever he looked up at the Nether, he felt a deep sense of foreboding and that caused his instincts to prickle unpleasantly. Perhaps he remembered too distinctly the power of the Nether King he had seen on the frontlines. As the intensity of the Nether’s attacks increased, the more Randidly was reminded of that terrible dread that he felt when the Nether King had looked toward him.

It had been an absolute monster, even partially bound.

Yet the flows of Nether above the Earth now were even more profound and deep than Randidly had remembered. This was a Nether King that had the capital to assault the System.

Randidly closed his eyes to prevent himself from fixating too much on the Nether above him, however. He had already wasted more than enough time worrying about what was going to happen. It was much better to work on what he could, while he could. So he sent a mental message to Neveah, asking her how her research on living Engraving was going.

Ugh, don’t remind me. Neveah grumbled. Through their connection, Randidly could feel that Neveah was just as mentally exhausted as Randidly was, albeit for different reasons. I’m about three-fourths of the way through Yystrix’s material on that subject, but for the past two days I’ve just been banging my head against a brick wall… and my maid has been so moody recently… I just can’t seem to figure out how to proceed.

Randidly sent Neveah a mental shrug. It should be enough to improve the current arm though, correct?

Oh definitely, came Neveah’s confident reply. But using only 76% of her knowledge… isn’t that a waste…? If we could just reach 80%... I hear in your Earth terms, that percentage a B, which is only slightly above average. To accept a C… I don’t think that’s an intelligent move.

Randidly wondered idly where Neveah had learned about the grading habits on old Earth. True, but it’s better we work with something we are confident of doing than try and push the envelope. Besides, we have a timelimit-

Then you better get started going through my impressions and notes, Neveah said with a mental smirk. Sure, I’ll do the actual Engraving, but you’ll be the one manipulating the new arm you make. And without at least making it 60% through Yystrix’s stuff, I don’t know if you will be able to manage it… plus, won’t you have to make a harder alloy for your arm…?

Randidly felt his mood rapidly souring, but he couldn’t deny that Neveah was right. There was quite a bit for him to do. After only a few minutes of rest, Randidly hadn’t recovered much of his mental strength, but he was already itching to turn to a new task.

And Tatiana hasn’t even sent up the work that she wants me to accomplish before I leave… Randidly though rather bleakly. Neveah laughed at him but sent over a bundle of her memories pertaining to the Living Engraving process. Sighing, Randidly set them within his Soul space and stood up. He rolled his shoulders and stretched some.

Not really because he needed to avoid stiffness, but because it helped elevate his heart rate and gave him some additional prep time before another mental task. Truly, the number of training Randidly had that required his mental energy was exhausting…

But before he could throw himself into the process of studying living Engraving, there was a ripple on his island. Randidly’s emerald eyes narrowed. A magical array was beginning to form in front of him. After studying it for a second, he recognized it; it was the portal ability utilized by the Winged Serpent.

Sure enough, after another thirty seconds, the portal was established and two figures walked through to the other side. The first was the Winged Serpent, but Randidly was surprised to see that the second was Thea Glasshammer. He had briefly seen the young woman at both the stadium and at his birthday, but Randidly had been focused on other things at the time. His impression of Thea hadn’t been that strong.

Looking at her now, it was clear that her time as a Nemesai hadn’t been kind to her. Her shoulders were tense and rounded as if she constantly feared an attack. The skin around her eyes was red and irritated, as though she hadn’t had a good night's sleep in months. Her hammer at her side was crusted with dirt and blood. But Randidly supposed that made sense; due to his influence, the Earth had a large image advantage over normal planets. It was almost impossible for the Nemesai to have an easy time operating.

But the real worry was Thea’s image. With one glance, Randidly saw how far fear, anger, and envy had corrupted the core of who she had been.

For now, Randidly didn’t address it. He turned to the Winged Serpent. “Why have you come?”

“To honor our agreement. Or rather, to take you up on your offer.” The Winged Serpent hissed as it floated forward. “We agree to stop our efforts to make the Earth fail the Calamities… in exchange for your assistance in protecting our worlds. And as a show of good faith, we have brought you the weapon given to the Nemesai when a planet proceeds toward the Calamities.”

A small baton appeared in front of the Winged Serpent, floating in the air on top of another magic circle.