Chapter 1402 (1/2)
The two foes shot toward each other, Randidly Ghosthound descending the slope and Kaan Swacc ascending. The ground between them was cracked and pitted from their earlier clashes. Behind Randidly, Neveah’s overly large form continued to flail unpredictably around, crushing what remained of the mountain peak. The dull rumbles of crushed stone were all the accompaniment that this fight needed.
Randidly’s already flagging mental energy flared up one last time. He gathered all the Willpower he could manage. If he failed here, he would still have some drops of liquid Aether remaining, but it was safer to use liquid Aether as a counter to another’s use of liquid Aether. As an offensive move, liquid Aether only worked if the other had none.
And although Randidly hoped that he possessed more liquid Aether than Kaan Swacc, he wasn’t willing to bet on that fact while in a disadvantaged position.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Randidly and Kaan rushed toward each other. Randidly felt the distracting sensation of the dirt and pebbles beneath his bare feet with each step. Revelation energy spun around Randidly, sharpening his vision and discernment. Truthfully, Randidly felt quite a bit of disgust for himself in his heart as he marshaled everything he possessed for one last barrage of attacks.
If nothing else, he had learned a lot from this battle.
Two things had given him the confidence to challenge Kaan Swacc: the fact that he had broken past the System’s limit on physical power and the fact that he had Neveah’s support for the fight. In terms of the latter, the fact that Neveah was now in agony was proof that Randidly had been a fool. While he had been traveling to Tellus and the frontlines, honing his Willpower, Neveah had remained on Earth and learned what it meant to be human.
When he returned to Earth, he had seen Neveah’s strengths and reassured himself that this was enough, never pushing himself to consider her weaknesses. It was a devasting oversight, the result of which was Neveah’s current predicament.
In addition… Randidly had some deep misconceptions about what breaking past the physical limits meant for his battle potential. While it was true that he could easily avoid the negatives that other individuals would encounter by breaking past the limit, the benefit he received was small. The limit functioned as a restriction, so before Randidly had broken past the limit, he had perhaps only been able to wield physical prowess equivalent to 90% of the System limit.
After he broke past that, he could suddenly wield all 100% of the power, plus an additional few percent due to his rapidly growing Nether Brawn. So his abilities perhaps reached about 105% of the System limit.
But that limit was purely on physical strength. Kaan could easily use only one of his pyramids and an image to bridge the 15% difference in strength between 90% and 105%. A second pyramid made Kaan even stronger than Randidly. Randidly’s future growth would no longer be limited by the Nexus, but that growth hadn’t happened yet.
Yet despite those failures, Randidly had grievously wounded Kaan and arrived at this point. More than the disappointment he felt toward his mistakes in the past, what buoyed Randidly forward now was excitement. Because the circumstances were forcing him to rapidly grow.
Randidly could only rely on two rather unproven methods to overcome Kaan. The first was his Nether Nebula, which he had desperately damaged in order to briefly produce that strange grey bubble that had contained incredible weight. But now, Randidly’s Nether Nebula would need quite a bit of time to recover. For now, it was a spent resource.
The second method was the physical manifestation of Randidly’s three images in his body. Surging down over the devastated slope toward Kaan, those three images began to stir in his chest, spinning together to form one whole.
The air filled with the sound of rustling leaves. Ripples spread outward from Randidly and light in the surrounding air began to bend and turn milky. Small particles of ash drifted from Randidly’s silhouette, billowing out behind him like a grey cloak.
There was a glaring weakness to this method, however. And that was the problem of balancing the three images against each other while fighting. It simply took too much concentration to keep the images balanced correcting in his body while doing any sort of demanding thinking. And battling definitely counted as demanding thinking.
Yet Randidly charged down toward Kaan with a wide smile on his face. Because Kaan Swacc had given Randidly the keys he needed to unlock this powerful balance. Although his suddenly scant Willpower couldn’t suppress the three images to stay equal, he didn’t need to. Randidly just needed to make the three images reliant on each other.
Yggdrasil exploded upward, its trunk covered in dense golden script, its leaves brilliant emeralds. At the same time, one of Kaan’s pyramids began to glow and the inevitable waning of growth due to age shined down on Yggdrasil. The image struggled, but the counter-image struck at its base too deeply. Not even Yggdrasil could escape the pull of time.
And to that weakening image of Yggdrasil, the Grim Chimera spoke. If your current method of growth begins to fail, adapt. If that method does work, adapt again. The passage of time is the ultimate tool to survive! As long as you continue to live, what is strength? What is beauty? What is truth? Only the living has the honor of making those distinctions! Give up everything to chance, gamble and struggle!
This time, Randidly released the tall and bloodthirsty form of the Grim Chimera as Yggdrasil faded. Although his claw was still wounded, his physical form was streamlined and perfected to kill and survive. The warped skin on his limbs cut through the air. He accelerated quickly as he loped toward Kaan.
Another pyramid began to glow, releasing the aura of certainty. As the Grim Chimera flickered, the Stillborn Phoenix cackled. Although some transformations are impossible, a will that does not waver can create truth from illusion! To be certain! To never give in! Obsession will overwhelm the established order! My dream… I’ll take everything… I’ll definitely obtain it…!
Light bent as the Stillborn Phoenix spread its imagined wings. Randidly and Kaan were only a few meters apart from each other, both raising their hands in preparation to attack. And Kaan’s third pyramid floating above Randidly radiated hopelessness, squashing the Stillborn Phoenix even before light in the surrounding space began to bend inward around the hole in the world.
Finally, the branches of Yggdrasil groaned and creaked as it moved. Heh, you overeager youngster. Did you know, the past and the future are both illusions. Why obsess over them? Instead, focus all your effort in the present; live every moment to the fullest. No matter if it is angles or demons, as long as you dedicate yourself, none can belittle the accumulation of effort. Such a foundation can even support entire worlds…
Kaan Swacc had struck again and again at Randidly’s weaknesses, giving him a greater understanding of the shape of each of the three images that Randidly had nurtured. And although the fit wasn’t entirely perfect, the three images could fold naturally into each other to hide those weaknesses. In Randidly Ghosthound’s body, the three images began to blend.
His left eye turned pitch black and the light around his face bent and warped. The skin of his torso became translucent and his veins transformed to become golden. Randidly’s hair shifted to become emerald while his left hand twisted into a claw and his right lengthened to become a bone spear. Every beat of his heart released a small pulse of light that would travel through his golden veins, spreading his strength throughout his body.
Although the amounts were small, Nether flowed along with that light, strengthening his physique further.
More importantly, the aura of all three of Randidly’s images began to radiate from his body. Right as they were about to meet, Kaan’s face twisted into a scowl. “You fool! Did you think that expending your mental energy pointlessly would be enough to bluff me? Three at once? Then I’ll crush you all at once!”
Yet to Randidly’s senses, he could feel that the aura he released was like the tip of an iceberg. In his physical body, the vast majority of his image strength was still mixing and connecting with each other. The three images assisting with their fellow images' weaknesses didn’t just eliminate Kaan’s avenue attack, but it also changed the images in a fundamental way. Randidly’s three images didn’t exactly mix, but they were no longer as isolated as before. The details of the physical manifestations became sharper.
Light swirled inward. Each of Randidly’s emerald hairs was outlined in golden script, hiding the truth of the world. Two tails manifested, granting his physical form unmatched poise.
The sensation in Randidly’s body was much more manageable than his initial experiments in mixing images had been. It was akin to that feeling when a rider finally grasps the essence of riding a bicycle. The structure, at a sufficient momentum, helps keep the vehicle balanced all on its own.
All at once, every one of Kaan’s pyramids began to glow. The one above his head released an image of power, while the three above Randidly released the three counter-images to target his weaknesses. But Randidly’s eyes went to the two pyramids in Kaan’s hands.
The left one released an image of impenetrable. While the right released an image of killing.
Kaan’s tuned counter-images impacted Randidly’s body. For a second Randidly’s images shivered, but they endured. With his physical form as a refuge and the connections between the image handling the stress, they did not fail. And then Randidly began to make use of the true power of mixing his images.
Yyrwood Body of Yggdrasil, Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality, Cosmic Necessity.
In the past, Randidly had activated several Skills at once. Mostly because he simply had too many Skills. But that was like having two horses pull a carriage rather than one: the carriage went faster, but most of what happened was that the two beasts shared the burden.
What he was doing now was like splicing together three horses and having your carriage yanked forward by the horse-equivalent of Cerberus.
Randidly exploded into motion. Space around him shattered as all three image burned through his body and exerted themselves on the surrounding air. He crossed the last bit of space between the two of them and thrust forward with his bone spear. Kaan immediately adjusted his defensive left hand, bringing it down block the thrust but Randidly effortless guided the attack further down. His muscles twisted with both explosive power and delicacy, due to the efforts of the two physical Skills.
Rather than striking against the weaker, newly grown flesh, Randidly ripped another hole in Kaan’s already wounded thigh. The flesh around the first wound had mostly healed, but it was a weakness that he could target. And because of the force of the thrust, Randidly’s strike drilled downward and clipped the side of Kaan’s knee.