Chapter 1402 (2/2)

“You…!” Kaan blasted Randidly with his tuned counter-images again and then slashed out with his killing right hand.

Randidly’s eyes, one emerald and one a pool of darkness didn’t even flicker. He swayed and the attack passed through him like he wasn’t even there. A huge chunk of his mental energy vanished as he once again used three images. Chimeric Avoidance. Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold. Inscrutable Mien of Yggdrasil.

Using three Skills at once, it was almost too simple to avoid Kaan’s counter-attack. The weight of all three images was mobilized toward one goal, increasing the efficiency further. Inscrutable Mien created a zone of inviolable space around himself to weaken Kaan’s attack, as befitting a deity. Revelation energy gave Randidly the focus to toe the line of this space. Chimera Avoidance handled crossing the distant unscathed.

If Randidly didn’t feel the alarming consumption of his mental energy, he would consider this fight to already be in the bag. As it was, the edges of his vision were becoming fuzzy, even with the help of the Revelation energy. He couldn’t last much longer.

Gritting his teeth, Randidly raised his leg, feinted a high kick toward Kaan’s temple to draw his defensive pyramid upward, then stomped brutally downward on Kaan’s wounded leg. As the man howled in pain in fury, he twisted around and swept his killer right hand across his body. In addition, Kaan didn’t forget to release three more pulses of counter-images.

Plus, he had tuned them further. Randidly grimaced; although the effect was still small, Kaan changing up the images further made his balancing more difficult. He didn’t have time to waste.

So Randidly decided not to dodge. With his mind practically buzzing from the effort, Randidly once again activated three Skills and images at once. Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil, Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart, Reaper’s Mantle of Catastrophe.

While an aura of frigid ash and the focused oppression of gravity settled over Kaan’s body and restricted his movements, a rush of thick, golden roots exploded out of the ground and wrapped themselves around Kaan’s right arm. They spun around his bicep, up to his shoulder, and then wound themselves down to cover his forearm. For several seconds, he struggled, but the combination of Randidly’s Skills were enough to bring Kaan’s attack to a shuddering halt.

Randidly brought his bone spear around and prepared to attack.

But Kaan Swacc was a well-trained member of the Xyrt Brigade; he was nothing if not decisive. After all the concentrated mental attacks on Neveah, he finally ceased his assault and recalled his amber pyramid. It spun around and then shot downward at its new target, aiming for the spot where Randidly’s spine met his head.

Still, as the Fate surged forward, the ground beneath it exploded. Acri, who had been buried under rubble earlier, shot upward and smashed into the Fate. It wrapped its large body around the amber pyramid, knocking it off its course and pinning it to the ground.

Probably Kaan’s Fate could quickly deal with Acri and once more threaten Randidly. But Randidly wouldn’t give Kaan that chance.

Cosmic Necessity. Man is Proud, but the Chimera Takes. The Implacable Price of Exodus.

This time, Randidly didn’t avoid a direct clash with Kaan’s defensive left hand. From his back heel, up through his knees and hips, and finally to his torso and shoulders, a wave of explosive momentum roared to life and concentrated in a single point. Three cosmic orbs were conjured and expended, corralling the vast energy of Randidly’s body and sharpening the point of impact.

His bone spear smashed against the pyramid and punctured the energy shield it conjured. The beast of the world tree smiled widely and devoured the image that Kaan attempted to use to defend himself. The bone spear continued forward, unhindered. But the attack was knocked off its course and skewered Kaan’s shoulder joint.

Unluckily, it was Kaan’s left shoulder, the one holding the defensive pyramid, that he struck. Because it wasn’t the weakened side of his body, the bone spear hit the joint and skidded to a halt, half a meter deep. Randidly could only force down his dizziness and smash Kaan with his left hand.

Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality. Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix.

The pain and torture of obsession and depression drove Randidly’s power upward. Again, he channeled the force through his entire body and generated a vicious blow. Already, the strain of utilizing all three images on top of the previous battle was too much for Randidly. For this attack, he could only mobilize two images. But those two images were joined with his impressive physical prowess. In addition, Kaan Swacc’s defense had been pierced and he could not dodge. So the punch smashed directly against his temple.

That attack landed, briefly stunning Kaan. Even more importantly, the reverberations traveled through Kaan’s body until they reached the healed flesh. There, small cracks began to form.

Behind him, Randidly could sense the amber pyramid exploded into motion, simply dragging Acri along with it. The three pyramids above Randidly continued to attack with counter images, but luckily the tuning had stopped; Kaan Swacc didn’t have the spare focus to adjust the image attacks.

Cosmic Necessity. Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil.

Despite feeling like he was going to destroy his left arm, Randidly marshaled every bit of strength that he had and punched Kaan Swacc again. The golden veins in his arm’s image pulsed with power. Metallic fist cloaked in image flesh smashed into the same spot Randidly had attack previously. Kaan Swacc’s face crackled. Kaan’s eyes were bulging out of his skull as he looked at Randidly. He was struggling furiously, tearing through the roots that bound his right arm in place even as cracks began to form in the base of that arm. “You-!”

Randidly’s body was trembling. His mind was fuzzy. Somehow, he admitted to himself that his next image activation would likely only be one image; already, the physical manifestations of his images on his body were disappearing. His eyes returned to their normal state, albeit very bloodshot. His right hand was dripping blood from where he had to use his fingers to pierce through Kaan’s impenetrable defense. His skin was red and steaming from the exertion of the past few moments.

Kaan’s eyes seemed to examine every inch of Randidly. He tugged again and tore almost all of the roots. Randidly could see that the roots would give in before the structural integrity of Kaan’s arm would. There was fear and confusion in his expression as Kaan realized that he might die in this fight. Fear fanned his will to live. “You…”

Even after expending all of his images and physical strength, Randidly had only cracked Kaan’s skull. He wouldn’t be able to deal enough damage to get through Kaan’s defense with just his hand. He needed something special to create an opportunity.

His first thought was using a drop of liquid Aether, more if the first didn’t work. But Randidly recognized the difference in their states right now. Kaan was briefly stunned and filled with fear and confusion, dropping his fighting capabilities. But in terms of mental energy, he was nowhere near as exhausted. If this assault didn’t strike home…

Maybe Neveah was even now recovering, but Randidly wasn’t sure. His mind was too bleary to check while also preparing for his next strike.

Decisively, Randidly chose to attack the confusion that Randidly saw on Swacc’s face. Kaan had pursued Randidly to this point because he was certain Randidly was a Nether spy. It was the basis of the entire fight. So when Randidly activated the last image he could manage with his mental energy, it was from neither of his three dominant images.

Randidly activated the Lantern of Harsh Truths with every bit of energy he had left.

Congratulations! Your Skill Lantern of Harsh Truths (R) has grown to Level 146!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Lantern of Harsh Truths (R) has grown to Level 166!

“You… aren’t a Nether spy.” Kaan’s expression turned cloudy and he frowned. His pyramids flickered and drifted through the air, listless. The expression that Randidly saw then on Kaan’s face… he felt a great deal of pity for the man. In his empty gaze, Randidly saw a man who had had briefly glimpsed the truth and been shaken by it. “But then… why…? Your Nether…”

It would have been more kind to let you die thinking I was a Nether spy...

Whatever justification Kaan had needed to arrive at that conclusion, Randidly didn’t have the energy to care. He simply twisted around and caught the shaft of Acri, who had leapt off of the amber pyramid as it had stopped struggling. Then he straightened and rewarded Kaan for his epiphany with Acri’s tip into the bridge of his nose.

At the last moment, Kaan’s eyes flashed with clarity and he looked upward. His will to fight had returned after a brief second of confusion. Yet even if he couldn’t use an image, Randidly’s physical power surpassed the System limit; the attack was brutally quick.

And just like that, the great Special Investigator died.