Chapter 1404 (1/2)

Ace’s twisted body was slowly devoured by frost. To the point that his figure, blessedly, wasn’t recognizable.

Randidly sat down on the ground and meditated for a while. Activating Dreamcatcher of the Long Night had been a bad idea. But… he didn’t regret doing it. More than the Fatepiece Levels… Randidly was glad he had a chance to be honest with Ace. No matter how late or ineffective that honesty appeared to have been.

Around fifteen minutes later, Randidly got back to his feet. He didn’t look over toward Ace’s body. On the one hand, he thought his friend should be buried. But he also had serious doubts whether Ace had earned that respect. So he looked around. Sydney was still standing in the same position she had been when she killed her former boyfriend. Her eyes were calm on Randidly as he got to his feet.

Randidly’s mouth twisted as he took in her rigid posture. Her elemental had settled down on her shoulders and released long, misty breaths. “You look as exhausted as I feel.”

“It was a long day,” She replied simply.

Randidly tilted his head to the side and cracked his neck. “Then let’s go about our business. We should talk… but that can wait until we’ve both had time to recover, I suppose. And grieve.”

But Sydney shook her head. “The whole reason I kept standing here until now is that there is something I want to say to you. We won’t need to talk again. It’s fine to interact professionally… but I don’t want to reconnect, Randidly. I know it isn’t showing on my face… and I know most of my numbness is the influence of my image… but I just killed Ace. You let me do it. This… it will take a long time to grieve enough that I don’t… wish things had been different. If you had valued our relationship… you would have reached out to nurture it while it still existed.”

She bowed at the waist. “So… thank you. For… for everything. And goodbye.”

Then Sydney left. And honestly, Randidly was too exhausted to have much of a reaction to her abrupt departure. So he returned to Neveah’s side and allowed the wave of Riders that finally arrived at their location to carry him back to Kharon. He left the unconscious Ezekiel and random other man on the ground but took the blood egg with him.

A part of him figured destroying it was for the best, but Randidly couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. Not now, anyway. For the moment, it was inert.

When they finally returned to Kharon and Randidly carried Neveah up to his island, both collapsed and slept to heal their significant wounds.

*****

Tatiana had expected the summons for a while. Her Skill had informed her that it was coming, but she hadn’t needed the Skill to realize the shift in Randidly’s priorities. After the battle that had rocked the Western wildlands, the entire world had been on edge. The images released spread out across half the world. Those that were close enough to feel the power of those images were left shocked.

No one knew what the Earth would do if Randidly Ghosthound was killed.

The rest were driven mad by curiosity over the details of that echoing clash. It was an unfortunate time for Kharon to be in civilized areas because Tatiana had to field quite a lot of questions through professional and personal channels about what had happened. Those image reverberations were enough that even the issue of the Runic Tablet was lost in the shuffle for a day.

Tatiana refused to comment at all. Because she honestly only had a general idea of why the fight was necessary; she trusted that the Ghosthound had his reasons. And, twenty-six hours after Randidly had returned, he had woken up from his slumber.

Tatiana had sensed that too; her Skill really had quite a few useless uses. Rather than call her immediately, Randidly engaged furiously in several activities that Tatiana couldn’t determine the nature of, but could clearly feel the images he released as he did them. Part of it was Engraving, she believed, while there was also some meditation and image training thrown into the mix.

Again, all pointed out to her by her Skill.

Then, eight hours after he had woken back up, Randidly asked Tatiana to come to meet him on his island. Tatiana came with Wolfram and three of his best ogre scribes. Somehow, she figured that they would be needed. Annoyingly, her Skill wasn’t able to give her any insight into how Randidly was feeling. So she was a little nervous as they landed on his island and proceeded toward the central portion.

Randidly was waiting for them in his typical, modest shack. But the first thing that Tatiana noticed when she walked into the building was that there were stacks of paper everywhere; it looked like Randidly had lined the walls with bookshelves in order to contain all the papers that had somehow proliferated wildly since she had last been on the island.

Then Tatiana’s eyes settled on Randidly. He seemed… odd. There was a faraway look in his eyes as she entered and the ogres remained beyond the walls of the tiny home. He was tapping his finger on the desk and staring at the wall as though he hadn’t quite noticed their presence yet.

His gaze sharpened and his emerald eyes focused on Tatiana a few seconds after she entered. “Ah, you brought ogres. Good, that might make things easier.”

Randidly hopped to his feet and walked outside. Tatiana dutifully followed, her attention focused on the Randidly in front of her. In terms of image, she was slightly impressed by how… controlled the energy around Randidly was. The images he produced were very mild. And that oppressive weight he was radiating only a few days ago now seemed almost imaginary to her senses. Yet somehow, Tatiana also had a sense that there was an increased… intensity in the air around him.

It’s his eyes, Tatiana realized as Randidly turned and looked at each of the people standing in front of him with a direct glance. It’s not that he’s usually distracted… but he’s usually juggling a bunch of thoughts at once. But not right now. Now he’s focusing solely on us. The weight from his Nether vanished, but if anything, the force of his gaze is just as heavy...