Chapter 1411 (2/2)

Through the night, Randidly spent some time repairing his Nether Nebula. As with drops of liquid Aether, that grey Nether bubble he had conjured was the accumulation of all of the weight that Randidly had gathered for several months. Luckily, once expended, that weight would gradually reaccumulate. So with his tending, the Nether Nebula soon regained enough of its former potency that Randidly needed to restrain it, lest it affected the surrounding space.

With the sunrise, Randidly sent out several messages to various political entities on Earth, revealing a few concrete details regarding the duos tournament. Then he went to the Moss’s apartment to bring Tim back within his Alpha Cosmos and continue his crash course in Engraving. But Randidly was taken by surprise when Delilah wanted to come as well.

When asking nicely didn’t work, she threatened him with both violence and telling her parents. When threatening didn’t work, she begged and clung stubbornly to his leg. Finally, in the interest of conserving time, Randidly relented and brought her along too. Delilah was a bit unpredictable in her actions, but at the very least, she was extremely talented. Perhaps Lucretia teaching some structure would do her some good.

Then Randidly had to go to the legs of Kharon and update the Engraving there, using his understanding of gravity due to the improved Stillborn Phoenix in order to decrease the physical weight of Kharon on the ground below it. Apparently, there had been complaints from the Zones that Kharon’s passage damaged the ground.

The damage left in the city’s wake was relatively small, so far as Randidly could tell, but since Kharon was currently making a beeline for the Orchard in Zone 1, he wanted to completely silence Kharon’s critics before they could even open their mouths. And when Randidly complained about how exhausting keeping up with the running of a city was, Tatiana laughed in his face.

It took a while for her mirth to subside enough for her to speak. “How do you think I feel? Randidly, you can literally solve all these problems with a little time and focus. Most of the rest of us just need to make do with what we have. That’s why you are such a valuable strategic asset for Kharon. That’s the mundanity of being the most powerful man in the world. You are too efficient at solving problems for your own good.”

She patted his back fondly and left, chuckling the entire time.

*****

Kadir cracked his knuckles when the contents of the message was announced to the room. Everyone’s face was grim. “Your majesty, this Ghosthound shows us all disrespect. First, he said that we are being plotted against by Zone 1, now he expects us to do nothing in the face of this conspiracy until the tournament? We-”

“Silence, you fool,” King Phirun didn’t bother to glare at his subordinate. The only thing that was necessary was his image. Despite the fact that the man was a two-meter tower of tattooed muscle, he quickly was shaking and took a step back in the face of King Phirun’s focus.

King Phirun allowed his image to fade. His heavy-lidded eyes shifted from his most powerful warrior and scanned the surrounding group of elite troops he had gathered in preparation of the duo tournament. Idly King Phirun drew lines across his bulging stomach with his right hand. “Can anyone tell me why I am not angry at the Ghosthound’s words?”

The question was a trap and King Phirun’s followers knew it. They all lowered their eyes deferentially; none would dare speak for their sovereign. To do so would be treason. King Phirun eventually smiled and asked a different question. “Or perhaps, why is the Ghosthound’s action not disrespectful to me?”

Again, no one answered. But this time, King Phirun was not going to let them off. His image grew increasingly heavy in the surrounding air as the silence stretched onward. King Phirun’s image was conjured from a memory, from the horrible tsunami that had leveled his village to the ground when he was a boy. To this day, he still awoke sweating from the nightmare of that day when he fell asleep in a place where he could hear the sea. It was why Ifrenne was the City in the Clouds.

That fear and panic in King Phirun’s heart became a cudgel. That sense of overwhelming helplessness in the face of nature’s power became his strength, which he then unleashed in the surrounding area. The weaker amongst his guards began to squirm underneath the pressure. Still, no one could come up with an answer.

King Phirun began to frown. Strength was not enough in this world. A true warrior also needed the instinct to discern when one should strike and when one should flee. If no one present had that instinct… his people had no hope of winning the tournament unless he participated. Which would be a great loss of face for him.

King Phirun intensified the pressure. Everyone was trembling now, and the nearest guards were gritting their teeth so tightly the muscles of their jaw were bulging. Then a voice cut through the silence. “Because the Ghosthound is strong!”

When King Phirun smiled, his image vanished. He turned to look at the speaker. The man was standing at the back of the assembled warriors, leaning against his spear and breathing heavily. Perhaps the weakest of his guards, Tosam, had spoken. And it seemed like he hadn’t spoken willingly. But he had spoken anyway because he could no longer withstand the weight of King Phirun’s image.

It seems this Tosam is intelligent, King Phirun noted as he studied the kneeling man. If he had not spoken, he would simply have collapsed. That would show weakness. To show weakness as a member of the greatest group of warriors, he would have been killed…

“Yes, because he is strong,” King Phirun said aloud. “If he were an equal, this would be disrespectful and I would kill his subordinates for such a slight to my honor. But… in this world, Randidly Ghosthound is the sole man unequivocally stronger than me. For the strong to speak to the weak… that is already a sign of great respect. So I will simply accept the content of the message and act accordingly.

“That is the way of the strong. So it is now… so it will be, someday, when I become the strongest individual in the world.”

Then King Phirun patted his belly. “Alright, leave me. Ah, except Kadir and Tosam. I have a mission for you two.”