Chapter 1465 (1/2)
He stood alone on his island, the surrounding space flickering and cracking just from his presence. His two tails flicked back and forth, conveying his barely suppressed anxiety. His black hole of a left eye had extended to mask the whole of his face, greedily devouring the surrounding light. His veins pulsed with golden light as his powerful heart continued to steadily beat.
Even though his carefully radiated image had strengthened the island beneath him, he knew that he needed to be extremely careful about his movements right now. His body contained immense potential energy. Enough to become the cataclysm that sent his island crashing toward the ground.
Randidly Ghosthound gritted his teeth, dealing with a painful tightness in his chest that reminded him of heartburn. Luckily, the horrible sensation emanating from the grey core of his Nether Nebula was gradually receding as he sent thin threads of Nether flowing through his veins. The hyperdense Nether gradually interacted with the physically condensed images throughout Randidly’s body, reaching a strained equilibrium.
But the digestion was a painful one. The light grey crystal that had formed in his Nether Nebula stubbornly refused to shrink. It continued to press against his chest, acting as a burden on his image. Without meaning to, Randidly had bit off far more than he could comfortably chew in terms of Nether significance with his weave.
Congratulations! Your Skill Abomination’s Grim Vigor (M) has grown to Level 331!
Randidly couldn’t help but smile. The dense Nether is so dangerous that it’s driving up my Grim Chimera’s physical Skill…
It was mostly due to the dangerous surge of Nether inside of him that Randidly had decided to make the break between matches a two-day affair. As planned, he had successfully gathered quite a bit of Earth’s significance with the weave he had slipped into the System’s thin space for Nether. And he could now feel how, as that Nether density was incorporated into himself, his own Aether was being stirred to greater heights. The contrast between Aether and Nether served as a method to strengthen him. If he wanted to, he might be able to create eleven or twelve drops of liquid Nether now. The improvement was immediate and obvious. If this process of acclimation went off without a hitch, Randidly held great anticipation toward what he could gain from the final.
But he also felt a deep sense of helplessness. Because for the first time, Randidly had an inkling about how Elhume could create a mountain range of crystalized Aether that was the size of a small country. That man had thousands of years world of Nether interacting with his Aether to strengthen it. And that knowledge didn’t give Randidly any confidence that he would be able to replicate the feat in the short term.
Yet his growing understanding of the task he had set for himself only made the flames of his determination grow brighter. That strength hasn’t come freely; according to Octavius, Elhume’s body is actually trapped by the sheer amount of Aether around him. So as long as I can handle the manifestation of his will…
Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Understanding (A) has grown to Level 175!
Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 299!
Randidly winced again as his chest spasmed painfully. But he allowed his images to manifest further in the surrounding area. The fingers of his left hand curled into long talons. The ground around his bare feet rapidly turned into a field of lush grass. Small bushes sprang into existence, their roots digging greedily in every direction. As the Stillborn Phoenix’s influence grew, the air was filled with the shrill sound of it sucking away small amounts of air.
Randidly had his island floating high in the air, hoping not to affect anyone with the waves his image was releasing. But he could sense the clouds nearby slowing being influenced by his image. They circled like massive, insubstantial buzzards, content to absorb any stray images he left behind. The comparison was so apt that it earned a smile from Randidly. But then he returned to the delicate task of refining his Nether.
I need to finish this by tonight. Tomorrow… I have so many meetings to get through…
*****
Theodora Greyman woke up coughing in the dark. Her initial impulse was to push herself to the sitting position, but she ended up just flailing around and burying her face into the blanket. Her left arm twitched but otherwise didn’t move no matter how she struggled. Her right arm felt like she was sticking it into a campfire. At the same time, a vice of iron tightened in her chest, pressing her two lungs together into a useless lung.
Needless to say, the blanket in her mouth didn’t help with her cough.
She could only blink away tears and resist the urge to panic that crept through her brain like a lurking tarantula. The darkness around her refused to part and she just tried her best to endure her body’s response. Very gradually, her limbs stopped twitching and Theodora experienced a cough big enough to scoop out the gunk that lined her throat. Unfortunately, with her face pressed against the blanket, she simply coughed it up right in front of her. So as her coughs subsided, she stared at the yellowed phlegm oozing slowly downward and felt the strangest sense of relief.
“I’m… alive…” She whispered. Then she pressed her eyes shut as her torso trembled; speaking almost set her into another fit of coughs. In that arena, she had truly resolved herself to die. She had thought she was dying.
And it had made her immensely afraid. Death reminder her of cold rooms in her childhood and looking at pictures that didn’t quite look like the deceased. It reminded her of vanilla puddings she was given to keep her quiet while adults talked about who would take care of her.
Congratulations! You have learned the Skill Determined Tenacity (A) Level 1!
Determined Tenacity (A): Despite the difficulties you have experienced, you continue to persevere. In the face of adversity, your stubborn personality continues to propel you forward. Each point of your Willpower is slightly more effective based on the obstacles in your Path. Effect slightly increases with Skill Level.
When the pain eventually passed, the pressure in her chest slowly eased. With great care, Theodora began to experiment with her different limbs. She felt like a toddler. Despite the fact that she was alive, her physical capabilities weren’t encouraging. Both legs appeared to function fine, but the left side of her torso was completely numb and that arm was almost useless. Her right arm appeared to follow directions, but flashes of pain made it difficult to maintain extended actions.
Even now, Theodora could sense the extended damage that channeling the Nether had done to her body. It ran parallel with her veins, leaving a thousand tiny cracks that fanned outward from the vital thoroughfares of her body. Suddenly, she was a woman made of glass. With great care and about ten minutes, Theodora repositioned herself so she was once more lying on her back. From that vantage, she could see that aside from her bed and a curtained window on the far wall, the room was empty.
But mostly, she stared at the ceiling. The vivid emerald eyes of Randidly Ghosthound floated in front of her.
“Why…. why do I always lose to you…?”
“Madam Greyman… We were never competing to begin with.”
It was such a strange contrast. After her parents had died, no one looked at her so directly like that.
Soon, Theodora couldn’t bear it anymore and closed her eyes. But that just made the strange visions worse. She had been there on the arena, her body filled with agonizing ice, bitterness, and resentment bubbling in her chest. And when she threw it all in the Ghosthound’s face… his reaction said it all. He looked at her directly. She could tell that he was being honest. In his eyes, they had never been competing.
He had been genuinely trying to help her the entire time. Perhaps not her specifically, but the Earth in general; he wanted people to prosper. Her pride had simply prevented her from seeing it in the past.
After her parents died only a few feet in front of her in the car crash, she was eventually placed with a cousin who worked as a news anchor. Idly, Theodora now wondered who would take her now that she was this weak.