Chapter 1474 (2/2)

Congratulations! Your Skill Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart (T) has grown to Level 276!

All the bits of broken materials halted midair, hovering uncertainly under the pulse of gravity that Randidly released. Then he raised his metal fist and tightened it; all the materials flew rapidly back together and spun together in a small tornado of destruction. The moonlight spirits above his house had frozen at the destruction but now began to dance excitedly and fly insubstantially through the tornado. By simply smashing everything together against itself, Randidly quickly created a large ball of soil.

But this amount was far from enough. Humming to himself, Randidly opened a portal with the Philosopher’s Key to one of the random valleys in the Nordawn Mountain range where he had done his more explosive training sessions. Then he casually transported large amounts of soil and plant matter that had already subtly incorporated his images to the ruin of the third floor. That would make the process more simple.

With this, Randidly could cover the entirety of the third floor in at least a foot of soil without a problem. The cracked remnants of the walls remained at most of the edges of the third floor, keeping this soil layer from collapsing outward. These wounded structures groaned from the pressure but ultimately stayed upright.

At least its good the materials are so high quality, Randidly reflected. The increased weight from all this stuff didn’t cause the house to collapse.

Then, very deliberately, Randidly turned his attention to the trees he had brought over through the portal and targeted them with Yggdrasil. The massive phantom of the World Tree appeared in the air above Randidly. Its glittering emerald leaves rustled lightly in an invisible breeze. Golden light flashed up and down the massive, trunk, tracing the massive history of the world that was recorded across its bark.

Then Randidly sat still with his legs folded beneath him and released consistent waves of that images of varying power. There were several small trees, but already their roots dug into the dirt on the third floor and crisscrossed one another. Randidly greatly anticipated the result; the moonlight spirits gleefully floated amongst the small canopy of the trees, bringing life back to this place. He consistently pulsed the image of Yggdrasil until enough time had passed and he happily set aside the ‘renovation’ of his house and wove a Nether Ritual.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 177!

A vast space separated Randidly and Vualla, but Randidly bridged that with a whispered prayer. He could distinctly feel the heat of Vualla’s body, even from this distance. In a way that was impossible to put into words, he had been subtly influenced by the places where their thoughts and bodies had touched during their interactions on the frontlines. Through the passage of time and circumstances, the typical entropy of those foreign notes had not faded in his body. If anything, they had only become more poignant. There was meaning to the fact that Randidly Ghosthound had met Vualla Mateo.

Like two celestial bodies who moved within each other’s gravitational field, their trajectories were subtly and absolutely altered by even their proximity. That shared orbit gave Randidly the material needed to form a bond between them, no matter the distance.

The first thing that Randidly felt when they connected was a burning curiosity. Sensing it was safe right now to contact her, Randidly freely reached the rest of the distance and their two minds brushed against one another. While Randidly focused on releasing more of the now slightly flagging image of Yggdrasil to heal Vualla’s image, Vualla methodically examined Randidly from top to bottom. Her inspection was extremely vigorous.

“This would go more simply if you would let me finish,” Randidly teased.

Vualla snorted mentally. “Don’t act coy with me; you are horrible at hiding your emotions. You are quite proud of your growth, aren’t you? What the hell did you do? Your images have so much more depth to them now.” Then Vualla released an exaggerated sigh. “If I hadn’t had that recent rapid improvement, maybe you would have caught up to me…”

Randidly paused in his healing and examined the images he was helping to recuperate. And all the shy satisfaction he felt dissolved into helpless amusement. Perhaps due to the rapid cycle of being ground to nothing by her training and then revitalized, Vualla’s image had experienced an immense transformation. She had always pursued absolute control of her body in order to make herself the ultimate machine of destruction, but it seemed that Vualla recently expanded the scope of her image a bit.

Before it was just her body, but now there was a growing sense of internal and external influences within her image. Around her was a persistent flow of energy. She had begun to understand how interconnected the physical objects and images were. How by bringing power along alternate avenues, the destruction that could be wrought spread even further.

Basically, she had begun to incorporate Nether principles into her use of images. The Nether wasn’t genuine, so the effect hadn’t reached its full potential, but it had given her a significant boost in power. Considering the already deep and detailed image that she had managed to receive from the brief possession from the original Vualla…

And also the fact that she had been constantly pushed to her limits by the Xyrt Brigade’s training…

Randidly bowed his head in mock surrender. “Please remember to mention me in your speech when you topple the Nexus.”

Vualla laughed in their mental connection, loud and genuine and full of pleasure. Randidly felt the warmth pass between them. But then Vualla’s mood turned more serious. “I hope I get that chance. Looks like someone else is trying to beat us to the punch.”

Sensing Randidly’s mental query, Vualla continued to communicate. “Your Nether King in the sky above Earth? It looks like the Seventh Cohort was a feint. Two days ago, it was discovered that the Nether King was active in the Sixth Cohort. By the time its presence had been discovered, at least ten planets that possessed citizenship of the Nexus had been quietly polluted and destroyed. It used the corpses of Aether beings to raise an army of twisted monsters.

“My training is being accelerated; I’ll be deployed in a month to investigate the extent of the Nether threat to the Nexus.”