Chapter 1478 (1/2)

“Why are you grinning?” Kayle asked, even though he knew the answer. His longtime rival was not a complicated man.

Paolo’s expression, like his voice and movements, was practically booming on the small balcony of one of the Orchard’s finest hotels. “Ahaha! Well, isn’t this exciting? This… well, certainly, there is no honor in what we do now, but considering the circumstances… eheheh…”

“Don’t laugh like that.” Huang Shou brought his cane down in a brutal smack against Paolo’s back, but the man simply endured it with his shit-eating grin in place. Kayle shook his head slightly; you needed to hit Paolo harder than that in order to get through to him. He considered lighter strikes like that just displays of affection.

Then Huang Shou jabbed his cane at the papers on the desk small end table that he had previously directly Huang Li to drag out onto the balcony. The papers fluttered slightly from a small breeze. “Mrs. Hamilton sent over projections. Read them. Don’t think that now that the tournament is over, work has ceased. It is only beginning.”

Huang Li, Kayle, and even Paolo obeyed. For their next project, they had no chance unless they came armed with plentiful information.

*****

Over the next several days, Randidly practiced with weaving Nether, gave Tim some pointers on the Engraving to create floating islands, and spent some time refining his other images while the Grim Chimera recovered from that immense psychological impact. The process was slow at first, but the Grim Chimera’s natural inclination toward adaption meant that it quickly accelerated. Much of the raw sense of power had been beaten from the Grim Chimera in that brief contact with Elhume, but it had regained its almost uncanny cunning in exchange.

Not that Randidly needed the Grim Chimera to behave particularly intelligent most of the time, but it was one-third of the person he was gradually becoming. Keeping it in touch with caution was prudent, considering the dangers that waited in the Nexus. When the confidence was unfounded, it needed to be tempered.

Once the Grim Chimera had regained enough of its details to condense into a physical form, Randidly didn’t let that freshly shaken image settle; he continued to hammer it by taking it into the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night and fighting against Kaan Swacc. And during those fights, Randidly only used the Grim Chimera.

His physical power and capability in physical condensation of images had increased, but the largest gain from the fight, Randidly’s ability to use three images at once, was sealed. As such, the Grim Chimera quickly became involved in several long, drawn-out fights with Kaan Swacc. Which is the worst method to combat Kaan Swacc, who used those extended brawls to methodically suppressed the Grim Chimera’s abilities until it was beaten into submission.

Time and time again Randidly persisted until his vision was blurred from the creeping headache of using the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night, but he did not slow down. After being defeated by Kaan and then meditating for about twenty minutes in the real world, he would stand and shake himself off. Then he would open up the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night and throw himself right back into the fray.

After the fifth such attempt, an attempt that had only lasted three minutes before Kaan Swacc had suppressed Randidly and forced him out of the memory, the image of Yggdrasil pulsed slightly; it pointed out that the process Randidly was currently experiencing was very similar to the training of the Xyrt Brigade. Which meant that it carried with it the same risks that had made Randidly so furious when they had afflicted Vualla.

Randidly considered that, his chest rising and falling relatively quickly; thinking was also a chance to catch his breath. Truly, he was exhausted. And when he focused his Willpower on the current state of the Grim Chimera, what he found there was… lackluster. The last time the image had been this blurry and feeble was when Randidly had been forced as an image to the frontlines.

Otherwise, it had never been this bedraggled and feeble.

The body and face was wan and ethereal. Once more, the Grim Chimera was a featureless being, the details rubbed away. The only elements that were maintained with any clarity were the sharp edges of his talons and the point of the Grim Chimera’s bone spear. The rest had faded into a bitter shadow that hung in the air like a stench. Even the two tails of the Grim Chimera had vanished.

Ultimately, however, Randidly shook his head side to side at Yggdrasil’s objection. “You are right, this is dangerous. That’s the point. The Grim Chimera doesn’t respond to anything else. And compared to the Skill Levels that you two possess… the Grim Chimera has a much lower foundation. We need to force that upward. The faster, the better.”

The Stillborn Phoenix stirred, but all it felt was contempt for the weakness of others. It might have even sprung over to devour the Grim Chimera if Yggdrasil hadn’t always been careful to watch the selfish image’s movements. For its part, Yggdrasil pulsed again, urging Randidly once more.

Randidly waved his hand. “I stopped Vualla from going down this Path because of what her image was becoming. It was calcifying into a horrifying monster with no senses, only the capacity for destruction. But the Grim Chimera will grow, even in these circumstances. That is the type of image that it is. Trust me: I made it that way.”

Unwillingly, the part of Randidly that agreed with Yggdrasil relented. And so the Grim Chimera went once more into battle against Kaan Swacc. The unifying image of it was getting weaker as it continuously overexerted itself, but Randidly didn’t concern himself with that. Instead, his focus turned to the various Skills that made up the Descent of the Grim Chimera. If the common thread was lost, focus on the aspects.

Its two passive abilities were the first specific images to receive Randidly’s attention. Even if the whole of the image was weakening, that would eventually come back if the parts grew healthier. So in the next fight against Kaan Swacc, Randidly embodied both Chimeric Avoidance and Abomination’s Grim Vigor to the best of his abilities.