Chapter 1493 (2/2)
The other rather obvious feature of this space, and likely the source of the moniker ‘The Web’, were the cables.
Randidly’s eyes followed Octavius Shrike. The Overseer of the Seventh Cohort landed rather lightly on a cable that cut down diagonally toward some distance location on the far wall and then allowed his weight to slowly shift to the side. When he was almost horizontal, he flexed his leg and shot himself down to the right.
Humming to himself, Randidly hopped down and mimicked him. The sensation of wind whipping past his face was actually quite pleasant.
They made rapid time, descending deeper and deeper down the web. The wires and cords they used at launching pads were relatively more sparse than Randidly had expected, but they were quite solidly anchored. The material swayed when they kicked off, but never seemed to fray. And now that Randidly was moving through the area, he noticed a few other scattered figures doing the same thing as them, either ascending or descending quickly and quietly amongst the wires. There was simply so much space that they were easy to miss.
As they continued to head deeper, Randidly quickly noticed that the lingering emotions in the Aether grew stronger. In front of him, he observed how Octavius began to circulate his energy in a very good imitation of a raincoat, pushing away the emotionally charged energy before it could infect his images.
Meanwhile, the Stillborn Phoenix cackled madly and sucked up as much of the emotions as it could. Both the Grim Chimera and Yggdrasil grimaced in embarrassment at their wild fellow image.
Time continued to pass. They proceeded deeper and deeper, the light inside of the Web slowly fading. More and more of the light alcoves were dim or broken, leaving more of the space in shadow. The emotions in the Aether became increasingly turbulent.
Until finally, Octavius leapt toward the wall and gripped a metal pipe running around the edge while he pressed open a door. They went in and Randidly found himself in a darkened street. He blinked and turned around, looking at the entrance to the Web and then back up again. When he looked for it, he could barely make out a sloped ceiling above him; they were in a dome about the size of a city park. But if he didn’t know better, he would say they were simply outside on a cloudy night.
Octavius closed the door behind them and led the way through the darkened street to a three-story apartment building. The mist lay thickly along the ground here, almost up to Randidly’s knees. They proceeded quickly inside and immediately Randidly felt the difference. There was some sort of energy field around the building that kept out the tainted Aether. Although the Stillborn Phoenix whined that it was still hungry, Randidly walked up to the third floor.
And there was Edraine, studying a map on the far wall. She smiled at him when he entered. “Finally made it, eh? Well met, Randidly Ghosthound. Welcome to the Nexus. Is it everything that you thought it would be?”
Randidly had two reactions to seeing Edraine. The first was a quivering sense of deja vu: she certainly looked almost exactly like an older version of Vualla. Her hair had greyed out and there was a large scar across her left eye, but otherwise, they looked so similar that it was uncanny. But Randidly supposed that this wasn’t actually singular experience; many individuals over the course of their budding relationships had met their partner’s parents and were slightly disturbed by how deep the resemblance ran.
But the second reaction… Randidly’s palms began to get sweaty. That strange confusion and fear that Randidly had felt growing along the underside of his heart since he had arrived at the Nexus… all that was instantly swept away by the raw aura of power that was wafting off of the Edraine in front of him.
She was smiling lightly at Randidly, but Randidly felt that massive image crouching behind her, ready to surge to the fore at a moment's notice. It was a headless simulacrum, sculpted with porcelain and pewter. It was a streamlined, perfect tool of destruction. If Edraine willed it, she could blast away a huge chunk of the undercity with a single movent. The potent silence of her image was almost unnerving.
Randidly’s smile curled upward until he returned Edraine’s grin. That sickly feeling that Randidly had felt when he had arrived had been disappointment. The Nexus was built at a scale beyond his imagination on some interstellar foundation, but everyone he had encountered felt so weak. He had come here to grow strong, and as he saw more and more of the sprawling Nexus, he had worried that it wouldn’t be as easy as he hoped.
But Edraine’s image blew all those feelings away. Although they might be deeply hidden, the Nexus was filled with individuals like her. Their ability might be kept tight, compact, and overwhelming, but they were present. The truly powerful had gathered here. These individuals were so powerful that Randidly wouldn’t even know how to begin fighting against them.
Randidly licked his lips. “The Nexus… heh. It’s certainly immense.”
Edraine chuckled. “It certainly is. But we don’t have much time to work. A very special opportunity came up, and I wonder if you would be interested in doing some more work for the Nexus Military Council. This time not as a frontline Commander… but as a Drill Sergeant.”