Chapter 1554 (1/2)

Vualla looked around with interest. In the darkness, her azure eyes seemed to glow. “I mean I’d heard about how insane the construction was, but they took me right to the Xyrt Brigade training ground when I arrived in the Nexus; I haven’t had much time to explore. Is the Nexus really squatting on top of a giant skeleton…? And damn, You really can feel the dead emotions wafting upward, huh?”

Randidly folded his arms across his chest and looked downward. They were floating in the Web while the Stillborn Phoenix released its latest batch of emotions into the surrounding space. Thick tentacles of emotions lashed outward. Most spiraled upward, but a few put tentative feelers toward Vualla. She swung her fist with a playful smile and annihilated the offending emotions.

As the Stillborn Phoenix continued its emotional purification, the finished product became more stable and its hunger for more emotions grew. At some point, Randidly would be worried about where he could freely devour emotions like this. But for now…

“You are sorta a monster, you know that?” Vualla smiled cheekily over at Randidly as she flicked a finger and destroyed another clump of his released emotions.

Randidly could only chuckle and shrug. “I’ve had no choice but to become one. That’s the Nexus, right?”

“And that’s why we will end it,” Vualla said as her expression becoming solemn. She had left her gauntlets back in Randidly’s apartment, but when she brought her right fist sharply against her left palm, Randidly felt enough force in the impact to shatter a continent like a china plate. “One fucked up piece at a time, we will tear it all down. So we no longer need to become monsters just to survive.”

“So we have the freedom to choose our own lives,” Randidly replied quietly. He reached across and squeezed Vualla’s hand for a few seconds, before clearing his throat. The Stillborn Phoenix rumbled in dissatisfaction at this delay. “How are you feeling? We might need to go… quite a bit deeper into the Web to satisfy my image. It’s a glutton.”

“Bah, is your superpower breathing Nether…?” Vualla wrinkled her nose and looked down into the swirling gloom below them with obvious distaste. They weren’t quite as deep as Randidly normally went, but they were definitely past the point where the structure of the area had renovated for living habitation; they were clearly hovering in a hollow spine. This was the point where the air began to turn strange.

The corner of Randidly’s mouth twitched. “If you need assistance, just stay near me-”

“Nah, there really isn’t that much Nether here. Just enough to be uncomfortable. Plus it’s good enough practice, to resist the growing influence of Nether and also these wild emotions.” She looked at Randidly and flapped her hand. “Lead on.”

With a nod, Randidly allowed himself to drop down through the Web. The Stillborn Phoenix released a strange crooning noise as it sucked at the surrounding space, showing how excited it was to devour more emotions. Although the noise was somewhat off-putting, Randidly was just glad that he had built a working relationship with the spiteful image. A split second later, Vualla followed him down.

There wasn’t any real, useful method of telling how deeply Randidly descended, aside from the presence of Nether, so he used that as a gauge. He pushed past his former deepest location, curious how Vualla would handle the chaotic rush of emotions while he did so. Seeing that she seemed to be managing fine, he stopped holding back. Heh, honestly sorta dumb of me to worry about her. When it comes to power and image purity… she’s got me beat.

At the point where they finally slowed, the Nether was about four times as prevalent as was generally allowed underneath the control of the System. It was still only about 5% of the ambient energy, but its presence in the air could no longer be denied. The walls around them were warped in bulging in some places, likely due to prolonged exposure to Nether. The yellowed bone darkened to a rotten brown in some places.

Randidly’s gaze lingered on the continued drop below them for several seconds.

The Nether in his body whirred. With his newfound insight into layered alternate Nether flows, the stability of his Nether Nebula had largely increased. Therefore, remaining at this depth presented no problems. He also had some spare effort to blunt the gravity of significance that reached for Vualla. And based on the fact that she wasn’t yelling at him… she likely didn’t notice, which was a blessing.

The Stillborn Phoenix began to inhale.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 335!

Congratulations! Your Skill Tide of the Void (L) has grown to Level 289!

As Randidly looked down in the impenetrable darkness below him, he gradually understood that the presence of Nether was unavoidable around the Aether Refinery below; it was only due to the Nether that the escaping emotions were as blunted as they were. And as the two people floated there, allowing the Egg of Darkness to absorb more and more emotions, there were intermittent blasts of truly violent outbursts. Against all odds, a few waves of obsessive desire had survived the grinding below.

...even beyond that mass of significance I can feel tugging at me from below, the churning Aether Refinery might be enough to destroy me. Randidly reflected. If some of the escaped emotions can be this powerful, at this distance, how powerful are the ones that are too large not to be annihilated…?

Of course, there were a few unsubstantiated assumptions about how the Aether generator worked in Randidly’s train of thought. He couldn’t be sure how accurate his conclusions were. So he set that to the side and concentrated on another issue: how he could adjust his images to fool the world.

Specifically, in this case, how the image of the Grim Chimera could transform into something even more overwhelming.

While the Stillborn Phoenix continued to guzzle down emotions, Randidly looked down at his hand. He idly traced the creases across his right palm with his eyes. All Else Succumbs, Yet Time Whirls the Earth creates a connection across parallel universes to find the answer to whatever problem I’m currently facing. Paradoxically, the Skill is already designed to fool the universe, which is why it’s so difficult for me to find an effective strategy to expand my Grim Chimera image. I’m looking for something grand and in this case, but the mundane function already accomplishes what I want…

So how do I strengthen that ability to fool the universe?

The lids of Randidly’s eyes slowly slid down to shutter his gaze. His senses expanded to capture the surrounding flows of emotion. The undercurrent of natural Nether hissed and spat as it continued to suffocate the life out of the escaping energies and dulled their edges. Randidly’s Willpower began to resonate with All Else Succumbs, Yet Time Whirls the Earth. He activated the image without activating the Skill, just brushing lightly across the surface.

Releasing a breath, Randidly didn’t have anything he was seeking. There was no problem that became the base of the Skill. But floating in the hollow spine of the Nexus, he spread his awareness through to the parallel worlds closest to him. His senses could just barely capture these other Randidlys, who had utilized slightly different avenues to reach his same current position. Due to it only being a resonance, the others aligning with his position helped him bridge the gap. Without pulling any abilities from the disparate Randidlys to his present self, it was actually somewhat relaxing to spread himself out.