Chapter 1557 (2/2)

Not now. The suddenness of the ambush by Velio Dunn reminded him of the actions of Yystrix, time and time again, as she plotted against Randidly, his Soulskill, and also Expira. This was the sort of situation that spurred him toward growth. Thinking back… the last time he felt this sort of sensation was when he was slowly sizzling in a pool of lava, looking up at the radiant power of Aegiant on Tellus.

Since then… Randidly pulled his hand back and looked at his palm. In his chest, the injured Grim Chimera stirred. Its eyes half-opened with the languid satisfaction of a cat laying in a pool of sunlight. The image smirked, even while still fuzzy at the edges.

It still lived despite the sudden, overwhelming attack. That, in and of itself, was the greatest victory it could achieve. Randidly’s expression slowly morphed to mirror the Grim Chimera’s. Even as another blast of emotions hit up against the devouring defense of the Stillborn Phoenix, Randidly’s glee didn’t ebb.

“Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how to escape this,” Randidly muttered to himself. He checked the Nether content of the air: 47%. Some of Randidly’s joy gradually dimmed. It was just a gut feeling, but he sensed that even now, he was only in the periphery of the significance below.

50% was a watershed. After that, things would accelerate even further.

Yet Randidly could only look with a heavy gaze at his Nether Nebula. The most effective method he had for slowing his descent appeared to be his own Nether; that was how he felt safe and confident going as deeply as he had previously. He might be wading into a deep current, but he had his own weight that gave him some control.

His depleted Nether Nebula continued to rapidly spin, churning Nether out of his Nether Wells. But the raw energy was quickly pulled away. Not all of it, of course, but most. If Randidly had come to the Web early today with a lake’s worth of Nether and had ended his clash against Velio with only a pinch… he now had a fistful. He was not accumulating Nether quickly enough to use that as his method to escape.

His other options…

Randidly paused in his thought process as the Stillborn Phoenix rather meekly made a request to stop sucking in so much and start releasing the refined energy. Randidly glanced around at the murky darkness. Currents of emotions still blasted through the surrounding space, twisting and visibly warping the air as it passed. Being exposed to those influences was troublesome, but Randidly understood that keeping his currently healthiest image running was important. So he nodded slowly.

With a huge sense of relief, the Stillborn Phoenix withdrew its whirlpool suction. Then it began to belch out thick cords of emotions that spiraled in the surroundings wildly.

As his image lowered its defenses, Randidly pursed his lips and did his best to clamp down on both his feelings of despair and the near manic excitement that resulted from his circumstances. He couldn’t let emotions cloud his judgments. The environment… was definitely having an effect on him. His emotions were running especially high.

Despite that, he would need to figure out a method to escape and do it extremely quickly.

Physical movement had already proved ineffective. It certainly felt like he was moving, but there didn’t appear to be any discernible change in the air. Nether basically immunized Randidly from the attacks of foreign emotions, but it didn’t solve the problem of significance.

Randidly narrowed his eyes. Damnit, am I once more stuck on Nether Rituals and a Nether Class then…? Fuck, I should have set aside my pride and just approached Benjamin Rex while I had the chance… Neshamah Rex… So far, all I really understand is that the important part of the construction comes from the layering. I’ve started to be aware of the different alternatives in Nether flows, but combining them… or understanding what the different patterns do...

It was essentially the same as Engraving a piece of paper as a part of the whole and then stacking these pieces on top of each other until you have an entire book. To shift an analogy fully, it was like writing a novel. Each page was important but was only a vehicle to convey the whole of the narrative.

In essence, Randidly was starting to understand the tools, but not really what he was trying to build with his Nether. And to change that here, while completely isolated from the rest of the world…

Randidly narrowed his eyes as he looked as the strands of emotion that the Stillborn Phoenix exhaled. They were even more chaotic and powerful than he remembered; they greedily swam out and tried to devour the blasts of emotion that were shooting past him. Most of the time they were obliterated, but sometimes they managed to infect the emotions. It seemed the Stillborn Phoenix was getting better at this…

Randidly chewed on his lip. The amount of ambient Nether in the air had increased to 48%. Perhaps an option would be observing the Nether in the Alpha Cosmos, but that task requires more time than I have…I have two other ‘cards’, but both seem pretty useless here. The coin I received from the Nemesai… that replaces something present with something from the depths of the Nexus. It wouldn’t help me escape unless I could summon something like a Nether King… and even then, would the Nether King help me escape…?

The other card… is my Fatepiece. The Visage of Obsession. Letting a hiss escape his lips, Randidly waved a hand to bat away some curious emotions that swirled back from the Stillborn Phoenix’s maw to investigate him. They scattered like a school of nervous fish as Randidly recalled the explanation of the Fatepiece.

The Visage of Obsession is the ever-shifting reflection of the Alchemist’s determination that borders on madness. To a mundane viewer, it is just a painting. Yet to the Alchemist, it is a potent catalyst to cleave the user’s mind from the limitations of a worldly perspective. In the depths of Obsession, reality begins to fragment.

Truthfully, perhaps a new perspective on the problem of Nether usage would be useful… but it doesn’t solve the problem of time… Randidly growled in frustration as he glared upward from where he came.

Then, he froze. A few seconds later, he blinked. Then Randidly began to laugh. He reached up toward the sky and seized the emotions that freely traveled upward. He reached even further beyond that, he seized all of the refined emotions he had released thus far, to which he still maintained a slight connection.

A shudder ran through Randidly’s body. It was difficult… but his descent stopped. He could feel the invisible current of significance that had been naturally guiding him down thus far. By resisting it, he became aware of it and could resist it even more directly. Grinning, Randidly tried to pull himself up. But somehow, the connection didn’t work like that. Just the same way that emotions ignored the grip of significance, they also refused his demands of necessity. Randidly could only sigh and shake his head.

The connection was there, preventing his descent. That was all. Randidly checked the Nether content. He had stabilized himself at 49%.

“At least now I have some time to breathe,” Randidly muttered to himself.