Chapter 1566 (2/2)

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Visage of Obsession has grown to Level 10!

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Timing (Ru) has grown to Level 172!

The Visage of Obsession quietly rolled closed in front of Randidly and hung there in the air by some otherworldly power. Almost as though they were sharks sensing blood, three gusts of emotion cut in sideways and tried to knock the Fatepiece away from Randidly. But the Grim Chimera roared to malicious action and shredded those emotions to tattered pieces of ethereal mist.

Only a few minutes had passed since he had reached Level 9 in his Fatepiece, but Randidly could no longer make any noise. This, then, was the ‘cost’.

He opened his mouth and blew through his lips. He could feel his breath escaping his body, but it made no noise. Randidly frowned. He brought his hand around and slapped it against his chest. Again, there was no noise, although he felt the normal force. Meanwhile, the emotions continued to howl upward from the depths of the spine, moaning as though the energy animating them came from strained agony. Air rustled against the ragged clothes on Randidly’s body.

He drifted over toward the wall and slammed his fist against the warped and yellowed bone. Again, no noise resulted. Randidly clicked his tongue or meant to, but of course, nothing happened. When he ripped out Yystrix’s tongue, he had completely taken away his own ability to generate noise.

That caused Randidly to scrunch up his own face. Obviously, that couldn’t actually be what happened. Much more likely was that he had somehow deprived himself of the ability to hear noises that he had made.

Having that thought caused Randidly to make another meaningless click of his tongue, which then caused him to roll his eyes at his own situation. Not that he especially relied on making noise, stranded as he was in the depths of the Nexus. But it felt… strange to so suddenly be deprived of his ability to make noise.

Which is probably the point… Randidly’s expression turned solemn as his gaze landed on the floating Fatepiece. If things continue like this… I’ll be steadily deprived of portions of normal existence as I use the Fatepiece. In exchange, I suppose I’ll more easily be able to focus on my significance? But at the same time…

Randidly shook his head at how this might affect his already precarious mental health. Then he looked down through the midnight-blue darkness. After a moment of indecision, he released his emotional tether and began to drift down through the swirling torrent of emotions. His right hand shot out and grabbed the Visage of Obsession. Randidly’s emerald eyes glowed as he let his own emotional strength seep outward from the edges of his body and combat the wild emotions directly.

I cannot stop now that I’ve started. And if I continue… I’ll require more time. Better to head deeper now, in case I lose sight next...

So Randidly descended, Yggdrasil, Stillborn Phoenix, and the Grim Chimera cutting open a path. It was somewhat dangerous to release his images for long periods of time, but with the support of Yggdrasil, clashing against the surrounding blasts of emotion became a tempering process. The impurities in his image’s emotion were hammered out and then cleanly healed. It was a holistic improvement that Randidly couldn’t quite measure at this moment.

Because as he headed closer to the horrifying significance below, the emotional remnants were growing steadily stronger. So it didn’t feel like his improvements were very much to speak of at all. Yet Randidly had a sense that he was improving much more quickly than he realized.

Occasionally as he fell downward, emotions managed to break past his defenses and sear his skin. Although empowered with image physicalizations, his skin rapidly broke out in blotchy boils. Then his flesh began to sizzle and warp until these deviations were annihilated by the thunderous fury of his image.

All of his images, of course, were now also silent.

Randidly kept his attention on his Nether Nebula the entire time, as the Nether content in the air moved up toward 70%. The emotions he could learn to cope with, but he knew he was playing a dangerous game in terms of significance. Until he managed to replicate the effect of the Nether Cores, proceeding too deeply might lead to him simply vanishing without a trace.

Before I even get to make to dig a grave for my helpful doppelganger… Randidly thought bitterly. And that thought led him to slow his descent and reach upward for the emotions that the Stillborn Phoenix steadily released. For a split second, Randidly’s heart dropped; the difficulty in reaching up toward those emotions was many times what it had been only a short distance above him-

Then he paused. Honestly… he probably had dropped more than a short distance as he had proceeded. The time he spent falling was probably misleading. It wasn’t that the Nether content in the air changed more quickly the deeper he went…

...just that he was traveling more quickly downward. In fact, the changes in the Nether content of the air might be happening much more gradually the deeper he descended. Yet that truth was erased by the obscenely powerful significance below.

Either way, the Stillborn Phoenix’s pattern of absorption, refinement, and release had greatly accelerated since coming down below the event horizon of this significance. Due to the constant barrage of emotions, it had to pick up the pace of its ‘breathing’. So when Randidly finally reached up through the surprisingly vast space that now existed between him and the Nexus proper to seize his emotions, he paused in his descent.

Grimacing, he acclimated to the new pressure of the flow of significance; it was still manageable, but getting very close to his limit. He then cast his eyes around. Gradually, the corners of his mouth quirked upward. If he could have, he would have laughed aloud.

There were quite a few shapes moving the murky darkness below him. Their robust body had his eyes sparkling with excitement. Randidly was nearing the territory of the Nether Beasts.