Chapter 1571 (2/2)

His heart began to pound as his hand flicked side to side, guiding the molten metal through the air in front of him at higher and higher speeds. It flowed in a large figure eight, then spun off to the side and spiraled into a vortex from a twitch of his finger. The bulging and distorted forms of overly emotional Yggdrasil and Grim Chimera combed their power through the material, removing any weaknesses they found.

When finally the refinement process seemed unable to locate any flaws, he proceeded to the next step. With tight Control, Randidly began separating the large batch of satisfactory molten metal into smaller clumps. Soon, nearly two hundred beads of metal in varying sizes trembled in the air.

Randidly sneered and mobilized every ounce of force he could from his manipulation of gravity. Huge distortions smashed into the molten metal beads as he began to shape them. But before he fully committed to moving onto the next portion of the forging, his eyes flashed. His mouth opened and he unleashed a pure, screaming note that dwarfed even the Stillborn Phoenix at its most shrill.

Of course, the note created no noise. But the pressure coming from his emotions spiked upward. They spiraled together and resonated with that note until the majority of those emotional flames condensed into a tight stone in front of Randidly’s mouth. He drove every last drop of emotion in his body to that crystalized point. Then, as his expulsion of the emotions continued, the stone cracked.

BOOOOOOOM!

This produced a definite noise, bits of smote crystal smashing against Randidly’s face and chest and unleashing a wave of force that distorted the surrounding air. That wave ripped through the floating marbles of metal, tearing huge gashes in their form. Luckily, that wave of force passed harmlessly through the Nether Ritual. But as it escaped into the surrounding air, Randidly curiously noted that it seemed to frighten away any of the ambient emotions.

Tsk, so the secret to crystalizing Aether comes from emotion, huh…? How the hell did I even manage to do that…?

The Nether Beasts stirred to investigate the disturbance as Randidly fell from his emotional intensity, but they still weren’t able to peer through the Nether Ritual. For now, it seemed like he was proceeding as planned.

With renewed clarity in his movements, Randidly slowly blinked. Then he raised his right hand in front of him. Although his heart continued to pound and shake his body, the emotional flames dimmed across his body. The extended state of agony steadily eased. For now, he was spent.

Congratulations! Your Skill Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart (T) has grown to Level 301!

Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 306!

Gradually, Randidly’s breathing continued to fall toward normalcy as he continued his work on the metal limb. After the explosion of fury, his emotions receded like a tide, leaving him feeling somewhat numb. That tingling numbness didn’t detract from his conviction, however. His mental edge seemed to be all the sharper, fully revealed after the departure of his emotions.

His senses narrowed on the waiting beads of metal in front of him.

Whatever that emotional wave had been, it had baptized the remaining metal. As continued to shape the material into his arm, he could feel the physical form of the metal sometimes bend in unpredictable ways. The way the material folded spoke to an existence that perhaps had incorporated a bit of his Grim Chimera, allowing the material to somehow ‘avoid’ a portion of its mass. Whether that was a good or a bad thing, however...

Even with a diminished wildness in his heart, Randidly still smiled widely at the result. Somehow, I can tell that this result is exceedingly special…

Then his grin shrank somewhat as a more wry portion of his humor reared its head. At the very least… I will no longer need to weave these Nether Rituals and do Engravings with just one arm… fuck, but it’s been quite annoying to be so imbalanced like this…

Small physical deviations aside, the actual shaping was the quickness of the steps to creating an arm. In this iteration, Wendy had set aside the idea of scale mail at Randidly’s request; the pieces had simply become too small to contain the power of the Engraving he needed. Part of that was materials, but some of the individual scales had been wearing out prior to Velio Dunn’s devastating strike. The arm might have lasted enough year at that pace, but it was still disappointing to Randidly that there were already signs of failure.

The metal was shaped and tempered, then cooled to slowly settle into its new shape. Gradually, the sharp-edged components formed in front of him.

The new form had been inspired by his Grim Chimera image, but it wasn’t overly reliant on the image. Unlike the hollow options he created previously, this arm would literally be composed of both a refined inner limb and a thick layer of armor that would be wrapped around it. Randidly would need to help reshape Sulfur so he wasn’t taking the place of the limb, but that was probably for the best.

Sulfur simply wasn’t made for the delicate touch required by Randidly in his training or normal life.

Most of the tiny pieces in front of him were bits of the complicated hand; that was the portion with the most difficulty in assembly. Even so, Randidly rapidly spun the pieces together to create the final form. Like pieces of a puzzle guiding themselves into their natural place, Randidly observed with great satisfaction as his limb was completed.

It floated in front of him, the final result radiating a powerful emotional light.

With a nod, Randidly waved his hand; the arm and armor around it disassembled itself. The pieces spun outward and arranged themselves in front of Randidly. He raised his right hand and Mana rushed toward his fingers. It was time to Engrave.