Chapter 1586 (2/2)

Slowly, a lazy smile stretched across Randidly’s face. Energy rotated through his Nether Core and then reinforced his body, strengthening his physical form even further. Heh. But in the end… I can finally get out of this place…

For a few minutes, Randidly took the time to examine his state. The first thing he noticed was that some of the aches and discomfort in his body weren’t just due to the return of his consciousness after experiencing his Fatepiece; he also was extremely famished. While his projected consciousness was working on the Nether Core, it had taken most of his image strength as well. Only now was Yggdrasil feeding energy into his body so it didn’t continue wasting away.

Second, although he now shared a powerful connection with his Nether Core, the shade was currently hiding that valuable item in the Seventh Cohort. Randidly would need to retrieve the Nether Core and Expira at some point. He had a foggy understanding of what the shade had done, but he would know more when he got out of the shaft and merged with the shade.

Along that lines, Randidly’s own Nether within his body was rather feeble; the shade had taken the Nether Nebula with it when it had left.

It was about that time that Randidly’s confused senses suddenly detected ambient emotional discomfort in the air, not coming from him. Randidly opened his eyes and then squinted for a second to get used to the sensory information. Gradually, his rusty eyes got used to the act of seeing. But his slow adjustment gave Randidly a little bit of pause.

Exactly how long has it been since I started the Visage of Obsession…? Hah… hopefully I went deep enough that the recruits haven’t been sent to the frontlines...

When Randidly could focus on surroundings, he found himself floating in darkness. But nearby was a dusky-skinned creature that was clearly a Nether Gatekeeper. Just as soon as Randidly felt alarm from being vulnerable while next to this creature, he noticed again that the figure opposite him was staring at him with alarmed eyes.

Apparently, his awakening came as quite a shock to the antlered Nether Gatekeeper. And through his suddenly exquisite ability to read other people’s emotions, Randidly released that he was actually the more sociable individual between the two of them.

Randidly cleared his throat awkwardly and spoke in a husky voice. “How do you do…”

The speaking set him to coughing, so Randidly reached into his interspatial ring and removed a jug of water, which he promptly downed. For good measure, he removed some dried boar meat and devoured that to give his gurgling stomach something to gnaw on. After licking his fingers to clean them of crumbs, he produced another jug of water and drained that one too.

Much more confident, Randidly smiled at the Nether Gatekeeper. “Hello, it is nice to meet you. I’m Randidly Ghosthound. Thank you very much for protecting my body; I wouldn’t want to fall to the bottom of this hellhole.”

The Nether Gatekeeper in front of Randidly continued to frown. The strange sensation of seeing the expression, sensing the ambient emotions, and also feeling the shifting features through Nether Sensation was a strange one. But Randidly suddenly sensed a thin tendril of Nether reaching out toward him.

After a hesitation, he accepted it. Suddenly, he understood through the bridge the Nether Gatekeeper’s worry. Randidly grinned at the him he faced, because the thoughts he could read felt very masculine. “Don’t worry, I may not be the same as the shade, but I’ll honor its promise. I can take you out of here.”

Finally, the Nether Gatekeeper’s expression eased. Just from its obvious display of emotions, Randidly could tell how honest and naive of a being this Nether Gatekeeper was. Compared to the violent monsters that Randidly had fought on the frontlines…

This might be a Nether Gatekeeper in its true form.

But then Randidly raised up his hand. “I know it is a little dishonest to impose restrictions on our agreement now… but I’ll need your word that you will stay with me and assist me with the usage of Nether… for at least…” Randidly considered briefly. “...one year. But during that time, you will also have my protection. I’ll teach you about the current state of the Nexus. Because…”

Randidly was monitoring the reactions from the Nether Gatekeeper in front of him very carefully as he spoke. But to his relief, through the Nether connection, the Nether Gatekeeper seemed very accepting of this deal. It even agreed that such a pact was in both parties' best interest. So Randidly sensed the truth of his statement even as he finished saying it. “...because you’ve never been outside of the shaft. And I don’t want the authorities of the Nexus to capture you and find out what happened to me here. Our interests are aligned.”

Sensing the Nether Gatekeeper’s continued assent, Randidly opened a portal to his Alpha Cosmos and warned the fellow not to cause any trouble or fight anyone. With that problem solved, Randidly pulled out his Philosopher’s Key. But he clicked his tongue when it still couldn’t connect to outside this prison.

Randidly could reach outside to his own Nether Core, but he couldn’t connect the spaces.

But honestly, he preferred to make this journey the hard way. Grinning, Randidly looked upward and cracked his knuckles. Then he began to accelerate, pushing himself faster and faster with Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart until the air began whipping around him like blades. His heart began to pound.

When Randidly passed the place where the automatons were floating, he accelerated further in a massive display of his shrieking Stillborn Phoenix image, producing a sonic boom that blasted away all the porcelain dolls in his path.