Chapter 1602 (1/2)
Neshamah Rex tapped her finger against the wooden table with as much consistency as a metronome. Although she knew logically she should feel so anxious, she couldn’t manage to scratch some inner itch that continued to nag at her. The confident expression of Randidly Ghosthound appeared in her mind. Perhaps in two weeks, I’ll prove you wrong once again.
“If you want to join the hunt, don’t stop on my account,” Gabriel Swacc said lazily. Both were sitting in a small tent within the Aether Headquarters on the Fifth Cohort. Due to the other powerful figures congregated together in this area, even the struggle that wrecked the sky above them didn’t disturb their leisure within the tent. “Honestly, I feel like Commandant Wick’s hardheadedness is a shame. The first truly wild Nether King in ages and he insists on holding him at bay while we hunt? Barely even a challenge.”
“No, it isn’t that…” Neshamah Rex said slowly. Her tapping stopped. She raised her gaze to the well-woven canvas roof of the tent. With a thought, she detached a single particle of her Nether and flicked it up toward the roof. It passed cleanly through and flowed rapidly upward into the chaotic sky. She honestly had no idea why she was so tense; as far as she could tell, there was no reason to be.
Yet…
“Well, I suppose even if this ends up being an anticlimactic situation, you wouldn’t mind,” Gabriel Swacc said with naked envy in his voice. The scaled humanoid leaned back in his chair, his dull red coloration catching the dim light from the torches. “The reward for the Nether King’s Capture is an unlimited ticket to Alymian, the Pinnacle of Dreams, but such an item must seem petty to the daughter of Solomon Rex.”
Neshamah pressed her lips together and ignored Gabriel. Her relationship with Gabriel was necessarily close, due to their two family’s combined image purification efforts, but there was no need to humor his tantrums. Instead, Neshamah’s attention remained with the small bit of Nether that she sent upward. With her Weight, she just barely managed to keep that bit of Nether from being assimilated or obliterated and used that small piece to sense the situation above them.
Due to her high Synechdochence, the Nether Core Attribute that was unlocked at the Legendary Rarity, a single mite of her Nether possessed an impressive percentage of the influence that the whole of her Nether Core could mobilize. So with that single bit of Nether, she observed the confrontation in the sky with the exacting insight that only someone who possessed Nether could rival.
Her expression soon became solemn. What she observed made her glad her instincts had guided her in this way; the wide-spread claim that the Commandant Wick was ‘merely engaging the Nether King to make his eventual capture that much easier’ was obviously a farce.
From what Neshamah could see, the prideful Commandant was barely holding his own. This Nether King was strong.
So if we are making a mistake here… who has tricked us? Neshamah reasoned to herself as considered the possibilities. Who is fleecing who in this situation…?
“Gabriel…” Neshamah began slowly. It wasn’t a good clue, but it might lead to something meaningful. “Have you heard about any shift in the Nether Core Lattice that the Engraving Guild possesses?”
“Huh? Those old farts? Bah.” Gabriel Swacc spat to the side, despite the fact that he held just as important a position within the Engraving Guild as the Nether Experimenters did. “I doubt it. All they can do is whine about obtaining more experiment specimens. If they have managed to change at all in the last ten years, I’ll eat an entire Nether Beast.”
“Hmmm.” So it wasn’t the Engraving Guild then. Neshamah’s tapping resumed. But from the depths of herself, she sensed a hint of anticipation. “Well, who knows. Sometimes… rarely… life can surprise you.”
*****
In the time since Randidly had last seen them, his Riders of the Baleful Court had not been sitting idle. His Alpha Cosmos was populated with enough strange and violent creatures for them to sharpen their blades to a deadly point in the interim.
When he had unleashed them on the frontlines, the only reasons they had been able to hold their own against the Nether Beasts were their numbers and the aura that Randidly released to assist them. Now, the individual strength of the Riders had risen to even a bit above these improved Nether Beasts.
Needless to say, the addition of their tactics made it a bit of a stretch to call this a battle. The Riders moved with the Elite Squads, cutting through the desperate Nether Beasts with less speed than Randidly’s Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil, but still with visible ease.
Congratulations! Your Skill Riders of the Baleful Court (A) has grown to Level 317!
Congratulations! Your Skill Ruinous Drive (Ru) has grown to Level 183!
Randidly folded his arms and watched. Led by the unstoppable, stomping charge of the Rhino-mounts, a large wedge was pushed directly forward like a bare blade toward the giant mound of Nether. While his subordinates acquainted themselves with their butchery, Randidly did two things. One was studying the Nether flows of these enemies, including the construction of the grand Nether Sphere. He dearly wanted to shear the entire thing in half and study how the transport worked.
Secondly, he continued to try and replicate the granular manipulation of Nether that he had seen in the Nether King’s Ritual by way of Ruinous Drive. He slowly could account for his insufficient Control with experience, but his improvement was only taking baby steps.
But even so, it was earning him quite a few Skill Levels in the process-
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRR!
Randidly’s eyes instantly sharpened as a loud cry rose from the half-buried Nether Sphere. As he had expected, when the forces of Aether came too close, the top portion of the sphere began to bubble and seethe. Several larger, more ominous figures clambered out of the strange, porous surface: Nether Gatekeepers.
Nether Sensation sprang into overdrive as Randidly watched the Nether Gatekeepers descend off the sphere with all the righteous indignation of gods. DiOrtho, Charlotte, Vizzeret, Kallum, Jieu, and the leaders of the Rider groups moved forward to meet the Nether Gatekeepers. Randidly kept his Ruinous Drive active, but he pulled back some of the Nether support he gave his recruits; they should learn to stand before the oppression of a true Nether Gatekeeper without being in his shadow.
And for the most part… they performed splendidly. DiOrtho especially, due to his five-year advantage, possessed a dominant image that pinned five Nether Gatekeepers down.
As with the Nether Beasts, these Nether Gatekeepers were more powerful than the variety that Randidly had fought on the frontlines. But still, it only took a few seconds of studying for Randidly to realize something. These Nether Gatekeepers… are more powerful sure, but most of that is a result of superior potential. Because these free Nether Gatekeeper possess superior Nether Cores to those raised by the Nexus
...But most of that superiority is just potential; from what I can sense on the cores, that potential probably mirrors perfectly the Nether Gatekeepers I encountered in the shaft. But the Engravings on these Nether Core haven’t had time to deepen; these Nether Gatekeepers aren’t ripe yet. So why is the Nether King going on such a furious offensive if his army will only grow more powerful as time passes…?
For now, Randidly didn’t have any theories on the Nether King’s motivations. But he tucked that knowledge away for later. In the meantime, he cracked his knuckles and produced Sulfur and Acri. Both quickly moved into their position, with Sulfur covering his upper torso and a large portion of his left arm. Acri raised its spearhead and chirped.
Randidly nodded with relish. “Yup. It’s about time to go wild.”
As if on cue, DiOrtho’s Machine Horror screeched and lashed upward. Two Nether Gatekeepers were forced backward and the ram-demon accelerated to thrust a blade and directly impact a third Gatekeeper’s core.