Chapter 1654 (2/2)

Randidly’s focus narrowed even further. Distantly the pain registered, but he was more concerned with the details: this particular rupture began at his right shoulder and snaked downward toward his heart. Without feeling much of anything at the prospect, Randidly observed his own heart being torn in half.

At this point, a heart and a pinky finger and an ear were all similarly replaceable.

After the organ was eviscerated, the Stillborn Phoenix was able to hungrily devour the rest of this dangerous intrusion’s momentum. His body began healing even as strikes occurred at his left ankle and right hip. His left crunched into a muddy mix of blood and powdered bone while his lower intestines were diced into marble-sized chunks.

The bright light of the Inscrutable Mien of Genesis suppressed the worst of the problems so healing could begin. Yggdrasil gliding smoothly with the methods of Ripple of Amenonuhoko wove through his body. From the depths of the Grim Chimera, something began to simmer and release a pulse of light.

However, Randidly didn’t have time for trivialities. His rate of healing was slowing. After considering the problem, he began to actively guide the invading wounds to destroy him in more permanent and damaging ways. Specifically, Randidly used the invasive energy to induce a strange calcification in his wounded limbs that lingered as his blood dried.

He would still be able to heal such wounds, but the process would leave his limbs stiff and rigid. So in the aftermath of being broken, it would be more difficult to injure him further, rather than easier.

Randidly’s mind was fuzzy, but the Struggle was eternal. As it was with all things, the patterns of life repeatedly themselves endlessly.

Wound.

Heal.

Wound.

Heal.

Wound.

The light from the Grim Chimera continued to grow. Something could happen soon if Randidly could trigger it. He felt like it would be a positive change… but the current Randidly was numb and fuzzy. Rather than risking everything on an unknown gamble, he much preferred the relatively predictable devastation and reform across his body.

Wound.

Heal.

Wound.

Idly, Randidly wondered whether he would ever leave the Struggle. Did he even care if he ever escaped this cycle? At this point, the pulse of the Nether Ritual that transferred unstable radiation to his body was just a part of him. Yet his Nether Core reminded him that despite the strained scenario, this incident was small compared to the length of his life.

The thoughts were meaningless and light, like dried leaves. The next invasion of foreign energy drove them away. Randidly’s resolve firmed even as his consciousness faded further. He would fight forever. That was simply the person that he was.

*****

Gradually, that horrible grey light began to recede. The was a shifting rumble and Helen was briefly disoriented. In the next instant, she fell to her knees as the ground beneath her feet lurched and her exhausted limbs couldn’t handle the shift. Their isolated space began to tilt and tumble through the air.

But just as quickly as they began falling, the floating ice ll filled with Pinnacle Seekers landed on solid ground. Helen could feel the Frost Matriarch extending her image and creating a platform of ice beneath them. Careful not to look too closely at the current form of Randidly, Helen walked to the cracked edge of their snow globe and peered outward: they were back on the surface of a planet.

After five minutes of brutal destruction, Elhume’s attack had ebbed and the separated spaces were rejoined. From their current position on an ice shelf at the edge of a vast crevasse and the large number of ruptured ridges just in the field of her vision, it seemed the return to normal space had been rather jarring for all involved.

There was a cracking noise and the pillar of ice around the Frost Matriarch fell to pieces. She stepped out of the shards of ice and shook her head. Then she glanced down at Randidly and then toward the edge of her snowglobe. “Remarkable. Truly… remarkable. He endured it.”

“But we have a problem,” Seeker Thunder Wing frowned down at the maroon-grey gargoyle that Randidly had become. “He is clearly unconscious… but his array is still functioning. Will we able to break the array from the inside?”

“We could scratch through the runes,” The Dusk Jackal huffed, but his gaze toward the Ghosthound possessed a hint of respect.

“Not to worry.” The Frost Matriarch raised a hand and waved it. The snow globe walls shattered, along with the Nether Engraving that Randidly had made. Without that foundation, the other portions of the Nether Ritual flickered and began to fade. The energy around Randidly Ghosthound finally calmed.

“Now…” The Frost Matriarch looked around at the gathered individuals. She patted Claudette fondly on the head.

Then the frost giant turned her gaze toward Helen. “I suspect you are his second? You have a choice to make. You can take him yourself… but I recommend you come with us. Randidly Ghosthound shouldn’t be too seriously injured, but his recovery will take some time… and I recommend you go somewhere beyond the reach of the orthodox Nexus factions until he has fully restored his faculties.”