Chapter 1656 (1/2)

CRACK!

This time, the goop fractured from Randidly’s wrist up through his forearm in a sharp fracture. The whole of his form began to tremble and cracks began to appear both more frequently and more quietly along its length. Helen licked her lips, felt nothing due to the numbness, and suppressed the rising excitement in her heart.

Obviously, I didn’t think he would be stuck in there forever but… having him fucking moving again is kinda a relief…

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

Rapidly the whole of the Randidly statue began to quake and shudder. Small pieces of his dried blood began to flake off and cover the floor in a thin coating of reddish dust as bits of the goop burst under the pressure. Considering the general pristine, ivory decor of the place, Randidly Ghosthound’s molting was a cataclysmic mess.

Helen watched him messing everything up with relish.

CRACK!

With a sharp twist, Randidly’s front wrist shifted and his hand exploded with thick flakes of dried blood. His hand flashed with a glint of copper as the genuine limb managed to escape its restrictive confines. From that initial fracture, thin yet deep fissures stretched outward to weaken the imprisonment of his forearm. Small bits of crusty blood exploded from his other hand. Then a seismic anomaly began to form around his torso.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAACCKKKK!

Randidly rolled his shoulders and his hunchback, maroon torso exploded. Helen’s hand moved lighting-quick up to cover her mouth, but that couldn’t prevent her face and the exposed skin of her arms from being covered in a spray of blood dust. In fact, the thrown debris caused the rather small room to be choked with floating particles, vastly lowering visibility.

Once his shoulders were moving, the dusty hand came up and gripped at the dried gunk across his torso. In huge handfuls, Randidly tore his way out of his gargoyle skin. The pieces came away flaky and disintegrating, the material seeming to be much more hollow and porous than appeared from the outside.

Randidly rolled his shoulders again and then slammed his still immobilized metal left hand against his chest, smashing away the crusted material. Then he truly got to work, his hands blurring into veritable envoys of annihilation as he cleared off his person. The crouched, hulking giant was steadily trimmed down to the typical Randidly frame. When most of his joints were cleared, he began to more carefully pull away large plates from his face and neck. A few seconds later, he sucked in a deep breath through his now unimpeded mouth.

“Well shit,” Randidly finally said, which initiated a long spree of coughing. He spat an indeterminate kind of particulate onto the grown and then grimaced. “I feel… disgusting. And I think this shit is all through my hair… Heh, is my hair longer...?”

Helen shrugged. “I can’t see much about your hair through all that gunk on you… but I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”

“Dangerous news?” Suddenly there was a heaviness to the air and Randidly looked at Helen with sharp eyes. Her mouth twitched and she shook her head hurriedly to ease the mood. The dangerous edge in Randidly’s expression disappeared and he pondered for a few seconds. “...alright, I’ll take the non-dangerous good news first.”

“We each have a private bathroom,” Helen announced and gestured to a door across the room. “I don’t know how they manage it with the local temperature, but they have working showerheads. Not as sophisticated as Expira, but definitely better than dunking yourself in a barrel, like on Tellus.”

“And the bad news?” Randidly was working on his waist now, clearing out the enormous pile of gunk that covered his lower back and down his thighs.

Helen steeled her gaze and spoke with a look of the utmost pity. “This is the home of the Frost Matriarch. There is no hot water.”

“Ha.” Randidly snorted. Then he shook his head. Almost immediately, Helen felt a change in the temperature of the room. Randidly was pumping out heat more effectively than a furnace, even as he grinned over at her. “Annoying… but I think I can manage.”

Fucking bullshit side-effect of all the physical training you do, Helen thought sourly as Randidly turned away and waddled awkwardly toward the bathroom with his legs still partially encumbered. At the moment, it looked like he was carrying a suitcase-sized plaster tumor on his lower back. As soon as he had gone, Helen spared only a single glance for the reddish mound of dirt and debris that Randidly had made on the ground before she turned on her heel and marched back to her own quarters. Until he finished cleaning himself up, Helen planned on meditating on her image.

She sat on the ground and quickly got into the right mindset, but then was quickly distracted by a steady stream of steam flowing from beneath the door of her own bathroom into her resting quarters. The two bathrooms were sandwiched between her and Randidly’s quarters, so the commotion that he was making leaked over into her area. Which was double frustrating, not only because of the distraction it caused to her training but also because of her own agonizing experience with cleaning herself. Yet here Randidly was, somehow managing to turn the whole wing of the Frost Matriarch’s compound into a sauna.

With a throbbing vein in her forehead, Helen closed her eyes and ignored the rising temperature and humidity. Luckily, it didn’t seem like Randidly struggled to clean himself off; five minutes later, there was a knock at her door. But what she hadn’t expected was how awkward Randidly sounded when he cleared his throat behind the door.

“Ah… mmmm, there have been a few… changes to my body due to the Grim Chimera. So…”

He trailed off, still hidden by the door between. Eyes sparkling at Randidly’s obvious vulnerability, Helen leapt to her feet and walked quickly toward the door. Her lips were constantly twitching as she settled her hand on the doorknob, so Helen did her best to school her expression. Changes? To his body? Heh, used the Grim Chimera too much and suddenly you look like a monster? Serves you right. Tsk, tsk, kekekeke, I shouldn’t say this… but will a beautiful woman like Vualla really settle for some ghastly skeleton…? Ah, apologies Neveah…