Chapter 1665 (1/2)

Long hours of tension left Randidly’s veins bulging in a grotesque manner across his arms and neck. His teeth were pressed tightly shut, a single twitch from painful grinding. His powerful muscles were practically wood at this point, tightening around his bones and binding him into a single, splayed position.

This… cannot continue.

Congratulations! Your Skill Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 370!

It was, Randidly admitted to himself with quite a bit of deserve self-exasperation, impossible to forcefully overcome the electromagnetic manifestations of his Fatepiece with muscular strength. Or rather, there wasn’t really any point to resisting the energy directly; the Hierarchy of Demand needed an outlet for the universal drag, not someone who could withstand that energy while maintaining his normal life.

This wasn’t a weight he needed to lift, but more of a river that he needed to allow to flow over him.

With that in mind, Randidly gradually released an aggrieved sigh and quieted the growling Grim Chimera in his chest. A nebula of swirling negative emotions had steadily gathered around him over the past several days as he gritted his teeth and threw every muscle in his body against the electrifying serpents, but now he directed the Stillborn Phoenix to devour all of that pooling strife and struggle.

Instead of straining, Randidly just breathed. The natural and mundane movements of a body gradually asserted themselves. His thrashing body continued to twitch and twist, but the violence of the movements steadily fell as he restrained himself. Soon he floated in the misty void while being afflicted by the occasional twitch, but surrendering to the muscle spasms robbed his body of its tension and therefore the painful side effects.

Still, it does fucking feels like a surrender… Randidly thought with a sardonic smile. Then he shook his head at his own aggression. Honestly, there was no need to rush to complete this Fatepiece. There were several levels before Randidly even got to the next layer of the damn thing. Taking his time was for the best.

Besides, the current layer basically just improved Randidly’s understanding and control over his own muscles and skeleton. The annoying serpents of electricity did an annoyingly thorough job of pointing out the areas in his body that were constructed subtly different than they had been when he was wholly human. He had obviously investigated himself somewhat after being remade by the Grim Chimera, but when he noticed human-looking areas, Randidly had admittedly assumed that the functions and tendons of those areas would be the same.

As Randidly continued to breathe, his bulging veins thankfully receded to within his flesh.

In a way, the Fatepiece currently benefited Randidly most by showing him just what sort of being he now was. But this sort of understanding wasn’t something that could be rushed; Randidly decided to relax in the face of electricity and turn his focus to other things.

Still, that didn’t mean that Randidly would simply rest upon this modest success. He closed his eyes and traveled to that growing sympathy between himself and the Hierarchy of Burden. He readied himself and then increased the strength of the connection.

Influence +15!

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Hierarchy of Burden has grown to Level 4!

Randidly spread his arms in the shaft, moving slowly so as to minimize any spastic tremors due to the constant stream of electricity swimming through his flesh. The first few moments were always the hardest when increasing the Level of this Fatepiece. The abrupt presence of the empowered forces always ended up being more disruptive than the enduring forces themselves. The newly invigorated pythons of crimson electricity twined up and down his arms and legs, lashing out with their tongues and tails to trigger his major muscle groups.

Which meant that for a few minutes, Randidly once more twitched like a mutt being devoured by an army of fleas.

But inevitably, Randidly’s body adjusted. His powerful flesh accepted the unpredictable impulses of the Hierarchy. Gradually, he could relax. And once Randidly had enough spare attention to deal with other things, he focused elsewhere and allowed his body to adjust subconsciously. His attention could shift to the heavy lining of Nether that was now contained in his Soulspace.

Obviously using up this Nether now meant that Randidly would need to spend more time accumulating before he could attempt to weave a Nether Ritual around a whole world, but he was quite impressed by the amount of Nether he had gathered over the past several days. It was becoming increasingly clear that his Influence was at least partially responsible for the volume of Nether that he could create, just like his Weight governed how dense he could make that Nether. And with the rate that Randidly’s Influence continued to rise due to Expira and the Alpha Cosmos… he wasn’t worried about gathering enough energy for the Nether Ritual any longer.

The only problem was whether he possessed the requisite Skill to control a Nether Ritual of this magnitude.

Before he began practicing, Randidly did his best to gather up all of the information and inspiration he had gathered from watching the Nether King and condense it down into a letter. He sent this letter into the Alpha Cosmos to Wendy, who would pass it through the portal archways and give it to Neveah. Now that Expira was intimately and mysteriously connected with his body, communication was possible, despite the all-consuming mass of significance below.

Which also means that I didn’t have to waste several months refusing to back down in the face of this electricity...

Randidly was definitely the more skilled between the two of them when it came to working with Nether, but Neveah was still extremely talented when it came to understanding Aether. With how much time she spent studying the legacy of Yystrix, she would undoubtedly have some insight of her own.

Then Randidly raised his hands, not bothering with the intermittent trembling. His senses began to gather Nether at the ready. His Willpower stirred. Then, when he had the right vision for what he wanted, he began to weave a massive envelope with thick cords of Nether.

Congratulations! Your Skill Left Hand of the Nether Oracle (M) has grown to Level 310!

Influence +11!

Congratulations! Your Skill Precise Nether Ritual (L) has grown to Level 288!

Randidly’s eyes glittered in the dark shaft as Nether began to flow in intricate patterns in front of him. The working gradually expanded, taking advantage of the vast emptiness in the surrounding space. However, the size of the tight weave of Nether only made the flaws more obvious.