Chapter 1667 (2/2)

Delilah blinked as the engine began to roar beneath her. “What? But he said-”

“Let me ask you this: what would have happened if he admitted that you might have encountered a terrorist?” Vye opened up the throttle and led the bike up into the sky. They floated up off the concrete, giving more perspective on their surroundings. The tall lump of the police compound sat before them, but as they continued to rise until Delilah could see the edge of the sky island and the wide expanse of blue around them. Casually, Vye turned and guided them toward the edge of this skyisland’s space.

As soon as they reached the edge, emerald moss spirits spun upward from the intricate machine below to form an elegant road up through the sky. Vye detached a small box from her waist and opened it. A powerful moss spirit flitted out and pulsed with authority. Instantly, Delilah’s eyes widened. This was a Key Spirit, which was only given out to important members of Kharon and the Order Ducis, which would grant them priority access to create sky roads.

Below them, Delilah could see Kharon sitting at rest. Around them, at various heights and sizes, about twenty massive sky islands guided silently forward. The moss spirits paved a dense web of emerald roads between these sky islands, forming a blinding net. But as soon as that Key Spirit pulsed, the web below trembled.

Those elastic emerald roads pulled backward, opening a direct path down to the city of Kharon. And riding an emerald wave, Vye quickly began to build up speed as she shot downward.

“Oh wow.” Delilah blinked and gripped her arms around Vye’s waist, torn between the woman’s question and the euphoric feeling of acceleration as they cut underneath slower-moving skybikes and ugly metal bugs. They continued sharply downward, too sharply to head toward Kharon, until Vye pulled sharply upward on the bike and they began to rip along the top of a low ridge.

Vye laughed a bit at Delilah’s stunned silence and continued to speak. “If Commissioner Arrietti had said this had become a serious investigation, what would you have done? Demanded that you be a part of it, even though you are a twelve-year-old girl with no experience or training to speak of. And then he would have told you not to get involved and you wouldn’t have listened. And then Commissioner Arrietti would have had the headache of trying to keep you from putting yourself stupidly in danger.”

As though to punctuate her speech, Vye twisted the accelerator on her sky bike and they jumped forward one granite hillside to another. The moss spirits whooped with glee and spun around them in a brilliant gleaming tunnel. Even with her face pressed against Vye’s shoulder, the wind was incredibly powerful. They circled widely around the expanse of Kharon, giving Delilah a gorgeous view of the at-rest Kharon, surrounded by its orbiting bits of land.

The thick emerald veins that ran upward from the resting Kharon made her think briefly of the image of Randidly Ghosthound’s Yggdrasil.

Delilah blinked several times and focused on what Vye was saying. “So you…?”

She could hear the smile in Vye’s voice. “In this case, I’m the aspirin.”

****

COME.

FIND.

ME.

Randidly hissed and started out of his meditation, shaken to his core by the powerful reverberation of the vision that he had seen when he had finished the Glimpse of the Shallah Path. His heart was pounding and he raised his hand to press against his chest, as though feeling the contractions would ease them. He drifted like that in the misty interior of the shaft for several minutes.

When he began to calm down and that overwhelming voice began to fade, he raised his fingers and rubbed his temples. His Nether Core spun fiercely, bristling at the interference. I knew the source of the voice was dangerous, but I sorta thought it would be like my first brush with Elhume, content to impact me and then too busy with its own matters to interfere further…

Randidly’s gaze toward downward. Perhaps it sensed my presence in the shaft then…? Well, nothing I can do about that now… but does that truly mean that the source of the voice is Pine…?

For several seconds, Randidly furrowed his brows and scanned the dark depths below him for any sign of a threat. The Nether Gatekeepers below continued to sit and meditate, unaware of the mental blast Randidly had just experienced. A part of him wanted to leave the shaft immediately but the combination of plentiful ambient emotions, dense Nether, time dilation, and his promise to the Nether Gatekeeper to come help its kind were rather persuasive arguments to stay.

Randidly released a breath and organized his thoughts. On the positive side of this reminder, there was no new urgency to that familiar phrase when it had shaken Randidly out of his recovery meditation. It was simply a reminder; similar to a domineering alarm clock. Because if the message truly originated from the bottom of the shaft, the sender probably had already experienced an eternity since it had contacted Randidly the first time through the Path completion vision.

More than a coincidence, this might just be that being sensing Randidly’s proximity.

Even still, Randidly decided not to listen to the voice just yet. He wanted to take advantage of his time in the shaft to make some more preparations to grow in the future. But he did resolve himself not to forget he had attracted such an entity's attention again.

Influence +16!

Humming to himself, Randidly did not return to his manipulation of Nether nor restart his acclimation to the Hierarchy of Burden, which he had stopped while he was trying to take a true rest. Instead, Randidly cracked his neck and manifested Yggdrasil around himself. Gradually, under the prodding of his Willpower, an increasingly realistic scene filled the surroundings.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 404!

Randidly heard the rustling of Yggdrasil’s leaves, felt the warm rays of sunlight filtering down through the canopy, and leaned back to press his head against the pitted bark of the world tree. He breathed out through his nose and opened his eyes, finding himself sitting in the base of his first image.

He had been inspired by Charlotte’s request and the information he had received from Octavius Shrike regarding image refinement. He didn’t have a Sculptor, but Randidly used the enormous space provided to him by the shaft to blow up his image and planned to walk amongst it and search for weaknesses.

Randidly hopped to his feet and cracked his knuckles. He grinned around, relishing the realistic sensations. The soil beneath his feet felt warm and thick. Around him were several low ferns that had evolved to grow in the shade of Yggdrasil. A colorful bird sat on top of one of those ferns, staring unnervingly at him.

Randidly chuckled. “Alright, time to get to work.