Chapter 1710 (1/2)
“Deal,” Randidly hissed. Velio Dunn just stared at him with a physical intensity in his dark eyes, like a man about to die of thirst who had just stumbled upon an oasis. And now he couldn’t decide whether he was going to throw himself in head first or approach slowly to savor the experience.
I got careless. Randidly gritted his teeth so hard his jaw began to ache. He twisted back forward; he didn’t dare look away from his Nether away. He couldn’t, not really. His whole body shuddered in agony and anxiety as the forces of significance within himself tried to wrangle the energy in front of him.
Randidly’s abdominal muscles tightened. He forcefully suppressed the urge to turn and look at Velio again. There was something profounding humiliating about being forced to endure the agony of absorbing a planet in front of this fucked up hitman… and it was made even worse by the fact the man was obviously enjoying the strained show.
A brief tremor ran through Randidly’s body, causing a very small flaw to emerge within the Nether Array that was dragging Tellus into his body. A burning line of agony forked sideways across his torso. One of his ribs popped underneath the pressure. He could feel his tight abs fray at the edges as he tried to keep himself stabilized.
Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 369!
... I don’t have the spare attention for you right now… Randidly hissed and shut out Velio Dunn and Claudette and everything else. It made him even more vulnerable to a sneak attack… but Randidly had endured a blow from Velio in the past. With the improvements he had made since then, he was confident that he could survive a strike.
Besides, Velio might have complained that most people he challenged too quickly, but that was because he was overwhelmingly powerful. Randidly truly believed that man to be one that would decide to savor the approach before quenching his thirst.
The only question is… what exactly does he crave so deeply…? But the distraction caused another twisting pulse of pressure to run through the array. Randidly shook himself and redirected his attention to the energy flowing outward from his Nether Core.
Congratulations! Your Skill Precise Nether Ritual (L) has grown to Level 389!
He threw every ounce of his Willpower into stabilizing the Nether array. With his tail flicking back and forth, the out-of-alignment support structure gradually smoothed. The prehensile appendage was the only part of himself that could move freely and it used that freedom to gracefully spin out thick strands of Nether. When the horrible grinding pressure of the process had the rest of his body tense and sweating, his tail brought the Nether Array back on track.
Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 370!
Significance swirled around Randidly like he was a drain in the Nexus portion universe. He was sucking at the thin layer of Nether beneath the System, but an energy movement that significant began to drag Aether along with it. Meanwhile, inch by inch, the essence of Tellus poured into his body.
Influence +4!
Influence +4!
Influence +4!
…
Randidly couldn’t resist releasing a groan. For a brief second, Velio Dunn’s amused laughter distracted him and the Nether began to twist again, but his tail had somehow developed the equivalent of ‘balance’ in regards to utilizing Nether. No sooner had he lost his equilibrium than it acted and restored the proper framework. Randidly calmed his breathing and ignored how his exhales were coming out as steam. Nether roared through his veins, warming his muscles.
Randidly felt like he was a dog chew toy stuck in the maw of a tyrannosaurus rex. The moments of prolonged straining, desperately pulling without any shift in the Nether Array, were commoditized packets of hell that he had to simply withstand. And it was made even worse when a moment’s distraction lost him all the momentum he had built up within the array.
I… suppose I have no choice… He hated his weakness and the danger he put himself into, but Randidly ruthlessly shut off access to his physical senses. He floated in darkness, orienting himself by the complex flows of energy that he had created.
The Nether Array strained for several seconds and Randidly trembled… but then it gave the slightest bit. He tightened his grip on the Nether Array and pressed again.
He knew that Velio was probably saying something snarky and hypocritical, but he couldn’t acknowledge it. The margin for error right now was practically nonexistent. Partially because of the process… but also partially because the addition of Tellus to his Alpha Cosmos felt… different than the prior planets.
The significance that thundered into his body was wild and free, just like the spear-users that populated Tellus. Immediately, Randidly felt their resistance to being incorporated into the rotating current of energy within the Alpha Cosmos. The significance flowed freely… but there was friction as it incorporated itself within Randidly’s Nether that was the worst sort of mental indigestion. And this was just the start.
In those strained moments of hellish stillness, more and more significance funneled down through Randidly’s Nether Array and crammed itself into him.
His body stiffened and his chest cavity was steadily collapsed underneath the mounting pressure of absorbing this planet. His breath hissed involuntarily through his teeth as his lungs were compressed. His muscles flexed, but he remained almost totally transfixed. The Nether Ritual heaved and thrummed, tension running up and down through the support structures.
Tellus barely budged.
He could hear the whispers of the planet’s significance. We do not need you, stranger. We can take care of ourselves. Such is the way.
Influence +5!
Influence +5!
…
Yet he could not dwell on how far he had yet to go. He could only force himself to ignore his weariness and continue working.
Randidly would have licked his lips if he could. Nether howled outward from his rotating Nether Core and crashed through his body. That Nether initiated a current that tugged on the Nether Array, urging the assimilation of Tellus. But this was not a planet that had been left to cool for a long time. Even though most of modern Tellus’ history was the slog through the Second Calamity, the spear-users had not bowed their head even when a large portion of the population wasted away without enough access to Aether. They were still growing, rebounding with triumph after Shal had finally broken the stasis of the planet.