Chapter 1714 (1/2)

Error! Recalculating…

Please see your nearest Village Spirit-

Resonance detected. Recalculating…

Take that last step. Reach for it. Randidly whispered to himself. The golden seed within the Grim Chimera popped silently and from that core a wave of significance, images, and emotions seeped through the cracks in the Grim Chimera, unwinding the base pattern of its existence. It was water poured over a castle of sand. The details of the image began to melt more quickly… And then-

Then, strangely, within Randidly’s Soulspace, his Dreamcatcher of the Long Night activated for the second unexpected time during this conflict. The Fatepiece resonated with the change in the Grim Chimera, releasing a bright ray of meaning of its own that wove into the melting details of the image. The energy and connection and significance of the destabilized image was thick and almost incestuous, so strands unwound and spun together and the sources were unidentifiable.

Then the undoing reached the core of the Grim Chimera. Everything was tumbling apart, separating into the base iotas of meaning and image. Randidly hissed and stiffened slightly during those few moments; a strange ringing emerged in his ear as his image was rooted out of him, totally blasted apart into motes of dust and meaning… and then sucked back together to condense into a new form.

Several strange phenomena that existed as the opposite of ripples manifested, centering on the place where the Grim Chimera once was. From the uncaring cosmos, a way approached from every direction at once, meeting with a soft impact in the middle. Those base meaning and images were buoyed along, carried toward that central implosion.

Once, twice, three times. And suddenly there was a body, fully formed and waiting.

Time slowed in reality as Randidly’s thoughts accelerated to follow the shift in his image. The condensed form of the newer Grim Chimera was just as monstrous but more compact. Two tails still flicked behind its body, one from the waist and one from the base of its neck. Its left arm still was armored, but the bulkiness had been stripped away. Its right arm still ended in sharpened fingers. Black, lacquered armor stretched down across his lower body and reinforced his knees and ankles.

But more than anything else, looked at the face of the Grim Chimera and saw… himself. More than human, but still a person. An individual who had taken on many roles in the past… and now reached for the capability to take action against the Nexus.

You walked with me this entire way. Randidly’s eyes glittered as he looked at himself. But we still have much more growing to do, don’t we? We will follow this Path to the end.

Congratulations! Your Skillset the Supremacy of the Grim Chimera (T) has evolved into Kismet of the Evolving Creature (P)!

An evolving… Creature huh… The ghost of a smile danced across Randidly’s face. Some part of him still recoiled, but he couldn’t fault the term. In his heart, it held too much complicated meaning to escape from it. Then the flood of notifications arrived as the meaning he had absorbed surged through his Skills and warped some of them.

Warning, recalculating… Please see-

Your Skills are evolving!

Congratulations! Your Skill Cursed Appetite of a Wraith (L) has evolved into The Wandering Deity Demands (T)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Congratulations! Your Skill Reaper’s Mantle of Catastrophe (L) has evolved into The Maelstrom Entity Approaches (T)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Congratulations! Your Skill Pernicious Fang of the Shade (L) has evolved into The Ashen Doors to Pandemonium Unlock (M)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Congratulations! Your Skill Man is Proud, But the Chimera Takes (L) has evolved into the Vindictive Chimera Smites (M)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Congratulations! Your Skill The Chimera Weeps as Man Mourns (L) has evolved into The Wrathful Calamity Rends (T)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ruin is Inevitable, Yet This Too Shall Pass (T) has evolved into The Grey Creature Glimpses Providence (P)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Randidly felt the new Skills of the Grim Chimera… or perhaps now, the Grey Creature, settling within the body of the image. They sharpened his claws, drew the swirling ash through the air around his body, and added a deific element to the bearing of the Grey Creature as he raised his head. Within those Skills dealt all of the accumulation of the toil done by the human Randidly, who had struggled for so long to seize the power to make a difference.

He looked at himself in the reflected expression of the Grey Creature and felt a sad smile crossing his features. And as I look at myself… I see my sins just as strongly as I see my virtues.

Perhaps due to the way he had upgraded the Skillset’s Rarity, the mixture of Skills was somewhat… eclectic. But Randidly could see within them the tools he needed.

For now, it had to be enough.

He shook himself lightly and the grey wreathed Creature he had become reached out and touched Yggdrasil and the Stillborn Phoenix. The two images hesitated for a second, but then quickly followed the familiar sympathy between them and merged together. A booming resonance quaked Randidly’s body as the three images now possessed equal Rarity. The combined force of his images made his chest hum.

At the same time, a slightly twitching Acri unwound itself from Randidly’s arm. The wound of the severed third portion of the spearhead had scabbed over and the blade of its spear had been altered to compensate. Rather than the equilateral triangle that it had been previously, the wounded Acri had an edge only on one side of the head, more like a glave than a true spear. Strange, grey ripples spread across the length of Acri’s shaft as Randidly’s fingers tightened on the weapon.

He couldn’t study the effect quite yet, but its seemed that Acri had only begun its long-awaited evolution.

Velio Dunn’s slash stretched outward from his dull sword, but Randidly looked up and snorted. He saw that bleak zone of annihilation swinging toward him and dismissed it out of hand. The Grey Creature within him showed his hungry teeth. Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil. Revelations of the Atramentous Threshold… The Vindictive Chimera Smites.

Randidly’s eyes widened purple-black revelation energy as he observed the possibilities of Velio’s attacks. He reinforced his body with the hardy wood of Yggdrasil. Then he raised the glave Acri and shot forward to smite this foe.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!