Fucking brutal Thea thought with a fair bit of respect But her ax took on a life of its own as it twisted upward in a Reaping Cut The blow smashed into that fucking metallic arm of RandidlyÆs even as he savaged her calf with a thrust as fast and poisonous as a viper bite She stumbled but the telltale sparkle of a determined spectral fire burned along the cut she had just made
There was a flash of relief in her chest It will have to be enough Spectral Detonation
The fire exploded sending Thea sprawling backward toward the portal Again vines rose like hungry snakes from the ground to snap at her but her ax cut sideways through them and opened a path Behind her she heard RandidlyÆs furious hiss but the Wildness had caught up with Randidly again and the Ghosthound had to choose between protecting himself and stopping TheaÆs crazed dash
He chose self preservation
One Cut One Sacrifice
Thea tumbled through the portal and sprung immediately to her feet Her leg was out of commission but she balanced expertly on the other foot The first thing she did was spin and bring the pommel of her ax against the Winged Serpent temple like a hammer The thing yelped and collapsed knocked out Then she brought another Reaping Cut down on the delicately arrange teleportation array shattering it
The portal flickered then rapidly began to fade
To TheaÆs relief Randidly was too preoccupied by the Wildness to stop it
Chapter 905
Thanks by the way Randidly said
The corner of LucretiaÆs mouth quirked upward Think nothing of it Perhaps it’s revealing my hand a bit to say this but for anyone who reads energy it is easy to sense when you enter and leave the world And when you entered and left so quickly Well I knew that there had to be a very compelling reason
Either way thank you Randidly said again Especially for that bit of information Was it a warning Well for now itÆs probably fine but it’s something to keep in mind
The two of them were deep within LucretiaÆs stone home in the newly established city of Radice in RandidlyÆs Soulskill This city was the first expansion from the starting location for these refugees and the camps underneath the various lighthouses that were slowly being uncovered It was a city made specifically to serve as a capital
After taking care of the Nemesai the first thing he had done was return to his Soulskill to check on Kiersty When he rushed back to her side he was already fearing the worst Luckily she was already being cared for
Apparently from sensing his arrival and departure Lucretia had gone to the spot and seen to providing Kiersty medical attention As such the young teen was only unconscious when Randidly returned her to Earth and put her into the very capable hands of Regina Northwind and her team of doctors Under their watchful eye Randidly could rest assured
After which Randidly returned to the Soulskill to speak with Lucretia Because they had received a big haul this time And not much time to benefit from it If it hadnÆt been KierstyÆs life that was at stake Randidly likely would not have waited this long
As if sensing RandidlyÆs change in mood Lucretia beckoned for him to follow her and they walked up the stone stairs to a rather large room on the highest floor of her house Randidly quickly scanned the area and took in the dozens of large slabs that were covered with intricate runic engraving There were so many covered in a densely packed script that his eyebrows rose YouÆve been busy
IÆve had a lot of time Lucretia said with a smirk throwing her lavender hair over her shoulder Then she proceeded to the central table and cleared a space
Without much fanfare Randidly produced the thing that brought them together immediately despite the fact that chasing after the Nemesai was perhaps the best current course of action The thing that Randidly had snatched up immediately after it had been discarded like an old snake skin The thing that was slowly disintegrating as the animating energy dispersed and unwound
A NemesisÆs Cage Lucretia said in wonder approaching quite close to the floating bundle of Aether The edges were frayed and wane and that unwinding process would slowly destroy the entire thing But that boar faced Nemesis had no other way to display his true battle prowess the weight of being a Nemesis was too tight
He had needed to cut his way out to fight image with image and left them a perfect piece of data regarding the System in exchange Randidly didnÆt like allowing the other Nemesai to escape but this was sufficient compensation for him to not dwell on it
Very quickly both Randidly and Lucretia were immersed in the process of examining the construction of Aether As the thing was slowly destroying itself at a visible rate both were unwilling to waste time Starting from the edges they worked their way inward pouring over every single inch
Despite its relatively small size the Aether was densely packed together Which was a benefit because it slowed the destruction but it also made it exceedingly difficult to understand Without any background knowledge of how the SystemÆs Aether was shaped neither would have been able to make any headway
But the two of them had now been studying this for years
All in all the process lasted about fifteen minutes Part of RandidlyÆs focus at the end shifted to attempting to slow the disintegration but no tricks he could manage worked The energy seemed like something from another world The best he could do was memorize what he saw now
Afterward both were thoughtfully staring at the ground in silence There were a lot of things to be learned from what they had seen and each was mulling over their personal lessons Lucretia had brought over a few slabs and was working on some little experiments when Randidly finally spoke
you saw that core array right So why then does the System give us Stats
Lucretia pressed her lips and paused in her experiments But she said nothing in response
Because itÆs clear that this whole thing could function without Stats They He trailed off and Lucretia remained silent
Randidly hadnÆt expected her to answer honestly Perhaps it was being stuck in Tellus for so long but LucretiaÆs ability to take the tricks they learned with engraving and turn it into insight wasnÆt her forte She could solve a problem She couldnÆt use the SystemÆs solution to figure out what the problem was
The array had been intricate and elegant And it had something that left Randidly exceedingly puzzled After chewing on his lip in thought for several seconds he straightened and looked again at Lucretia That array had a way of converting the powerful images that the Nemesai brought and converting them into raw Stats Dumbing down the energy as it were Emphasizing Stats for the Nemesai There were restrictions based on the average Level of the world but Why would it give them Stats
What else would it give them Lucretia asked indifferently finally lifting her head
That made Randidly pause His mind continually spun moving them forward Well their images The SystemÆs goal is to create and extract images is it not So by giving Nemesai their images the people will learn how valuable images are Plus the point is that the Stat System is completely irrelevant to that goal Why not simply empower the images themselves if what they wanted was to increase the challenge
Lucretia rapped her fingers against the stone of the experiment tablet she held in front of herself Hmm there was a rather common custom in the Death School while I was active that I believe is an appropriate explanation for this question The Death School did not put much stock in blood all they cared about was the power of the young spear users To that end the did something extremely unusual to choose their inheritors of the great Styles They gave a group of children spears without informing them how to use them and forced the young women and men to kill each other Often with about one hundred to a cohort