Attempting to steady their breath the crowd struggled to rationalize what was happening Their eyes traveled upward tracing the immense form of the World Tree And inwardly Randidly struggled The blow was prepared and ready but he did not loose it
Around him on the arena the Squad members struggled to their feet attempting to put up some sort of resistance Honestly Randidly was slightly impressed they had recovered so quickly They were well trained and had high enough defensive stats to be a problem
Well perhaps they could be a problem once they understand how to use images Randidly thought darkly For now
Yet Randidly was frozen holding that tightly condensed judgment in his chest An image he had carefully cultivated now tore him in a dangerous direction He knew there were drawbacks to images but this impasse was rather unexpected And the only reason it occurred was due to the flamboyant gall of Stan to attempt an attack on Randidly that would destroy Donnyton’s credibility
The unthinking act of a fool became the start of a slippery slope
Because Randidly’s Crown had been devouring Donnyton’s image of invulnerability for the entire challenge These images that werenÆt calcified were relatively simple to plunder and absorb He felt himself growing heavy with its weight increasing its potency at a speed that had his eyebrows scrunched together
This image of the Ashen Phantom was one that he was offering as a threat to Donnyton so these people could learn the necessity of strength in this world It was a desperate path he had chosen one where he was attempting to put Donnyton on the right path at any cost This whole challenge was about them
He would drag them kicking and screaming toward dominance under the System if it was the last thing he did
Stan’s actions had clearly indicated that he should be eliminated Otherwise his shortsightedness might prove ruinous to Donnyton’s future developments He was a man that could not even face himself Perhaps for that reason he possessed unusual insight into the truths of others But without knowing oneself what strength did he truly have
Threats needed to die Otherwise all this effort might be wasted
Yet that was the Spearman’s Path was it not
Grinding his teeth Randidly stared at Stan Without looking away for even enough time to blink Randidly examined him His emerald eyes seemed like a terrible inferno intent on devouring all things Stan stood frozen held by the intensity that Randidly considered him
A surprising branch in his Path triggering all of the darker tendencies that he had allowed to grow within his Crown and his image He wanted to use force during this process but was careful to arrange the Challenge against Donnyton in a way that would not result in any loss of life
The Ashen Phantom was truly an image designed to kill But it was not a weapon that Randidly meant to use against the people of Donnyton
Randidly was callous in his strikes but he wasn’t aiming to kill He had never believed that he possessed the right to determine who lived and who died Randidly just believed that his experiences gave him a wider view on how to survive the System By teaching Donnyton the danger of images he was guiding them without seeking definite control
If he killed Stan here that fine distinction would be washed away by blood He would have eliminated someone who threatened his plan Someone who threatened all of Donnyton in Randidly’s mind but that didn’t make it necessarily correct
So his images demanded Stan’s death He had created the Ashen Phantom in accordance with the pride of his Crown of Upheaval and Gloom Both led to eliminating this known threat
An image’s strength was related to its purity and conviction Refusing to follow what his image dictated would weaken the image immensely
And so Randidly paused
Strangely Randidly was reminded of the first time he had encountered the Creature when it had buried him in darkness intent on taking over his Aether Crossroad Just like now he felt lost and frustrated Yet this time what bound him was not darkness but the intersection of thousands of decisions Many of which were his own making
That weight he had gathered in the fight against Donnyton which gave his images potency now pulled him down toward a dark Path
In the world of Earth before the System arrived many people often discussed destiny and free will Specifically they discussed whether there was a grand design from which you couldn’t stray or whether humans had the capacity to control their Paths through life Much of this was framed by religious undertones but it was a secular philosophical argument as well
But it was one that Randidly had never understood Destiny and free will were two sides of the same coin Humans were complicated but it never seemed to Randidly that they were more than the sum of their parts Being unable to quantify or understand inputs didn’t mean that inputs didn’t lead to discrete outputs
Put more concretely both destiny and free will existed Destiny was the Path you took and free will was why you took it No matter how detestable one found their lot in life free will meant that you would choose it if given the choice again without the benefit of hindsight Because that was who you were
An omnipotent destiny could account for you trying to avoid it Because inputs and outputs were always fixed
Randidly closed his eyes Rather than hearing it he could feel Stan slump against the walls of the VIP section Was there no magic in the world Are we truly all inputs and outputs Will I truly walk this Path
Chapter 928
Perhaps the reason that Randidly had immediately released the Yggdrasil Image that he had been saving for the later rungs was that the Ashen Phantom would have killed Stan immediately The World Tree’s righteous fury bought Randidly time It possessed wisdom enough to consider and judge
It was unfortunately true that this image too judged Stan should die
He wanted to take the blame for Donnyton’s transgression and overshadow it Randidly believed that affecting the audience with the Skill would manage that He did not want to become a monster himself by killing someone who wasn’t even competing in the challenge But it was also unacceptable to allow his images to suffer such a grievous blow in order to protect Stan’s foolish little life
Randidly bared his teeth and wished for magic
Magic could describe two things First an input that would sometimes lead to different outputs all other things held equal Or the second possibility a strength that was so absolute that it violated causality Making inputs and outputs irrelevant
Seconds ticked past As Randidly racked his brain he felt the surety in his images falter Images were tools but they were living things In a way they were like children They didnÆt understand why something so obvious as StanÆs death hadnÆt yet occurred This man should die But I am not killing this man So
Yet the strange resemblance to feeling trapped by the Creature for the first time returned some of the light to Randidly’s eyes If I don’t like the output just add more inputs
To escape from the Creature Randidly had reached out and absorbed strength from the four individuals to which he had given Blessings Mrs Hamilton Alana Annie and Sam With their strength he was able to find himself and connect with Neveah That was the start of his rebirth into the world of the System
Now that Randidly had his Alpha Cosmos his physical body was another world That entanglement meant that the two existences were linked implicitly Because the Alpha Cosmos was his body it was immersed in the sea of Aether that formed Randidly’s core Through the interconnection between himself and Neveah the people of the Alpha Cosmos would never want for energy
Yet shape and flow were very important to Aether Before Randidly found Neveah she was just a fragment of an idea buried deep under a stagnant pool of Aether The energy became an agent of inertia preventing her from progressing If not for Randidly’s overwhelming need he likely would have been unable to wake her Even now Neveah’s origins were quite mysterious But she taught Randidly everything he knew about energy