ChulroonÆs gaze was sad as he stared around at the towering piles are likely hundreds of generations trying to reach me I
Randidly felt a flicker of kinship with Chulroon at that moment Randidly had plenty of skeletons in his closet Without Randidly noticing his previous Soulskill had slowly begun to devour itself Hundreds of thousands of people died And Randidly could have prevented it Even if he didnÆt know a perfect solution it wasnÆt so complicated a problem that he couldnÆt imagine a less disastrous outcome That weight had been incorporated into his Crown but that didnÆt mean it wasnÆt a painful subject
With a sigh Randidly said Mourning the past is important but itÆs too late to save them now
Chulroon nodded HIs eyes refocused once more And although you are not of my people you have a fraction of my image inside of you It is a small thing but for that I will give you the three gifts I have prepared for my descendants In exchange I hope you will help me accomplish my wish make the System pay
I hold no love for this System or what it has transformed my world into Randidly said bitterly I might not have reached the point where IÆve declared my war but I swear to you that I will not balk from striking out at them
Chulroon nodded in approval As I said previously the System is nothing but a glorified recruitment drive for a war against oblivion Therefore the time before the Calamities is the equivalent of a boot camp It brutalizes you until you possess some capability Then the Calamities determine where you fall in the grand scheme of the war effort Are you trash Simply feed for other worlds Reserve forces that will have your Fates extracted for weapons Or do you truly possess the capabilities to fight on the front lines
Wait Randidly spoke out before Chulroon got too far along in his explanation Fates the things you condense at Level 50 those are used for weapons
Ah of course ChulroonÆs face darkened into a snarl There is so much you donÆt understand about the System Undoubtedly you have wondered why some people are partially scarred or consumed by their Fate yes It is because the powerful resonance that an individual can have with their own Fate is only secondary essentially at Level 50 the System injects individuals with unstable energy in order to transform them into a harvestable raw material It serves as an assurance that the investment in the world is worth it Even if a world cannot pass the Calamities the System can take the condensed Fates from the world and equip its other soldiers The Aether spent to grow those individuals to Level 50 would have borne some fruit at least
Chulroon indicated his glove This chisel was made from the most powerful Fate of a fallen world With the strange methods that the Nexus possesses it was made to align perfectly with my own image and Great Fate Needless to say the original owner did not survive the process
Randidly dragged his teeth across his lip considering this new information What effect would NathanÆs interference have then Well the Villages did sell areas to help focus the Fate so it was likely an insignificant change from the SystemÆs perspective
But as I was saying I was strong enough to be given a place on the frontline There I fought for the System across countless battlefields We won more than we lost but there is a deeper problem Chulroon sadly looked down at his side But Nether stains Aether The reverse is also true of course but we all fight using the SystemÆs energy it is only the images that we individually provide
Even if individuals like me are used like gloves to protect the System itself from danger we eventually become wounded and are poisoned by this sadistic Nether The System then cuts off our worlds and lets them die to prevent the contamination from spreading but across millions and millions of wounded or dead soldiers do you think the System has avoided all damage No it must be festering and resisting the Nether even now That accumulated Nether is its weakness
Which is why the first gift IÆll give to you is a bomb
Chulroon began to laugh but quickly the laughter turned to hacking coughs Doubled over Chulroon spat out green bile that splattered across the large stone steps Straightening his face was twisted in a grimace of pain But he still indicated his side I cannot overcome this But I can use the remaining Aether I have here to imprison it along with an ignition Engraving that will spread the Nether in a wide area Keep it in case you ever get the chance to hit the System where it hurts
The second gift is my chisel With trembling hands Chulroon removed his glove His fingers were so weak that he dropped it Smiling weakly Chulroon nodded toward the dropped piece of armor It it was the only thing on which I could rely on the frontlines I hope I hope it serves you as well as it served me for so long
With a point of his finger the air around Chulroon dimmed The aura of timelessness in his body dispersed while the glove began to glow with power RandidlyÆs gaze softened as he saw that almost all of the hair on ChulroonÆs body has turned white Now it began to fall out in large chunks while the greedy blackness in his side grew
The final gift ah youÆve already had someone bless you with a Disciple Path That is unfortunate But still Chulroon coughed into his hand Wiping the filth he coughed out on his side Chulroon studied Randidly for several seconds There is something else I can do for you The Aether around you you are a Heretic are you not Ha the System certainly does detest your kind I will not ask how you came by your Aether that karma is yours alone to bear But I can tell you what you will be facing for the Level 50 Judgement
Instantly Randidly straightened So as I suspected itÆs not just another fight
ChulroonÆs eyes crinkled in amusement It is a fight in a way But the SystemÆs thought process is simple If you wonÆt obey our rules or follow the correct Path we designed fine But that does not mean it wonÆt expect you to pay your dues So it will stop nitpicking over your methods as long as you can prove you are powerful enough to be valuable to the System And there is only one place that truly matters to the System
RandidlyÆs mouth was dry as he licked his lips the frontlines But isnÆt that
A death sentence Yes of course Chulroon bared his teeth Normally there would be no doubt However your requirement will be nowhere near the requirement to pass the Fourth Calamity But even if it is just a single year that same time period was all that I could manage at Level 100 with a Level 99 Fate at the height of my power Tell me youngster could you manage to endure for the same amount of time
Randidly kept his mouth closed Part of him wanted to say yes but
Chulroon chuckled Arrogance is dangerous youngster So IÆll just say this All you truly need to do is prove that you are powerful enough to belong to the Nexus If you cannot survive on the frontlines on the short lease they give you donÆt you just need to triumph over the lease
RandidlyÆs eyes glittered in understanding But as he opened his mouth to ask something Chulroon was consumed by another bout of coughing For five long minutes Randidly watched rather helplessly as more and more of ChulroonÆs hair fell out Now that the aura of timelessness was gone the air began to smell like sulfur and charred skin The black poison on ChulroonÆs side seemed to recede but that made Randidly even more worried
Through ChulroonÆs thin and pale skin Randidly could see the black tentacles moving within his torso and focusing their damage on ChulroonÆs internal organs
Heh timeÆs almost up So I want to know one thing youngster Why do I smell the scent of Nether on you Why did you recognize this terrible darkness
I Randidly began but he trailed off His mind drifted backward in time to a much simpler point in his life Where no one was relying on him to survive Even at the time Randidly had been suspicious of the Path that had given him access to Touch From Beyond « But now it seemed like an avoidable truth that it had originated from the Creature