Randidly thought about it deeply And from the intensity of Lady IellayaÆs stare she wanted to him to add some deference to the answer he would tell this man And perhaps some part of Randidly wanted to cave as well which is why the rest of his personality railed against that impulse The Grim Chimera that had allowed itself to be scarred and warped by the chaotic mass of emotions within his body peered out through RandidlyÆs emerald eyes with the utmost seriousness
You are exactly why I want to become strong Randidly thought He stood straight and kept his expression even No I would not
As the man loosened his grip on his own image his dark eyes seemed to swell to fill RandidlyÆs vision The rest of the surrounding details of the room were pushed out drowned in that darkness For a second Randidly tensed but he forced both the Stillborn Phoenix and Grim Chimera to remain passive He allowed Yggdrasil to recede before that darkness
And in that nothingness Randidly sensed the leering gaze of chaos There were waves of space warping energy and seeds of psychological ruin But above them all was an absolute imperative that usually contained those dangerous forces As the bearman looked at Randidly he lifted the lid from the pot and allowed Randidly to experience them directly He displayed the raw horror within his own person Yet it wasnÆt that which even the Grim Chimera viewed with dread
It was that cast iron compulsion that somehow managed to govern this cesspool of mutation and organic impossibility that drew RandidlyÆs wariness That was a twisted strength of will that he had rarely seen in the past
The lapping waves of that chaos crept closer The hairs along RandidlyÆs right arm began to stand on end The dwindling emotions within his body began to stir But since Lady Iellaya was present Randidly wouldnÆt forcefully resist the image until he received actual damage
As RandidlyÆs jaw began to ache from clenching the bearman pulled his image back His eyes were suddenly just dark eyes and the ominous heaviness in the air departed leaving not a single lingering clue that hinted to the horrifying power he had displayed a few moments earlier The man smiled I suppose that makes sense But you do realize the consequences of disobeying a direct order from a superior donÆt you
Randidly didnÆt bother to answer He simply glanced down at the metallic man next to him who was only now regaining control of his breathing
The bearman chuckled but his dark eyes seemed to become even more antagonistic as he considered Randidly What if I requested that you wear full military uniform while acting as a Drill Sergeant Commander Ghosthound as a way to demonstrate the importance of discipline to your recruits What would you do then
Randidly didnÆt miss the way that the bearmanÆs eyes lingered on his feet Inwardly Randidly threw his hands up in the air Are my bare feet really that unusual
I trust you will do what you think is best for the recruits Randidly eventually answered Emerald eyes met black ones In his heart Randidly settled into a realization if this man would force the issue of him wearing shoes in front of the recruits he wouldnÆt bother with being a Drill Sergeant Even more than the discomfort of wearing shoes what Randidly wasnÆt willing to put up with was a bully And right now that was what this man seemed to be
What Randidly realized immediately after that was that the bearman seemed to recognize that resolve in RandidlyÆs eyes The bearmanÆs smile widened
But instead of the order that Randidly had anticipated the bearman closed his eyes He backed down I will do exactly that Congratulations Commander Ghosthound You will be our Head Drill Sergeant Report to the Fifth Cohort Rally Station in six days for further orders
Chapter 1500
This time Randidly silently followed Octavius through the stark passages of the military base after the interview As such they made very quick time The duo quickly descended down through the Web and reached its deeper recesses where the house of Edraine was located But while Octavius proceeded directly through the heavy metal door on the wall Randidly paused on a cord It was only when Octavius turned around that Randidly spoke Go on ahead I need to take care of something very quickly then IÆll follow
Octavius was grinning from ear to ear still buzzing from the excitement of Randidly earning the position of Head Drill Sergeant so he nodded and turned away without thinking too much about it Which allowed Randidly to unobtrusively drop another few hundred meters downward in the Web without anyone being in the pollution zone
He didnÆt need to go as deep as he had been training earlier And no matter how much he wanted to keep training now was probably not the best time for that it was finally time that he got on the same page of everyone else as to why they were taking these actions But for now Randidly alighted upon another cable in that gloomy energy waste chute and gratefully released the emotions that the Stillborn Phoenix had been steadily refining
Compared to their earlier violence these emotions had greatly settled while Randidly had been informed of some of the smaller details of his new post Which left the emotions an almost slime like form sluggishly exiting RandidlyÆs body Their pink red color had become increasingly vibrant possessing some inherent quality of purity that made the emotions difficult to regard directly without some instinctual squinting More importantly as shape had almost completely been stripped away and only emotion remained Randidly had been able to tell that the process of breathing was steadily polarizing the emotions More and more they were stripped and reshuffle to resemble that obsessive and all consuming desire of the Stillborn Phoenix
By extension the emotions were essentially becoming RandidlyÆs own
He could already feel a sudden stirring from his image physicalizations if he was feeling it directly with the slow accumulating image physicalizations it seemed like he would also be able to create more drops of liquid Aether with the strength of these emotions
But Randidly was still cautious about cashing in on that benefit without fully understanding it So he released those emotions now to see if the extra emotional power would remain once the emotions were removed from his body
When the emotions hit the air at first there was no response Then only a second later the emotions began to explosively hiss and foam like potassium dropped in water The emotions expanded outward with all the furious glee of a brood of young dragons eager to leave the nest their earlier sluggishness completely forgotten as the impurities of the world built space between the emotions
Feeling somewhat conflicted Randidly watched those emotions diffuse into the surrounding space Then he noticed something else quite strange the Stillborn Phoenix retained some connection to those emotions as they spread outward That expanding and diffusing energy had been marked by RandidlyÆs emotions just as surely as something could be marked by a powerful and distinct shape
How long will that connection linger I wonder
Humming to himself Randidly allowed the suddenly obedient Stillborn Phoenix to absorb some more of the ambient energy to continue its breathing To RandidlyÆs surprise the brief exposure to the bearmanÆs chaotic image had really affected the Egg of Depression The idea that all of its carefully constructed artifices could be stripped away by another had aligned the image much more closely with RandidlyÆs interest it had been scared straight For now at least it was committed to the journey of training so they could overcome this new foe
With YggdrasilÆs help sucking up another massive amount of ambient emotion and cutting away the energy only took a few minutes As the Stillborn Phoenix adjusted to the process the speed of the refinement was increasing Then Randidly ascended and proceeded into the residential dome and to EdraineÆs house