This foolish version of Devick would speak not because she wanted to extract the benefit but for the indulgent satisfaction of having it known that she despite her weakness could influence such a powerful figure
It was a selfish impulse born of her own fear of appearing useless It was the same sort of impulse that had distracted her from Tell when he had been broken on the Hobfootie pitch right next to her
She opened her mouth the body unable to resist the bubbling temptation to prove she was more than her weakness Yet the Devick within herself watching the farce narrowed her eyes She opened her mouth and leaked out faint wisps of hellfire You will not you dumb piece of shit
Malice smiled next to her revealing a mouth full of thin hollow teeth With surprising daintiness the Hare leaned forward and stretched its jaw into a ghastly maw Then it bit down just slightly upon the essence of the Grand Fate in DevickÆs chest The oily otherness squirmed wildly within the grasp of the image while Devick blinked and smiled
The seething volcano of emotion reasserted control Her brow twitched
Heh luckily we were not close at all That Nether King he has a horrid sort of aura Oppressive Completely beyond me Devick offered a shrug but spoke with a very real undercurrent of bleak bitterness Her Grand Fate bubbled and struggled in protest only causing MaliceÆs teeth to dig in more deeply into its essence IÆm pretty sure he just used the MiracleÆs that was my team as a vehicle to get entrance into Malloon
Congratulations Your Skill Malice Hare of the Crimson Foot and Barbed Heart has grown to Level 391
Congratulations Your Skill Malice Hare of the Crimson Foot and Barbed Heart has grown to Level 429
Congratulations Your Skill Malice Hare of the Crimson Foot and Barbed Heart has grown to Level 430
I have not met Nether King Hungry Eye but certainly his brutality is widely acknowledged Anyway be ready We will not have much time for training once we reach the city The Nether Army nears as we speak The Squad LeaderÆs even expression didnÆt waver she did not express her disappointment But she moved smoothly away with twitching Vandla in her wake
A heavy lidded Devick felt the strange covering of her Grand Fate casting its gaze at her practically buzzing with the promise that she wouldnÆt be able to suppress it like this for forever A smile danced across her lips as she looked toward the horizon Her body felt vast unexplored and wild primordial and dangerous even while she gave her emotions time to cool
Her heart began to quicken She still felt those same feelings of inadequacy she had only run away a few days ago Yet now she headed right back toward Homewell
Toward a war the largest war ever conceived But also back toward Nether King Hungry Eye Toward the reason she felt so inadequate
Did you think of me while I was gone Devick wondered She pinched the flesh of her arm annoyed that the prospect of seeing him again gave her such a rush even though her mosquito brain had been in his presence and surly just last week
She smiled all the way back to Homewell
Chapter 2268
Randidly sat in a meditative position with his eyes closed With the window for his confrontation approaching he tried to squeeze every ounce of productivity he could out of the day Aside from a few half hour naps he took to replenish his mental energy he constantly honed himself
At dawn and dusk he manifested the World Tree When the light turned thin as it peaked over the horizon he created a giant spectral projection His veins burned emerald in his body He focused on Dawn Opens the Sky and Reality Stirs and Darkness Wither the Horizon and the Waiting Carrion Grins which were two Skills he intended to push up to Level 1000 to accomplish his 25th Mille
Light waxing and waning He intently watched each progression of radiance fixing the details in his mind to capture the details later while unleashing his Skills Most of the force of his images came from corralling the proper emotional notes but his powerful emotions also needed the proper vehicle to shine
During the day he created an onerous physical suppression system which the Dread Homunculus could handle with ease His muscles glistened with sweat as he worked his way through spear forms Sulfur and Acri humming with pleasure While the solid foundations of his body endured the strain and HomunculuiÆs Monstrous Tenacity ticked up he mentally prowled the limits of what was possible for him to accomplish seeking an answer to solving all his problems
He would advance grabbing any tools he could find to carve a Path forward To refocus his Fateset To rejuvenate the Egg of Depression To heal his Class
To make Deganawidah and the universe pay for refusing to permit the impossible
To tear down the System and erect a framework not so predicated on death and oppression
In the dark of the night RandidlyÆs attention turned to the Stillborn Phoenix almost entirely The wounded event horizon howled and wheezed when he conjured it still somewhat limping after sensing what it could be and them being undercut in the transition Randidly didnÆt mind its weakness as he manipulated gravitational fields He manifested the image through the ache causing even darkness to turn runny and insubstantial before the pull of the abyss which constituted its body
The eye of the Stillborn Phoenix opened warping all that had the misfortune to fall within its purview Part of it was the hunger that animated all of the Stillborn PhoenixÆs actions but whether he had intended it or not Deganawidah had drawn a stark line with his attempt to hurt Randidly The universe shivered in the presence of that wide eye sensing that lurking beyond it was a possibility it was unwilling to stomach
RandidlyÆs lip curled up to feel the rejection The less you want it the more you fear it the more impossible it will be to escape it
Congratulations Your Skill the Hypothetical Gaze that Consumes the Universe has grown to Level 971
Congratulations Your Skill Diffracted Corruption of the Avaricious Impossibility has grown to Level 981
Congratulations Your Skill the Hypothetical Gaze that Consumes the Universe has grown to Level 988
Occasionally over those frantic days he met again with Lowanna after his near impossible request to find a unifying pattern They didnÆt speak of it instead focusing on the movement of Nether between them
Despite her ominous words on their previous meeting Lowanna would continue to field large currents of Nether when they clashed By the beads of sweat that dotted her brow by the end of their sessions she had pushed her limits as far as they would go And each day she smashed his resistance to pieces even as he began to incorporate more organically the lessons he had learned from others
Randidly had assumed he would rapidly narrow the distance between their masteries of Nether but he had thoroughly underestimated the depth of her experience Each conflict she would shift her methodology once creating choppy waves of frigid Nether other times unleashing pattern spears that sizzled through his defenses In the breadth of Nether she wielded he could almost hear her constantly reminding him there would be no convenient answer no methodology to address Nether
Yet he refused to give up hope He advanced trusting an answer would present itself
I already have done this Don Beigon chuckled And IÆm surprised I need to be the one to tell you this but peace has a price And these people are too poor to pay
Randidly smiled a wicked smile and floated his consciousness down to CharlotteÆs shoulder The Moiraes leaned forward with him flexing their hands in anticipation Randidly could see the shape of something here
If the people of Alpha Cosmos wanted to strike a bargain and warp the world Randidly Ghosthound would always answer
Significance spun through his body his efforts and his instincts working together on information his conscious mind hadnÆt quite yet fathomed His Nether Core began to pulse falling into a particular sort of rhythm in its rotations Fast fast and then slow Nether of a particular consistency began to spin through his body