Devick crouched down leaned forward and briefly became Malice incarnate all claw and ill will The wicked hare did not appreciate this sort of disrespect Her hands were edged with crimson claws of hatred allowing her to hamstring the Nether Warrior as she streaked past him And not a moment too soon because that obsidian flail smashed into the ground where she had just been crouched with the wet squelch of a rotten ribcage being smashed open
Congratulations Your Skill Malice Hare of the Crimson Foot and Barbed Heart has grown to Level 501
She righted herself while releasing another a heaving exhale that sounded like the expulsion of gaseous vomit those drops of sweat trembling on her back with fear Around her violence raged in every direction Nether Warriors and Nether Gatekeepers came forth in an unending tide cut down almost as fast as they arrived by CeruleanÆs elite troops but not quite Every second they had to retreat Devick pushed a few errant strands of crimson hair out of her eyes and almost tripped over the headless corpse of a body wearing sapphire armor Her eyes fixated on the Nether Gatekeeper still stalking toward her still leaking tongues of flame and acrid smoke out through its joints
Devick grimaced as she sucked in an equally massive breath Fuck I guess itÆs too much to ask the armor to show a bit of biological weakness Truce you whiny bitch
The last mental phrase was extended toward her Grand Fate which had been pouting through most of the battle After a lingering moment of hesitation it nodded very willing to try and survive this ordeal
Yet before Malice and MaverickÆs Barbaric Imperative could begin to work hand in hand her senses tingled in an entirely different warning She looked up suddenly with much more dire concerns than the baleful suit of armor chasing her across the field of violence
The Nether forces paused as well a half beat behind Devick not as keyed to threats as she was but still more capable of sensing shifts in the energy of connection For another full second CeruleanÆs guards fought with furious intensity before a cold wind swept across the battlefield and smothered most of their movements
The rain had mostly stopped by now but a shiver ran through the battlefield
In the present Randidly moved through the Cult of the Savior base with the Cloak of Utter Night wrapped tightly around his frame Various layers of rather clever Engraving guarded the outer reaches of the facility but the combination of folding perspective and the CloakÆs defensive abilities meant Randidly could proceed further without worry
The skin of his arm tingled as significance flowed past him The shaping of humanity had begun He could feel ElhumeÆs intensity even from afar The single minded void edged focus of Elhume had strengthened even from the last time Randidly had encountered him Yet simply pausing and listening was enough to determine that he still had some time
The heart he had woven for Padraic hadnÆt fractured yet which meant it hadnÆt yet been constricted by the three locks on humanity
As Randidly approached the core facility where the ritual was occurring the defenses grew more tightly woven He had to pause for longer because he was worried about more than the boundaries themselves but also the shadowy figure of the ScytheÆ who seemed so adept at noticing when Randidly wasnÆt disciplined with his attention
Halfway through slipping through the final barrier his gaze flickered as he sensed the significance in the environment abruptly deepening The accumulation of Nether happened so quickly that space and time turned sticky creating friction as they rubbed up against one another A ghost of a smile danced across his face ThatÆs my cue
Randidly had kept all the leftover force rushing through his veins building up momentum With the timing of his arrival perfectly arranged he didnÆt need to bother with subterfuge any longer He raised his hand and unleashed it all setting off a veritable bomb in the middle of the defensive structure
The Engravings flashed bright and then shattered The cave wall in front of Randidly buckled and collapsed letting him breeze forward into the wide ritual spot In the center of the cavern a rainbow whirlwind of energy spun down into a humanoid clay form imprinting values and philosophies into the new species The air stunk like a spring day right after dawn practically drowning in life energy
In the center of that whirlwind the disparate pieces had come together around the heart and begun to squeeze a hairline crack now ran through the energy processing formation at the core of humanity spitting out dangerous sparks And those sparks didnÆt just dissipate but skittered across the heart their heat warping the lines of potential further
RandidlyÆs pupils dilated as he noticed the situation in the room On instinct his hand shot up forming into a claw The First Authority Seize
ElhumeÆs body moving through his polished punching form wrenched to a stop across the cavern His fist was only a few inches from the Patron of the Deep who sweated and panicked just looking at the man he had followed for years In that unhesitating fist he saw the end of his life
Randidly felt exhaustion suffuse his body at the instinctual activation of the Authority and felt a little bit of regret He should not have spent his Nether like this but the unexpectedness of the scene when he entered the cavern had caught him off guard Why was Elhume trying to kill the Patron of the Deep But he let the reckless madness take him grinning and shouting across the ritual Patron of the Deep we really need to stop meeting like this
Nether King Hungry Eye Elhume fumed ripping his way out of the grip of Randidly’s Authority and glaring over at him “You are not welcome here “
Yet the real threat came from behind Randidly felt tingles up and down his spine as the horrid create Scythe appeared in his shadow The thing raised its weapon Heh Gotcha rat
Chapter 2280
The Prophet felt a flash of triumph seeing Scythe manifest in the shadow of Nether King Hungry Eye The positioning was perfect It didnÆt have any proof of the feeling but with the consequences riding on the creation of humanity both for Elhume and for the plans laid out in the CultÆs Prophecy there was a general consensus Nether King Hungry Eye would show up and try and pilfer some of the spoils
They called him Hungry Eye for a reason after all The bastard had a stomach ambitious enough to try and digest even the Nexus itself
The executioner bathed in the light of El Kedec needed only to inflict the slightest cut with the blade and the powerful physical body of the Nether King would be rendered moot Those struck by the Scythe would experience a vicious mental cleansing which was impossible to prepare for and most often fatal
Still the ScytheÆs looming attack on Hungry Eye didnÆt relieve the tension in the ProphetÆs chest his mind kept turning over the events of the previous few minutes trying to understand the strange words uttered by Elhume and the ProphetÆs own illogical agreement
There had been the strangest stutter And although they had not returned to reality skipping across the moment of other left the Prophet troubled
A few minutes before the process of creating Humanity had been well underway The boy Padraic had stabilized the outer ritual and the Patron of the Deep provided a font of life allowing Elhume to handle the details of the creation And despite the fact the man crackled with emptiness he had an eye for detail that couldnÆt be matched Ultimately his whole image pivoted on precision While a series of crackling energy fireworks exploded around the edges of the working the disparate elements they had refined were brought into alignment within the prepared clay body
Sweat dripped down ElhumeÆs brow as he pulled and twisted lowered and locked creating the cohesive soul of the population The Prophet had leaned forward his eye bulging to catch every image being neatly sewn together into the essence of humans Already the heart provided by Padraic began to pulse and flare in the core The depths of potential that working possess astounded the Prophet it made a mental note to keep track of Padraic in the future if he was capable of this sort of work