He could feel it still just barely mostly when he wasnÆt looking Mostly when he metaphorically leaned the slightest bit in the direction it came and he felt marginally supported He couldnÆt help but feel a wry sense of glee
What an unexpected consequence allowing me to just barely sense time Randidly mused His thoughts briefly sharpened into knives Now I wonder how IÆm going to leverage this
Then the coherence faded he still had quite a bit more healing to do Especially for his overtaxed brain
While Randidly floated he also noted the presence of DeganawidahÆs imperative lingering in his Fateset He watched it carefully but he could sense that the tenor of its presence amongst his Fateset had changed As he observed during the most demanding portion of the creation of the Pearl it wasnÆt fair to call it an imperative What it did was make Randidly aware of the impossibility present in reality His image and significance power could accomplish a lot but there were also barriers that existed beyond his limits
For now it lingered It became a central pillar around which the meaning of his other Fatepieces could gather and anchor themselves Randidly couldnÆt decide whether this would end up being a good thing or a bad one It just became one more element in the construction of his truth
After a few more minutes Randidly felt his eyelids stirring Not that all of his weariness had been healed but the worst was gone he would be able to function normally and his obsessively pragmatic images now pushed him back to wakefulness He floated up rising through the unconscious thoughts and popping back into his body
With a groan he sat up He sat at the bottom of a crater of broken stone the glittering physical remnants of the pearl pummeled to the point all that remained was powder Most of the ambient energy in the chamber had vanished either seeping out of the broken walls or absorbed into the working The Prophet had vanished but Neveah the Patron of the Deep and Padraic hunched over the clay body of humanity in the center of the room not even noticing his return to consciousness
His lip quirked up What did I expect This is the homecoming a failure receives
He meant it as a joke but the words drew fresh blood from his wounded and disappointed ego Gritting his teeth he pushed himself up and rubbed the bridge of his nose If this new Stat DeityÆs Ruthless Cerebral Scope was doing anything Randidly certainly didnÆt feel it He had a headache like a trumpeting troop of elephants were practicing line dancing across his cerebral cortex
Still the continued lack of response from the three remaining companions made Randidly force his mind to refocus When he fixated on them he did finally feel a little bit of extra mental force brought to bear Neveah had done an excellent job of filling in when he had gone unconscious (Randidly made a mental note that it was quite the oversight that he had expected to expend himself almost totally to create the Pearl and then help assemble humanity) gathering up all the scraps of power and meaning and fitting them together into the body Yet even he could see there would be problems with just a glance
Even broken and shattered the bits of perfection were too powerful to be housed in the framework Elhume had made for humanity
DonÆt be a fool Neveah snapped
My reserves are boundless My overflowing lust for life can be used to cushion the body preventing further degradation The Patron of the Deep announced with a dramatic flourish
Padraic just squatted and sweated We really need to do something now
With a light step Randidly ghosted forward and appeared at NeveahÆs side He touched her lightly on the shoulder Here I can handle this
The look of pure relief on NeveahÆs face as anxiety melted into trust nearly broke his heart He looked away quickly having difficulty meeting such trusting eyes after he had thrown everything he had into the Pearl and failed
Yet this Randidly could handle He reached out and tapped a finger against the clay chest of humanity The body cracked open faster than Padraic and the Patron of the Deep could heal it meaning it looked like several mouths were opening and then closing across its surface every moment The power of broken perfection stalked back and forth through the body lashing out at the internal framework Elhume had created
It was a close thing The power was just barely too much to handle To counteract that Neveah and the Patron of the Deep had obviously expended a lot of effort to try to strengthen the foundations However that didnÆt give an outlet to all this listless power Which meant more and more tension would be built up inside humanity
Obviously this was not ideal Randidly smiled because already he knew the solution
Rather than strengthening the foundation he pulled out tiny breezes of Nether and began to very purposefully erode key portions of the anchors He didnÆt damage or alter the shape or the meaning of humanity but began to just barely undermine the twelve Nexus Stats
Chapter 2289
Randidly narrowed his eyes as he worked inside the clay edged structure of humanity Already this small amount of effort had doubled the agony of his headache Apparently the pounding glee of the elephants had echoed out loud enough that all the neighbors had come to join them A real party was kicking off with no end in sight Yet as always he couldnÆt afford to be distracted
He pushed away all information except for the anchors at the base of humanity The key would be keeping all the weakening equal And making sure only one of the weaknesses would break in a very controlled way with the internal force completely spent with a single breakage
If the whole apparatus shattered the results wouldnÆt be pretty
Congratulations Your Skill Infinite Incendiary Filaments of the Dove Moirae has grown to Level 1155
Congratulations Your Skill Infinite Incendiary Filaments of the Dove Moirae has grown to Level 1156
The flows of energy burned in the gaze of Randidly Ghosthound as he measured and calculated A primal intuition he had built from long meddling with esoteric and strange energies guided his hand When finally he leaned back the expression on his face was one of pure satisfaction no longer did the clay body have mouths opening back and forth across its surface it just shook with the barely contained power within
Neveah let out a low whistle of appreciation as she rapidly appraised his efforts A single Stat anchor might break with the foundations adjusted like that But the way you have the energy flowingù all that will accomplish is causing one of the personÆs Stats to evolve
Or degenerate Randidly admitted He reached up and rubbed the bridge of his nose trying to relax away some of the tension As far as I can tell both are possible It will just be a different base Stat Still the energy and meaning crammed into this humanity mean it will have quite a bit higher base Stats the occur and more potential than it might have had Definitely a success
For a long moment all of them just stood and looked at the humming body A few pieces of the wall he had shattered to enter into the room collapsed into a pile of rubble The nearby ground steamed away the remaining heat from the brief conflict When no one stepped forward Randidly felt awkward enough to clear his throat so now what How do we finish off the process
Ah Oh we just need to christen the body and activate the base ritual Padraic looked around He coughed several times IÆll get to work carving it again The base ritual a simple thing we made a grand floor arrangement to add to the weight of the moment but I always figured it was an unnecessary bit of opulence I can
How dare you The Origin Beast tilted his head back and glowered down his nose at Padraic A proper and true cradle you suggest is opulence Nay a nascent race deserves more than the hasty scrawl of a sweaty little cretin to usher forth its meteoric rise The genesis is the launching pad for success in all future endeavors To that end we should dedicate weeks at the very least to erecting a monolithic foundation