He categorized each element in his environment By moving one at a time he could keep himself ahead of the dizzying collapse
He ignored both the shrieking fury of his Fatepiece and the whisper of his instincts as he neared his limits for the second time today In a way he had succeeded with his clever activation of the Songstress of Absence The bubble of the new Cohort covered the memory Perhaps had Randidly not been forced to stop the transference of momentum up to the mechanism the process would already have finished
For now he distantly saw the petals unfolding in the real Nexus revealing the core mechanism that would pulse and ascertain the situation in the new Cohort as the third and final step All that would be left after that would be the kiss of genuine reality
Randidly moved on to another element an image with enough blazing potency he felt it against his skin like the heat of the open top of an active volcano The blurry and bright figure of Elhume floated in the memory still within the bounds of the tear in space Hooks of Aether spread out from his body and grabbed onto the bubble designed to delineate the edges of the new Cohort Elhume pulled and the bubble shifted
Randidly looked at the barrier that had been created for the new Cohort
It began to phase right through the edges of the memory the real Aether of the bubble causing the fake Aether of the memory Nexus to waver and grow insubstantial A new shift pulled his attention back to the Nexus The unfolding of the pulse mechanism stalled out An electric crackle ran through the bubble RandidlyÆs eyes widened understanding ElhumeÆs purpose
The Cohort mechanism sent out a pulse through the bubble as though sensing some element was amiss Randidly gritted his teeth From his investigations into the memory version Randidly hadnÆt noticed anything that could cause this sort of development Likely some added defensive measures were added later for the later Cohorts
Too late to worry about that now
The Cohort mechanism should have been just taken a bite from existence The essence of the memory wouldnÆt have mattered Randidly had guided it to bite all around it Once the swallowÆ into the Nexus had begun he would have taken care of the problem of its reality But now that problem had been brought forward
Elhume began to tug with more force The bubble rippled and shifted further under his ministrations The edges of the memory Nexus began to fade vanishing as the real energy drifted forward Elhume demonstrated that he didnÆt want to harm the memory
Again Randidly swayed as he calculated his options His head pounded But he raised his hands and ignored the weakness in his images and his Nether Core His resolve firmed For my second magic trick letÆs make something that never existed appear
A little earlier than I planned but at least I have a person of prestige in the audience
In the depths of the ground beneath the battlefield the carefully prepared orbs of Nether Ritual began to stir He released a long breath The small wounds across his body healed Energy discharge crackled from the annihilating effect that the bubble exerted on the memory as the fakeÆ Aether constructs along the edge of the Nexus suddenly were liberated of their connectors Yggdrasil reached out and drank down all that energy reinforcing Randidly as best he could
All the while the Songstress of Absence continued her long solo maintaining the critical connection
Randidly gestured and his Nether Rituals began to swirl beneath the ground The resentment and ill will of the dead within the memory had been leaking out of RandidlyÆs body after his massive manifestation had been broken but a portion of that energy was caught up in this new rotation Once more they found purpose
Elhume used his hooks to iron out any embers of resistance in the memory even as Randidly wove his Nether Ritual underneath his feet Randidly forced his Nether Core into high gear allowing almost all of his awareness to slip away The Nether Ritual gathered momentum pulling from the fabric of the memory
RandidlyÆs heart pounded in terms of sheer scope this Nether Ritual was the largest and most transformative he had ever created Already his palms became slightly sweaty and he felt the tug of the four condensed cores in the circle And their rotation pulled a different sort of significance and began to create something truly profound in the very middle of the circle directly beneath RandidlyÆs feet
The ground began rumbling already weakened by the multiple impacts it endured during the last fifteen minutes Randidly poured his hopes into the ritual as it gathered speed beneath him pushing more and more into the Nether and hoping the momentum of it would carry him
However he tensed immediately as he realized his narrowed focus made him briefly lose sight of the threats against him As Randidly raised his head he expected a blow to be immediately descending toward him Yet he looked at the blurry form of Elhume and while the highest authority in the Nexus fixated on him with a heavy gaze he did not strike
Are you so unwilling to harm the memory you wonÆt even try to stop me Randidly muttered But while that likely had a thread of truth it wasnÆt quite right Because Elhume was very willing to throw punches earlier into the memory practically blindly
Perhaps after Randidly proved he could survive punches Elhume was just unwilling to escalate further
After several long moments Elhume just tugged on his hooks The bubble drifted again More of the memory Nexus became deprived of its accumulated reality It became the flat predetermined movie it had been before Randidly had arrived and worked so tirelessly to stabilize and dig a foundation for the memory
RandidlyÆs expression darkened because he suddenly thought about another source of a threat As his Nether Ritual generated a powerful tide he felt the other source of potent significance in the memory Specifically Randidly looked across the stilled battlefield toward Deganawidah The Nether Ritual continued to spin its sphere of influence increasing Very quickly it became obvious that the ritualÆs energy pressed against the Nether Monster
Yet Deganawidah didnÆt respond either
A part of Randidly knew why they didnÆt attempt to stop him He made no attempt to hide the wishes he poured into the Nether Ritual so they simply had to look to know his intent
Randidly clenched his jaw not willing to entertain his doubts Perfect This is just the window I need
He looked down through the ground beneath him to the central area of his Nether Ritual The circles grew wider covering a larger area each core fattening into a basketball sized minor Nether Prince More and more meaning poured into them
And in the middleù
A cold wind blew out released by the Nether Ritual The shape was shadowy at first but gained definition as more meaning flowed into RandidlyÆs working It had been hewn from ice but ice taken from the deepest sunken glacier never before exposed to light
Its long legs clicked as it stirred
It was a spider
Chapter 2304
Randidly stared for a full second at the spider unable to understand why the core significance of the memory formed into this creature Its small body possessed eight long legs but he couldnÆt stop looking at the central portion of its body where the icy exterior revealed a small pulsing brain And two slender antennae stuck out stretching directly up from the nerve center
The small spider swept its antenna back and forth observing the waves of dark energy exploding around it A truly impressive amount of significance and emotion swirled around its body
Yet every second of confusion was one less Randidly spent pouring shape and vitality into the Nether Ritual Elhume tugged in short intervals annihilating more of the potential from the edges of the memory So Randidly put aside his curiosity and the sense he was missing some vital element to truly accomplish the goal of making the memory real and returned to the fundamental work