Alana smiled without any mirth On the day that Azriel had agreed to personally teach her the pale and streamlined woman had looked at Alana with quizzical eyes You realize that Randidly would never ask this of you You do not need to push yourself to such an extent Considering the amount of time you have existed under the influence of the System and now the Pantheon you can be considered a genius Your accomplishments speak for themselves Why continue to push
Because while chasing accomplishments would have me cross several arbitrary finish lines at this point chasing him fills my view with a wide open Path and hopes for a breathless future Alana had responded
Azriel shook her head but they soon got to work
A boom echoed out from above shaking both the duelists When the pressure faded Alana and Shal both rushed toward each other Shal planted his foot and launched himself forward with his weapon kept low The violence of his Armament rose and almost suffocated Alanas image already pressured on every side by the crystal cavern Yet still she she raised her weapon
She could feel it so acutely fighting here the difference between who she was and who she hoped she could be The orange gold motes of energy glittered against her skin but couldnt spread much further beyond that Her palms ached and blood leaked out of the impromptu energy bandage she had created to stabilize her water balloon of a foot
But this is how we improve Surviving this Alana blinked She felt her image rising up through her body Not Anguish this time but a different sort of feeling one closer to awe From the bottom of her heart she understood that she never would catch up to Randidly Ghosthound because this feeling weighed her down
She admired him She couldnt help but appreciate how many life threatening situations he had crawled through to grow to his current form
Yet she didnt feel regret that she had such feelings and her potential might be limited She didnt intend to play mental games to try and avoid the problem Feeling this was honest And Alana Donal wielded an honest spear
The Fourth Revelation Divinity
A point of flawless light opened at the tip of Alanas spear She stood before heavy and inarticulate violence smashing her reverence against the onslaught of force A horrible screeching echoed out from their confrontation cutting down through the brawl between Swacc Family and Vulpis Squad
The pressure crunched her foot sending a wave of pain up her body She wavered but didnt fall Her Divinity dimmed as Shals weapon ground against it but it did not vanish The light did not fade
Both stepped back panting From the pains in Alanas joints her body felt much closer to collapsing than her image had Yet her eyes blazed with pride Even barely able to keep her grip on her spear and her body struggling to heal she spoke with conviction You cannot go up Shal This is your fight Here against me
He looked at her with bitterness in his expression for the first time of his emotional corruption revealed The tears flowed down his cheeks now bleak and pointless Ive already lost my fight I was not enough Now Im simply attempting to demonstrate to my student how the world works But you know
Shals eyes glittered as he looked up I did not strive for this burden I wish I wish we had never encountered one another Our paths separate perhaps then
Suddenly Alana felt a strange uneasiness Before she could respond the air shifted She could almost feel the pivot Azriel gasped but Randidly Ghosthound stiffened in his fight against Elhume and looked down to meet Shals gaze
And Shal saw the universe as it might have been
Chapter 2371
Lyra squeezed her eyes tightly shut and kneeled trying to imagine the clear picture of the blood red moon that had protected her to this point She saw all the shadowy contours of its form all the secret curves and broad expanses The celestial body hovered over a clear lake its reflection almost closer and more present than the true form above
The power of reflections and foils Lyra rubbed her eyes jaw still clenched Is not in what they borrow from the object of their mirroring but in the subtle ways the medium irrevocably alters what is shown They transform parading as imitation
A ripple ran through the lake The surface of the red moon turned chaotic a bubbling cauldron of blood The primordial pool from which all life crawled Her image power intensified she could almost feel the light beating against her skin And yet
Nathaz Eloise undulated next to her nervously flicking his tail Lyra are you well
Fine She lied She shut her mouth immediately after the word not wanting to allow any blood to leak
As though the monster on the other end of those hooks sunk into her soul could hear her words a tremor of amusement traveled down to Lyra from those rusted chains But that was also an opportunity For a moment stillness gave her a chance to catch her breath Lyra opened her mouth and gulped down air Her image roiled and seethed gathering up all its potential She opened her eyes and briefly glimpsed the counter stroke dreamt up by the Upper Sonara Society the growing mass notification that would remove people from the normal Aether streams of the Nexus and make as many as wished for peace into Patrons
In the next moment the Actus Suprem pulled The amusement in the chains rattling vanished replaced with grim determination Lyras moon trembled and shifted a minute amount
The lesser beings had been overcome and this womans calamitous attention had shifted Lyra came within her sight Inch by inch the moon was pulled from the sky
As she once more squeezed her bloodshot eyes shot Lyra offered a small prayer Work fast Randidly T/his chapter is updated by
Shal sucked in a breath All the current threats all his stress and worries all the pressures that the Armament put on his body they all fell away as a change swept through him A different awareness came upon him just as swiftly and totally as a child falls asleep One moment he fought to prove a point to his foolish student and the next he imagined how he wouldnt need to prove such a point
If Randidly Ghosthound had never found him in that Dungeon
His awareness whorled and revved Gradually he could see the threads of possibility
Shal had been in a Dungeon above his Level but he had also had a malaise laid across him by Lucretia his birth mother the Witch of Karma She had wished for him to remain hidden until the proper time Randidlys presence the act of training had snapped him out of the malaise A coincidence perhaps a tragic one The surprise meeting had been Shal believed at the time just the shock he needed to snap him awake and allow him to return to Tellus
An accumulation of blows from Armaments could never fell this image It would come back stronger every time without blemish or flaw
Shal still enthralled with the reimagining of himself for the first time felt the slightest hint of a tremor is it truly possible to have an image that would receive no damage or adjustment from this battle Obviously it wasnt yet perfect
Shal felt the strangest sense of impact He was suddenly back upon the battlefield He felt the fighting of the two armies behind him saw Alana Donal leveling her spear against him and releasing waves of orange light and finally could see Elhume fighting above against
Just a man Shals eyes flickered torn between a horrible sense of grief and a grim satisfaction The tears on his cheeks had dried He felt a vague sense of loss Randidly Ghosthound A stranger and a threat to the Nexus
One more shuddering reverberation bounced through Shals heart All the weight of failure and bitterness vanished He could feel his spirits soaring Anything he lost was covered up by the feeling of ascension He still wielded the Armament felt the heavy image of violence in his hands but an even more potent image prowled within the confines of his chest A smile tugged at the corner of Shals mouth
Now seemed the prime time to reveal his true image to the Nexus
With a quick movement Shal flipped the heavy weapon up from his hands into a more javelin hold Alana Donal narrowed her eyes but Shal already threw the weapon The heavy violence ripped through the air Shifting her grip on her spear Alana said The Third Revelation Anguish