Fiero Randidly said the name as a statement yet the delivery of the word contained a question
Devicks eyes widened connecting the dots Fiero the lauded Patron of the Borrow a being who had been believed dead for a thousand years sneered His tails hung bald and limp behind his body in a clump His spine rounded near the top Did you not believe you understood me boy Ah I remember the confidence that came with that first success Heh Let me teach you a lesson For each success of mine you wish to undo there have been a thousand failures Witness
Fiero raised a desiccated wrist and gestured From the other entrances to this central chamber hundreds of stick thin figures shuffled
Each was the same race as Fiero and each looked as though a monster had sucked them dry Their skin was paper their fur aged and spotty their muscles atrophied their tails limp and wasted their eyes dead Blood leaked from their mouths and some also had thin trails of rusty brown coming out of their nose and ears
My most recent convenience has been liberated So what Fiero pointed The shuffling zombies began moving to surround the group of soldiers that Randidly had brought with him Their physical forms spoke of immense weakness yet they released waves of intense images Echoes of Elhumes or maybe Fieros image They bore me for a time before they broke As my vessels they will gladly harvest your little seeds A pity theyve not had time to grow
The images from the husks continued to rise Not nearing the heights demonstrated by Devick Randidly and Elhume but still each possessing an overwhelming image that would qualify for the Fulfillment stage Blood began to flow from their eyes crimson tears of pain and suffering
Our fight Randidly said
Elhumes cackle interrupted him This is the detail you have missed for all your ingenuity Ghosthound This fight was never about us
Lethal Tide Randidly spun his spear
But Fiero shot sideways his waifish form intimidatingly solid Those aged fingers clenched into fists What was it you said to me Kismet Heh The Sixth Fist Folly
Now the air seemed to flee from Fiero/Elhume unable to even withstand his presence
Devick ground her teeth in frustration What the hell Why does this minor character get such cool lines and Im just here watching
Chapter 2380
When Lyra Silver felt the sudden attack of regret her moon almost crumpled like a discarded newspaper in a spring rainstorm Even though she managed to steady herself small pieces at the edge of the celestial body broke off and fluttered down to settle on the lake below She lost ground that would be impossible to make up
A crimson moons tears fading into ash as the imaginary water of the lake soaked them through and left them abandoned and without magic At this rate she would soon be bled dry
Because more than anything else Lyra did feel regret for the way that she lived her life It was a distortion sitting at the heart of her image a truth she couldnt avoid brushing up against every time she gathered herself She leaned forward almost completely deaf to the energies swirling around her as the Upper Sonora Societys ritual continued Her own pain felt deafening
Yet she knew she as soon as that song ceased so would she Fo?llo?w new stories
She couldnt remember quite when the regret started When it had twisted the innermost chamber of her heart But here slowly bleeding out all of the precious elements that made her exceptional was when it would end At the end of this road lay oblivion
She didnt regret witnessing Randidly manipulating Mana and allowing her wonder to sweep through her and transform her entire being reorienting her world from the mundane to the magical From that moment forward she had found a direction She DID regret not knowing how else to grab Randidlys attention than clashing with him of allowing petty jealousy to make her moods worse forcing him to endure eccentricities as she did her best to ignore her feelings and learn from his accomplishments
She didnt regret having different opinions than him Randidly Ghosthound was not flawless in the least At the best of times he was a risk taker at the worst of times he was stubborn and committed himself fully to the most dangerous option Especially in the initial orientation of the Zones he made so many mistakes simply by absenting himself from the seat of a decisionmaker
What Lyra did regret was going behind his back to try and accomplish her goals Working with the being who was then his worst enemy without considering how that would be seen Trying to undermine his efforts when she believed him to be wrong without ever fully understanding his perspective
She didnt regret her current efforts Of leaving Expira behind and moving onto the Nexus essentially severing her connection the Alpha Cosmos in an attempt to better herself She really believed that by learning the patterns of the System she would be able to provide a perspective that would be helpful to Randidly
Yet she regretted that she had chosen this particular path She had been lured into this life by the promise of magic Now she studied the bland nuts and bolts that supported the Nexus and wondered where she went wrong and why her heart felt so empty
Her image shuddered as the pulling started back up
A few more pieces of her crimson moon flaked off and fell into the water What was once a full moon hanging above a lake had proceeded through two weeks of celestial time nearing a half moon form As the pain and anguish forced Lyra to take a long look at herself the light from the moon became incredibly pure
But perhaps that was just the aperture steadily closing The same quality was being squeezed through a smaller space
I hate you just a little bit Lyra spoke silently to Randidly knowing that he would never hear her words She could have sent him a message but she was too afraid to Half afraid he would ignore her half afraid he would show up and save her and allow her to witness a whole new varietal of magic The other half is the same wonder I first had when I witnessed the way you moved
She suffered in silence waiting for the end
Her end
Randidly Ghosthound stared into the dense network of energy revealed by the mirror in his chest and saw the nodes holding the attack together He saw the vicious claw of a fist whipping toward him the full powerful of Fiero laid bare now that he had taken off his mask He saw the inner workings of that energy revealed by Pangus Asymptote He also saw the powerful husks shambling forward his Vulpis Squad forming up and preparing to clash against them
Fieros beady eyes didnt show surprise just more of the same bitterness Still so confident It wont be long now
Why do you act like Ive never failed Randidly countered leaning forward and pressing more of his weight against Fieros hateful Sixth Fist Only through a few impacts and already Randidlys joints ached Yet he wrung more pressure from his musculature to keep his foe on his back foot The ancient thiefs image didnt waver but the Songstress of Absence blossomed in Randidlys pupils He took more and more of the dark emotions and drank them down into the abyss
Your minor speedbumps
All resulted in someones death Randidly hissed back His shoulders trembled small bits of his muscles beginning to tear The negative influence had been safely cut out of his emotional sea but now he felt his own fury and guilt and mistakes smoldering in the depths of that sea turning all his emotion into incandescent plasma that threatened to be just as destabilizing
Randidly spat out the words his chest heaving Thats what you are missing You tell me that I dont understand how this fight isnt about us but what youve conveniently forgotten is that we arent the ones bearing the consequences for our actions Ive left a trail of devastation in my wake As I grow my very existence warps the possibilities for the people who follow me And I dont even fucking know what that means
Their images cracked and ground against each other for a few more seconds then parted Both Randidly and Fiero took a step back Below them the discarded Fiero hosts unleashed brutal half formed images that smashed back even the relatively more powerful Charlotte Wick and Raymund Ballast