If he couldnt wrap this fight up quickly
Damnit The veins of Randidlys hands bulged as he squeezed Acris shaft He knew he shouldnt feel this way having finally reached this plateau but Randidly couldnt help himself each step forward just demonstrated to him how much more distance he needed to climb The detestable sense of powerlessness swirled throughout his chest Damnit I need to do better than this To protect
You cant protect us all Neveah slipped into Randidly’s consciousness and nudged him slightly You are not Atlas Randidly with the world on your back You are the world Do you see the difference Because to fight every threat on your own really would be Folly
By existing we all fight We are the example of another Path
Fiero kicked off the air and rose higher in this central chamber until he landed against the ceiling Instantly the crystal Aether bubbled and seethed restrictive tendrils stretching out and trying to submerge and lock down Fiero Yet much more forcefully than this calcified energy struck at him Fieros vicious claws plucked up all that raw energy and pulled Raw Aether gushed down into his limbs confused and chaotic at being plundered like this
Fieros fists blazed The air flickered light bending and turning liquid in a halo around his body
All that extra Aether wouldnt add any extra detail to the fists Fiero threw but Randidly pressed his lips together knowing how much heavier all that energy would add
His eyes blazing Fiero drifted downward Snakes of concentrated Aether slithered around his fingers You consider it a mistake to squish the miserable lives of powerless individuals A laughable misunderstanding Because what lessons do you learn from such mistakes except that these individuals shouldnt have been weak
Randidly felt another tremor through his heart A part of him acknowledged that perhaps he had missed some emotional tang in Fieros Folly because the frustration and impatience in his body kept rising through him He wanted to be done with this draining fight He wanted to win now He wanted to have the climactic confrontation and not need to slog through more
He would advance but he was tired He still had all his Authorities but Randidly didnt know how they would fit into this struggle Even after a small number of conflicts with Fiero had pushed his powerful body to its limits And if he didnt continue to push himself to the limits on his own
As Fiero took a fighting stance and prepared to throw a punch a rumble echoed out throughout the crystal mountain range A split second later there was a resounding crack A small flaw split the solid Aether
Fiero stiffened His gaze twisted to the left in the direction the body of Elhume had been sealed
Randidly felt a strange sense of relief fill him as a small amount of the pressure against him eased Solomon Rex had finally made his move
Chapter 2381
Shal felt struck dumb He couldnt think He couldnt feel He barely even felt blood dribbling out of his wound He sat torn between two lives he might have lived one where he had encountered a student another where he had not
The memories hissed and spat at one another unwilling to accept the existence of the other In both he had followed the path of the spear The more he tried to dig into the specifics of either the more the memories blurred and blended into one another They simultaneously couldnt remain like this but also couldnt be extricated
He both existed and he didnt
He sat and blood continued to seep out of his wounds onto the ground Even breathing took a great deal of effort his chest heavy with emotions he didnt want to face Because no matter which of the lives Shal wanted to believe was true both had essentially now ended
He felt the scar on his fundamental soulshape seared there with the powerful blow Alana Donal had used Although an arm could be healed it would never again be a natural part of him He no longer had a future that he had so long reached for
Alright lets get up and move The head guard ordered with an anxious glance up toward the crystal mountain range Already one crack had skittered through the overhanging structure If the edifice would collapse with the waves of dense energy and the heavy materials all those present would be crushed
In a way Shal yearned for just that To have this suffering taken from him It would be so easy to just lie down and be crushed
Yet he felt so hollow he allowed himself to be hauled up to his feet and shoved forward With the other captured Swacc Family members he shuffled across the ground toward the exit Only when the person in front of him stumbled did Shal notice who proceeded in front of him the massive boar headed humanoid that he had fought against right when he arrived in the Nexus still reeling from his loss on the Path to the Pinnacle
With his Armament in hand and a booming laugh this being had laid Shal low right when he had been at his most vulnerable His memories of the confrontation were fuzzy and half remembered just one part of the entwined lives that he lived Yet now that same individual looked so small and helpless his face just as empty and drained as Shals own They shuffled on never even making eye contact with one another
The group trooped out of the crystal mountain range and examined the surroundings No ambush waited for them And honestly they were minor characters compared to the main fight still releasing shuddering tremors throughout the Nexus and destabilizing the area So they moved slightly further away so as to escape the spitting energy coming off the destabilized mountain range
Shal couldnt be bothered to listen in on the quiet discussions of the guards There were also a few amongst the Swacc Family who put their heads together to mount a resistance and escape but Shal ignored those small plots as well After all what would be the point
He sat at the edge of their temporary camp looking out across a sea of drifting space debris Occasionally the ground beneath him vibrated but the sensation didnt attract his curiosity His dual lives created friction as they rubbed against each other The ache where his right arm had once been grew stronger Who was he Who had he been Who would he become
Would it be better to die so he would no longer be plagued by these questions Could he
There was a soft tapping as a rather large grouping of rocks knocked against the solid ground on which the crystalized Aether was built Shal blinked and raised his eyes noticing for the first time the way the surrounding rocks seemed to be swirling in purposeful patterns There were no visible connections but the orbiting rocks seemed to be part of some massive machine
A quality Randidly couldnt yet rival lay in this fist
Randidly stepped forward despite this awareness He planted his feet and thrust his spear His images flared and swirled together each edged with its own unique emotional affect each naturally balanced with one another His spear blazed golden lined with green veins but edged in black
Although he shouldnt be able to clamber up to the Pinnacle without reaching that point on his own his power didnt know that It tried its best anyway The sharp report of the meeting boomed outward
The force of the impact smashed down on the battlefield below crunching a few of the Vulpine husks and giving the Vulpis Squad some much needed time to pause and regroup Spearlight ravaged the fist the two worlds behind the power leaning into one another to get an advantage The impact was also so powerful that some of the weakened crystal Aether near the spread cracks began to crumble
After an extended moment of struggle Randidly found himself thrown backward He transformed the movement into a natural back handspring and while righting himself his image shifted to the second form he had discovered Randidly as a monster His left eye and most of his face vanished completely the Songstress of Absence crooning out her annihilating song Yggdrasil stretched gnarled and thorned roots up to form two monstrous wings Not just that but roots also stretched from his waist to create a giant tail The heavy axe blade Acri fell into place