well we have made our decision TuthakÆs gaze shifted to the middle distance He nodded Now all that remains is to see this attempt through to its end Let us continue
Five more ominous tomes shot forward toward Randidly where Yggdrasil still struggled to consume the first attack Soon the World Tree would use the first as a springboard to become an even more dominant form but that would require a small opportunity
Laplace no longer overlooked Randidly enough to give him that
So Randidly gathered up all the mental energy he could muster folding and compressing his determination his emotional sea continued its tumbling turmoil to generate more force The Dread Homunculus and the Songstress of Absence gratefully absorbed all the emotional intensity blazing as they settled into their own emotional affect Space quaked around the event horizon as the Songstress manifested resulting in spiderweb distortions spreading out to become a barrier in front of him
Because strangely when Randidly focused on the different Truths in their core the Songstress moved first It wasnÆt just that she felt liberated by the lack of collateral damage she could inflict inside PineÆs corpse
She felt closer to TruthÆ
Randidly almost couldnÆt even see Laplace through the five new temporal vortexes churning between them although he felt the pressure of time increasing as the Eternity dragged his body closer Yet oblivion whispered out as the Songstress began to sing hinting at a deeper purpose Her notes hummed in a narrative arc She had been inspired by the language of the dead A language that could kill you if you listened a little too closely An ominous Truth that the words could only be heard and spoken by the deceased
The beginning of her aria collided with the temporal aura produced by five tomes and their orbiting moons
Again Randidly hit delay Another step closer to his Grand Fate Yet the circumstances in front of him didnÆt exactly fill him with confidence
As they reached the Pinnacle Yggdrasil and the Songstress of Absence both began to overmatch the books with which they grappled Yggdrasil especially had gone through 80% of the books fluttering and was only solidifying its foundation Yet the Songstress hadnÆt even gotten to the halfway point
And meanwhile the Dread Homunculus
RandidlyÆs most practical image spat out pure spite and unwillingness as the combined force of four books steamrolled the image a few feet backward At this point only a small amount of distance separated it and the location where the other books were being calmly devoured
A bitter smile twisted RandidlyÆs mouth Of course I would find myself in a situation right at the end where the original form the mandate of simply survive would be more useful than advancing But thatÆs part of growing We let go of who we were before and dress ourselves in the vestments of who we want to be
Homunculus you need to hold here at least for a second at least long enough for me to find your emotional
Randidly blinked his thoughts briefly stalling He felt the strangest moment of imbalance like he had taken a misstep His chest ached He looked down the motion seeming to take much longer than he intended A tremor wracked his body as both of his delayed images weakened
He saw blood first Dripping out of a hole in his torso the crimson liquid glittering with motes of emerald and gold Another blink sharpened his focus to the fleshy grey/pink protuberance stabbing through his ribcage now squeezing a painful vice around his heart
The long fleshy tube led back underneath the ongoing conflict between images and tomes back to the wide open maw of Laplace who leered at him
From the EternityÆs expression the message was clear If you wound me I wound you
The slight distraction meant all of RandidlyÆs focus had vacated the Dread HomunculusÆs body Upon the next impact with the group of books the Cloak of a Thousand Lightless Horizons tore completely The dead spilled and sloshed out of the wound flooding the area with their flickering forms
At the same time that tongue tugged on RandidlyÆs heart threatening to wrench it out of his chest cavity
Chapter 2426
Note to self an Eternity shouldnÆt be underestimated RandidlyÆs eyes blazed as he dug his teeth into his lip to focus Fat drops of blood splashed onto the ground from the hole in his ribcage He felt the pressure in his chest as his heart was tugged out of its resting place Meanwhile the rampant heat from Yggdrasil and the Songstress of Absence had become an inferno
Each individual activity required so much of his focus that he could barely manage them all Images emotion Nether Core concepts regarding his Grand Fate and Penance Laplace hadnÆt missed that vulnerability And what was the most galling about the whole situation was that he had been bested by this shit
Meanwhile his two images being delayed right before the Pinnacle were incensed they demanded the capability to reach the Pinnacle and deal with this sudden threat Randidly quieted their complaints ignoring the pain His hands snapped up and grasped the tongue that had taken him by surprise He squeezed intending to tear his way through the thick strands of muscle Sticky saliva oozed up between his fingers Even more dangerously the touch once more exposed him to the horrible pulses of time His muscles vibrated with the powerful resonance beginning to tear underneath the strain
Damnit damnit damnit RandidlyÆs eyes blazed His whole body shuddered For the first time since he had remained his Stat anchors he felt directly overmatched He considered his options Setting aside the problem with condensing a Penance his Nether Core continued to purify and produce vast quantities of significance If he corralled that and cut through the tongue
RandidlyÆs thoughts might have been scattered by the wound but his images did not lose track of their roles Yggdrasil and the Songstress endured and shredded the temporal waves as per their preference while the Dread Homunculus stepped up again and threw its body forward to buy more time Its hip bone was pulped by the impact But despite its best efforts the four final tomes were now only a short distance away from upsetting the equilibrium of those images
And still Randidly had a tongue wrapped around his heart
The Dread Homunculus ignored its wounds and forced itself back to a standing position If nothing else its stubbornness kept pulling it back to its feet That and the beacon bright spark of emotion taken from Shal animated it despite the damage it had suffered The light wrapped around the imageÆs shoulders and urged it forward
The tongue unleashed a temporal distortion through RandidlyÆs hand and then pulled
RandidlyÆs gut reaction was to dig in his heels Every muscle in his body quivered ready to resist this foreign invasion to his last drop of blood A deep instinctual part of him growled in the face of these threats He considered each individual problem dissecting the methods he could use to smash apart his opposition
Then he forced himself to relax The Alchemist in him snorted and reeled in his wild emotions Part of advancing is letting go of the past Possessing sufficient self awareness to avoid the same mistakes you made previously
His eyes dropped to his chest He released the grip with his hands which meant that his heart was wrenched out of his chest cavity gushing blood out of its torn ventricles The pain was horrendous but Randidly just pressed his lips together Because you donÆt matter at all do you Just a distraction
The raw confession was enough for that pumping gleaming muscle to fade and vanish from the tongue of the Eternity The blood remained on the ground but the wound passed like a strange dream Randidly had already given up his body It hurt to so bluntly admit it but that heart didnÆt matter to his wellbeing Instead he had to deal with the group of four tomes His eyes fixed on the crooked silhouette of the Dread Homunculus the hordes of the dead milling around the imageÆs ankles Yggdrasil
Time to begin the counter attack
Rustling slightly the canopy of Yggdrasil parted and allowed a bit of the universeÆs original light to seep out A nova of golden light suffused the surrounding area Randidly felt his own exhaustion vanish under that warm honey illumination but also knew that the temporal waves of Laplace were enduring a much less friendly pressure