Even if some part of him sourly regarded the lack of a new Skill He beckoned and his emotional affect surged forward to circle around in the interior of his fingertips Unwillingness and determination filled him the outlook that had kept him working even when the Nexus threw an almost impossible amount of roadblocks in his way It was the same sort of emotion that he used to bond with Vualla although Randidly was no longer sure what that meant
Congratulations Your Skill Soulful Vigor has grown to Level 2
Congratulations Your Skill Soulful Vigor has grown to Level 25
Fire licked along the interior of RandidlyÆs ribcage With the emotional force animating him his heart pounded against the confines of his body aiming to break out and affect the world Through sheer force it wanted to crash through and cause a ruckus But RandidlyÆs mind wandered ThatÆs another task I can attend to outside the Nexus IÆll be able to see Vualla IÆll be able to check how genuine our connection is
Congratulations Your Skill Soulful Vigor has grown to Level 71
His heartbeats had reached enough force that the vibrations sent nearby pebbles skittering down the side of the volcano
Satisfied with the display he allowed the emotional force to fade His body returned to stillness Randidly tilted his head as he considered the new option that appeared in his Path list Bubbling Emotional Accumulation I Considering the fact that it was another series of Paths he didnÆt want to commit to it now not with so many possibilities available to him Especially when the cost for the first of these new emotional Paths was ten thousand PP
He had better avenues to advance He opened up his full Path screen once more to look at options
Mantle of the Patron 0/500 Aether Convergence II Puppet Master 0/100 Pain Immunity I 0/250 Cleaver of the World Tree Weakness of the World Tree 0/500 Guilty Conscience I 0/100 Ashes of Illym the Above Average Child 0/5000 The Sigh as the Sky Closes 0/15 000 Joy the Blooming Sun 0/15 000 Creature’s Toil II 0/ Violent Heat I 0/ Violence Incarnate the StormÆs Descent 0/ Deathwish X 0/5 Weakness of the Stillborn Phoenix 0/500 The Shadow Beyond the Threshold 0/ The CreatureÆs Apotheosis 0/25000 Architecture of Yggdrasil I 0/ Piece of the Ideal 0/ Breath of the Imaginary Firebird 0/1000 The Throne of Nether Homage I 0/500 Stat Evolution VII 0/100000 Spark of the Origin Beast 0/ The Eyelids of the Grey Creature Flutter 0/10 000 Determined VI 0/600 The Ashes of Helen the GhosthoundÆs Bloody Knight 0/9000 Excavator of the Two Failed Dreams 0/12 000 The Ash that Reigns Above the Open and Closed Sky 0/ The Living Soul of the Alpha Cosmos 0/ Herald of the Eternal March 0/10 000 The Crown of Four Authorities 0/100000 Peerlessness Through Woven Truth 0/ Bubbling Emotional Accumulation I 0/10000
From that Path Randidly continued with those relating to the Stillborn Phoenix
Congratulations You have completed the Shadow Beyond the Threshold Path For some time you have observed the grand doors of bone in the distance Your feet carried you forward unfailingly eating at the distance that separated you from this dangerous boundary To your surprise mountains rose around those doors of bone soon towering over you a horizon grown teeth Yet finally after a long journey you arrive before the towering edifice Your neck cranes upward unable to see the top of the massive doors Yet through the crack between them a cool wind chills your skin And a massive shadow whispers just barely inaudible It begs you to release it from its prison
Would you like to open the doors and witness the shadow beyond the threshold Y/N
You have chosen to open the doors You press your hands against the cool bone and push The doors shake and groan warning you away from this Path Yet you have resolved yourself to witness the truth Because the darkness that waits on the other side feels familiar You apply more and more pressure until the doors grumble and relent Under the force of your hands they swing open
Warning Synchronicity detected Please see your local Village Spirit Continuing forward without access to sufficient energy will result in sickness or death
Recalculating Warning
The Alpha Cosmos Pantheon has intervened Incorporating elements of the user Access larger Aether stream to fuel adjustments insufficient energy Applying for an expansion of the Aether stream expansion granted
Your hands push open the door The doors of bone shivered and the cool gust becomes a blizzard lavishly spreading frost across your skin As you pause to look at the small shift you have made a massive hand of shadow reached from the other side Its fingers curl around the door’s edge and throw them open
The darkness of your heart unspools and rolls into the abyss before you And what rolls back is a beast of energy that can devour worlds
You stare up at a massive version of yourself planets pulsing with light as they swim in your shadowy body You can feel your own need for power and desperation to overcome the Nexus in its shape Its Cheshire grin is one youÆve felt on your own face many a time At the end of a dangerous and jagged path you find this cosmic entity a physical form almost completely abandoned All that remains is flinty determination
The shadow version of you opens its mouth The tenor of its voice shakes the air It sounds glad the bearer of joyful news Civilizations lay rotting between its teeth dead and forgotten
This is what we can become This is one of our futures
You manage to stare into this thingÆs eyes without flinching To know the depths your darkness might reach is a rare thing
Congratulations Reaction and Grim Intuition +200 Each Skill Level in Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold is slightly more effective Your ability to cope with future possibilities increases The potential to become something vast and hungry and infinite now lurks within you It will influence your growth The Stillborn Phoenix raises its head and howls
Chapter 1930
Lucretia and Alta lay panting in the shadowy in between area that only the Pantheon had access to They had developed the equivalent of the Nexus Ways with some added comforts Yet neither could take advantage of them now Both of them were thoroughly exhausted after intervening in the Path that Randidly had earned in the wider Nexus
Does he not even notice how much Aether flows through him Alta groaned rolling onto her stomach She kept moving her arms as though she sought out the least painful position God I need a vacation
Lucretia chuckled What you need is to train a bit harder before the fate of our fearless leader is on the line And no he probably doesnÆt notice the energy He didnÆt know it at the time but expanding to become the Alpha Cosmos would have been impossible without his Soulbond to Neveah While he continued to gather materials she is the one paying attention to the infrastructure of himself and apportioning out Aether They form a potent duo
Alta grunted as she pushed herself onto her hands and knees Lucretia looked at the other woman fondly despite her grouchy expression Currently Alta wore a younger version of her body before she allowed the bitterness and rage she held toward the Ghosthound to sear her physical form with such heat that she had to reinforce it with metal to prevent herself from turning to ash
Lucretia liked this version of Alta It reminded her of simpler less busy times But she could also sense how vital it was that she support Randidly for a little while longer before she granted herself a bed of oblivion on which to rest
The Aether he took to adjust that Path was enough for a hundred regular Paths Alta grumbled as she rubbed her stomach Ughh I havenÆt ached like this since the worst days of being a charred cinder of a woman
ThatÆs the benefit of standing at the top Lucretia said lightly No expense spared for your improvements But better that we alter Path result than let the System give him that trap of a reward that was there You might not be aware of it but the last few times the System has tried something like that heÆs punched a hole in the overlay System to rip the threat out I donÆt think he would damage us when he did that but better safe than sorry