For almost fifteen minutes, Randidly lingered around in that ornate room after Theodora left, idly spinning the large golden globe as he waited for any indication there would be more etings for him. After all, Tatiana had ntioned that there would be other etings in the next few days. Randidly just didn’t know if there would be any more tonight.
Randidly hoped there wouldn’t be. For whatever reason, eting Theodora had left him with a sour taste in his mouth. So when Tatiana didn’t show up, he directly produced the Philosopher’s Key and moved back to his island.
There, he finally allowed himself to collapse onto the ground with his arms spread wide. It had certainly been an aggravating day.
But just as quickly, Randidly breathed out through his nose and focused; he didn’t have ti to waste any ti now. There was a powerful foe waiting in front of him: Kaan Swacc, the Special Investigator for the Xyrt Brigade. A foe that would do his best to inflict harm on the Earth. And although Nether gave Randidly so confidence, he knew he still needed to improve his images before the advantage of Nether would be enough.
...and also there’s the tabled issue of the Creature’s mories… Randidly hesitated for a second, unwilling to simply allow the mories to persist unchaperoned on the Earth for a long period of ti. But by the sa token, Yyxtrix had effectively blocked Randidly from pursuing the mories. And with that last biblical line on Yystrix’s letter…
Sothing made Randidly believe that the mories would find their way back to him, one way or another. Whether it was karma or coincidence or a rise of a sudden threat… they wouldn’t simply disappear. He had no real basis for the belief, other than Yystrix’s actions but…
Perhaps this was just Randidly trying to display his sincerity for soone who was no longer alive to see it.
So for the mont, rather than allowing himself to be distracted by things he couldn't’ control, Randidly turned his attention inward and began to look at the image of Ignition Essence that he held in his chest. If he wanted to increase the power that he wielded, this was the image that would yield the most results.
It hadn’t struck Randidly quite so obviously until he had utilized all three images at once, but Ignition Essence was significantly less powerful than the other two images that he now possessed. It could be even seen from the base form of the image: while the other two images had their discrete shapes, Ignition Essence was just Randidly with so extra flas.
It was difficult to test the exact magnitude even with the glowstone tiles, but Randidly estimated that Ignition Essence was perhaps only one-third of the strength of the other images. There simply wasn’t enough originality or shape to provide the weighty substance that would provide the image with power. So Randidly’s first order of business was to spend so ti with Ignition Essence, searching for the thod to improve it.
Narrowing his focus, Randidly soon found the flickering flas of Ignition Essence in his core. Erald and orange tongues of fla licked upward from an almost blindingly bright core. The aura of enlightennt that radiated outward couldn’t be physically perceived, but as soone who was intimately familiar with the image, Randidly could feel his thoughts flow more easily as soon as he gazed toward Ignition Essence.
There were three main sources for the current Ignition Essence. The first was its origin; the enlightennt that took humanity from beasts to an intelligent species. That first flash of light that inspired the rest of civilization. The gift stolen from the gods.
A treasure without na or context.
Randidly still felt the necessity present in that prison in Tellus that suppressed the activity of Mana and Stamina to an unbelievable degree. It had been a place where only image could exist, and it was the image that Randidly used to eventually escape. Without Ignition Essence, the Path of Tellus would have been much different.
The second source for Ignition Essence was much less glamorous; Randidly’s early Skills related to fire were consud to form a large part of the base for the image. The color of the flas for the Skills beca erald and their usage beca a little more precise, but largely they remained the sa after the transformation. Because Randidly didn’t have the specific history of images like he obtained with the Spear Phantom Style, Ignition Essence just took his fire Skills and slapped a costic change.
Quite a shallow base for power. Randidly grimaced as he considered how to change that moving forward. But still, he hoped the third source that would provide the answer to that question. While he looked at his inner space, Randidly’s focus narrowed toward the orange tongues of fla that were a part of Ignition Essence.
It was the addition of Illym and her powerful Fate that made the difference to Ignition Essence. Although again, the visual change to the image was only costic, Randidly guessed that the effect was truly much deeper than that due to the sweeping changes that went through the nas of his associated Skills.
Phoenix Slaying Bolt, Firebird’s Lant, Talon of the Restless Immortal…
The fire in Illym’s image easily grafted onto the rather generic base of fire Skills that Randidly had previously in Ignition Essence and infiltrated. What was problematic is that along with the weight of Illym’s Fate and the terrible heat it produced, he also received a lot of her ancillary images. A terrible depression that ca from a lifeti where either she or her sister would need to give up their lives in order for the other to survive. And the guilt for unknowingly killing her sister in her desperation to be independent.
Guilt for the knowledge her sister had willingly died for her. A vast emptiness that her sister died without Illym being able to speak with her.
Those tiny emotions had swirled through the peripheral Skills, but the pure core of inspiration that founded Ignition Essence resisted any change without Randidly’s express choice.
Randidly sighed. Leaves with a series of tough choices. I absorbed the Fates to help heal my Class and create my own Fate, and now I either try and extricate Illym or I find a way to reconcile the core image of inspiration in Ignition Essence with the deep darkness that Illym carried with her. And hope that whatever I choose to do, it won’t affect my other images…
After shaking his head, Randidly stopped thinking overmuch about the broader issue; he would find a solution or he wouldn’t. Forcing it now while he had no concrete ideas wouldn’t help. Instead, he began channeling his Willpower through the image. It erupted in a sea of hungry flas that crackled and howled. The reach of the orange and erald tongues of fire grew and grew.
Even the pure core of inspiration grew brighter as Randidly concentrated.
If the frontlines had taught Randidly anything, it was that every bit counted. So once a few seconds of blazingly fierce image passed, Randidly focused forward and began to make small aesthetic changes to the image. The colors of the fire beca more intense and vibrant. Randidly steadily refined the source of the light at the core to be a dodecahedron that seed to fold in on itself with every rotation.
And heat. Randidly rembered heat that he could use to enrich the image. He rembered feeling Alana’s bold and honorable fire tonight. But he also rembered the poisonous and deadly flas of Aegiant, forcing Randidly to hide in the depths of a pool of lava to escape being lted. He rembered the whispery sound of lava evaporating.
He also rembered his own images of heat, that mont where enough carefully built up increases explode in a sudden paradigm shift. The cycle in his core that had been his Soulskill before the Alpha Cosmos.
This, at least, was a space where Illym’s emotions could be worked into the image more fully. Ignition Essence possessed a heat that was so intense it refused to be quelled, even with the possessor dearly wished to release. It was a heat that only knew its own obsessive pursuit of consumption.
As much as the heat might crave to cease being hot, it could not. Balking or slackening was not in its nature.
Randidly sharpened the edges of the tongues of fla. He expanded the area of influence that Ignition Essence exerted. Then Randidly experinted a bit with other forms to be producing the fla, but nothing but his own body felt genuine.
From the nas of the Skills, Randidly wanted to make sothing akin to a phoenix that could fan the flas. But of course, Randidly hadn’t ever seen a phoenix. Or rather, the ones he had seen had been artistic renditions from pre-System Earth; they were completely useless to him.
What he wanted was the bird that personified fire. Not a fantastical drawing.
When casting around his mind for other options… nothing seed to be a workable candidate. He had regret, guilt, desperation, and inspiration swirling in a confusing pot for the image of Ignition essence. What form could he give to this strange fla that would possess all those emotions…?
Coming back to his physical body, Randidly brought up the cool tal fingertips of his left arm to press against his temples. He hadn’t been exhausted by the work he did sharpening the edges of the Ignition Essence image, but it was still a little disappointing that he really had no idea how to proceed next. There were other thods of training, but... Perhaps if he contacted Illym’s parents and asked for so more details about her life-
And as Randidly had that thought, he felt the rope bracelet around his right wrist stir.
Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 32!
Tilting his head to the side, Randidly flicked his wrist and conjured the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night to float above his hand. Once more, the half dozen rotating hoops spun outward from a central area while a complex and geotric core extended between the hoops, overlapping and folding in unpredictable ways.
Once the Fatepiece unfolded, Randidly’s Grim Intuition flowed inside the Fatepiece to experience the deep and varied sea of chis that lay within. But very quickly, Randidly could identify one of the chis that was producing its noise at a very different frequency of the others. Likely, this was the source of the disturbance with the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night.
Looks like this started reacting when I was thinking about ways to find out more about Illym. I suppose the Fatepiece is trying to tell that this is an answer…? Randidly thought with a frown as he considered the noise. After the emotional experience with touching the previous chi and finding Yystrix, Randidly was sowhat leery to just make an attempt.
But ultimately, he gritted his teeth and reached. As he did so, his mind skimd through several of the most emotional or pivotal monts in his life, wondering where and when this would take him. The world around him warped and shifted and suddenly Randidly was in another place.
Contrary to what little ntal preparations Randidly had done for this experience, he did not imdiately recognize the surrounding area. In fact, it appeared that Randidly was sohow in a spot that Randidly had never seen before. It looked like a spacious and austere bedroom. A large mattress was against the far wall, next to a closet. There was an unlit lamp in the corner next to a desk. There were windows, but they were completely covered with dark cloth, throwing the room into shadows.
But he was standing frozen opposite soone else who was similarly frozen. An average looking woman with dark hair and a square nose looked incredulously over at Randidly while she held up a cherry-red sword with the tip pressed right below her breastbone.
And Randidly imdiately knew her: this was Illym, the Above-Average Child. And based on the current scenario, it seed like Randidly’s Fatepiece had sohow taken him to the mont right before Illym took her own life.
This is certainly… not what I expected...
Illym’s eyes had been bleak and hollow when Randidly had arrived, but his sudden appearance seed to ignite sothing deadly and intent in her expression. Without batting an eyelash, she spun the sword in her hands and pointed the tip at Randidly. “You… what the hell do you think you are doing here…?”
“I…” Randidly tried to figure out a good answer to that question. After Illym’s expression darkened during a few seconds of hesitation, Randidly decided to go with sothing like the truth. “I’ve co from the future. I’m here to stop you from taking your own life-”
Illym snorted and swung the sword. As she did so, first the air and then the entire room around Randidly ignited in a furious roar of heat and fire. The image was pure and blunt, but certainly effective. Almost instinctively, Randidly activated the Chiric Avoidance to dodge the damage, but the heat and suddenness of the attack gave him no room to retreat. His body began to bubble and boil.
Congratulations! Your Skill Chiric Avoidance (L) has grown to Level 241!
Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 263!
-and then Randidly was back, floating in the dense mass of chis. After shaking his head and righting himself, Randidly easily located the chi that continued to release its teasing cry so frequently. At least its good to know that I won’t suffer permanent damage from what happens within these strange places…
Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 33!
Sighing, Randidly went back and entered the area of that chi. The world shifted once more. Imdiately after everything ceased lting into swatches of color, Randidly began to speak. “You see? Fighting is useless. I’m truly from the future-”
Randidly paused. Because now he noticed that once more he had arrived to a dull-eyed Illym who had a sword pointed at her chest. She twisted the sword around. “You...what the hell do you think you are doing here…?”
A vein in Randidly’s temple throbbed. So the mont saved in the Dreamcatcher is static, huh…?
A split second later, Illym attacked Randidly again and knocked him out of the strange suspended mont.
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