Chapter 1729

Chapter 1729

Randidly rubbed his chin. Overall, it’s really just the last bit that will benefit me right now as I’m dealing with this sub-par rhythm game. But even if that effect is relatively minor, gaining three hundred extra Stats isn’t something to sneeze at... And definitely, once my focus is back on larger Nether Rituals...

Haaaa, whenever this damned Alpha Cosmos begins to digest my last meal...

“Let the third Moderate Pattern begin!” The old man announced. As the tiles in front of him began to light up in rapid succession, almost three at a time, Randidly shoved all his extra thoughts to the side and threw himself back into the rapid movements required to keep up with Moderate Patterns. At this point, Randidly couldn’t keep himself from steaming slightly as Nether and blood swirled through his limbs.

When the tiles floor beneath him didn’t seem to take any damage from the violence of his movements, he slightly eased the tight control he kept over his movements. The unrestrained motions probably cost him more physical energy, but that was something Randidly Ghosthound had in spades.

Neveah stumbled in her accompaniment at first, causing Randidly to grit his teeth and simply rely on his potent Reaction to keep up with the flaring tiles. Luckily, with a brief activation of Randidly’s The Grey Creature Glimpses Providence to provide an edge, Neveah soon settled into the correct rhythm. The music of her symphony swelled with confidence, led by an aggressive guitar track that kept manifesting zigzagging trails of tiles directly in front of Randidly.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Grey Creature Glimpses Providence (P) has grown to Level 350!

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 2!

The leaves of Yggdrasil rustled. Randidly released a breath, his eyes steadily glazing over as he allowed the music to guide his movements. Several streams of energy flowed in different directions in Randidly’s chest as he managed to release the correct images to image tiles while also keeping his own images active to boost his performance.

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 3!

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 4!

The various images rubbed against each other as they flowed down to his blurring legs and created some friction... but Randidly managed to keep the whole complex network from collapsing.

Heh, having high Stats is such a cheat way to boost Skill Level growth... Randidly thought rather smugly at the notifications that continued to pop up in front of him. He still felt somewhat grim at the postponed fate of Loas, but that worry gradually loosened as the beat of his heart guided his mood upward. Neveah’s soundtrack to this pattern was much more rock-forward than her previous ones, as waves of cascading tiles glowed and vanished underneath Randidly’s feet and tail.

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 5!

...

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 19!

Plus, Randidly was good at this particular task. The movements came easily to him and the musical accompaniment had him bobbing his head. As Grand Perspective continued to accumulate Skill Levels, the messy tasks of releasing pulses of images gradually became easier to manage. The net of images straightened and became less frantic.

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 32!

When the next Moderate Pattern finished, Randidly was sweating but metally feeling no worse than when he started. Grand Perspective lowered the processing power required to keep up with the images, which was the one area that Randidly was starting to lose ground compared to the fresh-faced participants in the Grand Dance. Without much fanfare, a new group of ‘dancers’ walked out and replaced the previous cohort. Only Randidly, still vaguely steaming, was left amongst them.

How much do all these people know about me...? Randidly couldn’t help but wonder.

Even worse, Randidly was again caught. Perhaps he could obtain a similar amount of help from the information Claudette was gathering, but he couldn’t deny he was tempted by the offer.

Honestly, he had no idea how he would have responded, had a voice not cut through the ballroom at that moment.

“Velio Dunn has been spotted! He’s burned a wing of the Engraving Guild to the ground!”

*****

After sheathing his sword, Velio Dunn turned away from the sea of flames and rubble. The defensive arrays discharged bursts of energy pointlessly into the air. All he had left was a shard of his former image, but even that was enough to cut through this rabble.

The Southern portion of the massive Engraving Guild pyramid had been obliterated.

Today, he had essentially wiped out the ‘memory’ of the overlay System. Individuals would still retain a copy of the Status locally as part of their Aether apparatus, but the orthodox faction of the Nexus lost access to those billions of data sets. And considering the scope of what they lost, it would take them some time to reconstruct their surveillance scheme.

Now it’s time to learn a very, very forbidden sort of Skill... Velio licked his lips. Then he twisted in place and vanished, even as several powerful members of the Nether Lattice rushed over to surround him and lock him down.

He utilized the Nexus Ways, even knowing that the shortcuts he understood were probably known better by Lathis N’Gick, who would soon be pursuing him. His form flickered and glided through the convoluted spatial tunnels, surging past the main veins. Honestly, he had no choice. Right now it was a race against time. Since the fuckers wanted to guard his old companions, Velio needed to obtain a skeleton key.

Flames that he had long buried in his chest had been reignited. For the first time in a millennia, Velio moved with purpose. And the only place he knew for sure he could obtain this key was-

Velio skidded to a stop in a dark under-tunnel of the Nexus Ways. The walls were flickering and insubstantial. These sorts of places hadn’t been used since the middle of the second Cohort. But there, standing talk and scowling with a caustic rage, was the feathered Lathis N’Gick.

Velio stifled a curse. Then he examined Lathis closely. “...just an avatar?”

Nether bubbled up out of the surroundings and rushed to Lathis as he raised his hand. His black eyes were narrowed. As he gathered more and more Nether, the Aether substructure in the surrounding space began to tremble. “Against you, an avatar is more than enough. Your loyalty is misplaced, Velio. Do not make this more difficult than it needs to be.”

Velio made some quick calculations about forcefully ripping his way out of the Nexus ways and manifesting in some random corner of the Nexus, but he quickly shelved that idea; Lathis’ Nether interference made that a death wish. He would need to fight against this avatar quickly to escape-

“He may not be your match... but what about me?” There was a flash of light and then an overwhelming wave of destructive energy rushed past Velio and slammed into the shade of Lathis N’Gick. Instantly, the Nether was suppressed and the surroundings stabilized.

“Who the fuck are you?” Lathis snarled, his feathers standing up off of his arms.

A woman with blue-grey hair and a long scar across her face strolled out of a side tunnel and smiled. “You may call me Edraine.”