Chapter 1889

Chapter 1889

“Ozark!”

Moonlight Blade’s voice sunk into Ozark’s back like he imagined a wolf’s teeth would if that ire was ever directed at him. Miserable and not really understanding why he of all people was being called, Ozark hopped to his feet-

-and slammed his head against a rock. He crouched over and cradled his skull for several seconds, all imperatives knocked away by the pulsing ache that scrambled his thoughts. However, he quickly remembered the demand in Moonlight Blade’s voice and hurried through the dark tunnels, knocking his shins and elbows against walls that he couldn’t quite make out. He arrived harried and trying to gulp down breaths as quietly as he could manage.

In Moonlight Blade’s main room, at least, a thin ray of moonlight shown down through a crack in the rocks. In the dim light, the powerful Pinnacle Seeker’s fur glittered like spun silver. He favored Ozark with a blood-thirsty smile, seemingly looking him from head to toe and weighing mentally how much meat he possessed.

“Y-you called?” Ozark detested how much his voice squeaked. He folded his hands behind his back.

“Compose a letter,” Moonlight Blade’s chest rumbled with aggression; each hot breath was heavy with fury. He leaned forward. “Let Randidly Ghosthound know-”

Moonlight Blade’s eyes flashed with an implied threat. He bared his long fangs and the air in the cave grew hot. “-know there are... no hard feelings between us. Then request-”

The wolfman’s lips pulled even further back from his pearly teeth. More than what he said, Ozark, felt the weight of what he wasn’t saying: the consequence if the Pinnacle Seeker didn’t get his way. “-that he facilitate additional equipment for me... along the same vein as this bracer.” Moonlight Blade fixed Ozark with a piercing glare. Ozark swayed, his palms sweaty. “The maker is from his homeworld, after all.”

Ozark wanted to cry. He had heard the rumors about the young man, seen how he had brutally attacked his superior officer, and then heard how the Ghosthound had managed to briefly fight Devick to a standstill. If you want to so boldly threaten the Ghosthound, why use me as a messenger? He might just kill me for being disrespectful.

But Ozark could only nod. That was the lot of being a minion.

He tried to maintain his dignity as he left the room, then spent several minutes shivering in a small tunnel with his back pressed against heavy stone. Only when the adrenaline turned to sludge in his veins did he begin typing a message.

*****

Randidly woke up with a gasp. His dreams had been thick and chaotic with heat and impressions. In some of them, he was haunted by a cruel-eyed Wick, in others by a madly laughing Devick, but the worst of them all were those where Randidly could only grit his teeth and try and endure the overwhelming fists of Elhume himself. The pressure of their images still seemed to weigh against him.

His palette was damp and steam wafted off of his shoulders and arms. Randiddly rubbed the bridge of his nose with fingers from Sulfur’s arm, which was much cooler than his flesh. He had felt a sense of accomplishment, finally reaching a point where he could tear apart Wick. However, he still found himself wanting against the image of both Devick and Elhume.

For a brief moment, the deflated, loose-skinned version of the defeated Wick flashed in front of Randidly’s eyes. He sighed. I won. But... it’s really just the beginning, isn’t it?

With very little else to think about, Randidly began examining the Nether of the shaft. Compared to his own, the substance of it was light and oily. Not oily in its graceful thickness, which Randidly possessed in spades, but in the spottled, nearly speckled substance of the Nether. So many different connections and meanings seemed to have been condensed in this Nether. Like rather than a single Nether Core spinning it out, there was instead a massive well of Nether around this significance, where thinner and less refined Nether was forcefully pressed closely together, which eventually combined all those thin layers into Nether of a more serious density.

With time and pressure, a powerful material could be forged.

The prospect reminded him of the layered, jelly-like form of Wick and himself in that mental area. The fragility of ‘self’ made Randidly release a long sigh.

Very quickly he dropped down to the 50% Nether content layer. A small smile tugged at Randidly’s lips when he remembered his struggles before he condensed a Nether Core, barely able to maintain his position here. At that time, Velio Dunn had found him, forcing him to flee deeper into the Shaft and risk becoming a part of the significance at the bottom of this place to escape.

What came next was the area with the porcelain defensive automatons, which obviously let him pass without any harassment as he shot downward. However, right before Randidly passed their area, he felt the hairs on his neck prickling: someone was watching him. Someone potent.

He twisted his head around to look but he was already past that area. All that lingered was a bit of anxiety and a strange feeling of familiarity. Randidly frowned. Who do I know that would be this deep in the shaft?

Both Revelations of the Atramentous Threshold and Grey Creature Glimpses Providence activated. Yet even combined, he could not intuit the answer.

That question puzzled him even as he tumbled down past an increasing number of Nether Gatekeepers born in this place and hanging here in constant meditation. Reminded of an earlier promise, Randidly sent a message to the Nether Gatekeeper that had helped him and now lived in the Alpha Cosmos, the one with the powerful mantle of antlers. Perhaps on the way back up, he could talk to some of these Nether Gatekeepers and give them a new home.

The distribution of the Nether Gatekeepers appeared to follow a bell curve. There were a few at the edges as he blurred down and then suddenly there were dense clusters of them, all sitting in furiously silent meditation to resist the pull back down. Randidly slowed his speed just so he wouldn’t disturb them. Soon they were so tightly clustered that he had to swim between them. The Nether content around continued to rise.

Then suddenly the shaft opened up. Both figuratively and literally, as the amount of Nether Gatekeepers dropped precipitously and Randidly could see what the dense population had made him miss earlier; the shaft continued to widen into something ridiculously massive. He accelerated again, traversing the last distance. The substance of the atmosphere was so thick with Nether that Randidly could feel each of the Nether Gatekeepers, their deep significance that rivaled his own, even after he had borrowed so much from several generous donors.

These Nether Gatekeepers... Randidly spun his Nether Core and achieved equilibrium with the environment. Significance tugged at him, but he had enough power to ignore it. He looked at one Nether Gatekeeper in particular, a sleek armored humanoid that vaguely resembled an armadillo. The twirling patterns of Nether this individual produced were incredibly profound. Almost immediately, one of the Nether Gatekeeper’s eyes opened under his scrutiny; Randidly felt vaguely embarrassed to be caught staring.

Because this individual made his instincts warier than even Wick had.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 663!

Rather than respond to his stare, the Nether Gatekeeper smirked and then closed its eyes. Its Nether spun in those same beautiful snowflake patterns, but then a screen of Nether rose to block him from observing it. Randidly released a breath and shook himself. That little taste wasn’t enough to give him much inspiration, but it did let him know that there was much more to learn about Nether.

Then he continued downward and the composition of the atmosphere changed further. With the sensitivity given to him by the medium around him, Randidly felt it.

Randidly had found the body of Pine, the existence that had inspired the Nexus.CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m