Chapter 1890

Chapter 1890

Randidly felt it, pressing against him entirely the opposite way as the powerful image of Elhume had when he needed to face that fist. That fist had wanted to crush and break him, releasing a grating pressure that sought to impose itself upon him. Devick’s rusty chains were similar. They overwhelmed everything in their path.

He slowed his descent. What remained of Pine was very different. It pressed against him, but in an embrace. As though it would accept anything and everything, a wide and guileless affirmation to all nearby forces.

Which, Randidly supposed, was why significance began to pool here.Gét latest novel chapters on nov(e)lbj/n(.)c/om

From Randidly’s talks with Yystrix and also later the Patrons, he knew roughly the situation in the Nexus. Pine was a child that Yystrix had with some Nether being, a throwback to the Shallah, the original pure beings of myth that lived in an Eden lost to history. Due to various circumstances, Yystrix had brought Pine back to Elhume, her husband, who was an Aether-based being like her.

Elhume had a particular role in the Aether society, one that put him in a position of power. In Pine, he saw providence and opportunity. Yet all was not well; every moment that Pine spent in the exposed universe, the light of his life grew dimmer. He might truly be one of the Shallah; however, outside of Eden, his only fate was to die.

Yystrix and Elhume didn’t understand the timeline, but they understood how this was going to end if they did not act.

So Elhume mortgaged the entirety of the Aether population in order to create an adequate environment for Pine. He relied on the perfection of the child Yystrix had brought to reach the ‘Pinnacle’ and create the Nexus from nothing. However, it soon became clear that the Nexus was only a temporary solution. It stalled out Pine’s degeneration, but couldn’t heal the wounds that had already occurred. Therefore, Elhume mobilized the Nexus to try and bridge the gap to that lost Eden, so Pine could recover and thrive.

Randidly floated down through the thick air. Out of the darkness of the Shaft, the first hints of Pine emerged. A stadium-sized sphere waited below, slurping up all the significance that floated down here and remaining thirsty for more. It looked like the inversion of the Stillborn Phoenix: the darkness seemed to intensify around the edges of the sphere, becoming thick and impenetrable. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see nothing but the abyss there. But when you looked at it directly, a bright world unfolded before you.

It looked full, but that embrace sang of emptiness.

Randidly couldn’t make out any detail of this world, because the fuzzy lines of mountain and sky and greenery were rubbed away at the edges by the gleaming, sun-touched spell that covered all of it. The golden light refracted into blinding kaleidoscopes that beckoned. Looking directly at it, Randidly felt a deep tug on him to join that world. Even with his own Nether Core, this existence was strong.

Hollow as it might be, some substance existed there.

Randidly turned away with an effort of will, shattering the growing connection of significance between himself and that world. Only out of the corner of your eye, when that brilliant dream faded to darkness, could you see the tumbling details that he had heard from Roy.

In that darkness, several limbs twisted mid-air. Randidly saw a single, featherless wing, folded neatly. A bloodshot eye stared around sightlessly as it tumbled. A luminously pale skull released a misty of glittering blue motes. A fleshy pink stomach engorged itself on the significance, absorbing more and more.

The ugly and swollen organ couldn’t be seen if you looked for it, but lurked like the whisper of doom when refused to be pulled into the dream.

The strange dream around Pine’s body already has such a frightful pull. Randidly frowned and looked away entirely from this strange base. How dense must the significance in his stomach be? And why can’t I feel it? The significance that flows into him just seems to disappear.

“Indeed. Or rather, it was... the true me. Not just the unlucky bit of myself that remains conscious.” The man standing next to the bed gave a small smile. His cheekbones were sharp and his hair was slate grey. His eyes glittered with a purple so dark it was nearly black. But now that Randidly was closer, he could see that the figure in the bed and the standing figure wore the same face.

Abruptly, Randidly realized where he recognized the sharp features. “You are-”

“Solomon Rex,” The mysterious figure bowed to Randidly. He held the perfect bend of his bow for two seconds before he straightened. “At your service, Mr. Ghosthound. I’ve been waiting for someone like you for a long, long time.”

For several seconds, Randidly just stared at the man. His emotions twisted back and forth in his chest as he thought about the way that Neshamah, this man’s daughter, betrayed Claudette at the last second. Perhaps being under the sway of the Rex Family would have been the lesser of several evils, but it had seemed unnecessary.

But truthfully, he wasn’t even sure how close Solomon and Neshamah were-

Randidly’s gaze shifted to the sleeping form of Solomon. A small smile played across the man’s face, as though he wandered through a reassuring dream. Radndidly’s frown deepened at the strange circumstances. “I... I’m not sure what to say to you.”

“Nor I, you, honestly,” The mental projection of Solomon Rex reached up and rubbed the back of his head with a rueful smile. “I had always hoped someone like you would come along to threaten Elhume, but I didn’t have much hope.”

That certainly earned a sharp glance from Randidly. “You-”

Then he stopped short. Was he surprised that this mysterious figure slumbering beneath Pine knew he wanted to overthrow the Nexus? Compared to the other facts about this strange meeting, that seemed to be the most innocuous. Besides, being aware of Randidly’s own goal was something different than being aware of the group gathered with the intent to bring down Elhume.

Solomon just watched Randidly’s internal conflict with a knowing curl at the corner of his mouth.

Randidly breathed out a breath. There is too much strange about the situation. Let’s take one thing at a time.

“Why are you here?” Randidly asked. “Not the projection, but your true body. You are... sleeping?”

“Very deeply. But that’s the price I had to pay. To remain here.” Solomon Rex’s smile faded. “I’m guarding Pine against selfish and shortsighted fools. Even if our leader has forgotten the original goal of the Nexus, there is a group of us that has not. No matter what, we cannot give up now out of fear.”

Randidly absorbed that answer slowly. He wasn’t sure what Solomon meant by giving up out of fear. But rather than ask that question, he changed his focus but kept things simple. “And why have you been waiting for me? Or someone like me?”

“You are quite special. It didn’t have to be you, obviously.” Solomon scratched his beard, looking surprisingly mundane despite the environment. “The horrible truth is that the System is all about commodifying and stealing something precious in order to repurpose it for another aim. First to cut through the abyss and reach Eden and now... well. All the powerful individuals who have come before end up eventually empowering that man on top of this sick pyramid, one way or another. The reason I reached out to you... what you are making of yourself would be very, very difficult to copy. There are too many crucial pieces. And for that reason, you have a chance of being singular. A chance of reaching the Pinnacle based on your own power.”