Chapter 1923

Chapter 1923

Randidly raised his head and roared. A yawning gulf of chilling emptiness lurked below him, but he refused to give in.

He held nothing back with his yell, expelling every bit he could from his body and lungs. The noise and the sheer presence of his release crashed against reality. The storm shuddered. The bubbling of the lava next to him quickened like a simmering pot of water. The plant collective trembled and the ants stilled underneath the pure cry of triumph and pain. His hands curled into fists.

He refused. He refused to succumb to the constant drain of Entropy. He would burn brightly and forever, the churn of Nether and Aether through his body creating an inexhaustible flame of potency that would never dim, even experiencing a relentless grind of existence. As sweat ran down his temples and small drops fell from his chin, that is what Randidly realized. Essentially, to stand against entropy was to create something permanent in an impermanent world.

Something that would persist despite the environment. That wouldn’t falter underneath the strain of existence.

I can do it for a time. Clarity revealed his own path forward as though a series of massive spot lights had been lined up and switched on all at once. Still buoyed by his yell, he surged forward. Yet at the end of that path, the cycle of life and death will reach its end. I will go from ascendant to descendant. And at that time-

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Hierarchy of Burden has grown to Level 54!

His lungs were finally empty. His chest spasmed, his diaphragm unable to contract any further. The cycle had ended. He needed to suck in another breath to begin again-

But now wasn’t the time for that.

Randidly released an explosive sigh after his inhale and deactivated the Fatepiece. He had some twinges of mental exhaustion, but largely he finished the training session without any consequences. In terms of being able to conserve the force of his power, training with Entropy was an excellent method. It forced him to be streamlined and focused with his execution of emotions, images, and patterns.

Which, considering how much horsepower I’ve been working with recently, has been an ignored area of improvement. A throwback to the old days where I was scrabbling for any sort of advantage. Randidly yawned and shook his head. His black hair had grown out almost to his chin during the last few months; he needed to cut it. Rather than an individual who would fight to overthrow the Nexus, Randidly felt like someone who had chosen to go off the grid and found some sort of esoteric order of scruffy monks with his spare time.

Made doubly convincing by the grunting and swearing group of people down on the beach, laboring even through the constant drizzle of rain.

He settled himself on the ground and then took care of his Penance. He was only a little in debt, but it was better to stay on top of these sorts of things while he had free time. When he resurfaced, he checked in on the state of his own significance. With the additional meaning he earned with his periodic plugs into the grand Nether Ritual within Expira, his Nether Core had rapidly grown in terms of size.

To put it in engine terms, although he had not managed to increase his top speed, Randidly now developed more horsepower to haul his increasingly large series of connections he bore. The whirling core of the maelstrom layered opposite rotating currents of energy. The resulting force that it generated filled him with vigor and spun the atmosphere around the entire island. Despite the fact that his Weight had stayed rather constant for a while, the flames of Nether Weight he manifested grew higher and higher when he allowed them to flicker to life across his fingers.

With all the new insights I’ve made, I can probably improve those enhancement rituals that help my Weight, Randidly mused.

But now that he handled everything else, Randidly turned his attention back toward that robust connection that he had discovered within himself. It was more difficult to find it when he wasn’t keyed directly into the Nether Ritual. But his connections to Delilah and Randy were special. Soon, he located the connection he was looking for, assisted by the fact he had a flow of energy going to that strange monkey. Once he had a lock on their location, Randidly eased back and seeped his awareness into the ground.

After the tension passed, Takeyhands produced several shiny stones and began to juggle them. They glittered purple and gold in the powerful, noontime sun rays. “Well if you won’t leave this place, at least let me help you. I might be a tiny monkey who hasn’t been able to speak for very long-”

“What’s that?” Randy whispered, partially to cover the cramped gurgle of her empty stomach, but also because there was suddenly a small fluffy patch of grey smoke that hung behind the small monkey.

Takeyhands bounced up to its feet and bowed frantically to the small grey thing. Then it turned and showed its yellowed teeth to Randy. “Oh! I told you someone wanted to help you, right? This is who wants to help you. His name is-”

“A cloud wants to help me?” Randy chewed their lip. They understood that the System had changed the world and made some extremely peculiar things possible, but this seemed incredibly weird. Much more strange than the sudden arrival of a juggling monkey. Randy wondered if clouds were soft too. They certainly seemed soft. But would it be as soft as monkey fur?

“No, not-” Takeyhands began, but the cloud produced a small bolt of lightning that lashed out and hit the monkey. But it didn’t really look like lightning, it was emerald and curled at its sharp junction like it released bright branches which were covered in thorns. However, the flash was so brief that all Randy had was the fading colors of that light burned into their retinas.

“Ah... ahem.” The monkey coughed into its hand. “Errr... yes, this is a cloud. He wants to help you.”

“Why?” Randy looked directly at the cloud. The heart in Randy’s chest began to beat strangely. An awareness rose, hinting at a strange connection between the two of them. And as Randy continued to stare, a vision appeared: of Randy, curled up and crying on the ground. A gentle sense of understanding stretched out between them.

Perhaps in any normal situation, Randy would have flinched and run away to know that another individual watched them at night. However, Randy supposed that clouds had nothing to do when they drifted through the sky except watch people.

Randy waved a small hand. “I wasn’t raining, just crying. Humans can produce water too; I’m not a cloud. You shouldn’t help someone like me.”

The cloud literally twitched.

Eventually, it seemed to recover its energy, but the cloud displayed the same sort of frustrated energy of the monkey. Small emerald bolts lashed up and down its fluffy form. Next to them, Takeyhands’ eyes flicked back and forth, from Randy to cloud.

“...uh, he is well aware that you are not a cloud. But he wants to help you anyway,” The monkey said. For a few seconds, it chittered at the clouds and several emerald bolts crackled threateningly at the small animal. Then it turned to speak again to Randy. “Because of your ability. What you can do, like you did with the Engraving.”

Randy went cold. Bethyl’s face appeared in their mind, filled with exhaustion and disappointment. They spoke quickly in denial. “That doesn’t happen.”

The cloud pulsed, clearly unimpressed by the lie. Even Takeyhands gave Randy a long look. The monkey chittered for a few seconds before shifting back into normal speaking. “Truth be told, that power is why- why the cloud is interested in you. He wants to teach you how to control that power. Would you like that? Not having to fear that you’ll lose control? And Stormshadow definitely is powerful. He is the one that gave me the ability to speak. He can show you the path forward. A way you can help your mom.”

“She’s not my mom,” Randy spat out immediately, but they felt a yearning rising in their chest. “But... I can help her? Truly? How?”

The cloud darkened and released a strange, resonant pulse that hummed through Randy’s ribcage. Takeyhands nodded seriously and translated from cloud-speak. “Cooking.”