Chapter 1939

Chapter 1939

Interesting that Nether and Aether can affect each other so directly... or is it only because I received this reward while in the Alpha Cosmos? The Pantheon is hard at work while I’m moving through my Tithe.

Randidly rubbed his neck and considered his neck options. After grabbing the two Paths related to his improved Yggdrasil Skill, he still had quite a bit of PP. He briefly considered an additional refinement of his emotional abilities, through Bubbling Emotional Accumulation I Path. However, the 10,000 PP price tag and the fact he could improve using Helen’s method gave him pause. Rather than that, he was more inclined to complete either the Architecture of Yggdrasil I or the Throne of Nether Homage I Paths.

Both were concerned with the ability to create a framework with the two energies. Both should improve his understandings of the way these energies behaved. Randidly spent more time perfecting his Nether handling right now, but he required understanding of both to keep improving and weaving them together. Plus, increasing his Skill with Engraving wouldn’t directly help his image, but he did suspect it would provide some assistance.

Clicking his tongue, Randidly started with the Throne of Nether Homage Path. At the very least, it cost only 1000 PP to Architecture’s 2000. And when it came to Nether, he was aware of only the Nether King that was more talented in this area.

Congratulations! You have completed the Throne of Nether Homage I Path! You strike out on a very lightly used Path in the Nexus; as you look forward, you can only faintly detect a single other set of footprints heading toward your destination. The air is still and stale. This is a lost and isolated location. You raise your eyes and peer toward the horizon. The world curls away from you like a frowning mouth, as though it understands your decision to strike out on this heading and disapproves. But this might take you away from the well-traversed areas, you do not hesitate. Your Path is your own. Your feet carry you forward, even if no one else believes in your journey.

Congratulations! Free Stats +50. Some stirrings begin to accumulate within your Nether Core! Significance deepens! A change is building within your Nether flows.

Congratulations! You have completed the Throne of Nether Homage II Path! The terrain has become rough; the path is lined with broken stone obelisks and the black sludge remnants of innumerable Nether Beasts left to congeal. As you cast your gaze around, you see you stand on a vast battlefield. On the one hand, this can be considered a mass grave. But there is no respect or reverence in how these bodies were treated. This place was simply convenient and the bodies were abandoned here, to their own devices. The air sticks in your throat as you breathe. This is not a place to rest, but of regrets. You hurry onward, wading deeper into the aura of death.

Synchronicity detected! Recalculating...

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Recalculating...

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Recalculating...

*****

Recalculating...

Congratulations! Your Skill Animus Diffraction (M)(U) has grown to Level 2!

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Congratulations! Your Skill Animus Diffraction (M)(U) has grown to Level 34!

Congratulations! Your Fourth Authority manifests in the path and releases energy onto the souls of Nether Beasts that haven’t yet achieved peace. At your passage, they begin to surge and rise, flooding the Path behind you. They drag themselves with spectral fingers, addicted to the spark of life you carry. They crawl atop one another and stretch toward your back, attempting to catch up, until they flutter and billow like a massive cape of the damned, hanging just slightly back away from your person. They scream, but their insubstantial forms can only manage strained whispers.

Reward differed! Please finish the next Path in order to receive your reward.

Randidly pursed his lips. The notification had failed for almost two minutes, before finally kicking back into gear. He wondered if there was something wrong with the Pantheon. But in the end, he shrugged. There might not be a stated reward, but he felt the increased density in his Nether Core. He continued pouring PP into the Throne of Nether Homage Path series.

Congratulations! You have completed the Throne of Nether Homage III Path! Your existence ripped open the door between life and death. For so many slaughtered Nether Beasts, now barely retaining their sanity from life, this opportunity is one their grudge will not allow them to miss. They swarm like locusts, using the small fraction of power you released to rip through the veil of the living.

Branching Path! A powerful arm of remnants spirits seeks to use your abilities to breakthrough. At this point, your aura has already given them all the tools they need to ascend. Now, it just becomes a matter of time. Do you choose to pull these fields of damned around you like a cloak or allow them to flow to those who fly your banners, arming your hosts?

Will this give the Lancers some clinging Nether Beasts? Just like the Stillborn Phoenix has those two Unborn? Randidly hesitated as he looked at the choice. Not that he much desired to personally house all the animosity he sensed in the Path completion, but he wasn’t sure what the result would be.

However, what Randidly could clearly sense was the deep flow of significance that moved through the Path. Whatever had taken so long to finish for the notification now meant that something large was building, even beyond the current choice.

Alright, Lancers, let’s see what you can do, Randidly made his selection.

Congratulations! The damned flow freely through to your armies, strengthening their martial ability and deepening their Nether. Warning! There is a small chance of causing a deviation in the recipients. Fidelity of the Ascendant Moirae and Exquisite Piety +100! Congratulations! You have learned the Skill Armory of the Nether Damned (L)!

Armory of the Nether Damned (L): You house a door to a realm where Nether corpses stewed and decomposed until they formed a mass of ill-will. You have given the possibility of revival to these disparate souls, for which they are eternally grateful. In return, they flow through your connections and provide small enhancements to weaponry and armor. User may also condense a superior and personalized weapon for one individual per one hundred Skill Levels. Small chance of summoning the soul of a Nether Gatekeeper to reside within the weapon. Chance increases slightly with Skill Level. Power of the Superior Weapons increases with Skill Level. Enhancement provided to other equipment vastly increases with Skill Level.