Chapter 2058

Chapter 2058

With his third activation of his two Fatepieces in tandem, Randidly started to retain a slight awareness of the space he passed through with the wicked, physic melting speed. The knowledge felt insubstantial, but it was better than nothing. Even his senses had difficulty reacting in time to the harsh limit waiting at the edge of the Sonara. But luckily, he could feel the spatial distortions created by the capturing barriers much more clearly.

Like some ancient knight riding in a jousting tournament, Randidly eviscerated the Engraving wall and deactivated his two Fatepieces as quickly as he could. The slap of air against his face felt like a cool shock. His momentum carried him forward another ten meters however, plowing a way through a bunch of porcelain dolls that had gathered around Xershi’s small cage.

As he slowed down, his own uncontrolled kinetic force became a weapon Randidly used to clear the area. He brushed a bit of porcelain dust off his shoulder. With a single step, he appeared back next to Xershi, who just stared absently at the ground without even acknowledging his freedom.

“You alright, Xershi?” Randidly asked, wondering if some mental attack began when the barrier became fully realized.

Thankfully, Xershi’s voice was clear when he spoke. “Yea. Yea, I’m fine. Just... How do I put this... do you ever wonder- who you really are?”

For a split second, Randidly tilted his head to the side. Then he made the executive decision not to get involved in this sudden question, not when he felt those bulging-fingered hands moving back into position around the two of them. He gripped Xershi’s bicep and once again activated both Fatepieces at once. The edges of the world blurred and melted, becoming jagged shards that ripped through their bodies. Randidly did his best to absorb most of the light radiation. The strobing red light softened to a dripping pink, periodically lapping against the surrounding space as they cruised across the layer.

Because he didn’t need to activate the Entropy layer to shred space, he and Xershi came out of the dual activation relatively unscathed. They again bowling-balled their way through a crowd of porcelain dolls, half of which had become the voltron form and had made Fiona and Pullas flee up onto the base of the staircase; for whatever reason, the dolls seemed unwilling or unable to ascend.

At least this was one areas where the omnipresent Engravings across the layer actually served a purpose.

Randidly, still dragging Xershi behind him, just blasted his way through the few dolls unfortunate enough to be in his way. The liger man remained strangely listless, allowing himself to be tugged along. Once on the stairs, he nodded at Pullas. “Glad to see you are up.”

“What the hell was that? That attack-” Fiona sucked in a breath while Pullas could only manage to nod tiredly at Randidly’s words. Both still seemed weak after experiencing the faux-Nether Ritual of those sausage-fingered hands. When he turned to look at her, Fiona still flinched and looked away. But her words were agitated. “That feeling... was that Nether?”

“I don’t quite know how it works, just that its a fucked up process Elhume managed to create,” Randidly responded, turning his gaze upward rather than address the simmering cauldron of emotions he still held in regards to Fiona’s actions. They didn’t have time for so many things right now. “Aether behaving like Nether. Energy twisted to be something other than what it is. Anyway, we need to prepare for more of those as we ascended. Next is the forty-seventh floor, right?”

“Only forty-sixth,” Pullas managed to wheeze. Randidly grimaced at the number of layers still under Elhume’s dominion above them. Now on the stairs, some of Pullas’s death’s pale light flickered around her body, stabilizing her condition. Xershi finally snapped out of his existential daze enough to crouch next to her, produce a handkerchief, and wipe some dried blood from the corner of her mouth.

They blurred away, right as he felt the Nether in the space around them beginning to turn strange. Randidly felt a sinking feeling in his chest, even as bolts of electricity and jagged beams of light groped at his body.

There had been more hands, hidden in the area around the entrance. Waiting, preparing to activate some sinister trap on the climbers. And based on how they responded to the three-hand, antagonistic, dirty Nether Ritual, a massive working fueled with that energy might be deadly.

They arrived at the far edge of the layer to no ambush, but the group still hurried up the stairs. Aside from a few glances at the increasingly complex machinery along the wall and three trapped individuals who had made it to this layer, only to be stopped, the group rose at double speed to the forty-seventh layer.

Randidly, prepared for another sudden blast of twisted energy, stepped through the golden barrier humming with tension. Almost immediately, his skin began to crawl. Engravings moved beneath his feet, rapidly rising to create an isolating barrier around Randidly. He hadn’t activated any image, so he simply pulled out his Fatepieces and prepared to rip his way through. But very quickly, he realized something was different about this barrier. As he created the two flows of energy, the process accelerated.

An idea occurred to him. Randidly reached into his Nether Core and slowed its rotation. The pumping flows shuddered and then tapered off. In response, the Engravings faltered. Groaning, Randidly slowed the flow of Nether in his body even further. He pulled away his Nether density, forcing it into the Alpha Cosmos, until he had the density of the energy in the surrounding space.

His body ached; his muscles had become far too used to Nether to not complain without it.

Of course, this at least meant that the hand spiders weren’t waiting to pounce. Even if their energy wasn’t true Nether, they apparently couldn’t function in this anti-Nether area. That, or they were just waiting in the distance, waiting to spring an even bigger trap on him...

Randidly rubbed his neck. Almost instantly, the Engraving’s whirred back to life and a wall began to coalesce in front of him. He cursed quietly and laid down on the ground. He held himself very still, holding his breath. The Engravings once more dissipated and vanished.

How the hell does it know? Randidly’s face twitched as he kept his face from scowling.

The rest of the Ascension Pact walked through the portal with their hackles raised, only to find Randidly laying on the ground. Pullas squinted down at him in concern. Fiona cleared her throat. “Why are you on the ground?”

Aggrieved, Randidly spoke quickly to avoid triggering a full isolation bubble. “This layer suppresses Nether. My Strength Stat-” He took a break while the barrier began to form. Then he spoke after it had faded. “-has evolved into Primordial Nether Juju. It seems like movements-”

Again, he needed to take another pause. The three looked blankly down at him.

He cleared his throat. “Someone will need to carry me.”