Chapter 2073

Chapter 2073

Fiona tried to keep eating to distract herself from the deep sadness she felt creeping into her heart, but it became increasingly difficult. Her fork gradually slowed, her appetite dissipating in Xershi’s wake. She glared down at her half-full plate, willing herself to recapture her zeal.Rread latest chapters at novelhall.com

Or rather, it wasn’t that his departure had caused some new trauma, but no longer could Fiona ignore the yawning chasm that had so long existed inside of herself. The wound from Duulys and his betrayal was still there. She had just gotten lucky for a while. After fucking up on Randidly’s homeworld, the knowledge of how much she valued the group had allowed her to focus. Conveniently, problems kept throwing themselves in the group’s path.

But now-

Randidly stood up abruptly, drawing both Fiona and Pullas’s attention. He grimaced then offered an apologetic smile. “I don’t mean to cut this short, but I think it’s time that I head off on my own as well. You two are going to stay together after? Good. That’s for the best. When I finish up here, I’ll contact you.”

The crack in Fiona’s chest popped just the slightest bit wider by his sudden declaration. She had expected a few more interactions before he rushed off. From the wisps of light wicking away from Pullas’s skin as she glared at Randidly, she had as well. The glasses-wearing woman pressed her hands against the table. “What? You are just going to- without even doing the dishes?”

Randidly blinked at her, then down at the table in front of them, as though the dishes, rightfully, had never even entered into his thought process. His face still had a weird coloring, like he would soon be ill.

Into that space, one of the lurking individuals around the dinner table stepped forward. “Actually, if you would be willing to allow me to try that delicious smelling food, I’d be only too happy to handle-”

“Fuck right off.” Pullas’s eyes were bright with the pale light of death. Her fingers began to singe the wooden table. “This is a private event.”

The stranger closed his mouth and walked rapidly away. Most of the other spectators whispered to each other and retreated.

Pullas wheeled back toward Randidly. “What the hell are you doing? After all that we’ve been through together, you just want to run away, without even... are you going to offer me a handshake too? Is that all we are to you? You went out of your way to cheer me up with that memory when you needed me, then you slip away when you have other business?! That’s a horrible way to live.”

Fiona frowned slightly, caught between them. Rather than seeming upset, Randidly only looked sad. He winced and shook his head. “No, if it were other circumstances, I would want to take more time. However, I really need to begin climbing as soon as possible. Pullas, this isn’t goodbye; when I finish my business, I’ll come find you. I owe it to Fiona to help her find her husband. My boss kidnapped him, after all.”

“Ex-husband,” Fiona mumbled.

“If we aren’t together, how can I protect you?” Pullas hissed at him.

Some part of Randidly folded as she said that, even as Pullas seemed horrified by what had come out of her own mouth. She finally leaned back and fiddled with her glasses. He sighed. “Look, Pullas, you don’t-”

“Nevermind. I didn’t mean to force myself into your life. I, uh, well. Good luck.” Pullas spun away and blushed. She only turned back around when he came up to her and hugged her. They held each other for several seconds, both leaning into the embrace.

Fiona was next, the long-limbed man squeezing her with just the right about of strength. His skin felt so very warm. She scowled into his shoulder; considering how high his Stats were, he probably didn’t even know how much force he was exerting. When he stepped back, his smile was more sure. “I appreciate your understanding. I wish it didn’t need to be this way, but there is something that I need to take care of. The sooner I start, the better.”

With that, he pivoted and moved across the rolling hills toward where Tuthak had indicated the sixtieth floor was. His body blurred that he had vanished in only three seconds. As he left, the last few ties within the Ascension Pact faded away. It was still a connection that would give a general impression of each other, but its valuable function had deactivated.

This is a bad idea, Fiona thought.

“That it’s a bad idea,” Randidly almost groaned out the words. But as he spoke, the strange blurry shapes sharpened. The image he called the Grey Creature condensed behind him, although the face continued to be wreathed in an obscuring layer of violent emotions. But its horrifyingly vicious eyes were fixed on Pullas.

“Really? Seems like your image disagrees. It definitely wants to fight.” Pullas said boldly. She condensed her own image of herself as death. She began to walk slowly forward. “So-”

She crossed some sort of invisible boundary, triggering a horrifying sea of vicious emotions to explode outward from Randidly’s body. Even some distance back amongst the hills, Fiona rocked back on her heels as she felt the impact of those emotions rush over her skin. It was different than her own insidious pressure or the determined resolve that Pullas had found for her image: this emotion felt like being a bloody carcass tossed into a sea of piranhas.

Both in terms of depth of emotion and pure antagonism, the image felt like a slap in the face from a barbed flail.

“You...” Pullas straightened and looked at Randidly with something like horror. He remained sitting on the stone beneath the waterfall, his face almost blank despite the vicious bloodthirstiness of his image. “So, you do want to fight.”

Randidly laughed. “No, Pullas. I don’t want to fight. I need... well, maybe I should have been more honest. I need some time to manage my image. I just- I didn’t expect the need to arrive so suddenly. And I was embarrassed by the timing, so I ran away.”

Pullas began moving forward again. “So let me help-”

“You cannot help,” Randidly’s image bared its teeth at her over his shoulder.

Unfortunately, hard denials did not work well on Pullas right now. She crossed another invisible barrier. Her movement ignited those piranhas and filled them with a rabid fury. The emotional force in the air bit at Pullas’s death image. It was too dispersed to do much damage, but it was obvious that she began to feel the pressure. Pullas’s face was white. “You... how can you look at me with such hatred and pain and say I need help? If your image is going wild, I can help suppress it.”

“Pullas, it’s not me or my main image.” Randidly’s mouth turned down at the edges. He leaned forward and pressed his hands against the stone beneath him, water trickling down his shoulders and forearms. “Fine then: let me show you.”

The screening blurriness rippled and spread out from around his face. Fiona’s eyes widened. Because more and more projections of the Grey Creature formed behind the first. But these were wild, feral things, madness given form. More and more seemed to clamber out of the backs of their predecessors, ripping themselves free. Each was an emotional dagger, a discordant note echoing through the area.

Fiona watched the mass of bodes wrestle with each other with the wide-eyed wholeheartedness of an insomniac. They scrambled over the ground, two pouncing on a third and ripping its limbs from its body. Others just stood and shouted, saliva flung from their lips by the noise. Yet most latched onto the main Grey Creature’s back, biting its legs and shoulders. The main image form was dripping gore, even while its face remained stoic.

The true Grey Creature stood tall, a thousand cannibal versions of itself ripping through its flesh and blurring its shape. Fiona wrapped her image more tightly around herself.

The worst part was that they seemed to notice they were no longer hidden. All the rabid Grey Creatures froze. Then their necks twisted, their eyes glowed, their emotions rose and coalesced into an oppressive pressure.

Gradually, Pullas’s image began to lose ground before their combined attention.

“What you are feeling isn’t me at all,” Randidly said. “But an emotional debt that has suddenly come due.”