Chapter 2115

Chapter 2115

The first thing Coppun did after being snatched up by Randidly was release an aggressive pulse of his image and jerk sharply away. His eyes burned with barely controlled antagonism. Clearly, he both recognized Randidly and felt insulted by his poor treatment from him.

The Stillborn Phoenix devoured Coppun’s image in two enormous, soundless bites. For a few seconds, the ominous event horizon hung in the air above the two and hissed, desperate for additional feed. Meanwhile, Sulfur didn’t even react with pleasure to Coppun’s struggles; it wasn’t enough to interest the living plant arm. The squat man just wasn’t that strong. Randidly tilted his head to the side, regarding the abruptly sweaty Coppun with a cold stare. “How strange. I could have sworn I just asked you a question. You must not have heard it, huh? Otherwise, you would have answered.”

“You-” Coppun tried to speak, but Randidly slammed his fist against his stomach and knocked the wind out of him. All he could manage was a few flecks of spittle out of his mouth. Swacc’s servant hunched over and began to wretch. Randidly sniffed once and then brought his fist around a few more times, cracking his shoulder and pummeling the man’s sides.

For good measure, Randidly shook him one last time. “Feeling like your listening skills have improved?”Visitt novelbin(.)co/m for the latest updates

“You broke the agreement with Master Swacc,” Coppun croaked out. “There is nothing to be said.”

“Jotem has left the city, per our agreement. The Nether Ritual dissipated shortly thereafter. I assumed the task was done. And since Drane so kindly introduced me to Jotem, I figured it would be spitting on his generosity not to spend some more time getting to know him.” Randidly felt his emotional reservoir filling with more and more vindictiveness and snorted to clear that out; at some point, cathartic violence would just make him even more bitter about the situation than he currently was.

“Shoddy workmanship from your people proves nothing.” Coppun hissed. “You gave your word to Master Swacc, Hungry Eye, and if you do not complete your assigned task immediately-”

“You will do what, Coppun?” Randidly shook him again, his voice low and soft. In his chest, his Nether Core revved again, stabilizing the memory around him further for his full capabilities. Randidly sensed that he had access to about three-fourths of his previous abilities. Before taking into account the steps forward in emotional intensity he had taken. Even within the memory, he was confident that few individuals posed a threat to him.

Coppun paled but still forced the words out of his mouth. “You may be confident now, but Drane Swacc has powerful friends. The Westrisser Estate will hear of your actions. Do you dare act so brutish in front- oof!”

Randidly slammed his fist against Coppun’s guts one more time for good measure. “Don’t try and threaten me with your master scuttling to someone else and asking for help. Now let me give you a warning- I won’t just stop you next time I find you lurking around the farm. I’ll kill you, let the darkness that crushed your image take everything you have and suffocate it within itself. So do not return. Am I being clear?”

The Stillborn Phoenix gurgled, very much looking forward to such an opportunity.

After a few seconds of strained eye contact, Coppun nodded.

The final challenger was the feathered warrior that had given Randidly a heavy glance earlier. His bicep was split by a thick vein as he placed his elbow on the table with enough force to shake the wood. But Bogart slammed his hand down against the surface all the same.

After, Randidly returned back to his room and laid down to sleep. He left his mind drift away. For a while nibbling thoughts and emotions kept him awake, but he forcefully quieted himself. He let his consciousness sink into a healing state of oblivion. After the emotional turmoil, he definitely needed it.

When he awoke, Jotem ambushed Randidly outside his door as he went to do his farm chores. “Nether King, it is unbelievable! Through common discourse with these freeloaders- er, athletes, I learned that that young angel Devick is the adopted daughter of Byuresk! Her pockets are absolutely stuffed with generosity: we will be paid to feed and assist in the housing of these individuals! Our fortunes have truly-”

“Talk to Armel about the buildings,” Randidly grunted, breezing past. He had finally recovered his energy after a long night of sleeping; he wasn’t going to allow Jotem to suck away his peace of mind first thing in the morning.

Gretite had departed the farm, but Randidly had quite a few ideas of how to improve based on her advice. He carefully scrawled several more chunks of wooden cucumbers and tossed them up into the sky, making very minute adjustments for precipitation over the neighboring vegetable fields. Then he gathered up some seeds from previous cucumbers and planted them in a new area. With all the buildings they had been throwing up in the past few weeks, they had entirely burned through his store of lumber.

He pivoted on his heel and examined the area. The low wind across the farm ruffled the happy green sprouts poking out of the dirt. Despite the shouts and laughter coming from over the hill, the sudden presence of the team in the surroundings didn’t detract from the idyllic contentment Randidly felt when he looked over everything he had shaped.

He scratched his neck. “Okay, enough lazing around; let’s get to work.”

For the next two weeks, Randidly kept his activities simple. He worked the farm, developing more and more specialized environments for the various vegetables. He experimented with growing different crops to create a barbecue sauce entirely from produce on the farm. He dabbled in different gravitational radiations to try and add carbonization to the cider. He used the image of Yggdrasil to clear large swaths of land for Devick’s Hobfootie Team, the Miracles, to practice. He even volunteered the services of some of the growing cohort of Arakis Beasts hanging around the back part of the farm.

When he had finished with his daily farm chores, he spent a few hours meditating. That meditation took a lot of forms: sometimes he refined his emotional sea, other times he examined the significance within the memory to try and sense when the next large event would happen, and Randidly also spent about half of the days firming up the details of his three images so they could handle his weightier emotional affect.

During those days, he didn’t speak much with anyone aside from Demetrius. And those conversations were generally just regarding their grand working and how it was functioning in real-world conditions.

Randidly had been worried that Devick would try and ingratiate herself into his life, but she seemed very genuinely consumed with practice with the team. For two whole weeks, Randidly only felt her presence on the periphery of his senses. He let everything else fall away as he distracted himself from the emotional pain of facing his past.

And gradually, he healed.

Just in time for the Hobfootie tournament to begin. With the trial of Elhume looming just over the horizon.