Chapter 2144

Chapter 2144

Synchronicity detected...

Recalculating...

Your Skill Dragon Queen’s Sinister Tongue (T) is being incorporated into your Skill the Vindictive Chimera Smites (M)!

Incorporating influences from the Moirae of Ripples Skillset... Recalculating...

Congratulations! Your Skill Left Hand of the Nether Oracle (M) has grown to Level 979!

Randidly’s right arm burned, conveying all the combined energy from the impromptu Nether Ritual and his emotional force. His images sang of violence and strife, the chorus of emotional affect moving together into a passable harmony at an extremely high amount of power. All his focus was on the release of the energy and the implacable gaze of Westrisser in front of him, so he couldn’t give much attention to the stream of notifications.

He did note that his original purpose for creating the Moirae of Ripples Skillset was to create non-image attack Skills. Incorporating them... would probably boost his capability, but it left him slightly conflicted.

Yet necessity dragged his focus back to the foe in front of him.

Bright white light emerged from his target, Westrisser’s instincts warning him that the oncoming attack couldn’t be stopped with just half measures and deploying his image in a halo of power. The Ivory Serpent within his body uncoiled, its tongue flicking out. Randidly grimaced. That was the trouble with powerful image users; they usually shouldn’t be able to react in time, but their sharp images allowed them to surpass that limit.

At the last second, Randidly’s mouth twisted in distaste; he felt himself make the mistake. The Nether Ritual spreading out from the back of his shoulder like a rocket’s launching pad definitely increased his raw power. However, the release came too early. Only a finger’s width in front of Westrisser’s crossed wings, the massive array discharged its power. Nether surged and seethed, ripping directly into the image in front of him.

Congratulations! Your Skills have merged to become the Chimera’s Suffocating Rebuke (T)! Skill Level will be set at 950!

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimera’s Suffocating Rebuke (T) has grown to Level 951!

Congratulations! Your Skill Casting Blades from Insatiable Grievances (M) has grown to Level 651!

With the sudden crystalization of the Skill into its new form, Randidly’s attack surged forward and slammed into Westrisser’s wing even after much of the Nether Boost blasted outward. But it did have the effect of Westrisser’s sharp reactions picking up the first attack and, assuming that it was purposeful, releasing a sweeping wave of his image to annihilate the Nether tainted force. Meanwhile, his body instinctively relaxed.

No sooner had that wave attempted to eat its way outward than Randidly hammered on the being’s wings, crushing the image before it could spread out and also impacting the feathered serpent directly. He felt Westrisser’s wings begin to give beneath his onslaught of force. Malloon’s lord finally seemed to bring the whole of his attention to Randidly.

The monster’s eyes gleamed and his image began to change, even as Randidlys attack forced him back. The ivory serpent hissed silently... and evaporate.

The serpent was a seal, the realization felt like a slap in the face. His iconic imagery is just a seal.

Randidly aimed and released. As soon as the cap vanished, Westrisser’s image responded. Randidly had to scramble backward in order to avoid having to face the image of absence settling across his skin.

Despite his powerful body, he believed exposing himself to a wave of energy was a very bad idea.

Westrisser clenched his hand into a fist, but then paused. He observed the blast above. A pure beam of power, at Randidly’s aiming, shot sideways and punched a hole directly through the barrier around Malloon. The Aether exhaust scattered around the city caught fire in a massive flash of light, causing quite a lot of screams of alarm both from the wall and the refugees beyond it.

However, the light and heat faded in only a moment, leaving the tireless beam to charge forward and bulldoze its way through Bleak Sky’s forming cloud. It punched a hole first, then the heat from its passage expanded and burned away the whole cloud.

After a few more seconds of rapid travel toward the horizon, the dense core of energy that animated the beam destabilized and shattered into pieces. An entire portion of the horizon burned for nearly five minutes, as Malloon’s weapon discharged.

Westriser gave Randidly a long look. Clearing his throat, Randidly took a step back and allowed his image physicalizations to fade. He raised his palms. “...There’s no need for this to escalate. I genuinely mean to remain a friend of Malloon.”

“You lash out at a fellow Nether King?” Westrisser grunted. His eyes turned calculating; in just a moment, the avatar of annihilation vanished and the shrewd and calculating leader he had first met returned. The horrible image receded, but the seal didn’t reform over his image.

Yet in the next moment, Westrisser’s hands clenched. His feathers once more began to burn with intensity. The Winged Serpent didn’t even appear to exert himself and the remnant flow of Nether in the air was stamped out Randidly gritted his teeth. His mind began to A little too far. I wanted to prove I was a threat and succeeded. But by the same token, now he likely won’t want to let me escape.

Randidly shot a quick glance over his shoulder. Elhume walked slowly forward, cracking his knuckles. Their eyes met; even if Westrisser used his overpowered image again, with two of them-

“I overreacted. Apologies,” Westrisser unfolded his wings and pulled them back against his back. The last ripples of his image vanish, almost as though he had erased his own power. He still retained the pressure of a powerful lord of the city, but no more than that. “Let’s... pretend today didn’t happen. I believe it will be easier for both of us.”

Randidly genuinely believed he had misheard for several seconds.

Elhume stopped next to Randidly and blinked in surprise, equally as thrown. The other man’s face scrunched up. “You... wish to just pretend like it didn’t happen?” After asking the question, the implications seemed to sink in and Elhume’s face hardened. “You attacked the Patron of the Deep and his nephew without justification, even admitting you have attempted to annihilate their entire race. After that, you wish to-”

“If you would prefer we continue, I will not reject your offer to dance,” A horrible stillness transfixed Westrisser’s face. He flexed the muscles of his back, only once, sending several ivory feathers spiraling around him. They scraped the air with their passage. “I would consider it a waste to slaughter you both, but waste is simply a fact of life.”

When did I become the voice of reason, Randidly’s lips twitched, standing between Westrisser’s wounded pride and Elhume righteous fury. He still didn’t quite trust Westrisser’s sudden change of heart, for all it had been what he had hoped for, but he wouldn’t dig too deeply at the moment. He put a hand on Elhume’s shoulder. “Let’s withdraw then. We can talk about the rest... later. Oh, and Westrisser?”

Randidly didn’t flinch as Westrisser gave him a glance with his eyes burning with absence. He kept his expression even. “I will donate the next harvest of lumber cucumbers, to help rebuild. As a show of goodwill.”

The absence vanished. After a long moment, Westrisser nodded. Then he turned away and walked across the rubble-strewn stretch, an entire neighborhood leveled in only two minutes.

Randidly released a breath. He hadn’t exactly confirmed the skyislands would be able to continue functioning as is, but it was better than nothing.