Chapter 2185

Chapter 2185

Randidly kept his breathing calm, trying to acknowledge all of the changes that had happened with Sulfur’s evolution but finding that his brain just traveled halfway down a dozen tangents and then collapsed back to the middle. He licked his lips, eyes on the notification in front of him. His fingers flexed, clenched into a fist, and then relaxed. He needed to take this one issue at a time.

First all the unique bonuses from joining their bodies, including doubling his regenerations after being hit, reducing all damage or foreign influences, and boosting the power of Nether.

Then there were the hints from the System notification about how Sulfur had evolved into a higher-order lifeform beyond a Soulseed, likely due to aspects of the Shallah’s energy it had understood.

His two Domains had combined into one, earning another Ghosthound’s Deviation Rarity. The existence of the Alpha Cosmos within his body had begun powerful depth for the more offensive Mounful Sea, Helen’s Pernicious Riptide. It would not also provide a huge boost to Randidly’s other Skills that let him manipulate currents of force, of which he had quite a few.

Finally, the cherry on top, Muse’s Reverie, the mysterious Attribute he had created when he had remade his body, reached four out of five. With a single more point, the true purpose of the Attribute would finally be revealed.

Randidly clapped his two hands together. The sound resounded through the swirling dome, blasting away mist and dirt. A space opened up, with the ground still that strange, reinforced material that could withstand his steps. His heartbeat quickened as his mind began to imagine all the ways he could utilize these new capabilities.

But before anything else, he paused and looked at his Status Screen. It had been a while since he had simply admired all he had accumulated.

Randidly Ghosthound

Class: Lord of the Baleful Wood (x5)

Level: 64 (89%)

Health(/R per hour): 30415/32415 (22509)

Mana(/R per hour): 23352/25352 (7716)

Stam(/R per min): 20790/21796 (5017)

Muse’s Reverie: 3/5 (???)

Uncommon Metabolism (Un): 1957

Egg’s Illusory Plume (L): 1522

Primordial Nether Juju (M): 2807

Dreadful Alacrity (A): 3042

Grim Intuition (L): 2866

Predictive Synapses (A): 2742

Chimeric Indifference (R): 2396

Grey Monarch’s Authority (T): 4294

Cognition of the Aberrant Alchemist (T): 2070

Unnatural Capacity (Ru): 2767

*****

Neveah sat at the table, her tea long forgotten in front of her. Opposite the three women, Devick sat with her eyes closed, grappling with the formation of her image. There were some risks with using the method Lucretia employed, such as the psyche of the recipient being steamrolled, but from the concentrated frown on Devick’s face she managed well enough.

As her inner development continued, she poked her tongue out of the corner of her mouth. Even Neveah felt somewhat taken aback by how cute this incarnation of Devick appeared to be.

Same vicious spine though, Devick reminded herself. The image she had witnessed in Lucretia’s painting was one who sauntered through an endless field of corpses. Her weapon had been designed for beheading and her teeth for guzzling lifeblood out of broken flesh. Yet Neveah did her best not to hold that against her.

Randidly Ghosthound’s hands were not clean, after all.

“Did you wish for her to be bound to her future by rusted chains?” Neveah turned to Lucretia and asked. She had intended the question to be mild, but it came out of her mouth barbed and hungry for blood.

Tatiana very primly set down her cup of tea. Lucretia, who had been staring at Devick, lifted her gaze and turned to Neveah. “I did not make the choice for her. I just asked her to listen.”

“You pushed,” Neveah countered. “When you could have allowed her to discover the character of her Needle Toothed Hare without any further input. That would have consumed her for a time, allowing all the other associations hanging around her due to Randidly’s foreknowledge to distort and fade. And yet-”

“She would have been weak,” Lucretia hissed out the words. Her eyes glowed as she met Neveah’s gaze and did not flinch. “Considering the size of her hopes and dreams, that sort of weakness would have crushed her to dust. This was the best way to build up her capability in a short amount of time.”

“By guiding her path toward her worse impulses?”

“By teaching her stubbornness the rough-edged sort of imperatives that are necessary to foil even existence.” Lucretia pressed her lips together. “I can see why you are frustrated, you worry that I refuse to prevent a tragedy, even though I see it developing right in front of me. You believe I am making the same mistake I did with Alta, allowing her bitterness to take root in her heart. Yet Devick is not Alta.”

Neveah’s eyes blazed. So many emotions warred in her chest, she couldn’t get them out of her mouth. Yes, because Randidly will not be able to descend as a god and stop Devick’s madness from devouring she touches.

Finally, Tatiana spoke. “I think Neveah would have been more comfortable if we had discussed how to handle Devick before she arrived. We had time.”

Lucretia’s firm expression faltered slightly. In the end, she nodded her head in a small admission of guilt. “I kept silent, knowing you would assume that my silence meant I would defer to your decision, Neveah. But I also knew that if we discussed what to do, you would not acknowledge my point of view. You would have given Devick access to only a neutered version of her potential. I genuinely believe her growth could bring Randidly happiness in the form of a peer, whether or not they can become emotionally involved. I did my best to repay the debt I owe to him.”

Neveah released a tight breath. “Blindsiding me does not seem like putting Randidly interests first.”

“Ha! Neveah, you might be connected to him, but that only means you share Randidly’s blind spots.” Lucretia pivoted and looked again at Devick, who struggled underneath the thrall of Lucretia’s Skill. “You are the other side of the coin, a single entity with him. Yet you are the more cautious, more considered variant; all the fears Randidly has about Devick, those will be magnified in you.”

Neveah stiffened. “...I won’t apologize for proceeding cautiously, considering the circumstances. But I did not ask you to neuter her potential, simply why you guided her with noise to fixate on her chains. Especially considering Alta’s fate-”

“You do not understand Alta nor Devick if you think the two are the same.” Lucretia shook her head. “As much as I hate to admit it, you do Devick a disservice here. Alta was a woman who saw the way the world had been made and cursed the god who made it, aiming to destroy everything she saw out of spite. Devick would not even care about the presence of a god; she would notice something she didn’t appreciate about existence and pick up tools to remake everything. That sort of unorthodox thinking and resolve...”

“Ah,” Tatiana blinked. She turned to Neveah. “Well, not that she should be excused for blindsiding us, but that’s not what this is about, not really. What Lucretia is saying is that the chains don’t matter.”

“Exactly,” Lucretia smiled. “The fear is tied to the presence of chains, but they are just a shape. An effective one for Devick, but only that. It was her obsessive madness that made her so powerful. I have no doubt, had we followed your recommendation, Devick would have developed a different version of chains, over the next ten years. Because, like everyone else, she would have realized that no matter how pure her vision was, it is useless until she can bind the universe to her whims.”

“Ten years,” Neveah felt numb and slightly sick to her stomach. Yet when she pushed down her annoyance, she could see it. “Wasted time. Probably, Randidly will have left the memory.”

“And she-” Lucretia began, but Tatiana held up a hand to stop her from speaking.

As both Neveah and Lucretia looked on in confusion, Tatiana plucked a pebble off the ground and flicked it. It smacked between Devick’s eyebrows. The crimson-haired young woman’s hand flew upward to block her forehead from further attacks and pouted. Neveah sucked in a breath; she had been so distracted by the argument she hadn’t even noticed the process had ended.

“Oy, did you think we wouldn’t notice you waking up?” Tatiana grumbled, affecting a heavy countenance. She folded her arms across her chest. “So, did you follow the light? What Class were you offered?”