Chapter 2425

Chapter 2425

“Do you sense that?”

Nathaz Eloise paused in its efforts, its many limbs trembling from the exertion. It leaned back and looked at its ancestor, who had spoken. Around them, the massive working of their dreams unfolded, almost as though it already existed and they were simply excavating it. Adrenaline surged through Nathaz’s body, but the sudden voice brought him back to sloshing consciousness.

He looked around. He couldn’t believe how much his spinal column ached. His thoughts seemed sluggish. How long... have we been working on this...?

Nathaz blinked several times, shaking his head; obviously, it was for the best that he threw himself totally into the labor. Only then could they accomplish their goal before Elhume intervened. And while it seemed Randidly Ghosthound currently had the situation in hand, the dangerous rumbles of Aether and Nether spoke to a balance that could be shattered anytime. They needed to work quickly.

Just... would he really feel this much sense of exhaustion if they had only a small span of time to struggle?

After a moment, Nathaz recalled the question and cleared his throat. “Sense what, Honorable Ancestor?”

“This... shape.” Tuthak’s features scrunched together as it looked out across the sprawling working that would rearrange the hierarchy within the Nexus. Its powerful lines rippled and shifted, speaking to its status as a breathing and organic Engraving, certainly a masterwork achievement. The luminous radiance released by the growing working spoke to their accomplishment. Yet Tuthak seemed to hesitate. “This is definitely... the shape we talked about. Yet sometimes, when I consider the whole-”

A strange breeze leaned against all their efforts. The lights flickered and warped. Every time Nathaz felt like he was about to get some clarity on what he witnessed, a flicker in the corner of his eye distracted him.

He blinked slowly. Truly, he was frazzled by this toil.

“...well, we have made our decision,” Tuthak’s gaze shifted to the middle distance. He nodded. “Now all that remains is to see this attempt through to its end. Let us continue.”

*****

Five more ominous tomes shot forward toward Randidly, where Yggdrasil still struggled to consume the first attack. Soon the World Tree would use the first as a springboard to become an even more dominant form, but that would require a small opportunity.

Laplace no longer overlooked Randidly enough to give him that.

So Randidly gathered up all the mental energy he could muster, folding and compressing his determination; his emotional sea continued its tumbling turmoil to generate more force. The Dread Homunculus and the Songstress of Absence gratefully absorbed all the emotional intensity, blazing as they settled into their own emotional affect. Space quaked around the event horizon as the Songstress manifested, resulting in spiderweb distortions spreading out to become a barrier in front of him.

Because strangely, when Randidly focused on the different Truths in their core, the Songstress moved first. It wasn’t just that she felt liberated by the lack of collateral damage she could inflict inside Pine’s corpse.

She felt closer to ‘Truth’.

Randidly almost couldn’t even see Laplace through the five new temporal vortexes churning between them, although he felt the pressure of time increasing as the Eternity dragged his body closer. Yet oblivion whispered out as the Songstress began to sing, hinting at a deeper purpose. Her notes hummed in a narrative arc; She had been inspired by the language of the dead. A language that could kill you, if you listened a little too closely. An ominous Truth that the words could only be heard and spoken by the deceased.

The beginning of her aria collided with the temporal aura produced by five tomes and their orbiting moons.

Warning! Strange energy signature detected.

Your image is devolving in a dangerous manner! Please see your nearest Village Spirit-

Pantheon intervention... Recalculating...

Your Image Yggdrasil, Universe that was First a Tree, is approaching a qualitative transformation! We suspect this will result in a Pinnacle event.

Reach the Pinnacle Now or Delay? Now/Delay

Again, Randidly hit delay. Another step closer, to his Grand Fate. Yet the circumstances in front of him didn’t exactly fill him with confidence.

As they reached the Pinnacle, Yggdrasil and the Songstress of Absence both began to overmatch the books with which they grappled. Yggdrasil especially had gone through 80% of the books fluttering and was only solidifying its foundation. Yet the Songstress hadn’t even gotten to the halfway point.

And meanwhile, the Dread Homunculus-

Randidly’s most practical image spat out pure spite and unwillingness as the combined force of four books steamrolled the image a few feet backward. At this point, only a small amount of distance separated it and the location where the other books were being calmly devoured.

A bitter smile twisted Randidly’s mouth. Of course, I would find myself in a situation right at the end where the original form, the mandate of simply survive, would be more useful than advancing. But... that’s part of growing. We let go of who we were before and dress ourselves in the vestments of who we want to be.

Homunculus... you need to hold here, at least for a second, at least long enough for me to find your emotional-

Randidly blinked, his thoughts briefly stalling. He felt the strangest moment of imbalance like he had taken a misstep. His chest ached. He looked down, the motion seeming to take much longer than he intended. A tremor wracked his body as both of his delayed images weakened.

He saw blood first. Dripping out of a hole in his torso, the crimson liquid glittering with motes of emerald and gold. Another blink sharpened his focus to the fleshy grey/pink protuberance stabbing through his ribcage, now squeezing a painful vice around his heart.

The long fleshy tube led back, underneath the ongoing conflict between images and tomes, back to the wide-open maw of Laplace, who leered at him.

From the Eternity’s expression, the message was clear: If you wound me, I wound you.

The slight distraction meant all of Randidly’s focus had vacated the Dread Homunculus’s body. Upon the next impact with the group of books, the Cloak of a Thousand Lightless Horizons tore completely. The dead spilled and sloshed out of the wound, flooding the area with their flickering forms.

At the same time, that tongue tugged on Randidly’s heart, threatening to wrench it out of his chest cavity.