Chapter 2431

Chapter 2431

The two tumbled over the edge of the threshold and began to fall.

Laplace whipped itself around, looking at Randidly with hateful eyes. Blood had dried into flaking maroon finger paint on its clockface eyes. It opened its wide maw, filled with broken and chipped teeth and roared at him, through the howling of spatial forces and the crackling of electromagnetic discharge.

Randidly grip’s on his foe didn’t loosen. He hauled himself closer, following the fat, armed serpent as the fell down along the edge of the Nexus. Gritting his teeth, Randidly gathered all of the power he possessed within his body. Power and willingness surged at his touch, ready to deal a decisive blow against this Eternity. Part of him craved an ending to this long slew of struggles. Each surging rush of Nether through his veins whispered of its impending arrival.

If anything, he began to worry about his Soulspace in the aftermath of his prodding; the area had begun to tremble from the notes of his Truths which continued to rise.

His expression twisted as he briefly examined his Truths again, still climbing hand over hand up Laplace’s tail. His plan had been to use those three Truths to reach the Pinnacle at the moment he condensed his Grand Fate, but-

Don’t fixate. Use their power. If nothing else, I’m refining them by activating them. Randidly bit his lip. At almost the same time, he felt a roaring crescendo echo out from the Songstress of Absence in the distance. She had overcome the tome that had held her back outside the final barrier and now rushed to Randidly’s side.

Laplace rolled midair, trying to dislodge him, but Randidly’s mouth stretched wide in a malicious smirk. “Won’t be getting rid of me that easily.”

The further they tumbled down, the worse the spatial forces became. Randidly’s body had endured the Hierarchy of Burden in the past, but what the Fatepiece had missed was the scope of the powers against them as the two twisted and snapped at each other. Each second saw them drifting further away from the protection of the Nexus, although Randidly couldn’t quite tell what their destination would be.

Laplace roared again as spatial destruction ravaged both of their bodies, the note of its voice rising. It was clear that if Randidly decided to force the issue, it would stop using its powers to protect itself and lash out.

Still with the tight grip of the First Authority in place, Randidly dragged himself forward. His smile begged for retaliation.

Laplace’s flesh rippled as it removed the protective temporal barrier and unleashed a few concentrated blasts. These time spikes drilled bloody holes in Randidly’s chest and shoulders, leaving temporal whorls both in the air and in his vessel. But as Randidly settled in more to his Grand Fate, he easily stitched together the wounds. The Songstress released a triumphant cry as she caught back up to his body.

A song of utter devastation rippled out through him. His skin tingled with it. Somehow, that annihilation put the dangerous spatial radiation in perspective. Randidly’s smile widened. His eyes traced the way weaponized space and time interacted, brushing up against one another to create energy imbalances. With his Lethal Tide of Izanami, he began to see new currents to mobilize.

Within the core of his person Randidly’s Truths blazed. The continued proximity to each other meant that they had moved closer into alignment. This resulted in their powers increasing, while also strengthening the pressure Randidly had to endure by housing them.

Every detail matters.

What you can reach, you can touch.

If not now, it will be never.

Laplace howled again and was again ignored. The spatial pressure mounted, but Randidly conjured his images into his body, transforming into one of his image physicalization forms. To face the Eternity, he became his most monstrous version of himself. Bare and gnarled branches from the world tree stretched out from his back like wings. His entire head vanished, consumed by a keening event horizon. His limbs lengthened and sharpened.

From his waist stretched a thick tail of woven roots, ending in the heavy axe blade of Acri.

Laplace unleashed another barrage of temporal spikes and Randidly blurred as he dodged amongst him. His Grand Fate healed the worst of the wounds and Randidly arrived right in front of the Eternity. At the last second, Randidly bit back a curse— right before contact, Laplace swung one of his hands with all the stupidly powerful physical force it possessed.

Tiamat stepped forward, eyes burning with intensity even while Neveah continued to slumber to heal her mental wounds. Yggdrasil stretched its branches high, creating a rustling emerald canopy. The Songstress of Absence, still triumphant from overcoming a tome on her own by crooning it to oblivion, unleashed her vicious notes within his person.

Randidly felt the climax of his Legend approach. He shivered in anticipation.

His eyes snapped open. Laplace howled and howled, a storm of temporal destruction that set Randidly’s teeth on edge. As the Eternity moved closer, Randidly settled back into the familiar stance of a spear thrust. He had practiced this movement tens of millions of times. He knew every pulley of his body, every shift on his muscle, every explosive delivery of force. The repetitions began to accumulate details. He grasped no attack as fully as the spear thrust.

He had survived and he had advanced. He had reached the cusp of the Pinnacle, listening to the whispers of the Truths of his body. Through the machinations of Yystrix, he had been blessed with a Vessel without having to reach the Pinnacle and make his selection.

At that moment, Randidly remembered the curious eyes of Nyx. When you are faced with that choice, what will your decision be? Will you open the door to a new world or become one? You can’t have it both ways.

Randidly forced that thought back. His images gathered together within Acri. Yggdrasil became the unbreakable shaft, Tiamat became the cutting metal head, and the Songstress became the sheering edge. He thrust his spear to carve out the next beat of his legend.

At the last second, Sulfur acted independently. As the rest of his body executed the thrust, the left arm tightened up into a defensive posture pressed up against his ribcage. Despite its own depleted health, it attempted to protect him.

Randidly pierced easily through the temporal waves and then scythed through the front of the temporal storm. He saw in the bloody clock faces of Laplace’s eyes as the Eternity recognized the simultaneous threat they posed to each other. Laplace didn’t slow his swipe in response. And now that they neared each other, Randidly could see the powerful temporal tears created by those claws.

Randidly’s spear drilled through the chest of the Eternity. The claw swipe slammed into Sulfur.

Still acting independently, Sulfur blazed with all the gathered kinetic energy it had earned by being absolutely obliterated earlier. It swelled and exploded, condensing huge plates of dense armor along its length that would be nigh impenetrable, should the opponent be a being born within the Nexus.

As it was, these heavy chitin plates instantly began to crack underneath the ravages of those claws.

For his part, Randidly forced his spear forward. As the weapon sank into the flesh of an Eternity, he felt again all the accumulated temporal wounds within the snake’s body. His Grand Fate activated, raging against all these flaws. With the momentum of his images and Truths, he unleashed a massive wave of temporal stabilization.

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 121!

...

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 193!

However... the immediate successes only made Randidly’s attention darken. Just like Elhume’s physical form, sitting at the core of the mountain range of crystalized Aether... the truth about these high achievers is that the lack of balance in their energy means that most of their immense power is restrained by their own existence. And then when someone like me comes along that can vaporize those calcified layers-

Randidly had felt it earlier when he pressed his weapon deep within the body of Laplace, but the deeper he went, the more destructive the temporal reverberations became. And now, with the weaker temporal wounds healed, all he had done was liberate the more ominous rumblings within Laplace’s body.

Yet Randidly still had a weapon. He gathered up the hyper-animated Truths he possessed, even as his Soulspace began to whistle and rattle like a boiling kettle. He pressed the Truths together, and when that didn’t quite work, he tried to weave them together.

The Truths... didn’t merge despite his insistent efforts. Like oil and water, they slipped off one another and ran through his fingers.