Chapter 2438

Chapter 2438

The memory reformed but Randidly almost didn’t care.

The sensation of his Soulspace fracturing was different than his Class being obliterated by the gaze of Elhume; that had been pain, but some sort of deep invalidation. The foundation of how he was and the power of his existence had been scrubbed away by immense friction. The pain had started sharp, but then had dulled to an underlying weakness.

This was different. His Soulspace formed the foundation of his ‘identity’. It housed his Skills, contained his Truths, and was the foundation of his three images. Not only was that now deeply wounded, but some primal instinct screamed out the alarm of wrongness. To be rent open like this had violated some important principle. He now seeped out of the opening and drifted through his Vessel.

He felt unmoored, but he also felt horrifyingly alone.

At the same time, the Truths he had contained bounced and reverberated through him, but slightly warped from their prolonged proximity to one another. They combined and mixed, forming strange chimeras of their original pronouncements.

Every detail can be affected.

Yggdrasil reaches and matters.

You cannot affect both ways.

Yet all of these follow-up developments were simply footnotes to the endless horror of the pain that swept through Randidly’s existence.

“Stop right there.” The young man’s voice seemed so far away. Randidly’s vision swam, blurred with agony and maybe the presence of too many sneaky Samsara connections against his psyche adding superfluous and damaging thoughts. Yet the only response he could manage was a groan.

Luckily, the Alchemist portion of Randidly wasn’t so easily dissuaded by pain. Because he quickly realized half of the problem was the rays of warped ‘Truth’ released through the fracture in his Soulspace and bouncing around on the inside of his Vessel. Or at the very least, it complicated a half dozen other problems in a way that even Randidly wasn’t able to endure. Conjuring a bit of will, the Alchemist wrapped one shard of the broken Aspect and pulled it into place to guard the crack.

Randidly swayed dizzily. He had enough vision to observe that familiar, clumsy attack swinging forward... and then the spearuser’s eyes widened in realization. The young guard even had time to open his mouth and scream before the radiated, half-formed truths shredded his existence and left a blood mist in its wake.

A walking Calamity, The bleak thought whispered to Randidly. The doom of the Nexus. Your inevitable Ghasthund. You always speak of creating something new... will skimming over the reality of what genesis requires.

Randidly Ghosthound kills even innocents who stand in his way.

“Fuck...!” Randidly whispered the word, barely able to stay upright. He reflexively absorbed the Nether released as the Samsara reset the memory. However, even that felt sloppy. He struck out wildly with his Grand Fate, but his temporal senses had lost their acuity. Everything vibrated at the edges. The static-y quality numbed him.

The Alchemist clicked his tongue in distaste and produced some of the valuable thread that Randidly had extracted from his arm. He wove a basic rope and used it to bind the shards in place. The fit was extremely messy, so Randidly grunted and squeezed his shabby Nether accumulations. He gestured and significance flowed out almost randomly.

His eyes narrowed to slits. He didn’t stop pouring everything he had into the attack, despite his instincts warning that he wouldn’t succeed. He spoke with exasperation and self-mockery, referring to himself in the third person. “Randidly Ghosthound doesn’t need to put up with this fucking shit...!”

And to his surprise, that phrase triggered a reinforcing ripple from his distant Nether Core. Instantly the Nether sparkled and turned translucent. The Samsara screamed in rejection as some of his power flowed through to him, yet it couldn’t prevent it from happening.

My core is reacting...? Another clue to my Penance? But what the hell is this? Randidly flushed with confusion, but mostly focused on following through with the attack. He only had one more nagging thought. I just hope... my Penance isn’t like my Class, including my own name...

I’m tired of all these narcissistic developments in my life...

The conjured spear stabbed between the shifting waves of the Samsara. Randidly adjusted his mental grip and grinned. He heaved on the shaft of the weapon, twisting the spear sideways. With a groan, the Samsara popped open.

Randidly shot past the charred corpse of the guard in the memory, flesh scoured from his top half so a skeleton watched him pass with sightless eyes. Randidly acknowledged a debt there. I’ll come back... and figure a way out of this Truth. And not just for your sake. But for my own.

So I can live with what I’m becoming...

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 795!

As he squeezed through the opening into the broad realm of shifting patterns, Randidly took the opportunity to cleanse all the Samsara connections. He felt a great deal of dread, as he he cut them and reestablished his connection to his own time. His mind remained overworked and drained. Escaping from that little memory pocket had cost him all of his accumulated Nether. He might have a few clues how to transform Nether he could gather into his actual Nether, but he would need some refined Nether to even attempt the process.

He paused and spun around, sensing the approach of the Samsara again. With his Nether spent and his Soulspace beginning to tremble once more, he could only watch with gritted teeth as he was shrouded in a memory.

Randidly Ghosthound ended up on his back, staring into darkness. A little physical strain confirmed it was one of his original three memories of the Samsara when Yystrix forced Randidly to condense his first Class.

“Another reaction from the Nether Core: I must be on the right track for the Penance. But what the hell is a Penance, anyway?” Randidly muttered as he tried to find the commonality between the times his Nether reacted.

“Randidly Ghosthound,” Yystrix said in a low drawl. Randidly flushed; he honestly forgot she would be listening. But as she continued to speak, his expression became strange. “You have no business considering the mysteries of Nether Cores, at least not yet.”

He decided to take a gamble. When he didn’t see a way forward, he could only lash out wildly and hope for the best. “What if I told you I’m from the future?”

“...I would say you certainly have an active imagination,” Yystrix chuckled. Yet the pressure against him changed. “But there is no harm in enunciating the details. A Nether Penance... the old Nether Penances, were always about connection. Connection to the broader universe. The way you have lived... what is the connection that you’ve formed with the rest of existence? What is the ‘price’ of your lifestyle you would never have chosen, but yet now... You stare the costs in the teeth and you do not flinch? You would gladly suffer them?”