Chapter 2443

Chapter 2443

The guard’s face contained obvious desperation and worry. Perhaps instinctively, he sensed the damage Randidly could inflict on him, just by his presence.

Randidly felt his heart tremor, just slightly. This was how the Samsara had almost broken him down. By weaponizing one of his old Truths against him: Every detail matters. Because the perspective of following every detail would lead to predictable outcomes. Which made it more painful to observe the way Randidly’s actions produced unintended consequences because each unexpected outcome was a failure by him to consider.

Specifically, he had been so thoughtless he had left behind ripples that would sweep up and destroy the lives of innocents. And that was not the sort of person, or legend, that Randidly Ghosthound wanted to be.

Even with all the Stats he had earned, and now earned more constantly due to the accumulation of VPs, Randidly couldn’t handle every detail. The world was too broad and complex for any mind to grasp. He had achieved the status of a legend, a being beyond mundane reality. But that didn’t bless him with omnipotence. Details would escape him. Ripples would drift outward.

But the vicious conclusion this inevitability insisted upon ignored a very important point.

Randidly offered the unfortunate soul in front of him a sad and kind smile. As he spoke, he couldn’t help but picture all the ways he had killed this man, originally and in the memory replays. “No, I’ll go back on my own. Because the real reason so many innocents are killed in my wake... is I don’t bother to clean up my messes.

“Because I’ve been too proud, because there is always a more important issue to address... and that hasn’t changed. But I’m of the opinion... what’s the point of gathering all this capability if I cannot even handle my own problems?”

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 1000! Your existence continues to insinuate itself into the very fabric of time! Your presence will prevent temporal distortions in the surrounding area. Those within the Alpha Cosmos have gained the slightest wisp of this capability! In the future, their development toward Skills and images related to temporal stability will greatly increase.

When opponents use temporal Skills against you, there is a slight chance of stifling the activation and generating a dangerous rebound!

Congratulations! Your Nether Penance Empty Vessel Forsakes the Path has grown to Level 1000! Your Nether Core is experiencing a period of immense Nether growth! Your significance will soon develop further unique effects, after being isolated from the reverberations of Truth. The effects of your Authorities are increased!

For the continued growth of aligned Grand Fate and Nether Penance, +1 Muse’s Reverie!

Without waiting for a response, Randidly pivoted on his heel. A few steps brought him to the window, where flurries of snow spiraled down. He stepped up onto the sill and hopped out into the chill air. His breath seeped out of his mouth like fog. His new eyes, black with that bright emerald pupil, aimed downward.

Below waited the open maw of entropy, the mutated Judgment he had avoided, the manifestation of all his small decisions that could be catastrophes for those innocents caught in the crossfire. He walked back down the ‘Path’ he had carved without worrying about the consequences.

Violent winds curled a massive snowstorm into a tight circle. It exhaled freezing rain and condensing clumps of hail. The storm plucked up sharpened stakes of ice, solidified recriminations, and whirled them around in a tight spiral of death. It was a throat with a circular opening lined with frigid teeth.

The air around Randidly remained mostly still, but that was because he had climbed the tower to escape the Judgement behind him; it would take a little bit of time to catch up to him. He looked down and saw a thousand tiny bits of ‘Truth’ the Samsara had probably plucked out of his subconscious to make his heart bleed.

More memories bobbed and flashed across the surface of his mind as he followed those horrific winds. He saw all the danger he had put the people of Donnyton through, by refusing to take on a mantle of leadership. He saw Shal’s emotional struggles on Tellus, the ones Randidly had never asked about as he continued his training. He saw the suffering of Turtletown, the fate of the Lyra, the bloodshed in the different Zones as he refused to stop them from making stupid decisions.

He saw the lives he had taken in Dungeons. He saw suffering in the wider Nexus, the plight of the Nemesai and the Patrons.

He saw Helen, her eyes blank, her ribs spread open like bloody wings. He saw the blood spreading out around her.

Randidly dumped a thousand more VPs into Vengeance as he dove downward toward the churning maelstrom of ice and ignored the consequences.

The Yeti with Randidly’s face hissed as the Authority cracked open its desperate feelings of insecurity and need. All the sense of inferiority, the fear, the guilt, the crooked worry, the nervous sweat... All of it melted beneath a wholesome blast of pure energy.

Randidly’s lips quirked into a smile as a seemingly infinite amount of life energy gushed out of his limbs. And just like that, I get to play the role of the sun in a memory. Tch, and to think Aegiant, you made it look so difficult.

Randidly’s Penance had reached Level 1000. Even he felt somewhat surprised by the manifestation of power it could create, but he didn’t miss this opportunity. Acri didn’t exist yet in this memory, but with a flick of the wrist, he created a radiant avatar of the spear companion he had wielded for so long.

Streaking out of the sky, ripping his way through the oppressive cold, Randidly thrust his weapon. He carved the spear from pure life and generosity. Warmth sharpened the edge. But it was Duty that formed the shaft.

With a single thrust, he pinned the yeti and its core of entropy to the ground.

“I don’t know if I will ever gather enough capability to prevent innocent lives from suffering from my actions,” Randidly said quietly. In front of him, his own mouth on the yeti’s body opened and closed soundlessly. “However... I can take responsibility. I can apologize. I can continue to advance. There are no set Paths to follow here... but so long as I am honest about my feelings, I believe I can be better than this.”

The other Randidly’s mouth finally seemed to find its words. Its voice creaked as though its throat had rusted shut. “You have caused so much pain.”

Randidly just smiled as a realization tingled its way out through its body. “...that’s the problem of treating time casually. The current shred of time is all you see and understand. Did you know that so long as you have time... you can make a Truth into something else entirely.”

The memory dissolved around him as the Samsara switched its tactics. It pulled deeper from Randidly’s subconscious, searching for other moments to use as traps for him. But in his chest, Randidly felt his bones of Duty humming with a very particular meaning: he had wasted enough time in here.

The Nexus would not survive much longer in his absence.

Devick needed him.

He raised his gaze and pierced through all the complex waves of Nether. He saw the veins running amongst the complex patterns, creating the living, breathing Samsara that aimed to ‘digest’ him. Without Truth to distract him, he found to the deepest and most sophisticated place. The fat veins led him directly to a pulse, shuddering core of ill-will and beautiful arrangements.

Randidly still couldn’t quite interpret the meanings of the patterns created by Laplace, with the help of Pangu, but he didn’t need to. He fixated on the pulsing, empty heart in the middle of the Samsara and barred his teeth.

“The Third Authority: Intangible Burial.”

Randidly ripped out the heart of the Samsara. After squirming and wiggling for a second, the significance collapsed into a cracked and fracturing heap. He took its core to give himself freedom. The memories exploded into glittering bits of Nether Rituals.

The Samsara of Laplace, Fickle Time and Regretful Heart, had been broken.

Randidly stood in the remnants like he had attended the championship sports match and the inky-black team had won, its confetti sparkling around him. He lifted his chin and savored a warm and vicious sense of satisfaction. The particles drifted down to the ground and melted away.

Randidly’s eyes, the new implacable blackness around an emerald pupil, swept side to side and took in the view of the uppermost tier of the Nexus, the calcified figure of Pine at the bottom of that hole, with the hole that indicated a wisp of the Nexus’s soul still existed. Based on what his newfound senses indicated, he had spent all of 57 seconds stuck in the Samsara.

He exhaled slowly. Duty had been seared into his bones, urging him forward. After a moment to gather himself, he rushed to chase the Eternity.