Chapter 2241 (Patreon)

ToC: https://www.patreon.com/posts/23899958

Only one again, but mostly because this chapter was killer to write (hopefully, it makes sense to read)

Significance sputtered and sparked, seeking to complete a total transformation but held in stasis by a wedge.

The grains of flowing time turned out to be coarse sand, catching and grinding during their passage through each individual. Although Neveah seemed to be the only one conscious of the reason for the strain, the sudden paleness and gritted teeth on all their faces indicated that everyone experienced some sort of discomfort.

Every expression, that is, except Elhume and tainted energy Mae. Both had already been completely stiff in affect, individuals made from poured concrete and bitterness with eyes only for each other.

The mental pain continued to be a distraction, but Neveah could just unfocus her awareness and sense the tension present in the Nether constructs that should have flipped them over to an alternate reality. Her eyes glittered as she examined their shape. This is another version of those strange moments Randidly experienced, where it seemed like alternate dialogue had been dubbed over the memory. After all, this is a designed wish. Those adjustments are the only hint to the true purpose for the wish.

So what did Elhume wish for when he made the memory?

The Nether constructs wavered, their massive engines designed to move at high speeds and make a sudden adjustment. But they did not possess the force to push through an impediment, perhaps because of the energy Randidly had poured into the foundation of the memory. The whole scene remained stalled out. The passage of time did not advance the plot but simply caused pain. All figures remained still. Significance churned and struggled to complete its shift. Yet the two energies of Mae Myrna rejected each other, creating a sizzling static.

The significance ran out of steam. The pressurized shift couldn’t be completed.

With a groan, the pressure eased. The headache began to recede and both layered timelines began to flow. The stuttering of the memory, which had caused the surroundings to flicker from the strain, didn’t cease but at least no longer worsened.  So long as Neveah focused on the middle distance, she followed both scenes displayed in front of her.

Or at least, as well as anyone could manage to watch two movies at the same time. She just crossed her fingers she wouldn’t have to do any further dodging.

Aside from the general sensation of their energies, the two Mae’s were the only obvious difference in the two timelines. The current Mae remained rigid and resolved, her eyes daring Elhume to follow through with his threats as they glared at one another. The Mae part of the overwritten scene, perhaps a version more closely matching the original Mae, was equally as passive but for much more empathetic reasons. She looked at Elhume with eyes filled with sadness and guilt. Her expression stated that she would also remain still, but because she knew she couldn’t change Elhume’s mind.

Or perhaps because she didn’t want to.

The scenes began to move, making following both quite a bit more difficult. Two Elhumes took a step forward at the same time, standing so close to Mae that she must be able to feel his breath against her face. Mae looked up at him, waiting for his decision.

“You hurt him. Purposefully,” Elhume whispered, still in both. Only the original Mae nodded. The one wreathed in the hook-edged energy didn’t deign to respond. Her bloodless cheeks made her look like a corpse, one simply that no one had yet taken the effort to bury.

The significance shivered. The Patron of the Borrowed stepped forward in both, but Neveah still struggled to keep track of both in her unfocused state. Their voices overlapped, a half-beat apart. “Elhume, you don’t need to do this. We… we can find a way to fix this without killing her. She’s one of us; she’s fought with us since the beginning.”

“She was even the first of the Patrons,” The Patron of the Deep sighed in the negative-Mae version of events. Neveah’s skin crawled when she realized he wasn’t present in the overlaid version. Without Randidly’s intervention, he had been heavily injured by Westrisser. The Vulpine’s protest had been greeted with silence and embarrassment by the other Patrons.

“Stand down,” Both Elhume’s bristled and shot the Patron of the Borrowed a glare. For whatever reasons, Elhume’s lines were delivered simultaneously. “So she should be excused for her tenure in our group? It is exactly because of the time she spent fighting to help Pine that she should know better.”

“This needs to happen,” The overwritten Mae whispered. She closed her eyes, while her negative counterpart continued to glare at Elhume. “Do not attempt to interfere.”

Neveah heard a crack from the apparatus of the memory. Bits of the Nether Ritual supporting the memory fell away as the two timelines began to diverge more obviously.

In the overwritten timeline, the Patron of the Borrowed stepped forward after Mae weary words. “No, I refuse to remain silent while you lead us down this dangerous Path, Elhume. You are not infallible. So I think if we, as Patrons, are telling you that you are misguided, you should believe-”

Neveah struggled to hear the rest of what he said, because the Elhume in the negative timeline whipped his left arm around in a hook and smashed the rest of Mae’s ribcage to bits. He planted his foot to follow up as she tumbled backward, but a massive chittering centipede exploded out of the ground and interposed itself between Mae and Elhume.

Action made the layers difficult to distinguish between. They fought for attention.

The actual timeline with the Mae Neveah had affected grabbed her first. Elhume roared and threw a punch at Duo, the massive centipede, whose image exploded with enough force to overwhelm his punch. Both combatants skidded backward, their images rapidly inflating to dominate the environment. The ground cracked and ruptured from the power wielded by both parties. Neveah swayed.

Overwritten Elhume raised his fist to punch, taking so much time it inched past chivalrous to insulting.

Duo’s tail swept around and impacted Elhume from behind. He hit the ground and bounced. But his physical accomplishments made it so the blow simply annoyed him. Growling, he flipped back to his feet and accelerated forward, avoiding a blast of destructive energy from Duo’s mouth and aiming for the frail form of Mae Myrna.

The Patron of the Borrowed threw his body forward and wrapped his arms around Elhume. “I cannot allow this! Because I-”

Duo howled in indignation. The whole world seemed to resonate with its rage, huge stone talons erupting out of the ground in Elhume’s path. Yet Elhume’s speed barely slowed at all, weaving through the impediments and approaching his target. Duo pursued, only a split second behind, its mandible clicking and dripping insect saliva.

“-love Mae Myrna, from the day that I met her, I knew-”

By the time Mae had stood, Elhume twisted in front of her, preparing to bring a punch around and crack her in the temple. Duo hissed and spat a bolt of destruction at his back. Mae simply observed the process, in her negative state unable to care about the outcome of this fight to murder her.

“Fiero…” The positive Mae muttered, responding to the Patron of the Borrowed’s sudden declaration of affection. She seemed confused, yet touched. Elhume snarled and shoved Fiero backward. The Vulpine’s tails flared out. The two entered into a brief wrestling match, but even in the alternate timeline Elhume possessed more power and soon body-slammed the other individual into the ground. His lips squeezed into a line, he turned back to Mae Myrna.

The energy bolt at Elhume’s back was enough to force him to whirl around. Mae swayed and then vanished. In the chaos-

“Die,” Elhume rumbled as he stalked toward a passive, almost sacrificial Mae. With that same purposeful slowness, he planted his foot for a strike.

Elhume and Duo’s forms blurred as they settled into a melee. One of Duo’s long talons cut a deep gash into his chest, but he slammed a fist and cracked a portion of his foe’s carapace in exchange. The image of hunger and slaughter embraced the image of power and annihilation, edged with the breath of the void.

Elhume stood with his arms raised and flexing, simply staring at Mae Myrna. Like a clockwork piece run out of steam, he stilled. In the overwritten timeline where her energy remained pure, she opened her arms as though he was going to embrace her, not attack her. If anything this lack of resistance infuriated him further and his countenance darkened. “Why?”

Neveah squinted, catching an unexpected movement in the current memory. Mae Myrna vanished, only a short distance away from the fighting. She appeared next to the Patron of the Borrowed, who in the more realistic version hadn’t challenged Elhume to a fight. The Vulpine used jerky gestures to urge her to escape, but Mae shook her head.

“I had no choice,” The pure Mae said, her face opening with a small smile. Elhume gritted his teeth and punched, aiming for her face.

“FIERO!” Elhume’s voice thundered across the distance as he whipped around to search for the vanished Mae and found the culprit. If anything, the combat against the Duo only seemed to empower him; some of the more mundane elements of annihilation wielded by the centipede were being incorporated into his own image. “If you interfere again, I will break you.”

Neveah had to admit that Elhume possessed a Randidly-level ability to grow while fighting.

In the overwritten timeline, a Mae Myrna with an energy not yet tainted by her pain stood and watched as the punch rushed to her face. The Patron of the Borrowed, who had been previously body slammed in this timeline, threw himself between the two and took the blow. His chest cavity collapsed.

In the more realistic timeline, Elhume’s yell made the Patron of Borrowed flinch and lower his gaze. Mae’s lips twitched, the first softness the tainted Mae had displayed. She patted him on the shoulder. “It will be easier if you just step aside. You aren’t strong enough to be involved in this confrontation.”

Elhume stood over the collapsed form of the Patron of the Borrowed and spat to the side. The pure Mae seemed almost teary-eyed, looking at her fallen protector. During this brief moment of distraction, Duo made its appearance in the other timeline, burrowing out of the ground in a protective spiral around Mae’s body.

The significance in the air flickered as the two timelines settled back into a single one. Neveah let out a gasp she didn’t realize she had been holding, the last vestiges of the headache beginning to fade away. Yet she didn’t feel particularly clear about what she had witnessed.

…the difference is mostly about the Patron of the Borrowed. About how he acted. Neveah frowned. Why the hell did Elhume spend so much effort wishing for this?

In the next moment, the shattered hunks of significance drifting in the sky began to move. Neveah raised her eyes in alarm, wondering what new danger was about to arrive. But when she saw the culprit, she raised a hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh.

With a cloak of Utter Night wrapped around his body, revealing only his luminous emerald eyes, Randidly Ghosthound descended from the sky riding a storm of Nether and kinetic energy. Dragging the maelstrom behind him, he raised his hands and very casually cracked his knuckles.