Chapter 2439 (Patreon)

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

Woof, this is THE big one. I've been grinding and tinkering with this single chapter for almost two weeks. I think I really love how its turned out.

Just one now (these edits have been brutal, hahaha), but I should post another tonight.

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Randidly lay on the ground and stared up into darkness. He didn’t see an answer from Yystrix’s casual answer, but his mind began to stir.

Consequences I would never have chosen… but now I would gladly suffer… His thoughts quickly derailed into self-deprecation as he considered his inner situation. The bandaging of his Soulspace had begun to tremble as pressure built. Heh, there is so, so much of the current shitstorm I would never have chosen… why were Eternities waiting beyond Elhume, when I had struggled for so long just to surpass him? But also I’m not willing to just lie back and accept their meddling in the Nexus.

He flexed the muscles of his upper body. Even contemplation here isn’t without costs; setting aside those tendrils from the Samsara, the more I wait here, the more dangerous the situation for the Nexus becomes…!

“If you need help,” Yystrix continued. Her voice deepened, losing the rather lecturing quality and settling into her more sinister whisper. “I will gladly lay out your whole Path, Randidly Ghosthound. You are mine and will always be mine-”

“You have died, Yystrix. But thank you for all you’ve given me, however selfish your intentions,” He shook his head and ignored her and the palpitations from the Samsara around her. He thought about his original plan for overcoming an Eternity, creating a miracle vaguely in the shape of a Shallah by mixing a Grand Fate and a Penance into a revelatory whole. And now he understood the trick of mixing energies and expected that the other aspect of his plan, coinciding his Grand Fate and Penance with reaching the Pinnacle and achieving Eternity, would give him the means to create untainted versions of the energy.

Randidly hadn’t even considered the choices posed to him at the Pinnacle and Eternity, respectively. He could still see Nyx’s serious and infinite eyes, pinpricked with stars, as she regarded him. He now held her Truth, bouncing around his weakened Soulspace, nudging him towards another painful destabilization.

You can’t have it both ways.

Randidly’s eyes flickered. If I’m being honest… all I really want is to prove I’m not like Elhume. Or Laplace and Pangu, more powerful entities like them, that will use any means necessary to grow. Those who only look at results, at power. That my Path is better than the narrow Path worshiped by depraved individuals like Fatia Cerulean.

He looked at his broken Soulspace and his unraveling Nether. He observed the half Truths mixing and mutating with each other. He saw the flat back of Pangu’s Aspect, with the careful observation patterns aimed at stealing whatever Truths he used to reach the Pinnacle. He felt his Grand Fate, the role he had chosen. He felt the threadbare fabric of time around him, ground down by the constant churning from Laplace’s Samsara.

Randidly felt his sluggish emotions, drained almost entirely. He felt his Class, humming with all the concentrated potential of his existence. He felt the Alpha Cosmos, connected to him and shuddering with the strain of the current situation. He felt the three Moiraes he had created on his own, observing his actions closely. The Dove Moirae smiled. The Apostate Moirae leaned forward. The Moirae of Minute Repercussions observed the ripples in space. Behind them stood a shadowy figure that weighed and calculated every detail. His eyes scanned the ingredients to find a way to break free from the methodology of monsters.

He felt his own frustrating ignorance at the broader state of affairs outside the Nexus. Without a measuring stick, he was entirely lost.

Is being lost truly such a bad thing? Perspective makes the miracle. And my perspective-

Randidly felt a new possibility beginning to take form as the Alchemist walked steadily forward and raised his hands.

All the ingredients were accounted for. And although the formula was half-finished, the Alchemist couldn’t control his wild anticipation. I have an idea. And the consequences… heh… hahahahah!! I cannot even… fathom what will result.

But… it will truly be miraculous. You will no longer resemble them.

Randidly wavered, even as his feeble Nether began to gather almost instinctually. The significance formed a maelstrom around his torso. His focus flicked to the observational patterns waiting on the base of the Aspect. With so many threats arrayed around him, Randidly couldn’t help but hesitate. Overcoming the Samsara is one problem, but if Pangu has intentions for the Nexus-

The three Moiraes moved together and stood next to the Alchemist. The grin upon the Dove’ Moirae’s face became eerie. No… that is the beauty of this. It will foil them all. The only problem is whether it will grant us power enough to overcome an Eternity.

It will, The Alchemist affirmed, but the Three Moiraes remained silent. Even the Apostate Moirae did not seem confident. The Alchemist shook his head. At the very least… the Grand Fate will be strengthened by the Penance being created. And is our Grand Fate not a near-ideal weapon against this Eternity? Just repeat after me.

My Penance…

“My Penance,” Randidly wheezed out the words. Yystrix tightened her grip on him, but he no longer held back the full force of his Vessel. His imagined lungs expanded. He took in the breath to say the next words.

“...is to be deaf to Truth.”

Fully formed, the dearly held wish and the grim resolve to endure the implications of this statement grew tall in Randidly’s heart. If they wish to weaponize my Truths, I will abandon them. If my current Path tempts the foolish into monstrous acts of sacrifice, I will leave no trace of the heights I can reach. I need not immortalize my existence to purchase power.

My fickle legend will be the only evidence of my passage.

The painful contractions of his Soulspace stilled. He released a slow sigh and opened his eyes. Randidly Ghosthound had been born with fierce emerald irises. His images and image physicalizations had only strengthened this, until his eyes appeared faintly luminous.

Yet after a single blink, those iconic eyes shifted. His iris and sclera turned entirely black. Only the former pupil retained the bright verdant color, wrapping his gaze in an eerie intensity.

Pantheon intervention. Recalculating…

Your Nether Core is experiencing an extreme reaction! Determining results…

Congratulations, you have formed a Nether Penance “The Empty Vessel Forsakes the Path”! Examining effects…

Randidly felt like he floated through himself, witnessing all the subtle contractions of his Aether as it grappled with his new existence. He saw the beams and bolts of the edifice he had built over the past twenty years.

Without a single change in expression, he began to rip out the foundation.

Truth was a vague word, especially in the context of the Nexus. The expression of his Penance hummed with all the implied meanings, not referring to honesty or reality, but to Truth. It had many forms and was tied into the underpinning of the entire image system of the System. Perhaps most accurately, Truth was a resonance between a shape and the Pinnacle.

Randidly’s strange new gaze had an implacable quality as he seized huge chunks of Aether and just tore them away. He carved back the facade and soon found the glowing support structure beneath it all.

The better the Truth, the more powerful the resonance, the easier it would be to cross to the Pinnacle. At the Pinnacle, the Truth would begin to alter the world. Randidly let go of the possibility. Or rather, he would be numb to the opportunity. He would not hear the fundamental resonance of the universe telling him it was ready to change to fit his image.

But it’s more than just that, isn’t it? Randidly’s eyes narrowed. The light in front of him, those bones beneath all his accomplishments, began to turn chaotic.

The Moiraes raised their hands, coating their fingers in this pure and powerful significance, thicker and more brilliant than any his Nether Core had made in the past. Randidly Ghosthound’s whole existence began to contract.

Warning! Please note that all Penances come with a deep cost.

Empty Vessel Forsakes the Path: The rare and powerful Penance received by Randidly Ghosthound with unsympathetic eyes. The Penance radiates a deep repudiation of the System and its bloody implications. Although the Path may lead ever onward… your feet will no longer follow! It is an extremely potent Penance that will affect Randidly Ghosthound for the rest of his existence. The physicality of his Vessel is greatly strengthened. The incorporation efficiency of Nether and Aether into the functioning of his Vessel is greatly increased. His skin has become incredibly resistant to foreign energies.

Yet Randidly Ghosthound can no longer perceive the appropriateness Truth, although he can still wield images and be hurt by the weaponized Truths of others. Only his own instincts will give him feedback. Randidly Ghosthound can now walk freely to the Pinnacle… but he would not sense it or be able to benefit from the experience. A similar block will prevent him from acknowledging Eternity.

You can’t have it both ways, Nyx had said to him.

Randidly felt his lips twitch. What if I don’t even bother to choose? I won’t even notice the branching Path in front of me. I’ll just continue advancing. So long as I move, as I don’t cease struggling, I will eventually overturn it all.

Recalculating… consequences are spreading…

“What have you done?!?” Yystrix’s voice rose in horror.

Randidly couldn’t suppress a chuckle. “Hey, you planted the seed. Now I’m just showing you how it will bloom.”

Warning! Consequences determined!

Congratulations! Your Nether Penance Empty Vessel Fosakes the Path has grown to Level 2!

…

Congratulations! Your Nether Penance Empty Vessel Fosakes the Path has grown to Level 101!

As a natural extension of losing access to Truth, Randidly Ghosthound will no longer be able to utilize Paths! The Soulskill of Randidly Ghosthound, Figure of the Alpha Cosmos is reacting to the change!

The Aether constructs Randidly currently examined were a massively built pyramid, hidden in the deepest part of his development. The pyramid had been built with glowing bricks, from the base, all the way to the present.

Each brick was a completed Path. And now, their edges began to turn fuzzy and warp.

“Heh, do you remember the beginning?” Randidly whispered to himself. Those almost-forgotten notifications floated to the surface of his mind.

Congratulations! The “Newbie Path” is open to you!

Congratulations! Due to being the first player in your world on the receiving end of damage, the “P.Def Path” is open to you!

Congratulations! Due to being the first player in your world to be mentally aware of monsters, the “M. Support Path” is open to you!

Congratulations! For reaching 1 health, the “Risk Taker Path” is open to you!

Randidly had almost died as the new world order settled over his planet. As he and everyone he knew had been pulled into the Nexus. And immediately, it had provided him with opportunities. As he had grown stronger, delayed taking a Class and lucked his way into obtaining an Aether Crossroads, his main advantage had come from being able to Level a positively ridiculous amount of Skills. He earned PP and he followed Paths.

His eyes flicked across the Pyramid at the base of his Soul, made of the Paths he had taken. He recognized them all.

Congratulations! You have completed the Basic Physical Fitness Path!

…

Congratulations! You have completed the Disciple of Shal Path!

…

Congratulations! You have completed the Meditation Path!

…

Congratulations! You have completed the Initiate of Ash Path!

…

Congratulations! You have completed the Ashes of Aemont, the Spear Phantom Path!

“You made me strong. You showed me the way forward.” Randidly ignored the memory Yystrix and her continued howls. The light from his new emerald pupils seemed to come from the most sundrenched and verdant meadow. “Paths… earning them, completing them, obtaining more Skills and completing even longer Paths more quickly… this is how I thrived.”

Congratulations! You have completed the Seed of Yggdrasil Path!

…

Congratulations! You have completed the Alpha Cosmos I: Intermingling Path!

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Congratulations! You have completed the Physique of the Grim Chimera Path!

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Congratulations! You have completed the Nether Adaption I Path!

“You are why I could get here.”

Congratulations! You have completed the Search for the Akashic I Path!

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Congratulations! You have completed the Peerage of the Baleful Court I Path!

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Congratulations! You have completed the Violent Tides of Amenonuhoko Path!

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Congratulations! You have completed the Ashes of Helen, the Ghosthound’s Bloody Knight Path!

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Congratulations! You have completed the Eyelids of the Grey Creature Flutter Path!

…

Congratulations! You have completed the Keyholder of the Infinite Nether Passages Path!

Randidly reached out. His hand sank through the deteriorating bricks, down through all the layers. His Nether Penance pulled and pulled, the substance finally beginning to condense. “But also… you are how they got here too, aren’t you? If that’s the case… I think it’s time for me to try another method.”

Congratulations! You have completed the Achieving a Mille I Path!

…

Congratulations! You have completed the Care of the Pantheon Path!

…

Congratulations! You have completed the Homunculus Advances: the First Self-Vivisection Path!

Randidly offered his pyramid of Paths a Cheshire smile. “I could build you up higher and higher. I would obtain power this way. Yet… heh. I’m tired of advancing in ways you expect.

He looked at the brick at the top of the pyramid, his most recent Path.

Congratulations! You have completed the Reality from Echoes, Moirae and Alchemist Ascendant Path!

His arm stretched down through the pyramid to touch the first brick. The steps that had started it all.

Congratulations! You have completed the Newbie Path!

I’ve come a long way from being a Newbie, haven't I? Randidly narrowed his focus to his finger. Let’s bring this Legend… to its conclusion.

His finger thrust out, the greatest spear stroke he had ever executed. Randidly felt that Shal would have been proud. Randidly’s first and last Paths shattered to pieces, and the rest started to twist and fall upon one another in a spitting mass of energy.

His heart contracted. His Penance condensed.

The small wisps of Nether held within his person, which possessed all the substance of mist fragments curling around dew-sprinkled grass, spun together and flowed into those broken remnants of Paths. Nether coated their edges and pulled them together. Each began to overlap with the others, pressed and squeezed in repudiation of the edifice they had built.

Randidly watched without regret.

A nebula formed. A nebula that moved in two directions at once, the shapes folding inward while flattening outward. The overlapping planes of its shape fractured and refracted. It was a shadowy flower, a ruptured perspective, an all-consuming abyss. Unmoored from the spectrum of resonance, Randidly needed to find a new balance.

The reaction had created a maelstrom that moved to settle within the prepared frame of Engraved Aether.

Almost immediately, Randidly could feel his Nether Core releasing a massive sigh of relief as it found the potential for a stable foundation. The isolating power of the Samsara could barely restrain the flood of sparkling significance that began to rush into his form. His veins expanded, his body heating up as the energy naturally resumed its flow.

The Alchemist cackled and cackled, even as Randidly’s Grand Fate responded to the shift. The Samsara didn’t remain inert, either. In the memory, Yystrix wove first Engravings and then basic Nether Rituals to halt the strange bubbling within Randidly’s Vessel, but she couldn’t restrain the inexorable flow of his significance. He had carved out a part of himself, watched the universe carry away that pound of flesh with stoic eyes. The rest could shift and settle into a new equilibrium.

The whirling mass of interposed Nether shapes he had created shimmered and pulsed within its Engraved frame. The Sanctum rumbled. Randidly’s inner space rippled as the isolating effect collapsed before the rising tide of the transformation. The Samsara howled out a rejection, but the noise was muted. It squeezed Randidly, but he hardly felt it. The Samsara wielded its own sort of Truth, and although they might still be used against him, they would no longer be as effective at hemming in his actions.

Congratulations! Your Soulskill Figure of the Alpha Cosmos has evolved into Hollow Mold of Myths! Detecting changes… Path Points are being converted…

Congratulations! You have learned the Skill Tribond Nether Connections Ground the Shape (GD)(U) Lvl 1!

Nether Connection Trifecta Grounds the Shape (GD)(U): A rare Skill necessary only because Randidly Ghosthound has lost the ability to perceive Paths and Truths within the System. Only be relying on the Phaea, Maala, and Toosah forged before this loss of sensation can Randidly Ghosthound maintain at least a semblance of connection to objectivity. Gives the ability to perceive the signs of others utilizing Truth. Gives a small ability to sense a vague shape of other’s attacks against him, even if they are made using Truth. Effects increase with Skill Level.

Congratulations! Your Nether Penance Empty Vessel Fosakes the Path has grown to Level 233!

Congratulations! You have learned the Skill A Legend’s Instinctual Image Framework (L)(U)!

A Legends Instinctual Image Framework (L)(U): A Skill developed by Randidly Ghosthound to compensate for the costs of his Nether Penance. No longer able to perceive a reaction from the universe to his images, Randidly Ghosthound can still create and utilize powerful images to affect existence. His innate senses, honed by the presence of overwhelming Nether flowing through his Vessel, still create stable images without distortions. In addition, the Skill grants the user great resistance to mental attacks and increases the vibrancy of the images in unnatural environments. Effects increase with Skill Level.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Connection Trifecta Ground the Shape (GD)(U) has grown to Level 459!

Congratulations! Your Skill A Legend’s Instinctual Image Framework (L) has grown to Level 202!

Congratulations! You have learned the Skill Relentless Memory of the Nether Executive (GD)(U) Lvl 1!

Relentless Memory of the Nether Executive (GD)(U): A unique ability developed by Randidly Ghosthound, a Nether being of immense influence who sacrificed one of his senses to empower the others. All the experiences and information of the user are gathered and stored with the utmost clarity. Although he cannot currently witness Truth, his memories of Truth will not fade. In addition, user gains an extremely sharp intuition toward important connections within memories and their future implications. Effects increase with Skill Level.

Congratulations! Your Skill Relentless Memory of the Nether Executive (GD)(U) has grown to Level 195!

Congratulations! Your Nether Penance Empty Vessel Fosakes the Path has grown to Level 405!

Your Path Points (PP) have been converted into Vessel Points (VP)! Vessel Points are usable to strengthen the Vessel and effect various changes within the Alpha Cosmos and the body of Randidly Ghosthound. User will still receive a massive tithe of VP after the Soulskill reaches certain milestones! Current VP: 13,054, Current Soulskill Level: Hollow Mold of Myths Lvl 562,950, Next Tithe will be achieved at: Hollow Mold of Myths Lvl 600,000!

Please note, new rules are being developed for the expenditure of Vessel Points! Please open your VP Menu for more information!