Chapter 2440 (Patreon)

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

Whoops, got a bit wrapped up in ironing out this new little quirk. Two today.

Also, quick reminder that LoRG Book 6 will be out tomorrow on Amazon! That book includes the set up for this Aegiant memory. What a wild ride.

Randidly felt curiously numb, restrained in the memory by Yystrix’s increasing desperation. The action of shattering all his Paths he had taken could not be reversed. Yet relaxation spread throughout his muscles and joints. The tight grimace on his face eased-- he could no longer feel the shattered pieces of Truth careening around his Soulspace. His scrunched forehead smoothed for the first time all day.

The Truths he had created were the loudest and most domineering of the noises in his soul, but now he understood how every Path had added a small voice to his existence. He had started his journey as a normal human, so he hadn’t even noticed the presence at first. And then as he grew stronger, so many sang inside of him he simply grew used to their presence.

Yet now he was cleansed.

Not that he believed just condensing his strange Penance would be enough to solve all of his problems. Or that the rest of the fights would be simple. Or that he particularly had a better idea of how his new Penance would give him the power to overcome Laplace.

Yet… he had found his footing by letting go of Truth. He didn’t worry about his Path any longer. And he had kicked away the poisonous crutch left to him by Pangu. With increasing clarity, his inner Sanctum manifested, even in the memory. Above, a rather flat picture frame housed a churning maelstrom of black geometric shapes. Below, the pool of Nether had frozen and expanded to form an orb. From the seed in the middle, chaotic bands of opacity forked out to the edges. It was a lovely marble, its flaws glittering darkly with promised malice.

Randidly Ghosthound blinked his new strange eyes, all black except for the luminous emerald pupil.

“You… gathering this much energy can only rupture your feeble body! And you’ve become so curiously inert at the same time… what have you done?” Yystrix hissed. She threw more and more restrictions across Randidly’s torso, her efforts given extra teeth by the churning Samsara. Every few seconds, more aggressive tendrils whipped down to try and befuddle Randidly. They whispered, imitating all those previously ignored voices.

Without the little static from the Paths, Randidly could spot and shred them with his Grand Fate any time he wanted. Yet for the moment, his attention still remained upon his notifications.

Congratulations! Your Nether Penance Empty Vessel Fosakes the Path has grown to Level 500! As you have abandoned the typical senses of the universe, you have developed a honed knack for detecting irregularities around you! You can also sense the power of other Vessels you encounter! Your Vessel’s natural resistance to foreign images has increased!

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 801!

…

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 815!

Congratulations! Your Nether Penance Empty Vessel Fosakes the Path has grown to Level 701!

…

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 833!

Congratulations! Your Nether Penance Empty Vessel Fosakes the Path has grown to Level 832!

Congratulations! Your Nether Penance Empty Vessel Fosakes the Path has grown to Level 833!

Pantheon Intervention! Your recently formed Grand Fate and Nether Penance have come into alignment! The Levels are the same! The presence of both at the same tier of power is reacting to the other!

Randidly felt the rumbling of a powerful transformation from the depths of his Sanctum. Nether rushed through his body, faster and faster, coating the interior of his form and seeping into the fundamental essence of his Vessel. He felt his heartbeat thundering against his skin, a vitality so powerful it seemed on the cusp of ripping its way out of him and unleashing a defiant howl. He possessed the urge to breathe even as an imaginary being. Yggdrasil grew rapidly within this environment, sprouting up and down in every direction.

The Samsara shuddered, his other two images hammering to be reunited with Randidly. The defenses of the Samsara groaned and began to give.

The Sanctum released another shudder. Around the framed maelstrom of darkness, little gleaming starts began to condense. Bits of his former Paths were purified of all the extra meaning and had gained a crystalline purity. They orbited the maelstrom like frantic electrons. Below, the edges of the flawed marble began to breathe mist.

A whirling star of pure image twisted in its path and swung downward, entering through one of the jagged gashes at the edges of the marble. As it forced its way downward into the cracks, its radiance spread out. Gradually, the passive illumination in the marble increased. Meanwhile, the maelstrom grabbed the exhaled mist and whipped it into its tight rotation. The flows of mist rushed past each other and slammed against one another… until one of those points of friction spat out a bright star. Raw significance became the foundation essence of a new subconscious image. The energies replaced the spent versions as the reaction intensified.

Congratulations! Your Nether Penance and Grand Fate have come into alignment. There is a certain pressure for them to remain so; it will be immensely difficult to separate the compatible creations within your body. While the Nether Penance and Grand Fate are in alignment, your Vessel will be constantly enriched by their refinement!

You will naturally generate one VP per 5 seconds so long as the two are aligned!

Vp +1!

Randidly allowed one exhale. Then he sat up.

Vp +1!

All the carefully laid restrictions Yystrix had created, even with the screaming pressure of the Samsara aiding her, ripped like tissue paper. He was Nether and Aether incarnate, the two energies perfectly merging. Randidly casually brushed away the static-spitting remnants of the bindings and stood. The darkness around him wobbled and shifted, his presence enough to pressure the environment.

The current Randidly Ghosthound did not sing loudly like a world-state image or squeeze space and time into the shape he believed. Instead, he seemed entirely silent. A bit of that silence radiated naturally out of his body and strengthened his existence.

As a consequence, the powers of others began to slightly weaken.

The bright emerald pupils fixated on a single point in the darkness. Randidly’s lips curled. “I could probably rip my way out of here directly… but I don’t need to, do I? And my instinct with that weak guard was correct. The Samsara shares some elements of the Ghasthunds I have put out into the world. And you gain little from running.

“The ‘Truth’ of this memory…” Randidly cast his mind around for a second. He still found it so disconcerting that he only had the vaguest impression of the power that Yystrix and the Samsara tried to use against him at the moment. But he did now possess Relentless Memory of the Nether Executive. The answer came to him. “...you wished to forge me into the Vessel you hoped for. But what was your hope Yystrix? To save your son? To repudiate Elhume?”

That emerald pupil dilated, bringing more color to his abyss-like gaze. He lowered his voice. “Or to apologize, for being too scared to be honest with your partner and letting that falsehood cloud the rest of your relationship? For letting his fester and twist himself into a coward who could not even deal with his own emotional turmoil?”

She appeared then, not in the form borrowed from Lyra, but in the slender humanoid form Randidly had witnessed in her memories. Yystrix looked at him with narrowed eyes. “I do not know what you are talking about.”

The curious muted aspect of Randidly’s internal world meant he could not hear Yystrix’s Truth. Yet the violence of her glare threw off ripples that had his other senses tingling.

“Dreams always feel different awake than asleep,” Randidly shrugged; he didn’t need to argue with the memory. He took a step forward. His hands slowly clenched into fists. “I am what you hoped for, although it is not an easy thing to admit.”

She did shape me… yet that does not mean she controls me, now or then, Randidly thought. His Vessel hummed with his opinion, a tier of image far away from Randidly’s distant memory of Truth. But when the opinion met the Truth of the memory… it was like a key fitting into a lock. In a place with no Truth sounding, opinions were enough. The door opened.

Before Yystrix’s pained expression vanished, Randidly saw a single tear roll down her cheek and felt a feeling very close to guilt.

But the Samsara did not go silently or smoothly; it screamed as the environment cracked and fell away. Randidly stood in a vicious storm of Nether that twisted around him and folded until he faced a bristling arsenal of memory corkscrews. They began to rotate and buzz in his direction, throwing off dense waves of dangerous Weight.

Yet Randidly just laughed, his right hand tightening to a fist. In his curiously numb state, the vibrational ‘Truth’ wielded by the Samsara became just unmoored vibration. And vibration was just another usable form of kinetic energy.

The growing Yggdrasil drank and drank until its roots had been bloated to the cusp of rupturing, an unsurpassed annihilation of force suffusing Randidly’s Vessel. Waves of heat rolled off of him, distorting space and giving his Grand Fate extra practice mending time. Even then, he didn’t stop accumulating. His muscles stretched to the point they would have twanged like a guitar string.

Because as of yet, he hadn’t even yet checked out his new power. Randidly focused and opened up his Vessel Point Menu.

Congratulations! You have unlocked the Vessel Point System! For your miraculous actions, +3 to Muse’s Reverie.

The Vessel Point System has been carved by the Pantheon for the use of Randidly Ghosthound. Vessel Points can be spent on any unlocked Creeds. At a certain point, user will earn additional Vessel “Layers” which allow for additional Creeds to be added to your Vessel.

Creeds will affect both the physical performance of Randidly Ghosthound as well as conditions within the Alpha Cosmos, so be prudent in your selection and development of Creeds. As they grow more potent, there is a small chance of Creeds evolving. In addition, please note that for every 500 VP spent, +1 to all Stats!

Vessel Screen

Randidly Ghosthound

Vessel Layers: 0

Creeds: None

(Infuse VPs to unlock further options)

The muscles of Randidly’s right arm began to bulge as force roared up and back through the limb. He could feel his blood boiling before the next flood of Nether slithered by like a frigid wyrm, stabilizing his physical condition as he built up power. Following the instruction, he dumped away his VPs.

He could feel the effect, although it was miniscule in comparison to the Vessel of evolved Stats he had forged. His body became marginally more powerful. But if discarding his Paths had given Randidly an inner peace, spending these VPs enlarged the untouched pool of tranquil liquid at his core. His aura intensified. Already, he began to sense the sort of stifling effect he would have on all foreign images around him.

The long moment of activation stretched. The current fractured time bubbled with powerful ingredients on the verge of violent reaction. The Samsara howled and spat out corkscrews of memory. Randidly spent a thousand VP and received a response.

You have condensed your first Vessel Layer! Current Vessel Layers: 1

For earning a new Layer, you have unlocked a new Creed. Your randomly assigned Creed-

Pantheon Intervention!

Congratulations! You have earned the Creed “Harmony”!

Despite the dangerous situation in which Randidly found himself, he couldn’t prevent his lips from twitching down into a frown. Pantheon intervention? What a subtle nudge. Was that really necessary, guys?!?