Synchronicity detected…

Recalculating…

Your Skill Dragon Queen’s Sinister Tongue (T) is being incorporated into your Skill the Vindictive Chimera Smites (M)!

Incorporating influences from the Moirae of Ripples Skillset… Recalculating…

Congratulations! Your Skill Left Hand of the Nether Oracle (M) has grown to Level 979!

Randidly’s right arm burned, conveying all the combined energy from the impromptu Nether Ritual and his emotional force. His images sang of violence and strife, the chorus of emotional affect moving together into a passable harmony at an extremely high amount of power. All his focus was on the release of the energy and the implacable gaze of Westrisser in front of him, so he couldn’t give much attention to the stream of notifications.

He did note that his original purpose for creating the Moirae of Ripples Skillset was to create non-image attack Skills. Incorporating them… would probably boost his capability, but it left him slightly conflicted.

Yet necessity dragged his focus back to the foe in front of him.

Bright white light emerged from his target, Westrisser’s instincts warning him that the oncoming attack couldn’t be stopped with just half measures and deploying his image in a halo of power. The Ivory Serpent within his body uncoiled, its tongue flicking out. Randidly grimaced. That was the trouble with powerful image users; they usually shouldn’t be able to react in time, but their sharp images allowed them to surpass that limit.

At the last second, Randidly’s mouth twisted in distaste; he felt himself make the mistake. The Nether Ritual spreading out from the back of his shoulder like a rocket’s launching pad definitely increased his raw power. However, the release came too early. Only a finger’s width in front of Westrisser’s crossed wings, the massive array discharged its power. Nether surged and seethed, ripping directly into the image in front of him.

Congratulations! Your Skills have merged to become the Chimera’s Suffocating Rebuke (T)! Skill Level will be set at 950!

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimera’s Suffocating Rebuke (T) has grown to Level 951!

Congratulations! Your Skill Casting Blades from Insatiable Grievances (M) has grown to Level 651!

With the sudden crystalization of the Skill into its new form, Randidly’s attack surged forward and slammed into Westrisser’s wing even after much of the Nether Boost blasted outward. But it did have the effect of Westrisser’s sharp reactions picking up the first attack and, assuming that it was purposeful, releasing a sweeping wave of his image to annihilate the Nether tainted force. Meanwhile, his body instinctively relaxed.

No sooner had that wave attempted to eat its way outward than Randidly hammered on the being’s wings, crushing the image before it could spread out and also impacting the feathered serpent directly. He felt Westrisser’s wings begin to give beneath his onslaught of force. Malloon’s lord finally seemed to bring the whole of his attention to Randidly.

The monster’s eyes gleamed and his image began to change, even as Randidlys attack forced him back. The ivory serpent hissed silently… and evaporate.

The serpent was a seal, the realization felt like a slap in the face. His iconic imagery is just a seal.

Randidly’s Nether gleefully continued to devastate, heedless of the ominous realization. Without the support of the released image, not only did the ground in the surrounding area break, but also the wave of Nether force surged in every direction, kicking in the front doors and windows of the buildings that still stood. Chunks of stone ripped themselves off of walls and the wooden framework of a few buildings nearby leaned and snapped.

Westrisser’s image surged with a sudden vicious precision, but Randidly had the upper hand with his momentum. The unsealed image hadn’t quite unfolded fully from the core of his foe’s body. The rest of his punch’s force rocked Westrisser back, the winged serpent’s legs sinking deep into the ground as he tried to control his momentum.

Randidly saw Westrisser wince as the force ripped through him and mulched the ground around him. The whole of his force, even without quite bringing Nether into alignment, had inflicted a genuine wound on his opponent. Based on the tight clenching of the man’s jaw, the wounds might have been serious enough that his mouth was filling with blood.

If his original goal had been to grab the other man’s attention, he had succeeded too well. Westrisser might have a power image, but his body was much weaker than Randidly’s. That strike inflicted genuine damage on the man. The hole left by the departed seal yawned even wider.

However, it quickly became clear that while he had definitely seized Westrisser’s full attention, he had badly misread the spirit of the ivory winged being’s image. A wave of unholy annihilation bloomed in his chest. Randidly felt it clearly now as the fetters he placed on himself vanished. Pure white light spread out from his wings, gleaming and bright. Vicious and pure.

Randidly realized why Westrisser control himself, normally, or use the stand-in image. Because even the first sensation of this image was a blade he could not safely use in his own city.

At the core of that light was absence. A void of an altogether different character than the Stillborn Phoenix. This brightness did not devour. Nor did it seem in that brief moment of unfurling in all its horrific glory, did it erase. A sticky whiteness spread out from Westrisser’s wings, dripping onto the ground and ‘melting’ small holes in the ground. Even with the incredible, searing emphasis of Randidly’s image physicalization, he felt both the kinetic force and the invasion of his image into Westrisser’s body cease.

The closest I can describe it, A frown crossed Randidly’s face. Is these objects were retroactively subtracted. As though they had never existed in the first place. This… what a horrifying image. No wonder he could crusade out into the Nether Lands without fear. This sort of image… even a fight to a draw would be costly to engage.

The fullness of the Winged Serpent’s attention on Randidly drew an immediate response from the surrounding space. Before Westriser could gather up his image and unleash it in retribution, the clouds in the area around Malloon began to stir. A force gathered together the lion’s share of the balloons of water vapor and became a massive mound hunching over the Western hills.

Right as a massive head began to force its way out of the cloud mound, likely to begin horrific weeping, Westrisser narrowed his eyes at Randidly. The absence somehow ate away his pupils, making his eyes seem large and pale. “Have you joined hands with Bleak Sky? If so, I will-”

Considering I caused this opening, it’s only fair I handle it, Randidly thought to himself. He knew it was a gamble, but he still wanted to try and salvage some sort of relationship with Westrisser. With a snap of the fingers, Randidly did another on the fly adjustment of Nether Rituals. The cap he had put on the energy bomb floating above them began to shift.

Congratulations! Your Skill Yearnings of the Nether Heir (P) has grown to Level 855!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Yearnings of the Nether Heir (P) has grown to Level 905!

Usually, he wouldn’t have been able to work so quickly or with such a cavalier attitude inside of Malloon’s walls; there simply wasn’t enough Nether to construct a solid working within the barrier around the city. In this case, his premature blast from his attack ended up benefiting him. He sucked up all that ambient energy and repurposed it so efficiently it might seem like this had been his plan the whole time.

The working clicked into place, armed and adjusted. The compressed energy now roiled around a constant flare of energy plasma, not quite Aether but similar enough Randidly felt slightly nervous working with such a core of energy over which he had no control.

As the shape began to activate, Westrisser’s eyes widened in recognition. He finally noticed the huge cylinder of energy, it having grown to the point it distorted the air. His lips twisted and he shouted to his soldiers. “Deactivate Code Divinity! Hungry Eye has seized control-”

Randidly aimed and released. As soon as the cap vanished, Westrisser’s image responded. Randidly had to scramble backward in order to avoid having to face the image of absence settling across his skin.

Despite his powerful body, he believed exposing himself to a wave of energy was a very bad idea.

Westrisser clenched his hand into a fist, but then paused. He observed the blast above. A pure beam of power, at Randidly’s aiming, shot sideways and punched a hole directly through the barrier around Malloon. The Aether exhaust scattered around the city caught fire in a massive flash of light, causing quite a lot of screams of alarm both from the wall and the refugees beyond it.

However, the light and heat faded in only a moment, leaving the tireless beam to charge forward and bulldoze its way through Bleak Sky’s forming cloud. It punched a hole first, then the heat from its passage expanded and burned away the whole cloud.

After a few more seconds of rapid travel toward the horizon, the dense core of energy that animated the beam destabilized and shattered into pieces. An entire portion of the horizon burned for nearly five minutes, as Malloon’s weapon discharged.

Westriser gave Randidly a long look. Clearing his throat, Randidly took a step back and allowed his image physicalizations to fade. He raised his palms. “...There’s no need for this to escalate. I genuinely mean to remain a friend of Malloon.”

“You lash out at a fellow Nether King?” Westrisser grunted. His eyes turned calculating; in just a moment, the avatar of annihilation vanished and the shrewd and calculating leader he had first met returned. The horrible image receded, but the seal didn’t reform over his image.

Yet in the next moment, Westrisser’s hands clenched. His feathers once more began to burn with intensity. The Winged Serpent didn’t even appear to exert himself and the remnant flow of Nether in the air was stamped out Randidly gritted his teeth. His mind began to A little too far. I wanted to prove I was a threat and succeeded. But by the same token, now he likely won’t want to let me escape.

Randidly shot a quick glance over his shoulder. Elhume walked slowly forward, cracking his knuckles. Their eyes met; even if Westrisser used his overpowered image again, with two of them-

“I overreacted. Apologies,” Westrisser unfolded his wings and pulled them back against his back. The last ripples of his image vanish, almost as though he had erased his own power. He still retained the pressure of a powerful lord of the city, but no more than that. “Let’s… pretend today didn’t happen. I believe it will be easier for both of us.”

Randidly genuinely believed he had misheard for several seconds.

Elhume stopped next to Randidly and blinked in surprise, equally as thrown. The other man’s face scrunched up. “You… wish to just pretend like it didn’t happen?” After asking the question, the implications seemed to sink in and Elhume’s face hardened. “You attacked the Patron of the Deep and his nephew without justification, even admitting you have attempted to annihilate their entire race. After that, you wish to-”

“If you would prefer we continue, I will not reject your offer to dance,” A horrible stillness transfixed Westrisser’s face. He flexed the muscles of his back, only once, sending several ivory feathers spiraling around him. They scraped the air with their passage. “I would consider it a waste to slaughter you both, but waste is simply a fact of life.”

When did I become the voice of reason, Randidly’s lips twitched, standing between Westrisser’s wounded pride and Elhume righteous fury. He still didn’t quite trust Westrisser’s sudden change of heart, for all it had been what he had hoped for, but he wouldn’t dig too deeply at the moment. He put a hand on Elhume’s shoulder. “Let’s withdraw then. We can talk about the rest… later. Oh, and Westrisser?”

Randidly didn’t flinch as Westrisser gave him a glance with his eyes burning with absence. He kept his expression even. “I will donate the next harvest of lumber cucumbers, to help rebuild. As a show of goodwill.”

The absence vanished. After a long moment, Westrisser nodded. Then he turned away and walked across the rubble-strewn stretch, an entire neighborhood leveled in only two minutes.

Randidly released a breath. He hadn’t exactly confirmed the skyislands would be able to continue functioning as is, but it was better than nothing.