Randidly released a light breath and let his focus settle around that mysterious drop of violet liquid in his chest. Especially after seeing her adjustments so far, Randidly trusted Vualla. So now it was a matter of determining how he would strike out at Ileot Swacc. While he was weak, they needed to act decisively and take advantage of the situation.

If he could get close enough to place his hand on Ileot again and use Cursed Appetite of a Wraith and get rid of Ileot’s remaining Aether, that would be for the best. But Randidly somehow doubted that he would be able to close the distance enough to touch Ileot without exposing himself to extreme danger. And Randidly was even more nervous that Ileot would not be nearly as passive as he had been in the past when he didn’t understand Randidly’s ability to steal his Aether.

No, considering Ileot’s physical abilities, getting too close wasn’t an intelligent choice. And since Randidly wasn’t sure exactly how to strike a blow against Ileot, he quickly made his decision; he would use All Else Succumbs, Yet Time Whirls the Earth.

Although the general goal of wounding Ileot would probably mean the strain from using the Skill would be high, the effect of the liquid Aether would probably mean that the attack would still be quite powerful. That power would mean that Randidly likely would be able to eat the cost of such a reaching wish while using the Skill.

Honestly, using a drop of liquid Aether seems to have an effect quite similar to the Skill Inspiration. The effect of Inspiration is obviously a knock-off version, but still… Might be fair to say that as a last resort, I can also use Inspiration if I need to-

Time suddenly seem to skitter and slow rapidly down. Randidly’s eyes narrowed. Vualla pierced forward with enough speed to send ripples spreading outward through the Great Rift, continuing to push toward Ileot. Everything seemed fine. Then his eyes landed on Ileot himself and Randidly gasped. “Vualla-!”

The Aether in Ileot’s body was surging upward, rapidly rising. Within a split second, all of the Aether constructs in Ileot’s body that had been fading rapidly surged back to life. A tremor ran through his stiff posture. Immediately, the surrounding Nether in the air seemed to curdle as he no longer had an issue of forcefully suppressing his energy expenditure.

The sudden change in Ileot’s presence became a powerful suppression that spread out over the surrounding area. Another tremor ran through his body and then his muscles gradually began to relax.

Vualla noticed the sudden change but it was difficult for her to suddenly adjust all the momentum she had built up in a short time. And now that his body was continually strengthening itself with Aether after it had been depleted for so long, Ileot wouldn’t miss this chance.

His fingertips flicked forward, a huge pillar of white lightning roaring down toward Vualla. The river of lightning was so thick that even two of Vualla’s stacked on top of each other wouldn’t be able to stretch a pink outside of its diameter.

Damnit, why now? Was he hiding his strength the entire time?!?! In that space of time between his heartbeats, Randidly stared across the Great Rift at Vualla’s small form before that pillar of twitching and thundering light. As his emotions became increasingly chaotic, the liquid Aether began to pulse with increasing frequency along with his frantic fear. The sudden change doesn’t make sense! Why-

Randidly stilled somewhat as he flicked to Ileot’s face. The man was crying black tears that coursed down his cheeks and the throbbing veins in his forehead darkened to the point that it appeared that oil was pumping through his veins. His gaze was almost blank as it fixed single-mindedly on Vualla.

Roaring, Randidly tore his eyes away from Ileot and looked at the position of the branches and roots of the World Tree. Although they surged to life according to his will, they were too far away from Vualla and that horrible river of white lightning to make much of a difference. They seemed to be inching along like caterpillars through the Nether of the Great Rift to reach Vualla.

Despite having no useful option, Randidly gritted his teeth and teleported to a spot only a dozen meters away from Vualla. He raised Acri and prepared to activate Man is Proud, But the Chimera Takes to shoot across the intervening distance and knock Vualla out of the path of the river of lightning.

As though she knew exactly what Randidly was thinking, Vualla glanced sideways toward him. Azure eyes met emerald ones. Her opinion was clear; if you save me, who will save you?

Vualla’s aura surged upward and her piercing image seemed to manifest around her body, but the white lightning was so bright and overwhelming that it had already drowned out Vualla’s aura as it neared her.

Randidly felt numb. His arms twitched as he felt the impulse to use his drop of liquid Aether to assist Vualla but then acknowledge that there was very little that he could do even with the boost he would receive from the liquid Aether. The hesitation from Vualla’s firm denial had made Randidly miss the chance.

So Randidly stood frozen as Ileot’s image smothered everything in the surrounding area. The river of white lightning reached Vualla. Randidly couldn’t breathe.

Randidly watched Vualla’s face twist in determined agony as she punched forward but everything was steadily devoured by the white lightning.

Vualla is going to die. For the first time in a long time, Randidly completely froze. The thought was accompanied by such a wave of horror and fear that his processing ability stuttered to a stop. White noise replaced his ability to react. He became a mute spectator.

His face was slack as that river of white lightning covered Vualla’s arms-

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

An enormous shadow smashed into the side of the river of white lightning, deflecting a small portion of its power. Yet suddenly there was an avenue where there had been none before. Sneezing and smoking, Vualla was pulled away by the same shadow as both figures were knocked backward away from the huge attack that Ileot unleashed.

Those figures spun away almost helplessly. Finally, Randidly thawed out. His heart beat again, accelerating rapidly. Gritting his teeth, Randidly reached out and touched the branch of the World Tree next to him to teleport in the path of the two charred figures. With gentle hands, Randidly reached out and slowed them both.

“...thank you,” Randidly said solemnly, taking in Lady Iellaya’s rather miserable figure. His hands were trembling so badly he hid them behind his back. Aside from most of her skin showing signs of burn, Randidly didn’t miss that it looked like Lady Iellaya’s wings had been amputated from her back.

“Jesus, I almost died.” Vualla blinked and patted her singed clothes. “But what happened? How did Ileot get so much strength all of a sudden? I thought he was wounded from his fight with the Nether King.”

Randidly opened his mouth as he remembered those dark tears on Ileot’s face, but then he suppressed the impulse and glanced at Lady Iellaya.

As he expected, it seemed like she knew understood something. The arrival of her and Ileot’s power wasn’t a coincidence. Lady Iellaya’s face curled into a scowl. “...that would be my fault. I believe… I believe that he absorbed whatever power I was relying on to match the Nether King previously. I… was forced to cut that power out of me-”

Neither of the other two figures resisted as Randidly reached out and seized both the women’s wrists. Ileot had released another huge river of white lightning and, right before it arrived the three of them, they vanished. But Ileot’s face that was stained by black tears just sneered. River after river of white lightning forked and flowed throughout the surrounding area. Seemingly no longer caring about how much Aether he was spending, he forced Randidly to repeatedly activate his Nether Ritual to move them out of the way of the destructive blasts of energy.

These attacks aren’t nearly as strong as they look, but the image within is brutal. And all this energy…

Finally, Lady Iellaya shook off Randidly’s hand and drifted back away from him. Although the dominant expression on her face was grief, she still jabbed her finger determinedly down toward Ileot Swacc. “We cannot dodge forever. We need to attack.”

Gritting his teeth, Randidly reached out and grabbed onto Lady Iellaya once more. In the next instant, another river of white lightning rushed through the location where they had just been standing. This time, however, Randidly willingly let go of Lady Iellaya’s arm as it became clear that Ileot had given up on trying to hit them with his horrifying rivers of white lightning. Instead, he simply began to unleash barrage after barrage to hit Randidly’s image directly.

The first directly blast shocked Randidly so much that he almost lost all of it. Yggdrasil flickered ominously before he had gathered control of the situation, quickly understanding the way to make all of the connections redundant and not reliant on a core area to make the Nether Ritual work. So even as Ileot methodically carved out huge portions of the World Tree’s trunk, Randidly maintained the ritual. Which, at least, gave them time to talk.

Vualla cut in first. “If my guess is correct… that source of energy is actually… another version of myself. The original copy of me… who gathered up all the energy of death from across the battlefield right now. That’s the energy that he’s now slowly receiving.”

Randidly frowned toward Vualla, but Lady Iellaya already leaned forward and began speaking with obvious wariness in her voice. He tried to avoid looking at the stumps of torn flesh on her back. “All the more reason we need to strike quickly before he recovers his energy. These huge blasts might be powerful, but we can avoid them. If we combine forces-”

“He’s using those powerful but predictable blasts to buy time,” Randidly said slowly as he looked toward Ileot. His frown deepened as he examined the Aether in the Duplicator’s chest. Basically all of the Aether constructs that formed Ileot Swacc were once more back online. “Every second, he absorbs more of that energy. By the time we finish planning… he will back to full power. And then…”

“So we strike now,” Lady Iellaya said again. This time, she turned her focus to Vualla. “She’s your duplication, huh? Well she’s damned fucked up about how she treats people. Do you know her weakness? As long as we can strike her and cut her off from Ileot, he will lose his access to energy.”

...probably pointless to point out that this Vualla duplication was the greatest energy utilization genius in the history of the System. Randidly felt very cold. Even if she had a weakness, we...

While Vualla’s face creased in thought, a final blast of white lightning shattered the protective image of the World Tree around them. The tear-stained face of Ileot slowly swiveled to look up toward their current position. Once more, the black veins on his forehead bulged and Ileot sneered.

After a brief hesitation, Vualla said, “...she’s definitely… mentally weak. And both of them are so obsessed with karma, so I think that if we use me as a distraction to establish contact, you two will have an opening to strike.”

Vualla’s confidence returned as she smiled brightly toward Randidly. In her expression, there was so much trust that Randidly felt a deep fear that he would leave Vualla disappointed. Lightly, she said, “I told you I would open up a path, after all.”

Left unsaid was the realization that Vualla had almost died before and Randidly had not acted in time to save her. Randidly’s hands continued to tremble behind his back. His palms were sweaty.

“Then we strike to crush them both,” Lady Iellaya said as she pounded her fists together. “He won’t let us live and we aren’t able to escape... the only thing we can do is fight our way out of here.”

...that might not actually be true… With that terrible, chilling pessimism, Randidly met Ileot’s gaze. Crying black tears, he looked like a child who had discovered mascara for the first time. The effect was comical in a horrifying way. But as Randidly looked down at Ileot, he admitted in his heart that he couldn’t beat Ileot in power, even with a distraction. And certainly, it seemed like talking about karma would only incense him.

The whole of Ileot’s capabilities seemed to have now returned. He was an ancient existence who could somehow create world-sized projections and nurture duplications. Even with a miracle, even with a drop of liquid Aether and Inspiration, even with the perfect weapon that he could find with All Things Succumb, Yet Time Whirls the Earth, Randidly couldn’t see a way to win.

But he had learned his lesson from Azriel in the past. Assuming you had to win in every situation left you ignorant to other avenues of escape. Which had been drawn into even sharper focus when Vualla had mentioned karma and Lady Iellaya reminded the group that Ileot wouldn’t let them escape.

...is that really the case…?

Lady Iellaya's determination was admirable, but Randidly knew that there were things in this world that couldn't be overcome solely with determination. He looked now at Ileot's black eyes and saw that baleful wall. So with slow movements, Randidly draw the Philosopher’s Key from his belt.

Even if the only path forward Lady Iellaya could see was through destruction, Randidly had the capability to open a door.