“Your mission is simple,” the bear-like military man next to Lady Iellaya spoke immediately when Randidly entered into the room. Just as quickly as Randidly walked forward to stand before the group, his Grim Intuition pinged an even larger threat from the man than Randidly had felt previously. That made his eyes narrow; so characters that were this powerful still could hide their abilities from even Grim Intuition. That was a good fact to learn when the stakes were relatively low.

The dangerous bearman pointed to a partially melted statue that lay near the interview chair had sat in only two hours ago. “Demonstrate your capabilities by healing the body and image of this man and you will receive the position of head Drill Sergeant. However, let it be known that you will bear the consequences of any… lingering afflictions that affect him in the future.”

Belatedly, Randidly’s eyes widened; the melted statue was actually a toppled over metallic humanoid. From what Randidly could see, several of his limbs were bent in the wrong directions. He wondered whether they were normally so uniquely bent, or whether it was a result of whatever had occurred here. And judging by the image wafting off of the metallic body…

Randidly glanced once more at the furry military leader. The bearman’s irises were two black chips in his eyes, as dark as the empty space next to the moon in the night sky. Slowly, Randidly nodded. “...of course. If I’m supposed to heal someone, their convalescence is my responsibility.”

The bearman smiled at Randidly with an expression that would have been a smirk had it spread from his mouth to his dark eyes. Meanwhile, the Xyrt Brigade representative released a bark of laughter. “Ha! You’ve been hoodwinked kid. That fool down there is from the Swacc Family. I suspect that no matter how skilled you are, he will remain broken and they will come demanding compensation. The sort of compensation that’s above your paygrade.”

As Randidly crouched down next to the metallic body, his mouth was moving before his brain really thought about the response. “I’ve dealt with the Swacc Family before. I’m sure it will be fine.”

A split second later, he paused and wondered whether he should have revealed that when he was still attempting to earn this job. The silence of the people at the table on the dais became somewhat strange. But Randidly decided to ignore the change and just focused on his work. He reached out and pressed his hand against the being before him to get an idea of his current status. And at that exact moment, the Stillborn Phoenix’s had sucked all of the volatile emotions into itself.

There was a churning rumble from Randidly’s chest and then the image became to exhale. Emotions rampaged outward with all the desperate devastation of a broken dam.

“Hsssssss.” Randidly let his breath sneak out between his teeth as Yggdrasil unfolded into the air above him in order to suppress the changed emotions. This journey back from the interior of the Stillborn Phoenix saw the emotional intensity increase again by an order of magnitude. The emotions practically hummed with infectious and dangerous power.

“Ah, please do be careful. Fragments of my image may remain… from the earlier interview.” The bearman said, very officiously. Randidly had to make a conscious effort not to roll his eyes while Yggdrasil stabilized the seal on the emotions within himself. But he was then rather shocked to see that perhaps the military man hadn’t just made a baseless assumption about Randidly’s display of weakness; the damage to the metallic man’s body was quite similar to what had happened with Yggdrasil’s root.

The source wasn’t the same, but the result bore a significant resemblance to each other. The bearman’s image had somehow stripped the ‘shape’ of Aether from this metal man and left him with chaos. When the metallic man had probably panicked, heightening his emotions… that overwhelmed what remained of his mental framework and caused his entire self to collapse.

Randidly felt a strange sort of horror as he inspected the result.

“Please…”

Randidly blinked in surprise. Because of the strange angles of his joints and the coloration of his body, he didn’t realize the patient was still conscious. These were the sort of injuries that usually pushed someone into a coma. But now, to his discomfort, he realized that even the man’s neck had been twisted to the point that he was staring up at Randidly. His eyes were filled with fear and pain. “Please…”

Strangely, Randidly remembered the shock and horror that Neveah experienced when she had been struck mentally by Kaan Swacc. Something hardened in Randidly’s heart and the Grim Chimera raised his head from within his baptism of violent emotions to glance at the bearman and curl his lip upward. It is exactly because of people like you that this Nexus is such a hell for those without the strength to defend themselves. I WILL surpass you.

I will end your casual violence.

Then Randidly turned his attention back to the man and released as much of his image as he could. Once more, the other physicalizations of his images receded; his hair became emerald and his veins pulsed with golden light. The energy he radiated downward was soft and gentle, like rays of sunlight on cool mornings. The metallic man gasped and gulped down desperate breaths of air.

There WERE in fact remnant bits of the bearman’s image, continuing to destabilize the metallic man’s body and agitate his emotions. Randidly rapidly used a surge of Yggdrasil’s Inscrutable Mien to blast them away, taking great joy in the thought that he was annihilating that small smirk from the bearman as he did so.

The image fragments were strong, but they were truly just remnants. Randidly had no trouble eliminating them.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Golden Roots of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 298!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Glittering Leaves of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 257!

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Very quickly, the metallic man’s image and body initiated the healing process without those lingering elements causing damage and began to greedily absorb the ambient energy that Randidly was producing. In fact, his body and image were absorbing so much energy that Randidly could feel flaws beginning to emerge in the restructured physical form

Randidly narrowed his eyes and restrained the flow of energy to the man before him. The subject groaned again, but the strange mutations within his body ceased. Although his body was no longer affected, it seemed like there was a permanent change to the man’s emotions; they now possessed an intensity that could destabilize his form.

Randidly wasn’t sure whether it was just a side effect of what he had recently experienced that would soon fade or a permanent change he would need to learn to control.

But for the moment, Randidly focused energy toward his images, allowing the framework to return to the man’s image of himself before letting his body reconstruct the shape. As he continued to witness the fits and starts of healing before a sudden emotion demolished a minute’s worth of work, Randidly’s fury continued to mount. Even with all the assistance he proved, lingering holes remained in both this man’s image and body.

Whatever technique it was that had been used was obscene in the scope of its effects. Its power was overwhelming and bizarre. It was another bit of evidence that the Nexus was not someplace where he could casually offend others.

But no matter how horrendous the damage was, it wasn’t worse than what Nether could do to Aether. The combination of the two energies, when not aligned, not only destroyed but also warped the edges into a useless haze. Comparatively, these wounds to the image were clean, as though someone had somehow used an eraser to simply remove parts.

Plus, the man’s emotions gradually stabilized as Randidly eased his pain.

While the patient continued to sputter and breathe heavily, Randidly carefully did his best to approximate the lost portions of his image. All the while he kept a tight lid on the increasingly dense emotions in his own chest. The Grim Chimera’s aura caused the exhaled emotions of the Stillborn Phoenix to seethe; it bared its teeth at this obvious cruelty.

Which only agitated the pink and red emotions within Randidly, forcing Yggdrasil to work harder to suppress them. Plus, the emotions he was refining seemed to sense the vulnerable metal man. They cautiously tried to escape, only to be beaten back by the purifying light from a golden root.

Time gradually ticked past. The panel sat quietly, studying Randidly’s image while he worked. He did his best to keep all image reverberations for the Stillborn Phoenix and Grim Chimera contained. But that was secondary toward helping this man.

Blessedly, the Stillborn Phoenix finished exhaling and then began to suck away the dangerous emotions. Yggdrasil could then concentrate more fully on healing the man. The golden energy it released grew thicker, almost physical in its warm embrace. After a strained few minutes, the metallic man released a sigh. His joints began to loosen and straighten. His basic sense of self had been repaired to a serviceable state. His emotions were calm.

After his body had unfurled itself, he collapsed to the ground. But there was intelligence in his eyes as he looked up at Randidly. “Thank… you.”

“Just obeying orders,” Randidly said. His voice must have revealed his dissatisfaction because the bearman harrumphed.

“Soldier, I have a question for you.” Randidly warily turned to face the bearish man who had earned the wariness of the Grim Chimera. His dark eyes continued to drill into Randidly, as though he could pry apart his anatomy simply by virtue of his extended attention and understand Randidly’s secrets in that manner. The man cleared his throat. “You have my permission to speak freely. If I were to give you an order that would obviously endanger the lives of your hypothetical charges, would you follow that order?”

Randidly thought about it deeply. And from the intensity of Lady Iellaya’s stare, she wanted to him to add some deference to the answer he would tell this man. And perhaps some part of Randidly wanted to cave as well, which is why the rest of his personality railed against that impulse. The Grim Chimera that had allowed itself to be scarred and warped by the chaotic mass of emotions within his body peered out through Randidly’s emerald eyes with the utmost seriousness.

You are exactly why I want to become strong. Randidly thought. He stood straight and kept his expression even. “No. I would not.”

As the man loosened his grip on his own image, his dark eyes seemed to swell to fill Randidly’s vision. The rest of the surrounding details of the room were pushed out, drowned in that darkness. For a second Randidly tensed, but he forced both the Stillborn Phoenix and Grim Chimera to remain passive. He allowed Yggdrasil to recede before that darkness.

And in that nothingness, Randidly sensed the leering gaze of chaos. There were waves of space warping energy and seeds of psychological ruin. But above them all was an absolute imperative that usually contained those dangerous forces. As the bearman looked at Randidly, he lifted the lid from the pot and allowed Randidly to experience them directly. He displayed the raw horror within his own person. Yet it wasn’t that which even the Grim Chimera viewed with dread.

It was that cast iron compulsion that somehow managed to govern this cesspool of mutation and organic impossibility that drew Randidly’s wariness. That was a twisted strength of will that he had rarely seen in the past.

The lapping waves of that chaos crept closer. The hairs along Randidly’s right arm began to stand on end. The dwindling emotions within his body began to stir. But since Lady Iellaya was present, Randidly wouldn’t forcefully resist the image until he received actual damage.

As Randidly’s jaw began to ache from clenching, the bearman pulled his image back. His eyes were suddenly just dark eyes and the ominous heaviness in the air departed, leaving not a single lingering clue that hinted to the horrifying power he had displayed a few moments earlier. The man smiled. “...I suppose that makes sense. But you do realize the consequences of disobeying a direct order from a superior, don’t you?”

Randidly didn’t bother to answer. He simply glanced down at the metallic man next to him, who was only now regaining control of his breathing.

The bearman chuckled, but his dark eyes seemed to become even more antagonistic as he considered Randidly. “What if I requested that you wear full military uniform while acting as a Drill Sergeant, Commander Ghosthound, as a way to demonstrate the importance of discipline to your recruits? What would you do then?”

Randidly didn’t miss the way that the bearman’s eyes lingered on his feet. Inwardly, Randidly threw his hands up in the air. Are my bare feet really that unusual…?

“I trust you will do what you think is best for the recruits,” Randidly eventually answered. Emerald eyes met black ones. In his heart, Randidly settled into a realization; if this man would force the issue of him wearing shoes in front of the recruits, he wouldn’t bother with being a Drill Sergeant. Even more than the discomfort of wearing shoes, what Randidly wasn’t willing to put up with was a bully. And right now, that was what this man seemed to be.

What Randidly realized immediately after that was that the bearman seemed to recognize that resolve in Randidly’s eyes. The bearman’s smile widened.

But instead of the order that Randidly had anticipated, the bearman closed his eyes. He backed down. “...I will do exactly that. Congratulations, Commander Ghosthound. You will be our Head Drill Sergeant. Report to the Fifth Cohort Rally Station in six days for further orders.”