By relying on the natural bridge between the two isolated spaces, Randidly expended only a fraction of his mental energy to arrive at the new destination. In comparison to his previous coughing and miserable entrance at the last space, this was infinitely preferable. But as soon as the group slipped between the tightly pressed planes of energy, Randidly realized that stepping into this new area had probably taken him beyond the area where he could safely hide his true capability.
They were met with a shockwave, filled with a chaotic mix of images.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Had Randidly’s mouth been open, his first greeting in this new area would have been a mouthful of dust and sundered stone. As it was, he immediately released a pulse of Yggdrasil’s image to disperse the shockwave heading toward them. Thorny roots erupted out of the ground and wove themselves together to form a physical barricade to defend against any incoming attacks. The actual defensive capabilities were low, but a thorny rampart emerging from nothing might give the party responsible for the attack some pause.
However, no one had truly attacked the group; they were just experiencing the edges of a grander battlefield. Even as booms echoed continuously to their position, the thorn rampart received no actual damage with Randidly’s image; the previous blast was truly only a coincidence. After sharing a glance with Helen, Randidly hopped upward and stood upon the edge of his thorny rampart to look out at the situation. Behind him, Claudette clapped her hands together and gracefully generated a frozen staircase to climb to allow the others to follow.
There are only a few hundred people here… and yet...
Randidly scrunched his eyebrows together and glanced at Kerwin. “You should stay here as much as possible.”
BOOOOOM! BOOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Randidly looked out into the isolated space and examined the most chaotic battle he had ever witnessed since arriving in the Nexus. In terms of the number of participants, the current conflict couldn’t rival the frontline. There was a large group of a hundred nearby to Randidly’s position, but the rest of the groupings were closer to twenty or thirty.
Yet in terms of scale, these few hundred could clearly rival the frontlines. As each of the small figures lashed out, huge phantasmal images warped the sky. A massive horned turtle raised its head and bellowed as it clashed against an eagle wreathed in crimson lightning. A relatively mild-looking grey cloud cried out black raindrop that clashed against an arrow wreathed in green fire. An alabaster titan with ninety-nine arms unleashed unceasing waves of palm strikes against a spinning golden orb.
And those were just the most eye-catching of twenty similar battles happening across this spatial island.
The ground cracked, the sky alternatively darkened and then lightened, the air hummed with the images that struggled for dominance in the surrounding pace. Flames and thunder and ice and wind and darkness smashed against each other and spun off each other in complex interactions.
Perhaps the most horrifying part of this battle that any small difference in the images above allowed those images to launch deadly attacks on the bodies of the fighters below. As most people in the Nexus seemed to possess a rather dismissive view of empowering their physical bodies, they couldn’t withstand the image strikes when they didn’t expect them.
So as Randidly, watched, the horned turtle smashed its opponent backward and then shot a sinister fireball out of its mouth. Due to the constant and deafening clashes of images, the targeted fighters didn’t notice until it was too late.
As those powerful image users died, the flaming arrow fighting against the grey cloud flickered and vanished.
Randidly couldn’t help but suck in a breath as he looked out at the battlefield. Even the weakest person here is a match for Helen. And the strongest…
His heart pounded. As more powerful images seized advantage of openings, more and more individuals were struck from the side by a powerful image and perished. Randidly looked out in front of him and wanted, more than anything, to fight and damn the consequences.
Blinking, Randidly shook himself to stabilize his rising excitement and focused on examining the situation more closely. The first thing he noticed was that the current isolated space was about four times the size of the previous islands he had traveled through the get here. Although Randidly’s group was on a small ridge, the interior area was dominated by a massive basin. There was a small creek running around the ground at the base of Randidly’s ridge and then the ground slowly sloped upward the further one moved from their current position.
Meanwhile on the battlefield, the Crimson Thunder Eagle raised its head and then shrieked. That cry seemed to be a Skill, because the horned turtle was forced backward. The beast opened its mouth and belched out a blast of lightning that pierced through the innocuous cloud. Although the cloud seemed a second away from dissipating after being struck with that attack, it rapidly spun down into a whirlwind. Arcs of black liquid were flung in every direction, rapidly destabilizing the situation in some of the surrounding conflicts.
Randidly watched one jet-black blade crash into the slope and cut a uniformed individual in half.
In response, there was a horrible rumbling and a massive skeleton steadily condensed on the far side of the battlefield from where Randidly’s group had arrived. Even the smallest of this skeleton’s bones were a meter across, resulting in the whole assembly stretching to cover almost two hundred meters; the new monstrosity towered over the battlefield. The ‘roof’ of the enclosed space sizzled as the monstrous image pressed up against it. .The bones had a particular yellow quality, and Randidly’s skin prickled as he looked at the rapidly forming skeleton.
He would recognize those bones anywhere: this was the same sort of skeleton that formed the base of the Nexus.
“Neither side is willing to concede…” Claudette muttered next to him. She frowned at the battlefield. “At this rate…”
After inspecting the environment, Randidly rapidly scrutinized the fighting forces. Although the images were extremely diverse, it was enough to watch how the groups helped each other to determine the various factions. Aside from the two uniformed forces, there were almost twenty independent groups that appeared to be working together against the larger groups. And once Randidly focused on piercing through the image reverberations, he recognized the forces were wearing familiar uniforms: This fight included both the NLC and Military High Command.
Randidly sucked in a cold breath as he looked at the far side of the battlefield. An energy that he had just encountered dominated the right flank. That’s why they are so familiar! I can’t believe the images could mask it… Those individuals are also a part of the Engraving Guild’s Nether Lattice…
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
The spinning golden orb was being pummeled by the alabaster titan, but three individuals on the ground stepped up and began channeling their energy through the image. The distortions from the violent clashes across the battlefield made it so even Randidly’s Grim Intuition couldn’t observe their individual features, but their uniforms were the same as the previous group Claudette had killed.
And he would recognize that sluggish Nether anywhere.
Yet when these three unleashed their Nether Ritual, the Weight they mobilized was far above what Meldoon could muster. As Randidly watched them, he couldn’t help but grit his teeth: the three’s combined Weight could rival his own. When all they were doing was trying to crush a foe with their power, it didn’t matter much that the energy flowed like cottage cheese.
So this is the real power of the Engraving Guild, Randidly pursed his lips. The continual clashes of images made observation difficult, but Randidly pointed took a few seconds to memorize the capabilities of the Engraving Guild representatives, as best as he could.
While he was staring over toward that portion of the battlefield, dark lines spread across the golden orb and formed a complex, interlocking pattern. The palm attacks of the ninety-nine armed titan were slowly pushed back by the radiation the orb released. Steadily, that radiation flowed in the surrounding space and generated a repulsive force that dominated one corner of the warzone.
Yet no sooner had the golden orb begun to exert its Nether-fueled will upon the surroundings than the sky seemed to expand above the image and unleashed a daunting amount of pressure. Even across the battlefield, the hairs on the back of Randidly’s neck tingled to feel that suffocating pressure. The golden orb began to crack underneath the combined weight of the sky.
Randidly shook his head slightly. The third group… even he was impressed as he felt small scraps of the various image echoes that drifted over toward him. And although Randidly would have been bewildered by the presence and unity of such an eclectic group previously, he now understood what he was looking at. Randidly solemnly watched the escalating conflict. So this is the power of the Pinnacle Seekers…
The massive skeleton, which rose from the portion of the battlefield controlled by Military High Command, finally completed its assembly. It’s eyes pulsed with a pure white light, which just made its yellowed bones appear even more sinister and corrupted by contrast. The giant skeleton opened its mouth and breathed out a green-blue beam of energy that ripped through the intervening space, aiming to annihilate the large group of Pinnacle Seeker very near to Randidly and his group.
All the other images were steadily culled by the radiation of that beam. They dimmed as it shot overhead, seeming to pause the rest of the battle.
To make sure he wouldn’t miss a detail of the clash, Randidly activated his Revelations of the Atramentous Threshold Skill and allowed blue-black revelation energy to flare across his eyes. His Grim Intuition operated at peak efficiency, as he prepared to utilize Yggdrasil to defend against image reverberations.
But truthfully, Randidly wasn’t sure he would be able to withstand that blue-green blast.
Because he activated of the Skill, Randidly could easily distinguish which individuals produced which images. Which was why he felt the originator of the Crimson Thunder Eagle, the giant skeleton’s target, falter. And it wasn’t just the image; below, the woman seemed to have been stricken even before the blue-green beam arrived. She hunched down, unable to withstand the oncoming pressure.
Yet just before the beam arrived, another figure from the group strolled forward and lightly patted the faltering woman on the back.
Even as the blue-green beam was rushing toward their position, the woman stepped to the side and bowed to the new arrival. The fading Crimson Thunder Eagle in the sky immediately vanished.
Congratulations! Your Skill Revelations of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 375!
Randidly incredulously watched as the man on the ground cracked his knuckles, even as the beam seemed about to devour him. Then the man looked up at the attack and grinned. In an explosion of crackling red electricity, a new Crimson Thunder Eagle was birthed in the sky above the man. But whereas the previous beast only possessed a twenty-meter wingspan, this creature spread its limbs and covered almost a hundred meters. When it raised its head and screamed, the noise was incredibly captivating. The world seemed to resonate with that eagle’s cry. It’s presence blossomed and simply smothered the attack from the enormous yellow skeleton.
Randidly clenched his hands as a familiar pressure blasted outward from the new image. Sure enough… this is why the Pinnacle Seekers cannot be underestimated… this individual… might be even more powerful than Commandant Wick…
Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 376!
With Randidly’s Skill active, he gathered so much information regarding that overwhelming image that his body suffered for it. He was over-exposed to a dangerous source of energy that continued to burn his sense. If not for his powerful physical abilities, he wouldn’t be able to peer so directly at the core of the newly manifested image. Next to him, Randidly could feel Claudette, and then Helen as she got the hang of the principle, manifesting small amounts of her image to screen the overwhelming power.
The eyes of the massive yellow skeleton glowed an equally bright light. Randidly could only squint as these dominant images faced off. The skeleton released another blast, but this time the beam was twice as thick. The other images on the battlefield were snuffed out completely by the passage of the blue-green beam, as surely as a candle flame smothered with a glass lid.
The massive Crimson Thunder Eagle shredded space with its talon to meet the enlarged blue-green energy beam from the yellowed skeleton.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 377!
…
Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 391!
Randidly narrowed his eyes as the entire area was suffused with a blinding glow. Yggdrasil’s protective aura shrouded the hill on which he stood, mitigating the worst of the aftershocks. Just witnessing that Class was enough to push my Transcendent Skill up 16 Skill Levels… heh, sure enough, hiding my power won’t let me interfere in this sort of battlefield…
...but still, hahaha, I cannot help myself! I want to fight!
Randidly’s emerald eyes began to glow as he continued to observe. As the light from the impact faded, he could see that the area in front of the Crimson Thunder Eagle had been replaced by a massive crater. A few members of the Pinnacle Seeker group that had been unfortunate enough to be standing there now ceased to exist. Yet the Crimson Thunder Eagle flapped its wings serenely; not a bit of the yellowed skeleton’s attack managed to threaten the individuals behind it.
Seeing their attack failed, the forces of the Military High Command and the NLC switched their tactics. They gathered together in tight clumps to increase their opponent’s image self-sabotage and began to retreat toward the far spatial wall. Gleefully, the images from the Pinnacle Seeker group flared back to life and began to bombard them. Seeing that his job was finished, that overwhelmingly powerful image user dismissed his horrifying beast and allowed his subordinates to once more lead the attack.
Meanwhile, the retreat of the orthodox Nexus forces meant the battlefield became a lot less chaotic. Randidly’s eyes quickly locked onto a figure within the retreating group of the NLC. His heartbeat quickened. Found you, Shal.
Just as Randidly was deciding how he could and should enter into the dangerous fray below, at least twenty individuals from the Pinnacle Seeker group began heading toward their position. Randidly’s face twisted into a scowl and he prepared his image, but Claudette laid her hand on Randidly’s arm and shook her head slightly.
The leading figure was none other than the originator of the monstrous beast image. He was much younger than Randidly expected, with short and spiky yellow hair and wearing a maroon leather vest. He ignored Randidly completely and smiled at Claudette. “Oh, if it isn't Miss Beigon! Truly, it is very impressive that you’ve managed to proceed this deeply on your own. Have you met my son Eashen? Since you two are of a similar age, how about you allow him to accompany you for a bit?”