Randidly narrowed his eyes as he worked inside the clay-edged structure of humanity. Already, this small amount of effort had doubled the agony of his headache. Apparently, the pounding glee of the elephants had echoed out loud enough that all the neighbors had come to join them. A real party was kicking off, with no end in sight. Yet as always, he couldn’t afford to be distracted.
He pushed away all information except for the anchors at the base of humanity. The key would be keeping all the weakening equal. And making sure only one of the weaknesses would break in a very controlled way, with the internal force completely spent with a single breakage.
If the whole apparatus shattered, the results wouldn’t be pretty.
Congratulations! Your Skill Infinite Incendiary Filaments of the Dove Moirae(P)(U) has grown to Level 1155!
Congratulations! Your Skill Infinite Incendiary Filaments of the Dove Moirae (P)(U) has grown to Level 1156!
The flows of energy burned in the gaze of Randidly Ghosthound as he measured and calculated. A primal intuition he had built from long meddling with esoteric and strange energies guided his hand. When finally he leaned back, the expression on his face was one of pure satisfaction; no longer did the clay body have mouths opening back and forth across its surface, it just shook with the barely contained power within.
Neveah let out a low whistle of appreciation as she rapidly appraised his efforts. “A single Stat anchor might break with the foundations adjusted like that. But the way you have the energy flowing— all that will accomplish is causing one of the person’s Stats to evolve.”
“Or degenerate,” Randidly admitted. He reached up and rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to relax away some of the tension. “As far as I can tell, both are possible. It will just be a different base Stat. Still, the energy and meaning crammed into this humanity mean it will have quite a bit higher base Stats the occur, and more potential, than it might have had. Definitely a success.”
For a long moment, all of them just stood and looked at the humming body. A few pieces of the wall he had shattered to enter into the room collapsed into a pile of rubble. The nearby ground steamed away the remaining heat from the brief conflict. When no one stepped forward, Randidly felt awkward enough to clear his throat. “...so now what? How do we finish off the process?”
“Ah! Oh, we just need to christen the body and activate the base ritual-” Padraic looked around. He coughed several times. “I’ll get to work carving it again. The base ritual a simple thing; we made a grand floor arrangement to add to the weight of the moment, but I always figured it was an unnecessary bit of opulence. I can-”
“How dare you,” The Origin Beast tilted his head back and glowered down his nose at Padraic. “A proper and true cradle, you suggest is opulence?!? Nay, a nascent race deserves more than the hasty scrawl of a sweaty little cretin to usher forth its meteoric rise! The genesis is the launching pad for success in all future endeavors. To that end, we should dedicate weeks, at the very least, to erecting a monolithic foundation-”
“Ideally, we would do just that. Create a worthy launching pad. But we don’t have time now,” Randidly interrupted. He reached out and put a hand on the Origin Beast’s shoulder. “Your point about creating a platform for future success is a good one, but have we not been fighting and struggling for so long to reach this point? Consider your own actions, the lessons you’ve learned, the foes you’ve managed to overcome. Don’t think quite so literally about what can contribute significantly to the process. Surely, all the effort you’ve expended should create a most impressive humanity. Let alone our minor assistance.”
Just as Randidly had expected, the Patron of the Deep’s eyes began to sparkle; truly, it didn’t require much to cause his self-importance to inflate to a size even larger than his body. Randidly cleared his throat, calling the Origin Beast’s attention back to the present. He spoke while trying to ignore the continued discomfort of his headache. “You’ll be in charge of handling the details, but I need a bit of assistance. Deganawidah still moves against Aether forces and I need to be there to help. But in this state—” Randidly gestured to his body, still trembling minutely. The elephants had ignored his pleas to tone it down. “-I will be of no help to anyone. So… please, can you find it in your heart to produce just a little bit more life energy?”
The Patron of the Deep hesitated. His pale cheeks hinted at his own private struggle, albeit one less debilitating than what Randidly had gone through. “Well, I’m not quite sure it makes sense to deplete my reserves, just prior to me taking the helm of this endeavor.”
“I can’t do this without you,” Randidly announced. Privately, he admitted to himself he didn’t know whether he could do it with the Origin Beast; the failure of the first attempt had left a wound on his heart he didn’t know how to address.
What cost would come to the second impossible attempt? Would he really be able to throw himself completely into a fool’s errand, without any hesitation? Especially because he originally envisioned the attempt as healing the Stillborn Phoenix.
Randidly was slightly embarrassed to see his words were enough to suffuse the Patron of the Deep’s cheeks with blush. The Origin Beast coughed several times into his hand to hide his triumphant smugness. “Ahum, Ahum. Well, I suppose our interactions have been intimate enough for a certain reliance to form… ah, truly, this is my curse. These greedy hands pick up more burdens than any mortal can handle…!”
A sharp look from Randidly got him through one more Origin Beast throat clear and to a state of focus. The Origin Beast loosed a hissing breath. For a moment, nothing happened. But then the air around him began to shiver and sparkle with energy. Energy of a purity that Randidly could only observe with envy; he might possess the Animation Nova, but that was a knock-off version of this glorious font.
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He couldn’t quite put his finger on the extra quality present in the Origin Beast’s energy that he lacked, but Randidly supposed that was part of life’s mystery. And considering how many other great impossibilities he grappled with today, he was happy to let this question pass without wasting his time trying to answer it.
A natural suction was created, all the lingering fragments of ideas used to produce humanity rushing to gobble up the ambient energy.
Randidly licked his lips, gathering the meager scraps of his image power. He brought his right hand to his chest. He refused to release any noise of discomfort or pain as he shifted his images into a new physical manifestation. He purposefully blinded and deafened himself to further discomfort due to mental strain.
Then he mixed his images together into something new.
Before any of the energy could be taken by the image fragments, a Hungry Eye manifested in Randidly’s place. A massive orb large enough to completely eclipse him in darkness, wreathed with the impenetrable shade of primordial chaos. After a trembling second, the eye opened and revealed itself to be bloodshot.
All at once, the energy began to howl toward that eye.
Golden veins spread out across the sclera, pulsing with each drop of energy it absorbed. The pupil had been formed from an event horizon in the middle of the eye, observing the energy and devouring it in the same action. The intensity of the consumption was like nothing Randidly had experienced before and it was exactly what he needed.
The Stillborn Phoenix became the drive with Yggdrasil serving as assistance and support. And the Dread Homunculus provided the slight air of mysticism to make the drag irresistible. All the ancillary feeders shot backward, but once the eye had opened they all operated on borrowed time. It saw and hungered.
Over the next ten seconds, Randidly fed. The energy flowed through his limbs and enriched him.
Congratulations! Your Skill The Hypothetical Gaze that Consumes the Universe (T) has grown to Level 1019!
…
Congratulations! Your Skill The Hypothetical Gaze that Consumes the Universe (T) has grown to Level 1029!
Randidly had honed himself to function with as close to a lossless transfer of energy as was possible in the Nexus. The reinforced golden veins of Yggdrasil could pluck up and channel every last bit of energy the Stillborn Phoenix witnessed. That much-needed energy began to flood into his body, warming him.
The beats of his heart began to ease. Nether circulated more rapidly through his veins as his Nether Core lost an imperceptible tilt. Significance settled back into their usual flows. Any lingering wounds in his muscles knitted themselves together, as good as new. Perhaps most importantly, the mental famine Randidly experienced began to recede as springs of new thoughts popped up in his consciousness.
He let out a breath of relief; the headache had been agonizing. He might suddenly have some misgivings about his second attempt on the impossible, but it was much easier to figure out the problems once the flow of his thoughts thawed.
Congratulations! Your Skill The Hypothetical Gaze that Consumes the Universe (T) has grown to Level 1037!
In the end, Randidly closed the eye of his own volition. The manifestation of that Hungry Eye began to fade, after a few seconds of stubbornly hanging in the air. Not because he had been sated. No, the sudden lack of energy flowing into his body only made it plainer that he had interrupted the process too early. Optimistically, Randidly estimated he had refilled his reserves to half. However, a glance at the sagging body of the Patron gave you all the information you needed regarding the sustainability of this method.
I’m not sure I should be impressed by the Patron of the Deep for giving up that much energy, or intimidated by my own reserves… Randidly looked at the Origin Beast with genuine empathy. The being’s habit of talking down to anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby made it difficult to remember, but he possessed a truly generous soul. And today, Randidly had asked a lot from him.
He cleared his throat, feeling bad even as he did it. He turned away, so he couldn’t see any despair or exhaustion that might cross the Patron of the Deep’s face. “Truly, thank you. I couldn’t have managed this without that boost. I’m- err, I feel completely revitalized. I’ll leave the matter of humanity’s founding cradle to you. Now Neveah, if I could just talk to you for a moment…”
Padraic supported the Patron of the Deep and the two tottered outside. Neveah glanced after them, her lips quirking. “I appreciate you exhausting him, but Randidly, you can’t seriously be thinking of proceeding in this state. Take a half hour to nap. Otherwise-”
“You know I don’t have time for that,” Randidly flashed a grin, apparently having recovered enough that the expression came naturally when he considered reckless choices. “Deganawidah might have already crushed the Aether resistance, and my second attempt will be so much harder without an area of mixed and violent Aether and Nether.”
Neveah sighed, but she knew Randidly well enough not to argue. “So? What’s the plan for this one?”
“I’m starting to have some second thoughts about this one, but… I plan to make a new Cohort. Inside the memory, all that useful mechanisms are still sitting there without anyone guarding them. The Stillborn Phoenix needs to find its true shape, and I think this is the perfect opportunity.” Randidly’s grin widened as something predatory woke in him. He had to force that enthusiasm back, as his mind ran through the processes to do so. “Quite a bit less fraught and chaotic than creating an impossible object, don’t you think? Ah, but, it will take a bit of time and leave me vulnerable to certain individuals-”
“Deganawidah, you mean.” Neveah frowned. “Do you think he will notice?”
“Definitely. The question is whether he will try to stop me.” Randidly couldn’t help but chuckle, although part of that was nerves. “Man, when he gathers all that Nether together… the depths of his power-”
Randidly froze. His pupils dilated. Because suddenly, he saw it.
“An epiphany?” Neveah sounded bored.
“The impossible task— its character didn’t feel right. Because I had planned to perfect the Stillborn Phoenix, but that is a selfish goal, separate from the pattern I started with the Philosopher’s Stone and unintended consequences.” Randidly began to pace back and forth, his eyes alight with excitement. “Besides, is healing the Stillborn Phoenix, no matter how impossible of an image it is, truly impossible? No, the activities were right, but just in the wrong order. And with the wrong focus. Yes, that’s perfect. Ha! I can’t believe I missed it.”
Neveah gave him a long look. “...at the very least, I hope this means the foolish idea of doing your ritual in front of Deganawidah has been tossed out.”
“Of course,” Randidly nodded very seriously. “I just need to fight Deganawidah first.”
Neveah threw her hands up into the air in disgust.