Chapter 1080 (1/2)

That violent thought echoed through his mind once, then twice, while Randidly was suffused with the raw emotion of the impulse. Then Randidly felt a rather shocked horror at the sudden vehemence of his thoughts. But even though he felt rather alarmed at the instinct, the desire to kill Iellaya didn't fade.

...Looks like there are changes from my main consciousness weakening. Randidly thought with a frown. The Grim Chimera's instincts are closer at hand. I'll have to be careful about that moving forward.

But do I really need to be careful? Another part of Randidly responded. If I'm strong enough to kill everything that threatens me, why not get rid of liabilities? And based on her blatant disregard for our safety, Iellaya qualifies. What would have happened if I didn’t wake up in time for the next mission?

To that, Randidly had no answer. Or at least not one that wouldn’t simply infuriate him further. And he was honestly too exhausted to get embroiled in this internal debate at the moment. Instead, he refocused on his meager attention on Yggdrasil. ”You went with Salazar and Zauna?”

Yggdrasil nodded. ”And both performed admirably. Without them...”

”Yea, I won't forget that they helped you while I couldn’t,” Randidly said lightly. Despite their individual quirks, Randidly was willing to forgive a lot just for the fact that they had been with Yggdrasil as protectors.

With all the gentleness he could manage, Randidly brought his claw up to his forehead and held his skull. His talons attempted to draw small circles around his temples. Truly, for all that it was useful for battle, the claw and the bone spear were absolutely useless for normal living. Randidly was just as likely to inflict even worse damage than he was to make himself feel better like this.

Shaking his head, Randidly dropped his arms and looked around. Aside from Randidly and Yggdrasil, the tent was empty. It seemed that Zauna and Salazar were busy elsewhere. Maybe they were driven away by the Nether that I was producing… and maybe that’s why-

With gritted teeth, Randidly spared Yggdrasil another glance. His leaves were simply so much more grey than he remembered. The emerald color had become incredibly dull since they had last seen each other. Turning away, Randidly forced himself to focus on anything else than his fellow image’s wounds.

Then Randidly's eyes caught on a large egg-shaped grey mass in the corner. At first, he was confused, but then he recognized the same strange material that Yggdrasil was using to make an isolating structure for Ignition Essence. Randidly gestured at it with his bone spear while trying to keep his neck and head completely still in order to manage his headache. ”So you finished the home for Ignition? But why is there a crack in it?”

Yggdrasil chuckled. ”Indeed. Not that I truly know it will help... but somehow I suspect that it will. As for the crack... I do not know. That appeared while I was busy completing the mission. When I came back, the crack was already present.”

Randidly's eyes narrowed with another flash of fury. ”You don't think someone-”

”Snuck in and shook it around to determine what was inside? I doubt it.” Yggdrasil's leaves rustled reassuring as he repositioned himself. Randidly released a breath and a lot of his sudden tension went with it. ”After all, no one thinks we images possess anything of value. I prefer to think that it was Ignition Essence itself. Perhaps he was gathering enough strength to break out of the isolation chamber of its own accord. After all, the main body created Ignition Essence in darkness.”

As he looked at the slightly cracked egg, Randidly held his tongue. It truly wasn't a crack from an outside force, but it was just a thin crack that ran along one of the sides. More likely than either his suspicious theory or Yggdrasil's optimistic one was simply that the material constituting the egg had dried out and cracked for that reason.

But Randidly felt no reason to point that out. Words were important because they shaped belief, and from belief came images. As someone who was currently entirely an image, he would not casually transgress against a fellow image needlessly.

Instead, Randidly simply leaned back and stared at the ceiling as Yggdrasil continued you speak. ”You know, there is some good news.”

”Hmm?” Randidly said drowsily. Now that he was laying down again, he wanted to return to a meditative state to heal as quickly as possible. With the foolishly destructive core switched off, the speed of his healing should double.

”Your next mission is offensive. You'll get your hands on an Aether Key again.” Yggdrasil said lightly. ”And if my suspicions are correct... you'll be able to synchronize Aether Detection with the main body.”

Randidly smiled sharply. Knowledge was what they still lacked most. And it seemed like every time he meant to ask some questions to learn more, an attack came that would distract him for several days with recovering from his wounds. But as long as Vualla had recovered, Randidly had no doubt that she would be willing to give him greater context for what was going on here at the borderlands. That knowledge would be further supplemented when he could use Aether Detection to investigate some of the grand formations in the area directly.

Then Randidly grimaced. I hope Yggdrasil is right about her being less injured than I was… it seemed like she stretched her boundaries too far as well to annihilate all of the Nether Wells at once…

Then Randidly shook his head. Nothing would come from just sitting here. He needed to prepare himself for what was coming next.