Chapter 1344

When it came to inventions that revolutionized humanity, the obvious answer that sprung to Randidly’s mind was writing. Before writing, history could only be passed down in story and song by word of mouth. But afterward, all of history could now be preserved in the voice of those who experienced it through a fixed medium. Messages could be relayed across vast distances without the two individuals moving. Communication was revolutionized.

For some time, Randidly thought fancy books. Heavy leather covers and brass inlays. Gold leaf pages and elegant, almost elvish seeming script...

Still, writing didn’t seem to fit Randidly’s needs as a source of inspiration. True, it was powerful and revolutionary, but the form might start to be a little too close for Yggdrasil’s Akashic Record. Randidly wanted to maintain distinctions between his three core images. In addition, it was tough to figure out a way to incorporate the other aspects of Ignition Essence into a book. Maybe it could be an edgy teenager’s diary that he attempted to burn…

When Randidly pictured a spiral-bound notebook or a day planner from his memories of high school he couldn’t help but chuckle.

Randidly cast his mind about for other sources of inspiration in human history. The steam engine came to mind, which immediately seemed to be a more viable concept both holistically and thematically. Randidly could then incorporate his metallic arm as some sort of steampunk icon… in addition, fire was a necessary element in the steam engine, as well as a larger weight of negative emotions as some people's lives were actually destroyed in the ecological disaster that the steam engine caused. The environmental destruction and pollution generated by the industrial revolution created a lot of hate and resentment that seemed to linger around…

It would be a detail-oriented image. A huge mass of brass pistols, steam escaping from lead pipes, and valves nearing their breaking point. A massive body of consumption, always requiring additional fuel and throwing off horrible streams of smog as a by-product of its terrible power.

But the more Randidly thought about it… the more he didn’t want his image to become a strange amalgamation of the steam engine. First of all, although the steam engine had a profound impact on the world, it didn’t really lead to a change in the way people behaved. It certainly made things easier and made it possible to cheaply manufacture and transport goods, but that was really just an increase in economic efficiency. It didn’t have the sudden and profound impact that Randidly was seeking. It was missing something.

So Randidly continued considering. The other option that occurred to him was the discovery of penicillin. But that also didn’t seem to really fit and Randidly knew nowhere near enough about it to try and figure out how such an image would work.

The sound of the rain falling around him was a chorus of whispered doubts. Then streams of water dripped down through the woven roots, seeking Randidly’s relatively dry body. The liquid seemed to question whether he would be able to accomplish this task in the time allotted to him. And somehow, Randidly felt like it was profoundly important that he finish blending Ignition Essence soon. What was worse was that when Randidly followed that impression… he found the same source as the dread that filled him about the Dungeons.

Randidly gritted his teeth. Absolute Timing annoyingly chimed in that he had been thinking for fourteen out of his one hundred and twenty allotted minutes. Randidly let his breath hiss through his teeth and blend with the rustling rainfall around him until he once more was at peace.

Another option was to somehow predict what discoveries in the future would change humanity… but Randidly didn’t even bother to pursue that. Although he had some solid foundations in physics, his training was to understand the way mechanical forces were at work in the world. He had no background in experimental technologies.

Instead, Randidly started thinking about what he had lost from his images so far.

The first and most obvious absence was anything directly relating to spears. Spears were a huge part of his early images, and they had largely been dropped as his images became more and more specific. The Grim Chimera had a bone spear as one of its limbs, but its Skills had moved away from spears.

In addition, everything relating to phantoms had disappeared; the current Grim Chimera was a very real and physical existence. The skeletal version of his mother, the strange world with a chiming clock, the sense of inevitability… there were quite a few of his earliest images that had been lost.

Beyond that, there was a laundry list of assorted other images that weren’t used: Randidly had lost a lot of the cycles that he had in his earlier days, the weight and explosiveness of the Seven Kata of the Ashen Spear, rot, ash, chilling cold, and the concept of a crown. Some of these just slowly fell away as they evolved into more powerful forms, but as Randidly considered each option one by one, he could remember why he didn’t pursue it further.

Another ten minutes slowly ticked past as Randidly reflected on his own growth. At the end of it, he sighed again. Scratching his head, Randidly cast his mind back to the advice that Illym had given to see if he missed anything.

And this time, a certain phrase caught Randidly’s imagination as he reviewed what she had recommended.

...a deep darkness, almost like an egg of depression… an egg of depression…

Randidly’s eyes flashed. That was something. An egg. An egg of darkness, born of desire. It was filled with the same tragic craving that Illym possessed, that led to her struggle to live her own life, thereby unknowingly strangling the life out of the very sister she was running away to avoid facing. It spoke to a nature that was almost self-destructive, to desires that were straightforward and dangerous.

The fractured bits of disparate meaning that Randidly carried slowly shifted and began to come together.

An egg of darkness. And at its core… the Skills of Ignition Essence. Or at least one of those Skills in particular. Authority of the Burning Heart. A skill that possessed mass and gave Randidly the ability to manipulate gravity.

Randidly’s Soulspace began to leak thick waves of Aether as he slowly gathered his Willpower in preparation for what was to come next. His Nether Nebula accelerated, supporting the process. Aether and Nether mixed freely, two sides of the same coin. The energy that flooded him was thick and pure.

A portion of the image that Randidly needed was already there: As the Sun Stills sought the power that occurred as heat and weight neared a singularity. Everything narrowed to a point. The image was that transformation, or that deep desire to escape the current bounds of existence.

The egg that was never an egg to begin with. A dark fold in space, consuming everything that approached. A calamity of the highest order, the mysterious final darkness.

The accumulation of Aether accelerated. Randidly let out another long breath in anticipation.

Warning! Changes-

Recalculating-

Please proceed to the nearest Village spirit-

“Shut up,” Randidly growled in a voice fueled with Nether. The space around him cracked and ripped to pieces as he undid the engraving that kept his Nether flat. The root dwelling he had created was eviscerated. The gash in space he had made immediately expanded, encasing him entirely in a midnight-black zone of complete isolation. It was foolish, but Randidly felt it was necessary right now. He couldn’t afford to be distracted.

And at the same time, Randidly sensed that Nether would deeply influence this image. Perhaps even more so than it had touched the Grim Chimera with Nether Brawn. Despite the danger, some things should be hidden from the System. Especially if Kaan Swacc was already on the planet and observing him.

Randidly opened his eyes and looked into the void around him, but he wasn’t actually looking. He was seeing the journey of this image. His inspiration came from the line of the Yggdrasil Skillset: The Universe that was First a Tree.

Breathing in, Randidly followed the thread of this new image.

The folding egg of negative emotions. Of a desire that had brought about the destruction of what it cared about most. Of a fall from grace. Of a half-existence that continued to cause that same terrible destruction that it had long sought to avoid. Of the tragic paradox of its continued power and influence.

In its new form, that terrible hunger didn’t cease. It only grew more unrestrained and desperate. It was the sister that consumed until she had regained her full soul.

Yet toward this terrible egg, there was also a strange sense of longing, hope, and wonder. Humanity fixated on it. It was the distant, last frontier that had fascinated the imaginations of people for generations. It represented insights into gravity, space, matter, and time that just theorizing about had completely changed science forever. It was the tantalizing oblivion of space, concentrated.

It could be anything.

It was the Star that Prayed it Would be Reborn. It was a Black Hole, the Egg of a Stillborn Phoenix. And suddenly, Randidly could see it.

That Aether that had been steadily gathered immediately rushed toward Randidly’s chest as the Skills began to change. They were like dominos, shifting to greater and lesser degrees as the changes started to stack on top of one another. And in his mind’s eye, Randidly’s new image made itself known.

Of all the images he had created thus far, this one was the most domineering. Because it came subtly at first, as a small fist of darkness floating in front of him-

But even before that, what mattered with this small mass of darkness was the density. This core used to be an entire star that had supplied light and energy to dozens of planets. Earth’s sun was about 100 times the size of Earth itself but weighed almost 300,000 times as much. That extra density was what those terrible emotions of Illym longed for.

The source had once been those two tongues of flame, emerald and orange, but the sun had pursued that light and heat for far too long. Such humble origins led directly to the current state of affairs.

It craved completion. Wholeness. It chased that sensation and collapsed in on itself, becoming a dark core of immense power. The colors were lost as the colors began to matter less to the sun than its desire.

-But back to the image of that core… simply that small spot of blackness. But the longer it manifested, the more that it would seem to grow. Light warped as it neared Randidly’s image, beginning to flow like liquid. That captured light spiraled around the exterior until it was peeled away and absorbed, layer by layer, into the darkness. First the light, then the nearby space and time, and then anything and everything. That craving and horror that Illym gave Randidly never stopped, no matter what.

It couldn’t stop. It wasn’t in its nature.

It’s a dangerous image, Randidly thought as he released another breath and considered the swelling darkness in front of him. More and more Aether rushed inward, stabilizing the transformation. Yet at its core, it was Nether that outlined the shape of what this image would become. Randidly’s Soulspace shuddered to withstand the force of this image’s pull.

Yet Randidly just barred his teeth. But it’s still young, right guys? Do you fear your new brother?

The Grim Chimera chuckled. Far too many had attempted to kill and consume him in the past for this to be a problem. There was no moment that survival wasn’t always in jeopardy. What would one more foe mean?

Yggdrasil smiled indulgently. The stabilizing influence of its thick roots and broad branches easily suppressed the pulling hunger of the black hole that Randidly now carried. Randidly’s inner space once more settled back down to a peaceful stillness.

Randidly allowed his Nether to fade and returned to space and time. In an instant, he was soaked by the continuing rain. But most of his attention was focused on the notifications waiting for him.

Congratulations! You have created the Pinnacle Skillset “The Stillborn Phoenix: A Star that Prayed it would be Reborn”.

Phoenix-Slaying Bolt (Ru) has evolved into Piercing Gaze of the Egg (L)! Skill Levels will be maintained. New Skill has been added to the Skillset!

Firebird’s Lament (A) has evolved into The Tug of Tragic Silence (A)! Skill Levels will be maintained. New Skill has been added to the Skillset!

Nether’s Caress (M) and Authority of the Burning Heart (A) have combined! The combined Skill has evolved into Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart (T)! New Skill Level set at 201. New Skill has been added to the Skillset!

Talon of the Restless Immortal (L) has evolved into Tide of the Void (L)! Skill Levels will be maintained. New Skill has been added to the Skillset!

Stigma of the Lifeless Phoenix (L) has evolved into Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L)! Skill Levels will be maintained. New Skill has been added to the Skillset!

Innate Violence (Ru) has evolved into Cosmic Necessity (M)! Skill Levels will be maintained. New Skill has been added to the Skillset!

Ignition of the Emerald Essence (L) has evolved into Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T)! Skill Levels will be maintained. New Skill has been added to the Skillset.