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Chapter 1841
🕑 Added 2021-08-10 01:29:50 +0000 UTCToC: https://www.patreon.com/posts/23899958
Number One finally felt a cautious flare of triumph as the Master’s body tore through the strange spacial rifts, earning several deep gashes for his uncontrolled landing, and crashed down through into the cave systems of the mountain. While the stone dust settled, Number One proceeded more carefully down through the unstable space and shattered rocks and alighted on the ground.
The Master was pushing himself out of a small crater. Dark fluids oozed out of the corner of his mouth and through the deep wounds on his torso. In the corner of the now destroyed cave, some scandalized, minor Disciple watched the suddenly arrived Master and Number One with wide eyes. Number One’s lips twitched and he flicked a finger; the unfortunate witness’s head exploded before he could even understand what was happening.
Better remove any more uncertain elements now.
“You cannot overcome me. I am this place.” The Master’s chest was heaving. The wounds inflicted by Randidly Ghosthound continued to trouble him, making the movement more heaving and sputtering than any sort of productive motion. “Without me, everything will collapse.”
“You overestimate yourself,” Number One said coolly as he walked forward. His steps were unhurried; he couldn’t decide if he should let the Master weaken a bit from his leaking wounds or strike quickly, before he recovered. But more than anything else, he was oddly incensed that the attack he just inflicted was rapidly healing, while Randidly’s endured. His expression hardened, annoyed at these details. “None are my equal.”
“Heh. I can already see your pride curdling in your chest,” Despite his wounds, the Master favored Number One with a sinister smile. “Do you feel invalidated, knowing that it was your invitee, not you, that managed to push me to such a state? Heh, heh, compared to him, you are nothing-”
“Then you are less than nothing. Look at you, collapsed before me.” Number One hissed. He threw caution to the wind and struck. In response, the previously feeble Master twisted and unleashed a spike of pure force. The previous force spikes paled into this massive, obliterating drill. Number One instantly generated a patterned spring, absorbing the offensive blast and rebounding it directly back toward its maker. The Master scuttled sideways, but Number growled in triumph as the force spike blew off the master’s right foot.
Dripping blood, the Master hopped from wall to wall like a leaping spider. His lighting fast movements soon carried him to the passage leading deeper into the mountain, but Number One expertly created a loop of patterns and pulled the Master back into the middle of the cave.
He had many tricks such as these, all designed for this moment.
“Impudence,” The Master howled. His left hand seemed to finally be loosening, but his right started flinging out force spikes without limits. Number One ducked under most, rebounding others to further weaken the volley. It only took him five seconds to cross the distance and stand over the Master once again.
Number One’s lip curled upward as the Master unleashed a huge wave of force. He mobilized the pattern he had spent the last hundred years perfecting. Instantly, all the energy of the attack was funneled away, dispersing harmlessly behind him. The Master had once used it in front of Number One to punish the previous Number One, meaning he had many a night to ponder how to counter it. “It is too late, you old fool. I stand above you- your Path of Spirit belongs to me.”
Number One felt the acknowledgment of the Path as he stood above the paling Master. The old man coughed out a thick mouthful of blood. “You cannot-”
“I can, of course,” Number One felt the connection establishing itself. Power filled his body: he now controlled two Paths in this isolated Zone, the Path of Bone and the Path of Spirit. That gave him a majority control-
No, there is now the Path of Dreams. Number One frowned imperceptibly for a moment. Then he shook his head. Well, it matters not. Somehow the Ghosthound broke the connection to the Path of Dreams, while he controls the Path of Blood. For now, my influence here is the highest.
“Now that I own this space, you, Master, are banished.” Number One felt the connections between the two Paths beginning to activate within him. Then he felt his power stretch downward and grip the very space that the mountain housed. There were some flaws due to the forceful removal of the Path of Blood, but that just made it easier for Number One to control everything. “Travel the Nexus and reflect on your failures. For all the memories we share… forget it, you can leave with your life.”
“You cannot do this,” The Master whispered. His face grew increasingly grey.
“Oh? And how will you stop me?”
The Master just looked at him, truly broken. But then the Ghosthound landed nearby and spoke into the silence. “I actually think he’s being literal. I wondered why his power had been weakening for a while, but… you are this world, aren’t you? A broken, flawed world.”
The Master’s expression shifted very quickly, from shock to fear to finally a bitter acceptance. “You… you know too much. But yes. You cannot banish me from me. And if you try to force the issue, this place will collapse. All your work, for nothing! Heheh, Number One, it looks like you are stuck with me. And when you least expect it… I’ll take back everything you’ve ever stolen from me. Bahahaha!”
Number One looked at the Master for several seconds, trying to decide whether he should believe him. His enemy was defeated, but now that he had been informed about the Master’s relationship with this place, he felt that man’s lingering presence in the connections between the Paths. His facial muscles twitched as fury and worry warred with his body. He felt confident about overcoming the Master now, but if this figure was allowed to remain here, lurking-
Number One decisively turned to look at the Ghosthound. “Do you… have any methods to deal with this?”
The Ghosthound grinned at him in response.
*****
Number One left Randidly to his work, seemingly more interested in solidifying his power base in this isolated world than wanting to see how Randidly dealt with the threat. Or perhaps he was preparing contingencies if the two of them needed to fight down the line. Which was just as well for Randidly; he felt somewhat self-conscious by how evil the Unborn looked.
Doing this alone and then leaving quietly would be for the best.
The Master watched Number One go with tired eyes. Then his gaze flicked back to Randidly and his mouth twisted upward. “I assume you want to make a deal?”
Randidly tilted his head to the side, unsure of what he meant. The Master chuckled. “You and I both know that I’m woven into the fabric of this world. There is no way to safely remove me without destabilizing this place further. And after you ripped out the Path of Blood… well. So what do you want? Information? My knowledge? A Path of your own?”
Shaking his bed, Randidly didn’t bother to hide his amusement. “You really misunderstand. I do intend to get rid of you. But I suppose it’s more accurate to say that I’m here to collect a very old debt.”
“A debt?” The Master spat out a mouthful of blood. Some of his former arrogance returned to his features as he leveraged himself up into a sitting position. “Let me assure you, I own nothing to the outside world. I made this isolated space to escape from other entanglements. This is my sanctuary. And, despite how you think this interaction will go, the place from which I will finally escape when I’m ready.”
Randidly didn’t bother to answer. Instead, he gestured and the Unborn finally crept out from his shadow. Their bodies remained sluglike, but their malevolence twisted their features into something even more horrifying than he had been expecting. Their eyes deepened to empty graves as they examined their prey.
Immediately, the Master became alarmed. “You- What! You are connected with that woman? Please, she acted independently- AHHHHH!”
The Unborn pounced forward, biting off thick chunks of his flesh. Unlike with the items, they actually devoured the substance of the Master. Randidly pressed his eyes closed, disturbed by the wet sounds of teeth mashing and bone-crunching. It was perhaps better to say that they weren’t eating the Master himself, but his consciousness; this isolated world was his body.
Influence +191,077!
Congratulations! Your Skill Cursed Fates of the Unborn (M) has grown to Level 385!
Holy shit, Randidly’s expression flickered as significance flowed through the Cursed Fates of the Unborn and entered into his body. A shudder ran through him. His Nether Core rapidly absorbed the newly added significance and churned out thick waves of Nether. At this point, Randidly had gathered so much potency that his Nether seemed alive, like oily tentacles from an undersea monster. The more the Unborn feasted, the more Influence flowed into him.
Influence +75,221!
Eventually, the Master’s screams tapered off, leaving Randidly with only the sounds of the Unborn’s mouths working. He turned away and opened his eyes, surprised to find that the three shades of Devick stood there, watching.
“You know what I hate about this Master and his damned Mountain most of all?” The short-haired Devick asked with a shake of her head.
The long-haired Devick gave Randidly a lopsided grin. Next to her, the first imprinted shade was already beginning to disintegrate and fade. “They always have a justification for the proper method. I can feel these vague platitudes everywhere. True power in the world is related to reacting, or preparation, or creation, or violence, etc.”
The long-haired Devick began to fade as well, until only the Devick who was completely obscured by her hair was left. She crouched in front of the twitching body of the Master while the Unborn finished their meal. Only when the Master had been completely consumed and the Unborn crawled, fat and full, back to Randidly that she raised her head.
“Listen well, Randidly Ghosthound.” From within her crimson hair, Randidly saw two eyes filled with madness. His personality had the foundation of his Nether Core, but even he felt alarmed at the strange sort of temptation to see the seething mass of emotions this woman contained. She was the worst sort of siren, who would happily lead you to your own doom. But it was also undeniable that she possessed immense power. “There is only one true method to power. It’s actually quite simple: win. So long as you keep winning, you will never lose.”
Comments
IWannaBeATiger
Agree but he was also kind of a shit head too so it's like yeah the reason behind the Unborn is unjustified but his death is justified.
You rock man 😁👌 thanks for the many chapters of continued awesomeness, and for seeing through a story that reaches so high, when many have abandoned the Path to the Pinnacle.
Ichikira
That's a good point, but I'd still like to see it :)
Chris
Ysterix is dead but the paths he got from her remained. Pretty sure that once a path becomes yours the one who gave it to you doesn't matter.
Justin Tang
So if the master was nice to everyone and not a tyrant, he wouldn't have died in this case?
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
Jemini
In most cases, I would agree. In this particular case, I see it from a different perspective. This is something more of an illustration of the price of tyrany. If you keep tyranically pushing down all the people, you are creating endless enemies. You might not even know specifically why any individual one of them became your enemy, and eventually one of them will be so motivated by their reason that it will become your downfall. It's kinda like a cautionary tale to anyone planning to become a ruler. Tyrants fall and they will never even understand the motivations behind the person who caused their downfall. This is why you want to be a benificent ruler who is not constantly making enemies everywhere.
Jemini
No, he means the skill. "The [something] price of Exodus." It's part of his Ygdrasil skill set, and is it's main method of attack. It currently takes the form of a many-armed woman. If he were to imprint Devic's shade onto it, it would probably make it more powerful. I disagree with this tactic though. The current direction of the story will likely have him facing up against Devic in some form very soon here, and an image based on her will only be weakened by facing the real thing. It wouldn't be able to face up effectively to the original, and it would also lose it's power the very moment Randidly defeats her. This weakness in images was covered... quite a while back. It was about people on Expira basing their images on Randidly. This weakness was also pointed out with Illiala (or whatever her name was.) The military commander who Randidly gave the image of the peragrine serpent. One of the original patrons. The moment the original serpent got affected by the nether weapon, the commander's image started to weaken rapidly.
nethernight11
Thanks for the chapters
Ichikira
Thanks for the chapter! I think it would be fun to have a chapter from Lyra's perspective that has her putting points in her new Path only to receive a message like: "Error: The maker of this Path has been subsumed by the Ghosthound and the Path is irreversably altered. The Path has become 'Ripples of Randidly Ghosthound Shake the Nexus.'" I would love to see her reaction to something like that!
Joshua Little
Thanks for the chapter. Wonder what effect this will have with his path to the top of whatever it was called.
Nathan Emerson
He would only have to return if they made it to the top. Maybe he can pull the mountain inside his alpha cosmos too.
Nathan Emerson
That makes a lot of sense, maybe randidly will replace pine eventually.
Nathan Emerson
Do you mean Expira?
Chris
WIll he now swallow the dream mountain? Can't have people climbing it then calling him back to challenge him. Maybe he leaves the unborn there as the path guardians or something and they continuously feed him significance from those that challenge it. I don't think they actually kill real people. The master was an image so he was eaten. Maybe #1 tries to challenge him and RG walks away with all the paths.
Jonathan
Definitely seeing similarities to the alpha cosmos. Maybe the absorbed cohorts are similar and all this is within Pine's body, which is why Elhume has to "kill" Pine with such a difficult method w/o destroying everything.
zenot funr
Get good scrub
Foreseer
I feel slightly bad for this Master dude. He had no real connection to those Unborn because she forcefully made them without his input. She was her own downfall just like she ended up being her own success.
Gigifiy
I wonder what this is going to do to the Path Lyra got from the Master?
Gigifiy
It reminds me of Shiro. "People die when they are killed"
Starfall20
Offer to add her to Exodus. It would be really scary.
William McKeon
Yeah, but that seems too much like a weakness. If he adopts that philosophy, then one loss and he could become like Shal.
Alexander Dupree
but Number growled <- dropped the One
Alexander Dupree
Lol no shit but yeah I guess that's sort of one way to look at the world
PuDDleS4263
Corrections
