The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound

The assembled Lizakh were quiet, their heads lowered out of respect for the woman with her finger steepled in front of them. Their Savior, even in stillness, burned with energy and holy light. Toward her, the remnants of the civilization had the utmost respect.

Because if she had not intervened, the eggs would have been shattered and devoured by the Sky Otters.

D’min Rrshk raised his head to take a peek at her, because he couldn’t resist the impulse. Compared to the distant and shadowy figure of the Patron of the Sun, Alana Donal was a much more approachable object of worship; she was physically here, in front of him. But just as quickly as he glanced upward, he lowered his gaze.

The group had been brought here by Alana’s request. D’min had only been included because the damage done to the central hatchery was so much worse than he feared. Out of their hundreds of elite warriors, seven survived the bloody defense of the caves. Most could only nominally be referred to as warriors; these were the oldest and most infirm, who had been charged with guarding the chambers of the egg clutches while the more able warriors guarded the cave entrances. Only Yn’ulk, Govern of the Egg Guardians, remained alive.

He had lost two fingers from his left hand for his troubles, but by some miracle, he possessed a remnant spark of life when the Savior began spreading Health Potions to the Lizakh. A few drops on his lips and the powerful fighter coughed up blood and pushed himself into a sitting position, desperately asking what happened to the eggs.

The rest of Yn’ulk’s Egg Guardians, well. D’min’s eyes crinkled in sadness and tried not to think about the ripped limbs and shattered bones. Instead, he looked at those gathered near him. Admittedly, the other survivors were just as pathetic as he. The ten greatest fighters of the Lizakh were gathered before their savior Alana Donal in a feeding hall and he wasn’t even the weakest of the group.

My father… would have been so proud, D’min’s eyes were gaunt as he stared at the dirt ground.

Savior Donal weighed the group, taking the time to look at each of the warriors in turn. She took the time to examine the weapons of each, too. To the side, a Lizakh elder watched nervously; currently, the relations with the Savior were quite strained. After the triumphant defeat of the Sky Otters, she had been lavishly welcomed as the representative of the Patron of the Sun. However, she had immediately denied that and told them that she was just a follower of the Ghosthound.

The Lizakh elders were still in a heated debate over what exactly this meant for their rituals. For now, they adopted a wait-and-see approach. No matter what she represented, she had definitely saved them from the Sky Otters.

Finally, the Savior cleared her throat. “I’ll keep this short. You are probably wondering why I called you here. But I meant what I said earlier… there is a path for your people to stop being monsters and to become actual citizens of this world. For better or for worse…” The Savior’s expression narrowed into a grimace. “...the consent of the planet’s original population is necessary. There will be no vote, but its a matter of acceptance toward your species. They must truly believe that allowing you to become fellow citizens of the planet is in their best interest.”

“We will do whatever you believe is necessary, Savior,” Yn’ulk bent his muscular body at the waist. His movement was so controlled that neither of the twin sabers at his waist stirred. Even amongst the Lizakh warriors, he was truly the perfect specimen. His tail was long and robust and his scales were tiny and numerous. D’min knew that Yn’ulk had fertilized many of their precious eggs, in the hope that the next generation would contain many such individuals.

With the eggs fertilized, we just need time to recover. D’min recalled the piles of scaled bodies that filled the canyon and shivered. His thoughts turned to the nervous form of his younger brother. As long as my life can buy an opportunity for the next generation to mature…

“The Calamity presents a unique opportunity. Right now, Expira desperately needs heroes,” The Savior continued. She once more looked at each of the ten ‘warriors’ present in front of her. “However… it’s clear that your current strength is hardly sufficient to win the trust and admiration of the native population, even if we’ve finally discovered the method to end this Calamity. So for now, you ten will be personally trained by me within a Dungeon so you can contribute.”

For the first time, the elder in the corner stepped forward. “Admirable Savior, Child of the Sun, we appreciate your assistance, but these… these are all the warriors that we have. Without someone here to guard the egg clutches-”

“I’ll call in a favor,” The Savior glanced at him, her eyes flashing. The elder flinched and lowered his head. “You won’t have to worry about your eggs while we are gone. All you need to do is live up to my expectations.”

“Why?”

D’min blinked. He was bewildered for several seconds because everyone in the room was looking at him. And then he realized that he had verbalized the thought that was bouncing off the inside of his skull. He tried not to squirm as the Savior regarded him and attempted to explain. “Why are you helping us? To you, we are-”

“Because you don’t deserve this.” The Savior responded. Then a small smile played across her features. “And because… a long time ago, a powerful individual interfered in the development of this planet. Maybe thoughtlessly, but definitely… he just wanted to help us. To show us the path toward survival. So now I’m helping you.”

*****

If anything, Randidly’s work intensified when the brewing storm finally broke across the whole of Claudette’s image world. Finally, the pressure had grown to the point that the air above the core trembled and forced the clouds outward. He watched the situation developing with a conflicted gaze. Randidly had created the setting and now it was time for it to be ravaged by pale blue lightning and a suffocating blizzard.

His skin tingled and he was left idly wondering if the wind brought with it a heavy chill. The complex layers of air currents he had spent the past while developing compressed and flared until those nearest the central area began to collapse under the radiating pressure. Randidly grimaced and raised his hands to guide how the shuddering disintegration of the climate would progress.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ripple of Amenonuhoko (M) has grown to Level 374!

Unfortunately, he rapidly began to fall behind the escalating progression. Even in his focused state, too many interactions occurred in the short few moments as the heavy clouds bled outward past the teeth of the mountain range and prepared to ravage the terrain below.

Randidly raised his head and looked to the sky as the violent wild ruffled his hair. The physical details are fine, but the emotional weight behind this storm is all over the place… fuck, I need more time to guide this.

Heedless of his thoughts a churning mass of clouds expanded across the horizon.

The clouds gained momentum as they slid down the rugged exterior of the mountain range, rumbling toward the sea. In addition, they began to shed vast amounts of frigid precipitation that swirled down and left the stone visage covered in a thickening layer of frost. The expelled snow intensified into a true blizzard when the storm crashed down onto the beaches and began spraying walls of saltwater with its winds, freezing them into horizontal blasts of ice before they were allowed to fall back across the choppy waves.

Randidly licked his lips. More clouds were tumbling down after the frontrunners. His face was blasted by constant winds. With a flick of the wrist, he produced the Visage of Obsession and unrolled the heavy canvas. To his relief, he felt the image projection slowing as his perception sunk into the Fatepiece. Perhaps after I descend further, I’ll be able to handle all the complex emotions at the heart of that storm.

Randidly descended his forty-four thousand, four hundred and forty-four steps and once again met with the Mrs. Hamilton projection. He nodded in acknowledgment and then asked. “What is the price this time?”

“You awareness of your physical body.” Mrs. Hamilton offered Randidly a playful smile. “This is only my humble opinion, but you are too aware of yourself right now: the way you move your hands and tail is a constant distraction. This is about Claudette, isn’t it? So let’s focus more on her.”

Randidly pursed his lips. “Isn’t your opinion my opinion?”

The projection just smiled. Randidly shook his head, but overall this was an acceptable price; so far, this usage of the Visage of Obsession had truly been a lot easier than the previous time. Not that he had thought his body was getting in the way… but stripping away his physical awareness would likely free up quite a bit of mental power to handle his current issue.

Without any more hesitation, Randidly stepped down into the shadowy layer below the next step. As it had been before, the shadow resisted for the smallest amount of time before his weight pushed him downward. Releasing a breath, he took several steps, fully immersing himself in shadow.

The barrier silently swallowed him, liberating him of his physical form.

When he opened his eyes, he immediately had the strangest sense of vertigo; he could no longer feel his eyes. For a few seconds he was still, trying to get used to the sensation of body-less ness. But the howl of the breaking storm soon pulled him back to the very pressing matter occurring in Claudette’s image. He set his discomfort aside and spread out his perception.

The only possible downside of this, Randidly spared the spirit guide a glance with humor bubbling through his heart. Hopefully, the fact that I am now also a spirit thing doesn’t make it more friendly…

He quickly banished that thought and got to work. His senses shot upward through the grey clouds and touched upon the fear and self-loathing and the dread that swirled through the storm and drove it forward. His now disembodied Willpower tingled as it grappled with these charged emotions; as always, he couldn’t help but feel quite impressed with how powerful Claudette’s suppressed emotions were.

The storm swelled as it sped across the sea until the grey wall of wind and snow slammed into the desolate grasslands on the other side. Randidly rode in the rumbling core, his sense of self twisting and contracting every time one of those cobalt bolts of lightning ripped past him. But soon the details of the clouds around him fell away as he spread his awareness out and watched as the snow very literally carried doom and frozen suffocation out across the whole of this world.

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 147!

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 502!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 167!

Without his body, Randidly’s mind could just barely stay abreast with the complex intersection of physical details and surging emotional forces. Although he wasn’t able to sense the cold, he could simply watch snow and frost accumulate over the vast grasslands as the storm raged if he needed proof of Claudette’s image. A thick layer of white normalized the sense of desolation, spreading it across an increasingly featureless world.

His understanding of the way Claudette’s image functioned had grown quite satisfactorily in the process. But as the clouds separated from a thundering whole into more spotty coverage, he felt his mental energy flagging. Randidly withdrew back into himself and descended onto the ground. Ugh, this mental form I have now feels so feeble when I run out of energy… haaaah…

But even if he currently felt uncomfortable, Randidly felt a few sparks of self-satisfaction running through him. Today, he witnessed the overwhelming power of Claudette’s image; the changes he had made were pushing her in the right direction.

Randidly’s awareness narrowed in a certain direction, following the trail of seeping emotion back to the core. Now all that remained was for Randidly to head toward the inner area and shape the horrifying core that had poisoned this whole world.

Somehow, he sensed that it would be much more fraught work than the detail refining he had done thus far.

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