Cycle of Rot and Ash

**Cycle of Rot and Ash** is a Soul Skill that Randidly gained in chapter 100 when the Soul Skill Spear of Rot Mastery combined with the Soul Skill Blessing of the Patron of Ash.

**Location obtaining:** surroundings of Donnyton.

## Bonuses for skill levels

This is a table of the effects that the owner of the skill receives every 10th level. He receives one effect at a time, which alternates every 50th levels.

 +15 Mana and +1 to all Regenerations

## Related notifications

* Congratulations! You have fully absorbed the blessing from the Patron of Ash. The Soul-Skill “Blessing of the Patron of Ash Lvl 1” is available to you. You may either retain your current and forget this new soul skill, retain the new and forget the old, or attempt to combine the two. All previously obtained benefits will be retained.
* Warning, if the two Soul-skills are combined, an inferior skill may be obtained, based upon compatibility. This action cannot be undone.
* Soul-skills combining…. Warning, compatibility is at 41%. Do you still wish to proceed?
* Congratulations! You have obtained the Soul Skill “Cycle of Rot and Ash Lvl 1”. All previous benefits have been retained.

## Skill creation

He felt the two Soul Skills, almost could see them, the warm power of the blessing from Ash, the cool rot and deadly accuracy of Spear of Rot Mastery.

They began to circle each other in his chest, coming closer. As they approached, slowly spinning around each other, Randidly heart began to beat more quickly, a strange excitement filling his body. And within him, another beating emerged, a pulsing of that strange icy-hot energy. As they neared, the heat of the blessing burned away the spore-y remnants of the rot, and the rot settled neatly into the area left cleansed by the heat.

Faster and faster they swirled, and as they neared each other, the energies turned increasingly unstable, rushing towards an explosive collision.

Instinctively, Randidly sensed that this couldn’t happen.

So he pressed, using all his will to keep them apart. The approach stabilized somewhat, but the two Soul Skills rotated faster and faster, perversely creating greater and greater pressure for them to meet.

Although Randidly didn’t know how to accomplish what he wanted, he knew that the system responded to want and need. And every ounce of him craved this. Every inch of him needed that strength, so he could live, so he could protect the people who relied on him. So he could find the people from his past and lay to rest any lingering ghosts. The pulsing in his chest grew more insistent.

*If you crave something, take it.*

For a brief second, Randidly’s green eyes flickered, and then burned a sickly violet. A cold, numbing kernel, simultaneously the concentrated core of heat from his rage, flowed out of him, moving to settle between the two swirling energies. It gathered itself into a small ball, creating an oppressive pressure of its own, its energies pressing outward and counteracting the strange gravity that was drawing the two soul skills together.

They orbit stabilized, slowing slightly, but still swirling around each other in an endless cycle: Rot, followed by a cleansing fire, followed by creeping rot.

## Further observations

### Chapter 114

He watched as grass grew in the prairie, and then the rot came, eating slowly away at the grasses, forming a strange, blobby mass as the rot consumed and grew. Then the burning came, devouring even more completely than the rot could devour, burning away all of the biomass, leaving only the earth. For a short time there was nothing, but then grasses began to poke out of the soil and grow, and the cycle started again.

Grass grew. When there was enough grass, the rot swiftly spread, growing large and fat and destructive. Then, when the prairie was almost entirely rot, the fire would come, burning it all away, leaving the prairie clean. Only then could the grass grow again.

The energies circled and circled, even and steady, never growing closer, stead in the orbit.

### Chapter 120

The grass grew, the rot came, ballooning outward. The fire came, burning it all away, leaving only ash- Ash was… Although all the biological matter was burnt away, leaving only carbon and trace elements… It seemed as though those trace elements were slowly building up.

Rot couldn’t consume the ash, and the grass didn’t grow off of the ash, it grew out of the ground and water. Instead, the ash remained, the refined little carbon bits from the burnt rot. His Soul Skill was slowly spreading a layer of ash over this area where Aether dwelled. Of hardened and refined carbon and other trace minerals. But what was the point of that? What could ash… Unless something could be planted in that ash. Unless that bed of ash could nurture something.

### Chapter 170

* Warning! Your Soul Skill has become unstable! If you continue to feed it, the effects will worsen. Calculating effects….
* Error, unrecognized Soul Skill. Adjusting Parameters….
* Expanding Search…
* Isolating comparable Soul Skills…
* Match found! Adjusting Parameters…. Calculating Effects…
* Warning, death may result from the usage of an unapproved Soul Skill. Consult with a Village spirit for further assistance.

In his image of what was occurring with his Soul Skill, the constant rotation of grass, rot, and heat burning it all to ash had produced a thick layer of those small, emerald crystals, which now filled the soil. At the moment, those crystals were glowing, emitting a strange green light, seeming furiously hungering for something.

That power they emitted excited the forces of rot and ash, causing them to rotate faster, almost attempting to give those green crystals what they wanted. As they rotated faster, a powerful suction force was created, drawing nearby items in Randidly’s consciousness towards the Soul Skill. Fortunately, his actual skills seemed to be immune to the strange happening.

Two forces that made his Soul Skill were rotating so fast that it was threatening to tear him apart from the inside out. They pulled and pulled an pulled, and the suction grew and grew…

But nothing was shaken free. So after a time, the suction passed, the energy and light faded from those emerald shards. The forces of rot and ash slowed in their rotation, until they returned to something like their normal speed.

### Chapter 181

There it was, a barren plain now, as the grass was devoured by the strange emerald crystals, glowing with eerie power. The rot and ash came and went, but did nothing but strengthen and refine that strange substance further, coating the ground and thin layer of crystal that was constantly growing. The world inside himself, Randidly realized, had died. Why, he wasn’t really sure, but it was no longer the robust, changing world it had been previously.

## Story

In chapter 138 Creature changed this Soul Skill slightly with its hands. This allowed Creature to appear in Randidly's Soul Space in chapter 202.

In chapter 169 Randidly began the Path Weeping that Falls Like Rain, and this Soul Skill entered an unstable state. In chapter 170 the rot and ashes of this Soul Skill began to swirl very quickly, which created a powerful suction force. Soon this stopped, and the rot and ash began to rotate at normal speed. Randidly believed that if the speed of this rotation were higher, his body could be torn to pieces.

In chapter 181 putting PP into the Path Weeping that Falls Like Rain caused physical pain in Randidly's chest from this Soul Skill.

In chapter 187 Randidly used Extract on the emerald crystals of this Soul Skill. He was able to activate this skill and rip out a wisp of green energy from one crystal. This wisp moved to Randidly's Soul Space. But after that someone (Creature or System) blocked access to the Soul Skill and hung a golden lock with a small bell on it. Similar smaller lock were around cold energy (reward from the Path of Carnage) and a drop of energy (reward from the Path The Lonesome Spear).

## Notes

* Chapter 170 states that no one in the Nexus created the same Soul Skill, but a similar Soul Skill was found.
* In chapter 188 Randidly suggested that this Soul Skill refined life. He considered this Soul Skill to be a factory where Aether was mined and purified for assimilation by the human body.
* In chapter 209 this Soul Skill was destroyed and the Soul Skill Four-Shaded Clockwork World was created on its basis.