LoRG 5

In her heart Neveah spoke with a different voice

Help him the man who lived and struggled to reinvent you to open all the doors in existence to you He needs it He needs you

He will never ask for it which is exactly why he deserves it

Help him

The ritual area exploded in brilliant golden light

Devick stumbled across the edge of the chaotic melee and wiped blood from her cheek Behind her the forward forces of CeruleanÆs outer army began to buckle underneath the unending tide of Nether bodies HomewellÆs soldiers were forming up and streaming out of the city but they probably would arrive too late

Fatal Predation Cerulean snarled A raptor phantasm sprung from the ether and lashed out at Deganawidah but like everything else the dense cloak of Nether he carried invalidated the damage With a similar snarl Fatia Cerulean hopped backward to open up some distance All it took were a few quick steps from Deganawidah to delete that small space that had been made

Slow that bastard down The Golden armored Turtleline bellowed Devick could see energy spinning together above Homewell some external manifestation of its power being brought to bear

However it clearly wouldnÆt make it in time She took another three steps cutting the distance down to four meters

Even now you refuse to act Cerulean said ruefully As far as Devick could tell he spoke to himself Would you truly allow me to die

Deganwidah raised his hand

Devick Malice and her Grand Fate moving in perfect concert threw herself forward over the last couple of meters As she did so alarm bells began ringing frantically she had felt her skin sizzling as she approached but not it felt like she began to melt turning into runny wax underneath the horrifying power that circled his body

Too late to back down now Devick showed her teeth and lashed out with bitter claws of grim aggression Even underneath the assault of the energy around Deganawidah the attack didnÆt dissipate Because right now that attack had the whole of DevickÆs resolve thrown into it Her emotions and image had been pressured into a dense material that at least for now could survive this environment

But for all that the strike was probably futile had only the smallest possibility of posing a threat to this being She lashed out anyway Because although Devick didnÆt want to admit it she couldnÆt stand the distance between herself and Hungry Eye If this could bridge that gap she would endanger her life to take that step

Some more reasonable part of herself pointed out that this action for all that it would narrow the gap between them would also leave her dead Yet she couldnÆt find any regret Even with her every cell beginning to scream out in agony unable to exist under the crushing weight of his Nether

To her very great surprise Deganawidah paused He looked over his shoulder the weight of his attention lancing through her organs and shredding them to pieces Her claws slashed against the cloth across his back and began to disintegrate

Just as she had hoped she had touched him Then miraculously she was rewarded for her efforts

This oneÆs mine Deganawidah A confident voice cut through the waves of Nether blasting out from Deganawidah A hand touched DevickÆs shoulder spreading blessed coolness through her body She gasped suddenly able to breathe once more Back the fuck off

Shaking Devick pivoted and saw him Nether King Hungry Eye a wraith with wings of pale leafless branches and a scorpionÆs tail with a massive spearhead at the end He barred his teeth the reckless aggression with which he glared at Deganawidah making Devick fall the rest of the way in love with him

You saved me Again Devick whispered She cleared her throat You know if you do this too often it will teach me bad habits

Then she collapsed her strained psyche giving out on her

Which at least had the added benefit of allowing her to fantasize about his snappy one liner response

Chapter 2292

Randidly didnÆt want to admit how much effort it took to create a small eye in the raging Nether storm of Deganawidah But seeing the pure joy in DevickÆs flash of recognition it felt worth it

He shifted the flow of his Nether sensing that already DeganawidahÆs brutal pattern made minute adjustments to overwhelm him Randidly had to grit his teeth when he noticed that the shift almost immediately made him lose more ground The bubble of safety tightened around him

Congratulations Your Skill Left Hand of the Nether Oracle has grown to Level 999

Luckily after saying her piece Devick collapsed backward Randidly burning with both his images and his concern for her as DeganawidahÆs power overwhelmed his own did a strange sort of dance first his left hand shot out to support her back but then he wondered if the Stillborn Phoenix might negatively influence her considering her relative weakness So he paused and then twisted all at the limits of his speed so he could reach around with his right hand and press it into the small of her back to support her

She flopped over sideways with all the structural integrity of a rotten eel corpse Despite the circumstances despite a wounded Cerulean cowering on the ground a few meters away and DeganawidahÆs harsh countenance turning to brood in RandidlyÆs direction he beamed and barked out a laugh

You are such a fool Randidly whispered having to snake his arm entirely around her waist to keep Devick from rolling over and face planting into the ground where the encroaching Nether would have flayed the skin from her bones But there was quite a bit of fondness in his voice more than he had expected

Perhaps it was just because she didnÆt regard him with the surly silence she had before she ran off a week ago to join the war effort Perhaps it was hard not to respect the depth of her trust in him that his presence had unraveled her tenacity so completely

The shock of amusement boosted his mentality just a little more in the same way his frank conversation with Lowanna had helped him The jolt of energy flowed through him sharpening his perception just a degree back toward his peak It wasnÆt much but it would have to be enough He began to churn his Nether in a different direction hoping to force back the implacable tide washing away his defenses

Congratulations Your Skill Right Hand of the Nether Polymath has grown to Level 990

Randidly slipped Devick into the Alpha Cosmos and turned to regard his own dangerous circumstances The tips of his toes began to burn as Nether continued to wear his defenses down

Even the few seconds of arriving in the area and conjuring this dense monstrous version of his image physicalizations had given him plenty of chances to gather up the surrounding kinetic forces and conjure a wicked storm With DeityÆs Ruthless Cerebral Scope the edges of the storm became barbed so as it churned forward it ripped its way through all the images and dense waves of Nether that stood in its path to get here

Until it met against DeganawidahÆs sea of Nether which smothered it like a rainforest drowned a lawnmower

The heavy silence of its heartbeat rippled out through Randidly smashing itself against DeganawidahÆs Nether The Nether didnÆt even pause for a second It simply pushed its way forward and washed up against his condensed Aether RandidlyÆs skin tingled in anticipation But despite the opening created the attack didnÆt come

I have a purpose one I discovered a long time ago in the depths of my body Deganawidah spoke in a confiding tone that almost unnerved Randidly in its candor The Nether monster flexed its fingers Every time I almost died the many betrayals that I have suffered I felt it there It refused to allow my candle to be extinguished I could not collapse even if I wanted to There was a higher calling waiting for me And you

Perhaps I find a similar goal at my core Randidly settled down into a lowered stance

The Nether roared in his ears DeganawidahÆs wide mouth turned down at the edges his strange mood shifting back toward the usual impenetrable emotional fortress RandidlyÆs own Nether Core whirred as much as its limits would allow yet it could only coat his skin in a thin layer of energy DeganawidahÆs voice now contained hostile notes You sculpt a false idol and call it purpose That is why you are a fool There are shapes and moments The rest is fleeting Your confusion in this regard I could forgive Yet your flailings hack at larger purposes You endanger us all

You RandidlyÆs eyes widened It was like a switch had been flipped All the remaining exhaustion that had huddled in the corners of RandidlyÆs body evaporated Because an aspect of his Fateset clicked into place the changes he could affect in others did not always have to be changes they wished for

And right now it seemed he had inadvertently brushed up against a possible change within this old Nether being

Would it truly be so monstrous not to march toward some arbitrary self finale Deganawidah RandidlyÆs blood sang with Nether and Aether His Fateset pulsed He felt the path forward illuminated by shrewd instinct and equipped with all the thoughts and preparations Randidly had poured into this night over the last week

His thoughts raced in rapid recalibration The problem he had encountered earlier was the identity of the impossibility he fought against He had thought it had to do with the creation of the Stillborn Phoenix image as a complete being but in retrospect it was his preconceptions making the task seem impossible Had he not listened to his instincts previously he might have even come to meet Deganawidah and substituted this beingÆs preconceptions about predestination for an impossibility to be destroyed But now he knew the whole point of the second attempt was to accomplish the original goal of the Upper Sonora to make the memory a true alternate existence Randidly could see this would just be a step in the right direction

Another detail snapped into place A little more of his path became illuminated filling his chest with certainty He would shatter the false impossibility of Deganawidah that blocked his way so he could square off against the real ones Momentum to attack a true precipice

The last detail which plagued Randidly was what he would do with the failed remnants assuming he truly encountered another impossibility Which considering the purpose of his three challenges and the three unintended consequences would have caused Neveah to throw a conniption fit

But I bet IÆll figure it out standing on that threshold Randidly hummed to himself He nodded satisfied

We are incompatible Deganawidah announced With no more warning than that he thrust his hand forward Behind him a suffocating deluge of old history flowed to snuff Randidly out

Chapter 2293

Each of ElhumeÆs breaths came labored His eyes were bloodshot as he considered the stump of his arm Drops of blood leaked out and spattered against the ground Opposite him the Patron of the Borrowed leaned forward and talked rapidly with a soothing tone But somehow the brief confrontation with Hungry Eye had amplified the volume of the static crackling in his head The words were completely inaudible

His image had shattered but the sonic void had risen in its place And he felt weirdly calm That at least was a comfort He knew what had to be done

Take it from me Elhume growled He rolled his shoulder forcing a few more drops of blood out through the scabbing flesh

FieroÆs words trailed off He looked at Elhume with worried eyes his eight tails flicking back and forth behind him You What

Take the wound ElhumeÆs throat itched He needed a drink of water The static sounded in his ears like ocean waves crashing against rocks ever present and relentless He wished it would vanish He didnÆt know if he could stand the silence it would leave behind As you have for so many other impediments take it from me

DidnÆt we decide we shouldnÆt proceed any further After all the mental

Take it Elhume snapped The edges of the static had barbed edges the longer he sat here the more it rubbed him the wrong way shredding the last of his patience He needed to be moving acting solving the problem

Saving his son no matter the cost

After hesitating for several more seconds the Patron of the Borrowed let out a soft sigh He reached out with his long fingers and took from Elhume leaving him with more space for the hollow static to spread and dominate

The storm of significance whipped itself up into a frenzy a destructive physical presence looming above Randidly Ghosthound

The first wave of Nether hit Randidly but his images endured well enough He continued to be slapped around like a lackey in the arena of Nether patterns but his images had also been repeatedly sharpened within the memory to the point that they could flare against the tide of Nether and hold their own

Still the muscular hand and its few fat fingers careened toward RandidlyÆs chest His eyes glittered Then letÆs get the opening dance number out of the way ErebusÆ Baleful Waltz Marred Yet Reliable Foundation of Yggdrasil Severing Tide of Amenonuhoko

Randidly slithered forward gracefully avoiding the heavy palm of Deganawidah He felt the patterns of the Nether flow even if he couldnÆt resist them with the produce of his own Nether Core And with Yggdrasil reinforcing his body and the Dread Homunculus sharpening his movements he cut along those subtle dividing lines to counterattack

For now the Stillborn Phoenix waited in the wings for its time on stage The event horizon swirling around his left hand steadily grew in size His emotional sea sizzled and contracted more and more of its potency flowing into the Egg of Depression

In the back of his mind he could feel the image rushing toward a transformation All it needed was for Randidly to finish laying the foundation

As DeganawidahÆs gaze pivoted sideways to follow RandidlyÆs movements the heavy blade of the Acri tail struck downward From the Chaotic Sea Abrupt Reverberation ChimeraÆs Suffocating Rebuke The First Tree Suffers Only Fealty

Congratulations Your Skill From the Chaotic Sea Abrupt Reverberation has grown to Level 921

Congratulations Your Skill The First Tree Suffers Only Fealty has grown to Level 967

His Nether Core keened and wobbled its equilibrium broken with the sheer force of the significance pumped into his body along with the body blow Randidly also felt one of his ribs pop but it didnÆt break Gritting his teeth he wrapped both his hands around the arm and tugged Deganawidah forward His eyes widened when he discovered that through some Nether nonsense RandidlyÆs Primordial Nether Juju could barely budge this foe

The close proximity was a double edged blade On the one hand Randidly could feel the Stillborn Phoenix swirling and howling to be unleashed His emotional sea shrieked pressurized to the point of shattering his self control The event horizon on his left hand grew devouring some of the dangerous Nether and beginning to attack DeganawidahÆs body directly In addition the Acri tail struck again and again widening the cracked defenses of Deganawidah

On the other hand DeganawidahÆs dense Nether began to rip into RandidlyÆs images At the same time the physical restrictions of having so much dense Nether gathered into one spot because difficult to wade through

Flashing his teeth Randidly pushed back to create a small amount of space and then pounced back forward with harpoon Acri This time Deganawidah sneered The Second Drowning Pestiferous Flux

The Nether between Randidly and Deganawidah exploded Randidly couldnÆt help but release a hiss of pain as this wave of energy began to eat away at his flesh and his images while also knocking him back a few meters While his mind still spun Deganawidah took his heavy steps forward and threw another punch

Randidly gritted his teeth feeling the pressure of Nether on his body growing With the damage Deganawidah had inflicted with his first punch he barely maintained the flow of Nether through his body Resisting the dominant patterns of the Thrice Drowned was impossible

Yet he could still force his way physically forward swiping his left hand to devour some of the resistance and then shimmying through the brief weakening He skittered forward feinting left and then twisting around DeganawidahÆs left side The Acri scorpion tail flexed high above his head but Deganawidah Snorted Pestiferous Flux

This time the poisonous and toxic Nether shot out in a concentrated jet Before Randidly could react he heard Acri screaming the energy had ripped its way through the connecting portion the multi tentacled thorny roots Instantly fury bloomed in RandidlyÆs chest

As the tail collapsed Randidly reached up with his right hand and plucked the spearhead out of the air He stepped his hips shoulder and elbow pivoting perfectly in the imitation of a major league baseball pitcher albeit with a spearhead the size of a childÆs desk Randidly moved with such fluidity that the Nether Monster couldnÆt even reach

And RandidlyÆs efforts were rewarded with a satisfying crunch as DeganawidahÆs torso snapped backward

More Nether billowed out of the wound Deganawidah gnashed his teeth You reckless child The First Drowning Black Undertow

A wave of force smashed into Randidly from every side a thousand complex pattern machinations all brought to bear on him at once The rib that popped earlier now fractured under this concentrated force Several other joints rapidly began to ache and groan

Trembling Randidly did something quite unusual he unleashed all the Nether he had managed to accumulate over the last half hour but not to resist the rigorous patterns of Deganawidah No after being thoroughly schooled in Nether patterns during their every encounter Randidly had learned that method wouldnÆt work So instead he set his Nether to assist DeganawidahÆs patterns in crushing his own body

The patterns in the immediate vicinity ground up against RandidlyÆs Nether briefly slowing The whole vice grip Deganawidah gummed up for a split second At the very least he hadnÆt expected Randidly to use his Nether quite like this

It wouldnÆt work again and it would only trip him up for a split second but that was enough

Randidly planted his foot and shot forward He raised his left hand allowing his dangerously explosive emotional sea to surge forward all at once The event horizon swelled larger and larger the Stillborn Phoenix howling its promised revenge

DeganawidahÆs significance mulched up all the ambient Nether Randidly had released but the Hungry Eye devoured a path to the target However right as Randidly reached up and toward DeganawidahÆs wounds to force the Stillborn Phoenix into his body the wide mouth moved Randidly could only see it through the edge of the event horizon light melting and running into the devouring maw

But he heard the words in his bones

The Third Drowning Bottomless Longing

Chapter 2294

Randidly looked Deganawidah in the eyes and felt the whole world shift around him As the old Nether monster activated his third ability he seemed to pull away the mask of crusted Nether that covered his whole existence The egg shaped body shuffled off its skin like a rattlesnake and revealed an ominously inscrutable depth of significance

A vast history of betrayal and pain washed in toward Randidly from every direction Waves of significance came so quickly and with so little distance between each that grey Nether Weight rubbed away the details of mundane existence and locked him in a dimly lit purgatory But despite the ominous shifts Randidly simply raised his head and laughed Perfect

The Stillborn PhoenixÆs heartbeats of silence began to come more frequently the growing image covetously stealing sound and movement from existence while it held its brief spurts of dominion That image power forced itself through the flaws that Randidly had created with Acri aiming to damage the interior of Deganawidah

Two battlefields emerged One inside of the Nether monsterÆs body with the Stillborn Phoenix howling and devouring all the complex Nether patterns blocking its path But to RandidlyÆs senses that process felt disturbing akin like going to a desert and trying to vacuum up sand The other battlefield occurred in RandidlyÆs body in his muscles bones and the image physicalizations as he hunched forward and sealed DeganawidahÆs wound with his presence He endured the whole of this Third Drowning so the Stillborn Phoenix could complete its own evolution

His eyes flickered in recognition Even now duality The amorphous form in the distance and the manifestation of the event horizon soon we will be able to see the face of the Stillborn Phoenix

The silent heartbeats quickened in excitement And to keep that hope pure Randidly suffered he felt knots form in his muscles as the sheer weight of all Deganawidah lived through began to tighten around him He gritted his teeth In comparison to this monster Randidly had only existed for a breath A single moment in a fluttering storm of time All the while Deganawidah endured growing and deepening his roots

DeityÆs Ruthless Cerebral Scope had plenty of opportunity to shine To the front the Stillborn Phoenix quickly set up the two locations of the superposition the event horizon based in SulfurÆs palm and right outside the Nether Core of Deganawidah It flared its gravitational powers to fold space and bring those two locations together although nothing but willpower bridged them

Congratulations Your Skill Hypothetical Gaze that Consumes the Universe has grown to Level 1047

Congratulations Your Skill Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart has grown to Level 963

Heavy waves of grey energy raked across RandidlyÆs back but he ignored them As the first line of defense the Dread Homunculus sat with a billowing cloak of night around his shoulders He pointed and the ground rumbled Dozens of golden roots exploded and cut into the advancing tides of memory and when the roots moves the groaning phantasms of hell sculpted into a parody of a tree followed with twitching movements a half second later Two trees scythed through the endless pressure of the memories one brilliant and generous the other haunted and skeletal They moved in an eternal dance Yggdrasil leading and its specter of a partner following

Aether and Nether crashed and grappled The force of the impacts created small tears in existence around the two opponents Both refused to concede Roots and waves of dense memories smashed into each other over and over again Randidly rapidly felt a headache starting to build as he maintained the effort The impacts between Nether and his images hummed up through his body squeezing his internal organs

He tried his best not to concern himself with any details but the next exchange Because in every direction as far as he could see grey waves of memory and significance surged closer Fucking bottomless indeed

Deganawidah and Randidly were so close they felt each otherÆs breath Deganawidah shook his head just slightly You will be paste soon You and all your dreams ground away to nothing I can maintain this for as long as necessary And when you are dust That raptor construct will suffer the same fate

Honesty keeping Cerulean alive is just an unpleasant practicality Randidly saw no reason to lie now that they were in this energy death spiral of an embrace Besides he felt a guilty sort of pleasure imagining the blue energy being slaughtered If you kill him his army probably retreats Homewell falls And I need Homewell intact for what I plan later

Will a coward like that not use this opportunity to retreat Deganawidah spoke mildly but the intensity of his Nether attacks increased Every moment of struggle and pain in DeganawidahÆs life became a cudgel hammering at RandidlyÆs psyche trying to shatter his consciousness The Stillborn Phoenix howled forward making use of th opportunity but didnÆt appear to accomplish much Your recklessness has made you blind to realities

Congratulations Your Skill HomunculiÆs Monstrous Tenacity Has grown to Level 1010

Congratulations Your Skill ErebusÆ Baleful Waltz has grown to Level 1031

The waves came faster and faster Instinctively Randidly pulled back his lips to show his teeth The pain seemed out through his core a fire lit in his brainstem due to the effort of maintaining the activation of all three images at such a high level for so long Yet Randidly found the spare focus to smile at the massive features of Deganawidah The Stillborn Phoenix sang of the imminent reversal Do you feel it

Do you finally sense your stupidity Deganawidah replied Most would take this opportunity to gloat but not Deganawidah If anything the frequency and complexity of the attack slamming against Randidly grew Even the Dread Homunculus faltered before

For that Randidly had to respect the bastard He didnÆt play with his food

No the pressure Randidly had to wheeze out the words as his body began to fail The depth

You are delirious Deganawidah snorted

But Randidly continued forcing out the words even through the rain of grey significance His Fateset wanted Deganawidah to understand the fell alchemy he now worked My superpower the labels is the trick And I needed one to understand superposition implicity Two locations overlapping But what does that look like How can that be a being My breakthrough came Deganawidah apparently grew annoyed by the explanation because he pursed his lips and shot out another spike of Nether that ripped out RandidlyÆs vocal cords

His body shuddered On the first battlefield the Stillborn Phoenix gained more and more momentum as the moment neared Yet the second battlefield was one lapse away from a full rout

After a very long moment of teetering Randidly found the energy to heal the wounds He continued right where he left off His fingers tightened squeezing DeganawidahÆs shoulders when I tried to think of a metaphor and stumble across the idea of the Stillborn Phoenix being a flower The dividing line between ground and sky was the most important On one side would be roots on the other would be the bloom but obviously this wouldnÆt work But that was the key being able to visualize the dividing line And now Stillborn Phoenix do you feel it The depth

Congratulations Your Skill Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart has grown to Level 1050

Warning Deviation detected in your Skillset The Stillborn Phoenix A Star that Prayed it Would be Reborn

For a brief moment the Stillborn Phoenix image stilled the entire confrontation with a beat of its heart In a horrid claustrophobic depth of another plane of existence a hungry entity smiled When the moment passed DeganawidahÆs attacks slammed against Randidly almost breaking through But the Cloak of Utter Night held them at bay for the last few seconds

Superposition Both here and there Randidly whispered You stare down at the surface of water Perhaps you see your reflection but you also see something in the depths moving But what you see is not that object You whack the waterÆs surface and disturb the vision but The event horizon on RandidlyÆs hand grew and grew clouding the space between them but even if you disturb the phenomenon one truth is constant From the depths something wicked watches you back And its swimming closer every second

Congratulations Your image the Stillborn Phoenix is evolving

Chapter 2295

The fluttering trick of light melting along the edges of an event horizon the vision of the monster project to the surface of the water the muddy edged hungry eye pulsed in anticipation Two disparate points started inexplicably accelerating toward each other coming into cataclysmic alignment Randidly felt the shift in his chest as the Stillborn Phoenix stepped over the edge and that dividing fault on which it had been sundered exploded with possibilities

Congratulations Your image the Stillborn Phoenix is evolving Incorporating influences Detecting synergies Incorporating advantages and the influences of your evolved Stat anchors

Pantheon intervention Gathering meaning

With the mutation the absorptive power of RandidlyÆs image multiplied rapidly It no longer just sipped of his foeÆs interior but consumed

DeganawidahÆs eyes widened perhaps for the first time surprised as a huge swath of his interior patterns suddenly vanished In its last moments of existence the Stillborn Phoenix took and took from the world so violently that its consumption became a sort of irresistible song luring the energy of existence into those twisted depths

The edges of blurry wings could be seen as the main body condensed A vicious short beak also formed with clear lines But other than that the resemblance to a phoenix ceased RandidlyÆs fingers tightened not allowing Deganawidah to pull away as the transformation finished All the pressure with which the Nether Monster assaulted Randidly came back to bite him because with the rigid limits imposed by Bottomless Longing Randindly could pour and compact all his energy and emotion forcing all the potency he could muster into the imageÆs new body

The grey waves added a sense of reality to the depthÆ of the image The weight was so overwhelming that already Randidly feel the associated meaning to be simply born of those depths made the new image a Survivor

A strange resonance bounced out from RandidlyÆs Soulspace spreading through the dense waves of grey significance that attacked him The environment and emotion mixed together as the new image crawled the rest of the way from the Abyss fully formed

Randidly gasped feeling the creature screaming silently opening a wide mouth First a small crack formed Then the Egg of Depression finally hatched in a sundering nova of power

Congratulations Your Skillset the Stillborn Phoenix A Star that Prayed it Would Be Reborn has evolved into Singularity of the Inhospitable Depths The Songstress of Absence

Congratulations Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix has evolved to become SirenÆs Dirge of Bottomless Taking Skill Levels will be maintained

SirenÆs Dirge of Bottomless Taking An impossible being made real whispers woven together through the alchemy of the GhosthoundÆs three Moiraes However grasping existence did not solve the woes of this being As a monster that crawled up from the depths of this world it has survived by singing its ballad of negation near constantly Only that constant effort allowed it to persist It may have escaped the gauntlet yet now it cannot stop its eerie song The Songtress of Absence can only exist by taking from the world This Skill empowers Skills that destroy and take from existence The greater the price the higher the effect User will experience slightly dampened emotions and will need to constantly feed in order for the image to retain its power Effects increase with Skill Level

Congratulations Your Skill Hypothetical Gaze that Consumes the Universe has combined with Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart The potential of the Songstress of Absence has vastly increased Recalculating

Your two Skills have combined to become Hungry Eyes Hollow Heart Cadence of Tragedy Skill Level has been set at 1010

IÆm sorry Randidly bowed his head slightly Because he looked at the new Songstress of Absence and saw balance in his power One image for growth one image forged of practicality and one image that bore all the consequences of the power he had accumulated One image which took on all the horrid aspects of the foes he had worked to slay as he moved to the Pinnacle by climbing over their corpses You are the one who needs to bear my sins You have too much of me in you Songstress

The finales you grasp come in shapes you would have never wished for You are Alchemy to your benefit and detriment

The Survivor screeched still gripped by the throes of this revelation She didnÆt have any animosity toward Randidly just toward existence She shrieked and raved a thousand variations which could only be interpreted through the different emotional notes as the volume remained monolithically silent Her wings fluttered practically useless on her body

But there was a purpose to her temper tantrum An audience bound to experience her agony

Her fury beggared DeganawidahÆs interior Nether Each hollow note ripped more and more of his significance out of his chest and dragged it into the mouth of the Songstress where annihilation waited DeganawidahÆs features tightened and barked at Randidly Do you truly wish to follow this to its conclusion You will not survive it

Randidly had to concede Deganwidah had a point while the Stillborn Phoenix shifted to become the Songstress of Absence the waves of grey significance had not slowed their assault on his back to plug up the hole that allowed Randidly to strike at his opponentÆs core Nether It might have granted the Songstress great and immediate power but he had to suffer through it

Many of YggdrasilÆs roots had been broken open sap leaking down across his limbs The spectral fantasms had been snuffed out of existence and it was only through the sheer stubbornness of the Dread Homunculus that RandidlyÆs flesh hadnÆt been flayed from his bones Perhaps in another thirty seconds he would collapse

Come on you held off time itself for over forty seconds You canÆt last thirty more against Deganawidah Randidly joked

His body was extremely unamused by this perspective It pointed out it had gotten to sleep for all of ten minutes between these attempts and half of his resources had been poured into the Stllborn PhoenixÆs transformation Likely over half The fact it could manage this much was already a miracle

Randidly cleared his throat and refocused Already he could feel his Fateset settling back down which allowed weariness to seep into his thoughts this had apparently just been prep work for a future bit of alchemy with Deganawidah With the goal accomplished his reserves suddenly vanished

His mind had been a new highway and all at once the concrete began to harden

But Randidly knew this was not a foe who would withdraw gracefully not with these wounds So he could only bluff

Well not bluffing Randidly admitted Just take the first few steps down toward mutual destruction and hope this bastard doesnÆt follow me

IÆve seen this pattern so many times Randidly loosed a low chuckle His emerald eyes flashed even as the Survivor of the Void sang of an absence that rampaged throughout Deganawidah You swear I will be crushed We fight You swear we will both cease to exist if this continues And we fight And in the end well over and over again I survive

You have not gone up against a force like the imperative animating me Deganawidah hissed

Randidly smiled with teeth of bleached and sharpened bones hungry for his next meal It was an expression he had to admit he had stolen from future Devick He gathered up the last scraps of his willpower Then letÆs begin

Chapter 2296

The ending was inevitable they were just two people surging toward its transformative entanglement

Why resist the inevitable

Why not embrace it

Devick sat up with a gasp in her dream only an inch from her lips pressing against Hungry EyesÆ For a moment she looked around in a confused daze no longer surrounded by the bodies of the slain foes the Nether King had defeated to claim her as his own Strands of her tangled hair kept getting into her eyes and mouth as clarity crept back Disappointment and amusement warred in her chest for a while she had been completely lost in the dream

It had been nice to drift without worries for a bit

She looked around She squeezed the comfortable leather of the couch on which she lay The piece of furniture was plush and luxurious enough she instinctively squeezed again Her eyes drifted across the cluttered shelves that covered the opposite wall filled with glittering brass objects ancient tomes and well sculpted awards Light filtered in through wide windows to DevickÆs left She heard birds chirping

Huh Devick was suddenly very conscious of the dried blood on her hands and face her mud covered dirty gremlin self dirtying the expensive feeling furniture beneath her Maybe I died mm truly what unending torment To think I am cursed to an existence in lavish comfort but forced to dream every night of Hungry EyeÆs amorous eyes just a split second away from our carnal communion I

Good you are awake The Ghosthound is busy at the moment but if you need anything please donÆt hesitate to make a request Opposite the windows a striking woman with hazel eyes looked up from a desk From the casual set of her shoulders and the intensity of her gaze Devick immediately wanted to slip inside this womanÆs skin and fucking be her She owned the entire room and as far as DevickÆs instincts could ascertain quite a bit of the area around it The woman gestured to the side This automaton has been assigned to you ItÆs name

BA Zethusala Madams A brass anthropoid stepped forward and bowed Devick could hear the soft clicking of its interior gears Beautiful bits of writing flared and slithered across its body before fading away I am at your service

Zethusala can provide you with everything you need Due to your relationship with the Ghosthound you can be considered my special guest I would like to give you greater context for whatÆs happening but for now it is enough that you understand that you are safe within a special zone maintained by Nether King Hungry Eye as you know him Now The woman shuffled some papers into a neat stack and stood I am hosting a silly meeting to placate fools In the meantime try not to cause any trouble

Uh Devick blinked Her dirty hand squeezed the couch again Of course

The woman gave her a sharp look as she walked past but nodded She opened the door to the room and each stilettoed heel produced an echoing click Waiting outside was a massive ogre wearing tiny glasses who bowed and followed after the influential woman as she proceeded serenely forward He began reading notes off a ledger to the woman but his voice was cut off as the door clicked shut behind her

Devick now sat alone in the office with the brass being Zethusala When she looked at it the metal automaton bowed again

She scratched her cheek her mind spinning The monstrous darkness given to her by HomewellÆs Lifeseal slithered up and peered out from a perch on MaliceÆs shoulder It couldnÆt comprehend the casual opulence it witnessed inside of this room

Devick resolved that someday she would own her own intimidating desk and brood across its important expanse at lesser individuals For a while she toyed with half formed ideas for silly pseudo important sounding titles She waited for a bit unsure of what she should do The birds continued chirping out the window When Devick realized that she really had simply been left here to her own devices she got up and wandered to the window

What she saw outside took her breath away Her pupils dilated Wow All this was this made by Nether King Hungry Eye

Uncommon Metabolism and EggÆs Illusory Plume slowed the significanceÆs charge for his core but the former was only an Uncommon Rarity Stat and the latter drew its power from the now defunct Stillborn Phoenix Nether hacked and tore to clear a path The muscles of his back tightened squeezing the wounds closed before the next wave arrived

However Randidly knew he now lingered on borrowed time

On the other side of this conflict the Songstress of Absence wept and consumed with her vast and hollow song Sorrow sprinkled through her silent ballads added power so that each time she opened her mouth the significance within Deganawidah vanished the way a concentrated beam of light scared away shadows The MonsterÆs Nether Core remained strong yet his surrounding Soulspace began to seriously suffer The blurring of the environment began to fade revealing the two to be standing still in the corpse of CeruleanÆs wrecked camp locked in a deadly embrace

Congratulations Your Skill SirenÆs Dirge of Bottomless Taking has grown to Level 879

Congratulations Your Skill Diffracted Corruption of the Avarous Impossibility has grown to Level 1021

Congratulations Your Skill SirenÆs Dirge of Bottomless Taking has grown to Level 903

RandidlyÆs head throbbed as the two attempted to lay waste to each other Neither hesitated as they twisted and controlled their respective energies to ravage the other Narrowing his eyes through a particularly painful impact Randidly considered his options He cradled in his pained psyche a fist full of willpower to be thrown behind either the defense effort or the Songstress of Absence

He looked in Deganawidah’s wide eyes and golden teeth all stuffed into the Nether MonsterÆs egg shaped body So much of the core areas of both of their powers had been stripped away They could peer into each other’s secrets and weaknesses

What he saw didnÆt quite manage to surprise him Randidly could see DeganawidahÆs hidden Penance tucked away in the farthest reaches of his power Deganawidah could see that the only cards remaining to Randidly were his Authorities and both understood how little they would be able to accomplish against Deganawidah

Distant shouts from the other fighting between Aether and Nether drifted to their position but their focuses didnÆt waver

Randidly felt a sinking feeling in his chest His emotional sea had shallowed from the constant act of empowering his images A defense right now would not see him through this confrontation Deganawidah might be similarly damaged at the moment but thatÆs because RandidlyÆs attacks came from inside while Deganawidah had to smash through his body

But just as Randidly was about to throw his last bit of vicious concentration toward the Singularity of the Inhospitable Depths to inflict as much damage as possible a development outside their fatal dance drew both Randidly and DeganawidahÆs attention

The light from the Lifeseal dimmed as so much of its power concentrated into a floating orb above the city of Homewell It glittered in the sky for a moment different energies contorting and tumbling inside like a lava lamp Gleeful bolts of cobalt lightning danced across the surface of the blast hinting at where Cerulean had fled With a rumbling crack the orb popped and avalanched down across the sky an enormously impressive quantity of energy exploding out like a collapsing mountain aiming to wipe out the lionÆs share of the Nether Warriors that marched toward the city

Deganawidah shifted his attention and Randidly could feel his reaction humming through his bones A tragic loss of life But more will be They always are

Deganawidah shifted back Randidly felt sweat beads beginning to form on the back of his neck

Chapter 2297

Once again Randidly suppressed his urge to gulp wondering if he would need to call on NeveahÆs assistance to endure through this wondering how much help she would truly be against this dense Nether His mind shifted through the possibilities available to him and none of them were ones he liked

Apparently Deganawidah could not be threatened effectively with mutual destruction

Yet simultaneously the burning brand of his resolve reasserted itself in his mind From the ashes of its exhaustion the Dread Homunculus sat up and stared at Deganawidah with bristlign intensity I might no longer Survive but I can Advance past this This wonÆt be my grave Or if it is

IÆll tear down this monster with me You can survive as many drownings as you want Deganawidah IÆll bury you in the empty void

Congratulations Your Skill SirenÆs Dirge of Bottomless Taking has grown to Level 910

Just as Randidly again was to throw his last pinch of focus behind the Survivor of the Void a new development occurred As fiery baptism was about to annihilate the advancing column of Nether Warriors a ripple manifested in the air above their heads A deft weave of Nether more pure genius than any sort of significant power sprung into existence and shielded them from being directly seared from existence

HomewellÆs vicious counter punch burned and quaked the sky on impact For a split second the defensive barrier strained and held In that prolonged moment as the lack of power made it seem inevitable it would collapse both Deganawidah and Randidly came to a realization Randidly blinked unable to understand Deganawidah blanched

Because they both recognized the source of that energy Lowana the Nether Arbiter had deployed the barrier to protect her people Using only the skimmed ambient energy that gathered around her true power as Randidly had helped honed her capabilities but still With how numbed her control likely was from combat she sat on a precarious perch

Despite that she was unable to sit by and watch her people be annihilated

In RandidlyÆs heart he knew her action meant she had an answer for his impossible question

Deganawidah tore away from Randidly and Randidly let him go without any regret Right now he would take a little bit of unexpected assistance The Songstress of Absence crooned out a muttered disappointment but she allowed her image manifestation to dissipate and return to RandidlyÆs body His emotional sea sloshed back and forth so much reused emotions seeping back into him with the departure

He felt his heart pound and his Nether Core swirl torn between relief and the humming collapse of a sated animal

Surging across the sky with a blanket of inky Nether behind him Deganawidah smothered HomewellÆs powerful strike like he simply pinched out a candle But then he turned away from the Aether forces entirely and flowed down to LowannaÆs position His powerful Nether spun around creating a new storm centered on that position

Both sides watched uneasily for several seconds but Deganawidah did not re emerge and rain death once more upon the Aether forces A collected sigh emerged from the wary warriors that had been squeezed and ground down between the two armies and Randidly felt himself sighing right along with them

Almost there to the most powerful individuals in existence He looked down at his hand and then made a fist But still just a little short huh

He shook his head and glanced up at the sky He ignored PineÆs presence and looked beyond to the Aether architecture that had been built up into the Nexus Those massive gears that would create and gulp down a new Cohort glittered in the distance Waiting for someone with an insane plot to pull the right levers With the transformation of his image into a powerful new form he had the last piece he needed for the second attempt on the impossible

Kethope leaned back in her chair and folded her arms Her joints ached from too long spent holding together a race that seemed intent on tearing itself to shreds Obviously we need to take advantage of this opportunity The question for your featherless chickens is what we are going to do while the Nether forces are confused Without a plan we will squander what little chance of survival remains to us

The members of the impromptu council glanced back and forth between each other largely looking more queasy from earlier casualty reports than they were thrilled to stake a raid on the otherÆs camp At the far end of the table the usual blowhard Ilwan with his golden armor inlaid across his shell sat and brooded while looking at the melted stump of his arm

KethopeÆs gaze briefly brushed against CeruleanÆs The raptor construct had its arm completely ripped away from its body and maintained the wound like a badge of armor Its usually oppressive sapphire energy hung close to its body evidence of the expansive struggle it claimed to have happened

Of course Kethope had been in the LifesealÆs observation platform Very few others possessed enough presence of mind to pay attention to anything but saving their own lives let alone the capability to witness a fight of the caliber Hungry Eye and Deganawidah demonstrated Therefore rumors were spreading that painted Cerulean in a much more capable light than he deserved

Kethope gritted her teeth And none of his subordinates lived to share the news of his weakness Almost a bit too coincidental

Not that she wished him dead his life had been the whole reason for her fixation If Fatia Cerulean had truly been about to die she would have needed to take responsibility and go out personally there were no other Turtlelines she trusted to be able to stand their ground against Deganawidah And watching CeruleanÆs defenses being ripped up from the ground as the Nether Monster stalked forward made her doubt she would have had a much better time trying to slow him down

The only reason we held long enough to have this opportunity is Nether King Hungry Eye Kethope pressed her lips together But being the first to acknowledge that

Where is Nether King Hungry Eye One of the captains of the free companies raised her hand in confusion The beast woman tilted her head to the side as she spoke to the group an unconscious tell regarding where she believed to fit within the hierarchy Which was an accurate reading of her standing but made her words doubly damning Surely considering his contributions to the defense he should have been invited

Kethope pressed her eyes closed Almost immediately her Turtleline subordinates began to bristle to them missing a meeting was a slap on the face of the highest ranked person running the meeting in this case her So because Cerulean had moved so quickly to call the meeting and she had been unable to get in contact with Hungry Eye somehow her honor ended up at stake and the creepy raptorÆs missing arm made him a war hero

This is so exhausting Inside her shell she hunched her shoulders Do these other fools truly want to survive this tribulation

If he has decided not to attend the defensive meeting that is his decision The golden armored Turtleline said with a cool voice Have we not seen his disrespect for authority time and time again If it did not amuse him to dabble in these conflicts likely he would leave us hanging out to dry right when we needed him most No it is far better that he remains out of the loop so that he cannot betray us

As the other Turtlelines grumbled agreement Fatia Cerulean raised his talons Now do not be too hard on Hungry Eye His assistance was invaluable in the fight against Deganawidah And you cannot blame him for wishing to hide and lick his wounds it takes quite a bit of bravery to persist even while hampered

He saved your life you lying shitbag Kethope cleared her throat wanting to move the conversation forward This is all irrelevant I ask again what

Actually Cerulean looked up and smiled I have a few notions as to how we can counterattack the Nether rabble WeÆve been approached with a truly unusual opportunity

The door opened and three individuals walked into the room The first Kethope recognized as that weasel Don Beigon who had struggled and failed to handle the situation in the slums so now they had stood up and walked away Yet her heart stopped as she felt the waves of power rolling off the other two individuals that floated in behind him

Greetings The second individual bowed He possessed features but they were mixed up He had a massive eyeball taking up his chin and two small mouths where eyes were usually located I call myself the Prophet This is the Scythe And now that she has revealed herself we would like to assist you in slaying the Nether Arbiter

Chapter 2298

Randidly curled up in the pocket of gravity warm and comfortable He became a metaphysical seed planting itself in the essence of the memory world pushing itself toward germination Yggdrasil spread out its roots into the environment drinking down the chaotic fragments of energy left on the battlefield When those had been completely depleted the image drank from the ground and sky

At the moment the two armies just watched each other They probably assumed the slight exhaustion that began to seep into their bones was just stress Any dissipating energy wasnÆt missed And Yggdrasil knew well enough not to take from those capable of noticing

On the one hand Randidly knew he was inflicting pretty serious long term damage on the memory most substances couldnÆt produce let alone consume even a fraction of the energy he burned through on a daily basis The expenditure of even just supporting him back to the point his own engines revved to life would leave an environment crumbling and bleak A whole new Badlands was being created on the Northeastern side of Homewell under the armiesÆ very feet masked right now by the scars of war Yet he also possessed Animation Nova He might take now but he could replace it later

ThatÆs how he comforted his conscience anyway

Still he knew this process was necessary Randidly needed to be back up to full strength as quickly as possible Movements began in both armies First in the Aether army as it prepared to take advantage of DeganawidahÆs absence Then the Nether forces shifted in response taking defensive positions

The prolonged period of stillness for Randidly also had the effect of letting the Songstress of Absence adjust to her new form A vibrant azure gleam settled across the sirenÆs fin wings although her skin remained grey and haunted Her black eyes pulsed and drank in the surrounding light possessing scraps of the horrifying allure of an event horizon

A deep wound of frustration and anger had burned in her chest as she discovered herself but pausing and playing with the Twin Lingering Shadows of Misfortune did a lot to teach her the joys of possessing a physical form although she was mute She could play and recuperate acclimating to the presence of his other images

The Songstress of Absence would need help as it held his second attempt on the impossible together after all

Randidly checked and he could still manifest the event horizon a herald of the SongstressÆs arrival His chest rose and fell with his breaths He mentally went through the final preparations for his second attempt and checked off box after box

He had access to the mechanics of cohort creation

His Nether Core recovered most of its momentum and could once more wield significance

He had a powerful image capable of creating a bridge of superposition

His focus and emotional potency dribbled back to him his sea filling up as he gathered his own strength and began to purify the dark unconscious flowing into him from the Alpha Cosmos

Below the two armies lurched into motion An elite squad led by the golden armored Turtleine barreled forward crashing through the Nether Warriors Unified images helped forced the Nether forces back despite their superior numbers And Randidly finally understand the variable that gave the Aether forces the confidence to attack the Cult of the Savior had crawled out of its hole and prodded the two back on a collision course

In his seed state Randidly glared balefully down across the battlefield His awareness locked onto the two individuals from the Cult of the Savior not even bothering to keep his focus slightly adjacent in order to not alert them He felt a grim thrill of satisfaction as the Scythe twitched as he locked onto them YggdrasilÆs carrion clicked its teeth reminiscing about the sensation of ripping into this shadow beingÆs flesh

The Songstress of Absence crooned out a complex and nonexistent series of notes The gravitational vortex around RandidlyÆs body twisted and stretched growing in size from a pinprick into a fist then larger into a body sized orb Nether and Aether citizens lashed out and fought against each other Blood spurted out of wounds onto the ground Screams of rage and pain mixed together their shrill notes pulled into the energies drawn out of the battlefield pulled up into the storm around the event horizon

Randidly felt attentions snap upward to his position as he moved past his usual aura to a tier of power just as destructive as the attack unleashed by HomewellÆs Lifeseal Most notably he felt the hateful glare from the Prophet earning a sharp smile from Randidly But he kept his senses tingling for sights of the more dangerous saboteur Deganawidah the Thirce Drowned

However the Nether MonsterÆs emotions remained opaque His significance swirled giving no sign of a response to either Randidly or the Aether offensive And after a second Deganawidah returned to whatever business kept him occupied at LowannaÆs position

Randidly chewed on his lips but didnÆt question the lack of interference His attention returned to the force he corralled swirling it around his position faster and faster The Songstress released soft notes adding vicious edges to the folds of winds If Randidly had descended atop his storm his storm would have blended most of the bodies below turning all the fighters into pulped flesh

But Randidly didnÆt descend Randidly cracked his fingers and began to rise the pure core of gravitational power stabilizing a monstrous mixture of Aether and Nether

When he had risen to a height where he no longer threatened to crush the embers of the conflict he looked up with a burning intensity His eyes traced the glittering Aether constructs primal sorts of Engraving that possessed a deep and influential power Closer to these vital structures of the Nexus Randidly felt a howling sort of resistance a deep energy carrying notes of the Hierarchy of Burden To reach out and touch these mechanisms was to near the howling edge of this isolated universe

Randidly checked down once more but no one attempted to investigate his actions He grinned

The gravity around his body expanded outward towering winds flowing together into a massive monolith that speared out and impacted the Cohort’s fundamental workings Almost instantly crackling static ran through his images and slammed into RandidlyÆs body but these sorts of neutered energies only tickled him

Randidly huffed a breath out and bloomed The layers of gravity unfolded and sunk into the precise formations A thrum went through the Nexus as Randidly engaged with the ancient pieces

Howls and screams drifted up from the battlefield as the average soldier didnÆt notice the shift but Randidly knew there was no way the truly powerful could misunderstand who caused that sensation Especially those trying to manipulate the Universe Core as Randidly attempted to bypass the interior activation and simply utilize force to twist the tools from the outside

Gravity captured the storm of force and expanded it into billowing pockets These spread outward and impressed themselves across all the different pieces giving Randidly an even more detailed picture of what he needed to do He hummed to himself and considered then began to gather as much gravitational force as he could muster The Songstress of Absence raised her voice to a warbling aria although she could wield no sound or release no vibrations

The battlefield below was important because Randidly knew he needed the slightest nudge from the inside of the Universe Core or this would be hard Not impossible not enough for his Fateset to lick its chops in excitement but a bone cracking sort of exhaustion that would have left him completely depleted for the even larger challenge waiting beyond this first hurdle

The two energies in conflict Lives evaporating from the Nexus at unprecedented speeds The looming threat of even more ominous consequences Tension would build and build in the Universe Core And then when Randidly Ghosthound reached out and prodded the mechanisms the universe would follow craving a release

Another gamble in a long line of pushing the envelope But from his brief brushes with the Pine of the memory he believed the degrading Shallah would be only too willing to try and help save this memory

After metaphorically rolling his shoulders to marshal his Grey MonarchÆs Authority and emotional potency Randidly lifted his eyes and looked at the critical portion of the mechanism Energy and meaning roared through his veins ready to explode The First Authority Seize

Chapter 2299

The sky exploded as he activated his Nether Core to its fullest potential A nova of howling winds and bolts of crimson lightning blasted out from RandidlyÆs position His Nether Core howled and roared as his First Authority reared up and manifested its influence The explosion of first contact opened up an eye in the middle of RandidlyÆs storm of force

Dark glittering petals of Nether opened out from his position His significance ripped into the space around him gathering up momentum for the activation

Aether and Nether moved in concert through his body covering the gap between himself and the target As was broken below in high tension combat so above there was balance between the two fundamental energies of the Nexus As he pressed forward moving his potency into position he felt the hairs along his arm straighten and shiver Already the world reacted to his intention

His force of personality practically burned a hole in his chest His Fateset shivered in anticipation Loops of Nether tied themselves around his body as he twisted and folded even the flow of his Authority into a sort of Nether Ritual He wanted as much momentum as possible during that first moment of contact if just to test the resistance

His Nether Core rotated so quickly it howled Authority met the edge of the Nexus with a crackling explosion The neat patterns Randidly had made in the sky exploded outward Every cloud within twenty five miles was practically annihilated powerful winds shredding the water vapor clumps in their desperation to escape In the aftermath Blades of darkness orbited his position dangerous discharge caught in the swirling force of his power

Randidly clenched his jaw as the impact that slammed into the sky barely earned a groan from the Aether constructs His spine straightened as the contact lingered and energy began to snake back toward him

The force of rejection grew stronger as RandidlyÆs Authority settled across his target Discharge and violent radiation burned across his body but it was only about a third of the intensity of a full Hierarchy of Burden Randidly showed his teeth his Nether Core revving even faster The crushing grip of his authority tightened across the massive Aether constructs His heart fluttered burning with a sensation akin to indigestion and also sensing the true scope of the Nexus for the first time

Randidly released a soft groan as the layered framework of this memory Nexus came to him in those sizzling bursts of energy along with the truth of its folded existence His eyes watered briefly but his Dread Homunculus hummed and chugged its way through the information All the while his discretionary significance began to drain out of his body

Congratulations Your Skill NyxÆs Successor Births Fate has grown to Level 1049

The veins bulged along his neck as he strained to keep all the wrathful forces stampeding through his body from destroying each other His Nether Core continued to accelerate Thick streams of Nether wound themselves through his muscles gleaned some small amount of forceful presence and then exploded out through his Authority and gripped the grand pieces of the System

I just need a push A small shift Randidly said a quiet prayer The tension mounted His muscles strained and stretched trembling as it struggled to force the giant Aether pieces into motion He coiled and twisted the building energy creating patterns of promise in his limbs and joints Just the smallest willingness to shift DonÆt you want to change Pine CanÆt you feel the yearning that was poured into this memory

His Aether and Nether folded and bent A kaleidoscope of emptiness and gravitational violence formed in the palm of his left hand A part of Randidly stuffed and stuffed as much energy as he could into a singularity there so he could anchor his position and get better leverage on the Aether mechanisms

Congratulations Your Skill Hungry Eyes Hollow Heart Cadence of Tragedy has grown to Level 1011

Congratulations Your Skill Hungry Eyes Hollow Heart Cadence of Tragedy has grown to Level 1017

The Songstress of Absence gathered a larger and larger gravitational deviation around her body While significance exploded out of his chest his Aether twisted back around and reinforced his images The combination added an extra element of accumulation as the two energies surged next to each other

The friction spat out sparks that gleamed in a thousand different hues Small rainbow mites drifted toward the battlefield lost in the churning teeth of the black wind

Gritting his teeth Randidly lowered his head and closed his eyes Distortions emerged in the air both from the gravitational field and from all the frozen kinetic energy that hummed through RandidlyÆs person He continued squeezing The discharge from the System apparatus continued to climb as sympathy built between Randidly and his target His first Authority sang each continued moment of holding the note increasing the resonance increasing the effect increasing the strain

Randidly pushed from the outside His senses tingled waiting for a display from Pine

Immediately Randidly felt strained to the point of trembling He groped through the confusing array of information being fed to him as even his Infinite Incendiary Filaments of the Dove Moirae and the Dread Homunculus were swiftly so inundated with information that Randidly felt like he was drowning He could feel the subtle pulse of time but with time pulsing much more rapidly all other sensations were worn away

The abyss spear thrust up into a confusing morass of impressions Luckily Randidly had a beacon for a target From the apparatus within the memory he homed right in on the grander modern Nexus mechanisms To that same structure that could gulp down another Cohort

He followed the line of sameness from one side of the superposition to the other

There were several long moments of worry RandidlyÆs headache intensified If the first touching of the mechanism shocked Randidly with the discharge of a new universe now the full fury of the Hierarchy of Burden slammed into his body seeking to break down and shred this existence that straddled through two existences albeit one that had always been tucked within another

His body burned He floated in a veritable sea of static discharge a burning copper storm of electric bolts surrounded by black wind

Yet Randidly had trained for this load His Hierarchy of Burden had toughened his body The pain only made the Songstress of Absence more furious the silent note rising and rising causing the air to shiver The edges of the spear solidified and sharpened as the weapon tore through space and time Looking up he tried to ignore the trickle of worries in his overstimulated brain

The other point of tension in RandidlyÆs mind was whether the workings of the Nexus would have changed in the intervening cohort Yet when the unerring pulse of superposition finally found its target Randidly breezed through a few superficial differences and settled across the same basic shape

Both were skewered along the elongated absence wielded by the Songstress His Fateset roared in his chest searing his Soulspace with its approval

His Nether Core trembled Stretched to a second location his First Authority scrambled for a grip Desperation became fingers to paw for a solid hold Time stretched out as Randidly tried to firm up the two sides And just before Pine pressed the weight of his Universe Soul to help the process Randidly clicked the full superposition into place He expanded the Songstress of Absence achieving two forms across the universes The image became a harpoon thrust through two different iterations of the Aether foundations of the Nexus pinning two disparate points into one whole

Superposition had been achieved and not a moment too soon

Congratulations Your Skill SirenÆs Dirge of Bottomless Taking has grown to Level 942

Congratulations Your Skill NyxÆs Successor Births Fate has grown to Level 1050

Pine shifted and pressed the pedal The Cohort creation piece began to tremble and move That force and motion were conveyed through the fabric of the Singularity of the Inhospitable Depths from one side of the superposition to the other Born of the same essence the Cohort Creation in the modern Nexus also began to move

In his chest his Fatepiece pulled all the wild conflagration of its euphoria into a tight fist It gathered itself preparing for the inevitable backlash

His skin stung slightly now submerged in a pool of plasma He could distantly feel the storm rising into a monstrous continent breaking fever pitch but those impressions felt so distant All his focus narrowed to pulling off this impossible trick

Randidly understood that making the memory real on his own would have been difficult He had a few of the elements necessary for the creation of true life but crossing the bridge from dream to reality still remained beyond his capabilities So he needed a little help in this case from the Soul of the remembered Pine and the power of the modern Nexus

With the little of the coordinate controls Randidly could sense he grasped out through the temporal barrier and turned the target in on itself to the collapsing Sonora Significance and Willpower drained out of Randidly more quickly than he would have believed possible He began to feed on his kinetic storm rapidly depleting the energy he had gathered to fuel the transition

The drive from the memory Pine moved through him ripping through the barrier between real and imagined The physical act of transitioning into a Cohort would be birth to the wish forged Nexus so that Randidly could bless the transition and hopefully add that extra something so the result would be real

As the wheel began to turn under the prodding from Pine Randidly narrowed his eyes and settled in to exist as the fulcrum on which all the alchemy turned

Chapter 2300

Actus Suprem Devick stood in the middle of the wide space in her glittering robes The orb in the middle of the chamber was horribly depressing looking at it would literally allow emotions to be sucked right out through your face She amused herself for a bit by thinking of people she hated and then feeling those memories slip away devoured by PineÆs corpseÆs ceaseless hunger

She liked to imagine that when the memories vanished the people themselves would vanish as well A wide smile broke out across her face However that glee quickly faded

First she couldnÆt remember who she didnÆt like

Second she was almost sure that if she had really not liked these fucks they would already be dead

And third it REALLY pissed her off that she could no longer remember whether she still had to kill these blurry annoyances or not

She bit her lip and sucked on her blood for a bit trying to keep her temper in check In the hollow chamber of this task the air cried rust colored tears in reaction to her powerful image From her feet a blood puddle began to stain the floor as her madness seeped out and corrupted the environment

With a great effort of will she drew herself back And when she returned to why she was here her eyes began to glitter

She couldnÆt remember being this excited not in the longest time Discovering Randidly Ghosthound as her child brought her a warm joy but this request made her bare teeth crusted with drying blood a monster sniffing a long craved meal Her eyes danced with anticipation You what an honor to be selected for this task Hehe no one can sew misbehaving organs back together quite like me And I can do whatever is necessary to obtain the pieces If they resist not that they will but if they do

It must be done The blurry projection of Elhume moved his head His voice boomed out to the distant cracked walls of the room The two were alone brought here so he could impart to her this task and give her the platform with which to accomplish it

Devick swirled her finger in the air Little fuzzy snakes of malice formed and devoured each other following her pointer finger Your lack of squeamishness is a sign of your ingenuity Leave this to

Devick perked up and whipped her head around peering through the edge of this secret room in the Nexus as a massive phenomenon rippled outward At first she thought that the Sonora finally finished its boringly slow collapse but this energy didnÆt seem to quite match that And her eyes widened when she sensed RandidlyÆs distinctive tang albeit with an altered flavor

What a studious boy always sticking your nose into the most unusual sort of perversions Pride surged in DevickÆs chest flecked an obsessive need to rip Randidly to shreds and understand the way he ticked

For now she suppressed the impulse She had other toys to play with

Handle this I will eliminate extraneous elements Elhume rumbled Then his projection faded leaving Devick alone in the chamber

DonÆt die on me Randidly Ghosthound Devick whispered Her mutant heart labored in her chest so close to being so stuffed with emotions that it tore right down the middle where it had been sewn together with bonemarrow thread and madness Because you know IÆll find your weak soul if you do And youÆll spend the rest of your sad consciousness regretting being such a disappointment Kekeh

Randidly bowed his head in acknowledgment toward the World Tree I couldnÆt do this without you Probably any of it

Congratulations Your Skill the Aureate Arteries of Yggdrasil has grown to Level 983

Congratulations Your Skill the Aureate Arteries of Yggdrasil has grown to Level 998

Though the haze of the temporal barrier Randidly felt the true Nexus mechanisms also shifting Because they would be accelerated in comparison the static tension sizzling through the Songstress was much worse coming from that direction But for now both moved with the memory Pine pushing for the process

Randidly sucked in a breath as PineÆs support moving the mechanisms from the interior grew wilder and more violent Steam began to waft out of his ears as his body tried to keep abreast of the energy process Well IÆm glad you are enthusiastic but at this rate

A thunderous crash interrupted his thoughts If Randidly thought that the world had been ending previously this taught him he had been being dramatic

One moment he floated in his melting surrealist sky and the next he slammed into the ground with the wind knocked out of him For a moment he wildly wondered who could have sneak attacked him especially through the branching snakes of annihilating lightning that flayed from his person but then he felt a sinking feeling in his chest For a brief moment the singing of the Songstress of Absence faltered in her music His Nether Core ached

Probably if she hadnÆt been given a strengthened grip by his First Authority the superposition would have been directly obliterated

The blow had come from the modern Nexus and there was only one who could punch like that Elhume had sucker punched him Because he channeled the force through his body he had been physically slammed into the ground

A surge of fear gripped RandidlyÆs heart Too much was happening at once for him to spare attention but he raised his head and looked around What he saw made him grimace he had been knocked down to the West in no manÆs land between the Aether and Nether hosts but the energies he unleashed still scythed their way through the edges of the two armies annihilating innocents

Bolts of lightning arced off his body and ripped deep trenches in the ground He became a thousand legged insect his vicious legs skittering around incinerating any flesh they could find And that was before the winds came down yanked in his wake as he went through the process of pulling the discharge from the activated constructs in the memory into his storm and then feeding it up into the superposition

Congratulations Your Skill Aureate Arteries of Yggdrasil has grown to Level 999

Damnit Randidly squeezed his eyes shut so he didnÆt see some unfortunate soldier blended by the sharp edged winds he produced The ground shifted uneasily underneath him He refocused Because with the time dilation he should have some time before the next hammer blow But he didnÆt want to underestimate Elhume He activated Infinite Incendiary Filaments and peered out into the Nexus

All the while the enormous Aether wheels spun toward the creation of a new Cohort

Chapter 2301

RandidlyÆs images trembled a sliver of time after he smashed into the ground and began scouring the surrounding hills with his storm His bones ached in his flesh as though they had been knocked askew by the punch

Sulfur writhed in an approximation of pain his hand burning where the anchor had been forcefully shifted Reverberations went through his images even through the temporal barrier around the memory causing fits of weakness He forced his racing heart to calm down

This is Elhume Randidly looked solemnly up through the complex mess of energies the storms raging around him his Nether latching onto the cohort construct his image piercing out through the temporal barrier to the Nexus proper and finally to the layered and complex series of impressions he could read beyond Not the Elhume who hasnÆt found himself but the one at the height of his power Still

Randidly flashed his teeth his Fateset cackling He was on the inside of a powerful temporal barrier and his image would convey those motions in fast forward to the real Nexus Can you stop me in time

With the assistance of Pine pressing against the giant mechanisms the wheels continued to spin His mind raced and strained as he mentally pulled setting the target Randidly felt the first portion of the process lock into place A shiver went through the memory this time due to the substance of the memory flickering Luckily Deganawidah continued to honor his word using his vast Nether to reinforce the memory

One reason Randidly had first conceived of this plan was despite the various elements at play adding a Cohort to the Nexus was a simple three step process You selected the target area you sent out a barrier to cover the area and pull it into the Nexus and then the adjusted area would be normalized with Nexus energy Perhaps the first step might be more complicated when you needed to peer out past the edge of the Nexus but Randidly guided the construct to the memory and the mechanism was only too happy to oblige

However RandidlyÆs skin tingled even before the second step in the process started Elhume punched for a second time

The left corner of his mouth quirked upward Not pleased IÆm mucking around in your memory Randidly felt a flash of flippancy and then he remembered that he had been smashed into the ground while wrapped up in a storm of destruction covered in a temporal barrier only a few seconds ago And he was pretty sure the first strike had been casual

Casual for Elhume An unexpected energy had begun affecting the Nexus and he had struck Probably enough to evaporate seas and annihilate a thousand versions of the Randidly who hadnÆt yet stepped into the Nexus proper Now when the first attack failed the reigning monster of the Nexus rolled up his sleeves and took the threat a bit more seriously

He heard the voice speaking from afar resonating with the ache in his bones

The Second Fist Vengeance

Congratulation Your Skill Infinite Incendiary Filaments of the Dove Moirae has grown to Level 1179

Congratulations Your Skill Infinite Incendiary Filaments of the Dove Moirae has grown to Level 1180

Randidly felt the memory beginning to deform from the intrusion of the fist The lingering squalls he had left in the sky were obliterated by the fistÆs arrival an attack that quelled any lingering fighting between Aether and Nether forces The massive glowing fist the perfectly honed transference of unstoppable power rushed down toward Randidly like a cataclysmic comet

He had the smallest shred of time to prep himself His Nether Core whirled pushing its speed dangerously far past safe levels With significance taking up all the slack keeping the Songstress of AbsenceÆs spear in place Yggdrasil and the Dread Homunculus focused all their energy on defense

SulfurÆs massive form began to release the cool cleansing glow of dawn RandidlyÆs right arm sharpened and twisted possessing all the wicked corners of a shadowy dusk Both hands burned with image power balancing the flavor of each They spun together and ran along the shaft of the spear in parallel lines

Congratulations Your Skill Dawn Opens the Sky and Realty Stirs has grown to Level 998

Congratulations Your Skill Dawn Opens the Sky and Realty Stirs has grown to Level 1002

Congratulations Your Skill Darkness Withers the Horizon and the Watching Carrion Grins has grown to Level 1000

He thrust Fist met spear

The ground collapsed beneath him with enough immediate violence that the surrounding area were thrust up creating sharp toothed ridges In the moment of contact both Yggdrasil and the Dread Homunculus gave slightly needing the Songstress to hold their own in a conflict of this caliber So when his image physicalizations faltered and were subsequently obliterated the force slammed against his body

Randidly coughed up blood and staggered backward The weakened ground had apparently only been compacted into structural integrity by the pressure from his feet so the small step meant he slipped and fell into a widening ravine Several groaning quakes shook the area tearing up the ground in a larger and larger radius

Mid roll Randidly punched his fist into a solid looking rock slab and stopped himself He squeezed his eyes shut desperately trying to keep feeding energy through to the Songstress while his body struggled to cope with the physical strain He hissed out a breath He witnessed the bubble closing the second step completed

He let a smile dance across his face Even Elhume probably is leery of standing directly against the Nexus now that the process has been started And because of the time difference he has already used his one shot

The Fourth Fist Timeless

Randidly blinked at first believing that he had misheard Yet that familiar ache had settled into his abused bones He flexed his arm and tossed himself out of the ravine to land on the ground Dust and crackling electricity muddied the surrounding space but he could look up at the sky where he saw three fists ripping down toward him

Are you Randidly began to laugh he almost couldnÆt help himself The final boss could just throw punches outside of time’s bounds His hands tightened on AcriÆs shaft Fucking kidding me

Chapter 2302

Randidly looked up at the three blazing fist attacks burning holes through the sky each with enough power to still brutalize his images on the way to slamming into his gut His heart fluttered as he scrambled for countermeasures Even now his internal organs struggled to rebalance themselves after withstanding the first attack

He sucked on his teeth eyes blazing Are you making fun of me Throwing three punches toward me one for each of my images Or is this number just a coincidence

At the very least by the time you recognize the outcome of these attacks the second step of the process will be done RandidlyÆs eyes flicked sideways peering out through the storm of energy around him to where the Nexus proper continued to cover the memory with a film of energy to create a Cohort Only a small portion remained uncovered

So it came down to this attack If he endured through this the only wall left in front of him would be the actual accomplishment of transforming an imitation into reality

A warm up is just what I need right now TodayÆs been so dull Randidly straightened and rolled his shoulders He could feel the ground still shaking beneath him from the prior impact but he needed to move Acri and Sulfur hummed their support for him Acri suggested that they utilize the monstrous image physicalization and create the spear tail and that gave Randidly an idea

All at once his counterattack sprung fully formed into RandidlyÆs imagination

He glanced around his vision cutting through the choked air still unsettled from the storm ravaging the ground and then the explosion of the first Timeless impact Corpses could be seen strewn around in the area remnants of the earlier fighting and testaments to why you shouldnÆt get caught too closely in RandidlyÆs struggles Broken limbs and twisted bodies staining the ground with their blood He breathed out a breath aware of the impending attack and closed his eyes

The Dread Homunculus beckoned at the torn battlefield with long fingers

The restless dead and damned rose ten thousand specters masked in the storm and forever bound to furiously wander due to the violence of their end Aether soldiers and Nether Warriors came one and all their figures flickering in the storm of black winds and crimson lightning around Randidly

He looked at them with compassion His image spread its arms wide accepting the small hunks of negativity that anchored their remnants in place DonÆt you hate it To be forced to leave off here To cease moving forward But help me and you can linger Help me and you will build futures for your people

I need your power To change this cage Please

He delivered the entreaty knowing some would reject him The flickering remnants of significance he spoke to now possessed little by way of intelligence Mostly what remained was instinct And about a third of those twisted forms began to fade Their motivations pulled them elsewhere away from the current Randidly offered

But those that lingered their eyes began to sear out of their place of rest light burning coals RandidlyÆs Fateset grinned Gotcha

Congratulations Your Skill ErebusÆs Baleful Waltz has grown to Level 1042

And then those phantasms that wandered through his storm raised their heads and bellowed out a call The air began to hum with their resentment An emotional gong sounded its reverberations seeping into the ground and bouncing across the sky moving impossibly quickly They flickered back and forth traveling out of the storm speeding toward the previous battlefields around Homewell to the vast mounds used as unmarked graves inside the Badlands

The raced to the edges of the memory couriering RandidlyÆs offer to all the bitter dead

With a roar Randidly shattered one of ElhumeÆs Fourth Fist Even using the Moirae of Ripples Skillset his attack held together

AcriÆs gleaming spearpoint cleaved through the knuckles and unleashed ways of destructive energy lashing out to the left and right which Randidly quickly gathered to fuel the Songstress A grin broke out across his face Even though he had borrowed heavily from the memory for the fuel the shape and the thrust were all his own And with his own hands he had defeated a true image attack from a Pinnacle being

He did his best to hold onto that victory as the other two punches arrived He drew back the massive spear for another attack but the souls of the dead were unruly Most of the borrowed force collapsed Randidly barely managed to manifest a plane of gravity beneath his feet and set himself before they arrived

He shifted to the left at the last second accepting the weakening of his stance so the impacts were staggered The first still broke through the remainder of his images and mashed him bodily against his own gravitational surface He didnÆt even have time to make a sound before the second fist caught him in the side

It was all Randidly could do to keep the Songstress of Absence singing For a brief moment the superposition he maintained ground to a stop all the valuable momentum he had built up over the last half minute vanishing Yet only in that state could RandidlyÆs image endure as he hacked out a cup of blood and shot sideways like a kite hit by a baseball bat

His body tore a hole through HomewellÆs Lifeseal as it shot sideways

Only when he crashed and tumbled his way to a stop in the Badlands did Randidly nudge the Songstress of Absence back into motion Randidly might not have been able to see straight and every bit of his body felt like it had been chewed up but he sagged with relief when PineÆs weight still pressed through him activating the mechanism

He gestured broadly with his right arm laying in a pile of shattered shale The second step is completed Elhume The bubble is closed And the third portion is about to begin Once the energy pulse examines the area and discovers how compatible it is with the Nexus you will officially have your new Cohort

The sky tore The blurry and unmistakable figure of Elhume stepped into the memory The bright light from his figure made it impossible to make out details but he clearly kept the tear open as he looked around he had stepped into the time dilation of the memory but it appeared the creator of the wistful memory still didnÆt wish to break it entirely

What can you do Randidly asked

The brilliant figure probably didnÆt hear him but he waved a hand and created deft hooks of Aether Those shot outward and for a split second Randidly worried Elhume would target the Songstress stretching between the two Aether mechanisms But rather strangely most of those hooks spread out to catch the bubble blown to create the Cohort

The few remaining hooks snagged onto the pulsing wave of time that passed across them all

Randidly didnÆt understand until the next pulse of time came through The nudging of time pulled and tugged on the bubble around the memory That pressure caused the bubble to drift slightly with the pressure light enough that the bubble didnÆt tear

But why Then Randidly saw it

The edges of the memory Nexus as the net of Aether to capture an area drifted closer didnÆt stop it

Because in the end it wasnÆt real

Chapter 2303

The impossibility of the task before Randidly made him grit his teeth He pressed himself up out of his small crater blood leaking from sundry cuts spread across his body Small pebbled tumbled and shifted underneath his feet Grimacing he stood and swayed His head spun Information continued to flood into his mind but all of the extraneous details became vague His focus narrowed as his well of mental energy ran dry

He categorized each element in his environment By moving one at a time he could keep himself ahead of the dizzying collapse

He ignored both the shrieking fury of his Fatepiece and the whisper of his instincts as he neared his limits for the second time today In a way he had succeeded with his clever activation of the Songstress of Absence The bubble of the new Cohort covered the memory Perhaps had Randidly not been forced to stop the transference of momentum up to the mechanism the process would already have finished

For now he distantly saw the petals unfolding in the real Nexus revealing the core mechanism that would pulse and ascertain the situation in the new Cohort as the third and final step All that would be left after that would be the kiss of genuine reality

Randidly moved on to another element an image with enough blazing potency he felt it against his skin like the heat of the open top of an active volcano The blurry and bright figure of Elhume floated in the memory still within the bounds of the tear in space Hooks of Aether spread out from his body and grabbed onto the bubble designed to delineate the edges of the new Cohort Elhume pulled and the bubble shifted

Randidly looked at the barrier that had been created for the new Cohort

It began to phase right through the edges of the memory the real Aether of the bubble causing the fake Aether of the memory Nexus to waver and grow insubstantial A new shift pulled his attention back to the Nexus The unfolding of the pulse mechanism stalled out An electric crackle ran through the bubble RandidlyÆs eyes widened understanding ElhumeÆs purpose

The Cohort mechanism sent out a pulse through the bubble as though sensing some element was amiss Randidly gritted his teeth From his investigations into the memory version Randidly hadnÆt noticed anything that could cause this sort of development Likely some added defensive measures were added later for the later Cohorts

Too late to worry about that now

The Cohort mechanism should have been just taken a bite from existence The essence of the memory wouldnÆt have mattered Randidly had guided it to bite all around it Once the swallowÆ into the Nexus had begun he would have taken care of the problem of its reality But now that problem had been brought forward

Elhume began to tug with more force The bubble rippled and shifted further under his ministrations The edges of the memory Nexus began to fade vanishing as the real energy drifted forward Elhume demonstrated that he didnÆt want to harm the memory

Again Randidly swayed as he calculated his options His head pounded But he raised his hands and ignored the weakness in his images and his Nether Core His resolve firmed For my second magic trick letÆs make something that never existed appear

A little earlier than I planned but at least I have a person of prestige in the audience

In the depths of the ground beneath the battlefield the carefully prepared orbs of Nether Ritual began to stir He released a long breath The small wounds across his body healed Energy discharge crackled from the annihilating effect that the bubble exerted on the memory as the fakeÆ Aether constructs along the edge of the Nexus suddenly were liberated of their connectors Yggdrasil reached out and drank down all that energy reinforcing Randidly as best he could

All the while the Songstress of Absence continued her long solo maintaining the critical connection

Randidly gestured and his Nether Rituals began to swirl beneath the ground The resentment and ill will of the dead within the memory had been leaking out of RandidlyÆs body after his massive manifestation had been broken but a portion of that energy was caught up in this new rotation Once more they found purpose

Elhume used his hooks to iron out any embers of resistance in the memory even as Randidly wove his Nether Ritual underneath his feet Randidly forced his Nether Core into high gear allowing almost all of his awareness to slip away The Nether Ritual gathered momentum pulling from the fabric of the memory

RandidlyÆs heart pounded in terms of sheer scope this Nether Ritual was the largest and most transformative he had ever created Already his palms became slightly sweaty and he felt the tug of the four condensed cores in the circle And their rotation pulled a different sort of significance and began to create something truly profound in the very middle of the circle directly beneath RandidlyÆs feet

The ground began rumbling already weakened by the multiple impacts it endured during the last fifteen minutes Randidly poured his hopes into the ritual as it gathered speed beneath him pushing more and more into the Nether and hoping the momentum of it would carry him

However he tensed immediately as he realized his narrowed focus made him briefly lose sight of the threats against him As Randidly raised his head he expected a blow to be immediately descending toward him Yet he looked at the blurry form of Elhume and while the highest authority in the Nexus fixated on him with a heavy gaze he did not strike

Are you so unwilling to harm the memory you wonÆt even try to stop me Randidly muttered But while that likely had a thread of truth it wasnÆt quite right Because Elhume was very willing to throw punches earlier into the memory practically blindly

Perhaps after Randidly proved he could survive punches Elhume was just unwilling to escalate further

After several long moments Elhume just tugged on his hooks The bubble drifted again More of the memory Nexus became deprived of its accumulated reality It became the flat predetermined movie it had been before Randidly had arrived and worked so tirelessly to stabilize and dig a foundation for the memory

RandidlyÆs expression darkened because he suddenly thought about another source of a threat As his Nether Ritual generated a powerful tide he felt the other source of potent significance in the memory Specifically Randidly looked across the stilled battlefield toward Deganawidah The Nether Ritual continued to spin its sphere of influence increasing Very quickly it became obvious that the ritualÆs energy pressed against the Nether Monster

Yet Deganawidah didnÆt respond either

A part of Randidly knew why they didnÆt attempt to stop him He made no attempt to hide the wishes he poured into the Nether Ritual so they simply had to look to know his intent

Randidly clenched his jaw not willing to entertain his doubts Perfect This is just the window I need

He looked down through the ground beneath him to the central area of his Nether Ritual The circles grew wider covering a larger area each core fattening into a basketball sized minor Nether Prince More and more meaning poured into them

And in the middleù

A cold wind blew out released by the Nether Ritual The shape was shadowy at first but gained definition as more meaning flowed into RandidlyÆs working It had been hewn from ice but ice taken from the deepest sunken glacier never before exposed to light

Its long legs clicked as it stirred

It was a spider

Chapter 2304

Randidly stared for a full second at the spider unable to understand why the core significance of the memory formed into this creature Its small body possessed eight long legs but he couldnÆt stop looking at the central portion of its body where the icy exterior revealed a small pulsing brain And two slender antennae stuck out stretching directly up from the nerve center

The small spider swept its antenna back and forth observing the waves of dark energy exploding around it A truly impressive amount of significance and emotion swirled around its body

Yet every second of confusion was one less Randidly spent pouring shape and vitality into the Nether Ritual Elhume tugged in short intervals annihilating more of the potential from the edges of the memory So Randidly put aside his curiosity and the sense he was missing some vital element to truly accomplish the goal of making the memory real and returned to the fundamental work

His Nether Core revved His emotional force wove its way through his silent prayers his wishes humming with such kinetic energy they seared the interior of his chest with their presence He pushed and pushed the circles into their rotation rolling along the edge of the larger ritual space

His breaths veered toward panting as he drew the Nether Ritual out of the ground into a pyre of significance around his body As he continued to fixate on the spider he understood one source of his discomfort he wouldnÆt be able to do this on his own

So he looked to the sky hoping that if he provided enough charge to a moment a miracle might spark

By now the energy visibly crackled out through the air even more domineering than the tattered remnants of RandidlyÆs storm sweeping the sand around his body A towering pillar of darkness exploded from his position releasing sweeping waves of meaning that seemed to poison the darkening sky as day prepared to transition into night

Randidly could feel the resonance between the memories growing More significance from farther away flowed around the mild impediment of Deganawidah and his army and happily threw itself into the Nether Ritual A whole network of little ant burrows coming under the ground and weaving themselves into the grand transformation

When Randidly looked with the eyes of the Dread Homunculus he saw an army of dead walking with stuttered steps choosing now to become laborers to raise the edifice repudiating the concept of possible He carefully examined the flow of significance and began picking small alterations to make to the Nether Ritual based on the conflicts he had with Deganawidah

The patterns he wove were simple and replicable They became a solid bedrock that would be extremely difficult to disentangle He might have been thoroughly slapped around on both occasions by the Nether Monster but that didnÆt mean that Randidly wasnÆt learning

Congratulations Your Skill Right Hand of the Nether Polymath has grown to Level 993

Congratulations Your Skill Right Hand of the Nether Polymath has grown to Level 994

The four cores rolling along the edge of the Ritual began to glow with a blue grey light Their flickering edges reminded Randidly of Nether Princes The detail of the central spiderÆs legs grew so sharp your eyes would bleed running along their meticulous edges

Randidly glanced away to the distant edge of the memory and saw the shifting bubble about ten percent of the memory had been lost by now Considering the folded and abridged nature of space within the memory Nexus he felt a new current of fury running through his emotional sea He checked it as best he could and continued to stoke the flames of revolution The Nether curdled the air creating rippling pockets of space and generating the grey muck of inert energy where it corrupted nearby Aether

In the core area of the Nether Ritual the ice spider stirred Climbing the slender shadowy beanstalk of destiny it ascended toward that inflection point

Randidly gritted his teeth and emptied every pocket of emotional force he could muster All his hopes all the desperate desires the wild designs of his Fateset his dissatisfaction and hope all of it gushed out of him and into the Nether Ritual The energy darkened and thickened gathering into clumped boils that swelled along the pyre and then popped releasing jagged hunks of refined significance

Time might flow down but the Nether rose up in an endless spring tapping into deeper and deeper cravings of the memory every second Randidly watched those strange hunks of solidified Nether rise up through the pyre until they became caught at the choke point caused by the halo They drifted slowly developing their own rotation

The swelling pustules came faster Pieces tumbled in the energy and rose until a veritable asteroid belt of harsh significance became the interior edge of the halo

The spider climbed its legs clicking against the nonexistent Sweat dripped down RandidlyÆs face Elhume tugged again invalidating almost twenty percent of the memory

Already Randidly understood what he moved toward with this massive display a shape The Nether equivalent of the Pinnacle A single look at the broken edges building blocks made Randidly understand how riddled with cracks the result would be His doubts tried to slither into his resolve slowing the outflow of energy and weakening the result

Yggdrasil breathed in and out Energy from the distorted and invalidated Aether rushed through him invigorating him for a moment and then rushed out just as quickly drawn away to the Songstress of Absence and leaving him with only a trickle

Show me whatÆs possible Randidly whispered to the small ice spider tapping its way up the Nether Ritual Very deliberately he closed his eyes and ignored his doubts He unclenched his fingers from around the result he desired He ignored the gloomy presence of the imperative and the calculations of the Moiraes IÆm giving you everything I can The rest is up to you

The spider climbed until its body twisted and shrank pulled into the strange energy singularity created by the halo A pulse blasted out through the Nether Ritual polluting and twisting the careful flows that Randidly created His heart fluttered as he felt something old and dark in the core of the spider an emotion long forced into a suppressed state now given license to manifest in the world

The accumulation of Nether Rock accelerated the bottom portion of the Nether Ritual bubbled and spatting out the jagged particulate it seemed Randidly had opened up a portal to rock hell At the top the asteroid belt began to shiver and soak inward vanishing into the singularity

Congratulations Your Skill Yearnings of the Nether Heir has grown to Level 1180

The significance became rocks the rocks shot up to the singularity the singularity devoured them all and finally the spider entirely disappeared into the core of the singularity squeezed in by the halo

A few seconds later a world shaking explosion smashed RandidlyÆs head into the ground For the second time that day a huge impact cratered him down while throwing up ridges in the surrounding space His dizziness was equally caused by mental strain and physical impact

When he looked up a massive black spider towered over Homewell rage and madness radiating out from its piecemeal form Remnant bits of shadow energy drifted out from the monstrous shape

ItÆs two antennae flicked back and forth searching for a target

Chapter 2305

A dark mist wafted around the massive spider’s feat And the first emotional note that spread out from its bleak and fractured form was very clearly learned from all the scattered sparks of significance imported from the memory’s dead The spider hunched under the weight of the grudge it carried

Randidly felt a chill run through him as he considered the very real possibility that this had been a bad idea

A monster towered over him oozing potent Nether and wild dissatisfaction Energy crackled through its joints and broken body the form clearly hastily assembled and poorly conceived Gushes of significance poured out of the cracks of its body as the Nether Ritual beneath it began to dissipate

On the one hand he felt immense power in the massive spider Its standing body was about as high as a ten story building with probably just a little less than one half of the memoryÆs significance gathered into the form A baleful danger seeped to seep out from the chitinous body a genuine impersonation of those frightful statues that Randidly had discovered in that strange sea connected to his Nether Core

Ice veins ran through its long limbs the legs ending in slightly curved talons It possessed probably twenty eyes stretched across its torso all in various shades of bloodshot rolling unfocused

Randidly wondered how long it would be able to survive with so much energy seeping out of the flaws every second It had been forged from the significance of the memory but it didnÆt quite all fit together correctly The wishes of Randidly and those hard working deceased those innumerable dreams of becoming real currently bridged those cracks But Randidly wasnÆt sure how long that would last either

A ripple of Nether rose from DeganawidahÆs location but the Nether Monster did not wield his significance to strike at the manifestation However it did set off a small but intense series of fights between Aether and Nether forces once more

Strangely it was Elhume that reacted most visibly He paused in his efforts to invalidate the reality of the memory and glanced at the giant spider Then he looked at Randidly For a brief moment the energy distortions around his face began to settle revealing amber eyes with slit pupils

Their eyes locked Randidly felt the hairs along his arms prickle Whereas the current Elhume seemed to buzz with emptiness this Elhume was rather overstuffed Randidly could sense hundred of emotions ragings within his foeÆs body crashing against each other in constant struggle

Emotional force like Randidly couldnÆt even imagine containing crashed across those irises reminding him of the heights Elhume would someday reach

Yet it was the words that really made Randidly feel fear

Randidly Ghosthound The memory pulsed with ElhumeÆs words Through the press of conflicting emotions something ravenous protective and quite unhinge began dominating within those amber eyes Such a familiar energy So you are where she hid

A shattering dong of a noise cracked the air as the spider deftly raised one of its long legs and stagged it directly toward ElhumeÆs heart The sharpened leg smashed against the tear ripped by Elhume and shook its occupant

The spider opened its mouth speaking with the shrill voices of children the dying gurgle of warriors the calm insistence of priests the absolute surety of addicts IÆm real

Bug do not Elhume began to speak again annoyance clear as his attention shifted but the spider stabbed once twice three times each gathering more and more momentum The third strike hit the tear so hard it began to stretch outward with micro tears from several locations Elhume seemed genuinely alarmed likely by the damage to the memory

Randidly blinked Am I just going to succeed here

The memory vibrated With small tremors at first but growing larger as the web became more comprehensive The pulses added part of the indefinable quality the memory lacked Chewing on his lip Randidly sat down on more rubble and began to meditate He gently eased his Nether Core back to rotation guiding it protecting it healing the flaws he could find in the Nether within his body Soon he had achieved a sustainable baseÆ rotation Because if this process was to succeed Randidly would probably need to add a bit of life with Animation Nova

Yet another problem soon presented itself clearer with each thread tossed out into the web An enormous chunk of dead weight sat at the middle of the memory grounding it Muting a portion of the echoing reverberation produced by the spider Huge plates of Nether rock some the size of rooms tumbled off the spider It settled down on its belly continued to work It threw thread ups to Pine floating in the sky bringing its web near completion

And sitting below as the memory began to fizz Deganawidah and his vast sea of significance refused to be brought along for the ride

The spider threw four last webs out touching last corners of the memory and completing the complex pattern of connections More chunks of Nether had fallen off the flawed shape so it really only had three full legs remaining the two smaller ones throwing those connections and one sharpened front leg the same one that had stabbed at Elhume over and over again

Why The spider screamed at Deganawidah WeÆre real

To RandidlyÆs surprise the significance of Deganawidah rippled in a genuine emotional reaction of pity His energy pulsed and sent his voice up to the spider This will accomplish nothing false idol Your hollowness dooms you And to make the poorly conceived attempt the greatest insurance of our people will need to be sacrificed It is not a deal I am willing to make

Real The spider raised its sharpened leg and struck

The point sunk into DeganawidahÆs massive sea of Nether without even producing a ripple The spider flailed its leg but could produce no disturbance That pure and untouched corner of memory remained placid

Randidly narrowed his eyes and wondered whether with his Songstress of Absence otherwise occupied and his Nether Core completely depleted he would be able to assist in another conflict with Deganawidah The spider didnÆt have much time remaining soon its shape would completely collapse into disparate pieces of dead Nether

Just as he decided to move a voice spoke next to him The Fourth Fist Timeless

Randidly barred his teeth and the Dread Homunculus roared Sulfur flashed up catching Elhume attack that had been hidden in the air for a moment of distraction For a second the two warred the Soulseed arm absorbing the kinetic force a hair away of allowing the attack to blast through and smash an already unsteady Randidly to the ground Yet the attack must have been weakened by delaying its execution

The second punch caught Randidly in the side of the jaw and knocked him out

The impact against the ground was not enough to wake him back up

Chapter 2306

Shit Neveah drummed her fingers against her thighs trying not to acknowledge the rising tide of panic as he felt RandidlyÆs consciousness flicker out

Normally he would probably have bounced back to life almost immediately hopping back to his feet before his body had even finished skipping across the broken ground The accumulated exhaustion caught up with him however When he hit the ground he remained there his shoulders slumped against the gravel he had torn up in his tumble The storm that had been spinning around him lurched and stalled out The crackling electromagnetic bolts began to falter and dissipate

Most worryingly the black pillar stretching between memory and genuine Nexus began to flake away and fall to pieces The Songstress of AbsenceÆs note of unifying silence echoed for a brief interval without support from Randidly but already it had begun to fade

Neveah turned her attention back to the spider it flailed its legs a little more but each movement meant more hunks tumbled off The leg remained stuck in DeganawidahÆs morass of spinning energy

The spider threw a few threads somehow trying to bind Deganawidah but the Thrice Drowned ignored the attempts Only an ember of the desires that first animated the spider remained in its body Everything else had been expended to create a massive web connecting a large portion of the memory to a pulsing heart within the spiderÆs body The emotions that had been so vicious and intimidating toward the beginning of the spiderÆs existence had softened Almost as though violence had been its only choice while the emotions held together a massive and powerful body but as the body degraded the complexity of emotion and empathy the spider could display increased

Fully one third of the remaining spider teetered and hit the ground with a boom All that remained was a long arm stuck in DeganawidahÆs vortex

Let us be real The spider screamed

Without purpose any open flame is dangerous Deganawidah said To allow your surly antagonism to linger would be an abdication of responsibility

REAL Came the spiderÆs eloquent reply as more crucial pieces of smelted Nether fell off its body NeveahÆs panic continued to rise as she recognized that the window of opportunity that Randidly pried open was being closed

Deganawidah simply snorted in response and turned away from the nearly expended manifestation Neveah chewed on her lip as the powerful effects created by Randidly faded Aether and Nether forces appeared to remember their previous conflict The two armies roused themselves slowly following the lead of the special ground trying to rip through the Nether defenses

As the spider cracked below SongstressÆs spear cracked above Soon the connection between memory and reality would shatter Randidly had poured his heart into making a miracle and it had been strangled by Deganawidah and Elhume before it could even make an attempt to bridge the gap

RandidlyÆs heartbeat was even and already Neveah could feel his absorption of energy rapidly shooting upward The recovery process was kicking into high gear albeit hampered by the fact that he was laying in the already barren Badlands There wasnÆt much value to be taken into his body

The spider let out one last plaintive screech Then its body caved in on itself the long arm tumbling away and cracking the ground DeganawidahÆs figure vanished returning to defend Lowanna against the crusade by the Prophet

We donÆt have fucking time for this Neveah muttered Wild patterns of Aether Engravings built themselves in her mind and then were obliterated by the inevitable realization it would not be able to salvage the situation Each of her ideas could alleviate a symptom of the failure but she couldnÆt take advantage of it in quite the right way

For all that she thought Randidly was insane for these attemptsÆ she couldnÆt deny that the result possessed a poetic sort of inevitability And from that his ideas drew their staying power Her ideas meanwhile

She considered rushing to RandidlyÆs side and donating energy but she knew that it would require more than even she could provide quickly most of the energy he needed was significance which she could not provide nearly as easily as Aether She considered picking up the buck and forcing the memory through a transformation but now she understood Deganawidah was an impediment to that option Her mind raced through other possibilities

While she thought the world didnÆt bother to wait Even after the spider’s body collapsed the spirits that Randidly had assembled lingered They rushed to form a ghastly specter that looked at the world with desperate and hopeless eyes They sat at the center of a fading web of connections the veins that could have animated the memory to become something more than it was The black pillar between reality and the memory degraded further until it seemed that only a strand connected them

And then Neveah had an idea Those lingering fading pieces Randidly had managed to create fit together into an answer

Symbol after symbol shot away a solution wedged into the closing threshold And just barely the shadow of a miracle slipped through the gap

With a gasp Neveah finished She sat down panting and shaking She had expended so much mental energy that the illusion of her human form faltered for a few seconds leaving the monstrous carapace of a bone wyrm visible to the world However her part was done Plus she very purposefully tried not to think of the trouble that would result when the memoryÆs Aether did return and smash against the edge of the Dungeon she had created

The massive Engraving she had erected began to spin and whirl The edges snapped into place The bubble sent by the main Nexus hummed in recognition of the selected section it had been scooping up Dungeons and plopping them into the Nexus for a long time As it activated Neveah was surprised to note the whole of the memory was brought along

Just with an unpopulated third of it existing outside the confines of the DungeonÆ She wondered if it was possible to cross that barrier

The memory rumbled as even DeganawidahÆs efforts couldnÆt fully restrain the disturbance in the significance The whole of space around Neveah flickered as their positioning shifted and settled into its new location

And in came a pulse of meaning that Neveah had to have felt against her skin to believe It was not realityÆ that breathed through in that moment of uncertainty But when the connections between the memory and the Nexus began locking into place a sense of legitimacy passed through to their location Those raging spirits began to gather up a roaring momentum The web woven by the spider sank into the fabric of the memory becoming battery and animating force

RandidlyÆs patterns of significance replicated endlessly along the branches and pathways The feedback loop intensified bringing power and meaning to the knock off Lifeseals that Neveah had built into the Dungeon Nearby hostilities escalated between Aether and Nether forces reignited in earnest most of the soldiers and probably even the upper echelons not understanding the meaning or effect of those massive energy shifts

Neveah rubbed the bridge of her nose happy to have been able to complete RandidlyÆs work but the longer she looked at the rising tide of momentum of the memory spirits of significance the more she felt thankful that the Cult of the Savior was making trouble for the Nether Arbiter at the moment

Because such was the potency of the emotions that for the first time the deep rock of significance that had weighed down the memory began to stir Hope had been given to these spirits And in the depths of DeganawidahÆs history individual bites of significance began to break off and flow into the Dungeon Web

The amount was minuscule It would take hours before it amounted to a handful probably even longer before it would have a noticeable effect on DeganawidahÆs power But a flow had been established one that made the result inevitable

The structure of this cobbled together Dungeon Web could not coexist with Deganawidah

Neveah blinked as a new problem asserted itself A figure flashed across the outskirts of Homewell making a beeline for RandidlyÆs still inert form She recognized the image almost immediately the young Don Beigon sensed weakness in Randidly and was out for vengeance

Lucretia Do you have

Already on it Lucretia replied Only a moment later a tall figure in a beaten leather coat stood over Randildy and slid his fingers through his belt

Don Beigon slowed as he approached his eyes narrowed Who are you

A man who owes this fella a favor Hank Howard tipped his hat toward Randidly He grinned at Beigon Take another step and youÆll regret it

Don Beigon sneered and took a step

Hank Howard drew his revolver and shot him in the chest

Chapter 2307

Mae Myrna floated in an abyss Darkness whispered behind her ears flitting back and forth in the edges of her vision Her heart had been hacked hollow by an ice pick and left to dry she wondered if she would ever feel real again Her image curled inward on itself losing all the carefully crafted momentum she had built up over the past few weeks since isolating her area The darkness used small fingers removing her foundation grain by grain

She felt so empty Her eyes just fixated on the ground The darkness pulsed urging her to speak Her tongue felt swollen and the words left her sick I am nothing

Yet she could not stop speaking them

I deserve

I am nothing

I I just wanted

Just nothing

In reality she sat in her room with a meal set out in front of her Brilliantly woven tapestries sang gallant colors along the wall a collection of gemstones filled a shelf behind her and all of the furniture was solid wood she had carved herself This was home At one point steam had wafted off of the delicious smelling pork chops but she had been hunched over the table so long that it had cooled away to inertness

Since the darkness came she had not moved but to whisper

Now the strange insight that revealed the dark certainty had vanished but for a bit it had felt like Mae had been able to see through the fabric of existence She saw herself how she truly was a pale imitation of a true being that had existed in the past She saw the arc of that womanÆs path felt sure she would have become that woman except

We all deserve Mae mumbled the words her image trying to find its legs once more Time mattered for individuals who existed and she didnÆt But for every rotation of her world state image the foundation collapsed a bit more completely She couldnÆt escape this loop

I am nothing We deserve nothing Mae felt tears coursing down her cheeks She knew this was not the path she was supposed to walk She didnÆt want to die a snake devouring its tail until its body vanished But she also knew that now that she had seen through the bedrock of her existence she couldnÆt perpetuate a lie They did not call her the Patron of Truth for nothing She refused to lie to herself

Armed with this new knowledge her image began to change

There was no other way to survive

Devick stood in front of a triptych mirror and swayed back and forth almost in awe of what she saw Zethusala clicked in admiration You are a rare beauty Miss Devick

Please this old thing IÆm hardly fit to clean the stables Devick fluttered her lashes flush with possibilities Because this version of herself pampered and emphasized in all the right ways was a version of herself that could be a queen A version that could match a man called Randidly Ghosthound

A deep green gown almost the same color as Nether King Hungry EyeÆs irises hugged her torso and blossomed out into a cascading brilliance of embroidery and opulence past her waist One of the workers at the boutique had brushed her hair until it fell in soft ringlets around her face Each crimson strand glittered with tiny motes of gold The choker wrought by the Nether KingÆs hands for her sat around her pale neck a powerful accent piece that added a hint of seductive mystery to her figure

The two brass automatons moved back and forth around her to admire her from other angles As they used their precise hands to reposition her gown for perfection DevickÆs heart beat with a strange vulnerability

She looked at herself now and saw softness and warmth She had been dressed up to be a beauty queen not the fickle demon of the Hobfootie court not the bloodthirsty bearer of Malice the Needle Toothed Hare not a lieutenant in the armed forces that methodically hunted and slaughtered Nether patrols

Shoulda brought my fucking horse The man muttered his powerful image of adventure and possibilities enduring the assault from the otherÆs image

Scowling the Turtleline brought his other hand around and hammered the guard With it came a wave of salty water from his image forcing the hat wearing man back and soaking Devick to the skin All the fancy silk and embroidery now hung lank across her body making her resemble a day old pile of wash

At the very least that shock of cold woke her up She felt very far from the glittering facade she had briefly witnessed in the triptych mirror Far from the visage she had imagined totally imagined next to Nether King Hungry EyeÆs side

No matter what she was now she hated her current self enough to finally move A little at first but that hatred bubbled through her and forcibly subdued the panic and anxiety

When the anxiety refused to concede Devick simply smothered that useless emotion and tossed it into the dark corners of her heart

Devick kept trying to breathe but her chest cavity seemed smaller and smaller with each attempt Her lungs could barely inflate her heart could only flutter The hat wearing man twisted away and slammed a fist against the TurtlelineÆs shell but barely did any damage With a gesture a pillar of surging seawater exploded beneath the defender and sent him scrambling backward

DevickÆs hands trembled as she reached down and tore the bottom of her gown She started mid thigh tearing away the smooth silk and leaving a ragged emerald edge Part of the puffy chiffon underdress frothed out around her legs The sleeves so slender and elegant looking she ripped away entirely baring her arms to the shoulder She licked her lips looking at her pale skin

Panic and desperation had created giant red splotches across her limbs

And thatÆs fine What does it matter how I look Because in the end IÆm just Devick felt the tears she had thought were coming for so long began to build in the corners of her eyes Because IÆm just whatever DonÆt try and fucking label yourself just kill the assholes and figure the rest out later

Congratulations Your Grand Fate has begun to evolve Recalculating

Warning as your Grand Fate has achieved many Levels the results may be a degraded version

Hungry EyeÆs choker began to heat A half dozen more Turtlelines were loping across the broken land from Homewell DevickÆs eyes burned as her hatred found an outlet So what if she just spent her entire life playing at being someone she was not So what if she had no foundation for her wild imaginings Because right now Hungry Eye needed protection Her problems seemed petty by comparison

ThatÆs the problem isnÆt it How fucking petty I am Devick grimaced Following her instincts she reached into the air and grasped From the absence she pulled down a heavy obsidian mask It manifested uncomfortably warm to the touch Malice chittered with excitement as she shifted her existence infecting and strengthening herself through the Grand Fate Devick slid the strange mask into place across her face

The features were entirely blank except for two holes for eyes and a pre carved mouth eternally frowning From the top two corkscrew ears twisted out laying a little below horizontal From the chin two sharpened tusks jutted straight downward The Turtlelines whooped and manifested their various images They werenÆt overly powerful so it was easy to look past their details and just see enemies

And in front of her an enemy had earned only one sort of ending

She settled down feeling strangely boneless Her arms were limp hanging straight down She twisted her neck side to side rocking her frowning face back and forth Underneath the mask her tears came pouring out She ached She wanted too much but she had no idea how to grasp it

More than anything she wanted Hungry Eye to need her And as that core wish solidified her neck began to twist

At about halfway her head now horizontal Devick felt strange But a wild glee had risen in her heart the specter of that bloodthirsty monster that always existed beneath the surface This time she embraced it fully And her head kept twisting past the explicable In reality her spine should have snapped as she torqued her neck around But it seemed too easy her chin clicking around like the hand of a clock

The reversed perspective meant the maskÆs mouth leered out at the world ends turned up in mad gaiety In her heart Devick felt a wild joy surge through her Two demonic horns stuck straight up from her head Two strange whiskered curled sideways from her chin New eye holes appeared on the top of the mask revealing irises that seared crimson

Congratulations Your Grand Fate MaverickÆs Barbaric Imperative has evolved into the Grand Fate Malice Merry Consort of Perdition Levels will be maintained

Chapter 2308

Her eyes deep set in the obsidian mask began to smolder

Devick stepped eliminating the distance between the first charging individual and herself The heat and the wild elation of battle lifted her out of her own doubts into another place entirely She reached into the TurtlelineÆs chest and plucked out his heart splashing out a crescent of crimson across the ground as she removed it with a flourish

An individual worth killing is worth killing well

She raised the heart following the dark impulses that emerged in her chest wielding it as a ritual object She squeezed until grey and purple pulp oozed out between her fingers The ground exploded rust colored chains surging out of the ground and wrapping themselves around the approaching Turtlelines

Congratulations Your Skill Chains of Madness has evolved into Bitter Prayers of the Damned Skill Levels will be maintained

Congratulations Your Skill Bitter Prayers of the Damned has grown to Level 491

Movement whipped her burning gaze sideways but it was Hungry EyeÆs chosen minion capitalizing on the opportunities she had created With the same easy grace he displayed before he stored away the blocky weapon and leveled the ornate gun with his right hand He fired two shots generating fireworks in the torso and arm of two of the Turtlelines

Devick wondered if those Skills were why he had been chosen by Hungry Eye when she had to follow the Nether King around like a limping and unwanted puppy

Congratulations You have learned the Skill As Above Admires So Below Craves

Congratulations Your Skill As Above Admires so Below Craves has grown to Level 2

Congratulations Your Skill As Above Admires so Below Craves has grown to Level 56

Congratulations Your Skill As Above Admires so Below Craves has grown to Level 114

Devick ripped her gaze away before any more dark impulses could bubble to the surface The veins running through her body felt strange at some points her blood felt like ice leaving her numbed and sluggish but at others she felt molten metals bubbling along through her muscles But for all the strangeness she looked down at her limbs hands soaked in blood and legs soaked in mud and felt like herself

She released a breath Her fingers itched to reap more life but the soft sound of rocks tumbling down made Devick lurch around With a wide yawn Nether King Hungry Eye sat up and looked blearily around at the situation His eyes still slightly unfocused landed upon Devick and he smiled at her

Nice mask Randidly chuckled I must have missed my invitation to the masquerade

For now this place is stable You can explore freely Be careful though There are a lot of monsters around that could kill you Hungry Eye said Hank snorted and sauntered away reloading small bits of gleaming brass into his weapons The Nether King then glanced again at Devick his gaze lancing through her body and shocking her with a thrill of pleasure Your Grand Fate is developing quickly But looks like you finally have it centered inside your body Does your new image harmonize better with your Class

Devick glanced sideways at Neveah but the black haired woman had conjured an armchair and simply slumped over on its sumptuous cushions She licked her lips no one had asked her or commented on the Class provided for her by Hungry EyeÆs subordinates before Would you believe me if I said I simply bullied them both into behaving

A genuinely cheerful grin spread across Hungry EyeÆs face If you are saying thatÆs the case IÆd believe you capable of it Devick

Devick felt brittle and exhausted Too much had happened too quickly But she supposed she was glad no one had told Nether King Hungry Eye about the Class she had received Because indeed it harmonized well with her new Grand Fate Malice Merry Consort of Perdition

Her Class was GhosthoundÆs Willing Martyr

It was never a question of whether she would sacrifice herself for him Now a new resolve emerged in Devick to understand who and what had so totally stolen her heart

To withdraw now will avoid the danger Deganawidah said slowly Words shaped in his wide mouth had a habit of resonating in LowannaÆs chest From the first moment they had met she had found it distasteful Our forces will overwhelm them given time But currently

I cannot retreat Deganawidah And you know exactly why Lowanna pressed her lips together Every one of her people that perished on the battlefield she felt a tiny eternal pinprick of absence joining all the previous deaths in the back of her mind A horrid accumulation of naught that made her quite weary My people need me I might be bound but I am not a coward

Your little tricks gleaned from Hungry Eye will not DeganawidahÆs eyes flashed But he held his tongue when Enmya looked up from the ground

I hate to agree with the Thrice Drowned but this Cult of the Savior is the group that led the attack on Wyndaos yes We cannot underestimate them EnmyaÆs eyes slid away from her face Even now he could not understand why she had kept him in the dark when she had known the attack had been coming They are aware of our presence yet they still press forward They will bring means

Even a rat may kill a lion if given the opportunity to select the proper reaping ground Deganawidah scowled

Lowanna gave the two of them a pointed glance Then letÆs practice being a bit more fearsome than lions shall we Peace gentlemenù you will not sway me

So they stood and glowered as the sounds of violence drifted closer Lowanna the Nether Arbiter looked up at the sky and studied the strange currents of significance that surrounded them

To her surprise the world shattering feats of Nether King Hungry Eye had done surprisingly little to affect their conflict even now she could stare at the stars and see her inevitable death writ large across the universe It seemed completely certain

But this time Lowanna knew she might be wrong So she sat and considered and waited for death to stalk closer She felt so so tired

Will you make it in time to hear my thoughts on the universal unifying principle of Nether Hungry Eye The Nether Arbiter closed her eyes Or will you allow me to spare my people this curse

Chapter 2309

After the repetitive viewings the Patron of FeatherÆs early life began to blur It was a stretch of angst and rebellion unsullied by any meaningful decision she made She could lash out at her father stalk through the hallways of her childhood home throw temper tantrums and then wake up the next morning to do it again She had simply taken her powerlessness for granted And although she now realized the second half of her life was similarly inevitable she couldnÆt help but follow the pull of narrative and watch her most precious relationships all degrade and rot over and over again

Soon the hollow fingered fox would wander into her life

The Patron of Feathers Elhume and Yystrix followed the strange wild manifestation of power burning across the horizon to its source where the sky had cried a tear so hot it burned its way through the atmosphere and scared the ground Elhume had led the way with Yystrix behind him and the Patron of Feathers lagging behind

Could the present her reach out and touch the thoughts of the past Had she already done so Because even at that moment in her youth she remembered the dread she felt on their journey The overwhelming darkness she seemed to sweat out with every breath As though it had become certain that waiting for them at the end of the path was death

So dramatic The Patron of Feathers sighed as she observed herself But in a way I was right The absence waiting for us is closer to death than any other force in the world

But what choice did we have We didnÆt understand

A stark figure floated in a smoldering orb of energy in the middle of a clearing made by the impact The trees around them rustled back and forth as all three stood next to each other considering the strange curled being with eight tails that floated there

A vulpine Yystrix said as all three stilled and tried to determine the situation

Elhume blinked slowly His hands tightened into fists but the glimmer in his eyes was one of immense excitement by the eternal truths Look at him Yzzy Can you feel its power If we can train it

YystrixÆs eyes blazed as she rounded on him She hissed her words at him The first thing your mind jumps to upon seeing this new being is to train him Have you learned nothing from the suffering of Pineù

Immediately ElhumeÆs expression darkened Some of the surly resentful Elhume that the Patron of Feathers so rarely glimpsed rose to the surface His eyes were incredibly flat reflecting none of the light coming off the strange energy display they followed Careful Yzzy I did what I had to in order to protect my son Besides I am his father I deserved to be able to touch the son that I made with you

For a moment YystrixÆs expression flickered She seemed to be on the cusp of saying more but a strange wind blew through the clearing Both exchanged a glance seeming to remember where they were they might have been the first to follow the trail to see this being floating in an orb of energy but others would soon follow

You would rather leave this innocent here exposed to the elements ElhumeÆs frown deepened Let me be clear Yystrix Yule We will not be departing the forest without this being If you do not wish for me to intervene

Another blast of wind shook the surrounding trees Yystrix hesitated for a second but then flitted across the intervening distance In the end her mastery of Aether made her the better choice for first contact especially with a strange manifestation of wild energy With a wave of her hand she summoned spinning matrices of Aether Engravings to cushion the energy and dampen its spread She reached out piercing through the barrier around the body and cradled the vulpine with careful hands

Both the Patron of Feathers and Elhume saw her flinch at the contact The Patron of Feathers wondered if they had made some horrible mistake

But then Yystrix moved again jumping back across and standing by their sides The trio shared a glance and were gone from that very conspicuous place ghosting through the shadows of the rustling trees before any other greedy parties could show up and investigate the disturbance

Honestly just remembering the second made Randidly grimace He had truly failed had Neveah not been there to intervene and wrap the memory in the trappings of a Dungeon everything would have fallen apart

Luckily for him she had been ready And now a deeper pattern had begun to form in the memory Deep barely perceptible currents brushed the significance into monstrous patterns that could change the world Looming before him was his third attempt the endeavor to create enough energy to heal his Class by trigger the reach of a Pinnacle

Even now Randidly felt annoyed by the inert Attribute MuseÆs Reverie the one he had worked so hard to obtain He remembered those moments of inflection over the past week which should have earned him additional MuseÆs Reverie Which would have unlocked that powerful Reverie mode

And let me preserve this version of you maybe Randidly glanced sideways at Devick

The red haired woman flinched almost defensive at his sudden movement They had simply been standing here for the last ten minutes as Randidly looked up at the sky and considered What Did you really need to consider for so long Leave a little girl a bit of mystery IÆm not going to tell you about my Class

Randidly blinked having completely forgotten what they had been talking about Her Grand Fate had sounded rather impressive although the word PerditionÆ came along with rather unfortunate connotations A smile quirked the edge of his mouth amusement cutting through his concern for the next attempt You win this round Devick But donÆt let this victory get to your head

If nothing else IÆm very confident of remaining untainted by vanity Devick batted her eyelashes at him earning a full laugh

A few more bits of the crumpled mental soreness eased out of RandidlyÆs forehead The small joy of laughter couldnÆt completely make up for the exhaustion he had built up this far but it was at least a start

However he didnÆt have much time Can you help me IÆd like you to draw a pattern on the ground here

He pulled a scroll out of an interspatial ring and held up his right hand For a few seconds a bead of Mana burned on the tip of his finger Then it hopped off onto the scroll and began to spiral outward in gorgeous patterns Even while the Mana bead finished the drawing he tossed it DevickÆs way

He flickered out of existence just as she caught the scroll and opened her mouth to reply As much as Randidly could use whatever nonsense she would likely throw his way he also needed to be somewhere else very soon

As he streaked across the battlefield he glanced up at the sky one more time But this glance caught a new detail from beyond the limits of the memory Randidly could feel Aether constructs gathering into a bunch He bit his lip The time difference meant he had the advantage but he definitely needed to hurry if Elhume was trying to make trouble for him

He was a whisper moving through the Aether soldiers and Nether warriors After her time bridging between two Aether Systems the Songstress of Absence made him practically undetectable as he crossed the battlefield Of the two threats Deganawidah only observed his movements and the Prophet was too intent on settling up his circle around the core of the Nether camp to stop his movements

So with a soft tap Randidly put his bare foot down against the dirt in the middle of the Nether power and grinned around Deganawidah Enmya What a pleasant surprise to find you all gathered here

Enmya bristled at RandidlyÆs presence but Deganawidah just seemed tired You truly have no respect for anything even yourself Your existence frays and for what

Ignoring that annoyingly accurate comment Randidly looked past them to the woman with black wicker handcuffs Nether Arbiter I believe it is about time we spoke

Chapter 2310

Lowanna the Nether Arbiter felt exhausted Doubly so as Nether King Hungry Eye appeared before her with deep bags under his eyes but a wild grin like the two of them were committing some eldritch taboo together by labeling Nether connections

And what made her heart ache was he was probably correct

Before she could respond Enmya snorted He had been releasing heavy sighs and pacing for a while now waiting for an opportunity to vent some of his frustrations Hungry EyeÆs presence was exactly the excuse he needed Leave untethered Nether King Before my patience comes to an end Your interference will no longerù

Enmya Lowanna huffed out her words Her long time companion might want to lash out but they couldnÆt afford the distraction Her fingers twitched like the legs of an idle centipede Do not interfere It is true that Nether King Hungry Eye and I have much to discuss for example why he has so thoroughly tried to mar this world with his energies In addition what thickening barrier have you erected around us

LowannaÆs eyes flicked to patterns in the sky that arced toward the horizon She could see them replicating and strengthening themselves even as she watched Beyond them parts of the Nexus suddenly lay dangerously Of course she also sensed the strange presence of another reality creeping closer So much of the bedrock of existence that she had taken for granted now seemed in flux The efforts of Hungry Eye appeared to be foiling that encroaching force but she wished to understand why one third of the Nexus needed to be tossed away

I mean you have to admit all my tempestuous capabilities really were much ado about nothing Hungry Eye shrugged still with that crooked grin on his face But that new barrier well We started a process to turn this into a Dungeon The very same sort of zone that Westrisser constructs Only this new Dungeon is attached to my reality Congratulations you will soon experience the distant and modern reverberations from this war if you wish to know your fate

LowannaÆs extremities felt cold Both the strange disapproving gaze of Deganawidah and the open hostility and worry from Enmya weighed heavily on her She wanted to be able to physically pick up their attentions and shred them into little scraps of paper Because she could not she focused all of her antagonism on Hungry Eye YouÆve made so many claims YouÆve shown me much and I can feel your belief in what you say but youÆve also asked me for a monstrous sin against my people Against all the innocents Iù those I spend every second of my days trying to protectù

For a moment the mundane acidic emotions that she couldnÆt avoid developing choked Lowanna to silence Into that opening Hungry Eye spoke with a soft voice We discussed a balance a return to the true equilibrium of utilizing all three bonds across a single people Without this unity

Sacrilege and stupidity Deganawidah hissed

Hungry Eye shook his head even while the sounds of fighting behind him grew louder the agents of the Cult of the Savior drew closer to their location I know what IÆm asking of you But there is no other choice Specificity brings with it drawbacks but also great strengths

How convenient for you that you stand to benefit so much from these strengths while you bare so little of the drawbacks Her fingers twitched Lowanna found she didnÆt really care anymore Too much buzzed around her head Too many emotions clouded her vision She had held back for so long

And against this man she need not pull her punches

So she raised her hands a grin similar to Hungry EyeÆs own springing into existence across her face I do have an answer for you Nether King But I will not give it freely Show me you truly understand Nether well enough to best me One last duel with everything on the line If you win I will provide your answer If you do not

Randidly glanced behind him Then he looked forward In real time Lowanna could see his aura sharpening Despite how meager the reserves Nether King possessed based on the strain wrapped around his body he whittled that down to a razor point He hefted that mental blade with its edge aimed at her heart His smile widened A challenge it is

Her significance roared and pounced once it found that point The gleaming woven core to Hungry EyeÆs assault which allowed him to achieve so much more success than he had in the past couldnÆt be repositioned If he attempted to dodge her attack his whole offensive would collapse and the Nether King would have failed She wouldnÆt need to vocalize and name this horrid truth she had encountered

She could steamroll his remnant significance and smash her energy against him winning the impromptu challenge

All her deepest wishes flowed through the inky black wave of Nether She rejected this pattern She lashed out The two significances smashed against each other

I will not allow you to do this Her eyes simmered as she looked at Nether King Hungry Eye so close physically wreathed in his resilient Nether But at the moment that their two powers clashed he smiled

She felt the difference immediately in his Nether although it took a bit longer for her to understand the sensation The density hadnÆt changed that much since their previous clashes His methodology had evolved which deserved praise but it wasnÆt to the point that Lowanna wouldnÆt be able to overcome it No it was the depth of his significance that suddenly became overwhelmingly clear

She came with blades and his core threads turned out to be woven steel

The ground beneath the impact point shattered spraying bits of stone The Nether of Hungry Eye rebuffed her sharpened significance after a long moment of strain It seemed to snort in derision at her attempt it clearly announced that it had been struggling against the oppressive of impossibility while her Nether had engaged in no such trials As such it possessed an edge she didnÆt expect

With her attack rebuffed Hungry Eye had a moment he didnÆt waste He stepped forward his Nether reforming and cutting through her briefly disorganized defenses LowannaÆs eyes widened as his Nether curled away a hair away from impacting her directly

Had that strike landed her body would have likely drawn on the forbidden powers instinctively

It is my win Hungry Eye said When Lowanna could only stand and stare at him unable to understand where that last bit of invulnerability had been born he patted her shoulder You spend too much time respecting the forbidden

And you transgress too freely It The Nether Arbiter sighed out the words All the tension left her body She sat on the ground and began to tremble She looked up at him You truly wish for this to be said

Hungry Eye nodded The movement did not come easily She could see the pressure on his shoulders as he assented He understood

For her that sense of gravity was enough Lowanna huffed still surprised she had lost It is not a complicated truth It cannot be if it is to unify all Nether Bonds But we have always known this was the case havenÆt we Otherwise why would the first measure we take of our power be its Weight

Because for Nether beings to be touched by another is to be burdened All connections become restrictions As we exist we grow heavier every moment

Chapter 2311

Randidly left the base of the Nether forces almost forcing his attention away from the ripples moving out from Lowanna after she called all Nether connections a burden He felt the shuddering fractures emerging throughout the accumulated history of the memory as this characterization became irrefutable He ghosted across the battlefield avoiding the intensifying fighting as the Prophet and the Scythe struggled toward her

As Randidly passed through the area of the most violent fighting the Prophet gave him a glance Yet both seemed content to allow the other to proceed unmolested Each had a goal that held their attention The slight decrease in success rate that would result from confronting the other was an unacceptable risk

The cracks in the Nether of the memory continued Not even DeganawidahÆs stabilization could prevent intermittent rumbles

In the end the Nether Beings of the memory would need to confront the Cult of the Savior Looking at the sky it was clear that the karma had been sewn long ago for this meeting Despite RandidlyÆs presence delaying the kidnapping of the Nether Arbiter and the subsequent torture it seemed a variant on the same inflection point would find a way to still arrive

Not my problem Randidly gritted his teeth The rotations of his Nether Core were inconsistent nearly spent to possess the Weight to overwhelm Lowanna in direct contest His head pounded and his reserves were empty One last impossible wall loomed ahead of him With that barrier so firmly in his path he couldnÆt spare the attention for this issue

Parts of the memory would need to resolve themselves without his interference

RandidlyÆs toes curled in the mud and he stepped three more times moving to the prepared area He barely managed to keep ahead of the ripples spreading out through the surrounding Nether Nether as burden became law It had always been true but now it was emphasized based on the fact that the Nether Arbiter herself had pronounced it

It had been necessary but Randidly it would also make his own existence more difficult He could feel his own exhaustion already beginning to accumulate due to the presence of the Alpha Cosmos

To his surprise Devick had actually made good use of the time he had been gone She had drawn about half the pattern he had left for her The Mana depths possessed some unacceptable variance but the details of the lines had been followed faithfully She hunched over as she worked crimson hair falling down over her shoulder For a bit he simply watched her moving intently crimson and black energy flickering away from her eyes as she stared unblinkingly down at her toil

Burdens yes Randidly couldnÆt help but smile as he watched Deivck move The ripples caught up with him soaking into his body That pronouncement even reached through him and into his body the Alpha Cosmos Subtle shifts adjusted the foundation of his existence in ways that could almost be missed Yet he had no doubt that the effects would eventually become undeniable Yet we make them anyway Because it is worth it

Only through connection can we grow

When she noticed him she actually seemed pleased Devick raised the scroll and waved it excitedly a wide grin on her face Hungry Eye I donÆt know what sorta scribbles these fucking are but just sitting here tracing it earned me a new Skill AND IÆve gained almost two hundred Levels in it Seriously if you can casually gain so many Skill Levels on a whim its no wonder you are a monster

Yea something like that Randidly chuckled He rubbed two fingers together to refine Mana then flicked it toward the half finished pattern A bit of his energy shot through the pattern evening out the Mana depth But I need to focus on something else right now Can you finish the Engraving while I focus

She flapped her fingers as if to say wouldnÆt I already have finished if you hadnÆt shown up and distracted me Æ then returned to her work Randidly hopped up to a nearby hill sitting down cross legged and looked at the sky

He took in a deep breath He planned his next steps

A ripple formed in the air as his Codex Hexahedron condensed in front of him He hummed and it shot up into the sky the smaller cubes spreading out to allow the larger cube and its energy field to cover some of the flows of significance hanging there determining the fate of the memory

I need to be more than this Randidly told the storm of significance He breathed deep pulling kinetic energy from the nearby combat and using it to reinforce his body as best he could IÆve done this for so long forcing my way through problems ItÆs worked every time and even I donÆt think I would fail now But also

He thought about NeveahÆs sadness as she pleaded with him to think about his personal costs He thought about the devastated expression on LowannaÆs face as she announced to the world that Nether bonds were burdens He thought about the bright Devick who worked below him now compared to the madness of the modern Devick

Because Randidly knew that the path he walked most closely resembled DevickÆs He saw the prices for continuing to push without acknowledging limits

RandidlyÆs shoulders slumped Even with all the benefits he knew this would bring the actions felt uncomfortable He forced himself to relax He dispersed his Fatepiece and lay on the ground He closed his eyes It went against his instincts to do this with so much on the line He knew he needed the rest but he also knew he needed other things just as much

Perhaps it was a mistake Perhaps he would regret deviating from his usual methods

But he couldnÆt forget the look on LowannaÆs face The absolute exhaustion and bitterness the hopeless and bleak light in her eyes as she called every aspect of her people a burden

Randidly fell into a dreamless sleep haunted by the Nether ArbiterÆs eyes When he woke up five minutes later the worst of his exhaustion had been vanquished by YggdrasilÆs tireless efforts Energy had cycled through his body healing the small tears and expelling toxins that built up in his system For the sixth time that day his Nether Core had stabilized its rotations and began to accelerate

In addition to all those improvements Randidly had an idea He thought of a quick way to push up the Level of his Fatepiece by focusing on the critical elements

He sat up and looked at the sky He began to twist and alter his perspective folding the dense Nether flows over and over again seeking a particular method

The idea came from LowannaÆs words From her reminder about the importance of Nether Weight Randidly had incorporated Nether Weight into almost his every movement His image physicalizations covered up the signs but he was practically covered in ghastly flames every moment now

He wielded the significance he built up freely It naturally had become incorporated into his movements Now however Randidly folded his perception over and over again seeking a very focused method of viewing One based on the burdens accumulated

Congratulations Your Skill GhosthoundÆs Acute Nether Nose has grown to Level 1081

Color leaked out of his vision as focused solely on significance Space matter and mass drifted away leaving pulsing blobs of accumulated Nether Still Randidly twisted and turned until those blobs stretched into high towers standing in front of him With a few more adjustments Randidly felt the entirety of the memory but it looked like an upside down funnel straightening to a distant point in the sky

Randidly had made all objectsÆ into towers of significance arranged by their Weight His eyes peered up at those tallest edifices of significance those that could reach up and pierce the sky His will pulsed and the Codex Hexahedron flew up to spread across these most pivotal existences in the memory

In that strange dark city of history RandidlyÆs Fatepiece began to feed him the fundamental information he needed for this last attempt

Chapter 2312

Congratulations Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 84

Congratulations Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 85

The strange warped perspective meant he stood at the foot of the citadel of darkness the towering pillars of significance stretching up in front of him Each of the metaphysical bricks of their construction contained secrets about the fabric of reality His codex pulsed and spun rising through the towers to reach those loftiest peaks and find what waited at the top There he found his first true hints regarding an ascent to the Pinnacle

The Fatepiece activated and he could practically hear his brain begin to wheeze

RandidlyÆs vision swam as he was swamped with information from those most significant events within the memory The small bits of his Codex spun and tumbled dragging a net through all the significance and pulling out all the details it could manage And considering the FatepieceÆs advanced Level that was quite a bit The base of his brain burned as though the rushing information had begun throwing off sparks with its passage

A clearer picture for the finale of the memory began to emerge even just from the information he was not receiving To his surprise the touch of the Nether Arbiter Lowanna vanished entirely as he rose to the most significant memories those that would persist to the end He felt her presence through much of the middle section with far reaching consequences for the Nether people and then it just abruptly vanished Unsurprising considering she should have been captured by the Cult of the Savior quite a while ago

Congratulations Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 87

Randidly bit his cheek to keep his attention from wavering He tried to ignore the sweat trickling down the back of his overheated skull His Codex ascended gathering more information

What did give Randidly pause was that at the very same point that the Nether Arbiter was no longer relevant DeganawidahÆs presence vanished These two towering monoliths of the modern Nether forces vanished entirely The remnant threads relating to the Nether forces were thin and disparate although numerous No wonder the Third Cohort saw the systematic shattering of their culture to the point that no Nether Kings existed any longer

Still Randidly pushed his focus upward past the mysterious developments of Nether toward the soon approaching moment of ElhumeÆs Pinnacle He found a thread relating to Mae Myrna which wrapped tightly through Elhume to set the stage Randidly peered farther and farther up glimpsing the future When Mae and her strange world state image were vanquished ElhumeÆs energy changed His massive river of significance clashed with Pine and the Cult of the Savior and

Randidly blinked Elhume has two important insights

Congratulations Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 88

Congratulations Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 95

The sweat on his neck evaporated from the heat radiating off of him leaving only salt behind

Randidly felt his particular folding of perception beginning to come undone and forced it to stay in place Even if he was only a few hairs away from collapsing as he peered through the convoluted threads of meaning in the memory he refused to concede that last bit of distance Truly he felt thankful he had deviated from his usual modus operandi and took a quick nap He believed he still would have been able to complete the rush Leveling of his Fatepiece but he would have needed to fall into the hyper focused methodology of the Visage of Obsession to endure

And for all the benefits it brought to him it numbed him to the unexpected He wouldnÆt be able to get a clear a picture as he was now seeing Maybe he would just catalog the threats and move on

Congratulations Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 96

Congratulations Your Skill Absolute Insight of the Smoldering Abyss has grown to Level 1026

Congratulations Your Skill Gospel within the Seething Torrent has grown to Level 1023

A god For a moment an individual can truly become a god Randidly shivered his Nether Core becoming wobbly just from the presence of this entity The aura he brushed up against went beyond Aether or Nether He could feel the hints of the energies around Elhume he desired But also he could peer beyond this moment to the next developments beyond the limits of the memory

Riding that searing mount of righteous fury and godhood Elhume opened up the Nexus for its Third Cohort Those waiting jackals organizations similar to the Cult of the Savior jumped at the chance A whole influx flooded toward the opened gates to this isolated universe to instill their own Hierarchies and gain a little bit of an advantage on a universal scale

The god moved The invaders all suffered and perished Nine fists of annihilations were waiting for them

Nine Randidly frowned

Congratulations Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 100

In addition due to possessing and mastering the Codex Hexahedron +7 Grim Intuition +6 Chimeric Indifference and +10 Stamina per Level of your Class

Warning some damage to your Class detected Please see a Village Spirit for additional details

The crisp settling of his Fatepiece unfortunately broke RandidlyÆs concentration He found himself back sitting on the hill gasping and sweating from what he had witnessed But at the same time he looked at the Codex Hexahedron floating in front of him and felt how it had changed Strange runic symbols formed on each side of the smaller cubes that constituted the larger whole As it floated there the smaller cubes took turns popping out and rotating to quickly it made a whizzing noise Then they settled back into place a new symbol sticking outward

A sly smile crept across RandidlyÆs face He reached out and pulled on the threads of significance running through the world A sphere popped into his palm perfectly pitch black without any edges more of an absence than an object A notification popped up in front of him

Congratulations You have located the Sixth Fatepiece of your Fateset Paradox of the Alchemist Warning the Sixth Fatepiece has been scoured clean by an incredibly potent energy User will need to first instill a powerful idea into the object before it could be Leveled

Warning please note that this process is irreversible Once the FatepieceÆs name and abilities has been set they will not be able to be changed If the Fatepiece is foolishly created userÆs potential will be severely impacted The whole of the Fateset might even be weakened Please see a Village Spirit for more information

Randidly nodded slowly Alright all the pieces are in place And I at least can predict some of whatÆs going to happen if I move forward with this plan So nextù

The sky split open as a beam of pure Aether slammed down It ripped through the still solidifying edges of the Dungeon and pierced right into the memory RandidlyÆs head snapped up a powerful silence settling across him as the Songstress of Absence screamed in fury ElhumeÆs strange Aether construct had activated

The hammer ghosted down through the sky without a sound But that unholy light made Randidly grit his teeth

He leapt to his feet but his body responded sluggishly By the time he had realized the attack was coming it was already upon him He growled bringing all three images together to resist They mixed into a powerful attack RandidlyÆs arms moving Acri slithering into place even as he thrust his spear The force of the movement tore through space

But the attack phased right through his motions and slammed into RandidlyÆs chest

Chapter 2313

A second passed but the dramatic pain Randidly usually associated with ElhumeÆs strike didnÆt pound him into the ground

It doesnÆt hurt Randidly thought with a strange sense of distance Out of habit he completed the spear thrust shooting a spreading tear in space that ripped its way up into the clouds like a vicious rocket The sluggishness vanished burned away by the familiar movement

Yet still he stood trying to understand the purpose of that Aether

Randidly felt his Class vibrate as the strange Aether constructs passed through him He rocked back on his heels as the influence spread instantly alarmed as the strange intrusion spread through him and into the Alpha Cosmos He nudged his Nether Core into faster rotation and pulled these strands of energy through his body preparing for a follow up

Then the notifications began popping up in front of him

Congratulations Due to your achievement of a Mille you have the ability to create a term to affect the Nexus

Congratulations You have created the term GhasthundÆ Compiling definition

Congratulations Ghasthund has been defined based on the subconscious desires of your inner world

Ghasthund When

RandidlyÆs whole body seemed to hum his alarm growing at every notification However after the Pantheon intervention all the notifications stopped A final notification didnÆt arrive Periodically recalculating popped back up but it appeared to have stalled out there Randidly sent a message to Lucretia What the hell happened

That bastard Elhume is apparently smarter than we thought Or at least got a hint of your plan when he looked at you Even through the message Randidly could sense LucretiaÆs strain That blast triggered the defining for your term prematurely Currently Alta and the Golem Emperor are holding the process at bay but we canÆt keep it like this forever And now that its started it needs to be defined soon Or it will just define itself

RandidlyÆs expression darkened He chewed on the inside of his cheek How long

On the low end Sixty two minutes Lucretia responded almost immediately A few seconds went by before her follow up message arrived But I suspect thatÆs just Alta being pessimistic If I had to give you a true estimate maybe eighty five minutes Give or take We might not have experienced it firsthand but we certainly felt when you fought against time itself And that Bounty girl is nothing if not competitive SheÆs been itching for a chance to make your jaw drop

RandidlyÆs lips quirked at that wondering how Alta Bounty went from a terrorist attempting to annihilate his Soulskill into the most stalwart defender of the Alpha Cosmos Having her helm the defense effort against the latest of ElhumeÆs tricks set him slightly at ease But he set that aside for the moment to look up at the sky

Eighty five minutes is plenty of time you bastard He cracked his knuckles You think this is enough to fuck me If you wanted to preserve your little bottle of regrets you should have acted while you had the chance

His attention switched to his Status Screen After scanning through Randidly pressed his lips together somewhere between exasperation and amusement Competitiveness burned in his emerald eyes His goal had been to get 25 Skills over a thousand but currently he had only reached 24 But on a second scan there were almost a half dozen Skill within twenty Skill Levels of a thousand

Hell might as well go to thirty Randidly barred his teeth at the sky

Congratulations Your Skill Footsteps of a Legend has grown to Level 1001

Randidly nodded in satisfaction Then he checked the time Still seventy nine minutes to go before Ghasthund defines itself shit itÆs going to be close

Yggdrasil hummed in warning and RandidlyÆs head snapped up Two figures cut across the sky making a beeline for their position Although Randidly felt a bit of annoyance he also felt a flutter of anticipation in his chest Because the two individuals that shot toward them were Elhume and the Patron of the Borrowed

The air around Elhume crackled practically destabilizing with just his presence The powerful image he had constructed seared the space around him His insights into the aspect of the void left even Randidly impressed

You havenÆt lost Mae Myrna yet but I wonder how close you are to standing on the cusp of the Pinnacle Randidly whispered almost unimpressed But that didnÆt mean fighting Elhume would be easy in his current drained state Yggdrasil pulled energy through the air flooding his body with the force He rolled his shoulders feeling his body quickly adapting to the energy His heartbeat quickened

Of course Elhume would show up now to delay him in his third and final attempt A one two punch of present and past Elhume But still Randidly couldnÆt deny he felt slightly grateful After all nothing helped Skill Level more quickly than a powerful opponent

Congratulations Your Skill World Tree Sips from Every Realm has grown to Level 1053

Congratulations Your Skill Aureate Arteries of Yggdrasil has grown to Level 1000

While Randidly congratulated himself on reaching his 28th Mille Devick scrambled over to stand next to him Uh they are heading straight for us arenÆt they Well you just take it easy thatÆs why you brought me along right to handle riff raff like this

Yup Randidly glanced sideways at Devick his lips twitching She possessed enough wild aggression to actually mean what she said but she also should be able to sense both of the auras of the approaching duo Even the Patron of the Borrowed possessed a great deal more power than she no matter how much her Grand Fate had Leveled in the past week

Yet she had no doubts she would find a way In DevickÆs eyes Randidly saw a very familiar mindset She would somehow manage to do it because if she didnÆt she would die And she wasnÆt willing to die not quite yet

It was how Randidly had lived for almost thirty years underneath the thumb of the System

ItÆs almost annoying how similar we are Randidly shook his head

Devick frowned at him clearly surprised by his words Are we really that similar LetÆs talk again about how many Skill Levels I gained just by helping you The current total sits at three hundred and thirteen

Randidly scratched his cheek Ha Okay IÆve had a better opportunity to develop but its about ideology You know that bastard Fatia Cerulean told me that he and I were the same once that we walked the Narrow Path A path climbing across the bodies of those we surpassed A path built on corpses I think he would say you walk the same Path

As Randidly paused to gather his thoughts DevickÆs expression darkened Perhaps she felt the same ring of truth in those accusations as Randidly had Then Randidly cleared his throat But you know there are other ways ThatÆs why I became an Alchemist to create a Path for those who follow where there never was one before

what sort of Path is it Devick asked

Randidly considered how best to answer the question the one he had spent his whole life chasing and now only had a half answer and felt rather stumped Haah What would you say if I said my Path could lead you straight toward power with minimal deviations without requiring you to oppress those around you That there were no consequences for the journey that you didnÆt have to compromise your integrity that you could make the impossible possible with this Path

Devick squinted trying to tell if he was joking I would say you are an idiot And no I’m not interested in purchasing an estate share from you

Yea maybe Randidly straightened His smile widened as his Fateset responded to her words Perhaps thatÆs my role To show you how rewarding it can be to be the right kind of idiot

Randidly clapped his hands together and prepared to receive the first two guests of his third challenge

Chapter 2314

The Patron of Feathers could feel her mind beginning to tear at the edges as the process repeated over and over again The refuge of her life seemed worn and thin Even if she had received a gift from Yystrix one that allowed her to completely immerse herself in her own memories to become oblivious to the passage of time Faelmac WestrisserÆs plan required a weapon that could slay any foe

No one else could be trusted to this grueling task because it was an impossible mission to begin with She couldnÆt withstand the hopes poured into this working The Patron of Feathers didnÆt know how close she was to succeeding but she knew she wouldnÆt make it much longer

Even floating in her memories she would sometimes black out waking up several years later or reborn as a young child as the developments looped without her even noticing Her heartbeat became strained the noise echoed in her ears The demands of her physical body began to drag her attention back as blood began to leak out of her ears nose and mouth

Yet she did her best to close her eyes to those realities Sputtering now wasnÆt the worst outcome She just needed to endure for a bit more time

So she began skipping through the memories that didnÆt mean much seeking those that had caused her to feel strong emotions She knew that she had worsened her deteriorating condition by hopping around but only by soaking in her strong emotions could she briefly forget the pain she experienced by maintaining the array within the Dungeon The wholeness of those feelings could provide her shelter from the growing threat of timeÆs passage

This was one such memory

It had been at a time that both Elhume and Yystrix had become more active in the wider Nexus Their sphere of influence expanded as Elhume looked worriedly to the sky and saw how PineÆs soul continued to degrade They shot out to the different domains of the tyrants that had sprung up in the early Second Cohort rescuing those they could and planting the seeds of future resistance They grew in power sharpening their talents against the monsters allowed into the Nexus in the Second Cohort

She had even finally been named the Patron of Feathers by the Patron of the Borrowed Elhume thought it was adorable and began calling her that as well taking solace in the moniker And because Elhume called her that name while they performed operations strangers began referring to her this way as well

However both of these facts were just the backdrop to the true strife of that time at least in the Patron of FeatherÆs life Because she had begun taking on more responsibility with the group because she became one of the apocryphal powerful PatronsÆ she spent much of her time traveling across the land She spoke to scared refugees fleeing from cataclysm she appeared before some of the lesser dictators she negotiated with the owners of mines and timer mills for alternate trade routes

She took so many steps forward in her life stepping out from the shadow of the Westrisser name She crafted her own identity with her own effort and sweat

But part of the reason she became so integral to the groupÆs plans was because she threw herself into the work for a more selfish reason she couldnÆt stand to linger in that cabin any longer The constant bickering between Elhume and Yystrix had become unbearable Around her adopted parents hum an ominous air that reminded her much of the Westrisser estate Although their disagreements started with Pine they had now spread out to cover almost all topics that lay between them

And then came the little VulpineÆs tenth birthday Then came this memory so soaked in overwhelming emotion

The modern Patron of Feathers briefly blacked out as the day dawned All the festivities and the uneasy peace between the two parentsÆ were lost in a blur The cake the fest friends who attended the presents all lost to oblivion But that was fine the nucleus of the memory happened later after all the other guests departed

Because Elhume and Yystrix didnÆt want to fight on the Patron of the BorrowedÆs birthday they had both shot out on other missions as soon as they could So the young woman and the young fox were left alone Two Patrons lay in their pallets and tried to sleep in that quiet cabin But the Patron of Feathers pushed herself up onto her elbows and looked over at the young Vulpine its tails twitching in his sleep

It was easy to forget it now but she cared about him

All of the Patron of FeatherÆs senses sharpened The details of the memory came into stark focus Already she could sense the edges of the dread waiting for her

When the Vulpine didnÆt respond she spoke again and nudged his soft fur Heeyy

What is it The fox sounded sleepy

Then Yggdrasil manifested in all its glory sitting atop the sky island Its roots didnÆt physically dig down through the ground which had been thoroughly covered with his Engravings Instead they swam in and out of existence an impossible network of veins After forming a knot in the middle of the skyisland erecting the massive tree to a more towering monolith above the confrontations thinner varietals of the roots stretched down and sank into the ground of the memory These drilled deeper and deeper finding energy to draw from the ground

Holy shit DevickÆs eyes widened as she looked up at the intensifying image Flickering golden mists danced in the air around them as the environment fully came under RandidlyÆs thumb

Randidly rolled his shoulders as his image continued to change In the end it was inevitable that it be slightly awkward at first to manifest Yggdrasil in a different manner than he usually used it Or rather after becoming accustomed to relying on its potent energy rather than its history and accumulation to strike at his enemies So when he dug a foundation and allowed the World Tree to truly establish itself in space the sensation felt unfamiliar It was like stretching a long ignored muscle

Randidly did however understand how to utilize the flood of disdainful power that filled him

Congratulations Your Skill the First Tree Suffers Only Fealty has grown to Level 989

Congratulations Your Skill the First Tree Suffers Only Fealty has grown to Level 994

The flight path of Elhume and Fiero wavered as they neared But the two pushed forward through the growing dominance of Yggdrasil in the area RandidlyÆs smile curled upward at the edges Devick hopped from one foot to the other adjusting to the energy and throwing out some playful jabs in the air

When they landed at the edge of the skyisland Randidly spoke You didnÆt learn your lesson when I ripped off your arm Why have you come Elhume

You you really dare ask me that when you have caused such chaos here Elhume gritted his teeth and clenched both of his fists However the arm that should have been removed hummed with a horrifyingly sharp sense of absence RandidlyÆs eyes narrowed as he looked at that limb then he glanced to Fiero and back to Elhume Of all the jagged images that made up the current Elhume the sharpest came from that replaced limb

Randidly could also see that FieroÆs right arm was weakened and freshly regenerated He clicked his tongue beginning to have an idea about the annoying capability of the Patron of the Borrowed

A lot of the strange adjustments of the memory were in fact Fiero being treated differently right Randidly pursed his lips Looking at the messy and disappointing state of ElhumeÆs image he didnÆt make it to the Pinnacle on his own Could he bridge the final gap by allowing Fiero to borrowÆ the weaknesses in his image So then maybe I donÆt need to brute force the issue after all

The Engraving built on the skyisland had been premised on the fact that Randidly would need to reach the Pinnacle even by roundabout means Through a complex interaction between the Engraving and his growing understanding of time But if he could just drive Elhume to that point

While Randidly adjusted his mentality Elhume continued to speak If it wasnÆt enough that you hijacked the creation of humanity to your own ends twisting the Patron of the Deep to your side do not think I have missed how your selfish rituals aim to alter the fabric of the Nexus As the father of Pine I cannot allow you to run wild like this

Did I really twist the Patron of the Deep A hint of genuine anger flared through RandidlyÆs considerations Yggdrasil swelled above their position its influence deepening with every second Or was I simply the only individual present who didnÆt want to kill him

Congratulations Your Skill the First Tree Suffers Only Fealty has grown to Level 997

In the face of RandidlyÆs cutting accusation Elhume just blinked What are you talking about

Randidly felt a lurch of surprise because he could feel the genuine befuddlement from Elhume He probably would have hung there for several seconds trying to understand what he had missed had Fiero not opened his mouth and said in a harsh voice donÆt be distracted If we donÆt act now

Indeed ElhumeÆs expression sharpened Without further discussion he planted his feet and accelerated forward

Chapter 2315

Devick trembled somewhere between fear and anticipation at the coming battle Although the energy of the World Tree had been clearly adjusted to consider her an ally she still felt its overwhelming weight against her back The air was thick with it even in her lungs she could feel its warmth The shadow cast by the massive tree completely engulfed the battlefield as Elhume and Fiero rushed forward to attack them

Definitely we are working as partners right now

She glanced sideways at Hungry Eye whose gaze practically sparkled with his numerous calculations as the enemies approached She felt anticipation and rising joy in her chest at the thought of fighting by his side against these two A two versus two match the sort of bloody sport she had always craved

She felt fear because she knew she didnÆt deserve to be here by his side She released that warm breath of the air produced by Yggdrasil and felt cold By no stretch of the imagination did she possess enough power to have earned a place by his side

Still Devick took one last surreptitious glance at Hungry Eye She felt a horrible hateful pride rise up in her chest At the very least she could afford to be in her own head once the fighting started Her question about being the bad guys to Hungry Eye had been something of a fishing question She had wanted to earn her place here but she would still accept that she had gotten somewhat lucky There is the matter of compatibility Heh in this life luck plays a role

Hungry EyeÆs mouth twisted as the two attacked Elhume and the Patron of the Borrowed might have moved first but he claimed all the initiative with a single word

Kneel

The World Tree might be a symbol of life and growth but now Devick felt from it an indignation and cruelty she couldnÆt help but admire Plus the look of shock on the Patron of the BorrowedÆs face as he ceased dashing forward and collapsed onto his knees was quite amusing Elhume endured the word with much more dignity only staggering forward but staying on his feet His image flared around him a jagged blade of void that cut through the command

Devick moved even before her foe had finished his reaction following her bodyÆs instincts Even without seeing she knew the power of Hungry Eye in her marrow The specter of Malice flowed across her body Two floppy ears stretched up from her head Glittering crimson claws stretched out from her fingers And each step seemed like a bound devouring distance She stood over her target and slashed

Congratulations Your Grand Fate Malice Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 401

Hissing Elhume brought up his arm The attack skittered off his skin his void obsessed image impervious to DevickÆs attack She could only click her tongue and curse her own weakness His other arm settled down at his hip ready to throw a powerful punch but before he could attack a sharpened root slammed into his chest

Congratulations Your Grand Fate Malice Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 406

Congratulations Your Grand Fate Malice Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 417

Her senses tingled even while she felt the flush of enjoyment at her rapid growth

Devick leaned back narrowly avoiding the grasping hand of the Patron of the Borrowed that shot toward her back Her instincts screamed that she would die if a hit landed even as her Grand Fate narrowed its eyes at this foe that dared to lash out at the Consort of Perdition Even still considering the compatibility between herself and Hungry Eye she barely had the qualifications to observe this fight let alone participate

Her eyes bulged in disbelief and indignation Malice gnashed its teeth as her blood boiled with competitive fury You arrogantù

Even as Devick fumed Hungry Eye struck With the towering presence of the World Tree behind him the movements of Nether King Hungry Eye took on a machine like precision Every aspect of the moment from the set of his feet to the rotation of his hips seemed to have been pushed to the limit The leafy harpoon like spear blazed with concentrated energy He stood completely still a statue epitomizing potential energy then he exploded into motion The ground rippled the Engravings briefly disturbed and his spear ripped forward

Elhume unleashed a shout He clenched his hand into a fist and threw a punch All the void he had managed to cram into his body exploded in a funnel of devastation When the golden spear met the blast of annihilation the annihilation cracked

However the Patron of the Borrowed used the moment of conflict to flicker out of the crack in which he had been hiding and appear behind Hungry Eye Those grasping fingers reached out for the Nether King from behind

Congratulations Your Grand Fate Malice Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 449

Congratulations Your Grand Fate Malice Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 470

Devick landed between the VulpinÆs shoulder blades already predicting his movements His tails lashed out at her but her cavorting allowed her to just barely squeeze through the gaps in their orbits distracted as he was by his attack on Hungry Eye As she landed she thrust both of her taloned hands into the VulpineÆs back happily allowing her Grand Fate to drink down his blood and earning several Skill Levels in the process

Her heart raced At this distance it would be almost impossible to dodge a counter attack So she threw everything into her offensive

Congratulations Your Grand Fate Malice Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 474

Her image of crimson violence and hate seeped into his body but in the next moment Devick exploded away as the overwhelming image possessed by the Vulpine battered her away However the small distraction allowed Hungry Eye to complete his strike against Ehlume shattering the pillar of the void and sending his foe tumbling through the air

He pivoted glancing over his shoulder at the Patron of the Borrow Some of those powerful dawn rays shot through the air and briefly pinned the Vulpine in place Hungry Eye threw a backhand blow The Wrathful Calamity Rends

Hungry EyeÆs fingers ripped the VulpineÆs grasping fingers to shreds The Patron of the Borrowed retreated before more of his body was torn but still he received several deep gashes across his right shoulder

Elhume smashed into the ground and threw himself back up on his feet Scowling the Patron of the Borrowed cradled his shredded arm to his chest Both could only stare at Hungry Eye already with their images somewhat cowed from first contact Above them YggdrasilÆs manifestation continued to tighten its grip on the surrounding space The light it released grew brighter and more overwhelming Wisps of energy floated up from the Engraved ground as their battlefield became increasingly strange

Around them the running environment swirled together

Is this really it Hungry Eye frowned seeming to be confused as he looked at their opponents He shook his head I donÆt have time to play around If this is all you can manage Elhume IÆm wasting my time fighting against you So would you please

The air behind Hungry Eye flickered Darkness squeezed space together into a sphere and it opened like an eye From the abyss came a silent song that stole DevickÆs breath away Both the Patron of the Borrowed and Elhume began to pale as the range of influence spread outward from that tear in the world

Chapter 2316

Beneath RandidlyÆs feet the skyislandÆs complex Engraving did its necessary The teeth of the mechanisms dug into existence humming with potential Once the grip was established it would twist at the fabric of existence When the pulse of time came at its regular intervals the teeth released The built up tension meant that the time pulse vibrated at a high frequency

As the wheels began to turn the time in the memory began to weaken and become strange Those compressions became time dilation on a large scale

Not that what Randidly technically could accelerate the flow of time across an entire world The only reason he could achieve this effect was due to the constructionÆ of the memory He could slip his Engraving underneath the framework and forcefully manipulate the supported environment The only two inviolable islands within that churning whirlwind of time as the island on which he stood and the battlefield of Aether and Nether resisting the time pulses due to DeganawidahÆs deep glacier of significance

And he needed to execute this operation perfectly because the sudden second option for witnessing the Pinnacle turned out to be a disappointment Elhume had a lot of growing to do before he could even glimpse the Pinnacle

Congratulations Your Skill Hungry Eyes Hollow Heart Cadence of Tragedy has grown to Level 1025

Randidly eyes followed Elhume and Fiero as the SongstressÆs manifestation grew more powerful drawing on the influence established by the World Tree It was a strange feeling finally becoming the individual who achieved image dominance in an area and could wield that advantage with impunity YggdrasilÆs unique aspects meant this capability was even more effective than Randidly anticipated

His images had been carved into existence with his will The experience would bring him no closer to the Pinnacle but it would teach Randidly what it felt like to stand atop the Nexus Aether began to dig enough into existence that its own sort of significance could accumulate in its shadow

While the Songstress continued her song Elhume and Fiero exchanged a glance buzzing with meaning RandidlyÆs lip curled to see them both so obviously plotting against him Was this how it had felt for all those powerful individuals that Randidly overcame The weaker party had eyes that practically screamed this is not yet my final formÆù

Should we develop a plan too Devick asked Her shoulders rose and fell quickly a testament to how overstimulated she must be in this sort of battle

To Randidly it might be disappointing but that didnÆt mean it couldnÆt be deadly

He shook his head at her suggestion that they make a plan Honestly he didnÆt want to belabor this He would pressure them a bit more but he didnÆt want to waste his attention if Elhume was still some distance from grasping the Pinnacle After all today had been too long a day to add extra work Those sorts of machinations are reserved for the desperate

The two desperateÆ individuals exploded into motion This time Fiero moved first wielding his image Randidly blinked in surprise as the Vulpine reached out and stole the Songstress of Absence from his control The connection wasnÆt necessarily cut but the Patron of the Borrowed had briefly wrestled away control

However Randidly just smirked Fiero let out a yelp and then froze as silence and stillness settled across his body He could feel the monstrous body of the Singularity of the Inhospitable Depths swimming closer to her new host curious about an individual brave enough to grasp her with his bare image She crooned out a corrupting song ripping his internal organs to pieces as he struggled to escape the suppression of her heartbeat

Meanwhile Elhume used the opening to stride purposefully forward Randidly measured him His image had sharpened with their previous few clashes At the very least he showed noticeable growth in his losses Even with the air dominated by Yggdrasil ElhumeÆs wrappings of void and oblivion managed to cut a path for his body It was a powerful image

It was a single image before a trio and one of the most powerful Nether Cores in existence

Congratulations Your Skill The First Tree Suffers Only Fealty has grown to Level 1000

ElhumeÆs advance ground to a halt only inches away from RandidlyÆs face The power of his punch was completely dispersed his waist and arms wrapped in thick roots He looked at Randidly with bulging eyes naked hatred on his face The Dread Homunculus replied to that look with an amused sneer

He raised a hand and slashed at his bound foe shattering the weaponized void he wielded ElhumeÆs knuckled popped and disintegrated the muscles of his forearm flayed from his flesh the flows of Nether in RandidlyÆs strike scarring his opponent’s flesh on hit