Randidly knew why Azriel would make her stand. He also knew why she would make her stand here; it was one thing for Randidly to admit he needed help, it was another for him to face the truth of those beings he would likely need to receive help from in order for that help to matter against the Nexus.

The assistance of an average individual wouldn’t be enough. Those content with their lives would never gather enough power to matter.

Yet this was difficult ask. There was so much built-up hatred and fear in his chest that he laid at the feet of the Creature, for all the ways it… she manipulated him over the course of his experience with the System. He was a tool to her, meant to be used and then cast aside. To work with someone who made use of him, who tried to burn everything he was and wanted to protect…

Are those emotions worth sacrificing the chance to make her a tool of my own, though…?

That was the question that Azriel asked. She wasn’t asking Randidly to trust that the Creature wouldn’t try to betray him or use him somehow. In fact, she was telling him to face that possibility head-on. But what Azriel also wanted from him was to also face directly the benefits that might come with using the Creature or her image.

The costs and benefits should be balanced. Although Randidly continued to think that Azriel was rather blithely ignoring the threat on her own life through all of this...

Randidly pressed his eyes closed. If my Soulskills, and the Alpha Cosmos by extension, are truly the type of worlds that are created by being strong… worlds that are habitually beset by an existential threat with the potency to shatter everything I’ve built… perhaps this Path I’ve walked…

Feeling that they had dithered for long enough, Randidly slowly phased out of that strange tea room with Azriel. Yet even as his awareness turned back toward the Alpha Cosmos and the horrible howling of the collapsing Nether Ritual, Azriel’s voice continued to whisper into Randidly’s ear. “When you were purely a being of Aether… well, when Aether was the dominant force, it was fine that you and the Alpha Cosmos were one. You were a world, and a world was an individual.

“But as your body became increasingly comprised of Nether… especially because of how fascinating the interaction is between the two energy sources… there needed to be a vessel of Nether here in the Alpha Cosmos to mirror its presence in your body. The Creature intends to make that a weapon and establish a balance in that manner.”

How… do you know that? Randidly asked mentally.

Azriel seemed to sniff and take a sip of her mental tea. Even though it was just an illusion, Randidly would have sworn he could smell mint. “Because I’ve been here observing the changes in the Soulskill for quite a bit longer than you. Most of it is conjecture, but being part of this strange ritual has made me… strangely connected to the broader situation in the Soulskill. This Nether… is a peculiar substance.”

Randidly shook his head as a huge chunk of the spine of the Nether RItual above groaned and collapsed. Nether began to freely spurt out and douse their area in even more dense Nether with thick globlets like a heavy fall rainstorm. If such a huge chunk had broken off of a Class, it would be effectively hamstrung, no matter how many Levels you gained. As it was… it was a sign that this all was soon going to come crashing down soon.

And Randidly needed to make a decision.

All that Randidly had done for the past several years was to get stronger to resist the Creature’s next plan. Or to be on the lookout for signs of the Creature and escape her next trap. It was a habit he had long gotten into. Although his main enemy was the Nexus… the Creature embodied all the same traits that Randidly hated from the Nexus. Entitlement. Greed. Manipulation. Arrogance.

Callous disregard for life. It had been the physical representation of Randidly’s final goal on Earth. It kept him motivated to grow and to refuse to let his growth slow down.

Yet that thought caused Ki-Kunot’s feathered visage appeared before Randidly, tugging at the edges of his heart.

Shaking his head, Randidly tried to stem the guilt that was seeping out into his thought processes. Luckily, rage still roared in every bone of Randidly’s body as he considered Azriel’s suggestion. Following the lesson of the Creature and achieving balance in his Soulskill? Bah. It roared and demanded sacrifice instead. Rather than give in to obtain a benefit, it urged him to fight and burn everything the Creature touched to the ground.

And fear slithered through his tendons and joints, preserved by the visceral remembrance of how he had been bound previously by the Creature’s machinations. Even making use of the Creature’s strength and knowledge seemed like a dangerous prospect.

And yet…

There was a truth that occurred to Randidly as he watched the black bead unwind, slowly revealing the memories contained within that the Creature had donated to birth a weapon. As he thought about this almost missed truth and considered it from every angle, he could find no flaw in it. Perhaps his perspective was simply warped, but… it felt impeccably true to his eyes. Ignition Essence pulsed with agreement for the sudden insight.

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The truth was a simple one: The Creature would not expect Randidly to compromise here.

Perhaps that was what ultimately moved the needle of his heart the shade it needed in order to consider it as a serious option. Because no matter how much Azriel might sense about Randidly needing to achieve balance in his Soulskill and the Creature providing an easy avenue, she didn’t understand the Creature’s abilities. Randidly did.

And he didn’t doubt there was another trap hidden somewhere in this, waiting for him to buck her carefully laid plans and find a way to seize her power for himself. Because that was what he had always done. That was what she, the Creature, had likely done over the course of her lifetime.

Is there really any benefit to doing something that will legitimately surprise the Creature? Randidly asked himself.

Combined with all of the other benefits of using her power… yes. Randidly whispered back to himself. Even if she didn’t expect the method of me using Nether… she correctly predicted it would eventually happen. And to give her a genuine surprise now will make her doubt every plan she had laid thus far.

That’s an advantage.

The threads of the dark bead parted and finally revealed the Creature’s donated memories. In an instant, transmitted across the Nether between them, Randidly felt those memories as if they were his own.

Just like the Creature had hinted, they absolutely burned with the need for vengeance against the System. They were so potent and visceral that Randidly dare not look too closely, lest he get drawn into them. The part of him that understood how dangerous the Creature was grew very grave as he viewed these memories. They had all of the same vivid and implacable strength that the images he had seen from Nadia and Kailm possessed.

If what he had seen in the Creature’s expression when he revealed the pursuit had been a fissure, this was a direct hole to the engine of the Creature’s loss at the System’s hands. The bitterness, the frustration, the spasming muscles and the almost primal need to hurt something radiated outward from the memories. The space around the memories seemed to be physically boiling from the palpable negative emotions that rolled outward.

Yet the part of him that accepted Azriel’s argument couldn’t help but acknowledge how potent a weapon those memories would be.

It’s foolish to believe I won’t be affected by holding those memories, Randidly thought sadly. What if some of that callousness infects me? What if I start to treat the people of Earth in the same way? The people of the Alpha Cosmos?

As if he had spoken the words to her, Azriel replied quietly in Randidly’s ear. “She’s a wounded thing, that I cannot deny. But you can feel how vehemently she wants her vengeance; those emotions would not have been born in someone who did not care deeply about something. And what you are accepting are those memories. Not the current husk that bears them.”

The Nether Ritual shuddered and fell apart above him. The memories of the Creature were completely revealed, burning away the surrounding Nether and starting to cause a chain reaction that would likely send the whole space that had been compressed by Nether into a supernova-like scenario. And right as everything seemed to ignite, both Azriel and the Creature spoke.

Azriel said, “Trust me on this; if you call and fuel this with yourself instead of allowing the Creature to orchestrate the genesis… there will be a change. The Creature’s memories of loss do not exist in a vacuum, even if they are isolated now. The things you have endured to get to this point were not for nothing.”

The Creature sneered and said. “So… this is your choice. I cannot say that I am surprised. So, how will you deal with-”

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 87!

Just as the whole of the Nether Ritual shattered above and the huge mass of Nether began to settle into freefall toward those hideously potent memories, Randidly raised his hands. The three images once more surged to work. Ignition Essence became an emerald fireball that settled around the entirely of Randidly’s body, guiding him through the work. His Willpower flicked outward and seized the shattered pieces of the previous ritual, making them his own.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether RItual (A) has grown to Level 88!

Faced with Randidly’s determination, the whole of the surging Nether stopped dead. His arms trembled from the strain. A throbbing headache spiked out from his temples. It was too much, too soon, too fast.

But it was necessary.

It started with hope. And then it grew by faith and reaching out into the vast darkness for an answer.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 89!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether RItual (A) has grown to Level 90!

As he held everything upon his back, the shape was reassembled. The bones of a similar Nether Ritual were erected. Then the Nether Ritual began to greedily devour the surrounding Nether, rapidly easing the burden on Randidly’s body. And the weave of flows that Randidly created was markedly superior to the Creature’s; as Nether began to flow once more down below the platform to that tight heart and then refine itself up through Azriel’s body to bind the Creature’s memories, there was much less wasted Nether.

The amount that the Nether Ritual pumped up as excess to the surface was practically negligible. But that did mean that the result would be that much more potent and capable than what the Creature would have created. Randidly hoped that Azriel was right about the change that would happen if he shaped it himself.

On the trust that Azriel was right and convinced by the stated benefits, Randidly pulled deeply from himself and the bones of the Alpha Cosmos in order to fuel the ritual. Even without wasting any, the Nether here was insufficient; so Randidly pulled from deep within this world to gather the hidden Nether and the memories were dragged up along with them.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 91!

Randidly released a breath and let himself relax slightly. The bright memories of the Creature were rapidly buried beneath the Nether and the small memories that floated upward from the bedrock of this place.

Randidly was extremely nervous. He regretted this decision almost immediately, fearing he exposed himself to weakness due to sentimentality. Yet there was one extremely convincing sign that what he had done was the right decision.

Just as he predicted, the Creature did not react to the reassembled Nether Ritual for several seconds. Then she looked up at it rather blankly. “You… my memories are still within that. What… are you doing…?”