Aether treated as well behaved Nether was woven together in rapid motion as the momentum of the working took over and forced Randidly forward, even as his inexperience with this sort of project would usually push him toward cautious. But as the pieces of the working began to engage with Randidly’s three foci, he had no choice but to hastily erect the connections ahead of them. And really, he had no other choice but simply relying on instinct.

It was like a curtain was ripped aside and Randidly could see out through the window into the truth of the world around him; caution would do him no favors here. The house that held Randidly’s small window was freefalling through the abyss and the net to save the whole thing was made by the amorphous threads of necessity and desire. No matter how carefully Randidly wanted to guide himself forward, that was not the sort of moment that this was.

This elaborate construction could only be managed with belief. And perhaps a little luck.

So Randidly believed. By mostly imitation and burning determination, three portions of the Aether constructs began to slowly spin with more vigor. The heavy weight of the three foci that Randidly had prepared began to shiver as Aether constructs dug into them. Their energies were slowly drawn upward into the three rotation pillars, drawing energy up from the base toward the apex. To the spot where Randidly would soon condense a Fate.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Manipulation has grown to Level 202!

More and more energy was funneled up through these three portions, so much so that the Aether used to build them shuddered and warped under the strain and friction of the passing energy. But Randidly was always there with a gentle touch, feeding more Aether into the whole thing so it stayed whole.

Sweat dripped down Randidly’s forehead in the real world while his attention was diverted inward. The small drips were a delicate distraction as he continually healed the working. Especially near the top of the pyramid, where the three rivers of energy started to surge and crash around together, Randidly needed to constantly use Aether to repair the pieces.

This… Randidly shivered. This is unsustainable. If it keeps accelerating…!

Even as Randidly began to get a handle on managing all of the energy, the mechanical pieces to even more furious life. More of the little mechanisms began to move. The amount of energy that was thrust upward from each of the tripod's legs tripled. Instantly, even the legs began to warp at a speed that was alarming, even with Randidly’s touch continually mending the moving pieces. In addition, the apex began to melt away to nothing.

There was simply too much ambient energy. The power flowing through this Aether construct was too destructive. With all the potential of the Alpha Cosmos, the almost inert deadliness of Illym, and also Chulroon’s long-held desire for vengeance...

Randidly gritted his teeth. It occurred to him now that the shape of the Aether construct provided by the System was likely designed to handle a lot less energy than what Randidly was currently producing. Perhaps even more than one third less. Not only because he had prepared very specifically, but likely a normal person didn’t have as much potent energy present in their existence as either a Fate or an entire world.

Perhaps that Nathaz Eloise was there precisely to determine if this was the correct tool, but obviously a reading wasn’t possible when it tried to engage with Randidly’s Aether connection to the System...

As it was, Randidly began to furiously study the way that energy was flowing upward and warping the mechanism of this process. Although the Alpha Cosmos’ energy was relatively mild, the other two burned with power as it flowed upward. More and more of Randidly’s Aether was consumed to keep those two legs. Whole.

A Fate was already someone’s images and karma being mortgaged to condense power. Now to slowly unravel that power and feed it back through a mortgaging process…

Still, the value these would have in this karmic brokering was significant. That was why Randidly had gone through the trouble of doing this. But it seemed that value was too significant for this normal version of Fate production tool to manage.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Manipulation has grown to Level 203!

So Randidly reached forward and started to make some changes. His mind buzzed as complex sigils of Aether were drawn and obliterated as he streamlined what he wanted.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Manipulation has grown to Level 204!

More and more, Randidly relied on the insights he had gained from seeing Vualla create energy manipulation sigils to cluster and space out the power along the legs and at the apex. They acted as breaks, keeping the energy from connecting into an unending flow. Too much in one spot too quickly was asking for trouble. Still, that would only delay the problem.

Which meant that it was time for Randidly to pull a solution out of a hat. His physical shoulders rose and fell as he filled his lungs and released the breath. The moment stretched. His three images clustered closely around him, becoming a part of the weaving.

Grinning at a sudden idea, Randidly began to incorporate not only Aether but also Nether in the three funnels. Using the space opened up by the warping pieces of Aether, Randidly widened the tripod legs that sucked energy upward and added thick cords of Nether through each. It didn’t necessary provide ‘cooling’ but it certainly functioned as such.

Nether and Aether worked in concert to calm down the rampaging energy. Even in the harmonized forms, the two types of energies were relatively opposed. While Vualla’s runes bought him a few scant seconds, Randidly rapidly wove Nether to stabilizing the flow of energy upward through all three legs.

Which of course, only meant that Randidly had to grit his teeth and work doubly hard to weave Aether and Nether together at the apex, where those three surging rivers of energies smashed together into a chaotic squall of meaning and images. Even as Randidly frantically worked, he could feel the horrible reverberations and the bright flashes of light that were occurring in his inner world. Perhaps even more disturbing, Randidly could slowly feel his Class beginning to stir in sympathy.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Manipulation has grown to Level 205!

Gritting his teeth, Randidly’s emerald eyes flashed as he took several very liberal risks with the arrangement of Nether within the apex. At this point, he had no choice; Obviously the core would be the newly condensed Fate, so he carefully scrawled out a ‘bubble’ of runes that were drawn with Nether. Unfortunately, Nether was a chaotic material to work with. It was not as easily molded as Aether. There were variances even while Randidly was drawing the runes.

“Good enough,” Randidly muttered as he started hastily clearing out the nodes of Aether that he created to slow down the energy’s journey to the apex. The shape of the bubble was present, so even as the Nether wiggled strangely away from his desired construction, he continued to usher the energy upward. Grimacing, Randidly removed the last of the roadblocks and allowed the energy and meaning to pour into the waiting bubble.

Don’t you dare pop on me now...

There was a terrible rumbling, but the bubble held. Even as an ever brighter burning light began growing in that seething container of Nether, Randidly could only rather helplessly return his attention to the three trembling legs and check in on them. Aether surged forward from his touch and repaired the deformed bits, resulting in them returning to the pristine condition Randidly remembered seeing from the official apparatus. Although at this point, in a quite modified format.

With narrowed eyes, Randidly tried his best to ignore the increasingly loud rumbles and focus on the functioning of the legs; he didn’t want an oversight like missing the amount of energy the legs could handle to happen again. Better to inspect the workings while he had a spare moment and head off a problem before it appeared.

Unwilling, Randidly glanced up at the bubble. It almost looked like a light bulb at the top of a pyramid shapes lamp. Although, that’s clearly going to be a problem eventually...

Yet Randidly pulled his attention back down and began an exacting scrutiny of the legs. Each of the many moving pieces of Aether passed through his careful study. And honestly, it seemed like another problem was rapidly manifesting. Or rather, a different side of the same oversight was becoming apparent.

Because as Randidly studied the legs as they worked, he noticed how more and more of the tiny Aether constructions within activated and swiveled down to carve out smaller and smaller bites of energy from the foci that he had prepared. Very quickly, it became clear that the apparatus was shifting to a finer touch to carve out meaning and energy as time went on.

Likely an individual simply wouldn’t have this much energy to spare after the apparatus had worked for this long. Yet none of the three pools of energy that Randidly had prepared were even close to two-thirds of the way drained.

The hiltless blade released a helpless keen of despair. Chulroon’s chisel hummed in sympathy. Waves of power continued to roll off of the metaphysical representation of the Alpha Cosmos that Randidly had offered up. These were nowhere near done.

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In for a penny, in for a pound…

Randidly could only growl and engage the Aether directly so that the larger energy extraction portions of the legs once more engaged. Huge chunks of energy were siphoned up through the legs, beginning tempered and smoothed out, then being dumped into the quickly filling sphere at the apex of the pyramid.

The light at the top grew to be blinding. Randidly could feel the heat of it even with his physical body. Too much power was concentrated in that one spot. It crashed against other images and influences, trying to find the shape that it would finally take. Randidly could almost feel its chaotic pursuit.

It’s reaching for something. Randidly thought in wonder. Yet he couldn’t allow himself to be distracted for long.

While one part of his mind continued to extract energy, another part began to weave an even larger working of Nether around the first. It quickly attached and supported the original bubble against the ever-rising pressure held within.

Randidly’s inner world rumbled once more. So jarringly that Randidly’s mental tendrils seized up for a brief second. Almost unwillingly, Randidly allowed his attention to be dragged sideways to his Class, which was now slowly beginning to hum to life. For several seconds Randidly stared at the Class, thinking hard.

He knew that Fates were tied to the Class of an individual. Or at least heavily influenced by them. A Class was perhaps the spiritual mother of the Fate if images were the father. Now, to see it move… all of the worries that Randidly held about his Class suddenly made themselves apparent.

Randidly hadn’t thought about the process too deeply, but his brow furrowed as his senses quickly examined his Class. A Class that was divided into six sessions with five other ‘interest groups’ adding to the original working that he had made. There were a lot of dreams tied into Randidly Ghosthound. A lot of names for the wishes that were embodied in his Class.

Lord of the Baleful Wood

Loyal Benefactor of the Weak

Lighthouse of the Boundless Worlds

Lodestone of the Black Wanting

Lesson for those of Brittle Will

Longing of the Banished Wind

Will each of those influence how the Fate turns out…? Randidly wondered as he looked at the Class as it slowly began to float forward. Although there was ‘space’ of a sort in the inner world, as most of it was just densely bent Aether shapes that recorded the conduits by which Randidly could produce energy. So it was without surprise that Randidly watched his Class ghost up through the pyramid and superimpose itself over the tight ball of Nether that caged the swirling power and meaning. The humming soon turned into resonance.

The three legs continued to dig deeply at the wells of power and meaning that Randidly had prepared; he had quite a bit to mortgage for this Fate, whatever it ended up being. His inner world continued to rumble with the furious churning of energy. The light in the apex seemed to reach the peak and began to dim, darkening until Randidly could see that there was now a slowly tumbling cube of light floating in the bubble.

Energy continued to pour upward. The whole thing began to shake. Randidly stabilized the Aether and wove an increasingly complex network of Nether through the machine to create his Fate. More and more branches snaked outward, springing from some deep insight that Randidly didn’t have the time to dwell on.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Manipulation has grown to Level 206!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 116!

Under Randidly’s constant ministrations, the legs of the pyramid began to settle down. Then suddenly, Randidly blinked as he pulled his focus back from addressing problems and saw the whole of what he had made. That’s why it’s getting more balanced. I’m making the Nether look like a vein network. Like this… is a living thing.

And because of that, it’s coming alive.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 117!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 118!

Slowly, the noise shifted from the dangerous rumbling of a machine asked to do more-than-what-it-is-capable-of to the satisfying rumble of an engine falling into a rhythm. Power, light, meaning, images… all of it was ripped upward, drawn into the steady current of the creation. Randidly could feel it now, growing within him, taking over. It was almost like he didn’t even need to constantly brush the edges and help with repairs, the creation of his Fate had become its own beast.

Time rushed forward. Randidly could feel it slipping past his fingers. More and more power swirled upward.

Before Randidly’s eyes, more and more lights burned through his inner world and then slowly dimmed to a shape. The process repeated several times as he lost himself in the cycle. First a cube, but then a rectangle, a sphere, a hoop, a fluttering sheet, and finally a pyramid.

Suddenly, the machine began to hiss as the ambient energy present in Randidly’s inner world finally reached the apex and began to fall; the process was done. Then, in a surge of burning light, violet static electricity arched between the six objects present at the apex.

There was a crack and then all six blasted outward, smashing into the sphere of Nether that he had erected. Almost immediately, cracks raced across the surface and the secondary arrays he had made around the bubble tried to cope with the pressure. Randidly could only watch as five of those glowing shapes shattered the stabilizing arrays and rip out of his inner space. Only one was rebuffed and tumbled back into the shatter bubble at the apex.

The rest vanished to nothing before he could even react to their sudden exodus.

Then the rectangle that remained floated downward toward Randidly’s consciousness. He opened his eyes. His fingers of his right hand tightened around something solid. When he saw the object in his hand, the System notification arrived.

Slowly, the edges of the object in Randidly’s hand turned to dust and fell away, until a relatively plain object cast in rose-gold lay in his palm.

Congratulations! Error, your Class did not undergo a reckoning, but you have successful passed the Reckoning! Error, you Class did not change.

Congratulations! You have condensed your Fate! Warning, due to an unexpected error, multiple pieces of your Fates were condensed! However, they spread out and settled with the individual who most influenced portions of your Class! Warning, Fates will only appear if certain circumstances are met.

Congratulations! You have obtained the Fateset, “Paradox of the Alchemist Lvl 1”.

Paradox of the Alchemist: With tools forged of the Earth’s bones, an alchemist seeks to weave with the fabric of dreams to make this world a better place. Their goals are many and diverse: some seek eternal life and some seek to turn lead into gold. But all wish dearly to transmute beyond the bindings of their mortal coils.

Yet the paradox of the alchemist is eternal. If they are flawed, are not all dreams that they can conceive of made of that same flawed flesh? Can their hands not ultimately only wring more imperfections from the substance of this plane? Without waiting for an answer, they reach for the impossible.

You who would walk this Path, know that the prayer you have is without hope. The cycle of this world is written into grander bedrock that you can comprehend. To it, the substance of you is feeble and transient. To escape such bindings is a fantasy; to fight it would turn your life into a nightmare. Yet none can deny what you have accomplished thus far. So for now… good luck.

Congratulations! You have condensed the first Fateset in the history of the Nexus! Due to unusual circumstances, the pieces of your Fate have been split into six pieces. Currently, only the first piece will be active. When certain criteria are met, the second piece will activate and you can seek it out and obtain its power.

Each piece of your Fateset levels individually. The qualifications for obtaining the next piece of your Fateset will be obtained when you reach a sufficient total Level of the Fateset. The qualification for obtaining your next piece of your Fateset will be obtained at reaching a Level of 100.

Congratulations! You have obtained the first piece of your Fateset, the Philosopher’s Key Lvl 1! The Philosopher’s Key is carved of a powerful catalyst made to transmute the plentiful here into the often craved there. With it, you can unlock doors that don’t exist and bind shut the very sky. By relying on karma, you can bridge the gap between two locations which you are familiar with and open a passage. Although some substances can serve to slow you down, as the key grows more potent, no threshold will serve as a barrier.

In addition, due to possessing the Philosopher’s Key, +3 Intelligence, Wisdom, and Focus per Level of your Class!

With light fingers, Randidly raised the object he was holding up to get a better look at it. Sure enough, it was a golden key that had appeared amidst the disintegrating rectangle. Smooth hoop, long shaft, two blocky teeth sticking down toward the end… it was an old fashioned key. Yet as he felt the key in his hand… it was heavy beyond belief.

His hand trembled with the strain of holding it. Every time he edge of the key moved with those small tremors, Randidly felt the threads of karma catch on the tip, tantalizing him to thrust the key forward with the intent to open up a portal.

Even with that encouragement, Randidly didn’t give in immediately. Instead, he closed his eyes and brought his attention to the feeling of the key. There had been a lot in the notifications from the System, and a lot that Randidly didn’t understand yet. He had poured two Fates and an entire world’s world of potential into this, and it had been split off into so many pieces…

So Randidly calmly focused on the key and tried to sense familiarity within it. One step at a time.

Very quickly, Randidly found it. Both the touch of Yggdrasil and Ignition Essence were present here. From Ignition Essence, Randidly could feel the sudden leap of genius that could connect two very distant points. From Yggdrasil, Randidly felt a strange stability to create a door that could be opened rather permanently.

That made Randidly shiver. A permanent door… if he could connect distant places...

In addition, he found the heavy influence of Chulroon’s Chisel in the construction of such a Fate. So, slightly reassured by the familiar influences, Randidly thrust the key forward into the fabric of the universe with a focused intent. He could clearly feel existence around him shudder as something grand within the key activated itself. It was difficult to turn the key, so difficult that Randidly had to bring his metallic arm over and heave on the flimsy-looking golden hoop at the end. Slowly, the key turned.

A portal opened. Randidly looked calmly through the portal to his favorite vista from the mountain over Donnyton. It was currently raining on Earth. More notifications popped up as he felt the chilly air flow through the portal.

Congratulations! The Level of your Fate the Philosopher's Key has grown to Level 2!

Congratulations! The Level of your Fate the Philosopher's Key has grown to Level 3!

Congratulations! The Level of your Fate the Philosopher's Key has grown to Level 4!

…

…

Congratulations! The Level of your Fate the Philosopher's Key has grown to Level 36!

Congratulations! The Level of your Fate the Philosopher's Key has grown to Level 37!

“I had heard that your Fate will grow quickly if you already possess powerful images but…” Randidly bared his teeth at the portal to Earth that hung in the air in front of him. “This is a good start, no?”