Lord Miln didn’t attempt to stop the smile blooming across his face as he looked toward the new approaching representative of Nether. “Haha, I don’t know where that foolish woman got this sudden surge in power from, but it is enough that the Nether King will send one of his Heralds, eh? Perfect. This is exactly what we needed.”

Tutting lightly, Ileot closed his eyes and shook his head. “We must wait for a bit more. Of the Nether King’s seven Herald, we need at least four to be occupied if we want to assure success when we move. For my strike to land, I will need to be completely undisturbed for three seconds. Which requires you and your forces to keep the remaining Heralds off of me. How many do you believe you can handle, Tedric Miln?”

That certainly wiped the grin off of Lord Miln’s face, although he still was in a rather good mood at this development. Still, it was clear that Ileot was attempting to needle him purposefully by using his first name.

And also with the truth that Lord Miln would likely still likely struggle to handle three Nether Heralds.

Instead of replying directly, Lord Miln looked over to the partial clone of the Ghosthound that Ileot had created. The young man was meditating, acting the part of a genuine, living being. “Is everything prepared on that end?”

“Relax,” After ascertaining what Lord Miln was talking about, Ileot squeaked and rolled his eyes. “After we have antagonized the Nether King, both that demon of Nether and I, the two most powerful figures on the battlefield, will want Randidly Ghosthound dead. What chance will he have to survive?”

Licking his lips, Lord Miln stared out over the battlefield. Things were developing exactly according to their plan. To the right, the Nether Beasts were pushing further and further forward, slaughtering their way toward the Aether headquarters and trampling on the unfortunate camps in their way. To the left of headquarters, the battlefield had descended into an almost surreal peace, aside from the most recent batch of reinforcements thrown toward Lady Iellaya. Which, since it was accompanied by a Nether Herald, could be considered a significant force.

...thankfully Lady Iellaya seems capable enough to suppress this Nether Herald and draw even more ire. Lord Miln’s eyes glowed with pleasure.

Above the entirety of the battlefield, a palpable darkness swirled. It seemed that the grand formation had shifted into some emergency mode that Lord Miln didn’t recognize, but somehow the aura of grey-black energy that it produced was… invigorating. It seemed that the more Lord Miln breathed it in, the more that darkness became heat pumping through his veins.

He clenched his fist. So many sacrifices. So many pointless moments of enduring the stupidity of his commanding officers in his career, the stupidity of those who were blessed with superior circumstances and lorded it over him. Finally, after almost fifty years, Lord Miln had climbed to the rank of Supreme Commander of a battlefront.

All for this one opportunity.

“So soon,” Lord Miln whispered. “It will be worth it.”

Almost instinctively, Lord Miln took another deep breath of the darkness-laden air.

*****

As the newly arrived figure with more power than a Nether Gatekeeper streaked forward across the sky, the air around it cracked and twisted just from its presence. Even Lady Iellaya’s expression grew serious as she looked up toward the approaching figure and the trail of torn space it left in its wake.

“...I believe they are called Nether Heralds. The direct servents of the Nether King. In terms of attracting attention… mission accomplished.” Then she turned to Randidly and gave him a wink. “I don’t suppose you would still be willing to consider adding your potential to mine at this crucial juncture? I obviously can handle this foe alone, but think of all we could accomplish together, Randidly Ghosthound.”

Randidly laughed dryly and shook his head. “Trying to play hardball on the battlefield, Lady Iellaya? I don’t think things are quite that grim yet. Besides, my potential wouldn’t end up being part of the solidified base you have now. It would just be draped over it. An insignificant addition to something that was quite difficult to build and would be even more difficult to renovate now.”

“If it was your potential, we both know that its addition would be anything but insignificant.” Lady Iellaya turned back forward without pressing the issue any further. Then she shrugged. “But it was mostly a comment to add levity to the moment. Isn’t it exciting? We could die today. This is our chance. Let’s show the world that they cannot afford to overlook us.”

Above, the raven-winged serpent roared and writhed its way down to intercept the Nether Herald that rocketed toward Lady Iellaya. Yet Randidly’s ear caught on one phrase almost innocuously slipped into what Lady Iellaya had said.

Isn’t it exciting? We could die today. Randidly began to frown.

The raven-winged serpent opened its mouth and blasted out a thick gout of darkness before the arrow-like Nether Herald that was aimed for Lady Iellaya’s chest. The damaging aura of her image buzzed outward as the raven-winged serpent produced the darkness, but this time Randidly was prepared for the reverberations. He lifted his chin and endured the strange otherness that she produced. At least in terms of adaption, Randidly was rather confident in his own abilities.

Stolen story; please report.

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 250!

Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Lifeless Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 224!

A slightly strange combination of Skills grew as Randidly endured the mental static that wafted out from Lady Iellaya, but he didn’t give those notifications much attention. Instead, his eyes were on the impending collision in the sky. The blast of darkness swirled forward and the Nether Herald’s form cracked and twisted in response; within a second, an angular, almost bug-like bipedal creature stretched itself outward.

Randidly couldn’t help sucking in a breath as he that form weirdly unfurled in space from nothing. It was immediately clear that the density of Nether within this form was much higher than a normal Nether Gatekeeper. Even just looking at its ant body, there seemed to be an ominous pressure that it exerted over the surrounding area. The reality built upon Aether could barely handle it.

The ant and the darkness smashed into each other. The ant ripped through the other side without much fanfare, leaving the sky behind it filled with motes of dispersed darkness that scattered harmlessly like dust blown off an old bookshelf. After witnessing the failure, Lady Iellaya released a forced chuckle. “Fine then, I’ll hand this myself.”

With a single step, she launched herself upward into the air above the battlefield. Below, Randidly could feel the strange, seething mass of emotions the soldiers felt as they looked uneasily up at the first contact between the two foes. They saw Lady Iellaya’s darkness lose. Already, the brief respite was retreating from the forefront of their minds and leaving the chaos of the earlier fighting the panic-inducing center of their attention.

As Lady Iellaya flew upward, the raven-winged serpent twisted away from its collision course from the ant Nether Herald and swam through the sky to meet Lady Iellaya. It opened its stubby mouth and simply swallowed her. Perhaps the most grotesque part of the maneuver was the audible gulp that it produced as she entered into its body. Then it sinuously twisted its body around, turning to face the Nether Herald that been on its tail the entire time.

It was immediately clear that the details of the raven-winged serpent grew incredibly clear as Lady Iellaya herself became the focal point of the image.

Yet Randidly didn’t miss how just the presence of the Nether Herald’s extremely dense Nether was enough to send a ripple through Lady Iellaya’s image despite her presence. It was immediately obvious that this was not going to be an easy fight, as evidenced by the initial clash.

But she’s just getting started, Randidly assured himself as he looked upward. I felt her potential… and I feel the presence of this swirling darkness. This isn’t her limit.

Raven wings flapped outward, crashing against the exo-skeleton’ed arms of the Nether Herald. The sky shook. Lady Iellaya’s image trembled once more. Yet Lady Iellaya dodged the Nether Herald’s next attack and raised her ugly snout to release a rallying cry. The surrounding space steadied as her dark image dug its claws deeply into the area for leverage. Then Lady Iellaya surged forward, smashing her image’s head directly into the Nether Herald.

...she’s stronger, but she’s not at as good at controlling her strength, Randidly thought with a frown as she looked up at the two figures. Once more, the Nether Herald twisted its body strangely, bending all the way over backward to dodge the raven-winged serpent’s jaws as it swept past. Then its torso spun independently of its legs, allowing it to twist and strike up toward the serpent’s vulnerable belly.

Bellowing in pain, Lady Iellaya released a much more powerful pulse of hungry-darkness. It knocked away the Nether Herald, who crashed into the ground and caused a low ridge to rumble slowly down on top of it. For a split second, everything silent. Then the stone shifted and the Nether Herald leapt back out of the scattered debris. Above, Lady Iellaya had twisted her head and was preparing to fire another bolt of darkness up toward the pattern of blue veins in the Great Rift. The Nether Herald accelerated.

Of course, the approaching threat of the Nether Herald had Lady Iellaya’s image twisting around, blasting out a concentrated arrow of energy that was obviously created to attack the Nether Herald, not the working in the sky. Even the flexible Nether Herald with its preter-natural reflexes wasn’t able to dodge such a sudden attack completely and was knocked sideways by the strike.

Randidly was honestly becoming increasingly optimistic about the confrontation as he witnessed the initial exchanges, but then the thicker blue veins manifested again in the Great Rift. Another large comet of Nether was thrown down toward Lady Iellaya. The comet once more split halfway and a figure shot directly over to join the battle.

Another Nether Herald.

Randidly sucked in a breath, trying to do some mental gymnastics to figure out whether Lady Iellaya could handle two of these foes at once. Seconds ticked by as he attempted to estimate both of their strengths. His initial response was yes it was possible, but it would be difficult for Lady Iellaya to attract more attention than this with two Nether Heralds devoting their energies to stopping her.

Which meant that perhaps Randidly needed to act. Even if his images weren’t yet powerful enough that they could alter the face of this fight, his interference could be a fulcrum point to pivot the balance in Lady Iellaya’s favor. To that end, Randidly gently pulled the Philosopher’s Key off of his belt. He ran his thumb across the smooth metal surface.

This was his most powerful tool currently, yet as Randidly lifted it up and looked at the battlefield, he hesitated; how should he intervene in the battle above? Especially because the Philosopher’s Key was an instrument with relatively few applications-

His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a third huge comet of Nether that was thrown out of the Great Rift. Perhaps it was because of the element of surprise, but this one looked even larger than the prior two. Before the second Nether Herald had even arrived to tussle with Lady Iellaya a third was thrown out to seal the deal. No matter how much Lady Iellaya had improved, she hadn’t improved enough to handle this.

Suddenly, Randidly realized what he had to do. The Philosopher’s Key in his hand was warm. What he held in his hand was a key, which possessed two main functions. To open up a door… and to lock it.

It had even been explicitly stated in the notification that Randidly received when he obtained the first piece of his Fateset. He just had to lock the sky.