Randidly’s emerald eyes slid over the assembled people as he used Nether to dampen the influence of images in the room. For now, all he wanted was to talk to these people. The Earth needed to change and these individuals were the key.

He was somewhat annoyed to admit it, but Randidly hadn’t planned on using the Philosopher’s Key to move into the ballroom for some time yet. But he certainly hadn’t expected either Azriel or Alta to release their images so fully so soon after arriving. And he hadn’t expected that either of them had improved so markedly since becoming part of the overlay System for his Alpha Cosmos.

It seemed those sorts of activities were excellent training for images.

The conflict of images was further complicated by the early arrival of the Nemesai to the party, meaning that the normal people of Earth didn’t have much of a chance to test out the floor before the competition had risen to a level they couldn’t endure. Things escalated. And Randidly couldn’t help but notice that the floor worked too well; the reverberations of the images didn’t stop at the edges of the tiles.

Something to work on, but there’s no real way to change it now, Randidly winced inwardly.

Then Randidly took a deep breath. The crowd was waiting expectantly. Grim Intuition made him altogether too aware of their presence. He could feel the heat their bodies produced and feel the beat of their hearts. Randidly released that breath. Nether swirled through his veins and flowed out to gently blanket the surrounding area.

Then he began to speak. “Obviously, I’d like a genuine opportunity to celebrate this day with my friends… but I think we would all prefer that we briefly set the revelry aside and address the larger issues in front of us. I’m sure many of you questioned why I took the initiative to invite the Nemesai and other forces from Danger Zones to this party… but I think there are a few things we need to start being aware of if the Earth is going to survive.

“The System is not some sort of cruel benefactor nor is it a mechanism of transformation for the planets that it encounters. It truly is a System that was designed by a specific entity for a specific purpose. I’m not exactly sure of the details of that purpose… but it would be accurate to say that the System provides a pittance of energy in exchange for an implied right to pilfer and exploit the planet’s resources. Primarily our images.”

Randidly let that statement hang in the air for a while. As he had expected, someone quickly spoke out.

Han Yazhu, Ambassador for Zone 7, frowned over at Randidly. “...Do you have any proof? Not to argue with you, but it seems… hard for me to believe that is the System’s goal. After all, we didn’t develop the ability to utilize images until recently. And we still aren’t doing it very well. More importantly, the System gave us the ability to actually use images in a meaningful way; without it, there would be no images.”

Randidly nodded slowly. He was very careful to keep his gaze extremely light as he looked around the room. He made sure to note the people who seemed to agree and the people that frowned in puzzlement over the issue. But his emerald gaze was studiously mild.

Now wasn’t the time for a show of strength. Not yet. “That’s very true. But I do have two responses to that. First, the System isn’t as generous as you’d think. It functions as something closer to a content creation platform like Youtube on old Earth; they simply created a venue for you to feature yourself, all the time and effort to create your image is produced solely by you. And in this case, the System will keep all of the ‘profit’ generated by your image by working you within their framework until you die.

“Secondly… I think people generally undervalue how much differences there are in their images, weak as they may be. For the System, this is a numbers game. They pull a lot under their influence in order to hit the lottery only a small percentage of the time. But because of how powerful those one-in-a-million images may become… it’s worth it. Don’t underestimate the value you possess.

“Let me give you a little context on how the System works- we are a part of the Seventh Cohort of planets that the System had included within its framework. I have no idea how many planets were included in that Cohort, but I’ve been made to understand that is in the thousands. Perhaps even millions.

“From those thousands of planets, the Calamities begin gradually sorting planets into various groups to be recycled. Because no matter which Calamity results in the Earth's loss, that’s what the consequence of failing; the Aether that flows to Earth will be cut off to varying degrees. I’ll say this bluntly: if we fail the First Calamity, every individual in this room will soon die. Not even from the Calamity itself, but because without the presence of ambient Aether, our Classes’ constant need for energy will cause us to quickly sicken and waste away.”

Assuming of course I don’t just use my Aether Crossroads to fuel the Earth… but somehow I doubt it will be that easy…

“Aether Sickness,” Mrs. Hamilton sighed.

After nodding, Randidly continued to speak. “There are four Calamities. The worst consequences are from failing the first, but all are disastrous for the planet. And partially the reason that I invited Nemesai to this party… was because they have first-hand experience with this struggle. Or at least they’ve seen the aftermath. Perhaps you have already worked it out on your own, but all of our Nemesai and Champions are from planets that fell to a Calamity in Cohort 6.”

Randidly looked out at the crowd. He felt the news settle amongst them like heron beating its long wings and alighting in a marsh. As he looked around, there was a little surprise that Randidly could read on the various faces, but generally very little interest. There were some exceptions, obviously, but most of the groups here were simply waiting patiently. This was an appetizer. In their minds, they were likely hoping to talk about the Corrupted Invaders in the Danger Zones.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Short-sighted… This is why I needed to have everyone here for this discussion. You don’t get it. You don’t get what we are becoming a part of. You can’t see the way that we will doom every generation of Earth’s people if we continue forward without being careful.

“...ahem,” The Winged Serpent spoke, drawing the attention of the room to itself. “This I can confirm. We are indeed all from the Sixth Cohort. Obviously, we weren’t present during the time of the conflict… but representatives of our planets all failed the Fourth Calamity. Such a failure still allows our planets to become part of the Nexus… but as Mr. Ghosthound has implied, even that failure comes with costs. If we do not perform tasks to help keep the System running, the amount of energy provided by the System would only be about 5% of what our population would require.”

“What happens if you pass the Fourth Calamity?” Warlord asked curiously. The Winged Serpent’s tongue flicked outward and then it looked at Randidly.

Randidly grinned. “No one has passed the Fourth Calamity in a very long time.”

From some of the earlier information Randidly had obtained, the Fourth Calamity was a special inspection done by a ‘representative’ of the System. To his mind, it sounded ominously like actually being forced to face Elhume.

For all that Randidly had been constantly improving, that heavy gaze from an entire continent of crystalized Aether would still shatter him like an egg.

“I cannot explain the details of the Calamities due to… constraints,” The Winged Serpent continued while Randidly flexed his hands. “But failing the second Calamity will see your planet become the basis for Dungeons for the next Cohort. Failing the third Calamity generally… means you will take on even stranger roles for the System, depending on the type of wildlife and images present on your planet.”

“The System always gets its due. Once we use its energy to create images, our images became its valuable labor to harvest more images in the future.” Randidly added. Then he started increasing the circulation of Nether through his body. Although most people in the room wouldn’t necessarily notice the shift immediately, they would feel a heaviness on their chests as they looked at him. “But I can give some information on the other Calamities, as I have offered in the past.”

The Winged Serpent’s tongue flicked outward. Randidly’s eyebrows rose in surprise. Certainly a cool customer. I was hoping he would be more shocked that I know about the Calamities.

“The Second Calamity pits our world against a warped mirror of Earth. Basically forcing us to fight our worst fear, although defining it like that might be a bit misleading. In System terms, I believe it makes us fight a reflection that shows us the farthest Path away from what we took to get here.”

After Randidly said that, he paused and frowned. Wait a minute, does the Second Calamity have anything to do with Ileot’s power? Because it seems like it literally IS an effect similar to what he could accomplish… just funded directly by the System at large and designed to fuck a planet over…

An interesting thought, but one that Randidly would consider more when he was standing in front of almost two hundred people. “The Third Calamity… is likely the simplest and the most agonizing. As though we had failed the first Calamity, Earth will need to endure a period of time where Aether is extremely scarce. The goal… is to cull most of the populations and force the most powerful images to develop further, urged forward by the threat of extinction.”

One of the three women standing near Han Yazhu paused as she raised her flute of champagne to her lips. “...so even if we pass the First Calamity, we will still have to face the consequences of failure as though we hadn’t? In order to test us?”

“Generally, yes,” Randidly said with a sigh. The woman downed her entire glass of champagne in a single gulp and signaled for another. He glanced at the Winged Serpent to see if the Nemesai was willing to add any more information, but it held its tongue within its mouth. However, Randidly couldn’t help but notice that its gaze on Randidly was quite a bit more interested.

...or at least Randidly thought so, based on the combination of the Winged Serpent’s posture and subtle image that got through his Nether dampening. But it was still difficult to tell much from its reptilian eyes.

Randidly circulated a slightly larger volume of Nether as his gaze moved from person to person that were standing and watching him speak. Even though he had their full attention, he still felt quite uncomfortable with it. He ignored that feeling as best he could. “But the real threat, the unexpected one, is the Corrupted Invaders we earned by clearing enough Danger Zones in time. The timeline isn’t exact… but I have heard that the seventh and final Zone will be connecting to New Earth in two weeks' time. So that is all the time we have to clear out four Danger Zones… and then address the Epic Danger Zone.”

THAT finally earned a response.

“How do you know this?” Theodora Greyman asked in bewilderment. Many of the Order representatives frowned down at there hands in a stance that clearly showed they were sending messages to their Order at large. Mrs. Hamilton seemed almost annoyed and quickly produced a small notebook to mark some things down.

People in the crowd glanced at each other and began to whisper quietly.

But of course, Randidly’s attention was once more on the Nemesai. Although the Winged Serpent stayed completely neutral, the Bandit King jerked in surprise when Randidly made that reveal. And in his eyes, Randidly saw a flash of relief.

So it seems like the Nemesai aren’t completely out of cards to play yet… Randidly hummed to himself before ratcheting up the pressure he released a little bit more. Good to know, but not relevant quite yet. The entire venue seemed to be encircled by the roots of Yggdrasil. The chatter quickly died out.

“I’ve already located the Danger Zones we need to clear to reveal the Epic Danger Zone, and I expect there will be some rules regarding clearing it that have been arranged by the System. I…” Randidly closed his eyes. Trust them. “...will not be personally taking part in the Epic Danger Zone. But you have my full support and the Order Ducis will be sending representatives. If we stay focused, we are more than capable of obtaining the benefits the System promised us.”

Because earlier Octavius Shrike had sent Randidly a second message, adding a few more details about this interference. They would discuss the rest later, but from what Octavius had said, this whole thing was a trap that had been set for him.