The closer they got to the floating island above them, the more nervous Mareen became. It manifested in the tapping of her foot and the almost obsessive way she rubbed her hands together. Her eyes were round with alarm as she looked upward. They kept moving, but the island kept getting larger and larger.

Part of the source of the nervousness was the silver mist that shrouded the entire island and part of it was the cobalt bolts of electricity that periodically illuminated the silvery shroud, but what really made Mareen’s blood run cold was the stifling sense of powerlessness that she felt as they approached. Mareen wasn’t extremely talented when it came to images, but she was dedicated to that effort. She had made it a part of her routine.

Every morning she practiced visualizing without activating her Skills, trying to use pure force of will to achieve the same effect. It was a slow process, but especially recently, Mareen had started to see some tangible results. She was slowly developing her image.

Especially since being woken up in the middle of the night by a piercing cry of hunger from the image of the Ghosthound. That had certainly spurred her to extra dedication.

Their platform floated upward into the mists around the island, the sounds of the industrial district below fading rapidly away as the silver shroud slithered around them. And Mareen practically jumped when she realized that the mist was moving. It seemed like this island above possessed strange spirits of silver whereas Kharon was covered with the emerald moss spirits. They swirled curiously around the new arrivals, some even brushing up against Tatiana’s hands that she offered to the spirits.

“The color is different, but they are essentially the same as the spirits of Kharon as far as I can tell,” Tatiana confirmed. The platform shuddered slightly and Mareen abruptly realized that the had reached the edge of the floating island. “Come on, I can sense Randidly. He should be ready to talk to us soon.”

Mareen drifted after Tatiana through the silver mists, abruptly feeling like she hadn’t quite understood the decision that she was making when she had decided that she wanted to help build his house. It abruptly hit her again that Randidly Ghosthound was the most powerful man on Earth and she was waltzing onto his floating island in order to talk about the home he wanted to build.

It didn’t help her nerves that Ed was currently trying to figure out if he had a high enough Skill Level to work with the materials that the Ghosthound provided for the construction. He was rushing to consult with the experts of Kharon. Donnyton had certainly dealt with powerful materials, but few were willing to build entire homes out of them.

They were mainly processed on a smaller scale to form armor, weapons, or other equipment. To create a manor out of them… Mareen suspected that no one but Randidly Ghosthound could accomplish such a feat.

The found Randidly at what Mareen believed to be the center of the island. Truthfully, she didn’t know how much longer she could wander behind Tatiana through the seething mists without having a panic attack when she spotted the Ghosthound’s figure.

A flat circle had been cleared out, and Randidly was standing at the center in a fighting stance. His shoulders rose and fell with the expansion and contraction of his lungs, releasing long breaths that Mareen could practically see streaming out of his nostrils. His hair wasn’t exactly matted, but it was definitely damp with sweat and ruffled by his fingers. Based on the feeling in the air around him, Mareen sensed that he had just finished with some physical training.

Rather than a man, Randidly Ghosthound seemed to be a steam locomotive, releasing pressure and slowly cooling down after traveling a long distance. His eyes were pressed tightly closed and Tatiana gestured at Mareen to keep silent and wait until he spoke to them.

Not that Mareen needed any encouragement; she was already terrified by the fact that she could literally feel the beats of the Ghosthound’s heart. The whole surrounding area seethed with his vitality and power.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The heartbeat felt like an image, but that also didn’t feel entirely correct. It just seemed like the Ghosthound was a natural force of such primal ferocity that it could no longer be contained within his body. Yet all Mareen could think as she looked at Randidly Ghosthound was how young he seemed. Sure, he was definitely quite a few years older than her, but he was nowhere close to thirty. Yet he had crossed some invisible gap in significance and now stood at the apex of the world.

This is the man that Naffur chose to follow… well, he certainly is good at choosing capable subordinates… Mareen thought, trying to keep the anxiety from bubbling up and overwhelming her.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

It felt like an eternity, but even Mareen could admit that it was only about five minutes of enduring that horrible resonance of the Ghosthound’s heart before he opened his eyes and turned to face them with a wry smile on his face as he looked at Tatiana. “A taste of my own medicine?”

Tatiana bowed. “I wouldn’t dream of it. I had some news, and also didn’t you inquire about building a house? All the preparations for the contract have been made to your specifications. You just need to discuss what sort of house you will want for your mysterious island…”

The Ghosthound released a bark of a laugh. He flicked his wrist and a towel appeared in his hand. “You are enjoying this, aren’t you? Well fine, I could use a short break anyway. And you must be… Mareen.”

Mareen straightened, trying not to think too deeply about the fact that he had known her name just by looking at her. His emerald eyes studied her. “Yes, I am.”

“Then let’s get down to business.” The Ghosthound’s expression brooked no argument. With a second flick, he had stored his towel away. With a third, roots began winding up out of the ground and forming a rather basic table and chairs. Seeing both Tatiana and the Ghosthound taking a seat, Mareen sat down and was surprised by how comfortable it was. “Let me just tell you a little bit about what I have planned…”

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*****

After Mareen left, Tatiana smiled at Randidly. “You actually seemed to take that very seriously. I appreciate that. And also… either she’s much stronger than she looks, or your aura isn’t so much of an issue anymore.”

Randidly’s smile in return was crooked. “While it’s true I can control it a little better, it’s still a problem; she has a stronger image than her face reveals. There’s iron in that woman. You said she and Naffur are an item?”

“For now. And now after meeting her, I sorta expect that she would be the one to someday break it off with him.” Tatiana shook her head. “But I suppose our Naffur is quite pretty, in a sort of pale and vulnerable sort of way…”

Shaking his head, Randidly quickly switched the topic. “You said you also had news?”

“Donnyton and Zone 11 are about to assault the inner sanctum of the Corrupted Invaders in their Danger Zone. It shouldn’t be over extremely quickly, but you’ll likely have to head over now if you want to be there for the finishing touches,” Tatiana said. “Based on when I received the message… the attack started about ten minutes ago.”

Humming to himself, Randidly slowly nodded. He looked down at his hands. He had spent the entirety of the last twenty-four hours training to familiarize himself with what he could manage with his new amount of Control while also testing the glove he received from Alana. Yet his physical training still made Randidly a little dissatisfied, as he felt that even with the fine-tuned Control, he was still missing something to truly harness his physical gifts.

Probably need to rely on some experimentation with the Grim Chimera image to get a handle on that power… but that will have to wait. On the other hand…

His lips twisting upward at the pun, Randidly pulled his Frostscale Glove out of his interspatial ring and put it on. THIS worked as he had hoped with his Control, giving Randidly an unparalleled ability to manipulate both Aether and Nether in the surrounding area. It was only after experimenting with the glove that Randidly was able to reign in his Nether disc to its original levels.

The process created an uncomfortable feeling of being bound with a too-tight belt, but at least lowered the probability that the Special Investigator would find justification to bring his full power to bear based on a chance mistake by Randidly. Also, his experiments had made Randidly extremely fond of the built-in air-conditioning system within the glove.

It was like a refreshing breeze now followed him around. Assuming he kept his emotions under control, of course. Otherwise, winter descended in a ten-meter radius around him...

As Tatiana departed, Randidly shot a message to Mrs. Hamilton and then produced the Philosopher’s Key. He dragged the tip of the key through the air, tasting the different threads of karma. It always took Randidly by surprise just how wide the net that the Key cast was. With this simple key, he could see pathways to thousands, millions of places that were an unknown distance from his current circumstances.

For the first time since obtaining the Fatepiece, the thought that Randidly could escape from all this and hide occurred to him. He could mirror the Creature’s attempts to try and buy some time to escape the System. All it would cost was his home planet.

Randidly’s smile was sharp and his eyes were bright. Not a chance.

Finding the desired karma in the air, Randidly pushed the Philosopher’s Key forward and opened a portal. A second later he stepped out in a surging rush of Aether as the higher density energy on his side of the portal flowed to fill the vacuum in front of him. And because of the movement of energy, some of the silver moonlight spirits flitted through as well and billowed outward.

Inwardly, Randidly sighed. What must it look like, a portal suddenly appearing and silver energy flowing through in front of me…? People are going to start to believe that I have a special effects budget…

When Randidly stepped through to the dimly lit cave in front of him, however, Mrs. Hamilton was waiting beside the portal and smiled at him. “Ah, Randidly. Just in time. Welcome to the Broken Caverns. We believe the core is right ahead.”

They were standing next to a gleaming pile of shattered crystals. The cavern around them was relatively spacious, but he rapidly noted this wasn’t the only pile of crystals in the area. In fact, as Randidly glanced around him, basically everything appeared to be various sized mounds of shattered crystals.

The roof in some places was low, but a jagged fissure ran above the long, meandering stretch of caverns around them. Strange green light filtered downward in wild refractions, earning Randidly’s attention. The more he looked at it, the more Randidly believed that the caverns had been created by a giant dragging a sword across the ground and leaving a scar. As the green light shone down through the crack, it reflected off crystals and bouncing around until the surrounding area was practically a paradise for unpredictable shadows.

Up ahead, he could sense Paolo and Kayle’s familiar images dealing with a relatively weaker resistance than he would have expected. But he supposed he was slightly late to the party. As Randidly’s Grim Intuition spread outward, he quickly got a better picture of the situation in the next cavern. The strangely insectoid corpses of the Corrupted Invaders littered the ground, creating a path of bodies to a normal building that was extremely queer within the surrounding caverns.

From within that building, Randidly detected the signature Aether constructs of the Nexus.

“This world…” Randidly glanced around after locating his target. His Grim Intuition spread outward in every direction, revealing more and more meandering cave systems.

Mrs. Hamilton nodded. “Yes. As far as we can tell, the surface is inhospitable for all but the strongest people. The radiation from the nearby sun is extremely violent; how life survived on this planet before the System is a mystery to me…”

“Guess they just dug deeper holes,” Randidly commented. Then in the next instant, the surrounding crystals shook as Kayle and Paolo clashed against the image of the leader of the Corrupted Invaders. Some of the crystals that lined the passage to the next cave cracked and crumbled.

...not quite as strong as Alana, but not a pushover. Still, what does that mean about the foe waiting in the Epic Danger Zone… Randidly chewed on his lip. Then he shook his head, admitting that predicting a foe’s strength was not his strong suit. After all, look at what happened to his plan to overpower the Special Investigator with Nether…

“Anything?” Mrs. Hamilton asked with a casual smile.

Randidly shook his head. He wasn’t surprised in the least that she understood the true reason for his visit, even though he claimed to just want to understand the test the Nexus was giving the Earth. But truly, although the Aether he sensed was clearly the Nexus’, it didn’t seem malicious. It seemed to mark a trigger of some sort.

“...but let’s not jump to conclusions. For the good of Earth… it’s time we started getting rid of these freeloaders before we get stuck with them for eternity,” Randidly said. The two walked forward toward the next cavern, ignoring the increasingly violent clashes between images ahead of them.