The Xyrt Brigade was many things, but subtle in their persecution of the Nether threat was not one of them. When they arrived on the Earth, they came in a furious nova of Aether that immediately pierced toward the battlefield in the sky. And their arrival was not a second too soon, because the weak pulses of Aether coming from the System apparati were starting to disturb Randidly.

Those defenses wouldn’t hold out much longer. If the Xyrt Brigade had delayed a few hours…

Well, Randidly wasn’t sure what exactly the Nether was accomplishing in the sky above Earth. But he wasn’t much looking forward to taking the blame for letting it happen.

In addition, Randidly’s preparations to seem innocuous were complete. The Bizarre Spike was given to Neveah for study. His Nether was kept tightly under control. All individuals not from Earth, aside from Helen, were within his Alpha Cosmos.

By the time that the Xyrt Brigade made its appearance, Kharon had made its way to the ‘edge’ of the world. So Randidly had just spent the last hour utilizing Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil to conjure a veritable sea of small roots to shift the land back into place. Perhaps even worse than the land being forcefully smashed together was the obvious corrosion that the land had experienced in the process.

Nether and Aether mixed chaotically and dangerously in the spots where the Aether of the System had engaged with no small amount of errors. The land had strange residue resembling char around the edges. Plants that had been growing there prior to whatever spatial shenanigans on which the System was based, were now withered and grey.

Randidly hoped the damage wouldn’t have lasting effects, but it was so hard to tell exactly what that residue was. It wasn’t quite like the grey goop that Randidly had seen in the past from mixing the two energies. So even after he had heaved the huge stretch of land and settled it back into place, Randidly had stayed there for a while and used the image of Yggdrasil to strengthen the desire for growth in the surrounding area.

It was right about that time that a huge Aether array appeared in the sky and the Xyrt Brigade announced their arrival. A ruby magic circle the size of a city appeared in the sky below the space where Nether continued to attack the weakening Nexus defenses. That one circle expanded outward, becoming three immense ruby circles, one splitting upward and the other splitting downward.

Only after a complex series of three-dimensional Aether interactions settled into place did the actual portal open, a quicksilver disc that was as placid as a frozen lake. Then the head of a serpent poked its way outward from the disc followed by a sinuous, flying body covered in light blue scales. The flying serpent itself released a horribly powerful aura, but Randidly could sense that on its back were at least forty individuals who were even more powerful.

More powerful than Randidly by a fair amount.

For the moment, the serpent turned its head upward and swam through the air toward the Nether. But a few seconds afterward, Randidly received a slew of messages from Octavius Shrike.

From my initial scans, I didn’t detect anything overtly suspicious currently on Earth. Thank you for keeping yourself under control.

Randidly couldn’t help but roll his eyes, but then continued to read Octavius’s message.

A few things to note. The Xyrt Brigade is busier than ever. Immediately after this Smog Clan was dispatched to investigate the situation on Earth, Nether forces smashed against most of the minor Frontlines. These attacks were universally repulsed, but several areas of our defense suffered heavy casualties. Which probably means that the Smog Clan will try and get in and get out as quickly as possible. Just seem… average or lucky and they won’t take a second glance at you.

You will probably meet the Clan’s Captain, that can’t be avoided, but we got relatively lucky on that front. This Clan was the nearest one to Earth and was given the mission for that reason. In addition, the Clan isn’t sympathetic toward the Swacc Family at all. On the other hand… the leader is a bit eccentric, and he’s one of the three Clan Captains in the Xyrt Brigade aiming to move up to Brigadier now that the previous Brigadier is out of the picture.

That got Randidly’s attention enough for him to send a reply. A Nether attack killed the leader of the Xyrt Brigade?

No. The reply message was only one word. Randidly blinked at that. For almost three minutes, he didn’t receive other replies, so Randidly began to return toward Kharon and his island. It was only when he had arrived back on his land that Octavius elaborated. The previous Brigadier attracted the direct attention of Elhume. He… touched her shoulder. She didn’t survive the intensity of the experience.

Having experienced what it was like to just have Elhume look at him across space and time, Randidly released a sympathetic shiver. But it was altogether horrifying in a more concrete way to know that even the powerful Brigadier of the Xyrt Brigade wasn’t strong enough to survive a casual touch from Elhume.

Randidly supposed there was a reason that Yystrix had been so desperate to flee from her former husband.

By the time Randidly had settled back onto his mist-shrouded island, battle in the sky had been joined. The blue sky serpent just circled below the tear in space, but the powerful individuals it had carried flew upward and began to battle directly against the Nether forces. A howl of fury blasted outward. The reverberations from their fight echoed outward across the Earth.

For a while, Randidly watched intently. But gradually, as the battle continued to rage on above the Earth, Randidly forced his attention away. There are some things that you can affect, and others that you can’t. Right now… that is still something that you cannot change. Which is why you need to use this opportunity to grow stronger…

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Releasing a breath into which he stuffed all of his frustrations, Randidly tried his best to turn his attention to the memories on Living Engraving that Neveah had passed to him. But it was not easy to let go of the fact that his home planet had to rely on foreign help in order to survive.

The battle above raged for so long that its powerful impacts and echoes eventually faded into background noise. His focus gradually stopped wandering back upward to check on the status of the Xyrt Brigade. Randidly very seriously lost himself in the study of Living Engravings. After all, it had been an area of fascination of his for quite a while. It was because of all that expended effort on Living Engravings that he had been able to develop the runic depictions on the bark of the World Tree.

However, the Living Engraving from Yystrix’s tomb was clearly on another level. While Randidly had made simple patterns for his Engravings that could grow and proliferate, this involved something much more complex. The prerequisite was that the depth of Mana in each line of the Engraving was almost double what Randidly had attempted, but what this method of Yystrix’s did was literally have the shape of the Engraving shift as it grew.

The trick was that the increased depth of Mana exerted a small bit of power over space, so when the Engraving was sufficiently large, the Mana depth warped the very shape of the Engraving. Of course, it was also a nightmare to create a shape that had its own living image and could be warped very slightly to make another image that could be reproduced across the item.

That was why the result was so powerful.

The one benefit was that the drawer of the Engraving wouldn’t need to worry about the images for any of the warped patterns. If the Living Engraving was working properly, the Engraving would take care of the image by itself.

Which, Randidly reflected, was a slightly disturbing thought. But it was proof that it deserved the moniker ‘Living’ Engraving.

From his position sitting on the flat center of his island, Randidly glanced upward. Almost six hours had passed since the Xyrt Brigade had arrived. The sky was darkening. So with a shrug, Randidly produced some old training spears and began to experiment. He had almost reached the limit of just examining Neveah’s notes anyway.

Following Yystrix’s method was just as difficult and frustrating as Randidly had expected. The depth of the Mana on each of the strokes needed to be precisely uniform. In addition, he needed a lot of experience to understand how the Mana depth would warp the shape of the Engraving as it spread. So most of Randidly’s earlier attempts resulted in useless pieces of equipment that were so flooded with volatile Mana that they cracked and shattered.

But Randidly kept working.

Congratulations! Your Skill Architecture of the Primordial Ways (M) has grown to Level 265!

Congratulations! Your Skill Experienced Creator’s Ingenuity (A) has grown to Level 99!

Time continued to ceaselessly flow forward. The surrounding night deepened, leaving Randidly’s face illuminated solely by the glow of energy from the sputtering and failing Engravings in front of him. From time to time he looked upward at the powerful signs of fighting above, but then he quickly returned to his work.

As time passed, his glances upward turned increasingly infrequent.

When he couldn’t understand the memories Neveah provided, Randidly experimented. When he was frustrated with his lack of success with his experiments, he returned to the memories. As he did so, a general sense of catharsis overtook him.

Whether it was potion making, farming, or refining metals, Randidly always found the strangest sense fulfillment while performing crafting activities. Truly, in another life, one where he hadn’t encountered Shal, Randidly wasn’t sure what sort of Class he would have obtained. Because nothing felt as natural as making and growing something meaningful.

He supposed that was why the World Tree had been his first image.

Yet Randidly always forgot how fulfilling it was whenever he turned his back on the activity, so he rarely purposefully spent time on these pursuits; he only did it when necessary. Which was unfortunate, because it was immediately obvious to Randidly that focusing on the Engraving was rejuvenating him mentally.

Some hidden parts of Randidly’s heart that probably hadn’t stopped worrying since he had returned to Earth gradually stiffened and then relaxed as they were buoyed by the steady tasks of the Engraving. Clarity that he hadn’t noticed he was missing returned to him. Even without Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold active, the world seemed crisp before his gaze.

Randidly carefully dragged his fingers across the training spear in his hands, getting a better feel for how to deepen the Mana grooves that he was making with his Engravings. The Mana flowed through his limbs much more smoothly. Still, these small improvements weren’t enough for him to learn Living Engraving.

The spear trembled and then cracked in his hands. Ambient Mana blasted outward crackling harmlessly against Randidly’s body. Unperturbed, Randidly produced another training spear and began to work. This Engraving was much more successful than the previous one. Randidly was probably 90% finished with the Living Engraving when he made a mistake and the thing shattered. His Skill Levels gradually rose as his whole focus was consumed in the making.

Randidly took out another training spear. His fingertips tingled from the constant flow of Mana through them. Once more he got to work.

Congratulations! Your Skill Spriggit’s Tinkering (R) has grown to Level 162!

Congratulations! Your Skill Experienced Creator’s Ingenuity (A) has grown to Level 103!

Congratulations! Your Skill Architecture of the Primordial Ways (M) has grown to Level 269!

This time Randidly completely finished the Engraving, but he could already sense slight imperfections in the depth of his Mana that would mean that the spear would shatter before the Engraving within it could grow to its full potential.

With a sigh, Randidly sat that spear to the side and reached into his interspatial ring for another training spear. Then he blinked. Huh… finally went through my entire stock of spare spears, huh…? I’ll have to talk to Tatiana…

Speaking of Tatiana, she had come up during his Engraving time and left a small box on the edge of his island. Randidly appreciated that she hadn’t interrupted him, but it now filled him with dread to look over toward the tedium that awaited him in the future. Because his Grim Intuition was only too capable of revealing the thick stack of papers waiting within that box.

But luckily for Randidly, that task would have to wait a while longer; something shifted in the battle above. The Nether faltered and then began to flee. Many of the powerful Xyrt Brigade members pursued, but the flying serpent twined away and then began to spiral down toward Earth.

In addition, Randidly received a message from Octavius; it was time for him to meet the Captain of the Smog Clan.