Unfortunately for Randidly’s plan to throw himself into training, immediately after his return to his island and taking the time to recover, he was not able to immediately begin researching the process of mixing his three images. Because when he finally felt like himself after a refreshing three hours of meditation, the familiar tugs of the Eidolon Crucible pulled at his consciousness.

Randidly considered resisting the Skill activation, but he also believed that it was important to ascertain the current state of Kharon. They had probably doubled the city’s population in the last few weeks with all the refugees from bubble cities, and Randidly wanted to make sure that these new arrivals didn’t dilute his image for the Wandering City.

This was the shield that Randidly was leaving for Earth, to prepare for a threat he wouldn’t be around to face. This was to be the torch in the dark, illuminating the Path toward salvation.

So he sighed and allowed himself to be swept up into the Skill.

Congratulations! Your Skill Reign of the Eidolon Crucible (L) has grown to Level 227!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Reign of the Eidolon Crucible (L) has grown to Level 245!

Afterward, Randidly collapsed again into a another batch of meditative sleep. As far as he could tell in the contest of wills and images, Kharon was still well on track to fulfilling its role. To the point that even Randidly was starting to feel apprehensive of these clashes. When he had finished suppressing his headache, Randidly awkwardly rubbed his nose with his finger. If my growth wasn’t so monstrous, these fuckers would have caught up and defeated me already…

Heh, maybe the timing of my departure to the Nexus is a good thing… even if I am unbeatable alone, just the weight of their numbers is becoming overwhelming...

Once his mental strength was back to its peak, he then needed to prepare and cleanse his mind. Closing his eyes, Randidly whipped out every spare thought. His Soulspace slowly settled into complete stillness. There wasn’t even the smallest resonance in any of his Skills. When he moved his images, they needed to be as violent as a wildfire and as sudden as the storm on the plains.

Randidly’s eyelids slowly rose and he checked his mental state. He had no new messages and couldn’t think of any pressing business. He wanted to go talk to Lyra about her experience with Kaan, but that could wait. He was focused and prepped; it was finally time to investigate the merging images.

Humming to himself, Randidly first stood and stretched. Unity between mind and body. Purity of purpose through motion. When his heart began to quicken and his skin was warm, he focused inward on his three images. The Grim Chimera, Yggdrasil, and the Stillborn Phoenix all began to grow and solidify in his inner space; they expanded to fill his physical form-

At the last second, Randidly stopped himself from activating his images and sent out a quick message. Neveah, are you alright?

For a briefest moment, a horrible wave of grief had swept through their deep connection. After she had been mentally bombarded by Kaan Swacc, Randidly had been keeping a close eye on his Soulbound companion. So despite the fact that he had cleansed himself, his thoughts, and his body, the stirring from that connection seized his attention.

Quickly, Randidly examined what he knew about Neveah’s current situation. While he had thrown himself into his work, she had meditated on his island until only a few hours ago. Then she had suddenly announced she wanted to go study some Engraving and make some soup.

Randidly had figured that her return to Yystrix’s tomb would be a good distraction. But for only a few hours to pass and already for her grief to have grown to this extent-

I’m fine. I just found… I was just surprised. Through their connection, Randidly felt Neveah push aside her grief and send a wave of disapproval his way. And do you seriously think you can train while you are distracted like this? Get it together. You are going to need strength when you go to the Nexus.

Randidly twisted his mouth, but he gradually pulled back and forced himself to relax. If Neveah didn’t want to share what was bothering her, that was fine. Hopefully it was a sign that she was working through her own grief and loneliness.

While he allowed his emotions to settle and continued with his image training, Randidly looked down at the rust-colored metal of his left arm. Most of the smaller cracks in the tiny scales had already been knitted together by the base Engraving Neveah had created. The shoulder and forearm looked gleaming and impeccable to even Randidly’s exacting gaze.

Most of the remaining damage was present in the elbow. Despite the fact that Wendy’s plans had sought to strengthen that very area, the amount of force that the joint had endured was far beyond even the worst-case scenario predictions. Progress in healing those broken Engraving connections was very slow.

But waiting for the Engraving to do its own work wasn’t pointless. Already the Engraving had grown to Level 22 during the process. It was time-consuming, but this was the arm that carried Neveah’s hope. Giving it the time to heal itself was the least that Randidly could do.

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Randidly bit his lip. I’m going to need that strength when I go to the Nexus, huh… weren’t you going to come with me, Neveah…?

Then he shook his head focused on his images once more. All three grew more present in the space around him. The branches of the World Tree unfolded into a leafy canopy. The Grim Chimera prowled off to the side, its two tails flicking back and forth. To Randidly’s left, the Stillborn Phoenix released its horrible cry and began to slurp down light in the surrounding area.

Randidly flexed his right hand. Growth, survival, obsession. After being repeatedly attacked by Kaan’s counter-image, each one was a little shaken. But after taking the time to refine the details, each is more powerful than ever. The only problem is manifesting them together…

Closing his eyes, Randidly brought the three images within his body. The Stillborn Phoenix flowed into his eye, Yggdrasil channeled through his cardiovascular system and hair, while the Grim Chimera warped the skin across his body. Soon his torso was translucent while the flesh of his extremities was blackened and warped.

He was larger than life. He was more than human. The light around his face bent inward toward his left eye. He was a monster. His shoulders rose and fell with his breath. The wind whispered past him.

The tightrope that Randidly walked to manifest all three images was bucking widely; he released a hissing breath as his heart began to pound. The unfortunate side effect of the improvements that Randidly made to his images was that each was more unwilling to work with each other without the outside pressure of Kaan Swacc forcing them together. The muscles in Randidly’s body tightened as he channeled the powerful energies through his flesh.

Each passing second voraciously fled away with significant bites of his mental energy, but with his improvements after the fight against Kaan and the Eidolon Crucible, Randidly could just barely keep up. The Grim Chimera roared and Randidly carefully balanced it with the howling of the Stillborn Phoenix and the rustles of the World Tree. All of the images were in his body, stubbornly refusing to expose that weakness that allowed them to work together in the past.

The three images stubbornly refused to easily mesh.

Randidly was hesitant to add those weaknesses himself, worried that it might weaken his own images when he utilized them alone. It was always a possibility that he could consider in the future, so, for now, he simply tried to will the unwilling into cooperating. After he had achieved a basic balance, Randidly began activating individual Skills, feeling his balance shudder from the force of a Skill activation. Yet Randidly doggedly kept at it, gradually developing the requisite mental balance in spite of the unruly images.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 301!

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 307!

Congratulations! Your Skill Golden Roots of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 262!

Randidly’s eyes flashed. Honestly, it was rapidly becoming apparent that activating individual Skills while he was in this state was almost harder than activating three at the same time. Not in terms of mental energy, because three simultaneous activations were the reason that he was dizzy for several days, but rather in terms of balancing the image. With three Skills activating together, they largely kept each other in check.

The images saw a single Skill as a chance to upset the balance.

Of course, any minute imbalance that Randidly had missed before that triple activation would be magnified until the point he collapsed. So instead of rushing to utilize three at once, Randidly steadily went through the process of training with single activation. This was the Path that he would take to power.

The habitual inspection of the three images’ interaction would be his foundation in the future. If what he suspected was correct, this utilization of multiple images and Skills at once would allow him to reach unprecedented heights. Besides, Randidly had some time to develop himself; he was in no rush to fight an impending foe right now.

Precisely for that reason, Randidly had sent a message to Octavius Shrike a few hours ago, asking whether there were any dangers to him using Dungeons.

Keeping his breathing even, Randidly stretched out his right hand. With the adjustments of the images around him, it manifested physically as a spear of bone that stretched out from his elbow joint. But that was just the dominant image in that location on his body. Randidly could also curl his hand into a claw through Yggdrasil or Stillborn Phoenix.

Steadily, Randidly worked through each Skill in his three Skillsets. He spent a bit more time on the relatively high-Leveled and low-Leveled ones, just so he had exposure to their specific reverberations. Hours slowly passed. The sun gradually set toward the horizon. Occasionally he would take breaks to re-center himself, but then Randidly would return to the images.

This balance needed to be perfect.

Of course, that wasn’t something that could be accomplished in a single day. This was just the beginning.

The sun was now setting, obscured behind the heavy grey clouds that seemed to hang perpetually over the Earth since the temperature changed. Randidly’s eyes flashed as he resolved himself. Despite the fact that he was using single activations to improve his foundations, he began to marshall his mental energy for a triple Skill activation. Not because he wanted to rush forward, but because Randidly had a theory about another problem he had noticed recently.

Randidly’s mouth stretched into a lopsided grin. Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil, Tide of the Void, and Cursed Appetite of the Wraith activated all at once. When he then took a breath, he pulled at the surrounding area. Initially, he expected that his Skill activation would only reach his island, but he felt his scope expand rapidly beyond that.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cursed Appetite of the Wraith (L) has grown to Level 289!

The core of this Skill combination was the Grim Chimera, pulling energy from the surrounding area. But supporting it was Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil and Tide of the Void. Spectral claws of manifested in a large radius around Randidly, sweeping through the surrounding area. These spectral claws pulsed with golden veins as Randidly inhaled.

And where the claws came, they took.

In Kharon below, at some time around 7 P.M., Randidly Ghosthound extracted a small amount of energy from every soul in his city. The sense of immense physical power that he experienced in the few moments after that was intoxicating. The sense of mental strain that came with it was less enjoyable but still manageable.

However, Randidly’s true focus was not on the Skill combination. Instead, his focus was intensely on his inner area. And as it turned out, his suspicion was correct.

Randidly’s expression was bitter. “So, that’s where the liquid Aether was going. The physical image manifestations require it as well.”