"Expira," Tatiana spoke clearly as she glanced down at the clipboard that she held in front of herself. They were in her office, meeting at 10 A.M. sharp the day after the world was named and the first Calamity was announced. Randidly knew that she checked the clipboard less because she needed the reminder but more because the habit of confirmation was so deeply ingrained into her person that she would be bewildered by the suggestion that she didn't need to double-check her work. It was why she was so good at running Kharon. "To expire or to exhale. In a way, certainly a morbid motif to associate with the world, but considering your quest to destroy the Nexus..."

There Tatiana paused in her unasked for explanation, checking Randidly with the same relentless determination to confirm she showed toward her work. Honestly, Randidly couldn't begrudge her this habit; considering the difficulty of keeping up with his quick decisions, the trait was a boon. Then she set down her clipboard on her desk. "...perhaps more relevantly, one of the many ways to reference ghosts in Latin is expiravit. A mouthful, and one that would not translate well to the name of a world. But Expira, on the other hand..."

"Stop trying to tease me. The planet is already named," Randidly shook his head, unwilling to admit that he did feel quite a bit of awkwardness from the thought that Alana would have named the world after him. "I know you brought me here for other reasons; what did you want to tell me?"

Chuckling, Tatiana stood from her hefty leather chair and walked to the window. She used just the tips of her fingers to grab the maroon drapes and drag them to the left, to marginally lower the amount of light in the room. Despite the fact that temperatures continued to remain low, the sun was bright on the day after the duos tournament ended. While walking over to the Town Hall, Randidly had heard several people say ‘the sun dawns on Expira!’. He had winced every time.

Tatiana marginally adjusted the curtains a small amount further, leaving her office mostly in cool shadow. "I brought you here for three things. First, Donny invited you to dinner a week from today. On your behalf, I accepted. You could stand to be more friendly toward Donnyton. Secondly, everything is prepared for our construction crews to begin work on the other floating islands. As soon as you pick out the pieces of land and finalize the plans, we can begin.

"Finally... I wanted to ask you, officially as the head of Kharon's government, when Randidly Ghosthound planned on heading to the Nexus. Through my Skill, I can see some of your answer, but what I feel is... oddly unsatisfactory."

Randidly considered the question carefully, like he was judging the attitude of a man he had never seen before. Not that he didn't have some inclinations as to how to answer the third question, but he sensed his vague feelings wouldn't be enough to ease the slight edge to Tatiana's smile. "...I certainly won't be staying here until the First Calamity arrives. My growth rate on Expira is quick, but not as quick as it needs to be. So I'll remain long enough to get all the projects finalized... but probably not longer than a month."

"If you really want to accelerate your growth rate, relative to the base timeline, why not spend some time in Dungeons?" Tatiana said. Then she pursed her lips. "While you are there, you can help me with some of the details of Kharon Academy."

Randidly had to wince at that. He briefly channeled Revelation energy, giving him a little extra insight into how his additional work with the Kharon Academy project would influence it. What few insights he gleaned by peering forward weren't surprising, but they still stung a slight amount; Others would achieve much better results than he would. It wasn’t a problem of willingness to help on his part, but perspective.

What was needed was tools to help educate children and teenagers who were basically still near the normal capabilities of a human. Randidly… did not have much expertise in that area. Or rather, the methods that seemed natural to him were horrifying to others.

Thanks, Shal. Randidly closed his eyes. But it wasn’t like his assistance would be completely useless. "Tatiana, you don't have to hold back. As much as I will grumble, I can handle more of the work on these projects; they are my brainchildren, after all. But as for my growth rate..."

Randidly shook his head. "A Dungeon would help me develop in specific ways. I think the details of my images could be vastly improved and I can perhaps make some breakthroughs in Nether manipulation. And those are important areas of my power. But they aren't the core of my identity that I've chosen. That is my image physicalizations and utilizing multiple images and Skills at once. And as for that... I probably improved more during the fight against Kaan Swacc than I have before and since. It isn't an ability that you can practice alone or without the threat of death if I fail. I’ve grown too used to the tension. I need to ascend to the Nexus to find more difficult challenges."

"Pah." Tatiana pressed her hands against the windowsill and leaned forward. Her face was hidden in shadow. "I do know what ascending will mean for your growth. And I don't really need help with the projects. I just... don't want you to go. It's going to be hard, without you."

"Hasn't all the suffering I've put you through prepared you for this?" Randidly said gently. Then he adopted an innocent expression. "In fact, you should probably be thanking me. If not for how much suffering I've made you endure as you tried to keep up with me, you would be-"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Tatiana pulled a book off of a nearby bookshelf and flung it at Randidly like it was a frisbee. A tremor ran through Randidly's body and suddenly he was taller, and slightly hunched over. His joints ground into a new alignment As the book whizzed toward his face, a tail of bone about two fingers thick flicked out from behind his head and caught the book a few inches from his face. While his left eye was devoured by darkness, he twisted the book so he could read the cover: A Regression Analysis of the Danger of Unchecked Raid Bosses.

Randidly raised an eyebrow. "Sounds captivating. But I bet the conclusion is that the best option is just to kill the monsters."

"You are blessed in many areas, but I doubt you are as funny as you think you are, Randidly Ghosthound." Tatiana shook her head, almost ruefully. Then she walked over toward Randidly, who was still in his physicalized image form. The orb of melted light and darkness observed how Tatiana did her best not to tremble as she withstood the substantial pressure that Randidly's images released. And Randidly couldn't help but love her for that attempt to make him feel normal. These days, he did his best not to dwell too long on his departure from human limits. It was… it filled him with an oddly bleak mood. Like the individual he had become was so far removed from who he had been that he now human only in name.

But that was the point, Randidly said to himself. I was unable to protect myself or the people I cared about before. I haven’t lost the Why of my transformation. Even if I can no longer be considered the same person, we want the same things. I would have been happy to know that I have come this far. It’s time to ascend to the Nexus.

When she held out her hand, Randidly released the images and the book fell into her palm. She returned it to the shelf and slid the book into place. Perhaps sensing the mood with that Skill of hers, she was quiet for some time.

Then she turned back to him and put her hands behind her back. "Honestly, that book is a quite self-important text which comes to common-sense conclusions. But it gathered quite a lot of data to support those conclusions, so there are many tools within it that allow you to identify how long a Raid Boss has been active based upon various signs in the area. Certainly worth a read for anyone planning. But anyway, I can sense you have another reason for remaining on Earth. One that seems... quite unpredictable. I can sense its shape, but not it’s origin. Can you tell me… what I’m sensing?"

Randidly rubbed the back of his neck. "Honestly, your Skill is somewhat uncomfortable. But you are technically right. I'm... waiting for something else to happen before I leave Earth..."

He paused, considering how to explain. Because ever since the tournament had finished, and he had almost unwillingly watched all the significance Paolo, Kayle, Alana, and Wivanya generated be siphoned away, he had sensed that something was coming for Earth through the thin film of Nether that the System allowed; some force had been constantly producing significance ever since.

It wasn’t near the level of the tournament, but it was at least double the previous Nether density that flowed through this area of the System. Randidly dearly wished he would have been paying more attention to the time before Kaan arrived, to see if it was that type of event that was approaching.

At first, Randidly had assumed the change was just related to the impending First Calamity, that had been announced to be more difficult than usual. But that didn't feel right. As Randidly carefully monitored the significance, he could tell that the event in question was much closer than the announced Calamity. It would happen quite soon, as far as Randidly could tell.

Randidly wondered if the extra difficulty was the fact that the Calamity would be arriving early.

"Something... will happen soon on Earth." Randidly eventually said to Tatiana. "I really don't know more than that. But it should be only a few days or weeks away. I just want to make sure... the consequences aren't too drastic before I go."

Tatiana walked back over to Randidly and nodded. Then she reached out, hesitated, then put her hand on Randidly's shoulder. With emerald eyes, he looked up at her. Tatiana released a breath and then spoke with urgency. "Alright. I'll keep an eye out for anything strange. But I want to say one more thing. You are going to want to disappear without saying anything- don't give me that look. You know it's true. I'm telling you, don't you dare. Unless you want to come back to Earth to find that I've created an entire action figure line based on your likeness."

Randidly blinked. Tatiana smirked. "I'll give it very embarrassing catchphrases, like "The Spear Always Advances!" or something like that. Alright, go away. I have a lot of work to do."

Randidly forced out a chuckle, but he didn't get up quite yet. He reached up and put his hand on Tatiana's that was still on his shoulder and squeezed. "Please, never do that. And I promise I'll let you know before I leave."

After the meeting with Tatiana, Randidly returned to his floating island and returned to his peaceful area of greenery on the Western side. He sat down, meditated for about fifteen minutes, and then carefully wove together a Nether RItual. Randidly was rather pleased to notice that his practice weaving Nether to take significance made the process of making a ritual much easier. In fact, Randidly was rather confident that his new Nether Ritual was much more powerful than any he had been able to make in the past.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 175!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 305!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 176!

With an almost intoxicating sense of intimacy, Randidly reached across the distance between them and touched Vualla. But he took extra care to keep his touch light; he would feel like an idiot if he lost himself in his more efficient Nether Ritual and revealed the connection between them to the Xyrt Brigade.

As per Randidly's usual luck, he could immediately sense the sense of strained fraying from Vualla's images; she was in the middle of an absolutely brutal spree of training. Almost unconsciously, because Vualla couldn't spare much attention from her task, Randidly felt her mind reveal that the training should end in about six and a half hours. Randidly licked his lips in dissatisfaction and quietly shut down the Nether Ritual. He had wanted to show off his recent improvements due to the Nether significance he absorbed, but he didn't mind waiting.