“...stealing Elhume’s body sounds like a bad idea,” Randidly said after a beat of silence. He had wanted to listen longer to Edraine’s entire plan before he interrupted, but when he heard the name Elhume, he felt compelled to speak up. “He is the creator of the Nexus and the most powerful person in it. Even if his body is truly sealed… Just attracting his attention…”

Edraine raised up a hand. “You are correct that attracting his attention comes with so much danger that even I am unsure if I could survive. But don’t be so quick to reject the idea. Plus, if you have some useful information about Elhume, I’m willing to take it into account.”

Randidly blinked. In a way, he did have some information about Elhume, but what he had learned from Yystrix was how powerful Elhume was and the origin of the System. None of that seemed really relevant to this planned larceny three thousand years later, so he shook his head rather helplessly. “...maybe the biggest reason I’ve come so far in such a short amount of time is that a certain individual interfered on Expira. From her, I learned some background about Elhume. But nothing relevant.”

“There was interference in my Cohort?” Octavius muttered.

Meanwhile, Edraine’s gaze turned sharp. “That interference is highly irregular. She must certainly be very powerful in order to escape the notice of the System architecture. Is there any chance that we could meet with this woman? If she’s truly that capable.”

“Elhume tracked her down and killed her,” Randidly said lightly, but his chest tightened as he said it. Which was exactly why he was deeply wary of a plan involving Elhume. From his recent usage of the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night, the sensation of Elhume’s gaze fracturing his Class was still fresh in his mind. A tremor ran through his Class just thinking about it.

“...I’m sorry for your loss,” Edraine said with a very genuine expression on her face. Then, while Randidly was struggling to cope with the conflicted feeling he felt when being given condolences for Yystrix, Edraine continued to speak. “But I believe there are a few things that you do not know about the situation. Elhume is overwhelmingly powerful, but by and large, he exists entirely as an image being at this point. When his body became useless to him, he discarded it. He keeps tabs but has made no attempt to liberate it.

“In addition, I perhaps was being slightly dramatic when I said we would steal his body. I, too, wouldn’t want to weaken the seal on his body. Instead, what we want to make use of is the massive amount of power released by the crystalized Aether sealing his person. That ambient energy will be the fuel to effect the change we want.”

Lady Iellaya reached up and cracked her neck. “Heh. Even if he doesn’t use it anymore, I doubt that Elhume won’t have something to say if we attempt to take his body. I like the spirit, but I have to agree with the Ghosthound. This is… dangerous. The deepest parts of the Nexus… I would tread lightly.”

Across the room, Octavius Shrike shivered. His eyes were filled with dread, as though he was a small child remembering a nightmare. Everyone had experienced the harsh truths of the System in the past.

Meanwhile, Edraine frowned around at them. “Yes, there is extreme danger. But I have one thing to say to all of you: we will not be able to change the Nexus without brushing up against Elhume. Above all of the trash that has congregated at his feet in the Nexus’ three thousand years of existence, he is the true hurdle. Taking his body would give us an opportunity. A pice of Elhume to stave off the whole. But if you have any other ideas about how to rival that monster’s power…”

Randidly had been about to say something else, but that truth silenced him. Even in his current tier of strength, Elhume was a being that could shake him to his core with just a look. And that wasn’t a psychological commentary; Randidly’s body had been physically impacted just by the man’s attention.

His gaze was the least of his weapons and it was still overwhelming.

But ultimately, Edraine was correct. Any true change to the Nexus would need to, at least partially, brush up against Elhume’s awareness. Expecting to hide meaningful change was foolish. Therefore, they didn’t have any other choice but to take these sorts of risks. And as long as they prepared and planned well…

Randidly licked his lips. “Well, who sealed his body anyway? If that’s possible, perhaps that will give us a blueprint about how to go about this.”

Edraine released a low laugh. “No one sealed his body. Heh, we don’t have much reliable information about what exactly happened, but I believe we can piece things together between my memories and secondhand accounts. From what I can tell, his body being sealed happened around the time of the Second Cohort. I had known of Elhume in my original life… and he was moving around freely, although he was rarely seen. But at that time he pursued a now-defunct Path to power: image physicalizations.”

Randidly gradually began to frown.

Meanwhile, Edraine continued to speak. “While we currently use our images to push toward making thought projections condense as physical presences, there used to be a school of thought that these projections could be used to gradually modify your physical body to resonate more directly with your images. While I was just entering the army and my family was fighting… it was an extremely popular school of thought. In terms of Stamina, none could match those who physicalized their images within their bodies. They seemed to possess endless wells of energy.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“When I first recovered my senses, it struck me as strange that this practice has largely disappeared. After some investigations… I believe it’s because of what happened to Elhume’s body.” Edraine pursed her lips. “The details are unknown, but it is clear that at some point, Elhume’s body reached a tipping point. There was so much energy in his body that it began to attract more energy. From what I can glean, Aether began to crystalize around his body, eventually sealing its movements completely.”

Octavius shook his head slightly and cleared his throat. “There are some records of Elhume’s body moving in the past, briefly forming a crack in the crystalized Aether that allows the body to have some influence in the outside world. The results were… catastrophic to areas nearby. So he was moved. But just as quickly as it is formed, the ambient energy heals those flaws in the seal around him. So theoretically, if we had enough power to endure those brief attacks… we could safely utilize his body as an energy source.”

Randidly’s mind began to whir. He looked down at his hands, wondering if his pursuit of image physicalizations would eventually lead him toward a similar result. Certainly, he would gain a lot of power but getting there, but someday, would the purity of his power draw Aether to him and crystalize it around him…?

Yet some part of that train of thought felt suspicious to Randidly. If you gather enough Aether in a physical form, is this really the only result? Without the use of Nether to ground the Aether, I definitely can see rigidity becoming a serious problem. The more I observe the energies, the more I see how depriving Aether of matching Nether makes the energy turn brittle. But… wouldn’t Elhume be aware of Nether and its usage? He was the one who created the System… He definitely is aware of how to manipulate it...

So why did Nether stop working as a way to balance out his physicalized images…? Was it because his mastery of Aether severely outpaced Nether?

It was something Randidly would need to reflect on carefully in the future, but for now, he comforted himself with the depressing truth that he was still very far from the amount of physicalized images that it would end up being a risk.

Everyone else also seemed to be mulling over that information, leading to another stretch of silence. Edraine studied each of them in turn. “Now, assume for a moment you all agree to assist, I can guess what you are thinking: how we will be able to find and steal Elhume body?

“Each of us has a role. Randidly, you will be working as the Head Drill Instructor in order to earn merits was the Nexus military repels the invasion of the Fifth Cohort. If you perform well, or more accurately, your recruits perform well, you should be rewarded with a Nexus Citizenship coin or two. I’ll get to why that’s important when I speak of my role, but to get access to Elhume’s body, we need more Citizenship coins.”

Edraine looked at Lady Iellaya. “Supreme Commander Iellaya, you will pour everything you have into training. You will be the one to act as our shield when the time comes. During this operation, I predict we will need to be able to resist at least one or two attacks from Elhume’s body. Your goal will be to increase your strength to the point you can survive him cracking his seal briefly.”

Randidly recalled that horrible, jarring noise of the crystalized Aether shattering and shivered. Expecting Lady Iellaya to reach that much capability...

“Meanwhile, Octavius will be researching Engravings. To transport, further seal, and utilize the ambient energy that all that crystalized Aether releases.” Edraine glanced at the Overseer. “In addition, if a few more planets pass through the first Calamity, Octavius will earn some honorary Citizenship coins. Again, more on that later.”

Edraine pointed a long finger at herself. “Meanwhile, I will be responsible for infiltrating the Nexus proper, locating the hiding place of Elhume’s body, and then distracting Elhume’s attention while you three actually steal the body. But to start doing that, I’m going to need Tier 3 Citizenship to fully gain access to the forbidden areas.”

Now Edraine gestured at the coins remaining on the table. There were five of those blue coins and four of the normal golden Tier I Citizenship coins. She quickly picked up two of the blue coins and one of the golden ones. With a flourish, she made the coins dance across her fingers. “Citizenship Coins can do one of two things: either grant you citizenship or open a Path to the Pinnacle of the Nexus. Setting aside the second option for now… You can upgrade your citizenship coins by combining three of the same Tier. But one of those three used in the combination must be an entirely pure gold Citizenship coin.”

She pressed the coins, one gold and two blue, together between her palms. There was a flash of light and suddenly there was only a single coin in her hand. There was a ring of gold near the center of the coin, but the rest of it was blue. “The honorary coins are generally the mundane rewards given out by the Nexus. Only in special circumstances and on planets still facing the Calamities do genuine gold coins appear. Which is why we needed to seize the opportunity of the Head Drill Sergeant position.”

Then Edraine grimaced and pressed her palm against the pile of three Citizenship coin on the far side of the table. When she moved her hand away, a thick golden coin that glowed with an inner light sat on the wooden surface. “Thanks to the two coins you brought, Mr. Ghosthound, we have an entirely pure Tier 2 Citizenship Coin. Which is the most difficult piece to assemble. To raise me to Tier 3 Citizenship, we will need two more genuine Citizenship Coins and one more honorary coin.”

Randidly was confused. He pointed at the other coin in her hand, with the gold ring. “Why can’t you use that? Then we only need a single more gold citizenship coin.”

“Unfortunately…” Edraine tossed the coin at Randidly and he caught it between his pointer and middle finger. The metal was strangely cold against his fingers. “You need to have Tier I citizenship in order to accept the role of Head Drill Sergeant. We might have fudged your application, but as long as you show up as a citizen it won’t matter. So make sure you train these fools well, alright? It’s an investment.”

Then Edraine looked at each of them in turn again and chuckled. “...not that we are in any rush. We aren’t ready for this operation, not even close. But this is the only answer I could come up with to change the Nexus. Let’s try our best, people.”