Velio Dunn, appearing confident in his victory, didn’t strike immediately with his image as the two moved toward their next clash. Besides, Randidly was zooming directly down toward him like a fastball toward a batter. Instead, the excited Velio began to speak. “This was always your fate, for having the hubris of breaking through the physical limitation- ugh!”

Although Randidly’s hand was useless for punches, he flicked the appendage and unleashed a spray of blood at Velio that spattered in the man’s eyes. They were close now, only a few meters apart. To Randidly’s disappointment, there was no sizzling or burning; it was clear Velio was powerful enough to ignore the damaging effects of Randidly’s blood. Still, it was extremely satisfying to force the assassin to reach up and wipe away his blood.

Then, several things happened at once.

Although he had never done it himself, Randidly had witnessed the methods of his Fatepiece and Nether enough times to have a hunch about a new use for his Skill. In the brief period of time that the overconfident Velio was distracted, Randidly gathered as much Nether to himself as he could. His Nether Nebula continued to accelerate, spinning wildly to reaccumulate the mass that had been depleted already in this fight.

He near-instantly wove the Nether into a tight funnel. His Willpower ached from the strain, but he dare not hesitate. Gritting his teeth, Randidly connected two points in space. Another dangerous tremor ran through his Nether Nebula. At the same time, he felt a ripple through the surrounding Aether; the suppressing array was shattered.

Screams echoed from above, just as a message arrived. I won’t be able make it down in time to prevent him from killing you. And fighting him…

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to level 192!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 201!

I understand, Randidly replied as his Nether Ritual bridged space. One fraction of time he was shooting toward Velio’s chest, the next he was beyond Velio, shooting deeper into the darkness. The distance covered was only five meters, yet the entirety of his Nether Nebula was depleted. It was more exhausting than he had expected. And with both of his arms out of commission... I’ll be able to survive down here, I believe, at least for a while. Enough to escape later. But he needs to be pinned down for a few seconds.

His now completely exhausted Nether Nebula began to accelerate further. It was spinning crazily, sending waves of destabilizing energy through the entirety of Randidly’s body. His images weakened rapidly, caught by surprise by the phenomenon. But of course, there was currently nothing Randidly could do. These next few moments were too important to spare much attention for the issue.

Got it, came Edraine’s reply.

Just as Velio realized something was wrong and twisted around to glare at the figure of Randidly that had teleported past him, a beam of sizzling orange light shot downward, like judgment from heaven. Velio had begun to move to strike at Randidly again, but he instantly recognized the danger presented from Edraine’s strike and was forced to ignore Randidly.

Instead, he faced upward. Randidly couldn’t see Velio’s expression, but he could hear the barely controlled fury in his growl. His back was wide and ominous. “Just who the fuck are you…?”

Edraine didn't reply, but her light laugh echoed down through the Web. Velio raised his sword and smashed it against the orange energy. The two lights mixed and became as blinding as a direct blast from a floodlight after your eyes grew accustomed to the dark.

Randidly continued to shoot down in the meantime, tumbling through the air. Yggdrasil was knitting together his flesh, but both the emotional damage from the strange utilization method of the Grim Chimera and his destabilizing Nether Nebula were extremely dangerous. The Nether content in the air continued to climb, finally pushing past 25% of the ambient energy.

Luckily, the prevalence of Nether meant the space turned chaotic. Although he had only traveled a short distance, the air turned murky. Even the powerful image reverberations as Edraine and Velio clashed were muffled by the turbulent emotions and thick Nether around him.

Still… Randidly’s expression turned bitter. The Grim Chimera image was largely lifeless, having spent everything on Chimeric Impunity and still been deeply wounded by Velio. A wave of emotions smashed into Randidly’s from the side, dragging a groan from his lips. In addition, the ambient Nether hungrily tried to eat at his flesh.

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Normally, he would create a buffer of his own Nether to protect himself, but his Nether Nebula continued to dangerously accelerate without showing any results; all of the Nether he was producing was being steadily stolen by the mass of significance below. Which meant that his Nether Nebula continued to rev faster, trying to accumulate Nether faster than it could be stolen.

That half-formed grey bubble at the core of the Nebula was the only reason things hadn’t completely collapsed.

After tumbling down for thirty more seconds, Randidly huffed out a breath and decelerated. Blood continued to trickle out from the ruined wreck of his hand. The Nether content of the air was almost exactly 30%. Although it wasn’t ideal, he manifested his Yggdrasil image directly in the space around him. It clashed with the Nether, but it also gave Randidly some time to gather himself.

He felt oddly isolated, surrounded by the murky clumps of Aether and emotion. But that was for the best. He needed a chance to-

“Shit,” Randidly spat out, his eyes turned upward.

Although it was being weakened by the ambient Nether and those same emotions that were burning Randidly’s skin, a light blue slash cut sharply down toward Randidly. Velio’s image didn’t waver at all, even as the Skill it was riding faded. Luckily, Yggdrasil was already manifested. So Randidly could quickly unleashed the Inscrutable Mien of Genesis and Yyrwood Body of Yggdrasil to defend himself. A purifying and holy halo bloomed from Randidly’s body. The emerald leaves of Yggdrasil rustled their indignation at this affront to their dignity.

All of the power of Yggdrasil reached its apex inside the enclosed space of the web. And into that power, that rather dull-looking blue slash arrived.

BOOOOOM!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Inscrutable Mien of Genesis (M) has grown to Level 301!

The strike was much weaker than the first one Randidly had endured today, likely due to the environment and Edraine’s assistance. But Randidly was also in a much worse condition than he had been at the beginning of the fight. Yggdrasil could only endure for a few moments before flickering and vanishing. Once more, he was smashed downward by the strike.

Eventually, Randidly managed to recover and slow his descent. But this time, the ambient Nether reached about 41% of the environment. Painful tremors ran through his Nether Nebula as it accelerated beyond its limits to gather Nether. But of course, this much closer to the horrifying significance below, Nether was stolen before Randidly could manage it at all.

Without much choice, Randidly bloomed into the Stillborn Phoenix. A vortex surrounded him, bending the surrounding energies. Both emotion and Nether were devoured by the nondiscriminatory image. The process was painful, but Randidly needed some safety to stabilize himself. His headache intensified, but Randidly used his remaining dregs of his Willpower to naturalize and convert some of the raw Nether into his own energy.

He kept a tight grip on that Nether and used it to ground his Nether Nebula. Some of the strain immediately eased, although he now needed to constantly divert a portion of his attention to stabilizing his Nether. The greed of that significance below was truly horrifying.

Might give me a bit of inspiration later for Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil… Randidly shook his head and took a long-needed breath. Then he glanced upward through the murky air. Even with Grim Intuition, he couldn’t sense anything at all from Velio and Edraine’s fight. Gradually, the sense of tension in his shoulders eased.

It took about five minutes of meditative recovery for Randidly to feel at least safe. No further attacks had come from above, meaning that he was stable for now. He produced his Philosopher’s Key and gave himself a few more minutes to focus. The Fatepiece activation remained fraught with discomfort, which wouldn't help his current circumstances. Then he raised the key and sought the folds in space-time that would allow him to escape.

After a minute, he gave up with a vicious expression; the only locations he could find with his Fatepiece were deeper toward the core of the Nexus. Then, with rising alarm in his chest, Randidly noticed something else.

Although he believed he had been floating in the same position during this recovery, the amount of Nether in the air had risen to 42%. It might mean nothing, but considering the result of his Fatepiece….

Randidly had gone too near whatever lurked at the heart of the Nexus. He was now being inexorably pulled down into the depths.

*****

Lady Iellaya’s expression was blank for several seconds. “And you just… left him down there?!?”

Edraine nodded slowly. “Even I cannot do anything about the core of the Nexus. You’ve felt it, right? The horror of that place? What would be the use of sacrificing myself? Besides, Mr. Ghosthound is… the most resourceful of us all. If anyone can make it out of that place alive, he can.”

True but… Lady Iellaya hesitated.

Edraine turned away and walked to the window. “He hasn’t responded to my messages, which leads me to believe that the Ghosthound is already at a dangerous depth. Still, have faith in him. But that is not why I called you two here. I assume you’ve seen the report released about the Seventh Cohort?”

Across the room, Octavius nodded slowly. “Military High Command… has found no traces of systemic corruption. The hidden Aether was a result of a few independent actors.”

“Quite different than expected. And the fact that there was no corruption rather than corruption on a small scale…” Edraine’s voice was heavy. “This wasn’t just a brokered deal between the NLC and Military High Command; this was a cover-up. We are missing something. So I need help from both of you.

“Octavius, gather every report you can find on Aether yields for the Cohorts. As far back as you can. I want to see the numbers. And Lady Iellaya… do you think it’s possible to get me into the Vault? I’d like to speak with our ignoble former Overseer of the Sixth Cohort.”