Truly, the sense of freedom that spread before the shade was exhilarating. In order to locate the requisite materials for the Nether Core, the shade had very little choice but to leave his body behind and utilize the will that was buoyed forward by his nascent flows for his Nether Core.
The shade had done some experiments with the materials it could gather from the body’s interspatial ring, but it noticed something disturbing in his experiments; the physical medium would begin to reject the Nether Engravings if the material wasn’t grounded with corresponding memories. Or rather, without the memories to protect the item, it swiftly degraded underneath the powerful radiation of the Nether Engraving.
Which meant that part of what the shade needed to do was gather some potent memories. As it soared upward out of the shaft and saw some normal Aether beings utilizing the Web to move around the Nexus, it could barely suppress its excitement.
And that excitement lasted only until the shade realized that it was lost.
However, it could very clearly feel the tug of significance at its Nether flows. The strongest pull was back toward the body that it left behind, but the shade ignored that for now. Instead, it followed its instincts and began searching for both an object to become its Nether Core and for powerful memories it could gather.
Its Grim Intuition was especially sharp at picking up on nearby threats, which the shade instinctively avoided. And around the cursed place it had escaped, there were several horrifyingly powerful threats. It was only by sneaking through the thin crack that the System allowed Nether that the shade was able to avoid detection. As it wandered out into the vastness of space, its vigilance eased; those powerful beings didn’t come out here. Due to the relative safety, the shade accelerated.
Following significance, the shade shot across several galaxies and located a familiar planet. Without understanding its actions, it arrived on top of a familiar hill. From the hill, the shade could feel the vibrations of a river below. The gurgling sounds of water over stone drifted up to it. In addition, the hill was studded with squat standing stones that faced the river, as though guarding against an external threat. The shade had to think for quite a while before the name of this place drifted up out of its subconscious: the Hallat River.
For the life of it, the shade could not remember why this place was important to it. However, the significance wouldn’t lie. The shade wandered over to one of the standing stones and pressed its fingers against the cool surface. Next to the standing stone was an old spear that the shade touched gently.
The spear was heavy, not due to its physical properties, but due to the memories contained therein. The shade examined those murky impressions, marveling at how familiar they seemed. Despite its current circumstances, it could feel its heart stir in response.
But very quickly, its attention was pulled away by a powerful reverberation in the sky. The shade frowned upward because this was information that it sensed very clearly; a powerful being of Nether was moving in the vicinity. And now that the shade looked more closely, it could see the way that Nether was beginning to spread in the vicinity of the planet.
The shade carefully stored away the spear. Unfortunately, just as the shade sensed that being, that Nether being sensed the shade. After hesitating, that Nether being turned and accelerated toward the shade on that low hill.
The shade spared the surroundings a glance. Deciding that there were no worthwhile items in this place, the shade didn’t bother to stay and meet this Nether Being. It had its own business. Locking onto another powerful flow of significance, the shade left the area as fast as it could. Through the small passage left by the System, the shade was just as elusive as a fish in water.
Yet the pursuit continued, leaving that planet and shooting across the surrounding galaxies. While the shade moved gracefully, the being behind it acted like a bulldozer, forcibly spreading apart the Aether-enforced structure as it gave chase.
Honestly, the shade didn’t mind this strange Nether Being. But the real problem was that the steady destruction of the Aether scaffolding was drawing over the attention of some of those horrifying foes from the Nexus.
The shade could sense several auras fixating onto its position due to the speed of its passage ahead of the Nether Being. Pursing its lips, the shade gathered together several handfuls of emotions and forced them to bloom in a burst of violent energy around its position. With those emotions as cover, the shade stepped outside of the thin layer of Nether and relied on its images to blend into the surroundings.
Due to the distraction and the distance between the shade and those auras, it rapidly shed the Perception of its followers. It streaked across the surface of a frozen moon, skimming across the icy surface. When its Grim Intuition finally informed the shade that it was safe, it moved back into the Nether layer and accelerated.
Without much thought, it followed the significance in its chest.
The shade touched down at a new place, feeling strangely content with its surroundings. This was a familiar location. Its senses could feel the warm sun flowing through its ethereal body, hear the sound of birdsong. A relatively well kept wooden shack sat in a low valley, surrounded by a wooden fence. Behind the shack were several large fields.
It had once called this shack home. A long, long time ago. The shade looked upward. It was spring in this place and everything was blooming.
Without fully understanding what the word spring meant, the shade twisted and began to float more leisurely forward away from the house. The memories lingering there were relatively weak. Besides, the shade was examining the surrounding area. There were no threats here, but it was an area rich in memory and emotion. As the shade moved through these locations, its tongue flicked out to taste the subdued but plentiful feelings in the surroundings.
The shade moved through a prosperous town square, people shouting and jostling each other as sellers moved their hand carts into position around the edges. Smells of smoke and freshly baked bread drifted through the air. Without noticing its ethereal presence, several individual walked right through the shade. The shade honestly didn’t mind, happy to use the proximity to get a closer emotional taste of these humans. Sunlight warmed the entire area, adding a rich and fulfilling note to the air.
The shade glanced toward the hill at one end of the town square. An extremely manicured road led up through a commercial district to a small wooden palisade that seemed to be kept around more for tradition’s sake, rather than providing any defensive cover. People were hurrying to and from, some carrying supplies or weapons, while others simply kept their heads down while heading toward their destination.
To the shade’s surprise, there weren’t many people relaxing in this place. But it didn’t think too deeply about this fact.
Turning away, the shade headed North, deeper into the valley. The air grew smokier, complimented by shouts and the clang of metal on metal. There were fewer people in the industrial district than in the town square, but this section did hold the shade’s attention for a little bit longer. Occasionally, it would peer through the stone and metal shielding of a workshop and stare intently at various artisans working within. They wielded expertise and emotions more freely than the average person, imbuing materials with impressive qualities.
But although some of the things he witnessed would become serviceable Nether Cores, the shade somehow sensed that these should not be his choices. So it wandered further, following the pulse beat of emotion that lay over the area. The shade’s ears twitched and it raised its head to look to the Northwest. A dull roar drifted over to him, heavy with the scent of positive emotions. Tilting its head to the side, the shade proceeded deeper.
Somehow, within the ambient emotions, it sensed a distant memory.
But between the industrial area and the source of the noise, there was another feature that attracted the shade’s attention. A vast sinkhole drew its eyes and held it still for several minutes. An island was suspended in the middle of that sinkhole, held aloft by several enormous metal chains, each so massive that the humanoids here could walk across them comfortably.
Feeling the tug of significance, the shade across the enormous hole. As it did so, it smirked at the relatively minor depth of this place. When it arrived at the island, it wasn’t drawn at all by the top portion, but it passed cleanly through the ground, using the trace amounts of Nether present to slip to the secret area below.
There the shade found what amounted to a diving board at the bottom, leading directly down into the ‘abyss’. Chuckling to itself, the shade hopped off. It drifted downward for only eight hundred meters before arriving at its destination.
The shade looked around at the small shelf along the side of the sinkhole, hidden by depth and darkness. The light filtering downward became thin and filmy down here. The shade’s instincts were telling it that this place was important, yet as it scanned the small area all it sensed were trees. Shaking its head, the shade walked forward to one of the secret trees and grabbed one of two fruits hanging from its branches. There was a memory here, and a complicated sense of regret. These trees were… some sort of gift?
Feeling bored, the shade turned and vanished, directly crossing the distance to find the source of the noise. The emotional memory was much more interesting to it.
Soon, it was floating above a colosseum, looking down at the cheering crowd. The shade could not see the faces, but it could feel their wild and hot breath as they screamed. The stands were absolutely packed. Two groups of humans were fighting each other in the middle, though most of those people either had their armor broken or were too wounded to continue. It was down to the final three, one man standing tall against a man and a woman who circled him.
The shade soon became bored; watching these humans fight wasn’t very entertaining. But it only took a few sharp interactions for the duo to triumph over the single man. And at that moment, the two victors dropped their weapons, hugged each other, and cried.
Significance and emotion began to condense rapidly over their heads. To the shade, the resulting jubilation was so nostalgic that its mind went blank for several seconds.
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Then the shade reached out and plucked a powerful strand of joy from the air. It spun it between its fingers, feeling the peculiar sense of indomitability that filled the air. Once the shade had engaged in this same emotion. Slowly nodding, it withdrew an even larger strand and then turned away from the colosseum. From this place, these two items were all it needed.
From this rejoicing town, the shade headed Northeast. Soon, it arrived at deserted scrubland that even vegetation avoided. But that wide suppression was exactly why the shade was here. It took a step to arrive at the scrubland, a second step to locate a large crater that was partially hidden by tall grass, and a third step to reach the core of that impression in the ground. There, the shade crouched down.
It dug its spectral fingers into the dirt and took a handful. This place stunk of betrayal and achievement. It was a confusing but powerful memory. Without any reaction to the lingering emotions, the shade tossed that soil with the fruit and strand of stolen emotion as it began to move once more.
This time it had to travel far, almost the entire way across this strange planet, to find itself floating above a city with a thousand metal legs. It looked as much like a fat bug as it did like a city. The shade tilted its head to the side as it considered the strange existence. Significance connected to the shade flowed heavily through this place. Aside from the body it left behind, the densest network of significance led here. Of all the locations he had gone to, this was the one that most satisfied his instincts. Then the shade’s ears twitched and it focused on the surrounding area; something was coming.
Rising like that tide, a huge wave of emerald spirits surged up toward the shade. They spiraled joyfully around the shade, seething and chopping in thick and energetic waves. Even the shade couldn’t help but smile as it looked around at the gleeful moss spirits. As though sensing why he was here, they packed themselves into tight, brilliant orbs for the shade to take, but it waved its hand.
The shade floated downward, passing through the streets of the walking city, where people were staring curiously up at the behavior of the emerald spirits in the sky. The shade passed through stone and metal to arrive before the humming core of the city, where there were several larger, more developed moss spirits hanging in the air.
Their light was darker and less eye-catching than those above, but these were some of the original spirits that made this place. The shade approached the moss spirits and offered his hand. From the back, the oldest, dimmest moss spirit stirred. Then it left its place in the engine of the city, starting to hop and whizz just as quickly as the more recently generated moss spirits above.
Its glee was infectious. And in that aging moss spirit was the memory of a pure dream. Grinning, the shade seized this piece and then shot straight upward.
Above the walking city were four floating islands the meandered around the city as though they were loosely tethered to it. The shade’s current target was the smallest and the highest of those islands, where it cut cleanly through silver mist to reach a massive mansion, standing alone on the property. The shade landed on the roof, looking around at the plant structure that welcomed the shade with open arms.
Truly, it was a good feeling to be so instantly accepted. After the depression isolation of the shaft, these shows of affection warmed the shade.
Then the shade passed through the floor and to one of the bedrooms below. Its fingers opened the closet and it located a seal that was tucked away toward the top. Its fingers brushed away the dust as it took the object. The shade stared at the seal without much recognition for several seconds, until its foggy memory produced a term for what the seal represented: the Order Ducis.
Still, even with that term, the shade was nonplussed at the function of such a strange item. But it was necessary, so he took it. The memory inside of that item was one of responsibility. The shade closed its eyes and used its Nether to sense the flows of significance.
There were two more thick flows remaining, so the shade left the island and its silver mist behind. Luckily, the two flows of significance led to a location near to each other. Soon, the shade arrived at a small hut sitting in the wilderness. It passed through the door, finding that the furniture within the room made the shade think about the concept of home. Its fingers touched a pile of letters sitting on the desk, but these were written by something other than its target. Strangely, the letters had notes of Nether clinging to them.
The shade wondered if beings of Nether were more common than it had thought.
Uninterested, the shade went to the heavy iron pot. This too was insufficiently significant for its purposes, so it drifted around the cottage. Item by item, the shade examined everything, but nothing seemed to suit its needs. Luckily, a strong wind blew by and caused some items that were hanging out back to rustle.
Curious, the shade passed through the wall and found several large wooden frames that held aloft thick sheets of woven vines. The maker had clearly spent quite a bit of time carefully gathering different varieties of vines and then preserving them. Some had thorns, others had dried flowers. The final result was an oddly compelling maze of plant matter.
Its gentle fingers touched one of the hanging items. Inside was the memory of a meeting that would change two lives forever. Intimacy was practically overflowing from the woven vines. The shade nodded in satisfaction; this would work.
After storing the woven vines away, the shade followed its instincts and entered into a strange place only a kilometer away. It was a tomb, but the tomb’s floor was covered in dense Engravings. Before the shade went up to the raised central platform, it explored the Engravings on the ground. The ten areas relied on very different principles than Nether Engraving did, but the current shade was extremely experienced at both layering Engravings and interpreting them from its study of Nether Cores.
For a brief time, the shade lost itself in its research into the Engravings. Very quickly, a significant portion of the Engravings' meaning became clear to it. All in all, it could quickly interpret about 80% of the entire legacy that was left here. It could have proceeded further, but it could tell that there was a layered message spread across all ten of the areas. The effect was novel, but the shade lost interest.
Somehow, the shade knew the message was not for it.
Perhaps if it spent time here, it could read that final message, but even its instincts were loath to chase that secret. So it returned to its task. The shade ascended to the central platform and looked straight upward. There, hanging in the air, masked by a relatively clever folding of space, was a fist-sized chunk of significance.
In the shade’s memories of this place, it hadn’t even detected that significance was lurking above its head. But how could the current shade miss an obvious pocket of Nether?
No memories were present in the significance, but it was extremely valuable. An important figure in the Nexus had died here. That had meaning. Now, the shade planned to take advantage of that reservoir of energy.
This would provide a significant amount of reinforcement to whatever material the shade settled on to be his core. It was the final piece that the shade needed. It raised its hand and seized that energy.
Finally, it felt like its preparations were sufficient. As long as the shade could find a strong material, he could begin forming his Nether Core. Without consciously thinking about it, the shade returned to that island with its seething lines of silver mist. Then it looked down and watched the city with many legs clambering through a mountain range while it considered the problem of the physical medium.
Its thoughts were… jumbled, to say the least. In terms of solving a concrete problem, the shade was extremely talented. Its form had been streamlined to complete a distant goal in near-impossible circumstances. Even those dense Engravings within the tomb had readily revealed their purposes before its discerning gaze. Yet in the free-form tree of decisions that would lead it to create a Nether Core…
The finish line was within reach. What slowed the shade was not capability, but insight.
The shade sighed in a rare showing of hesitation; it truly did not have the tools for this problem. With a thought, an image of a fist-sized event horizon appeared above the shade’s body. Then purple-black flames sprang into being around its head. Its already powerful senses sharpened. Beyond the present, the shade could witness the broad avenues to the future.
It looked at the floating islands and the walking city beneath it. The shade could see the way that this city would become a crossroads of significance for him in the future. Originally, the shade planned to locate the reinforcement he needed and the sturdy material before returning to the shaft and creating the Nether Core. But the shade also knew that it didn’t truly need to keep the Nether Core with its body.
It could create the core here. Its instincts seemed to be considering an alternative to its previous plan ponderously, just as ill-equipped for this sort of long-term decision as the shade was. A Nether Core kept on his body would provide him with a boost to its physical power and recoverability. But at the same time, the shade knew that distance would mean very little to the Nether Core. Perhaps such a decision would allow opponents to cut off his access to the Nether Core…
But the shade had memories of foes that suppressed its Nether in the past anyway. They had directly rid it of Nether. And even with the distance, the Nether Core would be better equipped to handle that suppression no matter what.
A Nether Core that was his would always be connected to him. That was a fact.
The shade’s ears twitched, still covered in purple-black flames. It could hear the sounds of the city below as though it were standing amongst them. Voices and flames and doors and furniture and metal refineries and farming and wind and sizzling food… the significance in this place was already robust. It was very suitable to house its Nether Core.
Yet the shade turned and glanced to the side, toward a massive floating island that was almost half as large as the city itself. The shade moved, passing through the deserted surface to the depths of that floating island, where it found a group of workers carrying a massive grey-green pillar down through a series of strange rooms. The shade drifted after them, dragging its fingers across the walls.
Considering the island’s size, it was quite strange that so few people were present. Currently, it was empty aside from a few groups of workers like this one that were performing mundane tasks. The flows of significance spiraled around this place but did not yet enter. This was a new place. There was no memory or connection yet present.
And yet…
The more the shade looked at that grey-green pillar, the more it liked it. The metal was one that it didn’t recognize, but it felt extremely durable. Plus, with the expansive surface of the four-meter long metal pillar, the shade might be able to incorporate some of its newly learned Engraving techniques into its Nether Core. The layering would be much simpler with a larger space to begin.
The workers proceeded downward, heading to the very bottom of the floating island. At this deepest portion, there was a large, circular room with nothing else present; it was completely empty. The workers then carried the pillar to that place and set it up in the middle, as though it were a relic to a pagan god.
Then the lead worker gestured sharply. “Alright, that’s it. Let’s get out of here. They are going to activate the Engravings soon. Careful you don’t leave anything; after this, this place is just for the students.”
One of the other workers looked up at the pillar. “Hey, boss, why did we just bring this down here? It’s valuable, sure… but shouldn’t the final reward for clearing the labyrinths be a bit more… impressive? Besides, the refineries were just drooling to get their hands on this...”
The lead worker slapped his hands together. “Orders from the top. Who the hell are we to question? Some things seem more impressive when you’ve worked harder to achieve them. And based on what Miss Collins said, it will be extremely rare for someone to make it this deep.”
“It certainly has an… austere charm,” One of the other workers said cautiously. After a few more comments from the workers, the group left.
And in that empty space, the shade appeared. It stepped out of the thin area for Nether and put its hands on its hips. Its senses scrutinized the tall metal pillar. It was so thick around that two humans would barely be able to touch their hands if they stood on opposite sides of the pillar
Then the shade carefully set its gathered significance on the ground. The spear, the thread of indomitability, the fruit, a handful of dirt, the ancient moss spirit, the seal, the beautiful mat of woven vines, and the fist of dense Nether were all set out in a line. Seven memories and a well of significance were the building blocks to his Nether Core. Then the shade walked around the pillar, examining it one more time.
Then it began to smile with anticipation.