Without the Nether Herald stabilizing the situation, the backbone of this invasion force crumpled and collapsed like a rotting tree. A huge wave of Nether Beasts surged out of the giant Nether Sphere after the Nether Herald’s death, but even with such numbers the enemies were quickly herded together and slaughtered. Under the leadership of DiOrtho Vant, the dozen Nether Gatekeepers were weakened and defeated.

Soon, the ground in the surroundings was littered with broken Nether Cores.

Randidly simply sat on top of the sphere and watched the fight settle. There were a few minor injuries to the recruits, but after an hour of fighting, they stood at attention before him with crisp salutes. Their first battle ended in a decisive victory.

Influence +5!

Randidly nodded slowly as he examined them all. This was the most difficult step and they had taken it impressively. “Set up patrols for the surrounding area. I’ll report our success and see if we have any further orders.”

His troops dispersed in groups, with the Squad Leaders acting closely with the core Riders of the Baleful Court to coordinate their efforts. After fighting against the Nether forces together, the groups were getting along splendidly. Randidly wondered if he should leave the troops with Raymund Ballast after the Foxman recovered and could take up the mantle of his own identity once more.

It would certainly address the problem of the group’s low numbers...

Influence +4!

Randidly’s lips twitched. Plus, the interactions between the factions seemed to be accelerating the growth of his Influence. Or at least, he thought that must be the cause of the increased accumulation. Truth be told, he understood very little about Influence. Rather than a measure like Weight which described his own, observable power, Randidly suspected that Influence described the power that he couldn’t conscious exert, but still possessed.

At this point, his Influence had climbed to 3101. He wasn’t sure about the exact count, but at this pace, Randidly figured he could delay his growth to the next Nether Core Rarity to 10,000 Influence.

Opening a dialogue with Neshamah will be useful, if just to get a handle on the aspects of a Nether Core… Randidly reflected. But I don’t want to appear too desperate, especially when she seems to think I’ve thrown my lot in with the Engraving Guild. But as long as I give her a nice surprise after this war… heh, I suspect she will be quite a bit more amenable…

Humming to himself, Randidly sat on top of the sundered Nether Orb and looked up at the sky. The bands of black lightning were becoming thicker every minute as they streaked across the sky. Intermittent rumbles created a constant thrum of background noise on the planet’s surface. The strained confrontation between the Nether King and Commandant Wick was becoming more and more apparent. Their struggles became ambient ‘weight’ that suppressed Nether and Aether activity alike in the surrounding area.

Even being beneath this fight would be enough to kill weak creatures. If there were any natural wildlife on this planet, Randidly suspected that they were now just corpses.

Despite the obvious drawbacks, Randidly took some mental notes about the general suppression to test for the next time he needed a training array. But he took a quick break to write up a report that he sent through to Lady Iellaya directly, who was the superior of the elite recruits’ superior. Technically, she was within their chain of command. While he waited for a response, Randidly studied the Nether Sphere that was used for the incursion.

Very quickly he could only click his tongue and shake his head. Damn, it’s more impressive than I realized that the root drill only inflicted a flesh wound on the Nether Herald. The Nether Sphere was completely annihilated by its passage… all the valuable weavings were torn to shreds in the attack…

Influence +4!

Without anything to see below him, Randidly’s focus turned back upward. While studying the conflict in the sky was somewhat interesting, Randidly would need to manifest a significant portion of his image and Weight in order to push his Grim Intuition close enough to sense the true conflict. And with no desire to draw the attention of the two figures locked in conflict, Randidly suppressed his curiosity.

In the meantime, his attention turned to the state of his Nether Core. Despite the fact that the actual Nether Core sat within Kharon Academy on the hidden Expira, Randidly’s connection with the core meant that he was always acutely conscious of its state. Since it was at the bottom of Kharon’s labyrinth, Randidly would likely be able to see every individual who reached that prestigious depth.

But that was all for the future; the Academy would only be opening in a few more days. At the moment, Randidly began gently manipulating the Nether currents that ran along the surface of the established Nether Core.

During his confrontation with the Nether Herald, Randidly had used Cursed Appetite of a Wraith to bite off a chunk of his opponent’s Nether Core. Partially that functioned as a way to introduce a weakness in the Nether Herald, but that chunk was also truly was absorbed by Randidly. After steadily digesting its principles, Randidly had a few small bits of inspiration that he believed he could incorporate.

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Obviously, he couldn’t just carve these new things into his Nether Core; blindly adopting an untested energy flow would be reckless.

But what Randidly could do was control the surface flows around his Nether core, mimicking what he had been forced to do for so long within the shaft, before he had the physical object to form his Nether Core. Randidly’s eyelids slid down until he stood with half-closed eyes. He tweaked his Nether and then watched for several minutes to study the changes in the way the energy behaved. Then he made a few more changes.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 399!

Sometimes the changes were clearly much, much worse than the current Nether Core Randidly possessed. In fact, most of the changes ruined some subtle balance that Randidly hadn’t even noticed previously. He hastily had to banish those flows and allow the destabilized Nether to return to normal before he could continue. But occasionally, Randidly stumbled across a change that led to a small increase in density, Nether fluidity, or a spiritual sense of peace.

Randidly made careful note of those shifts and incorporated them into the surface flow. He wouldn’t change his Nether Core directly, but the gradual flow of Nether along the surface would adjust his Nether Core. It was growth on the scale of months, but it was still a consistent improvement.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 400!

Lady Iellaya’s message came back about an hour after Randidly started his Nether Core experiments. As he read, Randidly’s eyes narrowed; he knew Lady Iellaya well enough to read her anxiety in her words.

Thank god SOMEONE can do their fucking job. Of the thirty-six known Nether Pinions that descend to the planet’s surface, four teams, including you, have reported back successfully neutralizing the threat. All have indicated that a powerful Nether Herald was present. Ten units are still en route and nine have requested reinforcements after encountering heavy resistance. Which means there are thirteen radio silent groups that are currently assumed to be dead.

Officially, your elite recruits are ordered to sit tight; their ancestors are demanding they be protected, considering the current chaos out here. They say things will be easier soon, likely because their jobs aren’t on the line. But I’ll send along four locations. The first is one of the Nether Pinions with our forces still en route; some assistance would be appreciated. The other three are locations where we haven’t had any reports. For those, scouting would be sufficient.

Oh, one more thing. I need to create an official designation for your precious elite unit. Have any preference?

Randidly chewed his lip for a while, looking at the chaotic and stormy sky. Have it be… Fenris.

Lady Iellaya replied very quickly. That designation is taken.

Randidly rolled his eyes. Fine. How about Vulpis?

The Vulpis Squad’s first official mission is to sit tight. Congratulations. Lady Iellaya replied with obvious sourness.

Randidly grinned. Then I guess we will be making ourselves comfortable.

Influence +4!

After communicating briefly with Lady Iellaya, Randidly issued some orders. He sent a large portion of the Riders with Charlotte Wick to assist with the assault. The rest of the members of the newly minted Vulpis Squad he sent under the command of DiOrtho Vant to scout the other three locations. Randidly also gave them strict orders not to engage, should they discover the other units had been annihilated.

Considering the fact they had seen Randidly’s fight against the Nether Herald first hand, they didn’t argue. The brevity of the clash didn’t mean they had missed its fighting prowess.

Then, when basically all of his troops dutifully marched away, Randidly looked up at the sky and grinned. The air hummed with barely suppressed tension. The situation in the Fifth Cohort was chaotic. That chaos meant that those groups that were targeting Randidly were probably distracted, but they would soon realize that the chaotic situation was also an opportunity.

Something strange was happening in the Fifth Cohort. But despite that, Randidly didn’t think his enemies would forget about him. Now was the time for him to cash in on his Soulskill and receive his PP Tithe.

Randidly opened his Path Menu. First, he glanced at his current PP: 1997. Enough PP to earn his Tithe with plenty to spare. Then Randidly looked down at his available Paths; he had gained a few new ones since he had last looked: Emotional Evolution I 0/500, Breath of the Imaginary Firebird 0/1000, The Throne of Nether Homage I 0/500, The Enigma of Serendipitous Chaos 0/2000.

So many options to choose from… Randidly’s eyes flicked through the entire list. But for now… I just need a Path to get me to the Tithe. Once I know how much PP I am working with, the decisions will be easier. So if I need to spend 1750 PP…

Randidly’s eyes went to the newest of the Paths, the Enigma of Serendipitous Chaos, with a luminous intensity. For the usually pragmatic Randidly, he was surprised to feel his pride rising to the surface. He didn’t have enough to finish it outright, but he was only 3 PP short. He didn’t doubt that he would get at least that much with the Soulskill Tithe. Based on his guesses, that Path was related to his struggles to understand the grand Nether Ritual that the Nether King used.

And Randidly hadn’t forgotten that for the first time that he could remember, his Control had suddenly been sufficient.

So after a hesitation, Randidly poured his PP into the Path. Even 50 PP spent would earn him 1 Control and 1 Focus. And most of the way through the Path, Randidly received the notification that he was waiting for.

The weave of your Soulskill has steadily become tighter and tighter. The world that is your body is now one side of the coin of your existence. The homeworld that hides your core hunches closely to the thin veil between them. Steadily, your influence is spreading. The Systems they house are different, but your Path was always one that would transcend a single System.

Unknown error, the automatic scan of your Soulskill failed. System present, but information flow has ceased. Please contact your Village Spirit for more information.

Congratulations! PP from your Alpha Cosmos flows into you! Some has been absorbed by your local System, but the vast majority of the tithe still belongs to you. You have gained 89,102 PP!

Randidly whistled in appreciation.