Error! Recalculating…

Please see your nearest Village Spirit-

Resonance detected. Recalculating…

Take that last step. Reach for it. Randidly whispered to himself. The golden seed within the Grim Chimera popped silently and from that core a wave of significance, images, and emotions seeped through the cracks in the Grim Chimera, unwinding the base pattern of its existence. It was water poured over a castle of sand. The details of the image began to melt more quickly… And then-

Then, strangely, within Randidly’s Soulspace, his Dreamcatcher of the Long Night activated for the second unexpected time during this conflict. The Fatepiece resonated with the change in the Grim Chimera, releasing a bright ray of meaning of its own that wove into the melting details of the image. The energy and connection and significance of the destabilized image was thick and almost incestuous, so strands unwound and spun together and the sources were unidentifiable.

Then the undoing reached the core of the Grim Chimera. Everything was tumbling apart, separating into the base iotas of meaning and image. Randidly hissed and stiffened slightly during those few moments; a strange ringing emerged in his ear as his image was rooted out of him, totally blasted apart into motes of dust and meaning… and then sucked back together to condense into a new form.

Several strange phenomena that existed as the opposite of ripples manifested, centering on the place where the Grim Chimera once was. From the uncaring cosmos, a way approached from every direction at once, meeting with a soft impact in the middle. Those base meaning and images were buoyed along, carried toward that central implosion.

Once, twice, three times. And suddenly there was a body, fully formed and waiting.

Time slowed in reality as Randidly’s thoughts accelerated to follow the shift in his image. The condensed form of the newer Grim Chimera was just as monstrous but more compact. Two tails still flicked behind its body, one from the waist and one from the base of its neck. Its left arm still was armored, but the bulkiness had been stripped away. Its right arm still ended in sharpened fingers. Black, lacquered armor stretched down across his lower body and reinforced his knees and ankles.

But more than anything else, looked at the face of the Grim Chimera and saw… himself. More than human, but still a person. An individual who had taken on many roles in the past… and now reached for the capability to take action against the Nexus.

You walked with me this entire way. Randidly’s eyes glittered as he looked at himself. But we still have much more growing to do, don’t we? We will follow this Path to the end.

Congratulations! Your Skillset the Supremacy of the Grim Chimera (T) has evolved into Kismet of the Evolving Creature (P)!

An evolving… Creature huh… The ghost of a smile danced across Randidly’s face. Some part of him still recoiled, but he couldn’t fault the term. In his heart, it held too much complicated meaning to escape from it. Then the flood of notifications arrived as the meaning he had absorbed surged through his Skills and warped some of them.

Warning, recalculating… Please see-

Your Skills are evolving!

Congratulations! Your Skill Cursed Appetite of a Wraith (L) has evolved into The Wandering Deity Demands (T)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Congratulations! Your Skill Reaper’s Mantle of Catastrophe (L) has evolved into The Maelstrom Entity Approaches (T)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Congratulations! Your Skill Pernicious Fang of the Shade (L) has evolved into The Ashen Doors to Pandemonium Unlock (M)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Congratulations! Your Skill Man is Proud, But the Chimera Takes (L) has evolved into the Vindictive Chimera Smites (M)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Congratulations! Your Skill The Chimera Weeps as Man Mourns (L) has evolved into The Wrathful Calamity Rends (T)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ruin is Inevitable, Yet This Too Shall Pass (T) has evolved into The Grey Creature Glimpses Providence (P)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

Randidly felt the new Skills of the Grim Chimera… or perhaps now, the Grey Creature, settling within the body of the image. They sharpened his claws, drew the swirling ash through the air around his body, and added a deific element to the bearing of the Grey Creature as he raised his head. Within those Skills dealt all of the accumulation of the toil done by the human Randidly, who had struggled for so long to seize the power to make a difference.

He looked at himself in the reflected expression of the Grey Creature and felt a sad smile crossing his features. And as I look at myself… I see my sins just as strongly as I see my virtues.

Perhaps due to the way he had upgraded the Skillset’s Rarity, the mixture of Skills was somewhat… eclectic. But Randidly could see within them the tools he needed.

For now, it had to be enough.

He shook himself lightly and the grey wreathed Creature he had become reached out and touched Yggdrasil and the Stillborn Phoenix. The two images hesitated for a second, but then quickly followed the familiar sympathy between them and merged together. A booming resonance quaked Randidly’s body as the three images now possessed equal Rarity. The combined force of his images made his chest hum.

At the same time, a slightly twitching Acri unwound itself from Randidly’s arm. The wound of the severed third portion of the spearhead had scabbed over and the blade of its spear had been altered to compensate. Rather than the equilateral triangle that it had been previously, the wounded Acri had an edge only on one side of the head, more like a glave than a true spear. Strange, grey ripples spread across the length of Acri’s shaft as Randidly’s fingers tightened on the weapon.

He couldn’t study the effect quite yet, but its seemed that Acri had only begun its long-awaited evolution.

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Velio Dunn’s slash stretched outward from his dull sword, but Randidly looked up and snorted. He saw that bleak zone of annihilation swinging toward him and dismissed it out of hand. The Grey Creature within him showed his hungry teeth. Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil. Revelations of the Atramentous Threshold… The Vindictive Chimera Smites.

Randidly’s eyes widened purple-black revelation energy as he observed the possibilities of Velio’s attacks. He reinforced his body with the hardy wood of Yggdrasil. Then he raised the glave Acri and shot forward to smite this foe.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Velio adjusted quickly by twisting his baleful sword around, but Randidly smoothly pivoted, his body handling the normally organ-liquefying bursts of acceleration with ease. He cut sideways and Acri pierced through the metal armor over Velio’s thigh and tore his flesh. Even as more liquid Aether bubbled out of the wound, Randidly’s Nether Core spun furiously.

And at the center of that horrifying whirlwind, three grey bubbles slowly formed.

Velio roared in pain as Randidly yanked Acri out before the liquid Aether could solidify and keep the weapon stuck within his body. Distantly, Randidly noticed that Acri was drawing a thin line of Nether out of him as well; Acri’s edge now glittered the capability to more easily cut through Aether.

Unfortunately, Randidly didn’t have much time to observe the phenomenon closely. Randidly’s tail flicked sideways to try to wrap around Velio’s sword hand again as the man rounded on him, but Velio let go of the hilt with his left hand and intercepted the tail. With the other hand, Velio twisted the sword to cut toward Randidly’s neck.

Hissing, Randidly’s image physicalizations grey more intense. All three of his images flared with every ounce of potency he possessed; all of his liquid Aether drops were consumed by the image physicalizations. Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil. Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart. The Maelstrom Entity Approaches.

Congratulations! Your Skill Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart (T) has grown to Level 347!

Banded layers of gravity, woven together using the principles of Nether that Randidly had been studying for the last several weeks, snapped into place across Velio’s body. Although the man’s face was completely covered in crystal, he was so surprised by how surely Randidly’s Skills and images managed to restrict him that he released a rare gush of emotion. At the same time, a grey aura of ash and destruction seeped out from Randidly, spinning and draining some of the ambient Aether from the air.

Of course, just as soon as his images stalled Velio, Velio’s horrifying image began to devour a path forward. But that didn’t matter much; Randidly just needed his one shot.

The two were so close to each other, within the range of their weapons, but both angled sideways so that they weren’t quite facing one another. The three grey bubbles formed in Randidly’s body and began drifting toward the hand that gripped Acri. However, Velio didn’t solely rely on his sword. Randidly’s pupils dilated as the crystals across Velio’s body were being activated somehow, surging with ambient light and power. Just like Randidly’s own the Maelstrom Entity Approaches, it didn’t have much offensive power. But it did restrain his movements.

Not enough to slow me down, Randidly barred his teeth. Inscrutable Mien of Genesis. Cosmic Necessity. The Wrathful Calamity Rends.

While the grey bubbles flowed down to the arm gripping Acri, a gush of Nether flooded toward his metal left arm. Across those metal fingers, his image physicalizations condensed, covering the wounded limb with dense and imagined armor. That hand ripped downward, glowing with an ominous grey light and shredding through the energy of the crystalized Aether. The attack raked across Velio’s chest, ripping up crystallized energy and tearing flesh.

Randidly was the man who unleashed a Calamity against his own home planet. He was wrath incarnate, a true force of nature. He raised his weapon for the final strike, one eye an inky abyss, the other a pyre of emerald flame.

The Ashen Doors to Pandemonium Unlock. Piercing Gaze of the Egg. The Golden Roots of Yggdrasil.

Congratulations! Your Skill Piercing Gaze of the Egg (L) has grown to Level 264!

Congratulations! Your Skill The Ashen Doors to Pandemonium Unlock (M) has grown to Level 311!

Within the depths of Randidly’s new Grey Creature, something in its deepest, darkest recess shivered and opened. And from that small box poured a grey, relentless hatred for the Nexus that he had nursed through all of his desperate struggles to survive. He hated all the horrible crimes that it had committed and continued to commit… and also hated the way that the Nexus had forced Randidly to change and justify committing those same crimes.

That energy swirled together with a thickening river and Nether and buoyed the three Nether Bubbles down Acri’s length. Hat hatred became a corrupting, aggravating power that filled the strike. Velio was howling and cutting his way toward Randidly’s neck again with his sword, but Randidly executed a basic thrust with such keen intensity that Velio couldn’t keep up.

Congratulations! Your Skill Sharpness has grown to Level 323!

Acri cut through the small and desperate image defense and cut deeply into the flesh that Randidly’s fingers had raked earlier. The luminous image of the golden roots spread outward and seized upon the wound, holding it wide in the face of the surging tide of liquid Aether that Velio Dunn contained.

And into that breach, the three Nether Bubbles advanced. Velio was howling and Randidly was trembling as he used as much of his Primordial Nether Juju as he could, to force those Nether Bubbles just a little bit deeper. The muscles of his elbow, shoulder, back, and waist flexed and popped.

The Bubbles slammed into the sea of Aether rushing inside of Velio and briefly forced it back. Unfortunately, the first Bubble popped on impact. The second soon followed, as the waves surged back and smashed against the invading energy.

But the third...

Randidly grinned and reached through the beachhead established by the attack and plunged his mental awareness into someone else’s sea of Aether. Immediately, his Nether Core released a keening wail as it struggled to maintain the connection between them.

The sensation of entering that Aether was almost exactly like jumping off a dock and into a frigid ocean. The shock of foreign energy was dangerously invigorating. The waves surged forward to drown him, but Randidly spun his capability outward, his 2392 Fidelity of the Ascendant Moirae demonstrating its overwhelming dominance.

He was surrounded by wild energy, but it had no master. With Randidly’s understanding of Aether, he opened up a path and surged directly to the heart of this sea of Aether. Thankfully, what he found there was not an Aether Crossroads. It was only a unilateral connection, a direct leak of Aether into the body of Velio Dunn.

He didn’t slow to question why this connection was unilateral. He simply surged forward, deeper and deeper. But strangely, there was a dormant image glowing around that core area of the Aether source. Randidly grimaced but reached out his mental energies anyway. He couldn’t waste this chance to investigate this strangeness.

He struck.

When his Fidelity of the Ascendant Moirae impacted that remnant, a brief image appeared in Randidly’s mind. Two figures stood on a raised, obsidian dais that was covered in flickering patterns of Engravings. Randidly’s eyes widened in recognition as he looked at the two individuals. Her face and body was changed, more alien and emotionless, but Yystrix Yule was clearly on the figure on the left.

And the figure on the right…

You have been made in my image, Elhume Yule announced. His eyes were so bright that they stabbed at Randidly as their gaze met. Work hard.

The impact of that image remnant smashed Randidly’s awareness into a daze just as his Fidelity of the Ascendant Moirae gripped and twisted the source of Aether.