The sympathetic bond sizzled… then snapped completely into place.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Hierarchy of Burden has grown to Level 20!

Congratulations! Your Skill Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 407!

Randidly released a growl of triumph, even as his body was splayed wide by the overwhelming force of electricity coursing through his muscles. Each limb was extended as far outward as his joints would allow, as though his arms, legs, and also tail were trying out for a position as the hand of a clock.

After the electricity forced his muscles to contract in the middle portion, now each individual sell was individually charged through his body. Each muscle strand wanted to contract, but the prevalence of the crimson electrical serpents in his flesh meant that Randidly’s body was forced to extend to its limits.

His limbs strained and Randidly’s face warped in a twitching grin. The sense of pressing against his limits was agonizing but satisfying. His tongue was twisting itself with enough force that he felt a portion tear. Finally reaching the point that he could totally withstand a single layer of the Fatepiece felt like an accomplishment.

Randidly could practically hear his flesh sizzling from playing host to so much electrical discharge. Heh. Reaching this is impressive… but it just makes it even more intimidating that this is only one-fifth of the burden within this Fatepiece… and the least dangerous kind of strain it contains… I do think I can start sharing the burden, perhaps with Helen, but still…

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Impunity (M) has grown to Level 406!

The most difficult part of this Fatepiece was the next step; he could only activate second layer of the Hierarchy of Burden while the first was completely handled. After hesitating for a few seconds, Randidly summoned the Fatepiece to float in front of him. The inverted pyramid slowly spun, the crimson tip glowing with ambient power. A powerful and complete sympathetic bond existed between his body and that ruby tip.

Randidly’s eyes settled on the crystal, translucent layer of the pyramid. Well, I suppose there is no harm in trying… this next layer… should be some sort of light radiation…?

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Hierarchy of Burden has grown to Level 21!

Almost immediately, Randidly felt the shift in the environment. He had thought that he was already stretched to his limits by the electricity, but somehow Randidly’s back found the ability to arch even farther, sticking out his chest. The sensation was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Randidly simply felt like he was laying in a tanning bed, manufactured sun beating down on him from every angle.

Yet the intensity of the rays he experienced...

There wasn’t heat to this inexplicable exposure, not truly, but it somehow pierced through him with wrathful abandon, searing through his skin and muscles and organs and coming out the other side. Every part of Randidly was being hit and soaked with this radiation. His insides began to prickle and then to sting. Vulnerable parts of himself that weren’t usually damaged were suddenly blasted with a spotlight.

Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 373!

Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 374!

Randidly’s mouth stretched wider and wider as the pain mounted. The interplay of sensations running through his body was becoming difficult to parse apart; his nerves were being overwhelmed. The amount of energy contained in the light radiation was astounding. Just like his tongue, his various cells began to twist and warp underneath two sorts of powerful radiation.

Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 375!

This damned Skill…! Randidly swore inwardly at the notification. Then, as it felt like his stomach was starting to combust, Randidly released the sympathetic links to his Fatepiece. Instantly he slumped down, coughing and trying to catch his breath. Meanwhile, the heat in his body continued to smolder.

Randidly shook out his limbs and then slapped himself. Then he grimaced as his interior remained simmering. . “If I didn’t know better… it feels like my internal organs are sunburned…”

Randidly scratched his chest uncomfortably, but ultimately the lingering feeling of heat wasn’t enough to distract him from training. But he had now remained in the depths of this place for almost three months, polishing his images. Although he hadn’t grown much in Skill Levels, he was much more confident in the power of his image.

So instead of moving smoothly to the next task in his rotation, Randidly sent Claudette a message. How are your preparations going? Making any progress with Neveah?

Her response came quickly. Honestly? Quite a bit. Your sister’s methods are… very different, but I’m starting to see the value in her method. But Randidly… your home planet… you realize that the first Calamity arrived a few days ago, right?

Randidly steadily stiffened. If he was being honest with himself, he did know that the chosen date had passed. Perhaps that was why he had thrown himself so fully into his Fatepiece training a half week ago. Because he didn’t want to look too closely at the situation on Expira.

Stolen novel; please report.

Claudette sent a follow-up message. Do you… not want to talk about it? Your Calamity is much different than the one experienced by my father… For better, and for worse. Our Calamity was only a single, powerful individual… but this- there are attacks everywhere.

I’m aware of the nature of my planet’s Calamity. Randidly pressed his eyes shut. Emotional and physical pain made him feel like he was sitting in the center of a bonfire. He couldn’t figure out how to roll himself away from the torturous heat.

Still Claudette pressed. I don’t mean to pry. I can understand why you would do this. You want your planet to be strong. If you need to… discuss it, I could talk with you.

Randidly’s stomach bubbled uncomfortably. He didn’t bother to answer for now, instead examining his inner space to distract himself. Unfortunately, despite the improvements that he made in the shaft, his Alpha Cosmos still felt quite uncomfortably full. Gaining Influence or physical Stats didn’t seem to shift the ‘size’ of the Alpha Cosmos. So he was torn. On the one hand, returning to the Nexus would be the best way to distract himself from Expira’s situation. On the other hand… if he wasn’t ready to absorb Nrorce’s planet…

But I can still provide Aether and save his fellow goblins. Randidly’s expression hardened.

He composed another message to Claudette. Let’s head back to the Nexus for now and prepare for Military High Command’s Ball. After we get through that, we can make the final preparations for your image refinement.

...if that is what you think is best. Randidly scowled at Claudette’s response, but he quickly distracted himself again. His insides continued to burn. He faced upward and mobilized his significance, catapulting him up into the air. At this point, there were no difficulties pulling away from the mass of significance below Randidly, not at this depth.

He still didn’t dare satisfy his curiosity and see the bottom, although that was partially due to the horrible voice that called him from the depths, but the rest of the shaft held little danger for him. With his Nether Core, he could move freely.

When he returned to the normal flow of time, he rapidly opened a portal and appeared in Edraine’s hideout. He immediately walked to her office to find her there. She glanced up at him without any surprise and gestured for him to sit. As he looked at her blue-grey hair and the scar on her face, Randidly wondered how close to being a Speculum she was.

“Obviously not much time has passed for me since I received your message,” Edraine spoke slowly as she steepled her fingers in front of her on the desk. “But… Octavius and I made overtures to some of our contacts that… aren’t quite as happy with the powers that be, but their answers were… strange.”

Edraine slowly parted her hands and rapped her knuckle on the table. “... it’s like they are waiting for a password that we don’t know. There is a secret related to this issue with Velio Dunn… and without being able to prove we are part of the club, we won’t get any further information. These secrets… they do originate from my original time. But I became… part of that horrible Nether Array before the relevant developments, I believe.”

“So we know nothing…” Randidly flexed his fingers anxiously. He tried to be worried about the strange situation regarding Velio Dunn, but his thoughts kept turning back to Expira.

“Well, that’s not actually true.” Edraine leaned back. “We have… some theories. Derived from some of the materials you have obtained from Claudette Beigon. Here, I want to show you a timeline Octavius has established.”

Edraine stood up, moving with such purposeful slowness that Randidly was finally brought out of his own anxieties to look directly at this alternate, aged version of Vualla. As his scrutiny became more intense, he could sense minuscule ripples of power from her that told Randidly that she had definitely not been idle since she had been liberated from her prison on the frontlines.

Her image was deadly, his instincts warned him.

Edraine tapped her finger against the far wall and the ornate hardwood rippled and vanished. In its place was a chalkboard, covered in complicated scribbles and lines. There truly was a timeline across the top portion, while the bottom portion was filled with explanations and arrows, indicating when each event happened.

“The end date of the Second Cohort is a bit… murky. But it was sometime between 270 and 299 years after the Nexus was founded. In fact, several of the official accounts and the ones you got from Claudette contradict themselves and each other. Its as if different portions of the Nexus experienced the shift at different times. Officially, this isn’t an issue; historians simply acknowledge that the first two Cohorts were an extremely chaotic time. Not only were the Cohorts smaller, but the length of time for each was much shorter. The Nexus hadn’t quite realized what it wanted to do at that point.” Edraine gestured toward the middle of the timeline. “However… there are some interesting points about this particular transition. Points that give us clues to what sort of business Velio Dunn might be involved.”

Edraine’s long fingers switched to a point much earlier on the timeline. She tapped a massive tick mark with her nail. “I lost my consciousness at around year 254. I’m a little hazy on the details, but there are few things that I do remember. I was part of a small military family, but we were a subordinate of one of the three main factions at the time… however we were a relatively minor subordinate family and I was young; I don’t remember much about who we supported.

“After the Third Cohort started,” Edraine’s hand moved left beyond the middle portion of the timeline. “The histories all reference “The Two Pillars of the Nexus”. And they call them by name, the NLC and Military High Command. This was the beginning of the modern Nexus.”

“So… one of the main factions was eliminated,” Randidly said slowly. “Were the Pinnacle Seekers more unified back then…?”

With a small smile on her face, Edraine shook her head. “This is a tidbit that we obtained from Claudette’s information; it is completely unavailable in official accounts. But both the NLC and Military High Command were founded about Year 301 or 302. After the Third Cohort began.”

That made Randidly blink. “So all three of the original factions from your time…?”

Edraine shrugged. “Hard to say. But let’s look at other information. Direct references to Yystrix are gone from every historical source we could find, but there are some more general implications prior to the Third Cohort that she was present in the early days. In addition, two huge occurrences definitely can be pinned to the transition between the Second and Third Cohorts: the disappearance of Elhume from the public eye and the creation of Alymian.”

“So before that…” Randidly said slowly. “Elhume… wasn’t stuck within that huge amount of crystalized Aether.”

“Yes. And it makes one wonder.” Edraine gave Randidly a long glance. “After you saw Velio moving freely, even covered by crystal… is Elhume as imprisoned as everyone believes? Or is there another reason for his strange state?”