Shal floated back to the Swacc Family base camp, feeling his blood sluggishly pounding through his body. He was mentally and physically battered pushed beyond his limits. He kept his head hung low, unwilling to look at the other survivors of the clash against his pupil.

I found that boy, helpless and alone in a Level 35 Dungeon, Shal thought numbly as they passed through the floating defensive blockade without being challenged. Yet now, he has become powerful enough to crush a group of us with enough power to spare to damage another battle group.

Even through the exhaustion and depression that had lain across Shal since he arrived in the Nexus and had his confidence broken by the ease with which the Vulpine Techetadore acquired power so quickly, he felt a small glimmer of pride when he considered Randidly’s accomplishments. Despite being outnumbered, Shal’s student had somehow managed to overcome the combined force of their image and eliminate half of them. And that last spear thrust-

Shal’s group reached an internal area where several of the image handlers waited with their special ‘unity’ drugs. The lead handler, a man with a scarred face and a monkey tail, sneered at Shal as he passed over an extra pill. “Shal, after today I hope you are ready to admit that you don’t possess the requisite capability to lead this group during battle. After all, it was your deviance from the united image that caused you to lose that fight. Individual thoughts and actions only lead to weakness.”

Shal said nothing, looking down at the two pills in his hand. Even just looking at the small silver pills made him feel exhausted. The Swacc Family claimed that the pills only promoted synergistic thinking that made powerful images possible, but Shal was sure that there was a small bit of an image within the pills, erasing some of the ‘undesirable’ traits within himself. He wasn’t even mad about the process; Shal was so disappointed in his own performance over the last few that he hoped some of that weakness was erased.

Yet to say that it was Shal’s fault that they had lost against Randidly…

For a moment, he saw that spear thrust of pure power his student had unleashed. From the way that it had spread outward into a larger attack as it traveled, Randidly didn’t have total mastery over the resulting force. Yet Shal believed it had been a truly sublime attack.

One worthy of a true Spearman

He closed his eyes and brought the two pills to his lips without attempting to counter the handler’s words. What would have been the point? Shal had already acquiesced and allowed his own image to be suppressed. Soon, they would finish this newly created armament especially for him. It was too late to reject the philosophy of the Swacc Family.

Even if nothing I’ve seen from this pompous family so far, not even Techetadore, can compare to the life contained in that last attack...

Within the defensive wards of Swacc Family base, the impact and energy reverberations of the battlefield felt extremely distant. Shal gulped down to swallow the pills and sat down to meditate. Already, he felt a strange fogginess and subsequent dissatisfaction spreading through his mind after swallowing; the effects were much quicker this time. He suddenly felt a flash of foreboding. The effect of these pills seemed somewhat different-

Yet his weakness remained the same-

A scream cut through the fog and pulled Shal’s gaze upward. On the distant battlefield with Randidly, Techetadore gripped his body and writhed in obvious pain.

*****

Randidly paused, wondering if what he saw in front of him was a trick. Suddenly, while he had been dutifully dodging as Lady Iellaya had requested, his Vulpine foe experienced something similar to a mental collapse. For the last thirty seconds, all he had done was scream. The near-impossible to detect attacks had ceased.

Despite the fact that the fighting was increasingly intense over by the solar array, Randidly felt the attention of something that made his skin crawl settle on him from within the Swacc Family Base.

What the hell did I say?!? Lady Iellaya’s message arrived almost immediately. Unless you have some inner gear yet remaining to fight someone just below the Speculum power level? You feeling tough, Randidly?

Randidly coughed awkwardly, unsure of what to say. To be fair, the few minutes of relying on instinct and his physical body to simply dodge Techetadore’s overwhelming offensive had allowed Randidly to recover a bit of his mental faculties. But the warning from his instincts as that thing from the Swacc Family fixated on him informed him that this did not feel like a survivable encounter.

Head Drill Sergeant. This time, Raymund sent him a message. As I always suspected, something has been controlling my brother! Likely, that mysterious force is the reason that his personality changed so abruptly. I was barely able to detach that control; please, take my brother’s body and store it within your secret world so that he might recover.

Randidly nodded slowly, finally having a better understanding of the current situation. However, as soon as he leaned forward and began floating toward the screaming and twitching form of Techetadore, that horrible feeling of being observed grew stronger. Randidly hesitated, finally glancing toward the intense fighting that occurred in the depths of the solar array. Any chance of a distraction?

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Today, the universe had the grace to acquiesce.

Randidly had felt the pulse earlier as the Pinnacle Seeker started literally seeking the Pinnacle, but this secondary pulse was a thousand times more life-altering than the first. The strangest sort of emotion bloomed and the surroundings were suddenly tinted with deep melancholy. The edge of the melancholy wave reframed the surroundings to feel unfamiliar and alien. And then the follow-up showed Randidly a refracted version of reality, one where his images could be adjusted at will to become one of a dozen alternatives that shared that deep, pervading melancholy.

However, as soon as he witnessed those visions, his Nether Core hummed in warning; these were false possibilities, offered by an image of one who had reached the Speculum tier but was not ready to reach the Pinnacle.

Yet even as Randidly blinked away the false Paths laid out before him, something even more eye-catching happened. The energy wave intensified, radiating out force in every direction. Melancholy became a light blue, laying across the battlefield. Out of reflex, Randidly flared Yggdrasil and created a huge canopy of emerald leaves that screened the Military High Command forces.

The strained image flare-up didn’t seem to have any particular shape or emotion, just a blast of intensity. The attacking Swacc Family forces pushing into the solar array stalled out beneath that strange energy, hunkering down in large groups to defend themselves. That horrid attention from within the Swacc Family base pulled away and the individual fighting against Lady Iellaya pulled back. Randidly’s mouth twitched as he relied on Yggdrasil to screen this image’s effects.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Glittering Leaves of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 398!

Lady Iellaya quickly descended to join Randidly. “The Pinnacle Seeker is flaring their image, but its not one that I recognize. And at this stage in the process it is fine that they are not perfect, but the number of flaws that I can sense in the image...”

“After antagonizing the Swacc Family to such an extend, is someone attempting this without being ready?” Randidly almost felt vaguely disappointed.

Even as Randidly intended to make a move on the still screaming Techetadore, Lady Iellaya gave him a strange, solemn look. “Well, perhaps the true goal was never to make it to the Pinnacle, considering the Elhume always intervenes when anyone has gotten close. Perhaps their goal was already accomplished when they forced the Swacc Family-”

CRACK!

A physical reverberation ripped outward from the core area. A small portal formed at the spot where the Path to the Pinnacle had been created, drawing almost everyone’s attention. Even Lady Iellaya seemed shocked.

It was the opening that he had been waiting for.

Randidly launched himself over toward Techetadore, but instantly the Grey Creature Glimpses Providence tingled. He flared his image and halted in a split second, avoiding the oblivion blast unleashed from below. Apparently, Techetadore hadn’t been the true source of that attack. Several more shot upward in quick succession. Randidly could only watch powerlessly as a gentler force settled across Techetadore’s body and started reeling him back toward the Swacc Family base.

Randidly looked guiltily over at Raymund Ballast, who stared after his brother with a solemn expression. The Vulpine raised his hands and grasped ineffectually toward Techetadore, but nothing happened. The foxman swayed, seemingly unable to maintain his consciousness.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Glittering Leaves of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 399!

Lady Iellaya flared her own image and covered their forces with the dark wings of the Peregrine Serpent, finally easing some of the pressure on Randidly. Meanwhile, the Swacc Family forces began to withdraw, both from the group attacking them and proceeding directly forward down into the solar array.

There was a single moment of warning that something was changing. The blue in the air vanished, leaving the melancholy to intensify, twist, and ferment into something dark and dangerous. Even the six white dwarfs, the dense and superheated celestial bodies, began to dim and writhe before the strange energy released by the portal.

“What is this feeling?” Lady Iellaya muttered. “It’s almost like-”

Randidly felt the tremor run through the thin layer of Nether the System allowed just as an inky black hand reached through the portal and gripped the edge. Even from this distance, Randidly could see every detail of those slender fingers clearly. His heartbeat seemed to become deafening in his ears as he recognized that hand.

A power beyond the Speculum tier exploded out across the battlefield as an enormous shadow immediately ballooned upward, but Nether in the surrounding space spun in a complex pattern too quickly for even Randidly to follow. A strange energy vibration began drilling into the entire battlefield, attacking any image it could find. The shadow ponderously raised a hand and tightened its fingers into fists.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 357!

Congratulations! Your Skill Left Hand of the Nether Oracle (M) has grown to Level 366!

Randidly rapidly expended the Nether that he had roaring through his body, creating a blanket that could muffle the dangerous pattern unleashed on the battlefield. He witnessed Swacc Family soldiers twitching and dropping like flies in the massive army below, their bodies going limp and being steadily drawn toward one of the white dwarfs.

This figure did not step casually through the doorway to the universe; it had come prepared to fight.

Randidly opened his awareness and did his best to memorize the sublime pattern of Nether that ground Aether away at a frighteningly quick speed. He bit his lip as more movement drew his attention back to the portal.

A humanoid body made of liquid darkness bent and stepped out of the opening in the world. Another graceful hand reached out and held the edge. Then a lowered head, adorned with a crown of starlight passed from the threshold of the Path of the Pinnacle and back into the universe.

Randidly’s entire being felt the impact as Nether King surveyed the battlefield with its baleful eyes. As it stepped fully through the portal, its hands were suddenly full. In one it held the head of a smiling woman with closed eyes. In the other, it held a shining sphere.

Randidly’s eyes widened as he made two sudden discoveries. That sphere is my next Fatepiece. And that crown-

That’s a Penance. A true, completed tool of significance and sacrifice. How…?

Then the Nether King smiled and gestured lazily at them all, completely disregarding the specter above the battlefield entirely.

“Fuck,” Lady Iellaya shivered. Randidly felt the reverberation in the surroundings too, although he was too occupied with the Nether attack to understand it. “Its breaking down the bounds of the array-”

BOOOOOOOOM!

Six white dwarfs, formerly isolated by a powerful Engraving, suddenly noticed each other’s gravity and heat in inexcusable proximity. As the six celestial bodies angrily sank toward one another, a wave of fire and destruction blasted outward.