Leaving aside the rowdy group of shades behind him, Randidly focused on the skinny shade and the lines of energy that it released. Unlike the others, it didn’t speak. In fact, it walked next to Randidly and very obligingly demonstrated its capabilities. Each movement was filled with a hundred small adjustments that maintained his few meters of pattern.

Observing was an invaluable experience that Randidly appreciated. Yet at the same time, it was obviously a conscious act by the shade.

At one point early in their climb, Randidly had finally let curiosity overtake him. He spoke softly, so as not to drag any of the other shades into the conversation. “Why are you helping me so directly?”

He couldn’t see what expression the shade wore due to its unruly hair, but Randidly clearly saw the shade twist its neck and look up the staircase. Then it shook its head sadly, as though it was unwilling to speak of it. However, the meaning was still clear: the final guardian of the Fifth Step was not someone you could catch up to just like this.

To the shade, there was no harm in giving Randidly further demonstrations.

Congratulations! Your Skill Breath of the Cosmos (T) has grown to Level 492!

Congratulations! Your Skill (Domain) Resonant Fangs of Extinction (M) has grown to Level 500!

The Stillborn Phoenix image physicalization continued to dominate the left side of his face. Under its influence, Randidly could feel the flows of all things in the surrounding space, even through the muffling of the mist. As he gradually grew familiar with using subtle movements of his body to affect the surroundings, he gradually incorporated his Domain into that awareness.

If I can connect them-

Still, he paused in his observations as Sulfur began to tremble. Before his eyes, a dark grey bulge formed on his forearm, almost all the way up to his elbow. The bulge gradually swelled until it was the size of a tennis ball. Then it popped, allowing a gleaming, crimson-speckled black fang to force its way out. A thick ichor dripped down from the gash until Sulfur settled back into place around it. With 500 Skill Levels, Randidly now had access to five fangs.

Sulfur gradually calmed down and the new fang detached itself to join the others in swimming through the spreading tendrils of mist. He didn’t want to use them yet to control the lines of energy, but they were useful at keeping the mist at bay. This left Randidly with the spare attention to continue to examine the patterns he could create in the surroundings.

Congratulations! Your Skill Breath of the Cosmos (T) has grown to Level 493!

Ten minutes later, Randidly grimaced and deactivated his image physicalizations. He raised his hand and rubbed the bridge of his nose. As expected, even if I can see it, controlling all the flows without relying on energy or Nether is difficult. No wonder only the ninth guardian has any results in this area. It’s not something you can do without a monstrous amount of Control or Skill Levels.

For a while, Randidly simply walked. The skinny shade walked right behind him, keeping abreast and demonstrating his ability to manipulate the surroundings with seemingly normal movements of his body. Behind them, the Lizakh shade happily boasted and complained in equal measure. The long-haired shade sighed while the fifth guardian continued to describe how each moment was an opportunity to train. The seventh guardian wanted to play a card game, but none of the other shades paid her any attention.

They walked for another hour in that manner. During one of the breaks in utilizing Breath of the Cosmos, Randidly examined the surroundings more closely.. He narrowed his eyes and looked over at the skinny shade. “... we can’t even make it to the next platform like this, can we? Is the final guardian that strong?”

That shade shrugged, but its aura was tainted by bitterness; apparently, this being had never even been able to fight against the one above him. Randidly nodded slightly as he raised his gaze and activated Breath of the Cosmos once more. The lines of energy spread out before him. This energy awareness stretched farther than his actual vision, but only a small amount. It too was eventually smothered by the presence of mist.

Looks like the fangs alone won’t cut it. Pressing his lips together, Randidly stepped with a bit of extra force and thrust out a palm. He didn’t pull energy through his body and into the attack but relied solely on his ability to manipulate the force with his movements. The first attack was unsatisfactory, so he stepped again and tried again, with slight differences in execution. His fingers tore through the air. His physical prowess might be restricted down to only 20% of his usual power, but that didn’t change the minute control he had over his body.

Plus, even cut into 1/5th of his normal advantage, the body of Randidly Ghosthound was supercharged.

Congratulations! Your Skill Tempest Drill (A) has grown to Level 425!

Finally, Randidly managed to unleash a palm that didn’t require him to supply energy. The slight adjustments to the movement created a cascading, self-perpetuating pattern in the space in front of him. A whirling blast of wind rushed forward and pushed back the mist. Randidly’s ability to sense the surroundings grew as the impediment receded.

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Of course, the mist immediately tried to collapse back down. However, once Randidly understood the trick, he could unleash several powerful palm strikes with each step. As he moved, he began to incorporate even the individual strikes into larger patterns, so that they would benefit each other. His left eye burned as it traced the wiggling lines of power.

Congratulations! Your Skill Breath of the Cosmos (T) has grown to Level 494!

Once Randidly had the knack for creating the patterns, he rapidly improved. Truly, he had been preparing for this sort of thing his entire existence. His Fidelity of the Ascendant Moirae rapidly turned a single fluke experimental success into near-mastery. From the long hours of utilizing Nether, he had hundreds of variations that he could attempt. Without even relying on his external powers, he soon created a small storm around him once more.

His storm settled around him like a growling beast. Each strike unleashed a bit more of its power, ripping its claws through the mist and sending it into immediate retreat.

With the storm bludgeoning the mist backward, he began to sense the restriction on these stairs. The Grand Pattern churned around Randidly and the shades, constantly preventing them from advancing. It warped the space in a way that he couldn’t mimic, but he could surely break. Randidly showed his teeth. If you think this can stop me now after I’ve come so far-

Randidly began to climb. Occasionally, as he truly advanced, he encountered new and more powerful restrictions; the defenses of the final guardian were layered. For a while, he would continue to travel on the steps without being able to actually advance. Underneath the pressures, he honed his ability to understand and influence energies. In the end, he finally discovered the ‘key’ he had been waiting for. A monstrous being in his chest stirred.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Maelstrom Entity Approaches (T) has grown to Level 374!

The Grey Creature released a long sigh, its enduring emotions sinking into Randidly’s image physicalizations and setting his skin to tingling. The beast of the storm twisted and sharpened into something relentless and determined. But suddenly he became a particular aspect of the Grey Creature; he was an eternal natural force just as much as he was an individual. With that framing, his ability to manipulate the surroundings increased. The density of the invisible storm of energy he marshaled doubled. Its long fingers shredded the restrictive pattern around them to bits.

No longer could the restrictive layers of the Grand Pattern stop him. Randidly began to accelerate upward.

Congratulations! Your Skill Breath of the Cosmos (T) has grown to Level 495!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Maelstrom Entity Approaches (T) has grown to Level 375!

…

Once he took the first step, his momentum only grew. His second step released thunder. His third blasted the mist in front of him apart. By the tenth step, the Grey Creature raised its head and roared. Its fingers were stained with the energy equivalent of blood. Any impediment was shredded, Randidly’s movements weaponizing the energy patterns around him.

His eyes flickered, one brilliant and one darkness incarnate. And when I start fueling these patterns with energy and not just my bodily movements...

Congratulations! Your Skill the Maelstrom Entity Approaches (T) has grown to Level 399!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill the Maelstrom Entity Approaches (T) has grown to Level 459!

Congratulations! Your Skill Breath of the Cosmos (T) has grown to Level 510!

The mist was blasted away by Randidly’s arrival, revealing the tenth platform of the Fifth Step. The ground was clear, but in the sky above the platform, almost fifty pyramids tumbled around, evenly spaced apart.

Randidly pounded his fists together and looked upward as his Nether began to flow toward the shade that waited in the middle. His eyes instantly saw that beyond this platform was a ladder that led up to the summit. He couldn’t see the details, because the mist thickened enough that all he saw was the blurry peak, but his fighting spirit was ignited. Finally, I’ve made it. One more fight-

However, his expression quickly transformed into shock as he looked at the shade. “You… what are you doing here?”

“Do I know you?” The woman tilted her head to the side. Her features came back even more quickly than the other shades, revealing her puzzlement in perfect, monochrome relief. Her hair hung down to her chin in gleaming strands, framing her face. Her slim body remained just as he remembered it.

Randidly had no idea how to respond to that. Eventually, he just offered a bitter smile. “Perhaps not. I just feel like… there is some positive karma between us. You are the final guardian of the Fifth Step? What’s your name?”

The woman clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Well, that proves that you don’t actually know me. I am born of a race that doesn’t have a home or a history. I don’t have something like a name. All I know is that I want to see the summit. Somehow, I know that if I can manage that, everything else will fall into place.”

Having that same female shade who helped him so much in the earlier Step act in such a familiar manner put Randidly’s heart at ease, despite his surprise. Yet her words gave him a bit of pause. “You haven’t seen the summit? Aren’t you the highest guardian? Why can’t you go up?”

“This is such a place. Reaching the peak of the Fifth Step is different than reaching the summit. If you can defeat me, you can experience it for yourself. Then you will understand.”

“...So we fight,” Randidly said.

The woman grinned. She looked just as decisive and confident as he remembered her from the previous Step. And as she took a fighting pose, suddenly all the energy lines on the entire platform stilled in an intimidating show of power. “I will fight. You will lose. Prepare yourself.”

Are you really the same person? Or maybe this was the version that had climbed to the peak of the Fifth Step, with an even more domineering attitude, Randidly surmised. Then he raised his gaze once more. Does that mean… is it possible that a version of you climbed all the way and accomplished your wish?

The woman stopped her foot. Immediately, all the energy flows in the ten meters around her turned chaotic. Which left Randidly without the spare focus to wonder. All he could do is focus and struggle.