Number Four was surprised to run into Number One walking slowly through the interior of the mountain, but he inwardly felt a flash of joy. If you are pacing around like this… heh you must be more rattled than you let on. And the more your mental state is unstable, the less focused you become. The less rational you will be when the unexpected greets you.

If I would have known this all would have started from someone wasting a Path to send someone you invited on a Path of Blood, I would have done it myself years ago…

Number Four schooled his expression into a thoughtful frown. The sort of expression one would wear if they were too distracted by their inner world to notice the surroundings. Then, as if it were a coincidence and the beat of the cane didn’t reveal him, Number Four walked around the corner and came face to face with Number One.

Both stop short. Number Four took the opportunity to bow and speak. “Number One? Oh, I thought it was Number Two again. Ha! Imagine, seeing that messy figure so many times in a week. Anyways, I really must be going-”

“Wait,” Number One growled. His eyes were bright and desperate. “Number Two? You saw him earlier? Out of his cave?”

“Yes, but only for a moment,” Number Four said casually. “Although now that his invitee is gone, I wasn’t sure-”

“Damnit! That bastard is plotting against me! Could he-” Number One grimaced. Then he whipped around and began to hobble away at his top speed, heading for the Path of Spirit, the domicile of the Master. With a smirk on his face, Number Four followed.

The true test of an expert, Number Four mused with suppressing his anticipation. Is how well they can seize the opportunities the world makes for them. In the end, Number One, I was simply quicker on the uptake.

In this world, that is a failure punishable by death.

*****

In their previous clashes, his Dragon Queen’s Sinister Tongue had been able to (barely) fend off the wind whip and knock the shade back when it landed. Now, fueled by the additional forces of Nether, ambient natural energy, humming image physicalizations, and the dangerous electromagnetic and light radiations, she didn’t stand a chance. His palm bulldozed forward without much tension.

BOOOM!

Congratulations! Your Skill Dragon Queen’s Sinister Tongue (T) has grown to Level 515!

The first strike sent the shade reeling. The second strike obliterated a portion of her whip and made her scramble back, desperation clear in her eyes. Thereafter, she relied on the purple saber to meet his blows. Unfortunately, that endeavor was also doomed.

Around him, the storm churned. She could cut out chunks, but the whole was too large to slow down.

Five strikes later, as Randidly had expended energy and pulled it back into himself in a freight train of momentum, he could directly blast the purple saber backward, simply overwhelming the cutting power it possessed. The storm grew to cover the entire platform, lashing and restricting the shade's movements. She struggled and screamed, her purple saber flailing, but it was useless.

With insight and power, he was nearly unstoppable.

Ten strikes after Randidly had unleashed himself fully, the shade was a torn remnant lingering on the ground and Randidly pressed his hand against the barrier around the ladder. His storm dissipated around him, leaving the platform strangely silent.

Randidly did his best to ignore the guardian and focused on the powerful barrier. The construct had an ominous and twisted desire at its base, but it ultimately came from the same origins as the shade’s armor. Underneath Randidly’s ministrations, the barrier began to crack and melt. The small ripples banged back and forth within its confines, steadily breaking down the barriers.

Congratulations! Your Skill Motif of the Hungry Deep (P) has grown to Level 326!

After a few seconds, it shattered; the path to the summit was open.

Randidly paused before the ladder and looked back toward the shade. She sat on the ground, her purple sable dissipating bit by bit, steadily being devoured by an invisible swarm of piranhas. Her gaze was hollow and fearful. The other shades drifted closer to her but didn’t dare approach. They became an honor guard hovering about their leader.

Strange. This shade is unusual in so many ways… but I defeated her and didn’t receive any Influence in return. Randidly pressed his lips together as he examined the sizable amount of significance that had accumulated in her chest. The tight ball continued to grow, even as he watched. I probably need to take her up to the summit… but I won’t force the issue. She might just be a remnant, but if she doesn’t want to come, I won’t force it.

Randidly turned away from her. “Alright, let’s go. Let’s see what’s waiting at the summit.”

“Wait.”

Randidly turned back and looked at the shade. She pushed herself to her feet. Her features flickered, not from changes in expression but from the fabric of whatever constituted this remnant shifting. Sometimes her face was blurry, sometimes it was crystal clear and covered with tears. Other times she looked at Randidly with that old humorous sparkle in her eye. A confluence of significance was coming together in her, most leeched from Randidly, but some drifted down from the above.

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“I want to ask my earlier question again.” She said quietly. “What will you do if you pour your soul into something… but all your efforts come to nothing? What if the walls are too high? What if you fail to progress, no matter how many times you try?”

The fragile hope in the shade’s expression made Randidly’s lip tremble. She genuinely hoped he could provide an answer that would save her, even now. Yet some failures-

Randidly sighed. He thought about Helen’s death. But he also thought about all the mistakes he had made in the past. Failing to save Decklan, killing the civilization he encountered in the Dungeon, and also allowing Zone 1 to underestimate the threat of the System and have thousands of people killed-

Randidly felt that bubble in the core of the shade clearer than ever. And the question seemed to shift.

“What if you cannot escape your past? How can you move forward?”

“I don’t know,” Randidly replied honestly. The shade bowed her head and drifted over to join the other shades without any further comment. They looked at her with alarm. With her joining them, even the Lizakh shade didn’t dare prattle one like he had been doing.

Small blessings. Randidly raised his hand and gripped the ladder. Instantly, he felt the surroundings blur around him. His hand began to burn and throb. Hissing, he wrenched his hand off of the ladder. To his surprise, a thin line had been burned into his skin. Even more surprising was the fact that when he looked around, he realized that he stood on a golden cloud.

Over the edge, he could see the massive staircase below, leading to the top platform where he had fought against the shade. And above, the summit continued to wait.

Randidly flexed his hands several times. Gradually, the feeling returned to his fingers. Pursing his lips, he approached the ladder again. It took him by surprise that something could cause him pain, but he supposed he shouldn’t be that surprised. The danger of the Grand Pattern had always been present.

This was just a form he hadn’t yet encountered.

When he neared the ladder, he realized that the barrier had returned around it, stronger than ever. He glanced over his shoulder, the various shades all watched him. The final shade kept her eyes lowered, seemingly distracted. To his surprise, some color seemed to be seeping into her person. Her hair was a dark red color, or had been in life.

Randidly turned forward and pressed his hand against the barrier. It was definitely stronger than it had been previously, but it soon became unstable and collapsed. Randidly reached out and gripped another rung.

He had prepared himself for pain, but he wasn’t ready for the pure jagged sensation of his skin touching the golden ladder. Something pure and agonizing howled within the physicalized form of the rung, skittering up through the contact and tearing its way through his nerve endings.

So despite his preparations, Randidly once more tore his hand away. He stumbled back, his breath raw and sour out of his throat. When his vision stopped spinning, he could see that he had ascended to an even higher place along the ladder. However, the summit continued to loom above him. He had to climb higher to reach that place.

He closed his eyes and calmed himself. The sensation is probably going to get worse from here. But I’m not going to stop climbing just because of pain.

He slapped his cheeks and stepped forward to press his hand against the barrier. Ripples began to congregate around his fingers, worming their way into the barrier and steadily undermining its structure. The broken pieces of the impediment tinkled to the ground and the shade spoke as Randidly reached forward for the latter once more.

“My name is Devick. And I come from a very particular variation of Elhumes, unique for two relevant reasons. First, when we truly find love, the couples unite their souls and become one being. Second, the females of our species may produce offspring without any biological input from the males. All we need is to witness their image to imprint, which joins our body and gestates to produce a child.”

Randidly paused and turned around. The shade continued to look at the ground. Her arms wrapped around her shoulders, as though any loosening of her grip would allow all the broken pieces inside of her to shred her form and shatter upon the ground.

Releasing another breath, Randidly touched the ladder.

Sensation beyond comprehension. Pain. Timeless torture.

Coughing, Randidly collapsed on the ground. All his limbs trembled, the energy sapped out of him from the brief moment of contact. Their surroundings had changed again; the somehow solid cloud beneath his feet hard darkened somewhat to a metallic mix of gold and silver.

And the shade named Devick spoke again.

“I was born during the latest stages of the Second Cohort. During those days, the Nexus was filled with war. Everyone killed each other, desperate to defend their particular corner of the world. The Aether Pumps hadn’t been invented; raw energy could only be harvested from incorporated planets. At the same time, combat power to defend your harvesting planets could only be earned by allowing some chosen planets to prosper and grow, developing their own images. It was a bloody arithmetic that devoured lives.

“In the wide battles that rocked the Nexus in the transition between the Second and Third Cohorts, most of my people died. For the first time, I was alone; I felt how weak I was very acutely. But things began to improve. A short time into the third Cohort, the modern Nexus Ways were created in a stroke of genius, allowing Elhume and his newly centralized power to sweep out through the Nexus and establish order. Peace, one enforced by the monster with the largest fist, came.

“It was during that peace that I decided to have a child.”

Randidly panted on the ground, waiting for Devick to continue, but she did not. More and more Nether flooded out of him, solidifying her significance even further. To the point that Randidly was somewhat alarmed; he had no doubt that she had been an important historical figure. Her hair had lightened, becoming the crimson hue of blood.

“Well, only one way to find out.” Randidly coughed once last time and swayed when he stood. But then he reached out and grabbed onto the ladder to keep climbing toward the summit.