Neshamah saw Tyune and Moonlight Blade rush past her, hurrying up the spiral staircase to join the battle at the top. The warm smell of soil clashed against a powerful blizzard; the edges of that clash spilled over the edges and drifted down to their current position. She let them pass; only thirty or so seconds had passed since Kyl MacDuul had been the first to reach the top. Allowing the three competitors to go up first and weaken each other was in their best interest.

They had to acknowledge their position. Claudette’s team was not in a position of power here. The best option would be to use their opponents against themselves.

But at the same time… Neshamah glanced upward and pressed her lips tightly together. The snow wafting down from the upper level was thickening. It even accumulated on those portions of the ground not being taken by the black flames. Claudette certainly is going all out. Was her image always that powerful? Or is Randidly truly also talented in image refinement…?

*****

Congratulations! Your Skill The World Tree Sips from Every Realm (T) has grown to Level 565!

Randidly stirred. Or rather, his mind stirred. A bleary pulse of wakefulness came through him, flipping the switch to the rest of his consciousness.

Being suspended in the sapphire liquid still kept him from utilizing his body and waking to that sensation sent a thrill of panic through him before he remembered where he was. Then he smiled bitterly at his own behavior.

Despite the pressing nature of Claudette’s struggle, he simply couldn’t keep the exhaustion at bay after straining himself with his First Authority. He had affected too many individuals and many of them had struggled and torn through his grip. That had made this activation even more depleting than the first had been, when he had no idea what he was doing. This he had mobilized the full force of his significance. To have that aspect of himself be spent was a uniquely torturous experience.

So he allowed himself to sink into a few minutes of unconsciousness.

Waking up now, Randidly wondered if he had recovered to a useful degree. His head continued to pound. His mind felt fuzzy and clumsy, like a newly born chicken. The few strands of Nether that his Nether Core managed to produce listlessly circled through his body without grounding him much at all.

Then Randidly discovered that he hadn’t been awoken simply because his subconscious dedication to Claudette functioned as an alarm clock. On the other side of the barrier, seen by Randidly through the spiraling lines of dim light, two individuals were floating. As he watched, they attempted several times to manifest their images with very little to show for their efforts. It took them almost a minute to create something approximating an image and then when it spent itself upon the barrier, it dissipated without leaving any mark.

Although after watching the serpent of black flame fail to penetrate this barrier the Patron of Truth had constructed, it was no wonder that these weak attempts failed.

Gradually, Yggdrasil continued to feed mental and physical energy to Randidly and the blurriness of his perception begrudgingly released its grip on him. The two figures were on the other side of the barrier, but they gradually resolved themselves into two of the rebels that had entered into the competition at the last minute, including Allilia.

Randidly began to spread out his own image so he could reposition himself, wondering whether this was their purpose the whole time; they intended to break into the sapphire lake and free this ‘Monarch’. Randidly supposed that if they had held this goal for a long time, this opportunity was relatively unique; the Skull of Truth did not appear very often in the public eye.

He was just considering whether to intervene and stop the two rebels when the pillar of black flame flared again. A bolt of pure darkness whizzed up through the sapphire liquid and Randidly initially felt pity for the two rebels. However, the attack passed harmlessly past the two, who flailed so wildly in response that their pathetic attempts at images collapsed, and began to spin when it approached the barrier.

Somehow, the bolt began to rotate around a central point, gliding around the edges of the barrier. Randidly watched in fascination as it worked its way forward into the barrier and began to penetrate to the opposite side where it waited.

It’s following the restrictive formation in reverse. So long as it doesn’t run afoul of the lines, it could-

He had just realized that he might need to be concerned when the bolt successfully followed the curving path to this half of the sapphire lake and accelerated. The bolt slammed into his chest-

Congratulations! Your Skill The World Tree Sips from Every Realm (T) has grown to Level 566!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Aureate Arteries of Yggdrasil (T) has grown to Level 499!

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

-and a rush of energy filled Randidly’s body. The surging force obliterated his exhaustion and left Randidly feeling pleasantly tingly. The headache vanished and his thoughts returned to their usual relentless acuity. His Nether surged too, taking something akin to significance from that bolt and rapidly creating vivifying Nether rivers to spin through his arms and legs. His situation stabilized.

No, it was better than stabilized; this might be the most excellent condition Randidly had ever experienced. His image physicalizations flared with emotion, as though excited to find themselves so empowered.

But along with the rejuvenation came a whispered phrase. “It’s almost time. Go. Find. Him. He won’t wait forever.”

The voice splashed cold water on Randidly’s mood with its clear reference to that being he had encountered three times now, all which left him shaken. First when taking the Glimpse of the Shallah Path and then again later twice while in the Shaft at the base of the Nexus.

From below, something called to him, beckoning him down.

Randidly’s gaze was heavy through the barrier at that pillar of black flame. For a brief moment, likely bridging the weird restrictions of the sapphire liquid due to the pseudo-significance he had absorbed, Randidly saw the figure clearly. A young man, seeming even younger than Randidly himself, lay on the ground in a clearing. A two-meter tall ivory talon pierced his chest. A veritable waterfall of midnight black hair spread out from his head, so long that it formed a halo around him that his body seemed minuscule compared to that hair.

His expression could be viewed with absolute clarity, he looked up at Randidly, one corner of his mouth quirking upward as though at a private joke. Through his half-closed eyes, Randidly could see that his irises were pearlescent, filled with glimmering motes of color and life.

His lips, as red as though he had been sucking on strawberries before this moment, moved. “Do not trust this place.”

Then the connection was cut off. Randidly looked down for a few moments longer, ignoring the continued attempts by Allilia and her fellow rebel to attack the barrier. Perhaps it was all just a farce to convince him to leave, but they truly seemed inept. Why did you help me? What’s your connection to that being that calls me from the base of the shaft? What does the founding of the Nexus have to do with you, ordained Monarch of Karma…?

But maybe that’s a foolish question: it is exactly because of your connection with the founding of the Nexus that you were ordained to rule it, Randidly mused, still gazing lightly at the fire pillar, so as not to be drawn into it. But who could you be? Where does that connection come from? How long with this new barrier keep you here?

And… why did you help me, after I held you down and allowed the Patron of Truth to lock the door?

Then Randidly shook himself. He had not gained many clear answers within the sapphire lake, but he couldn’t deny that he had gathered a lot of information. He simply didn’t understand how it all fitted together. When he left this Skull of Truth, he could consult the Patrons in his Alpha Cosmos; they might be able to give him context, based on the individuals and scenes he had seen. With that, he could plan for the future.

For now, he had a debt to pay. Claudette needed his support.

He spread a general image out to fill the top half of the sapphire lake. Then he created a pressured jet of liquid that propelled him out of the depths. He splashed out of the surface and heaved an instinctual gasp; he didn’t need to breathe with his Endurance and Uncommon Metabolism, but being unable to breathe was still quite unpleasant.

When he had recovered, he looked around with a sharp gaze. The nearby entrance to the next area had been reduced to smoking rubble. But thankfully, Devick wasn’t waiting in ambush for him. Randidly heaved a sigh of relief; having to fight against her right now would waste time that he didn’t have.

Freed of the previous physical suspension, Randidly reached up and rubbed his neck. He twisted to crack his back, but chortled at the lack of physical response; the energy he had received from the Monarch had completely recovered him. He was loose and flexible.

He stretched in a few more ways, then began to bound forward. The sensation of movement filled him with a vigorous physical accomplishment. His chest expanded as he sucked in a breath, his senses spreading out through the ripples in the air, examining the surroundings. Now that Randidly had seen the barrier in the lake, he understood the weird influence of this place, that distance heavily eroded information. So he relied solely on the ripples as he dashed forward through the broken entryway, which he had no doubt had been shattered by Devick.

As he moved forward, he gathered the wind around him into a powerful slipstream. His Motif of the Hungry Deep guided the flows of natural energy, stabilizing the working with a powerful foundation of Nether. His Nether Core was especially potent at the moment, seeming to have made some vital connection after the repeated activations of his Authority.

As I wield the Authorities… Randidly thought solemnly as the wind whipped at his face. They will change me. That is how powerful and influential they are.

Then he burst out of the base tunnel to a strange cavern filled with pillars. However, sizzling gouts of black flame erupted from one side, eating away and causing several of the pillars to collapse.

Randidly continued to lope forward, leaping boldly over cracked and fallen pillars that still flickered with a strange sapphire hue. He could tell that they possessed the same sort of blurriness that he had experienced in the lake, which was exactly why Randidly kept his gaze forward and his momentum growing.

His legs pumped to the point that he was a blur, a massive storm of natural energy and Nether building behind him. Ahead, a vast sea of black flame dominated the area. Without slowing, he planted his foot with enough force to crack the ground and launched himself in a whistling arc toward his destination.

Ahead, he could sense the gripping chill of Clarent spreading out to cover a lighthouse. Several other images were rising in contrast to it.

Randidly narrowed his eyes. His Nether seethed and roiled with all the potential force of an armed bomb. I’m coming, Claudette.