The vast midnight blackness of this isolated space spread above Randidly as he cruised through the air. Winds whipped back and forth, both from his streaking momentum and as he began to manipulate the flows of force. The simple fact of his passage was enough to release potent waves of ripples that he gathered around himself like a cloak, suppressing even the seething sea of black fire that surged below.

He surfed toward the finale of this sick came riding a typhoon of wind.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cutting Tide of Amenonuhoko (T) has grown to Level 642!

I wonder if this is my fault, The thought flashed across Randidly’s mind as he considered the seething tides of black flame that seemed intent on devouring the entire floor of the area. Then he turned his attention upward and decided he had larger problems; in front of him, he felt several powerful images clashing against one another. The grew increasingly damp and cloying. He planted his foot while focusing on a surging emotional demand, doing his best to imitate Devick’s capabilities, and accelerated enough to release a sonic boom.

More wind whistled on his heels, desperate to keep up.

A bold lighthouse rose from the black-flame waters, releasing a veritable gold mine of ripples that Randidly sucked into himself. His limbs crackled with crimson electricity as he forced his senses through the strange blur of the Skull of Truth.

On top of the tower, Claudette wielded Clarent like an unkillable berserker, lashing out at both Kyl MacDuul and Tyune. Her frigid blade left seething mist in its wake, sheering through the broader images of her foes. Both retreated before her, clearly more concerned with each other’s movements than Claudette’s. However, such was the power of the baleful song the blade of desolation released that they needed to take her seriously. Randidly allowed himself a nod of relief; at least for the moment, there was parity on top of the tower.

MacDuul waved a fat arm and a rising surge of pure earth elemental force gathered around him. The richness of warm loam and the billions of small microorganisms that existed within topsoil all seemed to donate their power into his body, causing him to double in size and reshaping his bone structure to resemble harsh granite. The flat planes of his face made him seem stronger than his doughy form. He raised a hand and halfhearted thrust out a grey palm.

An amorphous, and very clearly weakened, ectoplasmic entity with a thousand legs stretched above Tyune, lashing out with its tentacles and trying to destroy MacDuul’s base of power. It took a hundred tentacles to neutralize the palm, releasing another feast of force ripples. With Claudette adding the threat of an ambush, both hesitated.

Randidly stomped his foot and crossed half the distance to the lighthouse. Time to shake things up.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 601!

The constant practice gave him the knack for weaving his emotional energy into solid footholes; Randidly could finally support his physical prowess. He couldn’t entirely match Devick’s complete lack of revealing image stirrings, which allowed her to feint so effectively, but he was finding the ways to make his body more relevant.

If he was being honest with himself, the fact that he had wastefully expended so much of his energy for so long left him frustrated. Now he intended to wield his power effectively.

A spectral tentacle slammed down on top of the wide meadow MacDuul conjured, cracking the ground and shaking the one portion of the image. The collision birthed more ripples. Randidly’s muscles tightened as he gathered those image and natural force into himself, preparing to arrive with a massive bang. He surged closer and closer. Randidly spotted Neshamah hurrying up below on the staircase around the lighthouse. They made eye contact and she sent a message to him.

There is a limit on that upper platform. You need to stay there for five minutes before you can try and go up to get the treasure, Neshamah explained. MacDuul has been there the longest, but he probably still has two more minutes. You cannot fly in; head to the base and climb up or you’ll run afoul of the Don’s defenses. Also, here are the answers I’ve used to pass through; get up as fast as possible.

Randidly twisted and kicked upward. He rebounded down like elastic lightning, crashing toward the black-flame-covered base of the lighthouse. He flared his flames of Nether Weight in preparation to suppress these black flames long enough to enter the staircase, but they parted before him. In his chest, he felt the slightest lingering familiarity from the energy boost that still animated him, from the Monarch.

His surprise was enough that he took a step to gather himself and consider. These black flames aren’t exactly Nether, but they aren’t Aether either. Some sort of blended mix of the two energies. Yet they retain enough of Nether to recognize I was touched by their maker. That Monarch… perhaps its a good thing I didn’t try and free him… Only the Nether King makes me warier.

Planting his foot, Randidly bounded forward, ignored the now almost completely burned sign, and rushed up the staircase. With the answers provided by Neshamah, he ripped through half of the barriers in a flash.

Even jumbled together, the information required of him gradually registered. The content of the questions left him speechless. He couldn’t help but think Don Beigon was playing some sort of sick joke on his daughter. Which only made him more resolved to make sure that she wouldn’t fall prey to his plots.

How shallow a relationship do the two of them have…?

Unfortunately for his plan to dramatically arrive, a new individual swaggered onto the scene before him. As Randidly dealt with the questions, he utilized the ripples to allow him to observe the top floor and also to surreptitiously store potential energy in his body. Around the point that his blood bubbled in his veins, Moonlight Blade reached the top portion of the lighthouse.

Fortunately, he used his arrival to monologue. His cruel pride seemed to require such foolish behavior.

Moonlight Blade slowed down and raised his head for an admittedly intimidating howl. The noise was so overwhelming that the staircase vibrated and the black flames seemed to abate. A primal force washed over them all, bringing to mind a time of violence and pheromones. The fighting between MacDuul and Tyune slowed, even with a blue-black-eyed Claudette continued to sever her way through Tyune’s many-legged image.

She, at least, seemed intent to take advantage of the sudden arrival of another antagonist.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Moonlight Blade’s tongue lolled out of his mouth as he stalked forward. With each step, more and more spectral wolves spiraled out of his shadow. They padded silently around them until they filled a third of the area on top of the lighthouse. “In terms of taking advantage of the situation, I cannot rival either of you; even you Tyune, somehow managed to turn your early skirmish against Devick into an advantage. But now that we are here, on a level playing field… do either of you believe you are my match? Because it is time to hunt.”

Both of the other competitors looked at the Pinnacle Seeker grimly. After forcing Tyune a few meters backward, even the stoic Claudette paused and focused her attention on the muscular canine. She pointed Clarent at the ground and studied this new threat. Compared to the shadow wolves he had conjured earlier, these had darker fur and were larger. They loped along like shaggy horses, their fangs gleaming in the air behind Moonlight Blade. Their aggregate bloodthirstiness poisoned the air, leaving each breath tasting vaguely sour.

“So we fight it out,” Moonlight Blade chuckled. “As it should-”

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 602!

Randidly had to throw every ounce of WIllpower he had to stop himself and plant his foot. Despite trying to absorb most of the impact with his emotions, the top platform of the lighthouse cracked as he steadied himself directly behind Moonlight Blade. The sheer amount of potential energy he gathered from the fight up here made him nearly incandescent. His arrival was so sudden and so shocking that Moonlight Blade was only twisting around when his Dragon Queen’s Sinister Tongue slammed into the Pinnacle Seeker’s side.

Congratulations! Your Skill Dragon Queen’s Sinister Tongue (T) has grown to Level 520!

Instinctively, Moonlight Blade flared his powerful image. The ambient bloodthirst of his wolf pack became a harsh and sudden barrier to block the attack. Other wolves pounced backward at this sudden threat to their creator. But while Randidly’s image, even used in triplicate, couldn’t rival the images of these peak combatants, just unleashing the gathered force he possessed could briefly eclipse them.

First, the wolves disintegrated. Then a beam of pure kinetic energy shattered the bloodthirst and slammed into Moonlight Blade’s side. The wolfman tumbled helplessly sideways, skidding across the ground and then flying out over the edge of the upper platform. Twisting, he gnashed his teeth. He was so furious he was practically crying tears of blood as he glared hatefully up and fell toward the sea of black flame. “Ghost… Hound…..!”

Instantly, some new Engraving activated and Don Beigon’s laugh boomed out across all of them. “Congratulations to the individual who activated the secret rule of this final tower! If you are knocked past the edge of the platform, you need to head back to the bottom and climb all over again! In addition, the knocker will have a minute removed from the cooldown until they can grab the treasure. So do you best, potential alliance-mates~”

Both Tyune and MacDuul suddenly looked at Randidly with heavy gazes and mobilized their images in his direction, but he ignored them. He tried to reabsorb as many ripples as possible from the attack that had knocked Moonlight Blade away while also releasing thick patterns of Nether to stabilize the surroundings. The rivers over dark energy flowed outward and curled in very specific patterns.

Randidly stretched out his arms and flexed his fingers. The patterns of churning force swam into the final complex organic system within only a few moments. His grip on the area tightened. I can briefly rival these powerful images with releasing vast amounts of natural force, but mostly that success can be attributed to surprising my foes with a sudden surge; they don’t expect an attack like that from me. And when they are prepared for it… well, Devick might be a monster for a number of reasons, but she definitely made my Moirae of Ripples Skillset almost irrelevant with her image.

Claudette continued to cut through the tentacles of Tyune’s image, but that grey creature ignored her. Both he and MacDuul unleashed attacks at Randidly. On one side was a rising blast of stone and on the other, a volley of translucent and vaguely humid tentacles fell like rain.

Small pinches of Nether began to flare in the surroundings as Randidly tested the effectiveness of his plan. He needed to keep both preoccupied while he gathered extra force. The image attacks definitely weakened his influence on the surroundings and therefore decreased his practical Synechdochence, but it was an acceptable amount. But what if I could consistently make those attacks? I still don’t think that I’ll be able to handle a truly powerful image like Devick’s, but if all I need is to distract these fighters long enough for Claudette to seize that treasure, I think I can manage.

He unleashed a wave of Nether out from his body, both that weakened the image attacks heading toward him and that stabilized his construction. The swirling flows of energy accelerated. His eyes flared with purple-black revelation energy and his brainstem rapidly heated; he needed the precise calculations for this first portion of his Nether activations to be perfect.

Congratulations! Your Skill Motif of the Hungry Deep (P) has grown to Level 540!

Congratulations! Your Skill Motif of the Hungry Deep (P) has grown to Level 541!

After burning through much of his rejuvenated mental energy, Randidly found the answer that he was looking for. His flames of Nether Weight flowed outward along the pattern, creating the illusion that a grey firestorm churned out from his position. Randidly released a steaming breath and raised his head.

Two quick pinches of Nether flared right next to Kyl MacDuul, taking the fat man by surprise and causing him to stumble backward. Randidly made a minute adjustment and unleashed another pinch. This one smashed the fat man against the ground.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 657!

Congratulations! You have made a new achievement! Synechdochence has been raised to 107%!

The more he managed to push beyond 100%, the more exaggerated the effects because. With this brief flare, Randidly’s Nether sucked all the emotional force out of the area and then shattered the relatively brittle remnants of the ill-prepared MacDuul’s wide meadow. The image didn’t collapse entirely, but the attack lost all its momentum.

Randidly turned to face Tyune, pulling the powerful ripples from his Nether flares into his body. He created four more flares around MacDuul to keep him busy, but the retired military Commandant adjusted for the Nether attacks and strengthened the foundation of his meadow.

Honestly, Randidly didn’t even care. He just used the collisions between Aether and Nether for more power, so he could seize the ripples from the impacts and pull them into the firestorm he wielded. Wind, Nether Weight, and patterns combined into a whirling grey millstone that Randidly intended to use to grind them all to dust. So when he pointed at Tyune’s tentacles, he unleashed a searing ray of annihilation that blended kinetic force, blazing fury, and Helen’s insights into how organic patterns became currents.

Tyune reacted more quickly, emphasizing his image and deflecting the blast to the side-

-but Randidly just grinned. Because the deflected blast passed Tyune harmlessly, but it had also annihilated most of the tentacles that slowed down Claudette. With the opening, she used Randidly’s Dreadful Alacrity to close the distance and slash with the keening Clarent. Tyune blocked the strike, but ice began to form on his body.

That attack… did Claudette always possess such sharpness?

Randidly turned his attention back to MacDuul when a voice spoke out from above. “Well well, doesn’t this look fun?”

His skin tingled with a tired resignation. In a way, he knew that this interruption would arrive eventually; he just wished he had more time to prepare. Randidly looked up with a solemn expression on his face. In her own body, Actus Suprem Devick floated above the lighthouse. A metal mask hid her features, leaving the watcher's eyes to simply scan her long crimson hair. Her body was covered in Military High Command finery, leaving the viewer no confusion over her importance.

She reeked of power and death. Even with fifty meters between them, her presence pressed against Randidly.

She gestured at herself. “Oh, this? It just seemed less climactic when we fought with the same body. So I convinced Don Beigon to allow me to change my choice. Aren’t you excited?”

Even through her mask, Randidly felt the weight of her eyes as she scanned him. “Aren’t you, Randidly Ghosthound? Because this time, I’m here just for you.”