Raymund Ballast stood in front of whole of the Vulpis Squad with his arms folded behind his back. He felt the moment building on his lips even before he opened his mouth. On the one hand, he knew he didn’t have to do this. He could live other lives, be other people. On the other, he had become entirely convinced that this was the life he wanted to live. A life where he paid his debts.

The individual who lived this life wouldn’t have failed his younger brother. And more than anything else, that was who Raymund Ballast wanted to be.

“The Ghosthound has seen fit to give us a reprieve,” He said slowly. He felt the turn within himself. Perhaps, even now, he wasn’t the individual who could save his brother from the expectations of the elders. But he could force himself into the sort of situations where he would have no choice but to become that person or die. That is what he intended to do now. “His timeline is slow, but he has some projects that need to be completed before his return to the Nexus. During that time, all members of the Vulpis Squad are welcome to take something of a vacation in the Alpha Cosmos. To enjoy themselves to the best of their abilities, considering their connection to the Nexus will be cut off. The Ghosthound suspects that upon our return to the Nexus… we will be under intense scrutiny and pressure. He will have no margin for error.”

They might finally realize I’m a threat, the Ghosthound had joked when they met on his skyisland. But Raymund Ballast, having watching Randidly Ghosthound grow just since he taught the Elite Squad, knew that it was 100% true.

From the hard look in the Ghosthound’s emerald eyes, he had known it too.

Near the front of the column, Charlotte Wick closed her eyes. Jieu Ronault stood smartly at attention, his elemental body nearly under his total control. Vizzeret Clamman shook his head, release the oppressive pressure of an apex beast. The other recruits' eyes began to burn. Perhaps they too, could sense what he built toward.

Some of their thoughts seemed to mirror his own. Already, a strange haze appeared in the wide blue sky above them.

“Of course, as leader of the Vulpis Squad,” Raymund tried to keep his voice even as he spoke, but emotions began to choke him up. The heaviness of this choice pressed against his shoulder. He thought of the look of exhaustion on the Ghosthound’s face when he came to talk to him. He thought about Techetadore, still missing, but also that strange certainty Raymund carried that his little brother was still alive. “I cannot help but observe that the Vulpis Squad has been required to do very little in the recent months. In fact, it was Randidly Ghosthound himself that handled the dangerous situation. We have… run drills. Naught else has been placed on our plate.

“Which makes it feel quite queer to take a break, right now.”

After observing the way Kharon’s image could weave together, Raymund had some ideas of how to improve the Vulpis Squad. He put those into practice now, using his blazing emotions to guide the surging communal agreement of the Squad. They all had been the favored but ultimately forgettable favorites and descendants of upper-class residents of the Nexus. They had been cobbled together into the Elite Squad to be tucked away and ended up under Randidly Ghosthound just by chance.

Underneath Helen’s and the other instructors’ tutelage, they had rapidly grown. They had been shown the way effort and hard work could change their fates as favored playthings. And then had been forced to witness, unable to help, in those tragic hours while Helen had stoically endured torture to keep the Ghosthound out of harm's way.

After everything that he and his subordinates had done for them, the Ghosthound had only asked them for a small portion of their rewards from the Nether incursion. Then, when the real danger had manifested itself, the Ghosthound had protected them and gone on his own to face down Commandant Wick.

The fact that he had eventually overcome that challenge was irrelevant to the shame Raymund felt. That Wick’s image had been broken brought no one, but perhaps Charlotte, any joy. All they understood was that when their benefactor had needed their help, they had been useless to him. Not once, but twice. Perhaps the old versions of themselves would be able to move on from these moments of helplessness, able to press forward and pretend they weren’t filled with guilt and regrets, but Helen and Heiffal had forged them into warriors. Warriors didn’t shy away from danger.

Yet even that wasn’t enough. Now they craved to be more than simple warriors.

The tension in the air around the Vulpis Squad crackled. Raymund raised his eyes, giving each individual time to make their own decision. To dip their toe into the shifting current and decide whether they would throw the whole of themselves into that pursuit. He could practically see heat waves rising from the group as more and more firmed their resolve. Emotions flowed up into the collective and gave it shape underneath the wide sky. Their pure desires became fuel for it to burn hotter, to settle upon the shoulders of each willing individual, firming into a presence that would goad them onward to accomplish their goal.

Minutes passed. Raymund noted that no more emotions joined the roiling thing in the sky, but he still waited. The shape became more distinct, the disparate lines of emotions ceding themselves into the vast tapestry of the whole. Clouds were driven away, leaving only that wide, wide blue and the shape.

To his surprise, the sapphire sky above the Vulpis squad soon hosted a massive emerald bird. Raymund blinked several times, watching the details of the wings firm up along the edges. It had several dangling tails, likely due to his own influence, but he couldn’t understand why the Vulpis Squad would weave a collective image of a bird.

He lowered his gaze. Compared to their previous numbers, they had lost about a third of the squad. Raymund understood why. Previously, all had quite a bit of loyalty to the Ghosthound. However, the current resolution required that they provide more than that; the group had to agree that when the time for fighting came, they would fight on the side of the Ghosthound no matter what. That was how deep the debt they owed to him was.

And unearthing the capability to not drag the Ghosthound down would not be easy. It would mean more training. Harsh, Helen-style training.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

He didn’t know where those fleeing individuals would go in the Alpha Cosmos and he didn’t really care. Raymund cleared his throat as the multi-tailed bird faded from the sky. “A silent oath, but I hope you all felt how we are now bound. We are a weapon that was forged without purpose- I don’t think any would disagree. But we are not simply metal and violence to be hidden in a storeroom of the Nexus. We can be flesh and desire. We can choose how our sharp edge will shape the world. As the leader of the Vulpis Squad, this is our new unit. These are your brothers and sisters. Together, we will force the Nexus to acknowledge us.”

All of the squad leaders had stayed, even Charlotte Wick. They regarded Raymund with glittering eyes. He could feel their agreement in their posture.

The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Come, then. You’ve seen the area that the Ghosthound has chosen as his training island in the South Sea of this World. I’ve already contacted Heiffal. The Ghosthound’s working of Nether is grand… and will serve as an excellent base for us to work on our physical fitness.”

Despite their resolve, most of the Vulpis Squad grimaced. Even the lingering ghost of their collective image hung its feathered head at the thought of more basic training.

*****

Randidly took great care to commandeer one of the beautiful and uninhabited islands in the South Sea for his next batch of training. He considered heading again to the moon, to lessen the impact he had on the environment, but decided that Expira could withstand his power. After all, it was literally part of his body. Perhaps worried about what may or may not happen in the future, he would expose it to his Nether storms now.

Besides, the whole reason that Kharon came down here was to help New Scandiv, the Southern-most city from the final Zone to join Expira. They were experiencing near-constant attacks from the choppy waters of the South Sea. And because the incursions were so frequent, they hadn’t yet had a chance to push in and wipe out some of the Dungeons that spewed monsters into the area. It was becoming a serious problem.

Randidly figured that, in the worst-case scenario, he could decimate the environment here and people would thank him for it.

Besides, there is something about training on Expira itself that definitely helps my significance, Randidly mused. He sat on the lip of a volcano, looking out over the leafy ferns and swaying palm trees of the island. He had been steadily increasing the Nether content of the environment over the past two weeks since he had decided to take up residence in this place. At this point, most animal life had fled. Meanwhile, the plants and insects that had remained all began to show strange signs of discoloration. He assumed mutations would be soon to follow.

The grand storm of Nether he kept gentle, but it now rotated in its entirety, following the organic lines and flows that had been forged of necessity in the fight against Wick and the struggle to survive before Devick. The flows split and combined in an endless, repeating, illogical pattern. Already the surrounding seas began to behave strangely, the currents shifting to join the storm at the edges like a whirlpool was located here instead of an island.

But as much as Randidly felt the tug of curiosity to investigate how his storm interacted with exterior ocean systems, his current focus was much tenser: after studying it carefully, he wanted to finally try activating the Penance that Solomon had given to him.

He flicked a wrist and produced the strangely textured teardrop. Even now, even when he used Sulfur, contact with it filled him with an invigorating tingle. He held the item close to his chest, measuring the illumination that flickered in the core of the crystal. Then he pulled a long and thin thread of Nether and ran it through the crystal.

The Penance accepted the energy easily. The Nether flowed out the other side, relatively unchanged despite the satisfying feeling of connection that emerged. Randidly pursed his lips; he supposed it would be too easy if such a noncommittal effort could achieve a boost in significance.

He licked his lips and sighed. Then he pressed the Penance against his chest. Leaving a chill in its wake, it sank into his flesh and floated down to take up residence in his Nether core. The crystal began to pulse like a heart, superimposing itself over the rotating energy source. It still remained inert and Randidly carefully examined its functions, afraid to activate it prematurely. Having an item given to him by a powerful force in the Nexus that didn’t abruptly activate in an unexpected relief was almost just as shocking as the rest of his conversation with Solomon.

Aside from that final lie about Alymian, of course.

Randidly soon found the functional portion of the Penance, waiting patiently for him to pour Nether into it. His attention brushed itself along that pulsing heart of light. Randidly released a breath. Then he shifted the Penance and his Nether Core into position, settling into the one second per minute Penance.

His Nether Core accelerated, just slightly. Cool ripples spread through his body, riding along with the wave of newly refined Nether. The energy felt glittering and fresh running through his body, sparkling like snow runoff on a sunny dawn. The strangely pleasurable sensation forced a breath out of his body.

Something within him relaxed. His Nether Core accelerated forward, seeming to be filtering out a strange flavor that had grown heavy across the surrounding Nether-

Ah, the First Authority, Randidly’s eyes glowed emerald as he looked down at his hands. Then he raised his head and glanced around at the whole of the Nether storm he had created to cover the island beneath him.

A portion of him acknowledged the subconscious clock that formed in his Nether Core, measuring the time that he spent. As minutes passed, he built up a ‘debt’ of seconds which he would need to eventually pay. The payment seemed straightforward: he simply needed to relax and let his thoughts drift away. For that time, he would be completely inert. But for the moment, the shift in the surroundings interested him far more.

Likely due to one Authority being active and the others remaining undiscovered, the First Authority had crept into most of his Nether. Which made it easier for it to form some connections and much more difficult for it to form others. Likely that horrible, avaricious seizing aspect that had spread through his Nether was why all the animals had been driven from the island. Only plants and insects didn’t mind the shift in significance.

However, with the Penance active, that influence was curtailed down to one-fourth its previous power-

Randidly blinked. One fourth?

His attention zeroed in on his Nether Core. In addition to slightly increasing the rate at which he accumulated significance, it also helped frame Nether in a way that made it easier to detect subtle differences in energy flows. So he could feel the grasp of the First Authority… and beyond that, he found three more slight flavors that appear in disparate notes around his core. These unnamed Authorities were more difficult to understand, but the feelings they gave him were distinct.

Yet Randidly still felt wary. Obviously, one is based on the same desires that birthed my images. One for Stillborn Phoenix and one for the Grey Creature. But where did this final Authority come from? Is it possible… it’s from the Penance itself?

Was that why Solomon had given it so freely?