The individuals came in groups of two or three, driven by the strange shift they had all just felt in the world and also due to their shared desire to protect the future of Kharon. The meeting had originally been scheduled for after the weekend, but the rapid progress of events made it clear they needed to reach an understanding now.

The strange working wrought by Randidly was just an extra twist on an already hectic week.

Derek Moss and Hydie Mordath came first, him scanning the small clearing within the forest and her dragging out some logs to make impromptu seats. His eyes flicked around, searching for threats.

The lack of present enemies and the echoing sounds of laughter below proved to be an unnerving combination.

Vye arrived next, slipping out of the darkness, her footsteps covered by the continuing revelry happening on the beach below. Elijah Frank chased after her, his hair windswept and his chic white jacket stained by dirt and leaves. He tried several times to draw her into a conversation, but she pointedly ignored him. Tatiana, her secretary Wolfram, and Naffur came soon after, followed by Selene, the goblin Nrorce, and Commissioner Arrietti. The former two were engaged in a heated debate over the proper way to raise high-quality meat.

Considering how high quality the barbecue had been, Derek salivated a bit to imagine even tastier food.

Alana Donal and Hank Howard came and then Sam and Regina. Mrs. Hamilton and Ghost were surprise arrivals because they hadn’t made an appearance at any of the barbecue events. Heiffal came with Raymund Ballast, both releasing an oppressive physical aura that had Derek Moss rubbing his chin.

Looks like it really is worth it to train on this island, He mused.

The final group was also something of a surprise. Not due to their presence, because no one would deny their connection to the Ghosthound and their contribution to Expira’s fate. Mostly, it was because of how unsure they seemed to be about whether they should be included.

Zack Krum looked around. His expression wasn’t exactly defiant, but to Derek’s eyes, it looked like the young man was ready for a rejection. He was poised to flinch away from any harsh words. “We didn’t… well, I felt the pull of something here that I don’t really understand. If we are bothering anyone-”

That strange sensitivity from the Ghosthound’s working… it looks like we will have to investigate who exactly has access to it. Derek shared a glance with Naffur, whose pursed lips told him that the younger man was thinking the same thing.

“Of course not,” Alana spoke confidently. She smiled with unusual brightness as Todd, who flushed and ducked his head a little at the affection.

Next to her, Hank Howard leaned back against a tree stump and gestured vaguely. “Take yur seats. You’ve done more than earn it.”

“Even I? One whose fingers have soaked in pools of innocent blood?” The Chimera woman seemed puzzled as she looked around. “After I snarled at the Ghosthound earlier?”

“Ha!” The cowboy grinned at the Chimera. Then his whole disposition shift; death rode in his eyes, his guns at his sides suddenly weighed down by the lives they had taken. His aura became suffocating. Even Derek couldn’t help but shiver. “You goofed, for sure. An ant picking a fight with a titan. That’s just youthful spunk. But ta your other question… do ya think any of our hands ‘s clean, girlie?”

The Chimera bowed deeply to Hank Howard and then she, Zack Krum, Todd, and the Automaton joined the group. Tatiana stood and cleared her throat. “The fact that all of you were guided here means you both care about the state of Expira and that you possess the requisite sensitivity to be even more proactive about it. However… let’s start by touching on this new sense that we can all tap into. My connection gave me a bit of extra insight that I’d like to share.”

“Whatever the kid did, it was big,” Nrorce grunted.

Tatiana nodded. “Indeed. As far as I can tell… well, I’m not sure if even Randidly knew what he was doing. Through our connection, I felt him lose consciousness toward the end. But he created a special framework and incorporated all of Expira into it… but that framework wasn’t just for this sense we now have, I think that was just a side effect. Instead, the main thrust was planting a very specific sort of seed. The Ghosthound… gave Expira a Skill. A Nexus Skill.

“I’m not sure how or why, but the planet itself will begin to grow using the System as a base.”

*****

After creating the Nether Ritual, Randidly felt so drained he could only collapse. He barely even noticed the vines catching him as he fell from the branch and lowering him to the ground. A few days later, he woke up and yawned, rocked to wakefulness by the warmth of the sun peeking through the edge of the treeline. After checking on his Penance and the surrounding area, he clicked his tongue. The weekend party had passed; now was the cleanup.

Meanwhile, he was starting to run low of his stored seconds. He frowned at that awareness because he should have days' worth of time still remaining. Gradually, a vague sense of understanding began to emerge based on an ache in his Nether Core.

He had cashed in some of the banked seconds for something other than the passive boost to significance accumulation. He had stumbled across a secondary use for the Penance.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

So after he moved on top of his volcano he fell into a different sort of slumber. A dreamless dip into a world of fullness and emptiness, where he felt frozen while time spun around him. A moment of existenclessness, to emphasize those precious moments he did have.

A Penance that seemed to bite especially deeply on this occasion, after the Nether Ritual.

His new awakening left him feeling much more refreshed. As opposed to sun, Randidly found moonlight and moss spirits gathered around his body, clustering around him like a blanket. When he sat up they exploded away in gleeful dances, leaving him laughing and waving his hands to shoo away a few clingers.

After hopping to his feet, he stretched while also opening up his perception and examining the surroundings. The small island was clear. On the beaches, Heiffal, the Vulpis Squad, and groups from the Order Ducis continued to train, even without the presence of the more intense variety of Nether storm that Randidly had maintained.

Chuckling, Randidly beckoned to the clouds that were still waiting along the edge of the horizon. They immediately began to gather, completely obscuring the moon and casting a deep shadow across the island. The rain followed quickly, hastening from a drizzle to a downpour with such enthusiasm that Randidly had to assume it had been steadily gathering itself during its time off for a stretch of oppressive precipitation.

Then, as he guided the Nether storm back into place across the island, he turned back to his enormous Nether Ritual he had erected.

The pulsing heart of it had settled down through the bedrock, the mantle, and into the remote core of Expira. Even now, it continued to evolve, deepening the flows Randidly had made with light ties into more serious flows of power and significance. Strangely, the shape evolved through the early connection he had made with Mrs. Hamilton; more than anything else, it resembled a massive web.

Nether continued to settle into a new arrangement, some of his hastily made anchors snapping and unmooring connections, while others endured. Luckily, there seemed to be enough of a foundation that it would endure; some connections might break, but the huge mass would eventually drag the significance back together in sturdier bonds. He could feel the Nether Ritual steadily nudging the progression of the world, providing small benefits to all people who walked across this world. But the strangest part was the rapidly growing nexus of Aether around the core. Right now the shape wasn’t finished, but it looked vaguely familiar to Randidly.

I’ll consider it a success. This… should provide a bit of help to my friends. He mused as he returned his awareness to his body. He flexed his fingers. And on the heels of that success, I think it’s time to get to work.

Training greeted him like an old friend, slapping him on the back and filling him with a sense of accomplishment. He stirred the Nether storm and began right where he had left off.

Again, much of his current training capability seemed to be capped. He wanted to improve his Nether understanding, but that was a slow process of experimentation. He wanted to improve the emotional affect of his images, but the bits of space that prevented them from aligning perfectly weren’t problems he could brute force his way through. He wanted to continue through the Hierarchy of Burden, but his unevolved Endurance meant that he still couldn’t endure exposure to true entropy for very long.

Yet Randidly didn’t feel bothered by the lack of easy Paths forward. If anything, the small break for the barbecue and some of the conversations he had gave him patience. Or, as Sydney would point out, they gave him faith that as long as he kept working, an answer would come.

Even if that answer was just him accumulating enough PP to trigger the next Soulskill Tithe.

So he worked. He practiced Skills, pushing himself to his limits. He wove smaller Nether Rituals, almost skittish about being dragged along with the massive ritual that now wove itself into the fabric of Expira. Despite the headaches that resulted, he continued to try his hand at the Hierarchy of Burden. Raymund and DiOrtho continued to toughen themselves up, meaning that almost the entirety of the electromagnetic layer was handled when he made his attempts. That decreased the difficulty, but it wasn’t enough.

After a particularly dizzying bit of exposure to entropy, Randidly woke up and shook his head. “Heh, can’t wait until the recruits get around to handling the light radiation…”

He arched his back, enjoying the satisfying cracks. Then he hopped to his feet and continued training.

Days passed into weeks. A month had flown by since the barbecue had occurred and then two. Randidly lost himself in the familiar activities, feeling the edges of his Nether perception sharpen, his emotional affect strengthen, and his body toughen.

In the broader Expira, a confrontation was brewing. Yet Randidly sensed it without interfering. Because at the same time, he felt his supporters moving against those forces. He had given them this… whatever he had made of Nether. Until they asked for further assistance, it would have to be enough.

In the end, the breakthrough Randidly had been searching for came from an unexpected place: after serving as the core conduit during those frantic moments of the Nether Ritual, Yggdrasil had experienced a shift. Gradually, the energy pumping through the powerful tree began to change its composition.

Perhaps under normal circumstances, the energy pressure wouldn’t have been enough. After all, Yggdrasil had already gone through a dozen refinements to reach this point. The volume of energy it handled was stupendous. Randidly had pressurized and pulled vast amounts of energy through that massive trunk in the past. He had forcefully elevated a few of the Skills by searing them with power.

Yet in the end, it was the irrelevant act of the Nether Ritual that turned out to be the key. Randidly had planted something into the core of Expira, although he hadn’t intended to do so at the time. He simply needed support enough to ground the massive flows of force that had begun to run through his body.

A small act, but the planting became meaningful. Now, gradually, the World Tree began to germinate. A seed had been pressed into the soil and that changed everything. He took a deep breath, gathering energy through him and around him, funneling into Yggdrasil to help it take that last step.

Congratulations! Your Skill the World Tree Sips from Every Realm (T) has grown to Level 713!

Randidly sat on the lip of the volcano with his eyes closed, steam wicking off of his torso and pulled away by the tosseling wind. In his image, energy pulsed with his beating heart, becoming incendiary to the point that the trunk of Yggdrasil seemed to shimmer and melt. A core of plasma ran through the massive tree, squirming and seeking the slightest weakness to break out of its shell.

Randidly licked his dry lips. A few more drops of energy managed to squeeze their way into the core of Yggdrasil and join that contorting core of plasma. Small cracks formed across the bark, yet still, the tree remained firm.

In a battle of stubbornness… Randidly’s eyes danced. Not even you can beat me, Yggdrasil.

Nether and Aether spun together, constricting his Soulspace even further. With the prospect of an evolution so close, he refused to back down.