Randidly folded his hands across his knees. Even if this was a projected image, the sun felt pleasantly warm on his skin. He took a deep breath and reached out through the significance of the tournament to find his targets.

Four losers were a number that he could definitely handle without breaking a sweat. And he took his time with these, because they would be part of the group that would challenge him. The first arrived very quickly. Suddenly next to him, Kimpap looked around with interest. “You so perfectly preserved this view. Such a nostalgic scene. Did you pass through here once, before the reformation? On your way with Shal to fight against the Wights?”

He felt confused but tried not to let it show on his face. She recognized him before, did she really not understand his circumstances? “...no, it was because I was deployed on the front during the retreat. I fought all the way from the South coast to the Hallat. The Wight’s road to the Hasham was paved with the bodies of my unit. That cemetery… I dug the original graves by hand.”

Randidly felt a vein throb in his brow as he recalled it. Suddenly, all the foreign impressions he had discussed with Azriel were twisted by the truth of his emotional memory of this place. A deep and subtle ache spread out from his chest and restructured the entirety of his constructed vision. Nothing physically changed, but the tone of everything became more reserved.

Intellectually, Randidly could acknowledge how fascinating Nether was as an energy to see it ripple out and cascade out to arrange itself. But at the moment, the old feelings of desperation and fear rose in his throat.

The Nether that connected the past with the present hummed.

“Oh, of course. You were part of the war effort as a special forces officer. Shal was busy with other pursuits and left you alone.” Kimpap favored Randidly with a small smile. Something tightened in his chest as he looked at her expression. She had known he had fought here; but she had pretended like she did not. Why?

To taint his feelings for Shal?

Of course, my opinion of the current Shal is quite… complex. But not for any reasons you understand. Randidly sighed to himself.

Kimpap continued to speak while looking serenely around at the rolling grass of the hills. “If I’m being honest, I much prefer this landscape to what it has become. The past several years have been rather rough for Tellus. The grass has withered and been stomped down; a lot of areas around the capital have become haphazard training centers for Styles trying to establish names for themselves. Without a centralized leader, with so many displaced people after the Wight Wars, with the continued problems with Aether…”

Randidly felt that tightness again as he listened to Kimpap. He narrowed his eyes, but he still spoke. “There should be no problems with Aether any longer. I would have assumed that in the time after Shal overcame the Second Calamity, energy would flow freely. And now that Tellus is part of the Alpha Cosmos, Aether is no longer a problem.”

“Oh indeed? Perhaps I’m not abreast of the current developments.” Again, Kimpap showed an embarrassed smile. Then she fell silent and stared forward.

Randidly wanted to growl at this pointless gaming but held himself back. Clearly, she wanted something from him, not the other way around. If she refused to do anything but play coy, it wasn’t any of his business. But he did have one more question for Kimpap, so he cleared his throat and asked. “So, why did you decide to hold back against Alana? Even with that final effort, I have a hard time believing you couldn’t have held her at bay for long enough for her psyche to collapse.”

“You overestimate me.” Kimpap bowed her head. “She is young and I am old. The constant rise of new heroes is part of the sorrow and joy of educating the next generation. I can only hope that someday, our Illdan becomes talented enough to surpass her.”

Her attitude irked him, but Randidly suppressed the emotion. Every second more of Kimpap’s Nether filtered through his Nether Core. The process was gradual and slightly distracting. The significance she carried was no joke. And that energy revealed that she definitely wanted something from him. Which meant he shouldn’t press. It wasn’t his preferred method of engagement, but he could be patient.

For a while longer they sat there. More and more significance poured into Randidly’s Nether Core. Even with his ability to fold the space and create more areas, he was beginning to pressurize his Nether Core.

And he also began to wonder where on Tellus this woman had come from.

Finally, she turned to him. “I suppose it’s time for me to go. I will, of course, be back to challenge you. I too wish to discover how I would fare in the wider Nexus.”

Randidly just nodded.

Honestly, he ended up preferring the frustrating meeting with Kimpap to Paolo’s meeting, where the muscular man simply bawled his eyes out the entire time his Nether churned. Randidly sat there awkwardly, patting his shoulder in a wan attempt at comfort. However, he didn’t miss the way that Paolo’s energy solidified through his body as his negative emotions passed through into Randidly.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

His whole image began to rearrange itself, quite like the way Randidly’s bitter memories had abruptly twisted the dream world and characterized everything.

Of all the people he had met so far, Randidly hadn’t met anyone who managed to so efficiently improve themselves through the process as Paolo. It was a capability worth observing and trying to emulate. If it hadn’t been for the constant crying, he might have enjoyed the experience.

Hank seemed resigned when they met, waving a hand at Randidly in greeting and asking if Alana was alright. Then the two simply sat for a while, looking over the river.

Some note in Hank’s heart resonated with Randidly’s old fears; heavy clouds rolled in above the river. Then, eventually, Hank sighed and left.

The blonde young woman, Beatrice, was also a crier. And she flinched every time that Randidly moved, so it was a doubly awkward meeting. It did not help the increasingly bleak vista of the dream world. Randidly could only wait until her emotions ran their course. Right as she seemed ready to move on, Beatrice finally spoke. “You know, my uncle was a big sports fan.”

Randidly tilted his head to the side as he tried to understand her thought process.

Very ominously, the clouds above the dream world grew even darker. It looked like it would soon rain.

Beatrice blushed and waved her hands. “Erm… he’s actually not really my uncle. But, we came from the same Bubble City, you know? So we were the closest thing to family that we could have. We protected each other. Especially after so many of the others died off to the monster hordes- ahem, anyway, he really liked football. Which was why… he was at the stadium when that blood guy attacked. In Zone 1.”

Even as Randidly’s features softened in recognition and guilt, Beatrice shook her head furiously. “I don’t need sympathy. I’m over it, a lot of people have died for a lot of dumb reasons since the System arrived. When the Calamity came too, people didn’t prepare and didn’t listen. Or they were just unlucky. I’m not one of the people that blames you for every death. But since my uncle died… I’ve just really wanted to understand, you know? What it means to be strong. What you should do with your power. I want to understand you. To feel like I can imagine myself in that situation and know what I would do.

“So I’ve worked really, really hard to try and catch up to your power. I… well, I’ll challenge you, right? But losing against Drake… I’m probably not too close yet. Since I have you here… I guess I just wanted to ask what it’s like. Being so powerful, but having to carry so many made and unmade decisions with you?”

Rand clenched his right hand and then loosened his grip before the dream world picked up that aching sense of helplessness. He tried his best to think about the question, even as his heart shed ugly tears inside his ribcage. “I can sorta understand the feeling you are looking for. It’s not something that I can describe. But I will say that it’s something that clings to you. Because once you are exposed to it, you can never escape it. Every step you take… possibilities infest every decision you are offered. And some morning I wake up and it takes a long time before I feel… okay with sitting up. I just can’t move. But I also have to move. Do you see? You are pulled both ways. The momentum of my invisible mass keeps me rushing forward. But the weight makes every bit of distance traveled that much more difficult.”

Beatrice just nodded and vanished from the dream world.

Sighing, Randidly returned to his skyisland and took a nap. Somehow, he knew that it would be difficult to shake this mood. When he awoke, he spent some time polishing the emotional affect of his three images. Then he worked on pushing his Nether Sensation even higher; he believed he would be able to get it to Level 1000 before he turned to the Nexus.

However, it did not happen yet. Before he knew it, it was time to officiate the semifinal round of the tournament. As he settled into his seat, he felt the mechanisms of the grand Nether Ritual in Expira becoming more sophisticated. Not only had it successfully fabricated quite a bit of Nether Weight, but it also began to tailor the rewards to the Alpha Cosmos. The winners would receive some extra benefit so long as they operated within the Alpha Cosmos.

Alana Donal fought against Charlotte Wick in a cataclysmically destructive fight that forced Randidly to deploy Yggdrasil’s image entirely to prevent any collateral deaths from the enthusiastic crowd. The two women stoically flared their images and engaged in a vicious melee in the middle of the arena. Alana continued to push the limits of her slightly reworked image and Charlotte continued to hone the synergy between her original image and Helen’s.

Both improved over the course of the match.

In the end, Randidly suspected that Alana’s injuries weren’t quite healed from fighting against Kimpap. Charlotte raised her head and roared a defiant call when he announced her the winner. Her spirit shook the arena.

On the other side of the bracket, a much less bombastic match occurred. Li Hong fought against Drake. Where the other side possessed image power, these two were more concerned with emotional finesse. Li Hong thrived my misdirecting force and unleashing penetrative palm strikes. However, those only broke open Drake’s bone armor and revealed his monstrous inner form more quickly.

Randidly’s face became increasingly serious as he felt Drake walk purposefully toward the edge of madness. The emotional complexity was intimidating, even for him. More and more of Drake’s armor cracked and was discarded. His self-control fell away with it. His elemental continued to try and pierce through his limbs and keep him focused, but Drake in that form ignored all pain.

Drake swam in an emotional sea of his own making, just as dangerous and vicious as the Path waiting on the dark side of the moon. His significance lay heavily across his shoulders as he lashed out with crushing blows against Li Hong. In the end, it almost seemed like he fought just as much against himself as fought against the man from Zone 7.

Just as the fight began to get exciting enough to rival Alana and Charlotte’s fight, Li Hong conceded. The crowd muttered in disappointment, but they quickly brightened against as the final match of the three-month-long tournament was announced.

Charlotte Wick would duel against Drake, an old warrior from Zone 32. Both fought like mad dogs; it was sure to be entertaining if nothing else.

And then, finally, it would be time for Randidly to act personally.