Randidly scratched his chin as he looked at the busy forces of the Order Vulpis arming themselves and checking prepared supplies. Ballast insisted they be ready for a full campaign on an alien world and Randidly could only acquiesce. With the System, food and clothing weren’t as necessary before. But it did make things convenient.

Watching them work so hard almost made the waiting Randidly feel guilty.

He was sorely tempted by the idea to sit and push his first Skill to Level 1000 with this opportunity. To achieve his first Mille. But something had been weighing on a while, and he felt like it was important that he accomplish this task it first. Just in case it affected the reward he expected to receive for reaching such a milestone.

And accomplishing that task meant leaving.

No time like the present. I shouldn’t need anyone from the Order Vulpis for a bit anyway. Randidly closed his eyes and shifted himself. His body within his body vanished. At the base of the shaft, surrounded by the horrible maw of significance that compounded itself and devoured everything around it, Randidly opened his eyes.

All at once, his senses began to tingle. The environment seemed to tighten around him. Huge currents of significance whooshed past him. Even touching the grounding Engraving that divided the body of Pine from whatever phantasms lurked below, Randidly swayed underneath the constant barrage. Powerful eddies of Nether whipped back and forth above him. Strange, shadowy shapes slammed themselves against the gleaming plateau below, as though they could feel Randidly’s presence through the barrier and wanted to devour him.

His heart sunk, realizing these shades must have steadily gathered while he was within the Alpha Cosmos.

The gleaming, light sucking sphere of Pine hung just overhead. It begged to be stared at, to allow it to devour your attention with its perverted permanence. Yet even beyond the dangerous forces he had been prepared for, Randidly felt a new pressure in the area: a raging pressure emerged from the sleeping body of Solomon Rex, resting beneath Pine.

His Nether senses spread out through the air, seeing and understanding so much more than what he had been able to glean when he arrived here. Gradually, he could make out the shape of the ancient engine around Pine, although Randidly still had some difficulty understanding how that fueled so much energy production for the Nexus.

But he could read deeper into the half-finished and dismantled Engravings around Pines body. Some to protect, others to destroy. In a way, the history of the war over this being was written in mostly eroded shapes right here.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 991!

Congratulations! Your Skill Right Hand of the Nether Polymath (M) has grown to Level 821!

Right about the time Randidly refocused himself, there was a shimmer next to the sleeping Solomon. The projection appeared again, smiling at Randidly like they were old friends. “Did you have a good dream?”

“A dream?” Randidly asked, trying to speak casually. His mind began to race. He had never truly known how much a watcher could understand about the process when his consciousness turned into his Alpha Cosmos. Whether he displayed some outward sign. He was especially leery of someone as powerful as Solomon Rex being able to study him at his most vulnerable.

Of course, considering the situation, it wasn’t like Randidly had much choice.

The projection nodded easily. “You seemed lost in your dreams there for a bit. Hopefully, you dreamt of a more peaceful world. Away from the backstabbers of the Nexus and their plots.”

“In a way, yes,” Randidly said. Then his expression turned serious. “But some dangers can’t be left unaddressed. I cannot remain here any longer. But… I have to say, are you alright? The aura around you…”

Randidly licked his lips as he considered the strange pressure that Solomon Rex released. More than even when he first discovered the man here, locked into a coma to recover from a past debt, he could feel that this figure was one of the most powerful he had ever encountered. And from the momentum of things, he was soon going to wake up.

The feeling was rusty gears grinding together. Broken pieces of metal snapped off and were flung away, but the ugly machine doggedly continued to operate.

“Ah. Well, I have had some recent success in cheating the debt I owe,” The projected Solomon offered a bitter smile. “In the end, it will cost me. But you are right. Some dangers cannot be left unaddressed. And the rampaging Elhume, in his current unbalanced state… well, the more time he has to connive, the more I worry about what will happen to Pine.”

The projection clapped its hands. The way the noise the two hands made was weirdly muted was oddly disturbing to Randidly. “But, I still have more work to do. I’m not prepared to leave this place quite yet. Not without leaving some protections in place. So I need to work up a little bit of juice before I leave.”

Randidly felt his Nether perspective folding, as was his current habit, and suddenly saw the arrangements this man had planned. Solomon Rex was building up momentum, yes, but the slightly greasy and jagged feeling had nothing to do with that. It was all tied back to a vicious trap he planned to lay down here. Randidly’s eyes flicked around to the weathered sigils on the ground; he could see some small adjustments to the broken Engravings. Soon, this sleeping man would tie it all together into something enormous and powerful.

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Something with tooth enough to bite the man who created the Nexus.

Congratulations! Your Skill Architecture of the Primordial Ways (M) has grown to Level 700!

He took a mental snapshot to share with Neveah then turned back to Solomon. He could tell that the man was waiting for him to leave before he began his work in earnest, but Randidly had one more order of business. The big one, which convinced him that he should step out of the Alpha Cosmos before reaching a thousand Skill Levels in Nether Sensation. “There’s one last thing; I wanted to return something to you.”

Randidly brought his right hand and placed it against his chest. A shiver ran through his Nether Core. Then its rotations began to wildly accelerate. His blood began to pump through his body, racing to catch up with the wild currents of Nether that animated his body. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, whipped away by the howling wind of Pine’s hunger. Below the barrier, in the shadowy realm of the dead and broken images, the predators that so tried to reach him redoubled their efforts, slamming against the barrier again and again.

Gritting his teeth, Randidly squeezed. His Nether Core began to wobble. In the end, he might not have been able to unseat it, after it had settled into him if he had to work on it with just his will and leverage from his Nether density. But when his first tug didn’t work and the second seemed ineffective, Randidly’s eyes darkened with purpose.

An imperious demand rang out from the Nether Core itself. The First Authority: Seize.

His target popped out and settled in his hand. A shudder went through Randidly’s body, followed by a burst of weariness. He stumbled forward before he steadied himself. The dizziness was unexpected, but nothing that he couldn’t handle. Then he held up the borrowed Penance and offered it to Solomon Rex. “Here. I’d like to return this to you.”

Randidly’s Nether Core continued to sputter, unused to the rapid rotations without the steadying force of the Penance. Randidly had now discovered two of his Authorities, but two legs made a poor stool. In addition, as soon as the Penance had been removed, he felt like his accumulation of significance entirely stopped. He could continue to purify the Nether he had, but his growth slowed to a snail’s pace. It would be quite a while before he could force the pressure of his Nether past the next plateau.

“What are you doing?” For the first time since they had spoken, Solomon Rex seemed unsure. His gaze fixed on the small object in Randidly’s hand.

“Returning the Penance.” Randidly let go of the Penance. It hummed through the air, rising and falling as it floated gradually toward Solomon’s sleeping form. “I appreciate you giving it to me. And it definitely helped me find some stability. It… gave me a wonderful dream. But it’s a crutch for the current me; now that I feel a bit more confident in my understanding of Nether, I’m willing to force myself to find my own balance. And eventually, to condense my own Penance.”

“How peculiar. A choice that brings you quite a lot of risk. Well, the Path forward is your own, Randidly.” The projection looked at him and tilted its head to the side. “Good luck out there, Mr. Ghosthound. Beware of those forces that claim to be your friends in the Nexus. Often, they will be your biggest weakness”

“...good luck to you as well,” Randidly replied. Then he whirled his Nether Core, took a deep breath, and hopped off of the ground. Instantly, the hungry significance of that broken universe fragment Pine had become grasped at him. For a second he wavered, but Randidly released a dismissive pulse of Nether; a being that hadn’t yet condensed a true Nether Core couldn’t threaten one who possessed an Authority.

He began to accelerate upward, leaving the bottom of the shaft behind. As he moved up through the thinning Nether, rushing past the floating Nether Heralds and Gatekeepers, the Stillborn Phoenix spread wide within his chest. All those violent emotions that Pine regurgitated upward, it devoured. It had been quite well behaved in the Alpha Cosmos. But here, it licked its lips and began to feast.

Destructive emotions were absorbed. Then, a few seconds later, it would blow out an even more violent emotional typhoon, marked by the impossibility that existed at the core of the image.

Congratulations! Your Skill Volatile Breath from Beyond (T) has grown to Level 703!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill the Twin Lingering Shadows of Misfortune (T) has grown to Level 930!

Congratulations! Your Skill Volatile Breath from Beyond (T) has grown to Level 740!

When he reached the midpoint and the strange porcelain drones began to flock out, Randidly curled his fingers and Seized those nearest to him. For a second they resisted, protected by small threads of significance, but he quickly snapped those. They became an honor guard, protecting Randidly as he zipped upward.

Interesting, Randidly reflected as he mobilized his Nether Storm. So long as I keep using Nether, the small flaws in my Core’s rotation vanish. While fighting using Nether, I don’t need a Penance to balance myself. Of course, the consequence of that is probably that too long without using Nether will make my Core increasingly unstable…

Noting that down, he continued his rapid ascent. He didn’t slow until he reached the level where Edraine’s hideout was. He paused at the heavy iron door along the side of the shaft, releasing a powerful belch of emotions from the Stillborn Phoenix and reaching up to sense the situation in the Nexus as best he could. The layer of Nether here was suppressed, but-

Randidly couldn’t help but chuckle as he felt the unease and fear of the Nexus. The events prior to his trip into the Alpha Cosmos came back to him. The terrorist attacks, the violence between factions in Military High Command, the sudden rebellion against Elhume to rush for the Pinnacle, Elhume personally hunting down and eliminating the Swacc Family, the mysterious death of the leader of the Nether Lattice…

The people of the Nexus were worried. Most of the commercial districts in the Nexus that Randidly could sense were completely abandoned. Most forces had returned to their home planets, to figure out the situation.

Nodding to himself, Randidly went into the base. As he found the building, he released Raymund Ballast, Jieu Ronault, and a dozen other members of the Order Vulpis. They rapidly swept through the building and the surrounding buildings for any signs of interference or surveillance.

Randidly went back to his own room and settled down. He produced the eight coins given to him by Edraine and was about to head to Edraine’s room to acquire another token when Raymund Ballast wrapped against his door. “A problem?”

Raymund Ballast was trembling. “Not the sort of problem we were looking for. But-”

Then Randidly felt it and felt stupid for missing it. A pure tether of significance ran off from the Vulpine man into the distance. The connection pierced through the walls of the neighborhood and stretched out across the Nexus. It hummed every second, resonating with the bond between them. Randidly’s expression twisted because a similar vital bond was stretching out from him to the same location.

Randidly felt his hackles rising; he didn’t believe in this sort of coincidence. After being purposefully hidden from his senses for so long, suddenly Shal and Techetadore’s location rang clear.