“Uh…” Randidly blinked. He was just pushing aside the lingering exhaustion from the clash with Drum and mobilizing his Nether Core when Xershi stepped forward and volunteered to take the fight. The sudden offer left him somewhat lurching, his body still distracted by the minutia of preparing for battle while his mind wrestled with this unexpected solution.

He finally coughed in his hand and nodded. Each second he could use the World Tree Sips from Every Realm and Volatile Breath from Beyond was a little bit of ease in his mental strain. “Ahem. Well, go ahead.”

“I have no quarrel with you, but I will not save a fool who walks toward a sharpened blade of his own accord. Stand aside or be put in your place.” This Rod gave Xershi an imperious glance. Above him, a massive crystal swirled, but Randidly noticed thin lines beginning to form on the crystal.

The Stillborn Phoenix stirred excitedly in his chest. Randidly inwardly rolled his eyes. Yea, buddy, I get it. He has an image that’s an egg too. And it seems like he will hatch it to fight against us.

“Heh. Do your fucking worst, you wispy dolt,” Xershi snapped. Behind him, a shadowy and sinuous figure slunk forward. Its eyes glowed bright red, casting refracting rays down across its open maw and long fangs.

Now I guess it’s time to find out how capable this random follower actually is, Randidly mused.

Glancing around, he took several steps backward until he stood at the edge of the ring. The area was only about twenty meters across, so it was still close enough that the waves of energy bouncing off the two participants pressed against his face. Randidly didn’t even mobilize an image to defend himself; he was only too happy to let his body handle all of the pressure, requiring no mental effort on his part. Gradually, the tightness that seemed almost endemic to his brainstem began to loosen.

Rod cast one last longing glance in Randidly’s direction, as though displaying his grudge against Randidly gave him physical pleasure. Then he refocused on Xershi in front of him, the crystal egg sharpening in detail around his body. Already, both released powerful waves from their image; both were capable warriors.

Randidly ended up standing next to the blue-haired woman Pullas. Her hands moved fretfully for a few seconds while the two fighters tested each other with light pulses. She turned to Randidly, opened her mouth, and then closed it three times before she finally managed to get out a sentence. “Uhm… you know it’s quite dangerous to utilize the outward staircase, yes? The central stair is a much preferable method, for a plethora of reasons.”

Randidly gave Pullas a sharp glance. But his accusatory look just met a weirdly genuine, almost puppy dog-like stare from her. Awkwardly, he reached up and scratched his neck. “Yea, well. I need to rise through the Sonara as soon as possible. Considering most of the defenses around the central staircase, its just easier to stick to the periphery.”

“Yea but-” the images of the two duelists crackled against each other, making it more difficult to hear Pullas’s words. “But the image static damages your image. All that pressure can inject flaws into its structure.”

Randidly shrugged. “So?”

Pullas’s eyes widened. She seemed genuinely bewildered by his stoic response. “But that’s your image! It’s the currency and trade by which you live. Why do you knowingly allow your greatest asset to be weakened? Are not all our actions to hone and polish our image?”

Before Randidly could respond, the two finally launched themselves into frantic motion. Rod’s crystal egg exploded in hundreds of glittering shards, revealing a massive sapphire and onyx pterodactyl. It spread its wings and swept forward, releasing a deafening shriek that hummed against Randidly’s skin. The grassy around them transformed, becoming the home to an ancient race of crystalline, carnivorous reptiles. A red sun hung low in the sky.

Opposite it, Xershi’s image moved too. A massive head of a mecha-feline stretched forward, metal pistons pumping on neck to extend forward. It opened its mouth and revealed a maw of grinding gears and drills. Randidly’s skin tingled. The detail in this image was overwhelming; it was an image designed for war. And the emotion that rose with it-

Every aspect of the attack resonated with itself. The mobilisation sang with its gathered potency.

The two images smashed into each other with a resounding crash. Randidly swayed and most of the carefully arranged circle staggered backward, despite the fact that they deployed their own images to soften the blow.

Randidly couldn’t help but show his teeth. This was not the sort of concussive impact that could be blocked with a casual image. The emotional affect Xershi deployed was that sharp, shredding through all lesser forces. He looked down at some shallow scrapes left across his chest, shrapnel from the conflict.

The massive metal cat chewed thoughtfully on the crystal pterodactyl, before grimacing and spitting the wounded remnant out on the ground. Rod shivered and fell to his knees. Xershi began to laugh, hands on his hips. “Is that really all? Man, I was a little scared there for a minute.”

Heh, pretty monstrous, Randidly hid a grin and turned back to Pullas. Because of her attitude, he tried to respond honestly. “In life, almost everything influences your image. You cannot insulate yourself from actions that cause flaws in it, because the point was never to avoid flaws. We do not exist in a perfect and we never will. Besides, I’m the one who built my images; I think that I can handle ironing out a few flaws if I need to. Anyway,”

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Randidly turned to look at Xershi, his image steadily dispersing. “You ready to go?”

“Obviously, obviously,” Xershi strutted forward, clearly buoyed by his victory. The other gathered individuals looked at the stunned Rod and then to each other in shock, but they ultimately scrambled out of the way as Randidly and Xershi moved through them. Most sported several small scratches that oozed blood.

They haven’t fought in a while, for all their talk of justice. Randidly observed of the people of Idylla. Then they left. He and Xershi moved outward through the ring, having to the new position of the stairwell due to the increase in size.

Makes me wonder again whether finding whatever is connected to the Patron of Feathers will be difficult. Randidly’s mood soured as they rushed amongst the trees. Is it actually in the shape of a drill, or two cones pressed together? Obviously, it’s impossible to see from the bottom due to the size and perspective. And if this was genuinely built to amplify a certain image, the latter makes more sense. But if the size of the interior spaces continues to grow with each ring…

Obviously, Randidly didn’t keep very close track, but he believed the area inside each ring was increasing exponentially. Even the prospect of getting through the bottom forty layers was daunting enough, with an equally massive land waiting on the other side of Elhume’s fortifications.

Still, that was then and this was now; they quickly found the exterior stairwell. Before they began to climb, however, a loud shout echoed out behind them. “Wait!”

Randidly paused, despite his strong desire to just ignore the voice. Pullas stumbled out of the trees behind them, red-faced and with twigs in her hair. Clearly, she couldn’t keep up the high speeds at which Randidly moved with the same poise and grace that Xershi could. His mouth turned down at the edges. “What are you doing?”

“She must have fallen in love with me.” Xershi stepped forward and held up a hand. He seemed almost sorrowful, gazing at the woman with short blue hair. “I understand how moving my fight must have been, witnessing it so close. However, I’m not really in a place where I want to become involved with a Settler-”

“I’m not a Settler! I’m obviously an Ascender.” Pullas puffed out her cheeks. “My journey has no limits.”

“If you were an Ascender, what are you doing as a bureaucrat on the sixth floor?” Xershi folded his arms across his chest. “You probably have a home here, a dish set, and a fuzzy bathrobe. These are all Settler-signs that unmask your true embrace of mediocrity.”

Rapidly, Pullas’s cheeks flushed. “Bathrobes are a harmless creature comfort! I might be lingering in Idylla for now, but always the plan was to climb further, once my image was strong enough I need not fear marauders or highwaymen.”

Highwaymen in the Sonara? Is that a thing? Randidly felt an entirely different sort of headache brewing as his gaze flicked from one to the other. All that valuable relaxation time was quickly used up by unexpected events. He spoke, trying to add some direction back. “Either way, we are climbing. Efforts to dissuade us will not work.”

“No! That’s fine. You… what you said about not needing to be afraid of flaws in your image just rang so true.” Pullas made a tiny fist. “It was like a fog had been lifted from my mind! I, well, it feels slightly like a humble brag to say, but I’ve been at the cusp of the Image Fulfillment Stage for quite a while. Your words broke something loose! I can feel my image starting to spin together to create a cohesive whole. Since you caused it… I think the proper method for the best result is to follow along with you.”

Both Randidly and Xershi froze. Xershi’s expression was blank. “Image… Fulfillment…? You? That means you are quite strong, yea? Really strong.”

Randidly wondered if he should be worried that Xershi’s mind jumped to the same place he did. Pullas flushed again and offered a half-shrug. “Well, my image isn’t exactly geared toward conflict, but yes, I am quite strong. Did you think it was easy to become- well, first of all, I’m not a bureaucrat, I’m the Coordinator for-”

“We need to climb,” Randidly grunted and turned away. He spread the Stillborn Phoenix out around his body. The image raised its head and unleashed a noiseless shriek, filled with enthusiasm after watching the crystal egg hatched. The inky-darkness of its maw gleamed with its imaginings of what it would become when that day finally arrived.

Of course, you conveniently forget the violent end the hatched pterodactyl encountered, Randidly thought tiredly, but he just soldiered forward. The Unborn Duo flickered out and sat on his shoulders, spying on the duo following.

The pressure on Xershi was obviously lessened immensely by the presence of Pullas. Actually, the metal liger now seemed to be just taking a stroll. True to her claim of being at the Image Fulfillment Stage, the ivory radiance that she released easily stabilized the surrounding space. Which left the two of them with the extra attention to speak.

“Ahem, as I was saying,” Pullas cleared her throat and prepared to launch back into an explanation of her role in Idylla, but Xershi beat her to the topic.

“So, will Idylla be able to function without you coordinating things?” Xershi asked.

Pullas shook her head and clenched another small fist. “Well honestly, no. I took a gathering of fractious fighters and created a society with the power of rules and regulations. But sometimes in life, you need to be selfish to chase your dreams! That’s what it means to be an Ascender.”

“You changed your tune really quick,” Xershi observed. “Didn’t you just want to take us through and make us fill out some paperwork for a visitor’s pass?”

Randidly soldiered forward, resisting the pulsing waves of image static. He was sorely tempted to hang back and allow Pullas to also shunt away the pressure against him, but his pride refused to allow him to do so.

Behind him, Pullas sighed. “Yes, well. I felt the process of my image attempting to become an entire world. That shift means that if I mess it up now, I will have forever limited my growth. This feels embarrassing to disclose, but I’ve lived in Idylla for seven hundred years. In that time, my image has barely become any stronger. So… despite what a gamble this is, I need to take it, you know?”

That sentiment was one that Randidly knew well. You needed to advance. Sometimes, that desperate acceleration seemed like the most stable presence in his life.