The purple porcelain doll glowed with pulses of power space-bending power, wielding gravity against Randidly from afar. It raised its hands and tightened the tiny fingers into fists. Randidly felt daggers of inverted gravity attempting to rip holes in his flesh, but Egg’s Illusory Plume easily shrugged the attack off.

He tilted his head to the side as he felt the strange, almost cosmic notes to the weakened image. This one was probably the Patron of the Deep.

However, what drew Randidly’s eyes most about the strange tableau in front of him were the heavy cables that ran up out the ground and plugged into the dais. A complex, multilayered Engraving covered the base of the dais and fed all the energy stolen from powerful individuals in orbs below into those three blue tubes.

Randidly’s eyes narrowed. He tried to calculate how much Aether was being supplied to these devices, near constantly. What the hell is-

“I bet you are wondering what’s inside those three strange tubes. Do you want to know their secret?”

Randidly pressed his lips together, immediately suspicious about the invisible speaker. The disembodied voice earned a sharp jerk from Xershi, whose liger was not faring well against the combined forces of the Patrons of Abyss and Blades. “Creator! You really are here?!?”

The indigo Patron of Feathers doll raised its arms, unleashing a flurry of fluttering darkness that blossomed out from its torso. Then, with a remarkably sharp movement, it streaked across the intervening distance and smashed into Xershi’s side while he was distracted. The Patron of Blooms struggled back for control of its conjured plant matter, but Randidly twisted those growths and tossed them against the beams of sunlight aimed at his back by the Patron of the Sun.

As a group these dolls were difficult to handle, but their images were only three-fourths as powerful as the real thing. Against his grip, the fake Patron of Blooms could only sulk.

Congratulations! Your Skill the First Tree Suffers Only Fealty (P) has grown to Level 897!

The disembodied voice laughed as the ligerman skidded across the ground and scrambled back to his feet. “Ah, Xershi. I’m impressed you managed to climb this far. But it looks like you have your own problems at the moment; without capability, I think it would be inappropriate for us to speak further, don’t you?”

To Randidly’s surprise, Xershi’s mouth snapped shut. He flared his liger image, using fang and claws to lash out against feathers, the void, and gleaming slashes that continued to brutalize him. Fiona and Pullas stepped through the portal and looked around at the chaotic mess with very little surprise on their faces. The three standing dolls launched into motion, targeting Randidly; perhaps they believed if they could eliminate him in time, they could handle the rest.

Snorting, Randidly allowed the Grey Creature to flare around his body. All those dangerous emotional elements crashed back and forth across his mind, obliterating any mild thoughts that had been minding their business in that wild emotion’s path. What remained was a wild, dark rage with enough intensity that the Aether in the space around him shook with tremors.

Randidly planned on obliterating a few dolls as quickly as possible.

The pink porcelain doll raised a hand and grasped at Randidly with its hands. He felt the Grey Creature image vanish from him. A long tail appeared behind the pink doll. The process was incredibly smooth, without a chance for Randidly to resist. The sensation was familiar, if much more sophisticated than what he had encountered before.

For a split second, Randidly’s eyes widened. Then he realized what had happened.

However, if anything, Randidly was just amused by this sudden news. That… well, definitely its a powerful ability. So the Patron of the Borrowed… was Raymund’s ancestor, Fiero. It truly seems like your mastery of taking images was far above what Raymund can now manage. But that particular image-

The pink doll skidded to a halt, just as it seemed to be gathering up momentum for an attack. For a moment you could see long grey fingers scrabbling at the inside of the tail, then the image projection was ripped open by a howling Grey Creature. Its heavy eyes fixated on the back of the porcelain doll with a flinty promise of violence. It pounced forward, claws raised. However, the fake Patron of the Borrowed quickly dismissed the stolen image and Randidly groaned slightly as that deep enmity landed back in his body and rattled back and forth.

The Grey Creature screeched, unleashing a torrent of indignation and dripping hate. At least this time, it was well and truly fixated on his enemy.

Fiona and Pullas unleashed their images and distracted the Patron of Sun and Blooms, allowing Randidly to surge forward to meet the three unknown Patrons. The Patron of the Borrowed wouldn’t always steal his misbehaving image and could sow chaos easily on a battlefield like this; the best outcome would be for Randidly to eliminate the doll as quickly as poss-

Randidly blinked. Another image covered the battlefield. Time seemed to have stopped. All around him, none of the combatants moved, except for the white porcelain doll. The faux-Patron that must be Truth stepped carefully across the battlefield toward Randidly, leaning forward mid-step to attack.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

He flexed his muscles to struggle against the strange restraints, but he didn’t feel truly bound. No, instead, it felt like-

The Patron of Truth flourished a stiletto and then drove it sharply into Randidly’s chest, directly into his heart. Randidly just looked at the doll for several seconds. His mind whirred. It feels like I’m slow. Like whatever image this Patron possesses, it leaves my Dreadful Alacrity in the dust. Damn, if this ability is this powerful, how strong was the Patron of Truth…?

Abruptly, time stuttered back into its usual place. Randidly bore a deep, existential hole in his chest, but his physical body soldiered through and the powerful flows of Nether kept the doll’s image from doing any serious damage to him. The white doll danced sideways to escape close proximity, but Acri slithered down into a vicious thrust. He planted a foot and ripped off the doll’s head. Randidly released a quiet sigh of relief. Almost immediately, the ache in his chest subsided; despite their capable images, the dolls weren’t much more robust than the voltron forms of the normal dolls.

With a few more bounding steps, Randidly closed the distance and crushed the purple and pink porcelain dolls. He didn’t bother with another image and had the body to just overpower this copied image of gravity. Behind him, Fiona drove her foot through the fake Patron of the Sun. Once the numbers were evened out, the others were rapidly put down by the Ascension Pact. They might have been the most powerful images of the Second Cohort, but they were both diminished and without the benefit of their Skill Levels.

Randidly admired how the images had been faithfully reproduced in defensive dolls, but it was honestly a shockingly weak defensive effort by Elhume for the layer. This sudden lukewarm resistance made him even more suspicious.

Rubbing his neck, Randidly turned back toward the central area. “You… Xershi’s creator. Did you disable some of the defenses for the layer? If so, I need to thank you. You’ve made climbing the Sonara that much easier.”

Laughter greeted Randidly’s words. His stomach started to curdle, expecting some worse response news from this man who probably worked for Elhume. Yet the voice of Xershi’s creator was surprisingly soft. “Disable? No, this is a layer abandoned. The true defenses wait for you up on the fiftieth floor of the Sonara, that perfect point of balance that allows images to bloom. This… this is just a vestige of the Sonara’s original purpose, which even Elhume didn’t have the heart to destroy.”

“What is inside those tubes?” Fiona raised her finger and pointed, voicing the question they probably all were thinking.

Randidly rolled his eyes at how direct she was, but his focus started to get pulled toward one tube in particular. The left tube seemed to guide his attention to it. No sort of aura flowed out of the surface, yet he felt so sure of a familiar being within its confines. He grasped for Aether and Nether and only received slight responses on both.

He took a tentative step closer. After several long seconds of staring, Randidly blinked. It must be… some portion of Yystrix.

“Originally, the Sonara tried to recreate a perfect version of the past. An alternate history relived with the superior capability they had earned of the last few centuries.” The voice of the Xershi’s creator whispered. Randidly tore his gaze away from the left tube and examined the surroundings, trying to figure out where this figure hid. “Do you know much about the Pinnacle? Several elements are required. A foundation, an image, and a perfect moment. Elhume sought to reach the Pinnacle with his entire family, as he craved it to be. He took a piece of each of them for the image, the energy of the captured fools as a foundation, the completed Sonara as the moment of transformation.

“That was the plan, anyway. Problems emerged immediately. First, the image was fractured. Despite his wife generously donating half of her power to fuel the process, Elhume couldn’t part with even a drop of his power, even to achieve what he claimed to be his dearest held wish. And of course, Pine couldn’t be conveniently subdivided and brought here. Attempts to gather up Pine’s energy… had consequences.

“As far as I can tell, the foundation functions fine. Obviously moot, without the other two. Ah yes, the most interesting part, in my opinion: as the Sonara neared completion, the moment never quite manifested. Most have since theorized that the moment must be extemporaneous. Grasping for the past will never allow one to climb to the Pinnacle. Perhaps facing this very same truth, Elhume’s attitude experienced a full one-eighty. He built two extra layers, shifting the perfect image reverberations to the fifty-first layer. Reinforcing that destructive enterprise he later invested all his efforts.”

Randidly licked his lips. He started walking forward, almost unconsciously, until he stood right up in front of the left tube. He pressed his fingers against the glass, surprised by how chilled the exterior felt. “Why are you telling us this?”

“Oh, just as a favor. Besides, I’m going to take everything apart once you’ve moved through.” The voice laughed. “Honestly, I should be thanking you. Due to certain restrictions, overcoming the Patrons would have been difficult for me. Without your group's appearance, I would have needed to design a perfect foe to overcome them, allow it to grow, and then bring the lifeform to bear. Of course, if you hadn’t also started the collapse of the Sonara, I would have had plenty of time-”

“Wait. Creator,” Xershi’s head whipped up. His eyes once again had that watery quality of panic, as though he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. His gaze fixated at the space on top of the central tube, of which Randidly made note. “Are you suggesting- you would go through the profound process of creating life just to accomplish a goal? But that goes against all the precepts-”

“Those rules are designed for my precious children, to keep them from crossing lines and walking into the abyss.” The voice from the invisible being dropped even lower, until it was just a hiss against Randidly’s skin. “But considering how important it is that I plunder the power just sitting here… yes, I am willing to compromise some of the protections I have laid in place. If that burden must be carried, I will endure it.”

“You-” Xershi gritted his teeth. “Nothing can justify the improper creation of life! Is it not your words that creating a tool-entity must plunder its life from somewhere? Tear pieces out of your soul to come into existence? If you are submitting yourself to oblivion-”

“Ah, Xershi,” The voice sighed. Yet Randidly’s skin began to tingle. While the voice seemed so gentle, he could almost feel a condescending sneer unrolling itself across the hidden face. “So much of what I have left to my people is aspirational. I wish I was as considered as those rules would make me seem. Yet it is not so.

“I have walked deeply in darkness. And now that I have caught the scent of a method to break out of this stagnant Nexus… do you think I have compunctions about diving even deeper to seize an opportunity? I need power. So I’ll claim it.”