Travel through the golden layer lasted for several seconds, Randidly still filled with a strange dread from the imposing tool he had touched briefly and then left behind. He felt a headache building within the bridge of his nose. The Hierarchy of Karma and its still living target were another threat they had rushed past. Randidly just hopped that touching it hadn’t somehow unleashed it.

…as had happened with the Nether King…

Or that the small drop which now was being raised on a constant diet of the repeated word death wouldn’t later rampage through the area and shake things loose.

Or that the mounting concentration of image fragments in the flaw they inflicted on the Sonora would rupture with enough violence to destroy the Sonara but not enough force to destroy the Hierarchy of Karma and its captive, instead flinging that being into freedom so that Randidly would have another Elhume powered enemy to climb over.

However, Randidly ultimately just shrugged in the face of the dangers. One problem at a time. I need to climb up and save the Patron of Feathers. She might have some more understanding of whether the being with the Hierarchy of Karma is an issue, anyway. For now, I have plenty of my own issues to deal with…

In his chest, the Grey Creature paced back and forth, surly and wild. Every moment brought more and more of the deep sea of negative emotion within the Alpha Cosmos to rest within his core image.

Randidly burst through the transitionary membrane to the fifty-first layer. Randidly planted his feet and scanned the surroundings for any threats. A grey sky stretched above him and several massive buildings loomed to either side of the landing area. Fiona waved and a little further Xershi stood on top of a pile of sparking and twitching humanoid drones.

“Checked the inside, this place is just filled with stuffy warehouses,” Xershi almost shrugged. He kicked a few of the broken drones for good measure. “And these guys can barely take a hit. There aren’t really any defenses that I can find.”

Next to Randidly, Pullas released a long breath. For the first time, the light of death around her body completely faded. Without that light around her, her shoulders seemed so small and thin. “So… we made it. We really climbed past the layers of Elhume.”

A creaking door slid open in the large building next to them and brought the whole group sliding around. Milky death bloomed around Pullas and Randidly’s body blazed with grey flames of Nether Weight. But it was Xershi that moved first, streaking across the distance and crushing the torso of the humanoid metal exoskeleton that had stepped out to consider the new arrivals.

When the warped metal body had hit the ground, he kicked it several times for good measure. A wide smile crossed his face. “Ah… so refreshing. This is the type of foe I like facing.”

Fiona barked out a low laugh and shook her head. Inwardly, Randidly sorta agreed with Xershi. The last several floors had been stressful and trying. And even now, it was difficult to know when Elhume would receive word of their passage through the fiftieth floor, whether he would find traces of their images or whether Elhume would just believe it had been the Nether King. Either way, he didn’t want to linger around the area.

He produced the Philosopher’s Passport. “Alright, let’s get out of here. Even if we made it past the worst of it, we don’t want to let any pursuit catch up to us.”

The lack of defenses on the fifty-first layer was almost alarming. Randidly didn’t even need to utilize the Hierarchy of Burden. He could just peer across space and open them up at the wall, to take the exterior stairwell.

Likely haunted by the ghost of Elhume’s traps, the group remained silent and rapidly ascended through the next few layers without pausing for a break. The fifty-second, fifty-third, and fifty-four floors were a lot more of the same endless buildings, albeit at slightly decreased sizes. Just warehouses and autonomous drones to transport the various materials. Randidly did sweep through a few of the warehouses past the fifty-first layer, stealing away huge quantities of metals and crystals that Elhume considered high-value enough to store there. He sent samples to Kharon, letting them try and reverse engineer the forging process for building blocks of the sturdy Sonara.

Other than moving, Randidly examined his exhausted companions, both with his eyes and through the Ascension Pact. His lingering anger toward Fiona had faded into cinders; the trying experience of struggling against Elhume’s defenses had helped him set his anger to the side. While the transgression she had committed had really infuriated him, he could also tell she was genuinely sorry.

At least this time, Randidly would do his best to forgive.

Pullas seemed to be focusing her attention inward, constantly refining her image. The hemorrhaging of Aether from her body had finally stopped. The bond of significance between herself and the drop of depthless Nether had grown to cover all of the ‘wounds’ across her Soulspace. For now, she had completely recovered. The only issue was what that connection would eventually mean.

Of all of them, Randidly was the most worried about Xershi. The metal man laughed and happily slaughtered the drones on the floors, going out of his way to rip off their limbs or absolutely demolish them. Aside from the violence, Xershi seemed intent to act like the conversation with his maker, concerning Xershi being designed to get close to Randidly, hadn’t happened at all.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Not that Randidly felt particularly suspicious of him, but he knew from experience how dangerous it was to not address the emotions the conversation had caused. Because the creator had been Xershi’s reason for climbing; did he now continue to spite the creator who said he had been specifically designed for a purpose?

Yet for now, they simply climbed.

The fifth-fifth floor was completely deserted, a minor shift from buildings blocking the view to no impediment at all. A wide plain with no distinguishing features stretched in every direction. Yet the wide image resonance allowed the last of Randidly’s tension to drain from his body. No traps lurked below the surface, there was barely any significance in the air, the environment hadn’t been altered by an image in a long, long time.

They had made it. They had climbed past Elhume’s strange experiments.

It was only after that release of tension, moving from the fifty-sixth floor to the fifty-seventh, that they felt the unmistakable sensation of the Sonara beginning to tear.

The first notes were ripping paper, then a vacuum cleaner sucking up cat litter, and then the crescendo of a mountain collapsing.

*****

Actus Suprem Devick stood on top of a tall tower, her eyes on her own reflection. She wore a shimmering, lacy, almost cloud-like white dress. The bits of layered fabric fluttered with each movement. She twisted her arms and torso, watching the way the garment floated about her body, hinting at the capable form beneath. Her long red hair became a dominating beacon, looking like it would stain the pure fabric with a touch.

Devick sighed theatrically as she made her decision. “No, I suppose it is a bit much for my dress to be white, isn’t it? Certain persnickety elements will find it to be inappropriate… Bring the wine-colored one over here.”

With a dutifully blank expression, Lady Iellaya moved to one of the skin-tone standing hangers and carefully unzipped the dress from its delicate resting place. Devick rolled her shoulders, her tiny mouths of madness eating small holes in the white fabric until the shoulders had completely been devoured and the dress collapsed down around her ankles. Naked as the day she was born, she stepped out of the ruined dress and admired her own body.

She pointed a toe forward and thrust out a hip. One of Devick’s few harmless pleasures was looking at herself.

The two of them stood on the top of a special tower Devick had built above Military High Command Headquarters, surrounded by nine dress hangers, which were essentially just poles with shoulders, a massive square mirror, and the vaguely smoking remnants of four dresses that hadn’t quite met Devick’s standards.

Devick turned herself sideways in front of the mirror, pouting and squeezing her stomach. Her mind settled into one of her most recent obsessions. “Do you know much about the woman I want? The one from Randidly’s homeworld?”

Lady Iellaya’s expression never wavered as she shook her head while bringing over the wine-colored dress. “Unfortunately not.”

Devick felt the urge to prod rising within her chest. As an inheritor of the Peregrine Serpents, even if she wasn’t related by blood, Lady Iellaya possessed exceptional emotional resilience. That was why she functioned for so long as her aide. Considering how bloody and hysterical most had become from extended proximity, even Wick himself, Lady Iellaya was extremely useful.

And yet. That usefulness would only save her for so long.

Even now, Devick teased herself with thoughts that this woman, who had been kept so long by her side with constant and deliberate low-grade exposure to her madness, hadn’t truly maintained her sanity but only faked it. She wanted to poke a little, enough to satisfy her curiosity, without digging into some emotional rot and ruining the wondering.

She cleared her throat as Lady Iellaya brought the dress around for her to step into. “I’m surprised to hear that. Didn’t he have subordinates with him? When he served on the frontlines, below Ileot Swacc?”

“He did, but the only one I remember was Helen.” Lady Iellaya pulled the dress up around her, allowing her to slide her arms through.

Devick clicked her tongue. “Ah. The one so theatrically murdered by Wick, to send a message. The one who so spurred Randidly to action that he improved by leaps and bounds until he could shatter Wick, personally.”

“Just so.”

Both paused in their conversation to look at Devick in this new dress. This one was much sleeker, a tight bodice descending into a flowing skirt that trailed along the ground around Devick as she spun back and forth. With a twist of her lip, she shook her head decisively. “No, it cannot drag like this during the party. Won’t it become extremely dirty?”

Lady Iellaya bowed and began undoing the clasps. This, Devick suffered through; she might not like the cut of the skirts, but the rest was very flattering.

Struck by a sudden impulse, Devick switched topics. “The party is only two weeks away. Do you think Randidly will bring me a present?”

That finally brought Lady Iellaya to a halt. “...from what I understand from Randidly Ghosthound, he is not the type to give gifts. He shows his loyalty in other ways.”

“It’s not about loyalty,” Devick said breezily with a wave of her hand. “Besides, I’m not looking for a typical gift. Especially from an iconoclast like Randidly Ghosthound. No, what I really want is something… special. Something that will mark our relationship. He hasn’t decided on the definition for his word, yes? Perhaps he will make Ghasthund mean something like duty beyond compare-”

Both women looked up. Lady Iellaya, who only possessed Tier 2 Citizenships, frowned but was unable to determine the cause for the massive energy disturbance. But Devick showed a massive grin. “There, you see? This is what I’m talking about. This is the sort of gift that no one but he can give.”

Above, the massive drill of the Sonora hung over the Nexus proper. And on the left side of that drill, a small black dot had appeared. Devick put her hands to her cheeks, barely preventing herself from blushing.

Like a giant pinata, the Sonara unraveled and began to dump huge quantities of Aether and twisted metal down over the Nexus. Devick knew that it was all for her.