Congratulations! Your Skill Tapestry of Ten Thousand Radiances (M) has grown to Level 653!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Wrathful Calamity Rends (T) has grown to Level 706!

Underneath the squeezing weight from the robed individual’s worldwide image, the Grey Creature raised its head and looked out at the enemy. Emotional force spilled out as its smile unzipped itself across the bottom of Randidly’s face until a Cheshire leer contorted his expression.

Emotional affect resonated with the shape and gathered up a ringing momentum. Randidly raised his hand and the Grey Creature cackled. The surging ocean of emotion that he had created by absorbing the second emotional core settled into his right hand. His bones hummed, tearing through the soft muscles of his hand as he channeled the energy. In a sharp motion, he chopped downward and the brown world view shattered.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Wrathful Calamity Rends (T) has grown to Level 786!

Immediately, the memory began to shudder and flicker around him. That familiar feeling of nausea returned. Randidly grimaced; he assumed he could fully mobilize his image without repercussions, but he hadn’t taken into account how much emotional force lurked within his Aether now. His Nether Core began revving to alleviate the pressure, but he wouldn’t be able to manage another display of force like that again.

The leader’s face warped, cracks literally opening on his face from the intensity of his scowl. “Fine then, third squad, head over and help eliminate this threat before-”

Another worldwide image lapped outward, this one rose-colored. The silver-skinned woman used the breaking of their opponent’s image to substitute her own. Randidly watched the flow of colors into the fabric of the world, mesmerized by the process. But compared to the blunt-edged shifts from before, this image was entirely different. Honestly, this image was a work of art; Engravings were sewn into even the smallest details, knitting themselves into existence at every level of existence. This was beyond self-propagating patterns: each moved with momentum to spread themselves, as though compelled by some inner engine that Randidly couldn’t determine.

His pupils dilated. He swam in a symphony of rainbows, a chorus of immaculate light. He watched the surroundings begin to shift. Somehow, she manipulated the world’s laws so that these patterns would gather into surging waves. But how could she manage that?

Compared to the opponent’s world-state image, this one was much more subtle. There was no pressure, no force. But because she adjusted the base laws upon which everything functioned, the power swirling around her body was overwhelming. All those patterns fed into each other and then surged to fill her body.

Randidly’s instincts growled in warning.

The silver-skinned and golden-haired woman stepped and appeared next to the opponent’s leader. She drew a longsword from her waist and leveled it at his chest. Like a biting snake, the blade pounced at his heart. But at the last second, the attack halted, only ripping through his robe. Her image parted and the silver-skinned woman smiled and patted his shoulder with the flat of her blade. “Let’s say we call it here, eh Dogeol? Don’t take it personally. You win some, you lose some.”

“You know I’m under orders from Westrisser, Miss Mae,” The stone-skinned man’s voice was gruff, but Randidly was surprised to sense that all the fight had left him. The leader Dogeol took a step back from the woman and folded his arms. “Your influence over Drane Swacc is known; the upcoming trial is too important to Master Westrisser to allow you to return to Malloon right now. Please-”

“I could have killed you right there, Dogeol,” The woman’s smile was sad. With her silver skin and golden hair, there was a weird glittering, metallic beauty to her expression. Her face held the sort of perfect proportions that made it seem like she had been designed in a lab. Her lips were wide and expressive, her cheekbones high and sculpted.

She wielded a softer sort of power against the man now, which seemed just as effective as her blade and image. She leaned forward. “You might be punished for this, but you have too good a soul to die in some pointless battle like this. Besides, would you believe me if I told you I wasn’t even here to see Drane Swacc?”

Dogeol looked at the sparkling woman for several seconds. Then he sighed and waved a hand. “Fine. Everyone, retreat. Today, we have failed. Let’s report to Master Westrisser for punishment.”

Next to Randidly, Kopal spat to the side. He favored him with the glare of an ugly child. “You got a few cheap shots in on me, but it won’t happen again. Next time, I’ll grind your soft flesh to dust.”

You talk too much, Randidly thought to himself, but he didn’t say anything. As the mahogany-robed individuals left the cavern, the efforts of his Nether Core gradually stabilized the surroundings. The nausea within him died. With that stability, he looked at the two individuals standing in the middle of the cavern.

A wound-covered Fiero literally just dropped to the ground. His blood seeped out onto the stone floor as he tried to catch his breath. He looked at the metallic woman with a gaze laced with bitterness. Despite the fact they were both patrons, his distaste was extremely obvious. “You can’t seriously expect us to stay alive like this. Haaah… at this rate, a heart attack is going to get me before your idiocy does…”

“Tch, don’t be so negative. We managed to do it, right? Due to our new friend here.” The woman rounded on Randidly and favored him with a winning smile. Her teeth were brilliantly white, despite the metallic rest of her body. “Thank you so much, stranger. Ha, seriously, what are the odds that someone would wander into this out-of-the-way place, let alone someone strong enough to break apart Dogeol’s image? We really owe you one.”

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“Statistically… almost zero…” Fiero whimpered, still laying on the ground. “Traveling around with you is the worst… I wish Hummul would have just agreed to go like he was supposed to… he probably knew what sort of shit it would entail, which is why he’s been faking sick… floaty bastard…”

“...you’re welcome,” Randidly said, looking between the two future Patrons. Both were powerful, he could feel that. Fiero only as powerful as his current self. It was more difficult to judge the woman. He cleared his throat and looked at the glittering woman in front of him, her significance feeling quite familiar. “You must be Mae Myrna, the Patron of Truth.”

Her expression brightened. “Oh, you’ve heard of me? Ha! But what’s with that nickname? If anything, my mother is the Matron of Truth. You can just call me Mae.”

“He called you a Patron…” Fiero rolled onto his stomach and pressed himself back up to his feet. Due to his own high Stats, his numerous wounds were healing at a visible rate.

Mae Myrna continued cheerily along, without acknowledging the comment from her companion. “Still, you knowing who I am makes this much easier! To be honest, we are a bit underpowered for our current mission; with all the difficulties surrounding the movements in Nether forces and Elhume’s plan-”

“Mae!” Fiero rounded on her and growled. “You can’t just tell strangers about our private business!”

“He has an honest-looking face! Doesn’t he have an honest-looking face? And he knows my codename is Truth.” She gestured at Randidly and spared a pout for the vulpine. “Shush, Fi. You are always such a wet blanket. When have you met a warrior from Nether that didn’t keep their word? Look, Mister Nether King, we are about to meet with some very dangerous people to try and recover someone very precious to us. If you give us a vow to help us, I’d like you to join us. Believe me, we can make it worth your while. No matter if its money, land, or even Phaea, we have plenty of methods.”

Phaea? Randidly’s gaze flickered at the unfamiliar term.

“Fuck, seriously?” Fiero rubbed his eyes. Then he gave Randidly a hard look for several seconds. Whatever he saw there, the stand-off ended with a long sigh and him throwing his hands up in the air. “Well, whatever. He at least isn’t a slouch. But we aren’t a fairytale in some book; don’t just invite any random weirdo to join our quest.”

“Isn’t he tough though? Did you see him break Kopal’s face? Anyways, do you swear to help us on our mission?” Mae grinned over at Randidly.

“I do,” He answered quietly. But while he tried to keep his expression calm, Randidly’s heart began to pound. His Nether Core revved three times in quick succession after he had given his agreements. Small beads of sweat formed on the back of his neck and his lower back. His eyes rose toward the ceiling.

…how the hell did I miss this?

“Follow me! It isn’t far this way; just bad look we ran into Westrisser’s people… haaah, I do hope Dogeol doesn’t get too punished for encountered us and letting us go… of them all, he has the best heart.” The gleaming Patron of Truth led the way, keeping up a running stream of consciousness while she moved. Fiero cast one suspicious glance at Randidly before hurrying after her.

Meanwhile, Randidly was still trembling slightly. Not from meeting them, but from the patterns around him, woven into the memory. He felt simultaneously sick and jittery like he had guzzled down more caffeine than even his powerful body could handle. Those suddenly obvious patterns squeezed him, pressuring his Nether, stating very directly that he would find something important if he followed these two right now.

He had been walking along in the eye of a storm of Nether, but now it broke around him with a thunderous, keening blast. He could hear whispers in his ear, just indiscernible. He had ended up within the core of this particular memory.

He belatedly began to walk, taking several bounding steps to catch up with the other two. Fiero continued to glance back and check him, but Mae seemed entirely to trust him due to the promise he had given, without even a Nether Ritual to back it up.

This was all interesting information about the characters of two of the deceased Patrons, but it was difficult to pay too much attention to that. Randidly felt like a stop had been pulled out of the surroundings and all of the significance in the area began to drain toward a single place. The currents were so vicious and wild they trampled over Randidly’s own significance. The memory seemed to be shouting that he finally had stumbled into the right place.

The three of them moved quickly through the tunnels. When the two memory Patrons realized Randidly could keep up with them, they accelerated. Soon, they were just blurs within the stone walls, leaving wind in their wake as they sped toward their destination. At these hyper speeds they moved for almost an hour.

Inwardly, Randidly pulled his attention away from the seething currents of Nether and rolled his eyes at the moods of the two people ahead of him. It isn’t far this way, huh? I can see why the Patron of the Borrowed would have such a hard time dealing with you, Mae Myrna…

Meanwhile, you have such strong connections with Elhume and Drane Swacc. Romantic entanglements? Were you sleeping both of them? But you seemed more cheerful than duplicitous. I really just can’t figure you out…

Soon the group came up through a tunnel to the surface. It was an area that hadn’t been moderated by Randidly’s climate adjustments, so sleet slanted sideways and soaked them all to the skin within seconds of them stepping out into the open air. Thunder boomed overhead.

Fiero reached up and grasped several times, his hand just seeming to close only on air. But Randidly could feel the way he stole the wind and the rain and turned it against themselves, lessening the precipitation over them immensely. Mae skipped forward without a care, not seeming to notice the way her golden hair was plastered across her body. Fiero followed at a more subdued pace, looking more like a rat than a fox, even with the lighter rainfall.

They didn’t need to go far. A group of three individuals were standing around a stone pillar nearby. They all rose to a standing position as soon as they saw Randidly and the Patrons come closer. Their robes were white with a very light grey thread sewn through the entire garment. Especially in the rain, it was very easy to miss the threadwork. But the more Randidly examined it, the more he felt a chill unrelated to rain.

That sort of Engraving… the robes are wired for remote detonation. And the fucking energy cores they carry are unreal, like nothing I’ve ever seen. That has enough juice to knock me out of commission. They could be activated and turned into suicide bombers-

His thoughts were cut abruptly short when the lead figure stepped forward and pulled down his hood. “Well, so you came.”

Or rather, several tentacles stretched out of the darkness and pulled the clothing down, revealing a soft and squishy octopus head. Because the central figure, wrapped in a robe that could function as a remote Aether bomb, was Tuthak Eloise. The same individual who outside of the memory, was leading a group of individuals to come back to the Nexus and overthrow Elhume in ‘the Great Return’.