Randidly sat with his legs folded beneath him and his eyes closed. He took several breaths, gradually turning down the burning lava flows of energy he sensed around his person. He would need all of his awareness focused in the next few minutes. His Nether Core churred smoothly, the energy flowing alongside his blood and completing a full circuit through his person.

Demetrius sat opposite him in the small room, preparing his own energy. Randidly almost felt nervous; the Nether Herald blazed with gathering significance in his senses. Right now, they were entirely alone. The older Nether being had said that the best way to demonstrate the use of Phaea was to do something long overdue: for Nether King Hungry Eye to accept the Phaea of Demetrius the Nether Herald. Their bond would become permanent.

Randidly’s nerves were twofold. First, he was somewhat leery about the talk of Phaea being restrictive on his usable power. Yet that negative restriction seemed to creep up on a scale much, much larger than a single individual. After all, powerful Nether Kings warred all the time, with entire cities behind them.

Yet in the back of his mind, Randidly thought about the Alpha Cosmos. If he started accepting Phaea’s from all those people, he would undoubtedly begin to grow weary.

Still, the true source of his nerves was the fact he was within a memory performing this connection. Nether was an extremely strange energy, but he wasn’t entirely sure that Demetrius could actually form this bond with him across space and time. And the consequences of failure likely wouldn’t be light for the old Nether being.

Yet Randidly patiently waited. Anxious he might be, but understanding the power of Nether was important. Not only would it help him eventually condense a Penance, but also simply recognize the possibilities he now possessed.

In his chest, his Nether Core revved one more time, as though sensing the momentous occurrence that was approaching. The memory continued to become stabilized by his presence.

Demetrius extended both of his hands and cupped his significance within his palms. With deft strokes, the talented Nether Herald began to weave that energy into a very particular pattern. Unlike most Nether Rituals Randidly had seen, this creation was obviously incomplete: it resembled a pillar built for stability, connected to nothing and standing alone on top of his hands. All of its capability related to a nonexistent other. Again and again, Demetrius reinforced its construction until it had become humming with potent potential. Describing the working as robust would be an understatement. Dark threads of power sizzled along the pillar’s edges. The whole of his power and ingenuity seemed to be wrapped up in that small manifestation.

“The construction of the Phaea is important. From a young age, Nether Beings are taught to practice creating their Phaea Pillar. Because Phaea can be weak or strong. The more of yourself and your complexity you pour into a pillar, the stronger the connection will be. The more of the harsh Weight the Nether King will bear, the greater the benefit for the subordinate.”

Randidly’s lips twitched as he examine what Demetrius had wrought. “You have a lot of faith in me, I see.”

Demetrius chuckled. “You can view it that way if you wish. To be frank, this is your first structured Phaea, although I can tell you already bear many weights on your shoulders. As such, it is important it be incredibly firmed. Later, if you begin to suffer, you can structure some of the Phaea to be given to me.”

For a moment, Randidly opened his mouth to assure Demetrius that he would not require others to bear his burdens, but he saw the bright look in the Nether Herald’s eyes. Pride, anguish, and loneliness flickered there as Demetrius was lost in his shadowed memories. Randidly considered the mysterious past through which the duo had lived when the rest of their family had been lost and the two had been forced to flee on their own. Building this bridge between them, perhaps, seemed to Demetrius to be a return to belonging to a sort of family. So Randidly closed his mouth silently and said nothing.

“Now, take the energy within yourself.” Demetrius stretched out his hands and offered the woven pillar. “Your Nether Core will respond naturally to it and create a node somewhere within your body. That will become almost a secondary Nether Core, a central point that the burden of the Phaea will flow through. Follow your instincts.”

After flexing his hand, Randidly reached out and took the shimmering construct. As Demetrius had said, his Nether Core immediately began to shiver and accelerate. Energy whirled through his body, causing wisps of steam to begin rising from his skin. His Nether Core revved once and then twice, but still the memory began to tremble between the reaction.

The speed of his Nether Core’s rotation rapidly approached unstable levels.

Significance exploded in sharp-pointed starbursts in the space between the two of them as powerful streams of meaning collided. From across time and space, Nether bridged the connection between the two of them. The memory’s tremors became more frequent, but it didn’t become so bad he couldn’t follow the developments. Randidly took a deep breath.

Demetrius frowned as energy crackled between them without anything happening. “How strange. There is almost… some sort of rejection. Or an impediment between the two of us. Perhaps your body is so powerful it resists the Phaea Pillar naturally? Ah, I do not recall what exactly it is called, but do not Aether Beings possess an aspect that resists outside influence? You have also developed their capabilities, have you not?”

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“The Stat Resistance,” Randidly nodded. “Although mine is in an evolved form, Chimeric Indifference. …perhaps that’s why it’s taking a bit of extra time.”

“Hmm. You are a singular being. We will need to observe further,” Demetrius frowned.

Then the Phaea passed all the way through and entered Randidly’s inner area. It zipped quickly past his Class and Skills, heading directly through his Nether Core. The flows of Nether through his veins accelerated to humming speeds, evaporating moisture in his body and causing the room to become an impromptu sauna.

Significance unspooled luxuriously into a cloud of energy that haloed Randidly and Demetrius. Within his body, the Phaea Pillar released a blue light. Yet at the last second, it veered off its crash course for his Nether Core.

Yet when he saw its new heading, Randidly’s eyes widened.

Like a sharp spear, the Phaea lanced directly into the emotional sea Randidly had been steadily accumulating in his chest. The emotions began to bubble and seeth at the sudden interloper, the Aether muttering and rumbling as it gathered itself to reject this cylinder of Nether. Yet even more strangely, Randidly felt the Stillborn Phoenix stirring in response to the escalating tensions. The Egg of Depression screeched out an almost deafening blast of need and excitement, quieting the emotions in the area.

The Phaea sank to the core of the emotional sea and settled there, growing out small sapphire roots that fed on the emotions. For their part, the emotions pressed closer to the Pillar, trying to decide what to do about this strange development. Gleefully, the Stillborn Phoenix, followed by the two blob-like spirits of modern Devick’s unborn children, zipped down and somehow merged with the Phaea. A rotation formed at the base of the emotional sea, pulling the emotions even closer. A condensed central area began to form, gathering more momentum every second. Looking at it, Randidly knew that someday this would become a massive whirlpool.

More than that… Randidly blinked several times. There is a resonance within my Nether Core: the aspect of the Stillborn Phoenix that served as a foundation for my Nether is close to finding its Authority. As this develops, it will probably emerge naturally…

Humming to himself, Randidly’s senses returned to his body. The Phaea had bonded himself and Demetrius. Opposite, Demetrius released a satisfied sigh. “Ah, to be so attached once again is such a relief. Do you feel my burden upon you?”

Randidly almost felt awkward answering. “...perhaps you are lighter than you believed? I can’t feel any difference.”

“Ha! To be young and full of vigor,” Demetrius chuckled. He waved a hand. “Take your time, examine yourself once the energies have begun to settle. The burden is there, but it manifests in slightly different ways for everyone. In the meantime… I wish to go gather some information. There are a few Nether Beings operating in Malloon despite the prejudice against them. I will see if they know more about how Westrisser might have earned Wyndaos’s ire. And Nether King Hungry Eye… thank you. I appreciate everything you have done for me and my grandson.”

With those words, Demetrius left the steamy room. Randidly sighed to himself and leaned back on his hands. He pulled out a pitcher of water from an interspatial ring and guzzled it all down to rehydrate himself. Then he combed through his internal self, trying to find a shift resulting from the acceptance of the Phaea within his body. Obviously, it had begun to change his emotional sea, but in terms of restrictive burden-

Randidly stilled. It might just be his imagination, but his fourth and final negative emotional core seemed to be swollen slightly. Like a fruit left out in the sun, it seemed poise to burst and fling its rancid, sickly sweet flesh all throughout his internal world.

Randidly clicked his tongue as he came back to himself. “Well, I planned on addressing it soon anyway. Just accelerates the timeline a bit. But now… I have a promise to Westrisser to get to.”

He stretched and cracked his neck. Then he walked outside of the inn to the positively packed streets of Malloon. Children hooted and cooed at each other as they dangled from second and third-story balconies. A carpet salesperson, using a pinch of business savvy to rave about his wares’ ability to soften the ground for sleeping, had set up shop directly outside the inn in which they were staying. Everyone had to walk in a narrow aisle in the middle of the street because the sides were lined with various other stands hawking their wares.

Of course, the sight of his black robe with gold trim did a lot to clear out the area. Only the children remained active; Randidly could hear them asking why everything got quiet while their parents furiously shushed them.

Everyone, Randidly included, felt a lot better when he had made it out of the crowded area and left Malloon through its front gates. The area directly outside of Malloon was even more crowded than it had been when the group had arrived; Randidly had no idea how they withstood the constant droning of the barrier.

He let loose a little bit of his physical prowess to leap away from Malloon, heading toward the areas to the South that were absolutely ravaged by storms. As he did so, his senses regularly pulsed out and scanned the surroundings. Both for ambushes, flows of significance, and for the peppers he had been seeking for so long.

For better or for worse, he found nothing. No danger, no excitement.

But he did find stone.

Randidly flew through the whipping winds and wild rain, almost laughing from the sensation of the elements tugging at his robe. The hunched hills in the area were scoured entirely clean of plant matter; very few life forms could survive down here. It was the perfect place to steal some ground to create a skyisland.

He glanced over his shoulder when he sensed several lifeforms approaching. But he quickly turned back forward. It was only his three Arakis Beasts, chasing him down now that he was out of the city. Randidly stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles. “Okay, I can do this on my own. I just need to think… what would Tatiana do. And when that fails… make it big and fancy.”