Freewall Yuuryin bowed to Faelmac Westrisser’s back. Despite the harsh decisions Westrisser had made over the years, the engineer never displayed fear. Westrisser appreciated that; Freewall understood that each had their own role, and as long as something catastrophic didn’t happen, being competent at his job would be enough to protect his life.

Westrisser’s expression darkened. At least for now.

The engineer spoke. “Per your orders, I’ve been inspecting the skyislands provided by Nether King Hungry Eye. After a few days… I can say with complete confidence that they are just as ordered; there are no traps hidden in their Engraving. They will greatly expand the city’s ability to host visitors.”

Westrisser nodded, still looking at the gloomy clouds at the window. After a few seconds of silence, Freewall began to squirm again. He found the stillness away from the wall uncomfortable.

The diminutive engineer cleared his throat. “There is another matter. The Engraving principles utilized in his levitation and energy arrays are extremely profound. In terms of energy conversion formations… well, it is difficult to describe. An entire other language seems to be present in the working. He is several generations ahead of our current capability. Therefore, I recommend we hire him to consult with Malloon’s barrier. He could revolutionize our defenses.”

“You would give a Nether King a key to our kingdom?”

Westrisser didn’t bother to hide the sneer in his voice. His alabaster feathers flared slightly as his temper began to flare. Freewall hurriedly tried to explain. “Ah, obviously he wouldn’t simply be allowed to remake our barrier- but the principles he utilizes are completely separate from ours! If we can simply understand how he would construct a barrier-”

“Enough,” Westrisser growled. In a rare showing of clemency, the white-feathered leader turned and inclined his head slightly to Freewall. “Obviously, I respect your decades of service, Yuuryin. You are likely correct. However… possible benefits in the future are not worth taking undue risks now. We… are at a critical time in Malloon’s development. We have finally established ourselves as an outpost that can stand against the whims of the Nether. We cannot endanger that, for any reason. Besides, how long will it take you to incorporate aspects of this Nether King’s Engravings on your own?”

Freewall winced. “Honestly… perhaps five years. It is that alien to me. I have done some small experiments and the efficiency drops dramatically when you deviate from a set of principles I cannot seem to completely understand.”

Westrisser nodded slowly. His eyes were still out the window. “Begin to experiment in your free time then. But there is no rush to develop a firm grasp of these concepts. Most of your attention… should be focused on the barrier. The defenses must not possess even a single flaw. These clouds…”

Freewall followed his leader’s gaze. Out the wide windows, the strangely mild weather that had been concentrated around Malloon spread for several miles. But West, past the rolling hills, a sudden block of heavy grey storms rumbled forward. For several seconds, the tiny engineer couldn’t react to what he was seeing.

Giant misshapen heads, vague in the details but unmistakable in their shape. Heads grew out of the clouds, their next thick and twisted. Only the most general approximation of mouths, warped in agony or raw desire. And the strangest part was the thin, wispy clouds that leaked out from these heads’ eyes. As they floated in a misshapen and ominous parade toward Malloon, these giant heads were weeping.

Westrisser grunted. “So it seems the rumors are true. The Nether begin to move against us. Bleak Sky nears our fair city. Which is why… we cannot allow even the slightest weakness in our defenses. Do you understand?”

But the real question… Westrisser’s eyes narrowed to slits. How were they aware of what my family has worked on for the last three hundred years?

*****

In essence, the spark that would become Randidly needed to go back through his entire history, gradually experiencing the exhaustions that he had pushed through during his life. The greyness did not force it to pick up more than he could bear, but it could not leave this strange limbo until he had traveled through the entire history of Randidly Ghosthound and assumed all of his burdens. The exhaustion would not let it skip even a single hardship.

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Before the spark began, it utilized a strange pseudo-awareness. Floating above his inert body, the Grey Creature remained in constant struggle, ripping passage back and forth through the grey in a so-far useless attempt to escape.

The spark clicked its tongue. I suppose I’ll have to handle this myself.

So it began. He moved through his life quickly, just experiencing the pain and exhaustion. Honestly, if anything, his life before the System was just as agonizing as what the spark knew would come later. Some of the long nights of silence and his mother’s laughter… it brought back the fresh news of her death. But also the spark needed to sit through those draining, lonely experiences all over again.

The spark skimmed through ‘highlights’ of his life. These being the most agonizing and drawn-out moments of suffering.

It was almost a relief when the System arrived and the spark had to experience those first weeks in the Dungeon, fleeing from acid-spitting toads and howler monkeys. Sure, these were moments of extreme exhaustion, but these were also the formative motions of his new existence. He learned to suppress his feelings of unease and only focus on accomplishing the goal. When he had time to rest, he could reflect on the things he experienced.

Once Shal arrived and they decided to clear the Dungeon, he did not have many moments to rest. His exhaustion deepened.

After he left the Dungeon, things became a little easier. But Randidly had thrown himself into founding Donnyton, then helping Franksburg get set up, then traveling to Tellus to assist Shal, then back to Expira in order to overcome the Raid Dungeon and connect to all the different Zones that would later accumulate to become Expira.

Without hesitation, the past Randidly had thrown himself from one problem to the next. The spark felt the exhaustion in his soul steadily building. It was the spiritual equivalent to heavy bags forming underneath his eyes. Some part of him seemed to drag behind him, unable to keep up with the tireless performance of his body.

The spark had to admit that perhaps the near-impossible work ethic he had maintained since the arrival of the System wasn’t the healthiest choice.

Around the time when he felt himself being sucked away to the frontlines to fight against Nether forces, the spark took a break. Its speed of proceeding through his life slowed immensely. The difficulties and trials he had forced his way through without a thought in the past now caught up with him. Because while he could forcefully ignore the growing burden of exhaustion in the past, railroad directly over it with the powerful force of necessity, this trial specifically forbade that. The spark felt its light growing dull after so long dragging along his weariness.

As it simply sat and recovered, the spark extended out that awareness again to check on its competition. As it expected, the Grey Creature continued to rip its way back and forth through the grey expanse of exhaustion without giving into its constricting resonance. Most of the image’s emotional affect had been stripped away by the constant toil, but a few searing embers lingered in its claw-like fingers.

Yet despite the fact that his emotional affect should be much depleted-

The Grey Creature cut down and the entire grey expanse shuddered.

Congratulations! Your Skill The Wrathful Calamity Rends (T) has grown to Level 890!

-each of its strikes seemed to split the entire realm of exhaustion, if just for a moment. The spark felt a strange sense of fascination as it watched. The blows didn’t come very frequently, and the grey expanse continued to reform in their wake, but the Grey Creature did seem to be creating the sort of attack that could genuinely wound even exhaustion.

If I don’t hurry up, The spark grimaced as it watched the muscles of the Grey Creature’s back coil and tighten. Its arm swept sideways, razing a huge swath of the grey. It really will return to the body before I do…

Congratulations! Your Skill The Wrathful Calamity Rends (T) has grown to Level 891!

Congratulations! Your Skill Twin Lingering Shadows of Misfortune (T) has grown to Level 990!

The second notification caught the spark by surprise. It expanded the area covered by its awareness and sensed them: the two unborn spirits he had carried from his time on the mountain had lingered in the grey expanse even after the Stillborn Phoenix had been forced to withdraw. They had swollen to double their original size, engorged on bite-sized chunks of the grey they had ingested. As the spark observed, they yawned and stretched. One lazily opened its mouth and bit off a chunk of grey, chewing it thoughtlessly.

The spark twitched. They always added an element of unreality that weakened the Stillborn Phoenix, but now even they might make it out of here before I do…

With its resolve restored, the spark flared itself as much as it could and returned. It began to pick up the pieces of Randidly Ghosthound, marching forward through time. Despite the difficulty, despite the increasing drain on its resources, it did not slow. It could not afford to be late returning to its body.

The spark progressed without ceasing for quite some time… until Randidly Ghosthound ascended to the Nexus for real and began training within the shaft. With the time accelerating, suddenly the accumulation of exhaustion began to spike upward.

By the time the spark reached the moment in the shaft where he was ambushed by Velio Dunn, forced downward before he was prepared and forced to utilize the Visage of Obsession to condense his Nether Core, each moment was agonizing.

The weight borne by Randidly Ghosthound increased exponentially as significance became involved.