Randidly left the ornate room where Devick’s birthday was being hosted and flickered down the hall. Each of his light steps consumed a dozen meters. However, he reached the end of the hall and felt a brief moment of frustration. He awkwardly paused as he looked at the options in front of him. He should have breezed past the partygoers and jumped off of the balcony to reach the sky and the outside almost immediately. As it was, he now had to choose between heading down the stairs or going back to the party and passing through.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ghosthound’s Acute Nether Nose (M) has grown to Level 1042!

Congratulations! Your Skill Yearnings of the Nether Heir (L) has grown to Level 971!

His Nether senses were already spread out around the skyisland, observing the steady descent of the Nether Storm toward Malloon, so he could feel the follow-up reverberation of power; the Nether Kings Bleak Sky had gathered were beginning to gather huge amounts of power.

Randidly glared at the end of the hallway in front of him. A bland-looking painting of a two-headed duck hung on the wall. “I fucking own all this, anyway.”

He burst right out through the building and into the night sky. Undercurrents of Nether swirled through the air, pressing against his skin. With a thought, Randidly adjusted the propulsion engravings within the skyislands and moved them away from Malloon and the Nether King’s encirclement. Their speed was low, but so long as the Nether Kings didn’t target them directly, the people within should be safe.

With a single glance, he took in the whole of the battlefield. Randidly’s skyislands were situated to the Southwest and South of Malloon. Both dutifully hummed East, removing themselves from the area of conflict, between Malloon and the gathering of Nether Kings to the Southwest. However, what grabbed his attention was the movement of the significance. He had originally assumed it would be utilized by the Nether forces, but it sank down across both sides. Randidly followed the flows and eddies as they swirled around both the Nether Kings and Westrisser and Cerulean defending Malloon.

His eyes widened. The atmosphere of the Second Cohort is different; Nether hasn’t been thoroughly suppressed even in the Aether Lands. Significance benefits both sides fighting each other…

Two figures broke out of Mallon and rushed toward Randidly. They passed above a seething crowd of panicking individuals; the common people seemed to realize that trouble had finally arrived at the city. If they couldn’t get into Malloon, they fled into the hills.

With their power, they would be crushed just from the confrontation between two powerful figures.

At first, Randidly narrowed his eyes, but when he recognized the approaching two, his tension eased. The Patron of Feathers and the Patron of Truth stopped in midair in front of Randidly, both looking exceedingly pale underneath the heavy clouds. In the distance, the cloud vomiting heads loomed closer, towering over the city.

“What are your intentions, Hungry Eye?” The Patron of Truth asked immediately. As always, she cut right to the chase. Much of her old strange intensity had returned, much restored from when Randidly had woven a limit on the area her significance-fed image tried to influence. He studied the barrier around her closely. Already it began to fray beneath the constant pressure of her world-state. At the current rate, it might not even last another month.

Hopefully by that time, she would be familiar enough with the process to restrict her image on her own.

The Patron of Feathers also seemed much more powerful than she had previously, perhaps a match for the current Elhume. Her eyes were firm, if slightly anxious as the daughter of the most powerful Peregrine Serpent, who also had drawn the ire of the Nether forces. Randidly couldn’t help but be impressed by her growth these past few weeks. Her own image had been heavily refined. From what he understood, she hadn’t even undergone Westrisser’s bloodline ceremony. She had simply accepted the teaching of her father, who thoroughly reinforced her foundations.

From their posture, it was clear they might even be willing to try and fight against him.

However, Randidly shook his head to assuage their fears. “Just to observe. I do not want to be caught in the confrontation between Bleak Sky and Malloon. I will, however, protect the people currently on my skyislands. From whichever side threatens them.”

A smile bloomed across Mae Myrna’s face. The swirling intensity of her image began to grow sluggish. “Our thoughts, almost exactly. We are upon the road to ascendancy, but I do not yet consider myself to be one of the most domineering powers within the Aether Lands. For now, others will dominate the spotlight.”

“I…” The Patron of Feathers hesitated. Above them, the streams of Nether crashed and rumbled as the weight of history of the two different sides began to grind directly. Different futures, different possibilities, sprung from the events about to occur. A single figure from the Nether side blasted forward, approaching the edge of Malloon. The feathered woman frowned at the movement. “I cannot stand idly by. I do not agree with my father’s decisions, but this is the city protected by my family for generations. I will go to his side.”

“He will send you away,” The Patron of Truth replied.

“Yet he will be proud should I refuse to leave,” The Patron of Feathers had a brittle smile on her face. She hesitated. “To be honest… this period where we are able to spend time with each other without fighting, even if we talk of nothing but training… it is nice. I will be sad to lose it. My family is, perhaps, more important to me than I had imagined.”

Both Randidly and Mae Myrna watched the Patron of Feathers turn around and shoot back toward Malloon’s gates. The giant barriers around the city screamed their defiance toward the sky, as the environment was flooded with ambient Nether. Randidly began utilizing the Stillborn Phoenix to shift the skyislands more quickly with gravity distortions, but didn’t utilize enough to draw the attention of either force. The Patron of Feathers arrived only ten seconds before the approaching Nether King, but made it inside.

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Randidly was rather surprised to see the Nether King sent forward was Bleak Sky himself. The domineering Nether King, released from imprisonment in Wyndaos after hundreds of years, remained imposing with his bald head and heavy vulture’s beak. His control of energy was just as fine as Randidly recalled; Nether began to boil around him, instantly killing the hordes of people who hadn’t fled quickly enough from the huge camp city around Malloon. Their bodies twisted and warped underneath that power, causing most to swell and pop in rotten blood balloons.

Randidly’s expression sunk at the casual violence. He knew he could intervene and protect those people, but it would drag him into the conflict early. And although he hated to use this justification, they were memories. Memories that perhaps could become something more someday, but for now… just memories.

He clenched his left hand so hard his fingers began to ache.

“City of Malloon,” Nether King Bleak Sky’s voice boomed out even through the loud barriers surrounding the Aether City. “You harbor a war criminal. Faelmac Westrisser has transgressed the terms of engagement between the Aether and Nether peoples. Surrender him immediately and no further reprisals will be pursued. Otherwise… all those present will be slaughtered.”

With the massive cloud heads behind Bleak Sky, it was difficult not to take his threat seriously. Yet Randidly could only wince. No one within the city would dare resist Westrisser. They can’t. You speak to sew fear and little else.

Aside from the humming of Malloon’s Engraving, there wasn’t a single other sound in the surrounding area. Willing or not, Malloon gave its stubborn answer to Bleak Sky’s demand. Randidly turned and spoke to the Patron of Truth as they floated at the periphery of the confrontation. “Do you know what Westrisser has done to rile them up so much?”

“Truly, he has engaged in dark experiments in order to improve his own power,” The Patron of Truth grimaced. Almost unconsciously, her world-state image became more violent; she would need to work on that before she could let her image run free. “The details remain unclear to me, but he is able to create an isolated space with incredibly high Aether concentration, while also accelerating time within the space. Apparently, three days inside the space is one outside of it. However… the space is incredibly unstable. The only material that can be used to ground the working is Phaea removed from a living Nether King.”

Randidly blinked slowly. …Westrisser is making the first Dungeons. The relative time is still weak, but to the current Nexus, they would represent an incredible chance to train. But the usage of Phaea-

…is that why so few Nether Kings exist by the Seventh Cohort? Because every Dungeon needed a material cut out of a Nether King? So maybe every time I’ve gone into Dungeons-

Randidly shook himself. That might have been the original intent, but somehow he doubted Phaea was the only method in the future. This was a rough first attempt. But definitely, if Westrisser had been secretly capturing and cutting Phaea out of the bodies of Nether Kings, it made sense why Wyndaos would be furious.

Hell, even Randidly felt much more negatively disposed toward the ivory Peregrine Serpent after understanding his experiments.

More and more significance streamed out from the storm above and seized upon the moment. The air hummed with tension. In that strained second, the gates of Malloon opened and a single figure strolled out. His long talons clicked against the stone ground. The flaming raptor construct Fatia Cerulean grinned up at Nether King Bleak Sky. “Your heyday was before the time of my ascension, but I have heard many interesting rumors about your potential. Do not disappoint me; there are several techniques I would like to try out.”

As Bleak Sky narrowed his eyes, a massive wind began to howl around his body. He deftly wove Nether into a web of energy around his body. The ragged cloak across his shoulders fluttered. Into that tempest, Cerulean walked forward and laughed. A monstrous image rose within his body. The dense facade that replaced the original, suppressing the raptor construct’s true heart beneath reinforced will. Opposite him stood the bloodthirsty monster of the Nether. Randidly’s heartbeat quickened. Which would come out on top?

This. To see moments like this… this is why I’ve lingered in the Upper Sonora, Randidly didn’t even dare breathe. The energy in the air buzzed against his skin.

Both blurred into motion. Bleak Sky’s Nether Core spun faster and faster, achieving a strange vibrational frequency that stirred up the Nether in the surrounding environment. His storm growled and pressed itself down against the ground. Next to Randidly, the Patron fo Truth hissed in displeasure as the Nether resonance spread and tried to grab the energy around their bodies.

With a snort, Randidly used his own Nether to blast those attempts away. But he was careful to keep his resistance local.

All the other Nether around Malloon started to surge to the guidance of Bleak Sky’s will, becoming the sharp edge of the blades of wind he conjured. Before that rumbling majesty, Cerulean just ripped his way forward, the incredibly refined image of himself crushing all impediments in his Path.

He pounced and struck with sinuous grace. Despite his massive size, the raptor construct truly embodied the slinking, feline hunting patterns of raptors. Randidly pressed his lips together, feeling the pure power within his image.

The clouds Bleak Sky dragged always behind him began to swell, their mouths growing larger and pouring more of his energy into the area. Randidly couldn’t even imagine the strain Bleak Sky experienced as all that Nether rushed through his Nether Core. A massive pattern emerged in the air, causing Randidly’s eyes to widen. To his surprise, Bleak Sky grafted himself onto Randidly’s weather adjustment pattern to seize control of the area rather quickly. Were the Nether King’s aware of the trap he had built into it?

Cerulean’s steps had only the significance of the moment and the power of his images, yet he destabilized the surrounding Nether with raw violence. Randidly sucked a breath through his teeth. It was an intensity of image he had only once witnessed when Devick had gone all out in an attempt to stop Randidly from assisting Claudette Beigon. The image appeared inscrutable and perfect to Randidly’s senses; he couldn’t find its edges at all.

And the current Randidly possessed much more insight than his past self. Which meant that either Devick had been more powerful than he believed and held back, or Fatia Cerulean was the sort of image-monster that could only be rivaled by Elhume when he rose to power.

Neither was a very reassuring truth.

Cerulean crossed the distance between them, ripping directly through the Nether-edged wind. Both raised their hands.

“Predation,” Cerulean hissed as he pounced forward and swiped with his talons.

“Ominous Squall,” Bleak Sky countered. His hand cut through the air and severed even his own Nether with the intense sharpness of the shaped energy.

When the two attacks met in the air, the ground shuddered and seethed. Pieces broke off and tumbled sideways, ripping through a nearby hill like it was whipped cream. As the confrontation stretched, the ground began to collapse. More screams cut through the air as those Hobfootie enthusiasts lucky enough to avoid being boiled by Bleak Sky’s Nether instead fell into the ruptured stone around Malloon. Even Malloon’s barriers shuddered before the power of those strikes.

The powerful winds of Bleak Sky’s storm cleared out the dust of the sundered stone almost instantly. The blazing raptor construct covered in sapphire flames stood tall, while the buzard-headed Nether King with the tattered cloak had been pushed back a few steps.

Fatia Cerulean chuckled. “Satisfactory. Now, let’s begin in earnest.”