Randidly Ghosthound released a steaming breath out through his nose. The ground hummed, smote time and time again by all the kinetic power he could generate by remaining steady. Truly, the strange new radiation of the Stillborn Phoenix could work miracles.

Possibilities and shadows danced around his body as he moved smoothly from one spear form to another. With the streamlined Acri, he practiced his spear forms, the tip of the weapon tracing dazzling patterns in the air. Small reverberations through the shaft of the weapon while he thrust became minute Nether Rituals, adding extra power and strength to each strike.

He danced and cut and drew. His Nether became almost a melody. Following along, he could make the entire world sing with force.

Congratulations! Your Skill Yearnings of the Nether Heir (P) has grown to Level 1001!

Congratulations! Your Skill Casting Blades from Insatiable Grievances (M) has grown to Level 941!

His heart beat with a reassuring cadence in his chest, animating the rest of his body. The small Nether organ within Sulfur’s new form improved with each passing minute, gradually becoming more sophisticated in its treatment of the energy. His limbs were flush with the essence of memory and connection, adding Weight to his every gesture. When he moved, ghosts of spectral flames danced in his wake.

While the Grey Creature continued to move through its transformation, the other two images learned to channel his massive emotional sea through their shapes. In the process, their specificity and detail increased by leaps and bounds. He felt like he still fell slightly short of the images of the truly great individuals, but not so much that they could overwhelm him any longer. Randidly barred his teeth, happy with how powerful he had become.

Stomping his foot, Randidly blasted away the storm of force that churned around him. For several seconds he stood and panted, looking up and around at the world he had created of Nether and possibilities. The threads of energy made themselves visible in his eyes, woven together to form a veritable womb for the new Grey Creature to be born.

Congratulations! Your Skill Infinite Incendiary Filaments of the Dove Moirae (P)(U) has grown to Level 1132!

His two weeks of training had sharpened his edge. Yet Randidly scrunched his brow looking up at the Grey Creature. Swelling clouds of grey smoke rapidly grew and then faded away without leaving any substantial form behind. You can’t quite see the whole of you yet, huh…? We still have a bit more time, but we are cutting it close.

Unsure of whether he could afford to linger here, Randidly allowed his senses to seep out through the dome and inspect the broader memory. He touched upon Neveah’s mind and suddenly a flood of information poured into him. Even as he observed the memory of the Nether force flowing past his position, he saw Devick’s forced smile as she departed. Not once did she pause to look over at the dome; pride kept her head held high as she stalked away to join the war.

Randidly sighed but pushed that to the side. Neveah had provided her a Class and Lucretia had taken her through basic training to rapidly raise her Skill Levels. He had already provided a connection of Aether, allowing Devick to push her way through different Paths while she just played Hobfootie. With these advantages, she should be fine.

As long as she didn’t run directly toward the most dangerous area, she would be fine. Which, Randidly reflected, seemed exactly what she had done.

I’m not going to try to protect her from herself. Randidly reached up and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Besides, to her, the events in the memory are her entire world. This war will shape the entire future of the Nexus with its violence. In retrospect, it might even be more surprising if she hadn’t gone off to fight.

Randidly felt a sliver of bitterness in his chest, that she had left without saying anything. Yet on the heels of that, he felt like a fool; how would she have contacted him, with his awareness isolated within the dome?

“This isn’t a big deal,” Randidly muttered. Then he took the readily available distraction of the war and pushed thoughts of Devick out of her mind.

It was only a coincidence that he examined the battlefields around Malloon and found Devick excelling within the training camp, before he looked at the broader picture.

Randidly unleashed a pulse of Nether and watched the ripples spread outward and bounce off four distinct offensives by the Nether. One area, the central thrust that bypassed Malloon and headed down for the heartlands of Aetherlands where Cerulean City resided, didn’t even give Randidly feedback; there existed an entity there capable of sensing the small brush of energy and eliminating it.

Whether that was purposeful or just a result of some aspect of the Nether King in that area Randidly didn’t know, but he wished Fatia Cerulean luck; that individual felt overwhelming in a way that even made the current him wary. Especially with the Grey Creature still seeking its new shape.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Aside from the central force that continued to charge forward, the other Nether armies were targeting cities. One lingered around Malloon, harried by Westrisser and his body-refining subordinates. One army fought far to the South, sieging a massive city that, through the ripples Randidly tasted in the ambient Nether, resembled a turtle. The third and smallest army cut in through the Eastern side of the Aetherlands, of which Randidly knew very little.

With just a few minutes of examination, the body caught became obvious; the Nether forces marched forward through puddles of blood.

Invisible to the denizens of the memory, a storm of unintended consequences hung about Malloon. Randidly grimaced; this was his doing. In the original timeline, Cerulean’s strange inner conflict meant the city had been leveled. The army stopped there in this revised version of events would have been free to scythe through the heartlands of Aether, burning the small villages and moving to assist the other Nether offensives.

At the moment, Malloon served to prop up the entire defensive network. So long as it remained, a sizable chunk of the Nether’s might would be pinned down. And considering that the army on his doorstep appeared to have sent Westrisser into an experimental frenzy, which required living Nether Kings as fuel, there would certainly be a sizable chunk of ire concentrating here.

Randidly released a breath through his teeth. I could intervene in the war… but to what end? The important issue is the actions of Elhume. From what I can tell… Randidly released several targeted pulses of Nether. One pinged off of Elhume and a few of his Patrons, rushing through the edges of the Netherlands. …well, based on the Nether response, the Arbiter was captured. The attack on Wyndaos was successful. Yet why do they feel so desperate…? And also…

Randidly glanced up.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ghosthound’s Acute Nether Nose (M) has grown to Level 1070!

“Yea, the air is rife with unintended consequences, but not with significance,” Randidly frowned. Then he shrugged. “Perhaps the Arbiter escaped? But will eventually get captured, based on the progression of the original timeline. Then the important events will happen, between Elhume and the Cult of the Savior. That’s what I need to be ready for. In the meantime… I need to finish my training.”

Nodding to himself, Randidly withdrew his awareness back into his Nether dome. He rolled his shoulders to loosen the muscles and then conjured a dense Nether Ritual around his body and began physical training.

He continued to do so for six more days, steadily accruing Skill Levels in the meantime. He felt like he had returned to perfect comfort with Sulfur as part of his new body. Yggdrasil and the Stillborn Phoenix practically burned with the emotions Randidly fed into them, while the Grey Creature steadily condensed its new form. He also pushed the Level of the Codex Hexahedron up to 39, one short of its next evolution.

On the seventh day, Randidly’s gaze twitched upward. A slow and lazy grin spread across his face. With a wave, he dispersed the Nether dome in which he had so long labored.

Neveah looked up in surprise when he emerged, standing up from her wrought iron table inside of a gazebo. “You’ve finished.”

“Not yet,” Randidly shook his head. His emerald eyes were bright, piercing South. A slow fury stirred in him, a snake waking up after a long hibernation. The Grey Creature whispered promises of violence, even as a half-formed idea. “But an old friend revealed himself. And I’m not going to let him go this time.

“Ah,” Neveah nodded in understanding. “Swacc finally showed his tail.”

“Just a quick jaunt to repay a debt,” Randidly barred his teeth. “To show him to not casually play with lives. Then I’ll be back to train, before you know it.”

*****

Lowanna sat at the edge of the cave, looking at the woman across from her in wonder. The sound of blood dripping out of her companion's wounds was the only small noise in the enclosed space. “Truly, you are a marvel. Even now, I look at the threads that led us here and cannot fathom how these events transpired.”

Mae Myrna, who had been introduced to the Nether Arbiter as the Patron of Truth and who had then betrayed her companions and stolen away Lowanna, bowed her head. Despite her evident exhaustion, her breaths sounded smooth. “I cannot begin to apologize to you. We… we wished- hah, it is difficult to explain. I thought… We all thought Wyndaos was a mobile fortress, the secret weapon of the Nether people. To have it be populated by children-”

“In a way, you are correct,” Lowanna smiled through her pain. There would be time to grieve the sacrifices of her people, but it was not yet. “The spirit of my people was burned to the ground by your attack. The records of what brought us here, of the way we were before and why we adjusted. For the Nether, nothing is more important than history. Which is why…”

Click. Click. Click.

Both looked up toward the source of the new noise. A long, undulating shadow could be seen, stretching from a monstrous silhouette in the mouth of the cave. Lowanna shook her head. “This deviation was unexpected, but in the end-”

The energies around Mae Myrna began to rotate. She gritted her teeth as the ominous shadow of Duo skittered into the cavern. “It’s not right. We should not have done this. It was a mistake that caused so much harm, so why-”

“It is the way of the world,” Lowanna frowned as she said the words. Through her delicate senses, she felt a weird pressure on her body, one which she had never encountered in the past. It felt like the energy put the words into her mouth. “Life isn’t fair.”

Lowanna grimaced, but not at the excited hum from Duo's wings. It was because while she didn’t necessarily disagree with the sentiment, she detested those who would blandly deliver similar messages to her in the past.

“Then I’ll change it, all of it,” The surging rotation of energies intensified. Mae Myrna forced herself to her feet. “This entire world. So that we deserve the world we live in.”

Lowanna’s eyes widened. The effect was localized, but when Mae Myrna spoke, existence shivered.