Devick’s saber light danced across Randidly’s cheekbones and reminded him of a wicked smile waiting along the path of recklessness. In the tightly bound, scarlet, and grey power Randidly witnessed the slightest glimpse of the woman he had known in the present and it filled him with a mixture of sadness and frustration.

As far as he could tell, his interference had irrevocably altered her life. Was the problem the image she received from the lifeseal?

A little bit of the hope he had been holding onto began to wither, a plant so inundated with water to avoid drowning. …is it really impossible for her to avoid that fate? Can people truly change? Or do we just live in different environments, adapting and shifting to thrive?

He watched the flicker of searing power she wielded. Or is there something… particularly broken in Devick?

Randidly took a light step and appeared at Devick’s side. The floorboards groaned to support his rapid acceleration and acceleration, but the building itself was concerned with larger matters. Seven soldiers happily laughed in the apartment directly below their position, with another three to the left and five directly in front of them, enjoying a late drink before bed. Without any consideration for the fallout of her wildness, she struck with her full power.

For all that Devick was nowhere near threatening Randidly, she definitely had improved enough to kill the average person. Even with only a month of the Class, she had grown into a monstrous figure.

Devick’s slash seared its way through the door, the portion that had been impacted initially going up in a flash of smoke and sparks. Then the rest of the door buckled and ruptured, bits of charred wood spraying a surprised Domon Matteo in the face.

If the attack had just been at the door, Randidly wouldn’t have bothered to move. The Colonel had been surprised the sudden attack, but his image already rose around him to blunt the worst of its edges. Yet Devick’s attack continued to expand. The bottom of the slash drew a lazy line across the floor, the top began to rip its way out onto the roof. All those people lounged around, oblivious to the sudden threat to their lives.

Hell, if the entire building collapsed, there were probably plenty of people who would be injured.

What made the situation slightly more complicated was Randidly’s two best tools to handling the attack were out of commission. Gravity due to the Stillborn’s Phoenix’s continued recovery and his First Authority because of the disapproving gaze of Homewell’s Lifeseal. In the end, he turned to his newest image for an answer.

The no-nonsense Dread Homunculus cracked his knuckles as it considered the problem. A Cloak of Utter Night spread out around Randidly’s body and he whipped the edge forward, smothering the slash from behind.

The darkness moved fast enough to catch up to its quarry before the damage spread.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Cloak of Utter Night (P) has grown to Level 980!

For a brief moment, the slash fizzled and spat at the darkness that settled across its back. Devick, blinded with rage and consumed by the catharsis of her action, simply leered straight forward without being aware of his interference. Randidly allowed a small sigh to pass his lips, his heart aching slightly.

Even in violence, she moved gracefully. That, at least, he couldn’t help but admire.

In the end, the powerful Dread Homunculus stepped forward and simply rent away the resisting portions of the slash. The Cloak was a soft and respectful burial, fluttering and settling without the target even noticing. Most of the attack collapsed, but in its emotional remnants Randidly could see the difference between himself and Devick.

They both experienced the oppression of the System, likely in different ways. Yet both were lonely, underappreciated in their lives. But where Randidly took that frustration and fear and internalized it to drive him into long bouts of isolated training, Devick built a pyre out of those negative emotions, prepared at any point to take offending portions of her life and throw it on top to fuel the blaze.

Standing very still, he watched the darkness suffocating the slash. Bit by bit, Utter Night obliterated that fury-turned-attack, implacable and hungry in a much less bloodthirsty way.

Randidly pulled back at the last second, leaving the hollowed-out remnant of the slash to slam against the Colonel. His image flared to life, Aether taking advantage of its time-defying ability to interfere, cushioning the blow beneath of dangerous levels. However, even Domon Matteo underestimated the jump in Devick’s abilities after she absorbed that greed. He was tossed backward, smashing into the wall and thumping to the ground on his ass.

The building shook, but Randidly had limited the damage to largely superficial.

Devick’s chest heaved, her fingers tightening on her weapon. Randidly felt a flash of fear she was about to strike again, but instead, she stabbed her weapon into the ground. She spat her words toward the Colonel. “Can’t you just take a hint?”

After a second of bleary confusion on the Colonel’s face, a stiffening indignation spread out and twisted his features. “You… you bitch. You attacked a superior officer?!? What the Turtlelines have said about you is true; you are lazy and you don’t know what’s good for you. When hostilities resume, you will-”

“Don’t bother,” Devick flapped her hands. “I quit. I’m done doing the legwork so you can take the credit for ambushing patrols. Have fun babying terrified turtles, curled up in their shells. I’m done with it.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I cannot believe you. I have invested so much time and energy into you, only for you to devolve into hysterics after a single individual calls you an egg warmer. Your ego is so fragile a breeze could sunder you.” The Colonel’s voice rose as he pushed himself back to his feet. He huffed out a breath and crossed his arms. “Get over yourself. As I said, if you hadn’t been so sensitive to gossip and just stayed focused-”

“Did you really think I gave a shit about goldie being a dick?! Ha! Honestly, compared to the shit I deal with every day, his opinions were nothing. No, what pissed me off is how, after all the kind things you’ve said to me, I had started to believe you were a good guy. And then you didn’t defend me at all in front of them. When it was inconvenient, when you wanted to suck up to the local Turtlelines, you stopped having my back. And I realized I had fallen for your shit.”

Randidly twitched, resisting an urge to scratch his cheek. He very much wanted to be somewhere else while these two shouted at each other. He could feel the living beings in the surrounding space still, turning their ease toward the source of the noise.

Of course, they sense a good bit of drama, even if they would have died blissfully if I wasn’t here…

“What shit? I truly love you, Devick. Your beauty is beyond compared,” With a visible effort of will, the Colonel tried to calm himself down. “What we have… what we could have, if you would simply stop fighting our connection… would be passed down for generations as the gold standard of romance.”

The Colonel’s declaration only served as one more crock of shit for Devick dump onto her fury-pyre. She leaned back, unleashing a slow series of exaggerated chuckles. “I cannot believe, even for a second, that I willingly associated with you! You have a wife and child back home, and you speak of love? Of romance? I don’t want your sort of common, fickle love. Is it worth less than dirt. Less than my spit in downtrodden dirt.”

With each of Devick’s words, the Colonel’s face had grown redder. His breathing sounded like the engine of a dying car. “You need a firm hand, otherwise you will strangle yourself to spite me, eh? Well, you messed with the wrong individual, former-Squad Leader Devick. For your own good, you are under arrest for interference with military matters. After some solitary confinement, you’ll fucking see the error of your ways, I’m sure.”

Devick plucked her saber back out of the ground. Malicious and gleeful flames spread out from the place her hands touched the weapon. The shimmering light promised a massive pyre, a beacon of light worth any cost to create it. “Try it, asshole. I’ll filet you.”

“Know your place,” The Colonel said coolly. Both flared their images, stepping closer without even glancing sideways at Randidly, who hovered at the edges of the action.

He briefly squeezed his eyes shut, tamping down his own anger at the situation. I don’t need this right now. I need to refine the Nether bonds…

Yet he stepped between Devick and the Colonel. “Leave it, both of you.”

“Heh, I’ve heard about you, Nether King Hungry Eye. They say you assisted Fatia Cerulean in wounding the Nether Leader… but those who truly understand the situation are not fooled,” Quick as a flash, the Colonel twisted and leered at Randidly. Perhaps he held some grudge for their prior meeting. “I understand you have quite the… intimate relationship with the Lord of Malloon. Did Fatia tack you on to his exploits, as a personal favor to Westrisser? Apparently, the experimentation regarding these ‘Dungeons’ has gone very well.”

Randidly gritted his teeth at the unexpected spite, the Dread Homunculus sensing the ambient anger in the air and swiftly rising to the challenge. His Nether Core began to rotate quickly. He said a silent apology to Homewell. Perhaps it was one thing to insult him, but it was a bit too much for him to bare after this bastard threatened to lock Devick up until she obeyed him. His Third Authority unspooled, the significance in the air tracing a particular pattern. The Third Authority, Intangible Burial.

Your voice… if you are going to use it foolishly, it has been confiscated.

The energy in the environment surged. Randidly’s Nether Core rumbled as he reached out and scooped a vital part out of the Colonel. HIs image rose in response, trying to prevent the process, but the Dread Homunculus smiled out from his shadowy hood. Like a ravenous wolf, he set his jaws into the flesh of the resistance and ripped.

The Colonel gasped and stumbled backward. Randidly shook his head, already feeling the lifeseal tightening around his body in response to his usage of Nether; they would not be able to work on Nether any longer in Homewell. “Get out of here. Don’t make enemies you cannot even speak in front of, Colonel Domon Matteo.”

In the Colonel’s expression, his unwillingness to just accept the chastizement could be clearly seen. But his pupils were wide and his face pale. He opened his mouth several times and couldn’t produce even the slightest sounds. After struggling against the absence Randidly’s authority had left in his capabilities, the Colonel slunk away.

For several seconds, the apartment remained silent. Randidly glanced around; from the drawn expression on Lowanna’s face, she also felt that they had finally pushed the lifeseal too far. Of course, Devick’s anger quickly froze, melted, and she beamed at Randidly with the happy providence of spring sunlight. “Well, not that I needed help putting the Colonel in his place, but seeing you become so protective of me-”

“What I said to him goes fucking double for you, Devick,” Randidly rounded on her and glared, all of his frustrations and secret fears about her inclinations bubbling up to the surface. “Why the hell are you picking a fight with him? Or more importantly, indiscriminately lashing out? You need to think about the consequences sometimes. Especially now that you’ve got that new image fueling you.”

Devick’s face twisted like he had stuffed a lemon in her mouth. “...so you agree with him, huh? You think I’m a child who can’t make her own decisions.”

Randidly reached up and ran a hand through his hair. “If I wasn’t here, what would you have done, Devick? You might be growing rapidly, but it’s also faster than you know how to control. He would have beaten you. And then what? Then you languish in some shitty Turtleline dungeon until you either capitulate, you can rip your way out on your own, or Nether wins and sacks the city above you. Did you even think-”

“I thought you understood me,” Devick whispered.

Randidly clenched and unclenched his jaw. He looked at Devick, her sharp cheekbones, her expressive eyes, the wild, tangled cascade of her hair down her back. How slender and tentative she suddenly seemed, when not possessed by her anger. He recalled all the times he had made similar decisions to lash out, to force his way forward when he felt like there was no other choice.

“...I do. Which is why I’m trying to stop you from being an idiot,” Randidly sighed and turned away, looking at Lowanna. “Let’s pack up. After I make a few more visits, we need to get out of Homewell.”