Randidly had worried he wouldn’t know exactly where to find Deganawidah, the Thrice-Drowned, when he headed West from Homewell with Lowanna. He walked toward the Nether host that sat on the horizon, his senses tingling as he felt the breadth of the second wave of Nether violence, a vast machine of antagonism that had been hissing and clicking in the dark like cooling automobile for hundreds of years and now finally roared to life, spewing hatred and stringy grey clouds.

Yet all he had to do was orient himself toward the weeping sense of desolation, trace the bleakest clouds back to their source, to find the Nether Warlord he sought. The opposition stained existence with his presence, bleeding slowly outward. Even the vast and wild Badlands seemed to be withering under his touch, the sand stinging less as it whipped past legs, the distant hills looking less ominous and more forlorn.

Randidly and Lowanna both made no secret of their passage, releasing their patterns into the air and holding their own against the crouched antagonism of the army. Different flows of energy sparked and ground against one another, seeking to break the foreign patterns down. For the first time, Randidly could see the complex interplays of Nether politics, laid bare in the intersection of patterns.

Randidly’s complex and rotating energy entered into a tense standoff with the ambient flows of the army, his too pure for theirs to overwhelm, and theirs too massive for Randidly to attempt to unravel, but the army’s Nether begrudgingly gave way before the neat and imaginative patterns released by Lowanna. He could see the stubbornness in those patterns, the joy and the chaotic violence, cowed by the Nether Arbiter and the supreme, irresistible weight she carried by holding the Phaea of all Nether Beings.

Considering that the old engines of Nether violence had restarted, Randidly wondered how long this deference would remain. His eyes flicked back and forth, watching for any movement in the distance.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ghosthound’s Acute Nether Nose (M) has grown to Level 1075!

Congratulations! Your Skill Left Hand of the Nether Oracle (M) has grown to Level 988!

Randidly sensed several troops of Nether Warriors shifting around them, allowing them past the edges of the Nether army and underneath the long shadows cast by the clouds above. Those dense patterns of Deganawidah that radiated fear grew more thickly clustered as they approached. They waded deeper, even as the resistance sizzled against their skin. Pressing his lips together, Randidly continued to lead the way. He created a bubble of gravitational force around Lowanna, to aid her movement behind him.

Step by step, he ate away the distance. He plunged right through the humming heart of the frightful radiations. Walking deeply into the thick Nether Patterns, Randidly’s Nether Core began to spin wildly. He sensed the way to evolve his own Nether with the insights he had gained in the fight against Illia, but for now he refrained from altering his Nether and unraveling the pressure.

It almost seemed disrespectful, to throw the lessons taught to his student back into this figure’s face.

When he arrived at the meeting spot, Randidly knew instantly. Deganawidah the Thrice-Drowned waited for his visitors alone, on top of a rocky bluff of little note. In fact, it was the lowest of three similar outcroppings in the area.

Yet the baleful figure crouched atop those rocks made all the difference. Low clouds hung directly over his head, creating a fluffy iron halo.

“Nether King Hungry Eye, you walk toward fate. I respect your spine,” Deganawidah straightened, his egg-like body swaying slightly. His eyes moved to Lowanna and he displayed the grin of a shark tasting blood in the water as he considered her. “Nether Arbiter Lowanna. We haven’t had the pleasure. May I admit I am surprised you no longer have that obsessive fool toddling around after you? The independence suits you. But I do hope you won’t mar this meeting… by interceding on this killer’s behalf.”

If the flows of Nether across the world were a constant, shifting sea, Randidly and Lowanna now stood at the bottom of it. The patterns released by this old monster tightened around them, their constant degradation releasing the imperative to feel fear. Wave after wave of significance crashed against them. Breathing was nearly impossible; even Randidly’s Nether Core stuttered and slowed to a crawl underneath the constant assault. Next to him, it was clear Lowanna had been entirely immobilized.

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Very purposefully, Degandawidah had created enough pressure the Nether Arbiter could not move without utilizing some of her costly power to resist. To speak, she would need to take the lives of some of the Nether beings under her sway. A complex pattern thrummed between the two in such a manner that Randidly understood this old Nether Warlord practically dared her to do so.

Yet Lowanna, her eyes so, so sad, remained still. And Randidly studied this being that had promised him death and felt irritation grow within his chest.

He understood loss. He remembered those first wild, raw moments when he looked upon Helen’s flayed corpse and his entire worldview shattered. But this cruel calculation was something else entirely.

In these behaviors he saw a being who knew naught but how to survive attempts to drown him and learned to relate to the world in kind. Randidly’s eyes began to blaze as he took the measure of this powerful figure.

Deganawidah did not have a torso; his head and his torso were one in the same, giving him exaggerated features and a squat look. His skin was dappled, grey and dusky, his eyes beady and focused, his limbs muscular. The most arresting of his features was his mouth, a wide crescent stretching across his body, each tooth gleaming gold behind his thin lips.

Randidly’s lips twitched; the bastard looked like an evil humpty-dumpty.

With a leery grin, the disappointed Deganawidah turned back to Randidly. “I suppose that is that. Now, shall we begin?”

“I’d like to start with a gift,” Randidly interrupted, because already Deganawidah took a half step forward and gathered a horrifying tide of Nether around his body. The Nether Warlord paused at Randidly’s. His eyes glittered.

At least I appreciate that this Deganawidah doesn’t waste time, Randidly couldn’t help but feel his lips twitch again. Both of us are quite busy, fighting in a world-altering war. Opposite one another.

Randidly flicked a hand and produced the small bundle of significance and memory that was Illia’s Nether Prince. It floated through the air between them, still protected by Randidly’s Nether to prevent the suffocating pressure Deganawidah released from affecting it. The tight barrier remained in place as it floated toward the target, who had straightened and fixated on the Nether Prince.

When it reached Deganawidah, he flicked a finger and melted away the barrier. He sank his fingers into the Nether Prince, disbelief clear on his features. For the first time since Randidly and Lowanna had arrived, his mouth closed and hid his golden teeth.

Without those small sources of glimmers, he seemed to be an even more dour being.

“This was lost. Taken. Plundered.” Deganawidah said.

Randidly nodded slowly, his skin tingling. “I retrieved it. She… was a great Nether Warrior. Her death lessens the world.”

“You speak honestly. Tch,” The evil humpty-dumpty raised his gaze and scanned Randidly. His attention possessed physical force, so Randidly had to stiffen to keep himself from swaying. Deganawidah’s lips undulated on his face, as though part of him fought to say something, while another part restrained his words.

“Truth be told, we have no Nether between us Hungry Eye.” With a gesture, the Nether Prince vanished, pulled into the swirling morass of Nether Deganawidah maintained behind his body. Those low clouds seemed to press closer. He still stared at Randidly. “For that reason, I had assumed we would meet and I would kill you. How strange. You only started accumulating significance here recently? But why- Hum”

Randidly’s eyebrows rose as huge quantities of Nether began to shift. In one of the most casual displays of power he had ever witnessed, Deganawidah twirled a finger and unleashed a veritable torrent of Nether in the fabric of reality around Randidly. More than the motion and force of the shift, what astounded him was the lack of violence. This fat river didn’t attack him directly or do any damage, simply flowed so quickly that it began to spit and burn-

-when it ground up against lines of significance he had sewn in the past, to other beings. A whole web of connections came fitfully to life, lifted out of the invisible underbelly of existence. Around them, the memory began to tremble.

Right when it occurred to Randidly how dangerous this was becoming, a new expression came across Deganawidah’s face: genuine surprise. This time the smile curled upward at the edges, attempting to fold in on itself and revealing gold teeth. “Truly, the more I look at you, the more peculiar you become. Why is it that you possess a connection… to one within the army I lead?”

A whole new wave of Nether surged, this time in the distance. The clouds rumbled. In the next instant, a lanky body smacked into the ground in front of the rocking outcropping on which Deganawidah sat. Only after the figure had tumbled forward and bounced to a stop did Randidly recognize him.

The bewildered, horrified face of the Nether King from the present looked up at Randidly.

The smile on Deganawidah’s face curled even further up, its arc meandering up and back down and then back up as it crossed its face, as though different parts of the smile had different opinions on how amused the ancient figure was. “Very. Peculiar.”