Each of Elhume’s breaths came labored. His eyes were bloodshot as he considered the stump of his arm. Drops of blood leaked out and spattered against the ground. Opposite him, the Patron of the Borrowed leaned forward and talked rapidly with a soothing tone. But somehow, the brief confrontation with Hungry Eye had amplified the volume of the static crackling in his head. The words were completely inaudible.

His image had shattered, but the sonic void had risen in its place. And he felt weirdly calm. That, at least, was a comfort. He knew what had to be done.

“Take it from me,” Elhume growled. He rolled his shoulder, forcing a few more drops of blood out through the scabbing flesh.

Fiero’s words trailed off. He looked at Elhume with worried eyes, his eight tails flicking back and forth behind him. “You…. What?”

“Take the wound.” Elhume’s throat itched. He needed a drink of water. The static sounded in his ears like ocean waves crashing against rocks, ever-present and relentless. He wished it would vanish. He didn’t know if he could stand the silence it would leave behind. “As you have for so many other impediments… take it from me.”

“Didn’t we decide we shouldn’t proceed any further? After all the mental-”

“Take it.” Elhume snapped. The edges of the static had barbed edges; the longer he sat here, the more it rubbed him the wrong way, shredding the last of his patience. He needed to be moving, acting, solving the problem.

Saving his son, no matter the cost.

After hesitating for several more seconds, the Patron of the Borrowed let out a soft sigh. He reached out with his long fingers and took from Elhume, leaving him with more space for the hollow static to spread and dominate.

*****

The storm of significance whipped itself up into a frenzy, a destructive physical presence looming above Randidly Ghosthound.

The first wave of Nether hit Randidly, but his images endured well enough. He continued to be slapped around like a lackey in the arena of Nether patterns, but his images had also been repeatedly sharpened within the memory, to the point that they could flare against the tide of Nether and hold their own.

Still, the muscular hand and its few fat fingers careened toward Randidly’s chest. His eyes glittered. Then let’s get the opening dance number out of the way. Erebus’ Baleful Waltz. Marred Yet Reliable Foundation of Yggdrasil. Severing Tide of Amenonuhoko.

Randidly slithered forward, gracefully avoiding the heavy palm of Deganawidah. He felt the patterns of the Nether flow, even if he couldn’t resist them with the produce of his own Nether Core. And with Yggdrasil reinforcing his body and the Dread Homunculus sharpening his movements, he cut along those subtle dividing lines to counterattack.

For now, the Stillborn Phoenix waited in the wings for its time on stage. The event horizon swirling around his left hand steadily grew in size. His emotional sea sizzled and contracted, more and more of its potency flowing into the Egg of Depression.

In the back of his mind, he could feel the image rushing toward a transformation. All it needed was for Randidly to finish laying the foundation.

As Deganawidah’s gaze pivoted sideways to follow Randidly’s movements, the heavy blade of the Acri tail struck downward. From the Chaotic Sea, Abrupt Reverberation. Chimera’s Suffocating Rebuke. The First Tree Suffers Only Fealty.

Congratulations! Your Skill From the Chaotic Sea, Abrupt Reverberation (T) has grown to Level 921!

Congratulations! Your Skill The First Tree Suffers Only Fealty (P) has grown to Level 967!

A quelling pulse spread out from the massive spearhead, just before it pierced downward. Despite the overwhelming density of the Nether in which they swam, all of that energy stilled before the undeniable imperative; even Deganawidah’s Nether gave a little bit of respect for the prestige of Yggdrasil. And that was all Randidly needed, to strike with all the fury and force he could build.

Deganawidah didn’t adjust. The weapon cracked against his billowing cloak… and just barely managed to scratch its surface.

Randidly’s pupils dilated as the few wisps of energy that leaked out of the flaw increased the Nether density in the surrounding space. The pressure tightened around his body. I figured it was like this. Tch, cracking you open is gonna take some extra effort. You’ve been around for so long you have a protective coating of Nether… and even more oppressive energy beneath.

Time to do a bit of excavation.

Randidly spun sideways, his tail flowing behind him in an arc and scoring another lashing hit on Deganawidah as he blurred away. Cerulean took this opportunity to scramble backward, his image gathering its potency, but both of the main combatants ignored him. As Randidly settled his feet, Deganawidah pursed his lips and blew.

A spike of raw Nether clipped Randidly as he jerked sideways out of the way, ripping a hole through the Stillborn Phoenix’s event horizon. For a second the Egg of Depression howled in promised vengeance, but Randidly zigged and zagged back and forth to avoid four more vicious spikes spewing out of this thing's mouth.

Randidly’s pounding heart hummed fire out through his veins, invigorating his muscles and causing beads of sweat to form on his skin. As far as he could tell, these piercing spikes were really just Deganawidah blowing. For now, he could physically force his way forward, but more leaden wisps of Nether seeped out of the small wounds Randidly had made every second.

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And Deganawidah’s relentless Nether patterns tightened as cold iron around his wrists and ankles. Randidly rolled his shoulders and then slipped sideways, under a tightly bunched three pressurized Nether spikes. His senses tingled, feeling the edges of temporal waves lapping against his limbs. The significance of this ancient being contained so much history that his energy contained little fragments of time Randidly was forced to wade through.

Growling, Randidly pulled the Sulfur arm back so the event horizon swirled right next to his hip. He led with his right arm as he planted his foot and shot through those few meters between himself and Deganawidah. A Nether spike caught him in the shoulder, but he ignored the damage. A flick of the wrist brought out Acri’s smaller form. The harpoon spear’s shaft hummed as Randidly twitched to bring the point down, then flipped it up at the last minute split second to transform into a thrust.

The small bowing of the shaft immediately before impact caused an extra extension of the thrust, a technique Randidly had learned after literally millions of similar attacks. Brilliant energy congregated along the spear’s edge. The spearhead cut through the layers of ambient Nether and skewered Deganawidah. The Wrathful Calamity Rends. Motif of Unimagined Tolls. Dawn Opens the Sky and Reality Stirs.

Congratulations! Your Skill Motif of Unimagined Tolls (GD) has grown to Level 1066!

Congratulations! Your Skill Dawn Opens the Sky and Reality Stirs (T) has grown to Level 997!

With the world-illuminating power of the World Tree coating the edge, the spear sliced open a small cut above Deganawidah’s left eye. This was the largest of the strikes against the Nether monster and produced a lopsided huge bubble of hyper-dense Nether. Deganawidah showed his golden teeth. “So, you have chosen to not simply accept your chastisement, but instead you would allow truth to brutalize you. Fine. I am not one for dramatic technique names, but-”

From the Chaotic Sea, Abrupt Reverberation. Nyx’s Successor Births Fate. Darkness Withers the Horizon and the Waiting Carrion Grins.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nyx’s Successor Births Fate (GD) has grown to Level 1043!

Congratulations! Your Skill Darkness Withers the Horizon and the Waiting Carrion Grins (T) has grown to Level 993!

After lashing out with the pure light of dawn, next came the vicious dusk of the carrion. That violent transition of dying light formed a nova of ashy fire around the Acri tail. With narrowed eyes, Randidly guided the strike through the contours of the Nether tides, hammering the slight flaw he inflicted with the first attack.

For the first time, Deganawidah grimaced. More Nether belched out of the wound as he spoke. “The First Drowning: Black Undertow.”

Despite preparing himself mentally for what a concerted attack from Deganawidah might mean, Randidly still almost bit his tongue as the surging significance slammed into his back. He stumbled forward and straightened just in time to catch a wicked hook from one of Deganawidah’s muscular arms.

His Nether Core keened and wobbled, its equilibrium broken with the sheer force of the significance pumped into his body along with the body blow. Randidly also felt one of his ribs pop, but it didn’t break. Gritting his teeth, he wrapped both his hands around the arm and tugged Deganawidah forward. His eyes widened when he discovered that through some Nether nonsense, Randidly’s Primordial Nether Juju could barely budge this foe.

The close proximity was a double-edged blade. On the one hand, Randidly could feel the Stillborn Phoenix swirling and howling to be unleashed. His emotional sea shrieked, pressurized to the point of shattering his self-control. The event horizon on his left hand grew, devouring some of the dangerous Nether and beginning to attack Deganawidah’s body directly. In addition, the Acri tail struck again and again, widening the cracked defenses of Deganawidah.

On the other hand, Deganawidah’s dense Nether began to rip into Randidly’s images. At the same time, the physical restrictions of having so much dense Nether gathered into one spot because difficult to wade through.

Flashing his teeth, Randidly pushed back to create a small amount of space and then pounced back forward with harpoon Acri. This time, Deganawidah sneered. “The Second Drowning: Pestiferous Flux.”

The Nether between Randidly and Deganawidah exploded. Randidly couldn’t help but release a hiss of pain as this wave of energy began to eat away at his flesh and his images, while also knocking him back a few meters. While his mind still spun, Deganawidah took his heavy steps forward and threw another punch.

Randidly gritted his teeth, feeling the pressure of Nether on his body growing. With the damage Deganawidah had inflicted with his first punch, he barely maintained the flow of Nether through his body. Resisting the dominant patterns of the Thrice-Drowned was impossible.

Yet he could still force his way physically forward, swiping his left hand to devour some of the resistance and then shimmying through the brief weakening. He skittered forward, feinting left and then twisting around Deganawidah’s left side. The Acri scorpion tail flexed high above his head, but Deganawidah Snorted. “Pestiferous Flux.”

This time, the poisonous and toxic Nether shot out in a concentrated jet. Before Randidly could react, he heard Acri screaming; the energy had ripped its way through the connecting portion, the multi-tentacled thorny roots. Instantly, fury bloomed in Randidly’s chest.

As the tail collapsed, Randidly reached up with his right hand and plucked the spearhead out of the air. He stepped, his hips, shoulder, and elbow pivoting perfectly in the imitation of a major league baseball pitcher, albeit with a spearhead the size of a child’s desk. Randidly moved with such fluidity that the Nether Monster couldn’t even reach.

And Randidly’s efforts were rewarded with a satisfying crunch as Deganawidah’s torso snapped backward.

More Nether billowed out of the wound. Deganawidah gnashed his teeth. “You reckless child. The First Drowning: Black Undertow.”

A wave of force smashed into Randidly from every side, a thousand complex pattern machinations all brought to bear on him at once. The rib that popped earlier now fractured under this concentrated force. Several other joints rapidly began to ache and groan.

Trembling, Randidly did something quite unusual: he unleashed all the Nether he had managed to accumulate over the last half hour, but not to resist the rigorous patterns of Deganawidah. No, after being thoroughly schooled in Nether patterns during their every encounter, Randidly had learned that method wouldn’t work. So instead, he set his Nether to assist Deganawidah’s patterns in crushing his own body.

The patterns in the immediate vicinity ground up against Randidly’s Nether, briefly slowing. The whole vice grip Deganawidah gummed up for a split second. At the very least, he hadn’t expected Randidly to use his Nether quite like this.

It wouldn’t work again, and it would only trip him up for a split second, but that was enough.

Randidly planted his foot and shot forward. He raised his left hand, allowing his dangerously explosive emotional sea to surge forward all at once. The event horizon swelled larger and larger, the Stillborn Phoenix howling its promised revenge.

Deganawidah’s significance mulched up all the ambient Nether Randidly had released, but the Hungry Eye devoured a path to the target. However, right as Randidly reached up and toward Deganawidah’s wounds to force the Stillborn Phoenix into his body, the wide mouth moved. Randidly could only see it through the edge of the event horizon, light melting and running into the devouring maw.

But he heard the words in his bones.

“The Third Drowning: Bottomless Longing.”