Randidly’s images trembled, a sliver of time after he smashed into the ground and began scouring the surrounding hills with his storm. His bones ached in his flesh as though they had been knocked askew by the punch.

Sulfur writhed in an approximation of pain, his hand burning where the anchor had been forcefully shifted. Reverberations went through his images, even through the temporal barrier around the memory, causing fits of weakness. He forced his racing heart to calm down.

This is Elhume. Randidly looked solemnly up through the complex mess of energies, the storms raging around him, his Nether latching onto the cohort construct, his image piercing out through the temporal barrier to the Nexus proper, and finally to the layered and complex series of impressions he could read beyond. Not the Elhume who hasn’t found himself, but the one at the height of his power. Still…

Randidly flashed his teeth, his Fateset cackling. He was on the inside of a powerful temporal barrier and his image would convey those motions in fast-forward to the real Nexus. Can you stop me in time?

With the assistance of Pine pressing against the giant mechanisms, the wheels continued to spin. His mind raced and strained as he mentally pulled, setting the target. Randidly felt the first portion of the process lock into place. A shiver went through the memory, this time due to the substance of the memory flickering. Luckily, Deganawidah continued to honor his word, using his vast Nether to reinforce the memory.

One reason Randidly had first conceived of this plan was, despite the various elements at play, adding a Cohort to the Nexus was a simple three-step process. You selected the target area, you sent out a barrier to cover the area and pull it into the Nexus, and then the adjusted area would be normalized with Nexus energy. Perhaps the first step might be more complicated when you needed to peer out past the edge of the Nexus, but Randidly guided the construct to the memory and the mechanism was only too happy to oblige.

However, Randidly’s skin tingled even before the second step in the process started. Elhume punched for a second time.

The left corner of his mouth quirked upward. Not pleased I’m mucking around in your memory? Randidly felt a flash of flippancy, and then he remembered that he had been smashed into the ground, while wrapped up in a storm of destruction, covered in a temporal barrier, only a few seconds ago. And he was pretty sure the first strike had been casual.

Casual for Elhume. An unexpected energy had begun affecting the Nexus and he had struck. Probably enough to evaporate seas and annihilate a thousand versions of the Randidly who hadn’t yet stepped into the Nexus proper. Now, when the first attack failed, the reigning monster of the Nexus rolled up his sleeves and took the threat a bit more seriously.

He heard the voice speaking from afar, resonating with the ache in his bones.

“The Second Fist: Vengeance.”

Congratulation! Your Skill Infinite Incendiary Filaments of the Dove Moirae (P)(U) has grown to Level 1179!

Congratulations! Your Skill Infinite Incendiary Filaments of the Dove Moirae (P)(U) has grown to Level 1180!

Randidly felt the memory beginning to deform from the intrusion of the fist. The lingering squalls he had left in the sky were obliterated by the fist’s arrival, an attack that quelled any lingering fighting between Aether and Nether forces. The massive glowing fist, the perfectly honed transference of unstoppable power, rushed down toward Randidly like a cataclysmic comet.

He had the smallest shred of time to prep himself. His Nether Core whirled, pushing its speed dangerously far past safe levels. With significance taking up all the slack keeping the Songstress of Absence’s spear in place, Yggdrasil and the Dread Homunculus focused all their energy on defense.

Randidly’s eyes flashed open. Despite one-half of his attention continually going through the process of gathering up energy and then feeding it through to the Songstress’s superpostion, he stood. He flicked his right hand, violent black winds still lashing left and right from his body and a crackling nova of crimson electricity ionizing the air. Acri shivered in anticipation, straightening in his hand into its base spear form.

He put both hands on the shaft. He tested his grip. Then he raised his gaze. How close am I, Elhume? How much more until I can tear your whole castle down?

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A rich aura of life flowed through his veins. As the fist careened downward, he thrust up. His images moved together with the Moirae of Minute Repercussions Skillset, while the Songstress was busy. The Chimera’s Suffocating Rebuke. Marred Yet Reliable Foundation of Yggdrasil. Motif of Unimagined Tolls.

Congratulations! Your Skill Marred Yet Reliable Foundation of Yggdrasil has grown to Level 1000!

Randidly’s mind partitioned itself into separate pieces. At that moment, he looked up with emerald eyes and thrust his spear. That was it.

Acri’s tip shrieked along the edge of the rock-solid image-punch thrown by Elhume. Randidly found himself laughing as his emotional force surged along with his images, his body suffering through the oppressive image of his foe. The ground beneath his feet ruptured and his storm of energy was forced back by the impact.

To Randidly’s surprise, the two were almost equal in power. He swayed in the aftermath, but stood tall. For a second he felt a strange sense of anticlimactic confusion; had he really caught up to Elhume just like that? Yet as the attack dissipated, he got a better sense of the image: this was Elhume’s second first, Vengeance. From what he could sense, it grew in power based on the damage Randidly inflicted on Elhume.

Randidly’s good mood soured somewhat. Well, a little early to wound, I suppose. Still, that was your chance and you wasted it.

Congratulations! Your Skill Infinite Incendiary Filaments of the Dove Morae (P)(U) has grown to Level 1181!

The second phase of Cohort creation continued at a breathtaking pace. In the blink of an eye, it had inflated like a balloon and had covered half of the target. He blinked and Aether spun outward so fast Randidly could barely follow it, encasing the whole of the memory. So long as that bubble formed, it would be too late for Elhume to intervene.

“The Fourth Fist: Timeless.”

“Cheater,” Randidly muttered, but he quickly raised Acri up once more. He lifted his chin and bent his knees slightly. He settled into that old form he had honed under the tutelage of Shal while the master of the Nexus came rampaging toward him.

Do you even know what this would do? That I would make your wish come true, Elhume? Randidly watched a new fist appear in the sky and blast away all other energies. Even Pine seemed to fade next to that perfect fist, honed at the Pinnacle. The Willpower behind the attack brooked no dissent.

On his third attack, Elhume finally struck with his full force.

Without the third leg of his image triumvirate, Randidly shifted to an experimental image physicalization form. Acri’s shaft thickened and darkened, becoming the seething grasp of superposition, a massive black needle he aimed up at the sky. The Dread Homunculus took over his body, strengthening his joints.

Then Yggdrasil came through, ripping out of his back with its roots to form the approximation of wings. But this time, Randidly gave more than just his back to the World Tree: Yggdrasil also took his two arms.

Sulfur’s massive form began to release the cool, cleansing glow of dawn. Randidly’s right arm sharpened and twisted, possessing all the wicked corners of a shadowy dusk. Both hands burned with image power, balancing the flavor of each. They spun together and ran along the shaft of the spear in parallel lines.

Congratulations! Your Skill Dawn Opens the Sky and Realty Stirs (T) has grown to Level 998!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Dawn Opens the Sky and Realty Stirs (T) has grown to Level 1002!

Congratulations! Your Skill Darkness Withers the Horizon and the Watching Carrion Grins (T) has grown to Level 1000!

He thrust. Fist met spear.

The ground collapsed beneath him with enough immediate violence that the surrounding area were thrust up, creating sharp-toothed ridges. In the moment of contact, both Yggdrasil and the Dread Homunculus gave slightly, needing the Songstress to hold their own in a conflict of this caliber. So when his image physicalizations faltered and were subsequently obliterated, the force slammed against his body.

Randidly coughed up blood and staggered backward. The weakened ground had apparently only been compacted into structural integrity by the pressure from his feet, so the small step meant he slipped and fell into a widening ravine. Several groaning quakes shook the area, tearing up the ground in a larger and larger radius.

Mid-roll, Randidly punched his fist into a solid-looking rock slab and stopped himself. He squeezed his eyes shut, desperately trying to keep feeding energy through to the Songstress, while his body struggled to cope with the physical strain. He hissed out a breath. He witnessed the bubble closing, the second step completed.

He let a smile dance across his face. Even Elhume probably is leery of standing directly against the Nexus now that the process has been started. And because of the time difference, he has already used his one shot-

“The Fourth Fist: Timeless.”

“The Fourth Fist: Timeless.”

“The Fourth Fist: Timeless.”

Randidly blinked, at first believing that he had misheard. Yet that familiar ache had settled into his abused bones. He flexed his arm and tossed himself out of the ravine to land on the ground. Dust and crackling electricity muddied the surrounding space, but he could look up at the sky… where he saw three fists ripping down toward him.

“Are you,” Randidly began to laugh; he almost couldn’t help himself. The final boss could just throw punches outside of time's bounds. His hands tightened on Acri’s shaft. “Fucking kidding me?!?”