Above Randidly’s head, Yggdrasil burned. Leaves fell down as smoldering bits of wreckage, lending an apocalyptic backdrop to his struggle.

Even delaying the near-perfect image of annihilation that Elhume now wielded meant Yggdrasil’s veins ruptured with white fire. All the dangerous force he needed to wield in resistance crashed into Randidly’s body, but he ignored the mounting damage. His muscles writhed and agony seemed to course through him as much as blood did. He tightened his grip on Acri. He stared fixedly ahead at the giant pale fist of annihilation. He prepared to thrust.

He observed the flow of significance. He felt the strain on the memory and did some mental calculations.

Six seconds, maybe seven seconds. As long as I hold out that long… Randidly could feel the growing note of resonance between Fiero and Elhume as they neared their dual Pinnacle moment. Beneath his feet, the skyisland cracked and its Engravings began to fail. The Pinnacle event will occur and all the energy I need will be released.

In the meantime— let’s tear the understanding of possible to shreds.

Randidly faced the punch of Elhume. With Yggdrasil’s image intensity essentially spent, the Songstress of Absence stepped forward with her arms wide. She was two beings, the finned mermaid creature, but she was also an event horizon. And in the face of this attack, her body disappeared and an eye of absence opened. The energy around her turned milky, with electromagnetic discharge, shattered light radiation, the chilling hand of entropy, physical collapse, and spatial daggers radiating out from her form. She was a true rip in the universe, rumbling forward to gobble up Elhume’s punch.

They smashed against one another and devoured. Their hues might be different, but their power was similar. And to Randidly’s horror, the fist resisted the hunger of the void and shoved its way forward in a raw battle of momentum.

Congratulations! Your Skill Hungry Eyes, Hollow Heart, Cadence of Tragedy (GD) has grown to Level 1043!

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Insight of the Smoldering Abyss (P) has grown to Level 1039!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Hungry Eyes, Hollow Heart, Cadence of Tragedy (GD) has grown to Level 1062!

Randidly narrowed his eyes as his second image was pushed back by this single display of power. A second ticked by while the Songstress struggled, but that was it. The edge of the event horizon shattered underneath the knuckles of the opposition. The Hungry Eye began to shrink. The burden of a hole in the universe was steamrolled by Elhume’s punch without even any apparent effort.

Behind Randidly, Devick peered over his shoulder. She loosed a low whistle. “...is that really the guy you were smacking around earlier?”

“Yes, unfortunately.” Randidly clicked his tongue. He had split his images up into three waves in order to buy more time, but now he regretted not meeting the attack with the whole of his capabilities. Well, part of that was that he had already unleashed his thrust before he had understood just how close to the Pinnacle Elhume had come.

Either way, it was too late for regrets for now— Randidly paused as he was about to mobilize his Dread Homunculus image because two sudden specters appeared around the vanishing event horizon. The two ugly ghosts that he had obtained on the Mountain flared to life. They swelled to a massive size, ignoring the dangerous energy discharge and spreading their arms wide. They looked like crooked featured versions of Boo.

They body-slammed the fist and grabbed it directly. To Randidly’s surprise, their grubby little hands appeared to have some effect.

Congratulations! Your Skill Twin Lingering Shadows of Misfortune (T) has grown to Level 1156!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Twin Lingering Shadows of Misfortune (T) has grown to Level 1190!

In truth, these idiots that had played around for so long held Elhume’s punch for another half second. Just like that, three seconds had passed. The resonance between Elhume and Fiero grew stronger. But the fist attack was only a dozen meters away from Randidly. He breathed in and then breathed out as the Dread Homunculus settled across his body.

His muscles spasmed as they attempted to stave off collapse. So much of his capability was tied up in supporting the memory, both his body and his Nether Core. Although the skyisland continued to crack and drop sundered hunks of boulders down, the Engravings lingered. So long as Randidly remained in this place, he could support the memory.

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He offered the fist attack a wide smile. “Has it been frustrating, for you two? How do you think it’s been for me? I’ve needed to climb to this height-”

Randidly had been about to say all alone, but he could only shake his head in disbelief. No, climbing this far alone was impossible. Instead… perhaps he should be complimenting this duo. He housed within himself an entire Alpha Cosmos, that fed their intensity into his emotional sea every day. Dark intensity, dangerous subconscious impulses, sure. But it was emotion all the shape. Randidly had honed the shapes, but he had also drawn inspiration from several powerful images he had encountered on his journey.

No, honestly, it was rather impressive that Elhume and Fiero could reach this point, with just two of them. Even if the shadow of Yystrix stretched across them, their talent was monstrous.

The other images are exhausted, but we still have an old friend to help. Randidly’s eyes blazed. The Dread Homunculus raised its head and howled as his Skills moved together to form a powerful attack. The Wrathful Calamity Rends. Conviction of the Celestial Calamity. And finally… Helen’s Sea, Cradle of Unlikely Lives.

The Dread Homunculus stood tall and twisted its body around, its left hand stretched back in preparation for a mighty slash. Randidly’s Conviction of the Celestial Calamity settled across the image manifestation, sharpening all its details. And then came the Domain Randidly had inherited from Helen, bubbling up from Sulfur. One by one, the powerful forces that Sulfur had endured and absorbed left the glowing nubs and began the five claws of the Dread Homunculus.

First the wicked march of time that Randidly had struggled against for so long.

Second, the dense Nether Storm unleashed by Deganawidah.

Third, an earlier punch of annihilation thrown by Elhume, which Randidly had caught.

Fourth, the world-state image of Mae Myrna, which Randidly had infected and shredded.

Finally, the fifth claw was the weight of the imperative under which he struggled. Impossibility had leaned against him for so long that Randidly weaponized it, sending it back at his foes. His pupils dilated. Two seconds to go.

Randidly Ghosthound, Nether King Hungry Eye, toiling in a memory in order to understand and prepare for the present, slashed.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Wrathful Calamity Rends (T) has grown to Level 1005!

Congratulations! Your Skill (Domain) Helen’s Sea, Cradle of Unlikely Lives has grown to Level 1163!

Congratulations! The aspects and authorities gathered together with your Domain Skill have merged together to form a singular attack! Congratulations, you have activated Ghosthound Shreds the Shroud of Erebus to Bare Chaos (GD)! Due to power, Skill Level manifests at 2000!

Congratulations! You have broken the previously held record for Skill Levels! Congratulations, due to your actions, you have been rewarded with the Miracle Maker 0/10000 Path. Calculating additional rewards…

You are the first in the history of the Nexus to have pushed a Skill to Level 2000! A Mille Deux has been achieved for the first time! With each step, you have moved closer to the Pinnacle. Echoes from this event will rebound throughout the Nexus. What an Incredible Accomplishment!

Pantheon Intervention. Recalculating…

While shocking notifications flashed in front of Randidly’s eyes, his left hand moved through space and left wreckage in its wake. His hand crashed against Elhume’s fist. There was a moment of struggle. An image met against the combined force of Helen’s legacy. But despite the ambiguous nature of Skill Levels, the outcome was decisive.

Randidly overwhelmed Elhume’s punch. Annihilation shuddered and collapsed.

All the force thrown out by a being on the cusp of the Pinnacle vanished. The air crackled, hollow and dangerously close to an implosion. The strain Randidly felt from supporting the memory with his body increased. Yet he had made it to the time limit.

A single second to go. He raised his glittering eyes and grinned at the blank face of Elhume. “At least, I can say this for your current self— you handle your losses a lot better than you have in the past.”

Yet that moment became two. Fiero finally flew up and arrived at Mae Myrna’s side. She looked at him with bitter eyes, her gaze cutting from the Vulpine to Elhume. With a shake of her head, she turned and flew away, taking the Monarch of Karma to rest on a nearby ridge. From her reaction, she also was aware of what Fiero and Elhume had done.

“But what’s this?” Randidly frowned. He felt several fluttering pulses that he couldn’t really understand from Elhume’s image. The second passed and then another arrived, yet the Pinnacle event didn’t begin. It lingered on the cusp. The doors had been thrown wide, but nothing crossed the threshold. And while it waited in the wings of the present, his body continued to deteriorate. Underneath the additional strain of this burden, the wounds he had gained blocking Elhume’s strike couldn’t heal.

For the first time in years, his reformed body began to break down.

It’s not enough for the image to be ready, Randidly’s eyes widened in recognition. As Don Beigon said, you need three elements. A shape, a foundation, and a moment. Right now, my presence here… my images, prevent them from possessing a moment. His expression sank further. Do I really need to just… completely pull back my images and allow it to happen? But then-

What will Elhume do with his power, once he reaches the Pinnacle?