Devick remained still, waiting for her turn. For someone who burned so hot and whose mood changed quickly, it was a particular sort of torture.

It took ten minutes for the hand holding the time dagger to grow numb, but she didn’t dare allow her strained forearm to fail. She refused to let the weakness and nerves win.

Grip, grip, grip, grip. Devick chanted mentally. I just need to strike once. I have plenty enough strength for that. Squeeze it now and seize a future! Force your way through the hole of possibility!

…giving that speech, did Hungry Eye realize how much innuendo he was slinging at me? I suppose not.

Over the course of the same ten minutes, the figures of Hungry Eye and Neveah became completely obscured by a massive edifice of Nether building itself up atop their bodies. A monstrously large midnight snake seemed to have coiled around Hungry Eye, as he began funneling more and more of the stored of significance of the former Nether Arbiter into his body. It became a shadow mountain, looming next to her. Even with some of Randidly’s Nether moving through her body, Devick had a hard time breathing.

Lowanna had moved to the side as the Nether developed, away from Devick and her two ‘protectors’. Occasionally, she could hear snippets of Lowanna’s conversation with Enmya over the rumble of the building potential of Nether.

“...obviously his methodology isn’t elegant, but it’s reliable almost to a fault. With his body acting as a conduit, there is minimal energy loss, with no upper limit on how strong he can become. In addition, the simple structure means its easy to adjust as circumstances dictate.”

“But aren’t you trying to have me improve my own inner Nether patterns? There is no point in me examining this. I could construct a more efficient pattern-”

“You are missing the point, Enmya. Are you being deliberately obtuse? Which of you needed to bare your vulnerability in order to earn a partnership? Yes, constructing theoretically superior Nether Rituals is well within your ability. However, your comment about efficiency is completely off base. Because while you are thinking about efficiency of Nether, he considers the most efficient output, via the available ingredients. Notice how he wields his amazing pattern recognition ability in combination with his near-indestructible body. He doesn’t need-”

The Nether building roared as the shape changed. Four thick pillars of energy appeared around Hungry Eye. Devick just observed the change, but Hank’s eyes slid sideways to Westrisser. “Shouldn’t ya go speak with yur subordinates? They look itchy down there.”

“They have received the proper training,” Westrisser sniffed. But despite his decisive response, the army lingering to their South appeared to be growing increasingly concerned by the shifts in Nether that Hungry Eye produced.

Further discussion was interrupted by a sudden swell of energy in the sky. Beyond the barrier created by Hungry Eye, a blazing figure of energy could be seen. Although the Nether wielded by Hungry Eye was the most potent force Devick had ever sensed, this figure’s aura didn’t lose out. She could only gape as the distant forces she had sensed earlier were no much more clear to her. “What the hell is that?”

“My cue,” Hank grunted and straightened. Devick had witnessed him fighting with the two small weapons strapped on either side of his waist, but he pulled out a different weapon from his interspatial storage. He took the small bit of metal he had been tinkering with, popped open a chamber in the side of the long-barreled weapon, and inserted it with a flourish. The weapon made a satisfying click as he snapped the opening closed and took aim upward.

The aura around Hank exploded faster than Devick could believe. She knew he had been powerful, as a follower of Hungry Eye, but she couldn’t believe how quickly the force rolling off his body began irresistible. His clothes seemed drenched in the warm orange-red light of sunset. Small dust devils formed on the ground and orbited his position. The wind rose and rose, singing a whistling song of victory.

In the sky, the burning energy humanoid began to rip his way through the edge of the barrier. Hank squinted down the barrel. “Take a long ride off a short ridge, ya prick.”

All the burning light radiating off of Hank’s person swirled together around his weapon. But just as quickly as the barrel exploded and shot its brilliant shooting star of a projectile, all of the energy seemed to fade his lanky frame. He squatted down and then sat in the dirt, setting his weapon to the side; He had poured everything he possessed into that shot.

The burning figure took the shot in the chest, roaring with a voice thick with hate. The space and time around the figure warped. Two bright images clawed at each other for dominance. Its power ripped through the distortions, destroying the projectile's power as quickly as soon as it manifested. The more time passed, the more it seemed like the burning figure could destroy the bullet, had it not been encumbered Next to her, Hank panted and wiped sweat from his brow. “Stubborn bastard.”

“In the spirit of cooperation…” Westrisser raised his hands. The feathers along his arms began to glow. A pure white beam of illumination shot upward and crashed into the humanoid figure. After a moment of titanic struggle, the figure was forced back by the combined force of the two attacks. The barrier around the memory rippled and began to reform as the interloper was pushed back.

Hank and Westrisser exchanged a glance. In the end, Westrisser looked away first. With a little bit of peace, Devick could turn her attention back to the pulsing Nether building. It had expanded during the brief invasion, so she could no longer see any of Hungry Eye’s other supporters. She almost jumped when she looked, because thin threads of Nether stretched out from the towering pillar of darkness toward her position.

They approached in arcs along the ground, first forming a circle around her and then twining slowly across the intervening distance in a curious reversal of the Nether patterns that had been drawn around Hungry Eye. Both Hank and Westrisser moved back to get out of the way. Westrisser bit his lip so hard it bled as he looked at the dagger in Devick’s hand, but in the end, he made room without comment.

The tendrils of Nether touched her skin and she blinked; they were incredibly hot, just short of burning her skin. They wrapped their way carefully up Devick’s legs, waist, and torso. They drew complex patterns across her collarbones and then connected to the choker she wore, which Hungry Eye had made for her. The presence of the Nether tendrils on her skin told her one thing: her time would soon come.

“Am I ready for this?” She wondered aloud.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Hank chuckled. “When life throws tha’ best sort of curveballs, we never are, girlie.”

“Heh, what was it you said? This is my cue.”

All three figures whipped around at the unexpected voice. Sporting various wounds and with the flame aura around his black framework diminished, Fatia Cerulean stepped out around broken stone and examined the situation with its beady eyes. Satisfied that all that remained here were an exhausted Hank, Westrisser, and Devick, Fatia smiled. “Young woman, hand over that weapon. I do not wish to derail the strange ritual Hungry Eye has so painstakingly arranged… but I do think we can agree you are not the appropriate individual to bear the honor. Instead, I would make a superior choice”

Devick’s eyes hardened. All her glee and anticipation drained away, leaving malice and unreasonable stubbornness. The figure in front of her remained much stronger than the current her. However, she took Hank’s advice to heart; she didn’t flinch. “No. This is my chance.”

“A chance that would be wasted on you-” Cerulean paused. Westrisser had moved to stand between her and the raptor construct. Fatia seemed amused by the interference. “Westrisser, do you truly intend to make an enemy of me? You know you are not my opponent. You have not been for a hundred years.”

“Do you know what I realized since the last time we spoke, Fatia? I can see it immediately, meeting you again,” An image of purity and cleansing strength gathered around Westrisser’s body. More illumination billowed out from him like wings. “You lack scope. Your power made us overlook it… but you have nothing more than an animal’s cunning. No, you cannot wield this weapon of mine. You are not worthy.”

“The one who is not worthy is you.” Cerulean hissed. “None who have ever been my foe can stand against me. Or have you forgotten? Remember your old wounds. Hunter’s Bane.”

In a split second, Westrisser’s bright image shattered before it could even be unleashed. Multiple deep wounds opened up across his body, echos of wounds that Fatia Cerulean had inflicted in the past. The raptor construct exploded into motion, not missing the chance. A wave of azure arrow heads exploded erupted from his aura. His image felt oppressive, even forcing back some of the dense Nether in the area.

From his collapsed position, Hank whipped out a gleaming weapon and fired off six shots. They smashed through one side of Fatia’s offensive, and the otherside was blasted away by a collapsing Westrisser in a pulse of light. He might be wounded, but he managed a single attack. There was a brief opening, but then more azure arrowheads swarmed through.

A powerful warrior would have acted, but Devick wasn’t powerful enough to deserve to be here. And because of that, she-

The tendrils of Nether on her body, connecting her to Randidly Ghosthound pulsed, very blase about her situation; it was time.

The azure arrows filled the area around her. No matter what direction she would attempt to use to escape, it would be blocked. Even Malice could only hiss at this approaching doom. The jaws around her tightened. And if she moved at all, she would only die more quickly. But still, Devick stepped.

The reason you fit so well by my side is exactly because of how unreasonable you are, Devick. You were right when you said my Path is nonsense earlier. But… I promise this Path can really take us where we want to go. So long as you don’t let what is possible, what you think you deserve, hold you back.

Devick stepped forward, not knowing how to escape, but she knew that she couldn’t linger here and just wait for death. And as she moved, one of the four pillars around Randidly’s Nether edifice began to glow.

Across the desolate battlefield, filled with the tired remnants of several armies and one last miracle, the voice of Nether King Hungry Eye was clear. “The First Authority: Seize.”

The Nether power donated by the former Nether Arbiter roared to life. The giant Nether Ritual, all those thick flows of condensed Nether, now revealed themselves to be overflow valves to release pressure from Randidly’s Nether Core as it began to rotate with enough speed a massive wall of wind formed around his Nether mountain. He activated his Authority with all that extra force and Seized an entire moment.

Time, matter, space, all of it stilled underneath his hand.

Through the tendrils between them, Nether King Hungry Eye gave Devick that moment. She stepped, escaping from Cerulean’s attacks. In her moment, those attacks were harmless. Space folded, creating an open road upward. Her first step carried her up into the clear sky. The second took her up beyond the remnant chaotic energies of all the other dangerous occurrences of today. And the third…

With the third step, Devick arrived at her destination.

Malice spread out and covered her body with a few adjustments. In the agonizing minutes of struggle leading up to this, holding the temporal weapon had shaped her image. In Malice’s right hand was a grey scythe that disintegrated existence just by touching it. Flakes of oblivion wafted away, time and space made ash by its proximity. The flesh of Malice’s hand had rotted away, revealing bone and tattered tendons. Yet still, she didn’t release the weapon, because she needed its hateful power.

Devick felt strange, moving in a world given to her. A moment, plucked and presented by Hungry Eye. Her image, the accumulation of all the experiences she had in her life. And finally, the foundation…

It was the memory itself, the identity and regret founded before it had become a pseudo-Dungeon. That’s why it had to be someone from within the memory who struck this blow and could not be Hungry Eye himself. Because she needed to believe in the place of her birth. But also in the possibility of another existence.

Devick raised the temporal-dagger/fell scythe. She didn’t forget Hank’s advice. “Wake up. Let’s… stop dreaming. And start advancing.”

She cut her weapon at the blazing energy form of Pine, who was the obvious choice for the Dungeon boss, when Neveah had adjusted the environment and completed the barrier. Even the universe soul’s rippling energies were frozen, due to the immense Nether wielded by Hungry Eye. The weapon cut through the energy and struck at the core of its being.

The dagger unraveled in Devick’s numbed hands. All the twisted waves ripped outward. The corrosion of her image spread, black corruption bubbling up the veins of Malice’s right arm to the shoulder. Her lovely crimson furr rotted away. But for the backlash to be this strong, Pine absorbed an even more ominous amount of dangerously jagged time.

Perhaps, even then, Pine could have endured it. If he had wanted to. But from the beginning, Hungry Eye had made his plea plainly and Pine had agreed to put his thumb on the scales, just slightly, to help that result occur. Put another way, Devick herself wasn’t truly important for the foundation that Neveah and Hungry Eye envisioned. She was just an appropriate ambassador to send to the real target.

Just like Hungry Eye said. Devick felt surprised. A shape… individually, the requirements didn’t necessarily point to me. But in conjunction…

Pine… did not resist her strike. His consciousness was obliterated. His body began to unravel, the dangerous explosion of his ruptured existence still held at bay for the moment, due to the absolute power Devick wielded in this moment.

Notifications flashed in front of her eyes.

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Malice, Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 495!

…

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Malice, Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 632!

Incredible achievement! Pantheon Intervention. Calculating rewards…

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Malice, Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 791!

Due to your actions, you have unlocked the Godslayer Path 0/5000!

Due to your actions, you have unlocked the Reaper of the Shallah Path 0/10000!

Due to your actions, you have glimpsed hints about the birth of a universe! All Stats +100.

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Malice, Merry Bride of Perdition has grown to Level 802!

Due to your actions, you have earned the Skill The Consort’s Fell Condemnation (GD)! Skill Level set at 1.