Charlotte Wick folded her arms across her chest and looked out from the walls of Homewell. Already, she could tell it would be an exhausting day. And that was before she listened to some of their ‘allies’ complain.

“I had thought your master was smarter than this,” Kethope spat over the edge of the wall. The wrinkles on the old Turtleline’s face were especially pronounced today and there were deep bags underneath their eyes. After Randidly’s… dispensing of justice yesterday, all the Turtleline elders had assembled to investigate. As the most favorable to their cause, Kethope had come to Charlotte to ask for an explanation. That, and most of the others feared Randidly. “This… few will be willing to trust him after this. What was he thinking? Power must be wielded with purpose, lest it becomes carnage.”

Charlotte’s eyes traced the horizon. She allowed the other woman’s emotions to fade somewhat before she responded.

At first, Charlotte had been similarly aghast at the swift fury displayed, to simply go and kill the two Beigon’s after they had spread their slanderous rumors. When she believed it had been retribution for spreading lies, she felt a tinkling of fear, wondering if Randidly Ghosthound had more similarities to her deceased grandfather than she initially thought. But as those fears faded, she could gradually see the broad view of the event.

“Those two attempted to hold their old lives, and the lives of everyone fool enough to listen to them, hostage in order to extract benefits for themselves,” Charlotte said to the old Turteline woman. The killings were a callous action, but also a brutally practical one; she shrugged, acknowledging the place for practical methods at the moment. “What would you have us do? Reward that sort of behavior?”

Kethope’s expression wavered between a hint of comprehension and alarm. Eventually, she said. “Be that as it may. Many will take this as an indictment of Hungry Eye and his allies. They will not believe his warning, not when they fear his methods.”

“And thus they will die by being misled by malicious actors.” Charlotte sighed. Luckily, the slum remained steadfastly in support of the Nether King, although some of that respect was now tinged with fear. “Randidly Ghosthound… never wanted to be the type that would save an individual from themselves. He can only offer another Path. Provide the possibility of salvation. That is the extent of his mercy.”

For a second it seemed like Kethope would respond, yet she simply shook her head. Both simply looked out over the city as dawn came. If Randidly had set the stage, now it became their change to fight a much more ungainly battle for the soul of the population here. Even Charlotte’s master would not lower himself to argue about the truth with people…

That didn’t mean he would mind if she did.

Already, Charlotte felt a headache brewing. Definitely, today would be a long day.

*****

Likely, Randidly took this action because he had just come from killing the Beigons. He sought out balance. And in true typical Ghosthound fashion, he made more work for someone else.

“You want us to… simply explain the situation to them?”

Randidly tried not to smile at the exasperation and resignation in the young man’s face. Tatiana had become almost frustratingly skilled at simply blinking and saying yes when Randidly approached her to solve annoying problems he didn’t want to handle, but at least Naffur Suite had the decency to display the right sort of indignation. It made the whole process much more enjoyable.

“Well, they seem so enthusiastic,” Randidly had tried to sound as blithe as possible as he gestured vaguely to the Ratling horde that had surged out of the caverns when their horrid keeper was slain. Even now, they danced in concentric circles, radiating out from a hunched ratling waving a crystal scepter.

Thousands had already surged to the surface, with more pouring out of their cave systems every second.

Naffur sighed. Randidly hadn’t interacted much with the Leader of the Order Ducis in a long time. He felt regret at that; much of what had become the ‘Legend’ in the Legend of Randidly Ghosthound, at least for the average person on Expira, had instead grown out of Naffur Suite, the leader of the organization most closely tied to him. His decisions had led to the concrete outcomes that shaped opinion.

In a way, it was oddly freeing. In another, it was horrifying.

Looking at him, Randidly felt regret and guilt. He had provided so little guidance, but so many responsibilities. Prestige came along with that too, but Randidly almost felt like this was a son he had patted on the head and abandoned before he went on some decades-long quest. Perhaps because of those feelings, when he had contacted Tatiana and she suggested him, Randidly had agreed.

“Okay fine. But after this… I demand a vacation!” Naffur announced. His eyes gleamed.

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Randidly suppressed a laugh. Instead, he forced his face to shift into a frown. Suddenly, he became the worst sort of manager. “The timing is a bit…”

Naffur slumped for a second, but then raised a finger. “At the very least… a bonus! You wouldn’t believe what Tatiana is charging to have your very own permanent skyisland floating above Kharon.”

Randidly sighed, as though he suffered a great defeat. “Alright, very well. But Naffur… can I be frank with you?”

When the young man blinked, although Randidly internally acknowledged he was a young man no longer, Randidly winked at him. “If you would have pushed, I would have given you the vacation.”

Naffur chuckled. “I would have pushed, if I had thought you were anywhere close to taking a vacation yourself, Randidly Ghosthound. Okay, now get out of here. Discussions cannot continue while these little guys keep prostrating themselves before you and asking how they can give their lives to further your glory.”

In addition to Naffur, a whole slew of Order Ducis individuals had come out of the Alpha Cosmos to help with the process. Not Vye, but they all offered Randidly crisp salutes before they bustled off and began distributing rations to the ratlings and began explaining the situation to the creatures.

Should I be happy or sad? He glanced behind him, tasting the emotions of the Order Ducis members. Even without my interference, they are happy. They believe in the actions they take. They are happy to build up my legend for me…

Well, there really isn’t any other choice, is there? There are some actions only I can do. So I have allies to handle the mess I create.

So Randidly focused back on improving his Fatepiece, carving a path through the Badlands. He liberated several other groups of individuals kept captive by the monsters here, one more group of ratlings, one Homid colony, and finally an unfamiliar group of gaunt and skeletal cave dwellers that reminded Randidly of a certain phlegmy and ring-jealous individual from the time before the System.

In the end, some of the Order Ducis members had to sprint to keep up with Randidly, arriving and beginning the acclimation process as quickly as possible.

But Randidly ran into his own problem, at least for a bit— at Level 20, his Fatepiece ceased gaining Levels upon use. For two more fights against the monsters it flummoxed him, but his distraction actually provided an answer.

He had been idly wrestling with a massive cross between a pillbug, a stone golem, and a turtle. The thing’s heavy slabs of defensive flesh could actually endure the full force of a punch from his body, so long as he didn’t utilize any image. He had been scrutinizing the problem, not really even paying much attention to the fight, until he had slipped past the defenses and smashed a punch into the monster’s chest, obliterating its heart.

To Randidly’s surprise, when he offered to activate the Fatepiece, the Levels finally arrived.

Your Fatepiece the Keystone of the First Ghasthund has grown to Level 21!

Your Fatepiece the Keystone of the First Ghasthund has grown to Level 22!

Was it just the accumulation of experience? No… it’s more than that. It was the emotion felt by this thing when I offered it the chance. Randidly’s eyes widened in recognition. He ducked under a blow as the monster lashed out with a veritable wall of reinforced stone. It believed it could still win when it accepted.

Because of the benefit it had given him, and because it didn’t subjugate any other peoples, Randidly left this wild monster alive. Further experimentation proved the insight correct; the Fatepiece worked better when the target believed something would change during the fight.

Just like that, Randidly fought a dozen more monsters, quickly pushing his Fatepiece up to Level 40. And again, he reached a plateau where further Levels refused to occur. With a small headache, he began a rapid series of experiments to figure out what sort of roadblock waited this time. Randidly kicked through the sky around a four-winged, massive hummingbird/mosquito, before dashing forward and an ax kick drove the monster’s broken body into the ground.

Just like the armored monster Randidly had encountered, this one lived alone, simply rampaging without any higher cruelty. So he crouched above his dying opponent and offered it a deal. “If next time you can survive for five more seconds in our fight, I’ll let you live.”

The bird-bug nodded its head, causing a squirt of blood to leak out of its broken neck.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Keystone of the First Ghasthund has grown to Level 41!

Randidly inwardly felt rather exasperated with his Fatepiece; it really required the possibility of something actually changing in order to Level up further? A headache brewed, as he considered what this would mean for the next plateau.

For the rest of the day, he fought and ‘tested’, for lack of a better term, the monsters of the Badlands. As he neared the central areas, this became much easier. They weren’t as powerful as Fatia Cerulean or Enmya, but these monsters got close, with their cold and calculating images and their years of experience plaguing the land.

To Randidly’s relief, he encountered no plateau at his Fatepiece Level 60. He smoothly sailed forward to Level 80. Yet the rosy outlook could not last forever. As he had feared, his Leveling halted abruptly at that last twenty-Level step. Just from the previous requirements to empower the Fatepiece, he could see the basic shape of what would come next.

Their belief, then the possibility of a difference… I suppose now… Randidly licked his lips as he gazed toward the core area of the Badlands, where he could sense the powerful images and significance of four true Calamities lurking. Now it’s my belief. For it to improve, I must activate the Fatepiece… while also worrying about whether forgiveness will cause a change. Likely, a negative one…

Yet even as Randidly mused over that problem, a massive boom made his head snap up; someone was already fighting in the core area of the Badlands. As he took a deep sniff and tasted the Nether in the area, he realized he recognized the individual.

Hank Howard had wandered out to the most dangerous place in the memory and now tested his mettle against a lava-spewing worm.