When the Monarch of Karma woke up, floating on that tumbling bit of stone, he saw the entire universe laid out above him. Not only did the view possess more stars than he had ever seen, but they sparkled without any intentions. His eyes began to pulse with power as his image stirred. All that he saw, he deserved-

“No, no, not this shit again…” The Monarch of Karma scowled at his own instinctive reaction. He refused to waste the clarity that he had regained. His body ached and his head was blurry, but at least the enthralling dream had passed, he had somehow hiccuped his way out of the self-fulfilling prophecy. He raised a hand and squeezed the bridge of his nose, but this simple act caused him to tremble as he saw his own fingers.

He twisted them, joints aching, torn between fear and wonder. His memories babbled out conflicting statements, making him unable to get a clear grip on his situation. Yet he believed his eyes; his hands were creased with wrinkles and spotted with age. The Monarch of Karma’s head swam. “When did I become so old?”

The affirmations flooded his entire awareness to buoy his consciousness toward that twisted viewpoint that gripped him for so long. He wasn’t old! He deserved-

“Bah,” The Monarch grunted. He shifted his weight and stood. He had to sway to catch his balance, because the stone on which he had landed… or rather, the bit of debris, was probably just big enough to catch him. Plus, his old joins ached at any sort of sudden movement. He tumbled through space on an uncomfortable bed of stone just large enough for him to lay out.

He kept his thoughts disciplined, so the affirmations weren’t invited back to multiply and become dangerous. As such, his image became increasingly sluggish around him. He simply floated for a while and tried to simply be impressed by the gorgeous world he saw, without a single covetous or self-absorbed thoughts.

But the image of those wrinkled hands nagged at him. He couldn’t let go of the implications of that age. With his shoulders trembling, his thoughts turned toward his son.

“You… are probably dead, aren’t you, Quantan?”

If the universe tried to answer the question, the Monarch of Karma didn’t listen. By now it had thoroughly learned to distrust a universe that tried to talk with you, soon sweeping you up in its own strange impulses and desires. Instead, the Monarch just sat and wept. He didn’t think about whether or not he deserved this grief, who had caused it, or what could be done about it. For now, the tears were everything.

And when finally he ceased sobbing, the loneliness arrived and hovered above him, stopping just short of putting a hand on his shoulder. He felt so truly alone.

“I’ve been alone for a long time, haven’t I?” His chest shook and tears coursed down his face. “But… now I realize it. Mae Myrna… was this really the truth you sought?”

*****

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Lyra said, tilting her head to the side as she studied him, a mannerism that felt so familiar yet simultaneously so strange.

“...because I expect you to insult me or call me doggy. Because…” Randidly pressed his lips together. Since they had last met, years had passed. Lyra had grown from a young starlet adjusting to the System, to a being of energy as a Village Spirit… and now into a tall, elegant woman who worked for the Nexus directly, assisting in the underlying maintenance of the overlay System. Lyra’s image hadn’t developed to the point of being scary, as with most of the individuals Randidly encountered recently. He could feel the cool light of her lunar focus in her moderately otherworldly demeanor. However…

The flickering behavior of Aether around her hinted at deeper changes. When Randidly peered at the energy halos underlying existence, he could see the truth of her. He saw the essence of her existence.

“You worry I’m going to selfishly twist this project by the Upper Sonara Society. Like I did in the past, on Expira,” Lyra supplied. Her voice was gentle, but some of the sharpness remained in her features.

Randidly shrugged. “You are more energy construct than human, these days.”

“I will not deny that. But If I have discarded my humanity… you have completely sliced it out of you, Randidly Ghosthound.” He narrowed his eyes, but Lyra raised a hand. Compared to the teenage version of herself, the adult Lyra seemed curiously elongated. A woman whose willowy lengths might even bee a bit to drawn out to be a model in a pre-System world. “Peace. I did not mean anything by it. I just wanted to point out that my actions were not some horrific sin. I followed my own Path to power, like everyone else.”

“And you’ve become allied with Nathaz Eloise?” Randidly said.

Lyra nodded. “You’ve chosen your methods of helping our home world… and I’ve chosen mine. I didn’t mean to spring this meeting on you… honestly, I would have preferred to avoid it. But I didn’t know… you would accompany the ancestor of Nathaz.”

Randidly frowned as something occurred to him. “You… because of the protections I put on the Alpha Cosmos, when is the last time you’ve been back to Expira? Or even communicated with the people of Donnyton?”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“For me… perhaps thirteen years have passed?” Lyra considered and then nodded. “I can admit my previous selfishness was wrong… but I do not think my intentions were misguided. You seem surprised, but you shouldn’t be. Toil without recognition is all I’ve ever known— fame was a poisoned chalice I luckily had been predisposed to dislike. I don’t think the environment of our home planet, with and without the System, is as dissimilar as we would like to believe.”

In Randidly’s eyes, Lyra burned with a quiet intensity. The same monstrous Willpower that had allowed her to copy the activation of Mana she witnessed from him had been turned to studying the underpinnings of Engraving, embedding herself in the infrastructure of the System, and personally aiding the cause of protecting humanity.

And as soon as he examined Lyra in her entirety, feeling the shape of her significance and the intensity of her emotions, Randidly faced an unavoidable truth— he and Lyra had shaped each other. All the selflessness and determination burning in the depths of his soul… perhaps those first embers had been seeded there when Randidly had returned to Donnyton and found the human Lyra slain, an amorphous grey blob lying in its place.

When he learned what she had sacrificed to protect the town he had founded.

When she had been kidnapped and held hostage by Yystrix. When she had even begun working with Yystrix, convinced by her arguments about the danger of Elhume.

Congratulations! Your Skill What the Ghosthound Sows, He Will Soon Reap (GD)(U) has grown to Level 26!

In the same way, She had been shaped by Randidly’s growth. When he continued to grow strong. When he wasn’t quite strong enough but pushed himself to the limits to save her.

When they had clashed and Randidly had rejected her methods. And when, despite the minuscule chance of success Randidly possessed… he continued to succeed.

Congratulations! Your Skill What the Ghosthound Sows, He Will Soon Reap (GD)(U) has grown to Level 243!

Randidly’s eyes glazed over at the flood of notifications and Lyra chuckled again; this time, the noise held a note of bitterness. “Isn’t it strange how easily we’ve drifted back to strangers, once again? In another life… well. When I was younger, when I wasn’t sure if the System was permanent, I think a part of me assumed I would someday leave you behind. Perhaps it was exactly those expectations which led to this moment. Tch, I had all these cool lines planned out to say to you, to make you regret the way things ended between us. A whole monologue. And yet… I look at you like this-” Lyra gestured vaguely to his body. “And all I can think to say is… Good job, Randidly Ghosthound. Fuck me, but you really just might save the world.”

“I’m not doing it alone, however.” Randidly scratched his cheek.

He meant it more generally, referring to all the energies he absorbed from the Alpha Cosmos, all the assistance of his allies, but Lyra’s eyes flashed in interest. She scanned Randidly again. “Wait, are you seeing someone?”

“I-”

“You are!” Lyra brought both her hands to her cheeks, her mouth o’d in a look of total shock. In the playful motion, she briefly looked as she had when they were younger, when the strange romantic tension existed between the two of them. “Well, well, well. Color me impressed. Be careful. I suspect the one truth you will never really understand… is the pressure it takes to stand by the side of a man who refuses to flinch or rest.”

Randidly wondered how he could casually change the subject when Neveah popped back over. “Luckily for Randidly, I don’t think he needs to actually learn, in this case. The individual in question is just as obsessed as he is.”

Instantly, Lyra’s disposition cooled somewhat. Clearly, there lingered some less savory emotions between the two women. “Ah, Neveah. A pleasure as always. Is it someone I would know?”

“In a sense,” Neveah also spoke with a bit of extra haughtiness. “A version from another timeline, but the object of Randidly’s affections is the charming Actus Suprem! Well, we haven’t told the main Nexus version of Devick, but I’m sure we are all looking forward to the reveal.”

For several seconds, Lyra just opened and closed her mouth.

A wave of energy rose from the Engraving array as the pillars' energy joined together. The edges of the working began to churn; Randidly could see those spots that Neveah had suggested changes, marginally improving the energy transference of the process.

Lyra bowed. “I need to assist Nathaz in his preparations. But… I’m glad we are once more on the same side, Randidly.”

He simply nodded, observing Lyra and her grown form, long and graceful, as she proceeded to the side of the younger Eloise and began to draw sigils in the air. Randidly pursed his lips, watching as a secondary array came into being around the pillars. “Can we trust her?”

“Not to subvert the array, or whether she will betray us?” Neveah shrugged. “Well, I cannot deny that she’s a genius, looking at how she approaches Engravings. But really, I came over to scold you: aren’t you supposed to be recovering? Don’t allow something like this to rile you up so much.”

“It was just a surprise,” Randidly rolled his shoulders.

“Aren’t we approaching the last confrontation? If any of these forces you’ve encountered has been biding their time, they will soon reveal themselves.” Neveah said.

“Speaking of that…” Randidly raised his gaze from their working to the maelstrom of churning significance gathering above the main tower of the Nexus. They were in the thick of it, the invisible currents of history whirling around them. He sucked on his teeth. “They will come in droves soon, I suspect. Not just Elhume… but anyone with an image and a foundation. This moment is becoming too burdened with meaning to miss.”

“Isn’t that why we’ve accumulated so much power?” Neveah poked Randidly in the side. “So you can… Seize the moment?”

“...did you really just make a joke?” Randidly furrowed his brows. “Right now of all times?”

“I’m surprisingly free.” Neveah lifted her chin. “No one is attacking us yet.”

The energies of the working gurgled and seethed. A thick, liquid Aether formed a dense pool in the middle of the pillars. A thousand small ripples fought and bred within the liquid energy, a chaos that not even Randidly could see through.

Just… what the hell are you waiting for, Elhume? Randidly scowled. Then he forced himself to relax as he breathed and did his best to recover his mental energy.