Devick’s image tugging on all the Grand Fates in the Nexus had kicked the hive of the Upper Sonara Society. The area around the Engraving buzzed with activity. Only a token group remained behind to guard the members of the Xyrt Brigade. The rest chattered about this newest threat.

Tuthak Eloise gestured with its long appendages as his subordinates hurried around. Randidly was almost impressed by how he seemed to be instigating such chaos. “Quickly! So long as we create a shielding array around our project, we will be able to continue the process despite the interference. Because of how disparate the efforts are, a common shield will be enough for now!”

The nephew Nathaz looked extremely nervous, looking between the grimacing Lyra and the uncle. “But ancestor, the Engraving- the whole point is that the size will continue to grow. Depending on how many individuals choose to accept the distinction of becoming a Patron, such growth with be accelerated. How can we guard-”

“Create a variable shell, one which we can expand to accommodate the work!” Tuthak replied as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

Completely obvious, but probably impossible, right? Randidly glanced at Neveah.

Well, am I the one making it, or are they? Came Neveah’s confident reply.

Nathaz floundered for several seconds. Randidly could practically see him picking from a dozen objections for the one most likely to sway his ancestor. “A variable-size shield array will require at least the active manpower… without more bodies to protect and fuel the Engraving-”

Randidly looked sideways from the arguing family members when Neveah patted his shoulder. “Looks like this bit is going to be a bit messy. I’ll sort things out, but this only solves one of the problems. The real issue…”

“Yea,” Randidly said. He raised his gaze and peered toward the source of disturbance, tucked away in a deep alcove of the Nexus. “...their side is going to finish first, even without our Engraving stalling out trying to handle this.”

Of course, that was just Randidly’s instincts. Also, common sense screamed at him that he was being completely unreasonable; how could Devick forcefully drag all these opposing Grand Fates, from people who were powerful enough to condense a Grand Fate, rivaling the speed at which they made an array to provide a single notification to everyone in the Nexus?

It was the equivalent of a single woman tying a rope around the mountain and dragging it around the world before a team of individuals erected a skyscraper on her starting location.

And yet…

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Randidly felt confident that Devick would manage it. Especially because he could already feel her attention shifting away from the more powerful individuals her strange… labor affected. Although everyone here had become panicked, they were no longer being affected. Even Lyra’s expression had eased. But this only made Randidly more certain.

The Actus Suprem was, before everything else, a gleeful bully. He had no doubt that the weakest individuals with Grand Fates suffered under her attention at the moment. When they capitulated, she would shift to focus on slightly stronger individuals.

She would move the mountain across the world, even if she had to carry only one boulder at a time.

Randidly’s heart ached to think of it, but Lyra and her mediocre image were an asset at the moment. She served the role of a canary in a coal mine. When she began to suffer, they would know they were running out of time.

Randidly steeled himself with a pulse of Nether. Then he turned to his own people, who he had summoned out of the Alpha Cosmos to help address the problem. “What do you think?”

“That we should suffocate this one as soon as we have the chance,” Lucretira folded her arms, her lavender hair fluttering around her. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “If you wish, I will handle it personally. Well, I am unsure if wrapping hands around its throat will inflict any damage, but for my own peace of mind-”

“If you possess the ability, I welcome the hunt. The common fauna of Hungry Eye’s world can provide only so much amusement. And, since you seem interested, my nights are currently quite free,” Fatia Cerulean clacked its teeth in amusement. Since it had begun exploring the Alpha Cosmos, the blue energy fluttering around its body had stabilized.

Randidly shook his head, not wanting to get distracted. “Lucretia, I’ll take your suggestion under advisement. In the meantime, how can we slow this?”

“The shape is interesting. If I didn’t know better- well, this is an alternate timeline isn’t it? Perhaps I really did help create the structure of this,” The raptor construct refocused, but his eyes didn’t waver from Lucretia. “From what I can tell, much has been formalized in the process of obtaining a Grand Fate. That formalization creates a pathway, a small divot, to allow power to flow out into individuals. What is now affecting us is a guileless, and monstrous, demonstration of power. Whoever did this is sitting in the central area of this formalization, sent out feelers down every divot, and is now dragging the energy back. If I could see the formalized structure-”

“An empty mouth for a fleshless head. He says much, but adds nothing,” Lucretia observed.

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Fatia clacked his teeth again. “My expertise cannot be replaced. This is my work, you fickle shade. It is precisely because of the efficacy of my methods that so many have chosen Grand Fates.”

Randidly had the weirdest impression that the raptor construct enjoyed this rankling from Lucretia, which only increased her disgust and made Fatia all the more delighted. He coughed. “Ahem. Does that mean we could follow the divots back to the source area and interfere with the process? Also, is there any way to cut off the connects that are pulling on people’s Grand Fates?”

“Theoretically yes, in practice, extremely difficult,” Fatia shook his head. “This entrenched support for the energy is created so it is precisely impossible to dig into that channel from the end; since it resembles work I would have done, I will tell you it is to stop other users from trying to enlarge their access to energy-”

“The defenses aren’t impassable.” Lucretia pursed her lips.

The raptor construct cackled, its blue energy flaring with excitement. “Indeed, indeed. And I would take great pleasure in the consummation of our… cooperations with a surgery over a slaughtered foe in possession of a Grand Fate. But it would be difficult to avoid… complications to the subject, should we do so. At the very least, a painful death. And based on Hungry Eye’s guidelines for existing in his world-”

“Ah. So your delicacy only amounts to this much,” Lucretia said.

Randidly’s lips twitched. Wait, Lucretia, are you fucking into this? Does that count as flirting? “Can we at least follow the pathways back to the source?”

“I’ll make the arrangements,” Fatia Cerulean clacked its teeth. Lucretia walked away first, but with the raptor construct following after her and bothering her. Randidly observed them for a few seconds, unable to explain the dynamic. But they were both adults. Lucretia had the Pantheon to fall back on, should trouble arise. So he just shook his head and focused his energy inward.

One last idea to test, since I’ve pumped out all those drops of liquid Aether.

There, where he had left them, he brushed against his thirteen new, refined drops of liquid Aether. Even now, he admired how crystalline and pure they seemed, while retaining their liquid properties. He couldn’t help but wonder how close to the crystalline and rigid Aether he had come.

He pushed those thoughts to the side and moved on from the drops of liquid Aether. Instead, he proceeded into the depths of his body and found the whirling Nether Core. He hadn’t really appreciated it until he left the memory, but the rotations of his Nether Core had been smoothed out— those long stretches when he supported the phantasm really helped streamline his own process. Now, huge amounts of incredibly pure Nether gushed through his veins every moment.

He still couldn’t rival the weighty depths possessed by Deganawidah, but Randidly suspected that individual was a unique existence. As it stood, he would soon rival Lowanna’s Nether in potency, although her energy also seemed to be going through changes.

However, Randidly pushed deeper. Beyond the impressive operations of the Nether Core lay a series of floating grey bubbles. When he counted them, he had to laugh; unlike the drops of liquid Aether which formed by expending immense amounts of mental energy and emotions, the Nether bubbles formed naturally as he accumulated significance. Randidly suspected he could have helped the process along with certain Engravings, but to his delight he found that thirteen grey Nether bubbles waited for him, matching the amount of liquid Nether he had.

He rubbed his chin. Now, let’s see what I can do with both forms of this energy. From that time I took the Glimpse of the Shallah Path… and I saw the majestic flows of energy through that grey chrysanthemum of Nether sitting at the core of a gorgeous pattern… I haven’t forgotten how much more I need to learn.

Besides… I’ve also seen the death and the birth of Pine. Hopefully… hopefully I can catch just a little bit of that alchemy.

So he began to experiment. Randidly pulled the grey bubbles and the gleaming drops of liquid Aether together. Crackling bolts of energy discharge leapt from one side to the other as they grey closer. Chewing his lip, he began to spin the two groupings of energy, forming two opposing wheels. The process almost resembled the purification he had done earlier, but this time he didn’t hold anything back.

And this time, he fueled the process with the condensed versions of energy, not just the base form.

Instantly, the energies in his body rushed forward to support their energies. Friction raged into infernos up and down his spine, the tides of Aether and Nether contained within his body grinding against one another. Nether responded by tightening its wheel, condensing its force into a dense heart. Meanwhile, Aether expanded, becoming rigid and uniform to resist the pressure. His shoulders started to steam-

“No, it’s not like this,” Randidly frowned and slowed the two wheels he had created. Energies sloshed back and forth in his body, worsening the steam pouring off of him. Randidly wondered where all the water vapor came from, and whether he could just lose it continuously like this without consequences.

He focused on the results and rubbed his chin. “Maybe… maybe if I continued like this, those pressures would generate the results I’ve seen… But I don’t think that’s what I want. Not for the energy in my body. Anything forged from such pressure will be powerful… but aren’t the two energies at their best when they cooperate? Not forces at odds… but energy working together to build the future.”

Randidly chewed on his lip, structuring and restructuring the arrangement of energies. He pulled and pushed, but ran up against problem after problem. His instinct was to use the grey Nether bubbles as the foundation, but they wouldn’t move too near to each other without external pressure; they acted like magnets.

He tried to use the liquid drops of Aether as the foundation, but they had an entirely different problem. Depending on the external pressures, they would expand. Which quickly destabilized any arrangement of energy Randidly tried to make.

Randidly possessed a great deal of experience with both Engraving and Nether Rituals, but the higher forms of the energy possessed a lot of nuances he hadn’t encountered before. Each trial just left him frustrated.

After five minutes of effort, Randidly sighed and rubbed his eyes. Neveah appeared again by his side. “For now, the protection Engraving shouldn’t trip us up, at least in the short term. In addition, I communicated with Alana and your other subordinates' presence in the wider Nexus; they will come to support you. This is going to be a confrontation, right? …do you want to pull more people from the Alpha Cosmos?”

Randidly considered it, then shook his head. “I don’t think this… will require an army.”

“If you say so,” Neveah looked down and then clicked her tongue. A different sort of echoing image spread throughout the Nexus. This one, too was familiar. “Did you feel that?”

Randidly frowned down at the distant sight of the Nexus. Another faint pulse came from its base. He felt tension building up in his back. “...looks like Solomon Rex wants to talk.”