Warning! A strange change has been detected within your person. Please see your closest-
Pantheon Intervention. Recalculating…
Congratulations! You are the first individual in the histories of both the Nexus and the Alpha Cosmos to push a Stat to 10,000! Warning, it appears the efficacy of Stats in capturing your actual performance is failing. Unable to adjust. Addition research will be necessary-
Please prepare for a rough go of it, Randidly Ghosthound. The next few seconds won’t be pleasant.
Randidly’s lips twitched as he felt Lucretia’s calming voice in the notification. Behind him, Alana Donal continued to clash against this… altered version of Shal. With the opening created by his surprise attack, DiOrtho Vant fired up the Vulpis Squad and began tearing through the remnants of the Swacc Family.
His eyes flicked forward to Techetadore and the specter of Elhume. The dimming of the light had slowed, even during the short moment of his attack. Randidly’s jaw clenched, sending jolts of static up across his cheekbones and down his neck. He could feel the tension rolling of Raymund Ballast in dangerous waves. I mean, it’s not like I have much room to wait. Just gonna need to grit my teeth and bare it.
Not recommended. However, your foolishness is known. Beginning transformation…
Elhume’s shaky form rounded on Randidly as he charged over. “Your treason… will not-”
“Like I said to start this, these developments are Kismet,” Randidly snapped out the words. He could feel the fabric of his awareness rippling and shifting, tearing partially as he gained more and more in a rapid avalanche of mental acuity. All the ‘mental energy’ he had struggled to manipulate became a quality of the past; now, he had a sizable mass of power and felt he could rip off even the tiniest piece and use a method akin to Synechdochence to accomplish anything-
Randidly stayed focused; he needed to pressure Elhume, ease Raymund’s job. All his gains urged him forward, whispering in excitement.
He brought up Acri and began focusing all his kinetic force through the weapon. Already he could feel the shift in efficiency— his Discretion of the Apostate Moirae eclipsing ten thousand shifted the manipulation of the complex patterns around him to second nature. It didn’t even take a thought. He found several efficiencies and corrected them. The storm of violence sang. Randildy practically felt the waves of Helen’s vicious ocean lapping at his ankles. The image might not have much gloss and detail added to it yet, but the shape felt so perfectly balanced it conjured itself into the mind of the viewer with just hints.
Congratulations! Your Skill Lethal Tide of Izanami (GD) has grown to Level 1076!
…
Congratulations! Your Skill Deviation’s Inevitable Machinations (GD) has grown to Level 1805!
Congratulations! Your Skill Lethal Tide of Izanami (GD) has grown to Level 1102!
Opposite him, Elhume managed to clench Techetadore’s fist and throw a punch. Despite his waning power, this one appeared just as overwhelming as the others. So much of Randidly’s existence sang, yet-
“Fuck,” Randidly swore as a spike of pain briefly stalled out his attack and made him insensible. He swayed, mid-motion, the flow of energy clashing against itself and weakening. His stomach felt like it had been blended and then the pieces tapped back together again, and then filled with acid so the dangerous liquid dripped out of the flaws and began to sizzle on his kidneys and liver.
And his brain felt worse.
When he blinked away the pain and tried to focus on the attack, all Randidly could see was Elhume’s enlarged knuckles. He couldn’t even react to its presence; the fist slammed into his body, all the powerful, surging forces he had gathered not even becoming relevant because the pain of the transition had kept him from putting the pieces together.
His bones ached and Randidly shot backward. Even in his blurry body, Randidly could see Fiero-cum-Elhume grin in condescension. The light of his body continued to fade, but his full attention pivoted to Raymund and he methodically began to tear through the Vulpine’s image.
Transformation successful! Stats recalibrated. Preparing body for adjustment…
A second wave of pain attempted to sweep Randidly away, but also within the pain he found thin wires of steel. They drifted without purpose, but they responded quickly to his beckoning. He tethered himself to his body, refusing to let his awareness to become blotted out by the agony. His eyes glowed a vicious emerald color.
He lashed out widely, more animal instinct than a methodical pattern. His body boiled.
His image physicalizations shifted. Randidly Ghosthound crouched down on all fours, the Songstress of Absence settling his eyes and planting two seeds of the abyss in his pupils. The Dread Homunculus sharpened his armor, transforming him from a humanoid to a spiky-jointed animal. Yggdrasil remained occupied, so Randidly used the deft new control to weave kinetic energy together, connecting the largest and heaviest of Acri’s forms to his body in a hanging scorpion tail.
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A memory burned in Randidly’s empty eyes. Helen, her ribcage laid open, left for him to find by Commandant Wick. And now he knew that if he didn’t intervene in the struggle between Vulpines, a similar fate awaited Raymund.
Never again, Randidly swore. His Nether Core began to skitter and shake, it had begun spinning so rapidly. His emotional sea began to boil. So much pain and power coursed through his veins. He could barely stay afloat. He would have torn and drifted, had not he discovered those steel tethers, keeping him in the thick of it, anchoring his need to his capability. I’d rather die than be helpless.
Congratulations! Your Skill Heraldic Tongue of the Alchemist (GD) has grown to Level 1615!
Congratulations! Your Skill What the Ghosthound Sows, He Will Soon Reap (GD)(U) has grown to Level 100!
Congratulations! Your Skill Heraldic Tongue of the Alchemist (GD) has grown to Level 1616!
As he launched himself forward and condensed a vicious claw of pure Willpower, a few more notifications popped up in front of him.
Congratulations! Body adjustment complete!
Congratulations, your Stat Discretion of the Apostate Moirae (P) has evolved into Privilege of the Half-Shallah (GD)! Moderately increase the efficacy of each Stat. The application of your Control is much more flexible. The area around your body naturally resists the invasion of antagonistic forces. What is yours is not easily taken. Effect will increase as you discover other hints relating to the Shallah. Stats will be maintained.
*****
Raymund Ballast felt his vision swimming. His image had begun to fray and he couldn’t do anything about it. At this rate, he would soon die.
A little bit of resolve crumbled as he watched Randidly forcefully overwhelm the Swacc Forces to buy some time, then rush over and be slammed by Elhume’s fist. Raymund could feel the effort their leader put into helping. He could see how much this mattered to him.
Yet even if the Ghosthound definitely had the qualifications to challenge Elhume, that wasn’t quite the same as being able to save his brother.
Raymund sunk his teeth into his lip, desperate not to pass out. Perhaps my struggle will simply result in a few steps along the Path. Yet someone needs to be the first to take those steps, so those that follow witness and believe in the existence of such a Path. If nothing else, this is a lesson I have learned from the Ghsothound’s knee. So Techetadore…!
Observe. Allow me to illuminate the way forward.
Raymund focused on his grip on his brother and the spectral grip he attempted to extricate. Somehow, Fiero’s touch existed inside of his brother’s body. So it was somewhat like Raymund was trying to steal a glove from someone stronger than him, while he was the only one of the two that cared whether the glove was torn in the struggle.
As Randidly flew backward, Raymund felt Fiero wielding more of his superior power. Bit by bit, his grip loosened-
Randidly Ghosthound shifted his image physicalizations in a sudden spike of image power. The transformation blasted back the drifting mist released by the crystalline walls of this place. He became a crouched monster, more chimera than human. His eyes were hollow and empty, hungry pits that had caused him to be Heralded as a Nether King. Raymund’s heart twisted, feeling the suffering of their leader, forcing out more power. Perhaps-
There was a whisper and an impact. Any more than that couldn’t be discerned, even while staring at the situation.
Suddenly, Randidly Ghosthound had a hand reaching for Elhume’s throat.
Raymund swayed as Elhume’s power abruptly waned. The Ghosthound had moved… far too quickly. Just a skittering gait without deigning to notice the intervening space and slammed into Techetadore’s body. Raymund’s heart bled to see the bones underneath Techetadore’s skin shattering, but they now had a chance.
Raymund took a breath. He gathered the tattered remnants of his capability. He, too, could squeeze out a little bit more.
“You!” Elhume howled with fury as he turned again from Raymund to Randidly. Techetadore’s broken body raised a hand and clenched a fist, but before it could be thrown a massive claw seized the attack and held it still.
Randidly Ghosthound reached out and grasped Techetadore’s shoulder with one hand and his throat with the other, laughing as he did so. Those pale and empty eyes crinkled at the edges, even as the image physicalizations grew more powerful and consumed more of his face. The fist and claw hung over them in strained stillness, a poor facsimile of celestial bodies. Less and less of him was human, more and more a weapon forged to upend the Nexus.
“For the third fucking time,” A long tongue lolled out of the mouth of Nether King Hungry Eye, tasting the air and savoring the strain. Raymund could see that Elhume strained to unleash his punch and smash his opponent, but in the grappling, Elhume was losing. In terms of raw force, someone Randidly had caught up to him.
The final word came out in a hiss after Fiero had struggled and realized he would not win this battle. “Kismet.”
The Hungry Eyes opened. The Songstress of Absence gleefully belted out her piercing solo, taking more and more from Fiero’s conjured energy form. The form flickered and tore.
From the weakened tyrant, Raymund squeezed and pulled, trying to pry Techetadore away from their foe. For a split second, he worried it wouldn’t be enough. He could force the issue, but if distance wasn’t created between Fiero and Techetadore before the process, his brother would likely tear-
Then Techetadore wiggled. Not as a puppet, but as a long-suppressed prisoner finally seeing a ray of light. With that small opening, Raymund Ballast expended the whole of his image and liberated his brother.
The ragged energy form of Fiero popped out and flickered uncertainly in the air. He had been bested and the whole battlefield understood this truth implicitly.
Randidly Ghosthound had taken the first few steps to changing the universe, but Raymund doubted he would satisfy himself by stopping there.