Randidly breathed in through his mouth and through the roots of Yggdrasil. All the energy he desired felt available to him. He sat in the middle of a network of connections that spanned an entire universe. And his body sang with the consumption and balance, feeling the significance in the surrounding area all falling into alignment with this arrangement. It was a whole new pattern, a cascading reorientation that rippled out through the surrounding space and adjusted all the flows into his person.

He pressed against the fabric of the universe and began to sink into it, pulling with a force like gravity.

In that heightened state of energy, Randidly’s perceptual acuity seemed nearly infinite. The energy halos he witnessed layered atop one another in a constant, swirling progression of inevitable shapes. His body hummed up and down, seeking to find the perfect note. His impression on existence deepened.

His steps were halting, but some instinct of his knew that he approached the Pinnacle.

“Randidly… Ghosthound…!” Fiero breathed too, pulling more and more of the chaotic Aether into his wizened form. The air crackled and spat as rumbles split open the crystal mountain range around them. Through the chaotic mix of energies, Randidly could barely keep track of the Vulpis Squad’s struggles against the husks below. “Your transgressions… doom you. The Second Fist: Vengeance.”

The words might be heavy, but Fiero’s sentiment made Randidly snort— he had already faced this second fist and defeated it. It was the most unrelenting of Fiero’s attacks, without a single pinch of give in the knuckles, but that didn’t make it the most powerful.

Just like Fiero, its only redeeming feature was borrowing the force you used against him to add some extra pressure. And with a maelstrom of force generated by their previous impacts swirling behind his back, Randidly Ghosthound was not someone who would capitulate in the face of force.

In his legend image physicalization form, with his Cloak of a Thousand Lightless Horizons around his body and every limb covered in the sagas of the Alpha Cosmos, Randidly Ghosthound took a stance and executed a basic spear thrust. Violence erupted along the shaft. His Hungry Eyes observed and dismembered the opponent's flows of energy. The tip of the spear slid cleanly into a small flaw.

Although the horrible ache of impact had seeped down to the marrow of his bones, Randidly slammed Acri against the stolen weapons of Fiero. Briefly, all of the ambient energy around their bodies was forced backward by the impact, before it snapped back into place with a sizzling jolt. His skin tingled, with the strange electromagnetic force generated by the briefly vacated space.

For the first time of all their struggles, Randidly stood still in the aftermath and Fiero could only take a half-step backward.

With a light spin, Randidly adjusted his spear. The tip gleamed as he aimed it at Fiero’s chest. The joyous sense of completion took root within his body. The energy sang; he experienced another small step forward. “This ends today, Fiero. Just let go.”

“If you can reach the Pinnacle, fucking prove it. Otherwise-” Fiero grasped out with his hands and pulled down huge rivers of Aether, some of it liquid, some gas, with even a few small crystalline chunks lingering in the flow. That rich energy howled into his body— from just a look at the cavalier brutalization of his physical form, Randidly understood why Fiero needed to rely on these husks to maintain a presence. His greed blinded him, or caused him to ignore, the risks of too much consumption.

His flesh bubbled and melted as he became less a Vulpine and more a malevolent consciousness riding a torrent of energy.

“-otherwise, break and fall. The Second Fist: Vengeance!” Fiero screeched as he threw a punch. Randidly wondered why Fiero had chosen to revert back down to his earlier fists, but he quickly focused on this empowered second attack; both in terms of the damage for which Fiero sought vengeance and the energy fueling the attack, it had been completely transformed. The punch’s energy almost possessed a worn patina around its edges, hints of an older and more ruinous fist that had been thrown.

The alignment of energy resonated slightly with this fist and Randidly understood— this had been a fist used previously to break onto the Pinnacle in the past. He could see here the ‘success’ of the Fiero in the actual Nexus.

Randidly didn’t adjust his stance, despite the ominous force opposing him. The harmonies within him continued to accumulate. The cascading multiplied, his emotional notes sharpening. Step by step, he advanced on his own Path toward the Pinnacle.

As he thrust out his spear, Randidly scanned Fiero’s eyes. What he saw there was just a sea of bitter disappointment. A craving for relief.

He wants me to be able to take this burden from him. Despite himself, Randidly felt a tiny stirring of sympathy for the aging Fiero in front of him. The foxman had no idea how to escape his current existence.

Randidly’s images flared. Fiero’s vintage image burned with desperation. They cracked against one another.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

This time, their strikes were entirely even. Huge kinetic waves roiled and chopped outward, smashing down another few husks unfortunate enough to be beneath them for the contact. Randidly pulled on that kinetic energy and swirled it into a maelstrom centered on his position. As he gathered his storm of force, Fiero opened himself up to the destructive currents of Aether again and gobbled down more fuel. However-

Randidly glanced upward, briefly distracted by the gaping flaws in the energy. I had thought the Nether was mobilizing as I aligned myself to step onto the Pinnacle, but that… that Weight, that significance… that’s not about me.

Through the cracks in the crystal mountain, Randidly could look up and see a ‘sky’ waiting beyond their current battlefield. With Fiero scooping out all the thick Aether screening it, Randidly could observe that sky… and realize it was on the verge of breaking and coming crashing down upon the Nexus.

Pine. Randidly felt a few freezing drops of anxiety dribble on his heart. That’s the fallen corpse of Pine, threatening to shatter the Nexus. The seal on Elhume’s body didn’t just keep Fiero from being able to wield his flesh. It also acted as a counterweight to balance the Nexus against that.

Randidly’s sharpened mind began to recognize the ramifications of this truth, but Fiero didn’t give him time to dig too deeply into them. The aging Vulpine seemed not to care at all what happened to his body. He channeled more and more Aether and threw punches wildly at Randidly, sometimes utilizing one of his Fists, but sometimes just unleashing a vaguely fist-shaped blast of violence.

Madness had seized him from the moment that old ‘success’ proved insufficient to batter down Randidly.

Randidly’s steps sharpened as he focused on the threat in front of him. He ignored the aches in his bones and the tears in his muscles. His movements became streamlined. The song in his body and Aether became louder and louder. He avoided one onslaught of punches, concentrated his force, and then pierced through a Fifth Fist: Regret, that Fiero threw.

He advanced and advanced, going faster and faster. As much as he hated to admit it, this was how he outran regret. He continued to push forward. He adjusted his grip on his spear and honed his movements. He made mistakes and he focused on the process, making sure on his next time through, he wouldn’t make those mistakes again.

With a gleaming stab, Randidly broke through Regret and arrived directly in front of a reeling Fiero. He adjusted his aim and raised his spear. His Skills flared, his Aether roared, his Nether whispered of its own unavoidable vengeance.

Congratulations! Your Skill Motif of Unimagined Tolls (GD) has grown to Level 1105!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Motif of Unimagined Tolls (GD) has grown to Level 1196!

Acri pierced through the thick layer of protective energy and-

-stopped dead against Fiero’s torso. Randidly’s arm ached.

Opposite him, with Acri scratching and unable to pierce through even the front layer of his skin, Fiero chuckled. Even this sound was seeped in bitterness. “Can you now glimpse your foolishness? I am a vessel. For my crimes of transgressing upon the Pinnacle, every aching hour of the day, I bear Truth. In this universe, before truth, you can only bow.”

Veins and muscles along Randidly’s arm bulged as he tried to force the weapon that last few inches forward to inflict a wound. Yet he felt it. A barrier of not exactly of energy, but of frequency. A pure barrier of existence; this was a being that had reached the Pinnacle.

The rising tide of alignment responded to the impediment in front of his spear. Randidly could feel his own transformation accelerating. More pieces arranged themselves naturally, more notes about his image hummed and focused, their structure given guidance by encountering an example of the Pinnacle, manifest.

Yet Randidly didn’t try and follow that Path. It was one thing to take advantage of these possibilities, it was another thing entirely to forget his roots.

Instead of pulling back and reevaluating to seek the perfect note of harmonious energy, one large enough to encompass an entire moment, Randidly clenched his teeth. His whole body roared. All his Privilege of the Half-Shallah concentrated on the minute execution of his musculature. His evolved Stats focused themselves and pushed. He had discarded his humanity in exchange for power. He had allowed Moiraes and an Alchemist to settle within him, altering the fundamental concepts of his person.

Randidly could feel their rising glee. He could feel his Nether Core spinning so quickly it had become a liquid ball of energy, almost seeming to stand completely still. Its complex flows wove their way in and out of the Momento he had built in his chest. He relied on two parallel perspectives, tying them together for extra stability.

His body shuddered with the strain. He leaned into the effort and grimaced. Gradually, the speed of his Nether Core lightened its edges from black to a translucent grey. The central part of the core was clouded… but the rotational speed kept increasing. Randidly’s body burned and steamed, the friction of the rapid rotation spreading through him.

The clouded Nether Core gradually seethed. Rather than the black heart he possessed previously, Randidly’s Nether Core morphed to become a soothsayer's crystal ball.

Congratulations! Your Skill Randidly Ghosthound, Executive of Nether Reborn (GD)(U) has grown to Level 1599!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Randidly Ghosthound, Executive of Nether Reborn (GD)(U) has grown to Level 1642!

He didn’t try to match the foreign energy. He just pushed.

Crack!

That thin veneer of inviolability broke. Randidly Ghosthound grinned and leaned forward, while Fiero’s face slackened with shock. “Did you really think this would stop me?”

Tiny beads of blood welled up from the wound and dribbled down Fiero’s chest. Already, Randidly could detect heavy and dangerous image elements, even in the liberated blood. He had some private theories about this ‘Truth’ filling the ‘vessel’, but no matter what Randidly’s body could manage, it had to be acknowledged how powerful it was.

Something ugly formed in Fiero’s bitterness. His aura sharpened as he raised his fists. “The Eighth Fist-”

But before he could complete the attack, one too many cracks had formed in the crystal mountain range. With a horrible groan, it began to collapse.