Chapter 2394

Charlotte Wick stood at the back of the group, her blood curdling with tension as the other soldiers prepared for their departure and the assault waiting at the end of it. There was so much tension in the air that even her image hummed with concern. She ignored it and continued to dig.

DiOrtho Vant paused in his labors, his shovel poised above the ground. “Does it really make sense that we dig the graves evenly? Their bodies aren’t the same size. Feels a little callous.”

“We make the grave of a hero of the Vulpis Squad. Consistency and exacting standards are how we are trained and how we will retire,” Jieu Ronault’s flame body had calmed considerably in the weeks of fighting. He seemed practically static as he worked. Charlotte wondered whether the lack of fluttering was due to a prodigious jump in discipline or the malaise working against them all.

Not too far away, Charlotte could hear the curses as the defensive line threw back another wave of attacks. Double dangerous because the guard had been reduced to a skeleton crew, so the Vulpis Squad could make their final preparations.

Charlotte ignored her aches and scooped up another shovel of dirt. She had been raised at the knee of Commandant Wick, plucked out from his other descendants but never allowed to forget from whence she came. So she was very familiar with how quickly life could vanish, could be plundered. Anytime she became close with one deemed ‘unworthy’ by the patriarch of her family, that individual would be slaughtered to give her some emotional grit.

Maybe because she had broken free from that life and believed she had now achieved power, fighting this last month in the strange dried sea bed had broken her in a way none of those ‘examples’ had managed.

Watching her squadmates die left her frothing and sundered.

Vant scowled and kicked his feet in the dirt. “I certainly hope there are other options for retiring than being stuck in a cookie-cutter hole in the ground. I have plans. There is a pretty rugged cliff face on Expira that I want to build a massive compound and enjoy the good life by the sea!”

Vizzeret Clamman, the canine right next to Vant and digging a perfectly uniform hole with rapid scrapes of his paws, paused and snickered. “You dumbass. A house by the sea, with your image? I hope you like scraping off rust from your gears.”

“Machine horrors don’t necessarily-” Vant rounded on Vizzeret, ready for a fight. But another voice cut across his.

“What’s the Alpha Cosmos like? Is it really that beautiful?”

The more senior members of the Order Vulpis paused and all looked at the speaker, a female selkie named Llethia, one of the newer recruits drawn in when Randidly was training elites on the Fifth Cohort Rally Station. Her face quirked in an awkward smile. “Yes, I’ve been there, but that was mostly for training. We were so busy. Never really got the chance to explore. I remember how energy-rich the air is… but is it really that special of a place? We’ve just been fighting for so long…”

“I’m of the opinion that half of a person’s experience of a place is the people they find there,” All fell into a rigid stance as Alana Donal and Raymund Ballast walked out to the cluster of graves. Alana flashed a wan smile. “You’ve accumulated more Nether now, so you’ll feel the difference when you return. But the strength of connections, the quality of character… I definitely want to believe a little bit in the myth of the Alpha Cosmos. It is the place we’ve all wanted for so long. That we’ve sacrificed so much to protect.”

“Name doesn’t even make sense though. Obviously, it wasn’t the first universe,” DiOrtho muttered, but his commentary earned a sharp look from Raymund and a growl from Vizzeret. The demon humanoid raised his hands and clenched his fists.

While the two animals snapped at each other, Alana continued walking forward. Charlotte watched the easy fluidity of her movements. It was difficult to believe how much of a burnt-out husk Alana had seen, only ten hours ago, her image pushed too far for too long. Even with her Primal Force assisting in the healing process, Charlotte had believed a full recovery would have been impossible.

But the Nether they accumulated acting as the overflow for Randidly’s transformation synergized and behaved in ways that Charlotte still couldn’t quite follow. Although Alana’s image had been completely broken down by overuse, Nether had lined her inner world and protected it from scars. Now, that blemish-free zone became a fertile bed to allow Alana’s image, which was proceeding through its own transition, to rebuild itself from the ground up in a new shape.

Alana spun on her heel and looked at them all. “We knew theoretically of the burden of supporting Randidly Ghosthound as he sought to dismantle the horrors of the Nexus. We chose to follow him anyway. And now, the load is firmly upon our shoulders. We bear wounds inflicted as those hooks and chains are removed from our bodies. We bury those who paid for the freedom of their descendants with their lives. For a moment, let’s bow our heads and pay our respects.”

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The soldiers all bowed their heads for a moment, standing next to the thirty-four evenly made graves. They said thank you.

They said goodbye.

Charlotte Wick felt the pulse of their Nether, shivering as one. The bonds between the squad members deepened. Just as her senses tried to pick apart what exactly had shifted, Alana raised her head and began to speak again. “It might feel unbearable now but do not lose hope. I knew a woman whose people were a forged tool. Her entire race was a reflection, made to shatter or temper a ‘real’ people. In the end, they did not matter. They were dominated and manipulated by a tyrant pulled sideways by an obsession that had festered into madness.

“Yet this woman had a singular advantage. Against all odds, she had been born a Witch.”

Again, the Nether of the group pulsed. Charlotte released a slow breath, feeling some of her tension bleed out of her. All of the soldiers focused on the soldier as one of Alana’s new Skills took effect.

“To be a Witch is to possess profane flesh. To be an existence that transgresses. That warps and taints the world. Yet she was just a single witch, and the whole world had been set on a collision course. The reflection and the originals could only clash and grind each other to dust. On some days, she could not think of any method of adjusting this situation without being caught up between the two forces. All that she held dear and this intriguing other version of her people were doomed. She struggled, but could only accomplish small feats; Her small power of transgression was just within her blood and flesh. And she could feel the fate of the entire world running out.

“She suffered. Her people suffered. Death crouched low over her world and breathed deeply, savoring their pain.”

Edgar, the soldier who had taken it upon himself to fashion a backpack that contained Heiffal’s still functioning torso, let out a loud sniff. Every from here, Charlotte Wick could see how hard DiOrtho Vant clenched his teeth.

She wondered what sort of expression she was making. She suppressed the urge to reach up and feel her furry cheeks to find out.

“No hero arrived on this world, at least not yet. But the Witch had suffered in silence for long enough. Because her power was so tied to the flesh, she began experimenting on her own body, pushing her limits in order to find some way to escape this constant hell of struggle and violence. Her power proved to be just, just insufficient to overturn the controls placed upon her. The bindings stopped her just short of being able to escape the whims of the tyrant. So… she found the closest replacement for the hero who had not arrived, a talented young warrior from the opposite people. One who provided her with a spark of inspiration. She altered her body composition, to make procreation possible.

“When the two had a son, she named him Shal. Because through him, she swore to herself, the world shall end. One way or the other. And when that promised time came and everything that restrictive monster had built came crashing down, it was fucking karma that tore the edifice to pieces. Karma, and one woman who endured through the hopeless days to the first stirrings of an opportunity.” Alana luminous eyes swept around the area. She paused on each and every soldier, met their eyes, fed into the fire housed within them.

When her mouth opened, her smile bristled with fangs. “This Nexus… let’s go end it, shall we?”

*****

The volume of Nether pumping through him just kept increasing.

Randidly Ghosthound felt energy burning its way through his veins. The feeling was almost nostalgic-- few experiences these days were able to make his body feel so woefully insufficient as a container. Yet when the dense, translucent Nether swirled through his core, tempering his veins, and then Aether flooded through, compressed down to a liquid trickle-

Waves of heat rolled off his body as the rain of fists continued to fall down toward Randidly. Opposite him, Fiero’s eyes narrowed as the energy Randidly released shifted. “You… what are you trying to do?!”

I’m trying a different Path. Randidly took another step forward, the ground shaking and shivering; in his Soulspace, the distortions were even more prominent. His chest cavity felt aflame. Nether and Aether circled faster and faster, two concentric rings rotating in opposite directions, waves of powerful force spreading out through him.

The friction threw off sparks powerful enough to burn holes through most images.

Yggdrasil hummed in pleasure as it spread out its roots and dipped into the liquid flows of energy now running through his body. As Randidly accepted the concept of a ‘vessel’, the possibility for what his body could be multiplied. The connection between tree and energy was immediate and fulfilling. In a very real way, the World Tree seeded itself inside of him. The roots flexed and grew. The bonds deepened. It sank deeper, pushing into him. It drank more from the well of endless energy dawning within him.

Those sparks from energy circulation landed upon Yggdrasil’s branches, glittering like primordial gems.

Randidly’s power surged and seethed. Image and ‘vessel’ were both enriched by the connection.

Synchronicity detected… your Skillset Yggdrasil, the Universe that Was First a Tree is reacting!

Detecting influences…

Incorporating foreign elements…

Balancing the Nether infusion…

Recalculating…

Setting up parameters of Nether integration…

Pantheon Intervention. Recalculating…

Randidly raised his spear, his eyes flashing as he sensed the approach of the image evolution of his oldest and most reliable Skillset. He offered Fiero a hunter’s smile. You will regret holding back to this point.

Fiero seemed to come to the same conclusion at the same time. He shifted his stance as quickly as he could. His balance remained slightly off, but no longer did he just populate the sky with Timeless fists he had stockpiled. He threw a punch.

“The Eighth Fist: Truth.”