The Monarch of Karma tilted his head to the side, trying to understand the firmness in the other’s tone. “Are you sure? Considering the energy discharge… I do not mean to offend, but you no longer possess the power to affect the outcome, let alone survive in the vicinity. Do you still wish to go?”

Shal nodded as he wrapped the leather of his sandals around his well-muscled legs. The two still stood at the edge of their small area, but the backdrop had changed significantly in the past twenty minutes. The crystal Aether mountain had been broken into a billion small pieces. The air glittered and swirled, a sand sea filling the sky above them with its sinuous dance. As the Monarch of Karma watched the particulate flowing, he felt oddly at peace. Underneath that sky, they had talked for a long time.

The Monarch of Karma remained calm, despite the familiar patterns he could see in the glittering sky as his influence insinuated itself back into existence. Because this other man grounded him, despite their differences.

And now, he chose to leave.

“It was a lesson that I taught him a long time ago, I think,” Shal straightened. He too looked up at the gorgeous sky, but then shifted down to focus on the ground. “When you do not know what else to do, you advance.”

“You will probably die.”

“I was broken before. Which is a kind of death. And I will probably break down again. But if I have learned anything, it is that living under the shadow of fear and envy is the Path I will take no longer.”

The Monarch of Karma looked at Shal and all the certainty in his imageless frame. Nether moved within Shal’s body, due to the shifts in the underlying Nether of the Nexus and due to the actions of Randidly Ghosthound at the peak of the Nexus, but the thin and runny Nether within Shal’s body was not impressive.

That anchor could not sustain him through these wild winds.

The Monarch felt a stirring in his chest. More than for his own sake, he looked and Shal and felt a powerful temptation to embrace the swirling self-reinforcement image waiting in his gut. He wavered for a second. “You… deserve better than what you will find, following your former pupil.”

“This life is filled with discoveries and pitfalls that were in my path, regardless of what I deserved.” Shal snorted. He raised his spear, examining the gleaming point. “I was cursed, from the day I was born, because my parents… they could not protect me and they wanted so much from me. But also… I was blessed. Because even now, even because I have spent two years avoiding looking at myself and my life due to feelings of inadequacy, I can still make a choice that will change my life.”

Shal pivoted and looked at the Monarch of Karma. A smile tugged at his mouth. “Yes, by choosing a Path that will kill me. And who is more deserving of what will befall him than a fool who delivers himself into the lion’s mouth? I may not have deserved the journey, but I will surely deserve my end.”

After Shal walked away, the Monarch of Karma watched his back for as long as he could. Then he allowed his eyes to drift up to the sky and its complex, spiraling patterns. The remnants of the crystal Aether glittered and howled. From this distance, it was impossible to tell that so much energy was contained within those smote bits of solidified energy that it would scrape the flesh from the bones of most, until not even dust remained.

“Choices, huh,” The Monarch said quietly to himself. For the past several hours, the choice for him had begun and ended with whether or not to allow the image gifted to him by Mae Myrna to be revived. Yet that was just one of dozens of choices he had made. And when he gave all his attention to this one little portion of being alive, he missed all the other choices he could make.

All the other aspects of being alive he could want, without needing to believe he deserved them. It was an incredibly selfish perspective that sent little shivers of pleasure through his body.

Without really having a destination, the Monarch of Karma stood and began to walk.

*****

With the ease of a very experienced mental-mutilation pro, Randidly tore his attention down the middle into two equal parts. The two Randidly’s both pulled at the churning swirl of his emotional sea, his three powerful images supporting each of his efforts.

Such was the breadth of his vessel, such was the fineness of his evolved Privilege of the Half-Shallah, that it barely even felt like a strain.

One of the ragged consciousnesses settled into a crouch, refocusing on the stumbled form of Elhume. From just a casual glance, he could feel the gradual harmonization of an image with its truth within Elhume’s body after such a long separation.

Would need to stop that, before it became an issue.

The other Randidly consciousness roared along with his revving Nether Core, riding a thick wave of ‘Seize’ significance that crashed around his body to claim all it touched with impunity. Opposite, Fiero looked on with blazing eyes and shouted at the world with his ‘Mine’. Both energy sank their teeth into Randidly’s flesh. Significance and image smashed against one another with reckless abandon.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Mine rabidly sawed away at the thick chains of significance that bound Randidly to his physical body. However, the effects were relatively minor. Randidly was a universe and the Alpha Cosmos was his soul. Mine’s effect usually cut away a portion of the target and made it belong to Fiero as though it had always belonged to him, but these bonds were too deep to affect quickly. And Seize drove anchors deeply into his own body, the Nether Core refusing to release control.

After a brief shiver as the two energies drew defensive formations and beachheads across his muscles, Body Randidly refocused, with almost no stiffness or twitching. He pounced forward and swept Acri low to the ground. Elhume hopped back, settled his feet, and then steadied his stance to throw a punch-

The second wave of Mine crashed against Randidly— even more quickly than the first, Mind Randidly recovered his poise and shoved back the offending image. Significance gushed through his body. The anchors had already been sunk into his flesh and he would not release that grip for anything.

Body Randidly stabilized himself and leveled his spear. Yggdrasil flooded his body with power, as the roots dug out energy from the ground beneath their feet before Pine could gobble it down. He thrust his spear forward-

Just as the third wave of Mine was arriving, Mind Randidly snorted and released one of his images. Siren’s Dirge of Bottomless Taking.

Before Fiero’s greedy hands could gather any momentum, the Songstress of Absence crooned it to sleep. The shape and emotion were stolen, the remnant waves of the image fluttered and then fell to pieces. Randidly felt a flash of surprise at how well he could neutralize the Ninth Fist of Fiero, but he wasn’t going to worry too much about it; Body Randidly exploded forward to take advantage of the opportunity.

Every second, Solomon Rex sank a bit deeper into his body.

Randidly thrust Acri. He was the vessel of an entire universe. He had clashed again and again against foreign truths and been tempered each time by the conflict. Now the corpse of Pine ground against him, sucking away the last few impurities in his existence and leaving him gleaming and potent. Elhume punched, but he was still so slow and weak in comparison.

The thrust cracked knuckles. Elhume’s truth sputtered and failed, squashed by the power Randidly wielded. Flutters of that smothering radiated outward, passing even through the devouring force of Pine. Body Randidly finished his follow-through and pivoted his weight, smashing Acri’s butt into Elhume’s side, hitting that same spot that he had smashed earlier. He felt the ribs fracture.

Mind Randidly hissed in distaste; all at once, he could feel Fiero’s image scrabbling against his protections from a dozen new directions. The image of the old monster couldn’t be underestimated. It felt like a thousand rats scampering across him, digging their small claws into any weakness they could find and trying to establish themselves. Each probe came with a shouted MINE, over and over again.

His Nether Core continued to rotate. Randidly had almost endless significance surging through his limbs. His First Authority: Seize blazed with importance. Yet-

Mine, mine mine mine mine-mine-MINE-mine-mineMINEMINE-

Body Randidly swayed, unable to follow up as Elhume stumbled backward. A twinge of unease blossomed in his gut. He reached out and brushed up against the steel-plated focus of Mind Randidly. Are you alright?

I will need to be, The other him thought back grimly. Mind Randidly blazed with indignation as he felt those infinite claws starting to gain purchase at various points across his existence. Suddenly, he felt what a liability it was to have his existence to have grown to such a vast presence. Most of the weaker parts, related to the subconscious he inherited from the Alpha Cosmos, were still protected within the depths of him, but his legend hovered just beyond the edges of his skin, making him slightly larger than life. It was there that Fiero began to take from him.

Seize roared in indignation, but Mind Randidly didn’t simply allow another pulse of its power to smother all this resistance. He felt his frustration rising; in the end, it was a matter of matchup. He had assumed their abilities were somewhat similar, but they were not. Seize was a single, overwhelming usurpation. Mine was a sea of unreasonability, wave after wave lapping against the target until all records of the original owner were washed away.

Both were abilities centered around taking, but they differed in application.

Mind Randidly felt bitter. The easiest solution would just be to allow Fiero to take a significant portion of my presence… then Seize it all back. But I’m more than just me at this point. All of my supporters have added to this, have become a part of me. I cannot just… let them go for the win here.

Standing to the side, Fiero showed his thin and sharp teeth. “Mine. All of it.”

Mind Randidly slammed his dense Nether against the incursions, smashing all the tiny mines to pieces. The anchors of Seize released smaller pulses of power, keeping the worst of the taking at bay. He manipulated currents of significance flowing through his body to drive back the opponent’s image

Body Randidly shifted to the side, countering one of Elhume’s punches with a well-timed thrust. He followed up with a second thrust that drew a long line of blood from Elhume’s shoulder, but the note of truth had become almost blinding, shining out from the depths of Elhume’s eyes.

Randidly could almost see Solomon Rex and Elhume steadily merging together. The hybrid monster smiled at him. “You are talented. Perhaps without peer, in the history of the Nexus. You have broken so many well-established rules. But to overcome both of us-”

MinemineminemineMINEMINEmineMINE!

“-you are insufficient.” Elhume finished.

At the same time, Mind Randidly felt a prickle of a new fear, as all of sudden Fiero’s mines avoided the small, nipping bites at the edges of his legend and concentrated on a new target: Sulfur.

His left arm gave a rumble of fear as the enemy's image inundated the Soulplant with ripping, taking, consuming, stealing. The image came with knives and began to carve. And above them, all Pine continued to loom closer. At the edges of their battlefield, the ground began to crumple and float up toward the doom waiting in the sky.