The Monarch of Karma scratched his chin. He had been sitting on the outskirts of this area for several hours, observing the slow process of maturation for this grand plan. The light from the grand array flickered across his face.
Because of his aura of deserving that he couldn’t quite suppress, the individuals of the Upper Sonara Society didn’t discover him. They didn’t deserve to discover him. It was a disgusting side effect of the image, but one that was convenient in this instance. The figures continued to toil below as the thunderous booms of combat echoed out through the Nexus, and then still as the almost-more-ominous silence of dread settled across the deeper layers of the Nexus.
The Monarch of Karma glanced toward the point of contention; a barrier had been erected, preventing the worst of aftershocks from destroying the nearby area. But from the deviant image waves flowing out, the horrible struggle had reached even a higher peak.
Just the faintest whiff of Pine and Laplace’s existence leaked out throughout to the wider Nexus, but that was enough to fill these individuals with dread. The Monarch of Karma didn’t know the source, but he also knew that their time was limited. Still he observed, unable to decide what he wanted to do. The Upper Sonora Society’s actions became frantic. They poured more and more of their Aether into the process of carving their grand array. By this point, the massive working had grown almost ridiculously large, so vast it was difficult to keep the whole of it within your awareness at once.
The final effect actually left the Monarch of Karma somewhat impressed. Because it couldn’t be witnessed in its totality, you could only glance at a corner and create an impression based on that area. And when you moved your awareness, the goal of the formation seemed to warp; the pieces and the impressions you received from examining a single section didn’t seem to quite match up. Perhaps it was the haste of creation or the scope of what these individuals intended to accomplish, but the Monarch of Karma wondered if this would have the effect these people desired.
But more than the patterns and Engravings they drew, what he became fascinated by was the hope they had. It was the fuel that drove them onward, that allowed them to resist the horrific radiation of the core battlefield. The hope that this would change the Nexus and create a better place. The hope they could pull this off before their foes were freed up and could stop them.
A hope centered around Elhume finally being deprived of the unilateral power to slaughter those weaker than him, and starve out those with the potential to be stronger by taking away their Aether.
Aether became chaotic, but the unifying Nether wove itself together during the collaborative toil. They pushed for a new existence in the universe.
The Monarch of Karma’s heart stirred. His eyes brightened, lit from within by a sudden insight. The problem with this image… that has so much righteousness in its ideal yet becomes so warped in practice, is that it stems from a singular individual. Others become amplifiers, but then it becomes a comparison, who deserves more. The application becomes a hierarchy. But… what if…
The Monarch of Karma licked his lips. He knew the dangerous power his words would have, but suddenly couldn’t resist uttering them. Because at his core, although he didn’t trust what it had become, he still believed in the bright eyes of Mae Myrna when she had created this world state image. He believed in that same determination that he had seen in Shal’s eyes, when he had his connection to Randidly Ghosthound severed, yet still decided to pursue his former student.
“What if… we each deserve better than we’ve been given? And that is enough of a nudge for even the most deserving.”
There didn’t need to be an ordering, an allotment based on who deserved more. It was enough just that each individual deserved the respect and blessings of life.
Beneath the Monarch of Karma’s feet, his patterns began to stir. The sleeping world state image opened its eyes and flowed into the vast array taking form in front of him. Perhaps in a more controlled array, such an addition would be immediately noticed; there were several places where the world state image nudged the Engravings to incorporate this new truth.
But only a portion could be viewed at once. Only a small amount of the changes would be noticed, and without the broader picture, it was easy to miss the Monarch of Karma influencing what the new Nexus would become.
*****
After absorbing the concept of time from the Alpha Cosmos, Randidly didn’t stop there-- he wouldn’t feel confident in his challenge against Laplace without additional weapons. He used another Reverie point to specifically activate the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night. He swam into his own past and pulled from his earlier image, wanting another piece to use to bind Laplace.
From the humming crystal memories within the Dreamcatcher, Randidly pulled out the perfectly preserved image of his early Spear Phantom Skillset: Idiosyncratic Cut!
His fingers were gentle, tracing its shape. He held the long arm of a clock, buzzing with the sharp report of passing time.
It had been a technique that had advanced Randidly’s attack forward with a sudden and impossible time-warping jump. A half finished spear thrust or sweep would suddenly become nearly completed by activating the Skill. An opponent would blink and find the tip of his spear beneath their nose. It was a Skill that relied on the warping of time, but it also had some very specific limits. Although time flowed constantly in truth, the conscious division of time meant that it was chopped up into a very specific periods of sudden advancement. The bluntness of clockwork mechanisms used to create timepieces only exacerbated this state.
When a second passed, the second hand would not be constantly flowing. It stalled and then jumped forward. The impression of the second hand and the sound of ticking had deeply affected his early spear Phantom. His Idiosyncratic Cut had been possible due to this impression of time.
Now, Randidly grinned as he retrieved those old images and used his current overwhelming Aether to sharpen them. Beneath his sculpting fingers, the meter long clock hand became ornate, beautiful, and sharp. “Laplace, your eyes are handless clock faces. I wonder if you will be blinded if I pin the hands of a clock to them…?”
But after retrieving two images to use against this particular Eternity, Randidly’s expression became serious. With two points of Muse’s Reverie remaining, he turned to the final task: gathering the elements for his Grand Fate and Nether Penance.
The vague shape of the plans had solidified in his heart after moving away from the issue and gathering images-- he would continue with his general thought for his Nether Penance, healing the wounds inflicted on time by Laplace’s influence and the existence of Dungeons within the Nexus. Randidly honestly felt daunted by the prospect; after witnessing the wounded fabric of time, it would be an extremely tiresome task to repair those holes. If he lived through the confrontation, he wasn’t sure how much time he would need to spend to do.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
But at the very least, the Penance would earn him a great deal of power due to the burden he took onto himself.
As for his Grand Fate… he still intended to combine his three Truths together and create a powerful role for himself. His focus had shifted from being concerned with the qualifications of becoming a Shallah. Even with Nyx’s insights on reaching the Pinnacle and grasping Eternity, that sort of existence seemed unreachable. Not only did significant understanding separate him from becoming a Shallah, but also a vast thrust of energy.
His Animation Nova might be able to bridge that gap, but only if he could empower it further. Which would require more time and resources than he currently possessed.
Instead, Randidly planned on concerning himself with the concept of ‘Vessel’. Usually, a Truth could be used to forge a Vessel, but Yystrix had created a series of methods, relying on the Nexus’s System, to forge a vessel from baser materials. The Alchemist burned with interest, wondering how far it would be able to go with Randidly’s current resources.
When Randidly pulled together three synergistic Truths, how grand of a Vessel could he create?
The other benefit of choosing this Path would be that the defense of the Alpha Cosmos would be strengthened. Even if Randidly Ghosthound as a person would flicker and fail in the trials ahead, the Vessel would not. It was a dark and seditious thought, but Randidly still remembered the aura of an Eternity with a touch of fear.
This was a being that existed for an untold amount of time. A casual glance had been enough to scramble his temporal existence. When Laplace realized he was a genuine threat, the response would be even more violent.
Against such an enemy, he wasn’t sure he could win. And he would need to chase Laplace through the body of Pine to stop it before it could infect all of the Nexus. Too many dangers lurked ahead for him to have absolute confidence in his survival.
Inwardly, Randidly was glad that Neveah was busy digging into the Engravings left by Yystrix, hoping to finally pierce into the central portion of the inheritance she left and perhaps learn more about her methods. Otherwise, she would be extremely sour hearing the direction of his thoughts.
“For this Penance, I have the Hollow Needle to begin repairing time, but I need thread. Thread with an incredible concentration of significance in order to bind the fabric of time back together.” Randidly released a sigh. For a second he felt rather stumped by this need, but gradually a plan emerged in his mind.
He scratched his cheek. “It should be… fine, I think? Now that I’ve become a Legend anyway… the connection should already be firm.”
With his second to last point of Muse’s Reverie, Randidly gestured toward a Fatepiece he hadn’t yet used: the Hierarchy of Burden. The pyramid Fatepiece began to spin as it conjured the destructive forces constantly cracking along the sharp boundary of an isolated universe. Sulfur released a worried whine and Randidly hesitated for a second. But in the end, he shook his head at the arm’s implied question. “No, this shouldn’t wound me. And I don’t think it’s necessary any longer.”
Despite his reassurances, Sulfur rumbled again. This time, Randidly laughed. He reached over and squeeze his left bicep affectionately with his right hand. “Don’t worry buddy, just because of this, you don’t need to stop being my left arm. Honestly… I’m not sure I could go back. Wouldn’t I be helpless without your help? My original left hook had nowhere near the jaw-crushing power you have.”
As Sulfur hummed in pleased agreement, the Hierarchy of Burden activated. The horrific forces sliced downward toward Randidly’s left shoulder… targeting not Sulfur’s physical form, but the underpinning spiritual body.
In the past, Randidly’s left arm had been severed fighting Aegiant. That conflict was one of the most harrowing moments of his life, as his opponent blazed with solar energy and turned more and more of the environment into lava. Rather than trying to heal the wound after he had won the fight, Randidly had used it as a way to bind the nascent Alpha Cosmos to him physically. He had created his Crossroads of the Alpha Cosmos Domain from the connection and begun his journey to creating a powerful Vessel by building a bridge between his Soulskill and his physical body.
Since then, Randidly had fought first with a constructed metal arm and then later incorporated Sulfur directly. Later, his Crossroads of the Alpha Cosmos had been woven into the fabric of Sulfur, so the arm could support the Domain he had inherited from Helen. And while his current actions unraveled the base of connections, there were now so many bonds between himself and Sulfur that Randidly didn’t worry this would harm the current arrangements.
His target was that original bond that had made the Alpha Cosmos a part of his body. The dense threads of Aether that had connected him to the Alpha Cosmos for so long. For a human being, ta spiritual binding between a body and a world was a necessary step, but for a being more legend than physical existence, it was superfluous.
Randidly’s Grey Monarch’s Authority wrapped around the sizzling radiation of the Hierarchy of Burden and sharpened it into a blade. The edge narrowed until it was as thin and insubstantial as a breath of wind. This wind slid into his shoulder and sculpted the joint. With great care, he cut into the deep significance between his ‘body’ and the Alpha Cosmos.
Randidly remained still for the entire process. He cut and cut, pulling out more and more of the dense connection that had been maintained throughout his adventures, from fighting against Aegiant and barely able to survive to standing at the heights of the Nexus now.
As he pulled more and more of this valuable ‘thread’ out from his body, Randidly’s jaw began to clench. The material grew heavier and heavier, unwilling to be taken out of his spiritual body. And that wasn’t even recognizing the growing agony. It felt like he was scraping out his body marrow and leaving his skeleton hollow. A chill settled through his existence, one that caused some small disturbances in the rotation of his Nether Core.
He pulled and pulled, extracting more and more thread. The cold seeped into his bones. It went down his arms, into his ribcage and hips. As the Hierarchy continued to crackle and he cut deeper and deeper into the bond, Randidly could feel the looming presence of his own insubstantiality grow. He felt a hint of regret; he hadn’t expected how much this spiritual connection to the Alpha Cosmos had grounded him. Yet he also did not stop.
This was necessary.
There came a point when Randidly sensed that he might have extracted enough valuable thread from his connection. It burned with power in his hands, a material forged of universe spanning bridges. He would be able to refine the raw materials he created into an almost infinite amount of thread containing aspects of both Aether and Nether. No matter how many wounds crisscrossed the fabric of time, this would be enough to utilize. Yet he continued to draw out this valuable grounding, allowing the cold and lack of substance to seep through his entire being. His spine felt like a totem of ice now, radiating out a vicious stillness.
Tasks should not be left half-done, Randidly thought with a certain grimness. The coldness flowed through his body, creeping into a stubborn smile. Besides… I said earlier my second miracle of the day was discarding my reality. And it might have appeared like I had done so, but so long as this connection lingered, that final bit of foundation would have remained. For my final miracle… I need the accomplishment to be resounding.
It’s almost lucky I chose this Path and can eliminate this lingering tether to reality. Just… what will it feel like, to truly become without any substance.
Randidly cut. His Hierarchy of Burden steadily weakened as the one point of Muse’s Reverie faded, but he was almost finished. He gave a sharp tug, ripping away almost all of the remnant connection between himself and the Alpha Cosmos. Finally, there was just a bit of winnowed tendon, connecting to Randidly’s heart.
He pressed his lips together. He gripped and yanked with all his Primordial Nether Juju. The last connection broke.
Two things happened simultaneously. All the chill in his body spiked, almost freezing his thoughts and internal space. At the same time, his Nether Core began to roar and spin, galvanizing his images into action.
For several seconds, Randidly couldn’t breath. But it wasn’t like he needed to, any longer.