Around Randidly, the sense of connectedness with existence provided by the Reverie steadily faded. He stood back on the battlefield and stared up at Pine in the sky, into which Laplace had slithered.

He had no more time to delay. The final confrontation had arrived.

Through the reverie, he had found answers regarding Eternities, he had extracted thread to sew together the shredded fabric of time, he had gathered a steady impression of time and his early image regarding clock hands, and finally, he had taken from Shal an unrefined image of pure determination and stubbornness, almost on a whim.

Randidly held out his palm and looked at the ember he had received from Shal. The difference between this raw form and an image with a ‘shape’ comes from pressure. In a highly pressured environment, when an individual is pushed by circumstances beyond their limits, the shape will become distorted and collapse. But because of that concentration, the amount of emotion contained within reaches an incredible potency.

An image seed like this… can become anything I need. It will refuse to collapse, adding an incredible resiliency to any image to which it is added. But will it be enough…?

Randidly passed the ember to the Dread Homunculus, who began repeatedly squeezing it within its claws. To maintain that concentrated form, Randidly would need to apply pressure to it constantly. The might of the Dread Homunculus stoked the fires of the stubbornness. He didn’t know for sure if that image seed would be the last ingredient he needed; he had no plan associated with this piece, wasn’t sure how it would fit into either of his plans for Grand Fate or Penance.

But he did know that what Shal had accomplished, with a body emptied of significance and powerful image thrusting his way forward until he pierced even the barrier of Nexus citizenship, should have been impossible. And due to their relationship, Randidly knew as soon as he found Shal fighting his way toward the battlefield on which Randidly had crushed Elhume and Fiero, he would look and listen to one last demonstration of the man who had been his master.

Meanwhile, the Alchemist cackled and rubbed his hands together-- finally, they would soon begin their final act. A third miracle would soon delight the Nexus. Especially now that the second miracle had become completely legitimate.

Randidly’s Muse’s Reverie reset back down to 0. The total amount required to trigger a Reverie ticked up to 8 points. Several meaningless notifications popped up in front of him, but he ignored them. Breathing slowly, Randidly calmed himself. Then he stared up at the open maw of Pine’s corpse.

The Nexus trembled around him. It was infected by a viral world-state image about time and shuddered under the pressure of Pine. If he didn’t act, the universe would likely shatter.

“One last fight. Let’s put an end to Eternity,” Randidly announced. His Heraldic Tongue of the Alchemist burned with intensity. He kicked off the ground and shot up to follow Laplace into the dangerous core of the Nexus. Dense waves of significance gnawed at him like hungry animals, but Randidly’s translucent Nether was impervious to this type of erosion. He shot up and up, nearing the inky barrier.

He pierced through the inky edge of Pine’s corpse and crossed the boundary. He tensed, unsure of what to expect.

Passing through the edge of Pine felt like nothing at all, just a strange twist of pressure. But that easiness only made him more vigilant.

Despite his preparations, pressure on the other side made even Randidly Ghosthound pause. The significance here was dense to the point of oozing across his skin. Existence constricted periodically against him like the beating of the old Stillborn Phoenix’s heart. Time and space warped around him, curling like gusts of wind. Randidly stood in a vast space shrouded with mist. He could vaguely detect the vast banks of fog drifting back and forth, obscuring writhing shapes. From the corner of his eyes, he saw flickering movement, so fast that even his Grim Intuition couldn’t recognize the source.

And above, far, far away, a swirling maelstrom of light hung in the highest portion of this place.

Just as Randidly steadied himself and began to resist the vicious significance of this place with his own Nether Core, the air flickered in front of him. At first it was just a silhouette, but then the details sharpened. Randidly saw a humanoid with a tall stance and broad shoulders, with bristling brown fur covering most of his body and glowering eyes.

Commandant Wick stood in front of Randidly and smiled.

“You…” Randidly whispered but then started at how much the word echoed out in this place. The mist around him began to tremble.

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Without noise, Commandant Wick chuckled. Then he began to release a strange keening that caused Randidly’s ears to ring. It was not exactly speaking, but Randidly could tell it was a type of communication. Wick’s mouth didn’t even move as he released this message. Just the cadence, humming against his skin, felt so familiar; this was a true incarnation of the dead Commandant Wick.

Randidly narrowed his eyes, trying to catch the details of the message. The ringing in his ears grew more loud-

Randidly felt soft hands clamp on his ears. Shocked at the sudden presence, Randidly pivoted and looked into the face of his father, Ezekiel Ghosthound. He shook his head firmly and opened his mouth, his voice only as strong as the sound of dried leaves dragging across concrete. “To hear and understand the voice of the dead is to be dead. It is a sort of Truth, in this place. Welcome, Rand.”

Randidly felt his heart tighten. He looked at the familiar face of his father. The child he had been stirred, sending additional pulses through his Nether Core. He might have hacked his way through the darkness of his heart in order to control the subconscious of the Alpha Cosmos, but the scar of his parent’s divorce still sat in his chest. Seeing Ezekiel now took him entirely by surprise.

Especially since it confirmed that Ezekiel had died. Without even a word, rather than allow his rapacious Soulskill to devour others to provide him strength, Ezekiel had starved himself. He had wasted away, stubbornly refusing to sate his hunger.

“Tch, just a test between brothers,” Commandant Wick spoke with a certain note of sourness. Yet that emotion was muted by the similarly soft enunciation of actual words. His eyes flashed as he examined Randidly. “However, I cannot deny you have grown quickly, brother. Hehe, even forcing Mother Devick to eat your fist. Even from beyond the grave, I cheered for you.”

“What’s going on?” Randidly blurted out the words, wondering if this was a trap left by Laplace, mixing up the flow of time. Yet before he could continue that train of thought, he tensed as his words again bounced out in every direction.

While these two phantasms spoke in soft tones, his words contained a clarion ring of life. The banks of mist swirling around them stirred. The movements in the corner of Randidly’s eyes intensified. He could feel more shadows flitting around them, moving closer and closer. They made not a single sound, these strange shades of the dead, although Randidly could hear their keening calls, ringing in his ears.

His eyes sharpened before the two shades could answer him. The pressure of the significance inside Pine’s corpse remained extreme, but it didn’t lash against him. He looked from one to the other. “...are you two here to stop me?”

“On the contrary,” Commandant Wick chuckled and offered Randidly an elaborate bow. “We are to be your honor guard. Come, Randidly Ghosthound, let’s climb atop all of the corpses in the history of the Nexus together.”

Randidly, still confused, turned to Ezekiel. His father rolled his eyes. “Ignore his sarcasm; his remarks are true. We are truly here to assist in your Path. You have two advantages going for you. First… you’ve already discarded your body. Those who would be tempted by your lifeblood cannot be moved to ambush just a legend. And second…”

Ezekiel looked up toward the maelstrom of winking light in the distance. Even through the mist, it was a clear goal. “More than anything else, the dead resent those who refuse to die. Comparing an invasion from you versus a being boasting about being an Eternity… well, rather than liking you, we just hate Laplace more-”

An explosive impact up in the heights of Pine’s corpse echoed down with enough force to cause the banks of mist even at the bottom of this place to shiver and recede slightly. Randidly’s eyes flicked down to track the movement and his pupils dilated. In that brief moment where the surroundings weren’t obscured, he saw the layered ranks of the dead, waiting with dull eyes to march to war. Some were specters, some were skeletons with flesh hanging off their bones, some had archaic armor, some were naked.

But when he looked at them, the dead ceased staring up toward the source of the disturbance and regarded him with the patience of those who lived in the grave.

“We must go, Randidly,” Ezekiel whispered. He followed Randidly’s gaze and offered a small smile. “You have Erebus’ Baleful Waltz. In this place, we will give you the greatest weapon imaginable for that Skill. You will be Erebus incarnate, riding a wave of corpses to crest atop this existence.”

As his father spoke, Randidly felt a faint trembling in the surrounding significance. Although the inner environment of Pine was a desolate storm of currents, this pronouncement had the force to alter all those energies. Truly, the dead were offering Randidly something very valuable.

But the ease of receiving the offer left him somewhat bewildered. And because his grief for his silently deceased father still felt hot and tight in his chest, he couldn’t help but speak. “I can understand wanting to help repel Laplace, but why are you putting forth so much effort to assist me?”

“Laplace would scramble the boundaries of time. What, are we simply supposed to sit back and accept him blurring the boundary of life and death?” Commandant Wick folded his arms across his chest.

Ezekiel just looked at Randidly. “It is a favor, which you will need to repay. There are no tricks here. You will naturally come to understand our request when you travel to the core area of Pine.”

Another powerful blast echoed out from above. Randidly still didn’t quite understand the actions of the dead here, but he gritted his teeth and nodded. Both Ezekiel and Commandant Wick flitted upward at a high speed, so he kicked off the ground.

Spontaneously, Randidly felt the Dread Homunculus manifesting his Cloak of a Thousand Lightless Horizons. The damned and broken specters swarming through Pine’s corpse hopped upon his coattails and road up with him, waving broken weapons and screaming with glassy eyes.

They gathered momentum as they rocketed up through the misty space, intent on crushing the invader.