Randidly felt the impact on the solid ground only distantly. For better or for worse, the developments he refused to acknowledge left him briefly blinded.

His head rang, his torso ached, and his mind continued to spin as he tried to grasp what exactly he had just experienced. Different experiences fought for prominence in his bedraggled consciousness.

Memories began to flash before his eyes as he wondered how he had arrived at this painful place. He felt the first physical impacts of the tomes slamming into this body, he felt the triumph of Yggdrasil and the screeching alarm of the Stillborn Phoenix, he saw the smirk on Laplace’s face as its tongue drilled through his chest and wrapped around his heart-

Randidly’s eyes snapped open as he clenched his teeth and forced aside his own stupidity. He immediately groaned, as his vision revealed blurred color and very little else. Despite his powerful body, being used as a battering ram through Pine’s final barrier did not feel excellent. He managed to flop over onto his back and begin to push himself up onto his elbows to get a look around.

He saw sunlight filtering through a deciduous forest along a worn dirt path. Down the meandering pathway, Randidly could also see a small wooden cabin. The place felt… warm and alive.

Abruptly, Randidly’s expression twisted as the original reason for his distraction reasserted itself. Shit, what happened with my Grand Fate-

Yggdrasil sounded a warning. A woozy Randidly spun around to see a net of golden roots weaving themselves together in front of his body and a sneering Laplace swinging one of its fat hands in a wide swipe. Randidly was happy to see that Laplace also seemed a bit the worse for wear, having passed through the barrier; not only was the flesh of Laplace’s head discolored as though it had been bruised, but the hand Randidly had used to blind its left eye had been bent into a hook and carved its vulnerable flesh.

Then the attack arrived and Yggdrasil could only weaken the attack. Randidly was sent sprawling backward, cracking through a treetrunk and becoming embedded in another. As Randidly forced himself back to his feet, he felt an unfamiliar tingle emanating from the core of his being.

He watched as Laplace turned away and began to draw itself quickly forward in the direction of the small cabin. Yet what caused the tingles through Randidly’s body were the strange grey whorls left in the air in the Eternity’s wake.

He blinked again, wondering if he was hallucinating. Then all the details of the past minute snapped together: what he now saw were the temporal wounds left just by Laplace moving through this area. The tingle strengthened as he recognized it. Randidly could sense that he could put off addressing them for now, but a secret itch would slowly grow.

Almost instinctively, Randidly raised his right hand. He felt the fabric of time stir at his attention. Very intuitively, he guided the eddies back into alignment. The distortions settled, the air became clean. Bigger wounds would probably require the thread he had removed from his binding to the Alpha Cosmos, but these were just messy distortions.

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 2!

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 3!

…

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 21!

Just with those few Levels, Randidly felt his connection to the fabric of time growing increasingly strong. Now he simply looked at the invisible tear left by the Eternity and it began to knit itself back together. His inner image regarding time became increasingly sturdy. However, his expression hardened.

But… if this is my Grand Fate… what the hell do I do for my Penance…

He felt furious, with all that violent emotion directed at himself. In the end, I failed to condense a Penance— my Nether Core rejected the choice to use this as a Penance. Was it really not enough? Although considering the ease that already I can address time, maybe I really took it too lightly. I forced the issue when I shouldn’t have. And now, all these Truths burning a hole in my Soulspace-

Randidly shook himself, cutting through his thoughts and trying to shake off the lingering effects of the impact. At the very least, he now possessed more awareness of the Eternity’s actions. He didn’t know exactly what to make of this strange vision they found in the core area of Pine’s Corpse, but he definitely knew he couldn’t allow Laplace to have free reign here. So while half of his attention began to prod his Nether Core and see if it would react naturally to the presence of his Truths, Randidly rushed down the path.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Within the Sanctum, the frame of Engraving continued to glitter, as useful as a cage without a door to hold a truant occupant.

He caught up to the Eternity just as its fat fingers ripped the door to the small cabin off its hinges. Randidly planted his right foot and leapt up into the air with a fist raised. He flexed the fingers of his hand and pulled power from his images. The Songstress of Absence still lingered on the other side of the barrier with its opposing tome and the merged Tiamat was horrifically wounded, but Yggdrasil had reached the maturity of its power.

Randidly gathered strands of life, revelation, and death energy into a massive spear. His emerald eyes narrowed. He also reached into his buzzing Soulspace and touched upon one of the Truths he had forged during his time with the Nexus.

Every detail matters.

At the last second, Laplace sensed his presence and whipped around. As it hissed and roared out a tempest of temporal violence, Randidly drove his conjured spear into the uninjured eye. His images and Nether spurted into the monster’s body, but this time Randidly felt the strangest sensation; just like the wounds Laplace left in existence, his body was riddled with temporal variances.

The awareness granted to him by his new Grand Fate once more proved its usefulness.

And while Randidly’s images had the tiniest foothold within the opponent’s body, he could directly heal those wounds. Randidly ignored the way his skin burned and body tore underneath the ravages of time and lashed back out. The conjured weapon pressed deeper.

His attention stilled fickle time. His emerald eyes glittered with satisfaction.

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 22!

…

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 91!

A hammering temporal explosion sent Randidly reeling back and spitting out a mouthful of blood. Laplace screamed out its agony as it blinked and struggled to see, with wounds to both of its eyes. Hitting the ground hard, Randidly rolled a bit away. He bit his lip, not wanting to miss the opportunity to wound this foe. His Nether Core still burned with power, so he closed his eyes and called on his Authority. The Fourth Authority, Animation Nova.

Life energy surged through his body, a brilliant ray of pure genesis birthed by his powerful history. With his powerful Privilege of the Half-Shallah, he sharpened the Authority so it became a directed blast that hit him and only him.

Although he didn’t intend it to be so, the sudden surge of wellness and rejuvenation rushing through his person toed the line of a ‘miracle’.

The few lingering wounds to his body healed at a rapid pace. His mental fatigue fell away. The blurred and dimmed Tiamat once more blazed with life. His emotional sea remained largely depleted, but Randidly straightened only a split second after first contact and cracked his knuckles.

As Laplace lurched back toward the cabin, Randidly noticed for the first time that the revealed entryway was not mundane in the least; although the interior of the cabin should have been revealed, all he could see beyond the removed cabin door was a deep darkness. Before he could close the gap, Laplace pushed its fat serpent body through the gap.

The First Authority: Seize.

Bracing his bare feet against the strange ground of this place, Randidly pulled the invigorating power of both his Fourth Authority and Yggdrasil through his limbs. Translucent Nether flowed rapidly to follow, the two flows running counter to one another and creating a rumbling friction. With all that power, he grasped the tail of the snake and yanked it back.

The two stopped dead, perfectly equal. Laplace twisted around and glared over its shoulder with bloody and blind eyes.

Via the Seize, Randidly once more began to heal the distorted existence of the Eternity.

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 109!

However, the ground beneath his feet exploded before he could accomplish much. Those four tomes from the convoy, halfway through fluttering through their pages, emerged and smashed into his body. The continued blaze of his Fourth Authority rapidly regenerated his shredded muscles, but Randidly frowned.

With a single tick of time, he made his decision: he maintained the First Authority and allowed Laplace to drag him down through the opening and into darkness. Two moons whizzed past and shattered his left leg, but the wounds healed almost immediately.

Across the threshold waited a vicious pressure that dragged them into a fall. Randidly gritted his teeth through the pain, then realized he recognized this; what ravaged them now were the very same forces he experienced from his Hierarchy of Burden.

“We are right at the edge of the Nexus,” Randidly whispered, feeling the truth of his words through Yggdrasil’s roots stretched out through the surrounding space. But as the forces of spatial distortion, shattered light radiation, entropy, and electromagnetic discharge ravaged their bodies, he and Laplace tumbled down the abyss running along the true limit of Pine's corpse. They flew close to the edge of a wall of Aether, the massive working that sustained the Nexus in the first place.

As Randidly gathered all his Aether and Nether, pulling Laplace closer to him, he hoped they wouldn't find anything too rotted at the bottom.