Devick laid on her back, her crimson hair arrayed in a fan out from her head. She looked up at the distance roof of the strange image space, content to just be for the moment. The far-off sight would stretch away anytime she moved for it, yet an almost unfamiliar feeling had settled in the pit of her stomach, beneath the places she breathed and digested. Even if the ceiling would move away, having her image experience such a transformation made her realize she could reach far-off goal, if she kept pushing.

And even if she didn’t… she hadn’t just given, in the contact with Randidly Ghosthound. She had felt his burning determination that animated his powerful body. Even if she didn’t reach the goal, she would just keep going. And that was fine too.

Despite these rather revolutionary and unreasonable realizations, a prodigious frown covered her face at the conversation topic. Which she had started, but the little monster was being a real bitch about it.

“No, the whole point is the method by which fire can turn consumption into power! It’s there that lies its ultimate advantage as an element; in desperate situations, it can overcome any sort of adversity via sacrifice,” Devick argued. “Well, obviously, blood and madness are also relatively strong, but if I had to pick-”

“Fire is an element, like any other,” Her companion, currently in the form of a small blue-haired monkey, countered. It also jabbed with its fingers for emphasis, in a very insulting manner. “All elements have advantages and disadvantages. This dangerous methodology of which you speak would be completely smothered by the presence of water. Just with the restrictive and cool presence, the power transformation cannot occur.”

“You have no sense of romance,” Devick growled. “How can you judge fighting strength by any metric except the heights of passion to which it can rise?”

“Very easily. Using logic.”

Devick couldn’t help but laugh. She rolled onto her side, looking over at the monkey, not really remembering why they started talking about this. She indulged in a few finger jabs of her own, finding the movement very cathartic. “You know, you seem perfectly willing to criticize my choice, but you haven’t offered any thoughts of your own. Which do you think is the most powerful element?”

For several long seconds, the monkey fidgeted. Its thick fingers picked at its fur. “Contemplating power has never brought me pleasure.”

“Ugh, seriously, such a killjoy,” Devick flopped over onto her stomach. She shifted some of her long hair out of the way and then waggled a finger at the creature. “Just because you have assisted me, doesn’t mean I will let you off the hook. How hard is it to make a choice? Choosing is the easiest and most satisfying pleasure I have. Maybe not the most powerful, but which is your favorite element?”

“Once you make a choice, your options have vanished. You become pinned in place. All you can do… is wait for disappointment. Others will take advantage of your weakness.” The monkey chittered between its words. “In the end, all elements, all choices- ow!”

Feeling very satisfied in her flick to the monkey’s head, Devick folded her arms across her chest. “Where did this negativity come from? If you felt confident enough to force yourself into my image and provide some minor pointers-”

“I rebuilt you from the ground up,” The monkey grumbled.

Devick grinned. “-then I will graciously take it upon myself to teach you the very valuable tool of being unreasonable. No longer will you suffer from petty concerns. Let’s begin immediately! Stop worrying about what choices others will make and have some confidence in your own choices. I want you to look to the sky and shout your deepest desire.”

“This is foolish,”

Devick put up finger guns. “Now you are getting it.”

They looked at each other for almost a minute. When it became clear that Devick would not back down from this, the monkey sighed. For a little bit more time it picked at its own fur. It rocked back on its heels and slowly wrapped its own torso in its long arms. It spoke, but in a whisper. “I simply do not wish to die. A mundane existence would have been enough. But no element can provide that.”

Then, almost to add an even more whimpering note to the admittance, it began to cough. Devick’s eyebrow twitched. But she couldn’t justify another flick, not when the monkey seemed helpless to stop the coughs. And now that Devick looked at her strange companion…

Wasn’t it looking relatively wan and pale?

“Are you really dying?” Devick asked.

“It is hard, in this place. The environment outside of my little sanctuary… is not kind. There is very little kindness in this place.”

“Definitely it’s irregular, but if you just wanted to say your element was kindness-” Before Devick could finish, the texture of their environment changed. The air became strangely oily. She blinked several times, trying to figure out what had shifted. Yet after what felt like a few seconds, she had the strangest sensation: how long had she been sitting here, blinking? Slowly, she got to her feet.

Next to her, the small monkey shivered. “You should flee.”

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*****

He felt suffused with a comfortable warmth. Small trails of regret wafted from him as he left that place like mist clinging to a boat drifting through a fogbank.

Randidly didn’t even recognize the sensation; it had truly been that long. But as he yawned and stretched, his jaw cracking pleasantly, the strangest realization came to him: he had just woken up. He had been asleep.

The sensation was doubly confusing because he felt the powerful, pure light of the sun pressing against his skin. His cheeks and arms tingled pleasantly at the new warmth. His feet no longer pressed against the places of temporal distortion and spatial danger, appearing on actual ground.

What the hell? Randidly’s mind spun, still clogged with drowsiness. The discomfort from his Soulspace is what grounded him most quickly, pushing away the lingering sense of oblivion. Those Truths still clamored against one another, riled and twisted and demanding they be allowed to reach the Pinnacle. His body shivered with the tension he housed. Wasn’t I just-

“And now you die, boy,”

Randidly looked up. A figure moved toward him at an almost offensively slow pace. The head of a spear gleamed, held in the perfect position for a thrust, yet with an image of such mediocrity behind it that barely threatened him. Almost belatedly, Randidly recognized that the warm tingling against his skin… was this man’s image barring its teeth against him.

His senses fed him more information. He stood in a stone room in front of a portal. The bodies of defeated Witch Kings from Tellus lay on the ground, literally broken dolls with twisted limbs and horrid wounds. The sides of the room glowed with the light from two lava floes. He felt the strangest sense of deja vu.

Randidly understood-- he had been hit with Laplace’s Samsara. He now had been tossed within his own memories. Specifically, he had been thrown back into one of the most harrowing fights of his life.

Opposite, Aegiant rushed forward intending to annihilate him.

Rather than being worried, Randidly’s lips shifted into a subtle smile as he watched the rather slow movements of Aegiant. He had come a very long way from his experiences on Tellus. However, if we are able to fight like this-

Randidly felt a strange temporal vortex around him shudder. He could suddenly feel the restrictions imposed upon him by Laplace’s technique. There was a tightening of the temporal waves and he felt a clear pulse of meaning from the depths of the vortex locking him in his own memories.

Aegiant is more powerful than Randidly Ghosthound.

The memory around him flickered. Suddenly Randidly’s body position changed. No longer did he feel the heat of Aegiant’s image against his skin. He was in another place, a deep darkness, with a growling form opposite him. “This was always your fate, for having the hubris of breaking through the physical limitation limitation- ugh!”

Randidly’s body moved, animated by half-remembered desperation in the memory and half by annoyance. His hand had just been torn from an impact with a more powerful individual: specifically Velio Dunn. When he flicked his wrist, he sprayed blood into Velio Dunn’s face. A pointless gesture, but one that brought him some vindictive glee.

They were fighting in the Shaft of the Nexus, right before Randidly had been forced to throw himself deeper in order to escape the superior Velio Dunn.

Okay, let’s not just play around in here. For the first time since entering into the Samsara experience, Randidly grasped for his images. To his great surprise… he found nothing. His body was empty of both Aether and Nether. The sensation threw him entirely. He drifted… and therefore wasn’t prepared when Velio finished savoring the moment of battle and moved again.

In a normal fight, it would have earned him a mouthful of blood. Yet despite the lack of energies through his form, his Vessel gave Randidly quite a few advantages.

Just like with Aegiant, the movements were relatively slow, compared to Randidly’s current capabilities. But he could do nothing but watch as the broader restrictions of this place activated. The temporal vortex around him tightened. He felt another pure note of meaning animating this memory, something akin to a Truth that kept him bound.

Randidly Ghosthound fled in the face of Velio Dunn.

Apparently, each memory had its own principle. Velio locked his powerful fingers together and hammered Randidly Ghosthound deeper into the Spine.

The memory shifted again. With a grunt, Randidly hit the ground. He was suddenly in a new memory, although this one didn’t appear to have any defining details. Shadowy emptiness stretched in every direction; the only presence was the ground beneath him. And when he tried to move, Randidly found himself stuck.

Well, this Samsara won’t matter if I can just break my way out of here. Randidly thought to himself. He squirmed a bit, but he was well and truly bound in place. Maybe he could just overwhelm these bindings with physical force, but that probably wouldn’t help his broader situation. Pursing his lips, he shifted his focus. So strange that I don’t have access to my images, but the Truths are still about to rip open my Soulspace… well, luckily, I learned a new overpowered method. This Samsara might be strong, but as long as I can condense another scrap of Shallah energy-

Randidly’s senses spread out, but he quickly realized a fatal flaw in this newly discovered solution. None of the energy in the environment was pure. Even the pittance of Aether flowing into him though Neveah and the vague memory of Nether spun out from his Nether Core had been affected by his existence.

Yet the presence of scraps of those energies did at least confirm he hadn’t been cut off entirely. And he likely experienced some sort of time dilation, lost in his memories.

However, one fact was obvious: In a place like this… it would not be possible to condense Shallah energy. Perhaps if he made a particular Nether Ritual to isolate the energy-

He heard a voice breathe into his ear, and suddenly he understood when he was.

“Give in, Randidly Ghosthound,” Yystrix as the Creature whispered to him, in the dark isolation which had spurred his first Class formation. “You are mine.”

Randidly Ghosthound is forged by Yystrix into the Vessel she had long hoped for.

The memory warped again. But because he had experienced it before, Randidly instantly recognized that he was back with Aegiant, the furious sun-image spear-user rushing toward him with violence on the mind. His skin burned with the heat of this place. And this time, Aegiant’s speed was pretty impressive.

Almost on instinct, Randidly brought up his spear to meet his opponent’s blow. The two weapons clanged against each other, the physical impact cracking the ground beneath their two feet.

Aegiant showed his teeth after their clash. “Impossible. Truly, you are a delight. Fine then, let’s see how your spear work has improved.”

The memories are changing, Randidly felt a sinking sensation in his chest. Shifting so that the underlying ‘Truth’ of each memory becomes more appropriate to the current me. And if I don’t break out of this cycle soon… I’ll just end up stuck in Laplace’s Samsara.

Forever.