“How lovely,” Devick whispered. The telescopic rainbow light created by Randidly blurred the details of the fight, but also filled her with a strange sense of reassurance. He moved with power and purpose.

The same sort of purpose he showed when he held me down and kissed me.

Devick touched her blushing cheeks and tried to focus back on the attack Randidly had just created. It was the loveliest dawn and the most dramatic sunset. She felt like she could walk out into that light and it would be the warmest and most relaxing water. She could drift in it and finally feel at peace.

…at least for a while. Heh, having the opportunity to bring that goody-two-shoes Randidly into a hot spring would be… heheh. Doesn’t his kiss prove I’m starting to corrupt him a little bit? When I have more time with him, I wonder what else I can convince him to do…

Kekeke…

Devick’s little revelry was interrupted by the monkey, who took the initiative to clamber into her arms. She squeezed him. “Make sure you tell me if you are about to pop.”

“Tch, after all I’ve taught you, that mouth of yours… your only real talent is pissing others off…” The monkey grumbled, but the voice was subdued. The two fell silent and watched the fight.

*****

Prolonged exposure to the tension in Laplace hurt.

All the compressed history contained within Laplace vibrated out through Acri and into his body. The vibration affected him on a cellular level, rupturing and tearing even his reinforced Vessel. Yet he pried open the door of opportunity with this suffering; Randidly gritted his teeth and leaned forward, even as the Eternity was so shocked by his rapid handling of the Samsara that it couldn’t mount an effective resistance.

Randidly took that opening-- he stabbed his Grand Fate as deep as it would go into the fleshy serpent with the intent to deeply wound it.

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 1101!

Congratulations! Your Nether Penance Empty Vessel Forsakes the Path has grown to Level 1101!

Randidly’s Grand Fate, as it accumulated Skill Levels, possessed an inexorable pull. He swam into the dense aura of the Eternity will all his reinvigorated Willpower surging through his body. Perhaps because of finally having obtained the tools he needed in order fight against Laplace, he seemed to surge with motivation.

But if just Laplace’s aura hurt, physical contact with the Eternity was an excruciating experience of annihilation.

It only took a few seconds of grinding contact, temporal healing against the filmy, warping influence of Laplace, for Randidly’s expression to turn grim. Overcoming the Samsara is one thing… but the deeper I press into its body…

Despite all the support of the Creeds, Randidly’s Vessel shuddered underneath the weight of time that the Eternity had experienced. Those projectile tomes were just the briefest fraction of the history it had experienced. Despite having superior Nether, Randidly couldn’t make up for the lack of accumulation.

In terms of foundation, he was woefully outmatched.

And right as the discomfort began to mount, Randidly felt the shift in the Eternity’s body. Laplace’s blank gaze finally focused. Hate warped its features. At the same time, the wide expanse of history it contained tightened into a vicious river of acid. The flow spun around and then stabbed at the point of contact.

Wave after wave washed over Randidly Ghosthound, each one attacking and squeezing him.

Randidly leaned forward, his grip tightening on Acri. Perhaps he would have pulled the spear out and refocused his efforts, had not the stirring of all Laplace’s history briefly provided clarity to the depths of its body. There, Randidly caught the briefest glimpse of a sophisticated Nether Ritual. He narrowed his eyes. That’s the target. As long as the core formation in the Eternity is wounded, I’ll be able to handle it.

The current of history slammed into Randidly’s body. He felt his skin beginning to shred, weakened by the rapid passage of time and eroded by the impact of Laplace’s significance. His own translucent significance mixed freely with his Grand Fate, meeting and forcing back the constant assault.

Congratulations! Your Skill Randidly Ghosthound, Executive of Nether Reborn (GD)(U) has grown to Level 1960!

“All I need to do…” Randidly’s jaw felt rusted, with the constant pressure of Laplace’s experience pressing against him. His arms trembled and he felt himself being steadily forced backward; inch by inch, Acri’s blade began to emerge from Laplace’s flesh. “Is keep advancing forward. Once I can reach that central formation…”

The point of contact created an expanding dome of distorted space. Each second, each wave of pressure that Randidly’s Vessel endured, the dome grew larger. Aether and Nether hissed and spat and devoured and detonated and clashed, over and over again. The two fundamental world-state images clawed huge gashes in one another. Distantly, Randidly sensed Devick and Pine retreating, as the conflict maintained its status quo.

Congratulations! Your Skill Yyrflesh Vessel of the Alpha Yggdrasil has grown to Level 1701!

Laplace hit Randidly with another scouring wave of significance. The ground beneath his feet could stand the reverberations and evaporated directly. Storm clouds filled the wide space, so conducive to creating Truth. Now the infinite sky just provided a reflection of chaos. Randidly lifted his chin and glared right back into the maw of Eternity.

A breath of significance slithered out around his defensive barrier of translucent significance and ripped through Randidly’s right pectoral muscle. His blood sparkled in the air between them for a moment, before being compressed and annihilated by the distorted forces of time and space.

“I’m losing right now…” Randidly said the words calmly. His toes flared out and he gripped space, keeping his stance steady even after the ground beneath him had vanished. “And this is the hardest fight I’ve ever had. Yet exactly because of how difficult it is, I refuse to stop. So long as I keep searching-”

Randidly began to pour his dwindling pile of VPs into his Duty Creed. Although he accumulated more with each passing second, Laplace would not wait for him to narrow the gap in power between them. Strengthening Duty allowed Randidly to endure a little bit better, even though it didn’t stop him from being forced back slowly. But after spending 1000 VPs, Randidly finally received a new notification, one he had been betting on.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

You have condensed a Vessel Layer! Current Vessel Layers: 4

For earning a new Layer, you have unlocked access to a new Creed. Creeds will be distributed differently, based on the Vessel Layer. For the fourth Vessel Layer, you have randomly been distributed a Creed.

You have received the Creed Tolerance.

(Creed) Tolerance: A Creed for those who have experienced a variety of encounters and is willing to accept influences from a plethora of sources. User will receive a slight boost in mental acuity depending on the total number of oppositional and supporting factors at play in any given situation. As the Creed increases, user will recover from all sorts of wounds very quickly. Those with a well-developed Tolerance Creed with have an increased chance of convincing enemies to become neutral parties, or even allies. This Creed makes it easier to develop Skills and images related to diversity, ecosystems, weather patterns, spiritual temperance, corruption, political machinations, resistances, and taming.

As the relative Dominance of the Tolerance Creed increases, user will be comfortable in most situations. The population of the Alpha Cosmos will subconsciously soften their views toward those newly added to the body of Randidly Ghosthound. In addition, as the Tolerance Creed grows, the Alpha Cosmos will naturally develop a Spirit World from the collective unconscious of its people. Spirit Creatures will have Levels and Skills. Special methods will allow the population of the Alpha Cosmos to explore the Spirit World.

“Two things can simultaneously be true,” Randidly pulled his lips back from his teeth. He instantly dropped 3000 VPs into his new Tolerance Creed. Gratefully, the pressure against him eased, due to the aspect of granting him bonuses based on the number of forces at play. “First, I am alone here, facing off against Laplace. And second… I have an innumerable number of people behind me, supporting me. Their wishes align with my own. Some purposefully, some unconsciously.

“Relationships between intelligent beings are messy and complicated. But they are vital.”

Randidly felt the billions of lives in existence within the expanded Alpha Cosmos, growing to tens of trillions when considering all the monsters, animals, and assorted small lifeforms that existed within his Vessel. He felt the reassuring pulse of the Tolerance Creed relaxing his muscles. Unlike the iron-boned Duty or the fire in the belly of Vengeance, Tolerance was a tingling coolness that gave his impressive Vessel a little extra give.

Tolerance became possibility, which manifested as sensitivity. Suddenly, the presence of all of those overlapping wishes became much more relevant.

Each dream from within the Alpha Cosmos felt like a small hand, patting, pulling, or tugging at him. The motivations were different and the aims of the nudges were varied. But Randidly felt his body tingling with all the new little vectors he could manipulate.

There were hopes for a safe Alpha Cosmos. He felt the support of those individuals he had interacted with on Expira, felt engulfed in the thankfulness from the Nemesai world. There were small, unconscious thoughts tinged with selfishness. There was an entire lake of envy, well-meaning and caustic, the originator fantasizing about how wonderful it would have been if they had been born as Randidly Ghosthound, been given his opportunities.

Randidly felt an internal easing, even through the harsh pain of enduring Laplace’s power. Because he had given up his independent existence to become a Legend. Each one of these wishes was a breath of life.

“Can you feel them all?” Randidly’s toes tightened on the air. He released a hissing breath, leaning into the pressure against him. The muscles of his right leg bulged. His calves and quads screamed in agony as their long strands frayed and tore. Waves of temporal damage pounded against his face. “They cannot feel us back in the same way. And yet…!”

Randidly took a step forward. Acri sank a little deeper into Laplace’s body. His Grand Fate could expand a little bit further, spreading out its stifling aura. His grin was wicked. “And how can we not celebrate their small moments of wonder?”

He wondered if his intended target was listening. But for the moment, that was a challenge he didn’t yet need to face.

Of course, the extra pressure from the added depth eradicated Randidly’s presence of Truthlessness. But that took a small moment, which allowed Randidly’s left foot to find better purchase in his new position. He leaned forward again. His muscles trembled. He found his balance.

As he prepared to take the next step, he began to mobilize some of his other weapons. All the chaotic distortions in the ever-expanding dome were wild and potent. A poorly conceived touch would brush would tear a body in two. But the corkscrewing reverberations were just more ingredients. He added 2000 more VPs to Tolerance, bottoming out the VPs he currently possessed, and gratefully accepted the extra few measures of mental acuity.

Every moment involved a thousand details. He might have discarded his Truth that each one of those details mattered, but the underlying philosophy still lived in his Skills

Randidly knew that if space around him hadn’t become unstable soup from the conflict, steam would have been streaming out of his ears. His brain settled into its super-active state, nudging and redirecting all the force in the area. The process was slow, but the air around him began to churn.

If Laplace wanted to overwhelm with the raw weight of history, Randidly would just be sharper in his manipulations. He would have to be.

“Most would not thank me. They would complain of what I didn’t provide for them, sneering at my inability to justify my existence.” Randidly released a long breath. “And that is a horrible feeling. But it’s not about them. It was never about them, even while entirely about them; when you think about all the negative individuals, you are just losing sight of the truth.”

Congratulations! Your Skill Lethal Tide of Izanami (GD) has grown to Level 1599!

Congratulations! Your Skill Arch-Heretic’s Thaumaturgy (P) has grown to Level 1543!

Randidly’s lip curled up. “Heh, it’s probably difficult to listen to me talk about Truth, huh? But my Truth is this: I would have fought for the universe inside of me, even if there were only a handful of lives sheltered there. I would fight for a single life. I would fight for a promise I made to someone I loved. How they feel about me after is not my concern.

“It’s that simple. This is what I chose. I found my path, without a Path. I will not stop following it, no matter what is in my way.”

Congratulations! Your Skill Lethal Tide of Izanami (GD) has grown to Level 1634!

The forces within the dome rumbled out their independence, even while they churned at his direction. Randidly sharpened the forces into a razor and slashed again and again at the river of time attempting to drown and erode him. He eased the pressure against his body. The muscles and veins along his legs bulged once more. He managed another step.

He forced Acri a little bit deeper. Through the haze of significance, his eyes were fixed on the central working. He wavered for a few seconds but managed to endure. The exhaustion in his muscles had grown to become a constant agony. The steely Duty in his bones kept him focused but the sensation wasn’t comfortable.

Let’s carve open a road. The Homunculi Pursues Perfection. Singularity Engulfs the Finite. The First Tree Suffers Only Fealty.

For the second time, Randidly Ghosthound’s three images moved together without the benefit of Truth. Almost instantly, he could feel an improvement on the second cooperated. They ceased chasing the emotional resonance they had previously used to connect with one another. Instead, the images fixated on their purpose; they moved together with root, claw, and oblivion. The vicious Homunculus first, armed with the obliterating weight of a singularity.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Homunculi Pursues Perfection (GD) has grown to Level 1400!

Congratulations! Your Skill Singularity Engulfs the Finite (GD) has grown to Level 1361!

When the next wave of significance cracked and fell to pieces, Yggdrasil stilled the follow-up with an imperious glance. A brief period of stillness emerged between Randidly and Laplace. As it turned out, neither missed the opportunity.

Randidly took a step forward and fed more of the kinetic force into Lethal Tide of Izanami. It lived and breathed as it slithered around the confrontation, a living being with a steadily growing accumulation of destructive hate. It was a python, squeezing the two even more tightly together. Randidly cackled, feeling all the delicately balanced forces in the air around him.

Congratulations! Your Skill Motif of Unimagined Tolls (GD) has grown to Level 1496!

Congratulations! Your Skill Deviations Inevitable Machinations (GD) has grown to Level 1913!

Yet his foe was not idle, either.

Laplace produced a small charm and squeezed it within one of his fat hands. Ominously, a crack formed in the ceiling of the room. And instantly, Randidly felt the presence of the bloated shadow of Pine, looming above them all.

The Eternity offered Randidly a grin of its own. “Your existence is problematic. But which matters more to you; this pyrrhic quest of wounding me, or your little bubble of a universe?”