For a long second, Randidly and Laplace stared at one another.

“This place will fall.” Laplace hissed, the intensity of the words causing a few spurts of blood out of the wounds to its eyes. Randidly tightened his grip on Acri and shoved the plant spear just the smallest margin forward, ignoring the rumbling feedback from the frozen time within the Eternity.

A small retaliation, but it also gave him a small amount of time to consider.

He felt the dangerous subconscious roiling above and knew he would need to act. If anything, Randidly’s passage up through the waves of the dead had only made him more wary of what existed within the twisted psyche of the Nexus, lurking amongst its near-infinite dead. Obviously, his Vessel was more than enough to withstand the darkness of the Nexus washing over him. And Randidly probably had methods to severely limit the fallout from such a detonation.

Tsk, of course Elhume still somehow finds a way to cause trouble. Ranididly’s eyes flashed upward. He structured the Nexus this way in order to prevent Pine from degrading too quickly; even the darkness was recycled and used as a buffer. Yet now that so much time has passed, that darkness will kill Pine just as surely as it previously saved him…

Yet two facts twisted Randidly’s face into a grimace. First, the disposition of the dead themselves. They wouldn’t do much damage at first, but he knew that those powerful figures who had been dead for a long time would affect the living. They wouldn’t be able to help themselves, so long bubbling in the wicked cauldron of desires. These souls were tainted water being dumped into a creek. Downstream, the sickness would spread.

Secondly, Randidly didn’t trust the machinations of Pangu, and couldn’t help but show his teeth as he thought about all those reflected dolls waiting on the upper portions of the tower of the dead. It was quite possible the eventual rupture of the concentrated subconscious was part of another plot.

Honestly, Randidly was sick of plots.

Congratulations! Your Skill Lethal Tide of Amenonuhoko (GD) has grown to Level 1654!

The ceiling of the chamber continued to disintegrate as the fat eye of all Pine’s dead weight gazed down at them. Even the churning forces around their confrontation began to distort underneath its pressure.

It was literally a massive sphere of darkness and death. It grew rapidly, filling up half the split ceiling after only a few seconds.

Randidly needed to stop the situation from destabilizing further, but he also was unwilling to take a step back, now that his Grand Fate grappled and mixed through the body of the Eternity. He huffed out a breath. “I suppose this is where I put my money where my mouth is. I talk about all those who support me… but I need to give them a chance. So-”

Randidly unleashed a reverberating noise and felt the response immediately. Communication out became easier, due to the tear Laplace had made in this sacred location. A few seconds crept past. From where she had been observing the continued clash with the surviving remnants of the Vulpis Squad, Charlotte Wick blazed like a meteor and crashed down right outside the kinetic bubble Randidly supported.

“You called?”

*****

Charlotte had been hoping with all her heart when she heard the call.

Hoping they would win and overthrow the tyranny in the Nexus. Hoping the wounds in her heart would cease bleeding and give her a moment of peace. Dearly hoping that their battle would not require more sacrifices in order for the day to end in their victory.

Hoping she would have one more shot to prove herself, to earn her title as the Knight of the Ghosthound. Wishing her arms would cease shaking, drowned in exhaustion and anxiety. Yet just as forcefully she hoped she would not need to prove herself further. Even as the air changed and the air buzzed with tension, she hoped.

She felt too tired to face the complexities of her heart.

Yet the call came.

Her body answered before she could even consider her true feelings.

Randidly Ghosthound beckoned his Knight and she leapt to his side. She avoided the broken bodies of dolls, the devastation of the earlier clashes, the bloodstains from the fallen warriors, and ascended up through the distorted air. She crossed into a sacred space through a wide gash in an Aether shield, following her instincts. As soon as she arrived, she felt a pang of fear: she looked around at the tableau and barely understood what she was looking at.

Light and darkness faced one another, a dawn below and oblivion above. The hungry waves of oblivion lapped down to touch the ground and eradicate them all.

Charlotte recognized Devick and her shock of crimson hair, standing with a strange golden monkey off to the side. Yet beyond them was the ‘light’: a chaotic mix of spitting space-time, filmy and churning, a kaleidoscope made using violence rather than color and manifested in the middle of the massive room. The more she looked, the more image fragments she sensed, the more Charlotte realized that light in this instance might even be more destructive than the darkness.

From the central portion of the light, she felt the images of the Ghosthound. They felt curiously… inert to her senses, yet extremely potent despite the sensation.

She had intended to rush to Randidly’s side, but the air grew thick. A buffeting wind hit her with enough force to almost spike her against the ground. Charlotte marshaled her Primal Ground image as best as she could, landing and steadying herself. She looked at Randidly Ghosthound’s back, his silhouette clear even through all the spatial distortions. His images prowled around him. “You called?”

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Her heartbeat pounded in her ears. She had the strangest urge to laugh; of course, the help he needed would be on a battlefield where she could follow so little of the powers at play. But when Randidly spoke, he took her by surprise.

“First, I need to apologize.” The Ghosthound said, his voice resonating through the entire room. At least for the moment, her body stilled to listen. “You’ve given so much to help me, but I need to ask you for more. It… is not an easy thing, being my Knight. I will not fault you if you take a step back now. Because I need you to hold up the sky, while I handle this bastard.”

“You will all DIE!” The blurred antagonist opposite the Ghosthound briefly flared its own existence. The details of its form resolved into a fat, wounded serpent whose world-state image caused the environment to shake. Distorted claws reached up and attempted to drag Pine down even more quickly. Yet Randidly released his own hissing exhale and the maelstrom of forces contained within the light constricted around his foe. The distorted claws vanished and the serpent twisted and melted back into a vague threat. At the same time, scoops of the ground exploded almost randomly in the environment, leaving perfect little craters around them.

A familiar feeling rose in Charlotte’s chest and stuck in her throat. Awe. As promised, the Ghosthound had climbed his way up to the Pinnacle. He grappled with those powers that had created the Nexus and ruled it for so long.

And now he needed her help. Randidly cleared his throat and continued. “The choice is yours. But I need your assistance, Charlotte Wick.”

Charlotte raised her gaze. Her palms were damp with sweat. A small voice in the back of her head asked why Randidly Ghosthound had summoned just her, rather than the whole remnant of the Vulpis Squad. With the support of the others-

But she pictured the rest crouched and slumped on the battlefield. Most still mourned. And Raymund Ballast, their powerful leader, cradled the delicate body of his brother, unwilling to tear his gaze away from the sibling he had failed for even a second. Besides, did I not wish for this? The chance to prove myself? To have the role of the Ghosthound’s Knight actually matter?

If I follow him… will I climb to that height as well?

Charlotte Wick looked up at an impossible task. Darkness seeped outward, not seeming to really approach, just engulf more and more. Randidly had admitted he was going to request she hold up the sky for a time. It was impossible for her to do so.

For the second time in the last minute, she took a step forward without thinking.

“I will do it.” She flexed her fingers and understood exactly why she had accepted. For the same reason Randidly Ghosthound had bled and bled and struggled and pushed himself in order to make it to this point. Because there were others that could not.

And maybe she could.

From the crackling, buzzing battlefield, there was a brief second of silence. Then an object arched out and rolled to Charlotte’s feet. “You will need to stand as the central pillar, but you won’t need to stand alone. I think… I made a mistake, when I accepted you as my Knight. Not in my choice, but in the structure of what I was offering.

“In the end… I am not the important aspect. Heh. I am the Legend sitting in the periphery of the sagas you will create, the liege who lays upon you the geas of a quest, but I do not drive its development. No, Helen was always the one who breathed life into every aspect of the role. So take her last gift to me, because it should be yours to wield. Because it is the weapon that takes a bold Knight to wield.”

Charlotte looked down in wonder at the swirling ball of liquid metal in front of her. Yet as though sensing her gaze, the strange shifts calmed down until a heavy crimson gauntlet lay before her. Each joint radiated an aura of solidity and power. Gems sat on the knuckles of the four fingers, three of them pulsing with a steady light. The pressure in the room was incredible, but Charlotte felt curiously isolated as she knelt down and picked up the gauntlet.

The metal was almost hot to the touch. But she felt an instinctive connection to the gauntlet.

A split second later, another object clattered and rolled to follow the first, still steaming from its passage through the storm of forces. This one was an ancient-looking horn, carved of aged wood with golden veins running across its length. Charlotte Wick slipped her left hand into the gauntlet and picked up the horn with her right.

Charlotte felt a tingling sensation from both, as new doors opened for her.

As the Ghosthound continued, his voice seemed to hum out of the two objects passed to Charlotte as much as it came from his warped silhouette. “I name you Knight of the Tide, the figure who will follow in the wake of the Ghosthound. In my absence or indisposition, I hope that my Heralds will follow your lead as they would my own. My messes are your messes. My victories are your victories. When you are overmatched, do not flinch. Because behind the tide is the whole ocean. And the dreams of the Alpha Cosmos will lend you aid when you need them most.”

Notifications began popping up in front of Charlotte.

Congratulations! Incorporating outside influences…

Recalculating…

Congratulations! You have bonded with a Unique Item! You have bonded with the Gauntlet of the Tide (U). A powerful artifact formed from the deft touch of Randidly Ghosthound and the potent remnant wish of his first Knight. All Stats +200.

As the owner of the Gauntlet of the Tide, you have gained access to the Skill (Fusion Domain) Helen’s Sea, Cradle of Unlikely Lives. Warning! The Skill Level of this artifact is currently set at 1500 due to the actions of others. You will only be able to access a portion of this Skill’s power until your own Skill Level grows!

Congratulations! You have learned the Skill (Fusion Domain) Helen’s Sea, Cradle of Unlikely Lives! Skill Level set at 200.

Congratulations! You have bonded with a Unique Item! You have bonded with the Horn of the First Herald (U). A powerful artifact that forms the second of the two iconic equipment of the Knight of the Tide. Forged by Randidly Ghosthound in order to make use of the potency of the Alpha Cosmos in his absence.

Congratulations! You have learned the Skill Crest of the Cosmos’s Wave (M) Lvl 1!

Crest of the Cosmos’s Wave (M): A powerful Skill wielded by the Knight of the Tide enables the user to draw on the power of those individuals standing behind the Knight and channel a portion of their Willpower and desires into each of their strikes. Ability to incorporate influences from the Alpha Cosmos grows with Skill Level. Strain of incorporating additional influences decreases with Skill Level. A slight chance of conjuring a phantasm from one of the previous Knights of the Tide when your wishes align with theirs.

Congratulations! You have learned the Skill Depth of the Universe’s Undertow (M) Lvl 1!

Depth of the Universe’s Undertow (M): The second of two Skills gifted by the Horn of the First Herald. While the first Skill increases the combat performance of the Knight of the Tide, the second blesses them with powerful instincts to sense the thoughts and desires of the Alpha Cosmos. Drawing on the collective subconscious, the Knight of the Tide will always have an inkling of where and when to appear. In dramatic situations, the Knight of the Tide will have greatly increased speed and reactions, so they might insert themselves in the most valuable opportunity. Effects increase with Skill Level.