The final barrier melted away. At the same time, a resonance began to emerge, with Randidly as the core.

Randidly felt the confusion and fear immediately from Laplace, curdling the air and weakening its world-state image that had so damaged time. His own Grand Fate gleefully pounced forward and began to rapidly establish its dominance in the unprotected environment. Yet Randidly stood still as the barrier in front of him disintegrated into a million glittering pieces, leaving the animating shape of Laplace exposed.

The resonance… felt strange.

Congratulations! Your Grand Fate Temporal Thaumaturgy Mends Eternity has grown to Level 1392!

Congratulations! Your Nether Penance Empty Vessel Fosakes the Path has grown to Level 1392!

“I will slaughter you all!” Laplace screeched, all of its grim self-possession evaporating in the face of a genuine threat. Yet with the opening, its rigid temporal weapons swiftly became unwound. The Eternity suddenly seemed too weak, so vulnerable.

All that remained was the decisive strike. Yet Randidly felt Tiamat’s hand on his shoulder and understood the intention of his image. He felt a similar trembling from his Nether Core, giving him the same warning. His eyes glowed as he suddenly saw how to move forward was to return to a Path.

Even though Randidly could step forward through the widening door, he lingered at the edge. He slowly drew the Alchemist’s Passport back and stored it away. Energies lashed back and forth, wrapping the two in a sea of chaotic collisions. Yet Randidly’s mind remained fixed on calculations. The Alchemist began to laugh.

This is a Pinnacle Event, or the closest I will come to one. I created the shape, even if not all the details are right… Randidly felt the rich energy that the step would bring him; transgressing the boundary would eliminate the last fragment of Laplace’s defense and allow Randidly to unmake this Eternity, even if it would probably be a slow and agonizing process for Laplace to actually die. The resonance urged him forward.

He could reach the Pinnacle by following that feeling, just like so many before him. And then he would be presented with the choice, the one explained so authoritatively by Nyx. As she said, he could not have it both ways. He would either step through the threshold or become the Threshold.

Yet…

“That is your way, not mine,” Randidly said quietly. Powerful forces howled around him in a churning maelstrom of force. “I do not need your Paths.”

He did not step forward across the Threshold. He did not step forward and birth a universe from the slow death of Laplace-- honestly, Randidly had enough trouble with supporting universes as it was. Instead, he smiled.

“...we deserve better than this fighting. Even you, Laplace. So the blow I strike will be the blow you’ve always asked for, with every action you’ve taken.” Randidly enunciated every word, his voice humming down to somewhere deep in the underlying fabric of the universe. And as he spoke, his intent became more and more clear. “You have played with the flow of time. You’ve unhitched the narrative connections that add context to life, and gleefully too. So this is your Ghasthund, Laplace; may it be all you’ve always pursued. I might be blind to Truth, but you are numb to Weight.”

Without a barrier, the words could move forward and touch the deepest aspects of Laplace. Just like that, the universe shifted.

Laplace was an Eternity, a collection of Accumulated significance and history. Yet it was a corrupted being of Nether traits, one which broke down the fundamental bonds which gave Nether its punch.

So Randidly kicked out the rest of its support structure and gave the monster exactly what it had asked for. While the storm continued to rage around their conflict, the typhoon-force winds and world-ending explosions had become the lightest breeze. Laplace had become completely Weightless, unable to grasp anything, lost in its own confusing and twisted history.

Laplace was like a world-champion bodybuilder thrown into an environment without gravity. All its bulging muscles could only quiver as it tumbled around helplessly.

An old monster like this will eventually adjust, Randidly readily admitted as he observed the shift in temporal currents. They wrapped around him but felt as smooth and glittering as silk. Not an encumbrance or a burden at all, with all the weight of only hearing a story about history, rather than experiencing it. But for now… precisely due to how long you have lived and behaved this way…

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Randidly began weaving Nether together as he returned to his body. He took a step back from the bloody body of the fat-armed serpent. He gestured and created Nether Rituals reinforced by Weight, restricting Laplace’s influence. The Eternity seemed to realize what was happening and lashed out by summoning those tomes, but now the most dangerous portion was the sound of fluttering pages. The words and traditions upon the page were naught but air as they lost the accumulation of their history.

Two things happened at the same time as Randidly began sealing this Eternity until he could rid the Nexus of the problem. First, the glittering sense of momentum, that promise of power he had felt in front of the “Pinnacle’ threshold, vanished. The Alchemist used delicate fingers to extract a very special ingredient out from the process.

At the same time, Randidly’s Nether Core began to pulse in a determined frequency and accelerate its rotations. His Aether and Nether were so intrinsically connected that he began to drift closer to experiencing an Eternity.

But for now, his attention turned elsewhere.

“You will regret not ending me while you could.” Laplace hissed the words. “With every fiber of my being, I will seek out and punish your people until I have eliminated all evidence of your foolishness-”

“That’s what waits outside the Nexus, isn’t it?” Randidly practically ignored the Eternity. He stood arms akimbo and squinted up at the pillar of light holding back the darkness. “Desperate, petty individuals scrabbling at the door to godhood. Well, that’s fine. I have a way to deal with them. And you will be my one warning, so I need you alive and yapping like this. But first-”

Randidly looked up at the sky and spread his arms. The pressure Laplace had wielded had vanished entirely. So when Randidly’s potent Nether Core began to stir the significance in the area, all the broken remnants from their collision gathered at his whim. With the whole chamber as a stage, he wove a grand Nether Ritual that engulfed them all.

*****

Devick watched Randidly Ghosthound’s back the entire time. Her nerves had been twisted back and forth like an over-wrung dishrag. She felt sharp spikes of elation followed by deep gulfs of fear as Aether and Nether clashed in front of her. And she felt it when he won. All the pressure from the serpent monster vanished. Yet obviously, that bastard Randidly wouldn’t bother to take a break. No, he launched directly into his next quest, creating a giant Nether reaction that rapidly expanded from their position.

She released a breath. Next to her, the monkey popped and became…

Devick blinked at the new form. Then she slapped her hands across her mouth in order to cover up a blooming grin. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

Because Pine had transformed into a partially translucent, grey-furred, spectral puppy. It looked up at her with wide eyes, its oversized ears flopping adorably across its face as he considered her. “What is he doing now? How will he destroy all that darkness?”

What am I, a fucking mind reader? Devick glanced again at Randidly. Although… if I could read minds… hehehe, I wonder if sometimes he takes peeks at me when he thinks I’m not looking, or thinks- ahem ahem, stay focused. Celebrations and post-climax climaxes can wait a bit. Randidly right now…

The ghost hound next to her continued to look at Devick with absolute trust, so she really examined Randidly and tried to figure out his intentions. She saw his expanding Nether Ritual. She felt the fact that his tension hadn’t diminished, even as Laplace had been neutralized, rolling around helplessly in front of Randidly.

Devick nodded slowly. “I don’t think he will destroy all that darkness. Just like he left Laplace alive. After all, that’s… the subconscious of the Nexus? All of the dead souls and discarded images? You can’t just cut that away.”

“If we do not, it will smother us. It has become too large, too onerous.” Pine said quietly. “It is proof of… all of our failings. That part is better off cut away and slaughtered.”

Randidly appeared between them. “You cannot just ignore or force away your failures. Otherwise… well. You end up like Elhume.”

A bleak expression crossed the puppy’s face, but it shook its head after a few moments. It watched Randidly, whose hands still threw out complex patterns of Nether. Pine said. “What is your intention?”

“To bring the Nexus into alignment. To prevent it from collapsing under the accumulated weight, from earlier mismanagement.” Randidly grimaced. “It will not be easy. That weight… honestly, the negativity is insane. I guess its still hard for me to conceptualize the grudge that can build over three thousand years of fighting and killing. But I think it’s possible.”

“Is this Nexus worth saving? Simply move the individuals to your Alpha Cosmos, Randidly Ghosthound. Allow… this place, this body, to collapse. None will mind the switch and you will achieve a fresh start.”

Randidly looked at Pine, pausing in his work. Beginning with just a small movement, he shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. This universe is worth saving.”

You are worth saving, Randidly’s eyes said to the ghost hound hand sitting in front of him.

The dog sat absolutely still. But Devick could tell from its downcast gaze it did not believe him.