Randidly Ghosthound might have been deaf to Truth, but he could see the rejection in the small dog’s face as soon as he pronounced the universe worth saving.

Which was exactly what he had worried about, earlier. Randidly wouldn’t be able to do this alone.

His mind moved in a hundred different directions, guiding Aether and Nether outward to form the basis of a frame. He kept encountering trouble pushing the scope to the size he needed; the framework would need to contain the entire working and he rapidly ran out of steam, even with the thick significance he could create. Even more obnoxiously, there was a very unfortunate side effect of expanding his Nether to cover the whole of the Nexus-- he suddenly had a very good idea of how torn up the fabric of time had become in the hidden corners of the Nexus and now his Grand Fate began to raise a fuss.

It contracted in his chest, urging him to action, before gradually relaxing. From what he remembered from the description, this process would only grow more painful the longer he resisted the urge to correct the problem.

At the same time, the resonance from his Nether Core began more demanding. He had recreated a version of a Pinnacle event. Significance in the outside universe began to swirl around him in a way very much not conducive to his current project.

In preparation for him to experience an Eternity.

Yet despite all that, Randidly cleared quite a sizable section of his subconscious and pondered the problem of Pine. There are different sorts of miracles. Some that are impressible… and some that seem impossible.

He straightened his shoulders. Then Randidly Ghosthound began to assemble his ingredients.

*****

Due to the energies produced by the Ghosthound over the course of his fights, Pine didn’t feel hungry for the first time in centuries. Yet that only served to make him feel off-balance and uncomfortable. Change came and caught the universe soul unawares. After sensing the fall of Elhume and Fiero, witnessing an Eternity rendered inert…

Everything felt like a dream.

And that metaphor just made Pine wish he would soon wake up and everything would be over.

Behind their small cluster, the pillar of light that resisted the undeniable darkness of the universe began to fade. This shift was inevitable; In the end, all would eventually succumb to that darkness, Pine knew. He had carried it within his own body for too long to have any doubts. He had fed it and housed it, even as it whispered all the ways it would one day devour him.

Devick crouched down in front of him and scratched Pine behind his ears. “Keep up the good work, Pine. We can handle it from here.”

“Devick,” The Ghosthound cleared his throat.

Devick threw her crimson hair over her shoulder and raised her fists, as though they were about ot box. “If you think you can give me stupid orders in order to keep me safe, Randidly-”

“I was just going to suggest,” The Ghosthound stressed the word. He pointed across the rumbling ground. “That group that just arrived? That is the Order Ducis. Find Naffur Suite, tell him to give you an opening to strike. Beat back the sky. Just… keep the Nexus from being destroyed, will you?”

“I always do.” Devick flashed a smile before spinning away on her heel.

Pine and Randidly Ghosthound exchanged a glance; despite having very little else in common, both had spent enough time with the woman to understand who, in this room, would be most likely to accidentally destroy the Nexus.

Meanwhile, I herald its doom with only my existence. Pine thought. But… I suppose that’s not really an accident.

Randidly paused for a moment to crack his knuckles. He squinted at the groups flooding out of the Alpha Cosmos through the portals. His lips twisted. “We will need some help if we are going to do this.”

Pine felt oddly content, observing the Ghosthound. He was a being in constant motion. Flexing his fingers, chewing on his lip, his eyes flicking back and forth to capture more information. There was a restlessness that Pine envied

Right as Pine had thoughts thoughts, the black-haired man closed his eyes. All that buzzing energy disappeared. Aside from his physical body, the Ghosthound himself seemed to vanish.

More than anything else, this is what Pine envied when he looked at Randidly Ghosthound. The overwhelming self-possession to master his own existence, if even for a moment.

There was a rapid series of pops around them and soon five figures had appeared, emerging from the Ghosthound’s Alpha Cosmos. They all looked rather harried, but Randidly Ghosthound was back to his buzzing mode, gesturing casually around at the group. “Pine, this is Enmya, Lowanna, Neveah, Mrs. Hamilton, and the High Priest of the Winged Serpents. Everyone, this is Pine, the living seed of the Nexus.”

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And the noose that will suffocate us all. Pine thought but kept his musings to himself. He tried to remain stoic and mimic the Ghosthound’s stillness, but his ears kept flopping to the side.

This is a silly form, Pine sniffed.

The humanoid woman with her grey hair tied up in a bun, Mrs. Hamilton, raised her eyebrows as she scanned the environment. “So you are telling me we have bigger problems than just all that history crumpling up the Nexus?”

“Just think of it as a unique puzzle. With the added wrinkle of a cataclysmic time limit,” The Ghosthound offered her a half smile. “Mrs. Hamilton and Mr. High Priest, go with Lowanna. You’ll be handling the other half of the new framework. We don’t have much time, but with the three of you, you should be able to connect all the proper shapes. I’m having a bit of trouble maintaining the shell, so any assistance you might have-”

“I have been observing your process,” The dusky-skinned Lowanna answered. Pine stared at the black wicker bracelets on her two hands, fascinated. Lowanna nodded toward the flopping form of Laplace, who continued to be lost in his own weightless history. “Can you not utilize that thing?”

“What do you mean?” The Ghosthound frowned.

Lowanna shrugged. “Pilfer some of its history; it has plenty to spare. You are attempting to build a framework from the outside while remaining inside the object; you are certainly ambitious. But why not inflate your frame? Flood the interior with significance, even if weak and flawed, to add some outward pressure.”

“That’s… smart. Okay, do what you need to do.” The Ghosthound nodded. He pivoted and looked at Enmya. “You have… well, this won’t be fun for us. I need to run around a bit, but I’m going to manifest my Yggdrasil image over there. Head to the base and create a solid foundation. As many anchors as you can manage in a short amount of time. It’s going to be the axis on which all the rest hinges.”

On cue, a massive tree manifested on the other side of the hall, as far away from the pillar of light and the looming darkness as possible. Pine’s senses were numbed from cutting away so much of himself to escape, but he could immediately sense the way the Ghosthound drove the roots, down down down, grasping onto the underlying fabric of the Nexus.

This is the true source of his stillness, Pine realized. He has simply become the natural hum of the universe. He’s…connected.

Finally, only Pine, the Ghosthound, and Neveah remained.

The Ghosthound looked at the woman who so resembled him. “Are you-”

“I’ve had time to recover, Randidly,” Neveah interrupted. “And we both know you can’t do this without me.”

“I wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without you.” The Ghosthound bowed his head.

Neveah chuckled. “Well, even I would admit you have your own sort of tenacious charm. You wouldn’t be completely helpless. If we had never bonded, you probably make it to the end of Tellus. Before you had morphed into your final form, charred flesh at the bottom of a lava pool.”

“I don’t think it would have been Aegiant that got me. But as soon as I went to the frontlines…” The Ghosthound shrugged. “I would have languished within that isolation pod while my images faded. You kept them all alive.”

Pine released a low growl and was about to interrupt their little interlude when a bright new pillar of light replaced the fading one. At the tip of the pillar gleamed a grey and crimson light that seemed to warp the room into a nightmare. The whole room shook. The defense held. For another short while, the darkness would not crush them.

“We’ll need anchors,” Neveah said, and Pine became abruptly aware the two were having a conversation he was not privy to.

“Enmya for Alpha, I’ll handle the Nexus. As for the shadow… we both know who we need.”

Neveah raised an eyebrow. “Will she agree?”

The Ghosthound shrugged. “If you toss her in there, her instincts will take over.”

Neveah clicked her tongue. “...which is exactly why you need me to ask because that is your response. No, that’s fine. Are you sure… this is going to be enough? What about the Upper Sonora Society?”

“We will strip away most of the fundamental System. I’ve already informed the Pantheon, so they should be ready to take over. And the Upper Sonora Society… their little working will act as a heat sink.”

“They will definitely generate heat, in this metaphor. Also, you definitely will need to find more reliable figures to bring into the Pantheon. They are already overworked.” Lightning fast, Neveah’s eyes flicked to Pine and then back to the Ghosthound. “Do you believe… that will be enough?”

“I’ve got nothing up my sleeves,” The Ghosthound shrugged. Pine sensed the small tremor that revealed a real lack of assurance.

Neveah tilted her head to the side. “I… might have something. I’ll make my preparations. Good luck, brother.”

Neveah stepped forward and kissed the Ghosthound’s cheek. Then she turned away and vanished. Ghosthound looked down at the grey spectral hound and grinned. “Alright, let’s get going. We have some work to do.”

“I have become nothing, Randidly Ghosthound,” Pine felt an odd squirminess in his gut as he said the words. “My presence will only slow you down-”

The Ghosthound didn’t listen. He scooped Pine up in his arms, earning a yip from him. Then the surroundings around them blurred as they teleported to another location.

But the strangest part of the trip was the contact between Pine and the Ghosthound. Pine had so long been the resonating core of a universe that he had grown almost numb to its presence. And since cutting away most of his body to flee from Laplace, he had felt adrift. Yet when pressed against the Ghosthound’s skin, he felt the pure rumbling of the Alpha Cosmos. He felt how Randidly Ghosthound sat at the center of a vast web of Nether links, drawing three different connections to form a balance. Then the various Aether shapes clustered around him, energy flowing back and forth-

My theory is correct. He is the underlying heartbeat. He is life. Pine blinked in shock as the Ghosthound gently laid him on the ground. The sensations had been so intoxicating, so familiar and yet foreign, that he had briefly lost himself. He had felt oddly whole, remembering those early days.

And now he just felt hollow.

Just like Devick before she waltzed off to fight, the Ghosthound scratched Pine behind his ears. His grin wasn’t as crooked, but just as warm. “You are not nothing. And we need you to motivate certain… intractable elements.”

The Ghosthound straightened and turned around. Only then did Pine become aware of the two figures slumped on the ground. “Do you hear that? Fiero. And Elhume… whatever is left of you… we need your help. To save the Nexus.

“To save your son.”