Once Randidly really thought about Nether’s Caress, he had a whole host of questions. But he also had one very tempting idea that sprung out of his musings.

Why not use the portal to return to his body and surprise Lord Miln by breaking out of the suppression pod?

Of course, this idea had to be swiftly abandoned. When all he been able to learn was how much the main body was struggling to manage against the Aether bindings of the pod, it wasn’t possible that Lord Miln wouldn’t have other defenses in place to prevent exactly that from happening. But that didn’t mean the inverse wasn’t possible.

Why couldn’t he use that portal to bring the main body out of the pod and into the Great Rift?

It required the main body sustaining quite a bit of damage from Nether in order to loosen the restrictions on it in the pod itself, but it worked out in the end. As an image, Randidly easily abandoned the Aether Key, especially when he could sense the oncoming assault of a huge army, and flowed through the portal into an unfamiliar part of the Great Rift. Then the main body opened its own portal, and with a lot more difficulty, forced its way through.

And once the Grim Chimera merged back together with the main body, Randidly Ghosthound had the full benefit of both an Aether Crossroads and the five Nether Cores that he had condensed while preparing in the Great Rift for this very occasion.

He had been somewhat worried about what would happen when the two energies were present at the same time, but there was no negative reaction. Because for the first time, the Nether and Aether were aligned completely. It didn’t feel like he had grown stronger, but a weird sort of understanding had grown in him from the harmonious combination.

Aether held his images and gave him a physical presence. Nether provided the history of his memories and connected him more intimately than ever before with the other images and histories of those he had bound himself to.

Abruptly, Randidly felt solid in a way that he never had before. His energies had united.

But, of course, he didn’t have much time to examine the changes that were happening inwardly; there was a war going on. Randidly quickly located a nearby blue vein in his portion of the Great Rift and had to spend almost a week jumping along, resting, and then jumping along the vein some more to traverse the vast distance to the frontlines.

Then, using his five Nether Cores to disguise himself, Randidly had joined in the assault of the frontlines to finally return from where he came, after spending what felt like a year and four months in the Great Rift.

“...I’m so glad you made it.” An extremely bedraggled Vualla took a staggering step forward toward Randidly. Due to her right arm being almost completely useless, she reached up with her gauntleted left hand to touch his face. “I… without you… Randidly, I-”

Pressing her eyes together, Vualla shook her head. “...I suppose it can wait. Yes, let’s fight to save as many as we can.”

Randidly’s gaze contained immeasurable sadness as two truths warred with him as he looked at Vualla. The truth of the Grim Chimera, who possessed deep feelings for Vualla was perhaps stronger and purer. Because Randidly did indeed share those same feelings for her. The qualities the Grim Chimera admired, Randidly also admired. And even now, wounded and exhausted, Vualla was beautiful and bright as an iris growing wild on a mountainside.

Yet Randidly now also knew the truth that the main body had been able to sense about Vualla. He couldn’t yet understand why her Aether was so familiar, but he knew why it was so ancient. And why it would be a tragedy to let his emotions for Vualla to develop further than they already had.

Cail Tweocs… ha, what a joke. Randidly gritted his teeth. I’ll make you pay for this… did you do this on purpose, to toy with my emotions?

Aloud, Randidly said blithely. “No, we will be saving them all.”

Blinking, Vualla didn’t react for a few seconds. Then she began to laugh. “You… ha, fine then. I shouldn’t have expected anything less from the man with the emerald eyes.” Her braided azure hair swayed behind her back as she favored Randidly with a pure smile. “Let’s save them all then, Randidly.”

“Well, it’s not like we won’t have help,” Randidly said as a smile tugged at his mouth. Even if I know the truth, if you smile at me like that... God, it feels good to smile back…

Right on time, three figures smashed into the ground nearby. Lady Iellaya and Abiodun looked in wonder at Randidly, but he ignored them. Instead, he smiled at Yggdrasil and opened his arms. “You were almost late.”

“Heh, please forgive me. We were held up,” Yggdrasil said simply. Then he became incorporeal and phased back into Randidly. A warm, familiar feeling spread through Randidly and he unleashed a relieved sigh.

That two down, one to go… but for now, this is enough.

Then Randidly turned and looked at the battlefield. The familiar feeling of Mana began to boil in his veins as he saw countless small battles across the clashing armies where Nether Beasts used their superior numbers to strike and slay soldiers of Aether. Dark octopi, bears, hedgehogs, wolverines, dinosaurs, werewolves, and slugs lashed out and ate away ate the Aether in the air. I will not let this turn into another tragedy like the Hallat River.

Like an old friend, when Randidly pulled, his oldest and most influential image came. Within a split second, a towering image of Yggdrasil rumbled up out of the ground behind him. Even if it was only a brief break before Randidly called on it again, there was a very distinct difference between being a physical image and being an image that was based in a real body.

It roared upward, parting the ground on the Aether side of the battlefield as the deep brown trunk lined with golden script forced itself up into the sky. Then the emerald leaves began to sprout, so large and broad that a family could sleep under those leaves like they were a broad and comforting roof.

Across the battlefield, both sides paused as the enormous image weighed over them. The Aether soldiers began to cheer. The size difference from Yggdrasil’s form as a solo image was staggering. The long shadow cast by the vast trunk and gleaming leaves of Yggdrasil covered the entire battlefield.

Even Lady Iellaya raised her eyebrows as she looked upward at the towering tree. “This…”

“I’m not done yet,” Randidly said grimly. Then he released a deep breath and forced that image to evolve. For this battle, Randidly didn’t want just fingers. And with the next batch of PP from his Soulskill right around the corner, it was time to set the stage for the Growth of Yggdrasil (III) Path.

Warning! Your Skill Infinite Fingers of Yggdrasil (L) Lvl 258 is attempting to evolve! Warning, a significant amount of life energy will be consumed.

If you possess an insufficient amount of life energy, loss of Stats or death may result-

Oh, don’t worry, I have life energy to spare. Randidly’s eyes burned as Aether roared through him. But it didn’t escape his notice that there was the smallest drop of Nether that flowed along within the Aether he poured into the Skill, becoming the core of his wish.

Desire, hope, image, and intensity wove themselves together. There was an internal harmony Randidly felt, pushing his power higher and higher. The Skill in his Soulspace shivered, then began to mutate rapidly into something much more imposing.

Congratulations! Your Skill Infinite Fingers of Yggdrasil (L) has evolved into Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil! Skill Levels will be maintained. Calculating Rarity…

Congratulations! A great result! Your Skill Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil has been given the Rarity Transcendental!

“Now then,” Randidly said aloud, even as he felt extremely excited to see the Rarity spike upward. “Shall we begin?”

The tree towering above the battlefield groaned with obvious pleasure. After so long, it finally had the chance to run wild. And then it reached, and there was nothing on the face of the world that was not within its absolute grasp.

Although his experiences on the frontlines had done a lot to improve Randidly’s images and his image power in direct confrontations, that was not where Randidly’s Stats were actually focused. His main strength was in Control and Willpower, and no one could rival the effect that he could have on a vast battlefield, aided by his evolved Grim Intuition.

It was not just a matter of being about to grasp it all. Randidly Ghosthound could clearly sense and process every detail, too.

Across the entire location of this vast clash, the ground beneath the combatants split and thick, emerald vines with vaguely golden thorns ripped up and stabbed into the limbs and torsos of the Nether Beasts. The first wave contained about one hundred python-thick vines that rapidly slithered up through the Nether Beasts’ bodies and wrapped around their vulnerable cores.

Just as those cores began to crack from the vice-like constriction of the vines, another wave of grasping plant matter shot upward, this time consisting of about one thousand vines. Randidly’s Mana burned and seethed, as he forced more and more out of his body and into the surrounding ground. The third wave came with a horrifying rumble and the vines were almost uncountable; the battlefield had transformed into a gleaming, emerald and green jungle in only three seconds.

Of course, there were weaknesses in using solely this Skill.

The Nether Gatekeeper roared and lashed out with its six sharp tails. Although Randidly’s roots were powerful, they were not near hearty enough to withstand the strikes from the Nether Gatekeeper. Its tails quickly scythed through the surrounding area and freed up many of its minions. And in fact, any Nether Beast that had four-star or above strength was able to fight their way free of Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil, given enough time.

These Nether elites began to gather together, forming a tight column that pushed forward toward the place were Randidly’s group was standing to end this vast assault on their forces. Yet Randidly simply smiled.

Although Randidly couldn’t eliminate the elites this way, those elites were a distinct minority in the sea of Nether Beasts. Just like that, Randidly’s Skill had scraped an army of ten thousand down to a little less than one hundred.

“If its just these, I-” Vualla began, but Lady Iellaya placed a hand on her shoulder.

“You’ve done enough. Rest, so we might fight together tomorrow.” Then Lady Iellaya’s eyes focused on Randidly. ”Amazing. So this is your true ability Randidly… Well, don’t mind if we help ourselves to some share of the glory. Abiodun, it’s time to sniff out the ambush.”

“Of course, my Lady,” Abiodun bowed shortly and began to walk forward. Randidly watched him with a sharp gaze. Although Randidly now possessed a physical body and two of his extremely powerful images, he didn’t allow that to go to his head. To feel the heavy weight of each of Abiodun’s steps as he strode boldly forward… it showed Randidly that there was still a small difference before he could become powerful enough to rival even the assistant to a Commander.

But even if that’s the case, there are some things that only I can accomplish.

When the first group of elites charged forward to meet Abiodun, Randidly struck at them from below with Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil. With that small distraction, Abiodun had no trouble ripping his way through ten of the weaker elites. Then a wave of stronger forces arrived, but although they faired better against Randidly’s perfectly timed ambush, it still hampered them.

Like a boulder rolling downhill, Abiodun gathered momentum as he crashed forward. Very quickly, Randidly barely needed to assist him; Abiodun’s power was enough that he simply crashed forward and blasted Nether Beasts out of the way by simply relying on his building momentum. Screaming in fear and fury, the wounded Nether Gatekeeper forced itself to rush forward to meet Abiodun with its tails raised.

Randidly’s Grim Intuition tingled. His gaze locked onto two of the weaker elites that had been knocked aside by Abiodun previously that had suddenly regained their feet and were charging at his back.

“Got you,” Lady Iellaya whispered with obvious glee. As the Raven-winged Vanguard spread her wings, she spared Randidly a sly smile. “It seems like it will be quite the pleasure working together, Mr. Ghosthound. I hope for a long and fruitful relationship between us.”

Then she glided forward and Nether Beasts began to die.