Randidly was surprised to find that Vualla wasn’t at her tent when he visited and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. Well, it’s not like I expected her to wait around for my call after we kissed, but still… doesn’t she still need rest? She’s more of a training maniac than I am.

Shrugging, Randidly wrote a short letter to Vualla explaining some of the details he had learned about her from Ileot, leaving out the deal that Ileot wanted from Randidly in order to continue to support Vualla’s existence. After writing it, Randidly’s immediate impulse was to burn it and try and figure out a solution to it before he approached her with the truth.

But he still couldn’t forget that moment where Vualla straightened her spine and checked to see if he was okay, even as they were both realizing she might just be a creation of some powerful Nexus individual. She wouldn’t want him to hide the truth from her. Because if he wasn’t honest… how would they face down this world together?

Because that was the sentiment that had won the Grim Chimera over. That she was someone who would not balk just because their goal was impossible. And Randidly felt very warm when he focused on the two of them working together.

Afterward dropping off the letter, he quickly returned to his own tent; Randidly had some work to do.

In the darkness of his tent, Randidly began to plan how he would proceed. His immediate goal was to condense his own Fate so he could then help reshape Lady Iellaya’s Fate as he remade her Class. Which was already a complicated thing to say and vastly more difficult to manage to do. And double difficult to do it while surviving the attacks from the Nether King. And also while trying to navigate what to do about the duplicated Vualla toward whom Randidly had allowed himself to develop feelings.

Especially because Randidly had planned on doing all of these things while also using a Fate as the core for each of three images to vastly improve the power of the Fate that he would condense for himself. After all, Randidly believed that he had some fair knowledge of the inputs and shape of Nether Rituals that he could use to benefit. Of course, he didn’t really know what or how the Nether Rituals did sometimes, but that didn’t matter; the System was already providing the shape. Randidly just had to use his knowledge to fuel the Fate Ritual efficiently.

Although his original plan, the glove of the original Vualla for the Grim Chimera, could no longer be used, that didn’t mean Randidly didn’t have any ideas. It just meant that his ideas became a bit more… difficult to implement. It was possible that Randidly could obtain another Fate that could serve well enough, but that option became increasingly less appealing to him after studying the situation in his body.

No, the foundation of his Fate should mirror the current constitution of his body. Which mean that core of the Grim Chimera should be forged of Nether.

Which, again, was something that was far easier to say than it was to actually accomplish. Sitting in the darkened tent, Randidly spread both his real and metal fingers and pressed them against the dusty ground. Simply a Nether core wouldn’t have the weight to do what Randidly wanted and Randidly wasn’t proficient enough yet with Nether to accomplish much of anything else.

Although the biggest current limitation to Randidly moving beyond that was the fact that he was sitting at four true Nether cores and two dozen fake Nether cores without being able to condense a fifth. Because while the first true Nether core took three fakes, the second had taken six and the third took twelve. Now with twenty four, Randidly faced the ugly realization that he would probably need a few more before he could condense a fifth core. And if he wanted to make a sixth...

Of course, most of the issue now was that the area inside of him that was composed by Nether was simply growing too large. If he was a completely Aether-less being, likely 24 fake cores would have been enough to make a fifth true core. But with the small interference of Aether as two came into contact…

Grimacing, Randidly focus went inward and he began the annoying process of condensing a fake Nether core. It was a hassle to make more, but if he had no choice… Through his practice during his time alone in the Great Rift, Randidly had markedly improved his success rate. But it was a constantly adjusting process as Randidly had to take into account the density of the ambient Nether. One he had a knack of while on his Aether oasis in the Great Rift, but here on the frontlines…

Randidly failed once. He chewed his lip briefly but tried again. A failure in a new environment was to be expected.

When he failed for the second time, Randidly released a great breath and shook his head. Then, with workmanlike dedication, he started again.

It was when he failed the third time that Randidly began to suspect that something beyond the way he was attempting the process was wrong. Rather than continuing to try again, Randidly forced himself to relax and feel around with Nether Sensation to try and ferret out the problem.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 36!

Frowning, Randidly continued to scan the surrounding area. As he slowed down his heart rate, Randidly tried to follow every echoing ripple that spread through his internal Nether. The glowing mass of four bundles of Nether energy formed his core, and his physical form was the bubble. Everything within was isolated.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 37!

Then it hit him and Randidly wanted to pull out fistfuls of his hair. Because what became immediately apparent was that it wasn’t just the ambient energy in the air, but that he was also coming under the influence of the grand array that was based on Vualla’s accomplishments in the past. And true to Vualla’s reputation as a genius of energy manipulation, its influence managed to sneak through Randidly’s physical ‘bubble’ and influence his internal world in an extremely subtle way.

Which explains why I haven’t been able to condense any fake Nether cores since I came back, Randidly thought with a scowl. But now that I have found the problem, I can begin to make adjustments. It’s just... she truly was impossibly powerful, wasn’t she? The Vualla in her original life. But I wonder...

Shaking his head, Randidly let go of the vexing problem of the Nether image focus for his Fate and considered his other two foci: the Chisel of Chulroon and the hiltless blade that he had gotten from the Fate armory.

Of the two, Randidly was much more confident about the growing synchronization between Yggdrasil and the Chisel of Chulroon. For one thing, he could at least see the information that the Fate had grown to Level 99, although Randidly had no real way of knowing whether the Level cap was the same for Fates. In addition, Chulroon had left a vestige of his will in the Dungeon with the explicit intent to pass on the truth about the System and what it did to his people. Randidly was the beneficiary of that heritage.

So even though there still existed a slumbering rogue element within the Fate that Randidly didn’t yet dare awaken lest it might cause him trouble, he felt relatively confident in his attempts to bring the Fate into alignment with what he wanted. Plus, there was a very easy image linkage between Yggdrasil and the Chisel.

Although it was ultimately a weapon, Chulroon’s Fate was still labeled as a “Chisel”. It was a tool to create and shape. Just like how Yggdrasil was truly a towering font of life, but so often was forced to use its power to destroy the enemies that sought to cause the world to collapse. In addition, the ‘chisel’ could serve as the catalyst that Randidly needed to create the next, and hopefully final, portion of the Yggdrasil Skillset.

Because what Randidly wanted was for Yggdrasil not to just be the Tree of Life, but also the record of all things that was and will be: the Akashic Records. A living and breathing history and future of all things. He already had his Mana Engraving Skill, but Randidly wanted to push that to the next level. And one method to do that would be to have a powerful tool to use with the image of Engraving.

Still, that was all for later. Randidly was still in the early stages of ruminating over the changes to his Yggdrasil image that would result from allowing Chulroon’s Chisel to influence him. It was just an unfortunate truth that Yggdrasil was the image that was currently the furthest along in a process that Randidly didn’t want to allow to stretch along for too long.

The relationship between Ignition Essence and the hiltless Fate Blade was also progressing, but… the process of it left Randidly somewhat confused. A lot of Randidly’s attention had been focused on Vualla during the transformative period for Ignition Essence, but it was clear that the consciousness within the Fate blade had used the fire of the Ignition Essence to set itself from fire. Which was slowly eating away at the consciousness, but it was also once more releasing huge waves of heat.

And perhaps more disturbingly, Randidly could sense from his Ignition Essence image that the more that Ignition Essence burned the consciousness of the Fate blade, the more it learned of the owner’s past. Right now it was just meaningless memories of coarse bread, the feeling of cold raindrops, and the meandering drift of clouds, but Randidly knew that more troublesome memories would come along eventually.

Including the reason that the original owner of the Fate had died… and why the Fate wanted so desperately to die.

This was all further complicated by the fact that as it burned, the spirit inside the Fate had begun to cry. And yet… Ignition Essence seemed sure that it would be a cathartic experience for the Fate. It might be painful, but some memories need to be faced.

So Randidly meditated in his tent, slowly earning Skill Levels in Fire Resistance, Pain Resistance, and the Lantern of Harsh Truths from the activities from Ignition Essence and Visualization and Aether Understanding from Yggdrasil. He lost a lot of his Leveling speed without his three images being separated and all working, but at least this way he was safe from being slowly corrupted by Nether.

When the knock eventually came at the flap to his tent, Randidly’s Absolute Timing informed him that he had been meditating for six hours and twenty-two minutes. When he pulled back the flap, the familiar faces of Abiodun, Salazar, and Zauna were waiting for him.

“Trouble,” Abiodun rumbled. “We’ve received an ultimatum from the Nether King: either we hand over the Nether Prince or it will kill us all.”

Randidly cracked his knuckles. “And which did we choose?”

Chuckling, Abiodun turned away and began to walk toward the Great Rift. “No one likes life on the frontlines; if the Nether King can finally free us from this endless hell, who wouldn’t jump for joy? Of course, we will fight to the death.”