As he turned away from the stunned figures of Rejt, Lazareth, and Wendy, Randidly reached out with his formidable Willpower and pulled hard at the surrounding Nether. It did not come willingly at first, motivated to radiate outward by the steady pressure that was flowing out of the Nether Ritual that had been erected in the core of his Alpha Cosmos, but when his Willpower didn’t waver the Nether slowly gave in to his grasp.

When it came to protecting this place, Randidly would not give in.

The Nether Ritual was too large and Randidly wasn’t touching upon any of its vital thoroughfares, so the effect didn’t amount to much. This avenue that Nether used to flow steadily outward into the outside world was stopped up, but Nether would find other ways. Which was frustrating, but not exactly surprising.

Even with his Nether Sensation, Randidly currently wasn’t able to determine the exact location that he needed to be in order to reverse the effect of the flow of Nether. Some of that might be the low Level of his Skill, but it also struck him that it was a function of the sheer size of what was going on within his Alpha Cosmos.

This is not a small thing here, Randidly thought with fiery eyes as he began to walk forward down the stone tunnel. This was not an accident. This was not some… unfortunate mutation that occurred when I allowed Nether into my being. No, this… this was crafted.

Because some horrible side-effect was exactly what Randidly had originally thought this was as he had arrived in his Soulskill and seen the sweeping effects of the Nether. That he had somehow opened the door for this to happen by developing Nether Cores. But the more he investigated, the more of the ruins that Randidly witnessed, the more sure Randidly was that this was not the case.

Plus, the construction of these guardians… Randidly spared a glance behind him once more for the metallic automaton with a core of Nether that was struggling to its feet. I recognize that construction. It is the same material from my original Four-Shaded Clockwork World.

...the core of which was provided by the Creature…!

They were queer things, composed both of the strange ivory-white metal and the pitch-black Nether. Honestly, their shifting shape almost reminded Randidly of the visualization of Skills from his inner world. This impression was supported by the strange resonance and chiming that he heard from them. Perhaps the individual responsible found mixing Nether cores and Aether Skills amusingly ironic.

Still, no time to waste here. Randidly rolled his shoulders as another strike with Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil threw the guardian to the side. With an open path-

“Hey wait!” Wendy shouted anxiously as Randidly began to stride forward. “Aren’t you going to at least kill that thing? If you don’t-”

“If I did, wouldn’t you just follow me?” Randidly replied rather dryly. He opened his mouth and considered his words carefully; getting into a verbal spar with Wendy here would definitely waste time. “You might be able to survive this amount of Nether, but it will only get worse as we move forward. Take your time growing here the old fashioned way.”

“Hmph, you believed this foe to be sufficient enough to slow us down?” Rejt folded his arms and raised his chin. “You better leave this worm alive just so I can demonstrate how wrong you are about us…! And don’t let me catch your heels from behind, or you will pay for your shallow faith.”

Chuckling, Randidly nodded and prepared to continue forward. But the last of the trio’s ragged voice brought him to a stop.

“This... is your fault!”

Perhaps it was because it so closely mirrored Randidly’s original thoughts, but he couldn’t help but flinch as he heard the words. Even if it wasn’t true in this case, it was again a situation where he had been distracted by other issues and let something dangerous develop in his Soulskill. So Randidly spun slowly around to face the red-rimmed gaze of Lazareth Armgrast. Almost against his will, Randidly’s frown softened as he looked at the other’s expression.

“You… you were supposed to… Damnit….!” The lion-headed man brought a hand up to his face and gripped his mane. “If… if anything has happened to Azriel… I will kill you…!”

“Relax,” Randidly said. Yggdrasil’s healing energies spread slowly outward, filling the tunnel with warmth and light. “I have my flaws. I can’t always behave perfectly… and I will disappoint you. But now that I’m here, now that I’m moving… don’t think for a second that I will fail to protect this world. Especially Azriel.”

Did you say that for him… or for yourself? The voice of Yggdrasil whispered softly. But Randidly couldn’t answer easily.

Congratulations! Your Skill Deific Mien of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 250!

Randidly could still see the unwillingness on Lazareth’s face. But when directly faced with Deific Mien of Yggdrasil, some part of him seemed to accept the transfer of responsibility to Randidly. His shoulders crumpled forward. And so Randidly turned away, now bearing one small reason to accomplish the goal that had driven him immediately here to the ruins.

Armgrast’s knees hit the ground with a soft thump.

How much did you see, Azriel, even when I met you while you were escaping from your palace? Randidly wondered. Did you know the stakes would be this high? What is your relationship with this man? Because he certainly is worried about you.

...almost as worried as I am...

As Randidly continued forward, accelerating down the tunnel, he quickly bypassed several more of the Skill-like Nether Beast guardians of this place and reached the stairs. The ‘Hell Labyrinth’, as the people of the Alpha Cosmos called it, seemed to follow this same pattern. A long floor that led to a short set of stairs, with the tenth floor being a platform along a longer set of stairs that allowed one to take a break.

Needless to say, as you went deeper, the Nether grew denser. Yet Randidly’s Unique Skill Nether Modification made this amount of Nether practically comfortable. The foes also attacked and defended more adeptly with the talents of Nether. They utilized the benefits of bubble and the core, making them extremely difficult to damage using normal, Aether based means.

Of course, they weren’t even able to slow Randidly down at all. It was almost comical how easily he accelerated downward past them. Within only a few minutes, Randidly had gotten out of the 31st floor and shot down the stairs to the 32nd floor.

He had briefly considered simply jumping down into the vast abyss that surrounded the staircases between floors, but the Nether there was extremely turbulent. If the Nether Ritual was a human body, the staircases gave Randidly a window to the arteries, carrying huge amounts of Nether and pumping it out to the places that needed it.

Nether Modification can handle this, but… Randidly hesitated.

The density wasn’t the issue, it was how quickly the Nether in front of him was moving. If he exposed himself to it, he would likely be able to find the core, but he didn’t want to risk encountering something even more dangerous waiting in that Nether.

Besides, it had barely taken him an hour to reach his current floor by hurrying forward. As long as it didn’t become vastly more difficult as he proceeded downward, Randidly felt confident that he would be able to reach the desired destination.

Of course, is it smart to walk into a test that was probably designed by the Creature? Randidly asked himself quietly. But two facts had him walking forward anyway. The first was the difficulty of the test thus far; maybe he would need to worry about harder trials later, but so far the quality of the Nether opponents didn’t exceed the one-star level. And the second thing was Azriel’s involvement.

Her fate after being drawn into this trap couldn’t be a good one. And that pissed Randidly off in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time.

Creature, if you are responsible for hurting even a hair on her head…!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 40!

Randidly hit the 32nd Level like a tsunami, gathering the ambient Nether in the air to protect the surface from being flooded with it and using it like a cudgel to smash back the Nether that was eagerly surging forward. The air trembled and the unfortunate guardian that was hiding in wait for him keened in pain.

A split second later Randidly moved past it, releasing a long-held breath and pulling once more at the Nether around him in a tight spiral. Although Randidly didn’t have any Skills that related directly to manipulating Nether, he still felt like-

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 61!

Even if I don’t have a goal in mind, the ritual is responding to my faith. Randidly reflected as he hurtled forward. Truly… Nether is entirely different than Aether. Just my momentum is enough to bring more and more of it under my control…

And just like that Randidly streaked down like a comment, shooting through the 32nd floor, then the 33rd, then the 36th, then the 39th.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 48!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 74!

And just like that, Randidly was taking wide steps down the huge stone staircase that led to the 40th floor, practically gliding over the stone beneath him. A maelstrom of Nether had gathered behind him now, shaking the air and the surrounding stone. And it gave Randidly great pleasure to sense how the chaotic Nether flows around the staircases were growing turbid as he forced this huge mass of Nether deeper down the gullet of this massive ritual that Randidly still hadn’t been able to see the shape of.

Carrying that momentum forward, Randidly crashed into the 41st floor. To his amusement, a modified automaton/ Nether Beast around the two and a half star level leapt out to ambush him.

Chimeric Avoidance.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Avoidance (L) has grown to Level 220!

With extremely quick steps, Randidly swayed his body back and forth. The Nether Beast slashed outward with its claws but he leaned just out of range of the attack. The Beast’s longest claw scratched quietly against Sulfur, and then Randidly was past it. He planted his foot on its back and exploded with force.

So fucking weird that they look like Skills...

Chiming angrily, the Nether Beast could only tumble forward as Randidly accelerated beyond it and proceeded even deeper into the Hell Labyrinth. Just like the thirties, the forties were gone in a blur, leaving Randidly blowing past a foe that was just short of the three-star tier of strength for the Nether Beasts and proceeding to the long staircase beyond.

Yet here Randidly paused, standing at the top of the threshold to the staircase, allowing the river of Nether that he was leading deeper to surge around and past him while he studied what was waiting for him below.

Unlike the previously staircases that led forward, the staircase he found here was a spiral staircase that led downward in a tight orbit. Yet what stopped Randidly cold was the tight coils of Nether that surged downward around the staircase. They were the same, if not greater, in size than the amount of Nether that Randidly had gathered surging down here.

And as there were ten of them and only one of Randidly’s flows, they rapidly ground down the Nether that he had gathered to nothing. It continued to flow from behind him, following its previous momentum, but it was easily devoured and repurposed into the vast flows of this place. Randidly’s mouth firmed into a line as he looked down over to the small platform that waited below as floor 50.

Even from here, he could see her familiar figure, wearing the guise of Lyra and staring up at him with a small smile on her face.

“The Creature… Yystrix.” Randidly clenched his fists. Then he began to walk down the stairs.