As if in response to his words, the surrounding Nether trembled and then accelerated even further toward its imminent completion. Finally, the truest spark of hope that Randidly had felt since arriving down here on this obsidian and jade and silver platform ignited the surrounding memories into action.

Randidly could see the way to spin this. Although it was simply a dull black marble of Nether, that small object that was suspended at the core of this working began to glimmer.

“...heh,” The Creature seemed to regard Randidly with obvious caution. Her eyes flipped between the glimmering marble and Randidly’s face. Even if she didn’t possess the same Skills as Randidly, the Creature could probably sense the same approaching conclusion that he could. “I suppose with this, we can finally consider ourselves… being of one mind. You will bear my hatred to strike against the System. I am… surprised you were willing to surrender to me. But-”

“Your assistance… won’t be necessary,” Randidly said softly. Then he gritted his teeth and forced out the next few words. “But still… I wouldn’t have gotten so far without you. So… thank you, Yystrix.”

That gave her a moment of pause as the thread after thread of refined Nether slithered up through Azriel’s torso. The threads were so dense that it seemed like a sinuous inky serpent was piercing up to be spun into the bead. “You’ve… never said my name before.”

Randidly just nodded. And this time was just to distract you.

It wasn’t that the Creature was emotionally moved by using her name that she was distracted, but rather… Randidly could clearly see her calculating mind trying to gauge what was going on here. So many uncommon behaviors in a row from Randidly had made her nervous.

But at this point, it was too late to stop. The core had been formed. An aura of light and images was already beginning to form, slowly filtering out to form a bubble around the core. The dense energy rustled the fabric of Azriel’s crimson gown as it floated down to sink into her.

“You aren’t flinching,” The Creature mused. Her eyes instantly sharpened. “What are you plotting, boy?”

Randidly grinned as the Nether bead slipped into Azriel’s chest. The Nether Ritual began to shake as it reached across the vast universe for the one thing that Randidly wished for, building a bridge that he could cross to reach that place. Time and space and possibility slowly spun, bringing themselves into alignment. “Stability.”

The threads of the Creature’s karma were like the many arms of a sea anemone, eternally sensing and testing its new home within Azriel’s body. Yet there was clearly a darkness to them as they began to highlight Azriel’s weakness. Azriel shivered and wrapped her arms around her torso. Before they could begin to bind, Randidly needed to act and create the opening he needed.

So he looked at the Creature and said. “Should I… be worried…? That Elhume… he left an Aether mark on me when he tried to trace your true body. Will he return?”

“Elhume…!” The Creature hissed out. Her reaction was much more controlled than it had been previously, but there was still a crack in her expression as she wavered. Through that small chink in her armor, Randidly could see both fear… and a faint longing. It was a name with great power, that dragged the Creature’s focus to it, despite the high stakes situation around them.

But that was all the opening they needed. Azriel’s hand twitched. Then her eyes shot opened and revealed crimson irises on pitch-black pupil and sclera. Before the heavy karma that Azriel had accepted could settle to its grim work, she used it like a blunt force and smashed it against the Creature’s assumed, metaphysical role as a focal point for Nether in the Alpha Cosmos.

Randidly couldn’t see the clash, but he felt it and saw it disintegrate the confidence on the Creature’s face. Her eyes widened. “You-!”

But the Creature had given all the weight of its karma to that memory. To bind Randidly, but Azriel was right to point out that those bindings didn’t just work one way. Azriel controlled the reins of power now, and the Creature’s remaining projection shivered and was suddenly supplanted. Randidly could almost feel her immediate absence, an ache he hadn’t even noticed until it vanished.

If he had wished it, Randidly knew that he could banish the Creature from this place once more. But he didn’t want her to go, not yet. Suddenly his Alpha Cosmos felt a lot more whole. Still, this wasn’t the end of it.

“Heh, this was your ploy?” To the Creature’s credit, she didn’t mourn the sudden shift very long. Instead, she sneered at him. “Regardless, you have now accepted my karma. I hope it scalds your sensitive skin and corrodes your lungs, boy.”

Almost as though the karma had heard the Creature’s words, it instantly turned its sharp tips back on Azriel. As she straightened on the stone dias her face was wracked by a grimace. Those threads of karma had dispersed from the focused weight needed to unseat the Creature from Randidly’s Soulskill and now began to stab deeply into Azriel, intent on binding her to that terrible hate born within it.

Randidly clicked his tongue lightly. The potent seed of Nether he created pulsed with power and released a wave that knocked those misbehaving threads of karma away from Azriel’s body.

The Creature cackled. “You wish to waste what little of your power that seed possesses to protect her? It won’t last long. That karma will not cease in its pursuit. Not ever.”

“It only has to work once,” Randidly replied. He felt it now, his own Path forward. The same Path that Randidly had taken through the past five years of living in the System. He raised his hand and the threads unwilling looked up to see the image created by his will: a baleful blade that would cut the System. Even if the greedy karma sought to tightly bind, because that was what it had done all its existence, Randidly offered it the other Path. The threads of karma hesitated, uncertain.

The Path the karma had always yearned for. The chance to wound the System.

Because Randidly’s Path was subverting the natural order of the Nexus.

When he started, he killed the Tribulation of another Village before it had truly been released. Then he had helped Lyra discover the tools to become a village spirit. Randidly had created his own Class and then caused fellow humans to seize the powerful roles of Champion and Nemesis.

Randidly had jumpstarted a world that had been slowly failing the Second Calamity for five hundred years and given a Village Spirit a Class.

And now with a blade of karma, he wanted to do something even more elaborate and bold.

Ignition Essence surged upward, leaving the fireball around Randidly dim, but it emerged as the shape of the hiltless blade in the sky. With that as the framework, the karma surged forward to form a vicious edge that had the requisite sharpness to sever.

Yet that wasn’t enough. Yggdrasil raised his branches and a gleaming, golden hilt was formed. It was sculpted, smooth mahogany covered with a looping, graceful script that told the entire story of this assembled blade that Randidly had created. It grandly spoke of a future where Randidly’s Alpha Cosmos became entirely his own.

Growling, the Grim Chimera became the shadowy bond that held the two portions of the blade together. It floated lightly downward, a thing of metaphors and repurposed images so that Randidly could easily take it into his grasp. Perhaps the strangest part of it was that the blade was three meters long, perhaps just as long as Acri itself. Randidly looked down at it in wonder. The hit was warm and the blade was cold.

Almost unwillingly, Randidly raised the blade above his head. For all that he had managed to tempt the karma with this long craved form, that accomplishment also meant that Randidly wasn’t long able to delay, or everything would come unwound. Then the threads of karma would find their bitter succor in Azriel’s flesh, which was exactly what Randidly was trying to prevent.

That Path would not give him the future he wanted.

“A beautiful blade,” The Creature said warily. “But do you think you can subvert its nature enough to strike at me? Or are you fool enough to truly try and cut the System itself out of the Alpha Cosmos? Because it has recorded this experiment of yours without responding to it because it doesn’t affect its bottom line. But if you truly strike at the System-”

“I know,” Randidly said. His hands itched from the strain of keeping the blade from falling, but he couldn’t strike yet. His Grim Intuition operated to its limits, giving him the shape of the System that was present in his Alpha Cosmos. Because he knew in his heart that the Creature was right. The karma he had received from her was truly bloodthirsty. And now that he activated that portion of it, be needed to sate that craving.

The problem was a wild strike against the System probably would be exactly the sort of action that Octavius Shrike warned Randidly against. Direct interference with the System that would bring a much harsher inquiry down on Randidly’s head. One that would likely cut to the truth of what Randidly was, and the energies he carried. One that Randidly couldn’t afford to allow.

Yet there were two Systems. And the karma that the Creature had given Randidly was not discriminatory.

Even then, Randidly probably wouldn’t trust himself to swing the sword. For one, because he had never used a sword in the past, but the larger point was that there was no room for error in his strike. If he didn’t completely sever the overlay System, it would realize what happened and likely report Randidly the same way a strike against the underlying System would. And if Randidly happened to strike against the main System…

There was a single line to walk.

No, the reason that Randidly felt he could do this was that he had added his own karma to this blade. Because his karma would act as a guide.

It was a secret given to Randidly by Ileot Swacc, a secret now which outlined about a third of the System that Randidly could sense in the Alpha Cosmos in gleaming light. That the overlay System only became possible by utilizing the principles used by the first Vualla. That her incorporation of Nether was critical to its implementation.

Randidly’s connection to the duplicated Vualla still burned strong in his chest. And although they were vastly different, they were two Paths from the same karma. Randidly could see exactly which parts were which. Vualla’s influence was illuminated before him. His shoulders relaxed.

The blade began its graceful arc downward.

“Don’t do it.” The Creature whispered desperately. “If you bring their attention onto yourself now, everything we’ve done-”

Her pleas fell on deaf ears. Randidly cut the System while smiling viciously.