For the first time that Vualla could remember in her adult life, she was easily drawn into sleep almost every night. There she found herself in the darkness, surrounded be half-seen shapes drifting through the surrounding blackness. They avoided her eyes, but sensing them at least reassured Vualla; she was not alone here.

As always, the cold was another constant bosom companion of this place. That cold methodically flipped through all of Vualla’s memories of her day, taking them moment by moment, sucking away all the life and color from them with its insistent touch. Fractured moments of Vualla training until sweat dripped down her arms. The taste of the juice Randidly made for her and the notification she received after drinking it. Visiting Randidly in his tent.

The warm feeling of his lips on hers.

The cold considered all these many things, reducing them to a flimsy shell of what they were. They were scrutinized to the point that they lost all their context and just became memories. Her thoughts were stripped away and the bare reactions were revealed.

Vualla allowed it partially because she found that she had no other choice. She couldn’t defend the ambient warmth of her memories from the darkness. But that didn’t mean that it was completely damaging to allow this to happen. Only the ambient warmth was stripped away from the thoughts. Which, in most cases, was 99% of the warmth.

But there were some moments that retained a spark of warmth despite the studious attention of the cold. Moments like her kissing Randidly. Moments that Vualla treasured because of what they meant.

The same steady reduction happened with bad memories too. All of the fear and pain that Vualla felt while she was dwelling on her struggle with the Nether Gatekeeper was sucked away by the darkness, leaving nothing behind. It was an empty moment that she had blown out of proportion by dwelling on it too long. To discover that was… reassuring.

But the fear that Vualla struggled with as she visited Randidly with the juice, that fear that she wasn’t growing fast enough to keep up with the rising tide of threats… threads of that terrible fear still remained in her chest after the cold had moved on to other memories. That was an emotion that had real weight.

But knowing the feelings that were arrayed against her was something of a weapon that Vualla could use. The darkness did many things, but the most important of them was leave Vualla with a clear picture of her priorities. Despite feeling completely drained by the end, it was… refreshing.

But tonight, of all nights, the dream of darkness ended quite differently than it usually did.

Because halfway through the steady depletion of her day’s emotions, a burning river of warmth began to flow into her.

Instantly, Vualla recognized the source: it was that spot on her back that sometimes burned when she thought about Randidly. It was the shape of his hand imprinted upon her back. It was a persistent reminder of his support. It was a bridge built between them when they were far apart. And now it poured warmth down into her as Randidly seemed to burn.

At first, the darkness responded sluggishly, slowly swirling around this source of warmth. But then it snapped forward like a viper and began to devour the warmth as soon as it arrived in Vualla’s body. It seemed that, to its mind, this warmth was superfluous. There was no value in allowing it into Vualla’s existence.

Honestly, the whole situation was rather uncomfortable. The warmth would touch upon Vualla for only a second before it was greedily devoured. She was completely a conduit, the point where the chill and the heat met. A battleground that the darkness seemed entirely intent upon winning.

Yet the heat pouring into Vualla didn’t slacken at all. If anything, it grew even more monstrous and uncontrolled. To the point that Vualla felt a flash of nervousness in her chest. This energy… where is it all coming from…?

It suddenly occurred to Vualla that it might be something of a blessing that the darkness was there to devour the warmth, or it might have been overwhelming to withstand alone. Then, without any warning, something stirred deep in the darkness around Vualla and she snapped awake with a gasp as those ripples were enough to jolt her subconscious.

Wiping the sweat from her brow, Vualla calmed her breathing. Then she walked to the door of her tent. The warmth drew her there, leading her gently to her destination.

A giant, golden tree filled the entire sky above the frontlines. It blotted out the vast Great Rift, filling the surrounding area with emerald life. The whole of it seemed almost too perfect and vibrant to be real. Vualla’s eyebrows rose. Compared to the river of fire that she had felt flowing into her, the ambient energy in the air was even more impressive. As Vualla glanced at the ground, she could see blades of grass peeking warily up between the worn sandstone ground that had been dead for as long as she had been fighting on the frontlines.

“You are a miracle worker,” Vualla shook her head with a small smile. As she looked up at the tree, she felt an altogether different sort of warmth than the warmth of energy. Because there could be only one person who could be responsible for this.

*****

The first thing Randidly did when he came to after the creation of the Skillset was check the time. Luckily, there were still nine hours until the agreed-upon meeting time.

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Timing (Ru) has grown to Level 108!

Not that Skill Levels will be useful for a while, Randidly thought with a shake of his head. He had grown spoiled on the bonus from this Soulskill. Racking up Skill Levels individually just seemed so incredibly inefficient by comparison.

With a groan, Randidly sat up and stretched. The bones of his neck and shoulders popped pleasantly as he moved his torso through some basic stretches. Then he laid back down and sunk into a restful meditation. The fact that Randidly had been pulled to a location of Kharon’s choosing wasn’t just a coincidence, it was clear that the death of Aldo had a profound effect on the city. It was their first real loss. The first sign that the Order Ducis wasn’t invulnerable.

The city needed to come to terms with what happened. Their images had grown powerful on that necessity.

So Randidly had held back for a while, allowing the images of his people to rail against him. He had endured their pain, given them the space to grieve. Then, as Randidly swept outward with his Willpower and obliterated their resistance, he delivered the harsh message that these people needed to hear: A tragedy. A genuine cause for sadness. But so what?

Has one tragedy broken your resolve?

Does your dream of protecting our Earth wither after the first loss?

As always, Randidly had plundered a small portion of their mental potency in the proceeding. The grogginess at the edges of his mind right now was part of that process, where the broken and exhausted portions of his own will could be slowly supplemented by the pieces that he had obtained in the Eidolon Crucible. A repeated breaking and reforging.

Truly a crucible.

So Randidly slowly recovered, taking his time to restore his mental edge to its peak.

With five and a half hours to go until his promised meeting with Lord Miln, Randidly slowly came back to himself and let his breath hiss through his teeth. Although he still wasn’t exactly strapped for time, Randidly was unsure about the difficulty in crafting the Fate that he wanted. Which ignored the fact that he hadn’t really gotten to where he wanted with any of his foci.

Them being poised to be finished was not the same as them being finished. So Randidly hopped to his feet and wasted no further time in turning his attention toward the Paths he intended on finishing.

First, the biggest swing of all. The Growth of Yggdrasil Path, costing Randidly 2000 PP, netting him 2 Vitality, 2 Resistance, 2 Intelligence, and 2 Free Stat points every 50 PP spent on the Path.

Congratulations! You have completed the Growth of Yggdrasil III Path! Originally Yggdrasil was limited in its growth by the distance you had traveled, but you somehow found the great capability to surge forward, leaving Yggdrasil in the dust. As such, the bonuses from accomplishing the Path have grown into a lush fruition

Growth cannot occur without the passage of time, just as depth cannot exist without experience. No quality can replace tempering. You walk on a path at once familiar and strange. It will lead you ever upward, heading toward the limit of your being. It grows along with your spine and reaches upward along with your limbs. May you find the Path forward eternally smooth.

Congratulations! You have gained 200 free stats as a bonus for your own growth! +100 to Vitality, Endurance, and Resistance.

Congratulations! Your Skills the Deific Mien of Yggdrasil (L) and the Cruel Indignation of Yggdrasil (L) are beginning to stir as your growth allows them to truly reach their full potential!

Congratulations! Your Skill Deific Mien of Yggdrasil has evolved into the Inscrutable Mien of Genesis (M)! All Skill Levels will be maintained.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cruel Indignation of Yggdrasil has evolved into the Implacable Price of Exodus (M)! All Skill Levels will be maintained.

Randidly felt the change from finishing the Path flicker across all of his Skills, but it was those two that warped beyond recognition in a flash of heat and energy. In his chest, as the new Inscrutable Mien of Genesis began to stir, the vision of a golden apple with an eye drawn across it appeared fully formed before Randidly. It was difficult to tell if the eye was open or closed, or simply waiting.

As for the Implacable Price of Exodus… a terrible specter stalked the infinite boughs of the World Tree. It was a creature with too many legs sticking out at weird angles and only one mouth, one vast enough to swallow all the lights in the sky.

All it needed was to be freed in order to destroy the careful order that had allowed the universe to persist for this long.