Perhaps due to the trembling in Randidly’s body due to the strain, Sulfur tightened its constriction around his torso like a rippling hug. Even though Randidly was just dealing with the repercussions of the collision, he could barely move without risking himself completely collapsing. His head throbbed, his hand was vice-tight around the Philosopher’s Key, turned ninety degrees to the side. He stood only because all of his muscles were straining to their limits, locking him in place.

Just the first collision was already so exhausting… Directly above him, Lady Iellaya exchanged almost a half-dozen blasts of darkness with the elusive Nether Heralds that danced around her. But that was mostly a distraction; Randidly didn’t avert his gaze from the foe that he was responsible for.

Yet Randidly’s actions didn’t go unnoticed. For a brief moment, the head of the raven-winged serpent rose to consider the sky. After recognizing what Randidly had accomplished, Lady Iellaya’s darkness spread wider and wider.

It seemed she resolved herself to take advantage of the opportunity as best she could.

Mid-air, the Nether Herald that Randidly had repulsed twisted around by a top. Its backward drifting motion stabilized into graceful floating. With a vicious suddenness, it surged back forward and whipped one of its insectoid limbs around to smash against the lock Randidly had created.

The raven-winged serpent slashed with its wing. One Nether Herald twisted out of the way and the other surged to attack Lady Iellaya’s vulnerable back. Yet the tail of the raven-winged serpent slithered upward, seizing onto the ambushing Herald’s leg when it least expected it. Randidly braced himself.

You want to strike against the very sky…? Randidly’s eyes burned. Naive.

The blow landed against the lock. The strain of it hit Randidly’s chest like a hammer, forcing his breath out in a ragged cough. Yet the lock held. The karma of the sky bore much of the force and held. The headache that had taken root in Randidly’s brainstem seemed to intensify as Randidly strained to keep his focus in the face of all of the exhaustion that tugged at the edges of his will. Reaching Level 86 in his Fate combined with Lord Miln’s almost negligible assistance was just enough to withstand the Nether Herald.

There was no room for even the slightest bit of easing up or everything would collapse. His body, the lock, Lady Iellaya’s chances of gaining an advantage now… Grim Perception continued to hum, flooding Randidly with information that slowly gobbled up his remaining Willpower.

It was a steep price to pay, but Grim Intuition also kept Randidly firmly aware of the fearful posture of the bodies waiting beyond that lock. The raven-winged serpent gnashed its teeth and slammed one of the Nether Heralds into the ground with its tail-grip around its foot. Ignoring the attacks of the other Nether Herald she faced, Lady Iellaya pounced down to rip into vulnerable Nether Herald with her jaws wide open.

Although its blow had pushed it back somewhat from the barrier, the Nether Herald Randidly locked out spun again to stabilize itself. Its leg whipped up and around to smash down into the barrier. Space shuddered. The sky flickered. There was the slightest tinkling sound of cracking.

Randidly fell to one knee, practically relying on his grip on the suspended Philosopher’s Key not to completely collapse into a coma. The kick pushed the Nether Herald back a little further, but it quickly twisted again to remain within striking distance. Each strike pushed it a little farther back, but it was not yet enough that Randidly was out of the woods.

Yet the strangest result of this movement was that it letRandidly look directly into the face of the Nether Herald.

It was completely blank, just a ridged plate of black armor. This foe had no features. It’s head wandered side to side for a split second and Randidly winced as it quickly located the small flaw that had been created by its last blow. Still drifting slowly backward, it raised its arm once more and unleashed a devasting thrust to pierce through the flaw.

There wasn’t even the slightest bit of extra mental strength that Randidly could use to defend; if Randidly ceased straining or eased up, that flaw would spread to the whole of the lock. And now, to both keep the lock in place and withstand a direct strike to the crack…

In the battlefield above, the jaws of the raven-winged serpent closed around the Nether Herald’s torso after it had pressed it down into the ground. Aether and Nether strained against each other like two neighbors continually turning up their televisions to drown the other out. Fetid breath and jagged teeth hissed against the body of the Nether Herald. The other Nether Herald unleashed a barrage of attacks on Lady Iellaya’s image, ripping out large chunks of flesh and fistfuls of raven feathers in an attempt to rescue its companion.

The jaw of the raven-winged serpent strained. Very gradually, it tightened.

The thrust slid forward toward Randidly’s lock. He was just so exhausted. He hadn’t been exhausted like this in a long time, not since Randidly had recovered his body. It was the same sort of blunted and fuzzy exhaustion that had threatened to devour his personality when he had simply been the Grim Chimera. Keeping the lock in place had a cost he couldn’t defer.

And before that… hell… Was I ever this strained on Earth…?

Yet Randidly couldn’t retreat. He was the monarch. He was the spine. Once he broke, there was no hope for the rest of the body. The thrust smashed against the lock. Gritting his teeth, Randidly pressed his eyes shut.

Crack.

The thrust ripped open the flaw in the lock, creating a jagged passage to the other side. The rest of the lock trembled as Randidly barely was able to hold it together with a widening flaw. Like a sled at the edge of a slope, thinks were teetering at the point of going out of control.

Yet as the Nether Herald rushed forward, something met it in the crack between the outside and inside. Grinning like a maniac, the Grim Chimera unleashed a point-blank roundhouse kick that smashed into the Nether Herald’s chest. The leg of the Grim Chimera shimmered and spasmed, weakened as Randidly was and forced to endure the density of Nether, but it passed on the kinetic force to knock the Nether Herald backward.

Perhaps normally that force wouldn’t have been enough, but the Nether Herald had been only able to maintain its position through spinning to disperse its own momentum. All of its previous charge had already been endured. Now, taken by surprise, it was pushed away and back.

The blank face of the Nether Herald considered the Grim Chimera as it sailed backward. Snorting in derision, the Grim Chimera dug its claws into one side of the crack and thrust its bone spear into the other. The muscles of its chest strained as it began to pull the flaw back together.

Partway through the process, the Grim Chimera rippled. Its skin became rutted and brown and its limbs strange. Suddenly it wasn’t the Grim Chimera, but the shimmering World Tree covered in golden script. Its vast branches and leaves twisted inward, using its prodigious natural energy to close the flaw. Emerald leaves spread out, gradually masking the original location of the crack in the wide canopy.

Shortly after, the canopy began to rustle and sway, driven by a wild wind. And in the next second, leaves began to turn orange and the canopy became the raging inferno of Ignition Essence, searing shut the flaw before the helpless Nether Herald’s blank face.

In Lady Iellaya’s battle, she was forced to use her tail to try and keep the other Nether Herald at bay while she capitalized on the other’s weakness. Unfortunately, the Nether Herald was too quick in its attacks. It was clear that Lady Iellaya was taking significant damage. Yet her jaw was slowly tightening. The struggles of the pinned Nether Herald gradually slowed into sluggish spasms.

Randidly wanted to take a breath, but he couldn’t; the hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up as the Nether King’s gaze abruptly fixed on him. An emotion so vast that it resembled karma in its absolute existence slammed into Randidly. Yet Randidly did not flinch. He endured the horrible examination stoically with gritted teeth. His skin crawled. The bile of his stomach made its desire to be let out known.

There was the sound of a rotten watermelon being smashed open and then the raven-winged serpent raised its head and roared in triumph. Bits of the former Nether Herald dribbled down its chin.

When the Nether King’s gaze shifted away, Randidly wanted to collapse into a puddle. But the sky had other plans. The was a shift among the blue veins and two more large arteries lifted themselves up and threw two huge Nether comets down toward Randidly’s lock.

Two Nether Heralds. Two at once.

Almost unconsciously, Randidly looked over to Lady Iellaya. The beady eyes of the raven-winged serpent met Randidly’s emerald gaze. An understanding passed there, even as the raven-winged serpent was still drunk on its victory. Both realized the other’s thoughts.

Without waiting any longer, the raven-winged serpent began to rampage forward, clashing against the remaining Nether Herald in front of it. The movements of the two fighters were quick and brutal, as the greatly wounded image of Lady Iellaya tried to take advantage of this opportunity to focus its ferocity on a single foe.

She landed several glancing blows, but it was clear that the Nether Herald understood what was going on and had learned a lesson from its companion’s death. It twisted out of the way of direct strikes and even avoided trading hits, despite Lady Iellaya’s obvious wounds.

Seeing that her small ploy was useless, Lady Iellaya shed all pretense of weakness and surged forward. Strange crimson lines slowly extended across the raven-winged serpent’s brown scales. Obsidian feathers fell from the sky like rain as her wings spread wider and wider to cast a long shadow. The darkness from her image seemed to draw on the vast darkness in the sky, swelling larger and larger.

But the two Nether comets were shooting closer. They exploded into sizzling debris and two more Nether Heralds surged forward. Randidly watched them calmly. The second before they impacted the lock he had created, Randidly bowed his head; without any warning, he turned the key and unlocked the sky.

Rather comically, the Nether Heralds spun impotently in their attempts to shatter the lock, dispersing some of their momentum on their own. It wasted several more seconds that Lady Iellaya used to unleash an onslaught against the struggling Nether Herald in front of her.

“Distraction achieved,” Randidly whispered. Then he turned and leaned heavily on Acri as he hobbled away to find his subordinates.