Randidly couldn’t figure out the details of what was going on across the battlefield. His mood was listless as he leaned against Acri and peered out amongst the chaotic brawl, as though he could find an answer hidden in the violence.

Had Ileot really taken the time to copy so many people? If the effort was as exhausting as Ileot had made it seem, why would he go to the trouble of doing such a thing? And why would he try and strengthen the Aether forces with these duplications if he always had some sort of mental attack that would turn the Nether Beasts against one another?

Too much was happening, and very little of it made sense. Which meant that Randidly was clearly missing something. After spending basically all of his energy and Willpower to earn a chance that was almost inconsequential next to this chaos, Randidly was frustrated. Immensely so.

But there were some things that helped him reign in his annoyance. Next to him, Randidly could sense that the duplicated man he had been talking to was slowly calming down. Whatever wild panic and fear that had been seizing his limbs was slowly forced out of his posture by this man’s own determination.

Not that it was ever his fault that negative emotions took control of him... Randidly’s eyes turned sharp as he looked up toward the swirling darkness that was looming over the battlefield. He didn’t miss the fact that, as more and more people died, the smoky blackness grew larger and more dangerous. It behaved a lot like coal fire smoke; it left residue across everything it touched. But it also was definitely energy being generated by the grand array.

And although Randidly could burn it away with his image and pure Aether, he couldn’t protect everyone on the battlefield; the reach of his image wasn’t that wide. He was quite thankful that it seemed like Salazar had a similarly cleansing effect against it, but there was simply too much battlefield to cover. The murky chaos in places other than Lady Iellaya’s camp became more pronounced every minute.

Nether Beasts fought Nether Beasts, Aether soldiers fought Aether soldiers. Wounds grew from shallow to fatal. And every death fed that terrible smog.

...perhaps this is why Ileot created so many duplicates, Gritting his teeth, Randidly furiously continued to try and recover his energy. As fodder to die and fuel whatever fucked up thing this is. The question is… is this darkness the biggest threat we have to deal with right now…?

Randidly glanced sideways. Lady Iellaya was clearly reaching the end of her Stamina, but she continued to harry the four Nether Heralds as they retreated to help protect the grand working. Over in front of the working, Lord Miln burned with obvious power, suppressing two Nether Heralds and setting up an opportunity for Ileot Swacc to calmly walk forward and stare upward to the strange shapes created by the blue veins.

As though sensing the threat before it, the blue veins began to twist and arrange themselves as fast as they could. The formation itself was hurrying toward its conclusion.

“What’s your name?” Randidly asked lightly, turning to the man beside him.

After blinking, the man fell to one knee and bowed his head. Although he was largely humanoid, he did possess some animalistic characteristics. At the end of the day, he looked quite like a fox. “Heiffal Lennonoster. Sir.”

Randidly felt the emotional gulf between them in that kneeling gesture, as he looked down at the crown of Heiffal’s head. Outwardly, Randidly Ghousthound smiled slightly, but inwardly he sighed. There are costs to acknowledging what it means to be a monarch… But I suppose they are costs I could no longer afford to put off paying.

“Stand, Heiffal.” Randidly turned away and closed his eyes. It was more than enough to allow Grim Intuition to feed him information without continuing to strain his eyes. “Can you do something for me? Get a count of how many we have within here that are like you. And see if you can figure out how much of the command structure for the group is still in place.”

“Yes, sir!”

Randidly felt Heiffal bow again and stride away. It wasn’t that the man was suddenly filled with confidence, but he had at least found his footing once more. Randidly’s mouth twisted. Now, all I need to do was figure out what he should be doing right now… Feels like a waste to just focus on resting again, but...

Certainly, recovering was his primary concern. Perhaps five minutes had passed since he had brought the forces back into Lady Iellaya’s base, and in that time the worst of his headache had passed. Yet the exhaustion remained; his reserves were completely drained. Even the thought of using his Philosopher’s Key again made Randidly grit his teeth. His images were probably still usable, but there would be a rapidly approaching expiration date if he attempted to use them now.

Besides, Randidly had to be realistic about his abilities to contest these sorts of foes. Nether Gatekeepers already posed a huge challenge to him. These Nether Heralds were more powerful and capable than them by a noticeable margin.

...which brought Randidly’s attention back around to the vanished form of Vualla. Who, after being smashed back up into the air, partially by her own action, hadn’t returned from where ever she had landed. And considering the fact that his Grim Intuition was roaring at full capacity, it was extremely surprising that he hadn’t found her.

Randidly’s frown deepened. But maybe the reason I cannot find her is I don’t realize how much my weariness is blunting my senses...

Still, his Nether Ritual connection remained and informed him that she was safe. In addition, it made sense that Vualla would need some time to recover; after all, she had somehow gone from barely able to handle four Nether Gatekeepers to able to delay three Nether Heralds. Which was a noticeable step forward; Nether Herald’s physical bodies were clearly on another tier of power altogether from Nether Gatekeepers.

The shift was abrupt. During those few seconds of frantic clashing against several stronger enemies, Vualla’s image had been positively radiant. It was the tool that she used to close the gap, and Randidly suspected she could have held on for quite a bit longer if she had needed to.

BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!

Randidly’s attention was dragged away as Ileot finally made his move. With a wave of his hand, he unleashed a blast of white light that became a surging river of power, smashing upward toward whatever ritual the Nether King had been patiently arranging. It was the most bright and eye-catching thing that Randidly had ever seen, practically blinding him with its brilliance and power, even through the thin skin of his eyelids.

OOOOOOOoooooooooouuuuuuuunnnnnnggggg.

A low echo creaked out of the Nether King’s mouth, smashing into the terrible white light. Even though the collision was far away from their current position, the ground shook with the violence of the meeting. The land in that area began to crack and float upward. Toward the edge, pieces of land were falling off into the Great Rift. But even with the Nether King acting to defend the working, a large chunk of the blue veins had been ripped to shreds.

As the light dimmed, Randidly opened his eyes and looked deeply at the power that Ileot Swacc had unleashed. Even from here, the raw power had been… impressive. It drifted downward in smoke and radiant debris, almost like the end-stage of a fireworks display. The light that Ileot had produced was domineering and eye-catching.

Also extremely different from the sort of power from someone who was feeding such a vast darkness. Randidly glanced upward. Then he focused again on Ileot.

The strange part was how mundane the image had seemed. Certainly solid, but it was the fuel that had made that attack powerful; Ileot hadn’t used much mental capacity to generate that power.

He must have used liquified Aether to do it. Randidly rubbed his chin. But how do you create liquified Aether…?

*****

Lord Miln looked away from the two Nether Heralds that he was keeping at bay and glared over his shoulder at Ileot. “Can you not control yourself? An attack that eye-catching will undoubtedly bring attention from the military checkpoint!”

“Do you truly think its possible to keep a foe like the Nether King at bay while being covert?” Ileot asked contemptuously. But he did look nervously up at the glittering aftereffects of his attack with a frown.

To that question, Lord Miln could say nothing. And in fact, he immediately needed to refocus his attentions on the two Nether Heralds. They were both incredibly powerful, definitely the two most powerful of the Nether King’s servants. And although Lord Miln had deeply hidden his own strength, he was still hard-pressed to keep them both at bay.

Luckily, his elite forces moving in formation allowed them to briefly display a battle power that could at least delay the Nether Heralds, earning Lord Miln a precious few seconds to reposition himself and re-establish his control.

He spread his hands and the image of heavy brass chains erupted from the ground. The Nether Heralds were too quick to be easily caught, but Lord Miln rushed forward and appeared before the stronger of the two. His palm smashed forward, forcing the Nether Herald to twist even further to dodge. Which was just the time that his brass chains needed to wrap tightly around the filthy savage.

To the other side, his forces smashed their combined attack against the other Nether Herald. Unfortunately, it seemed to lower its head and just smash apart the attack forcefully. Then it accelerated, clearing meaning to cut into the numbers of Lord Miln’s subordinates.

Snorting, Lord Miln cut sideways across the fighting space to meet that Nether Herald. But as he did so, there was a groaning and a sharp mental pain that sent Lord Miln stumbling. Shocked, he turned around to see the powerful Nether Herald simply ripping away his brass chain image and surging to attack him from behind.

“Ileot? What are you waiting for! I cannot keep this up forever!” Lord Miln growled. For all that Ileot was the key figure at this point in their plans, it was immensely frustrating to see Ileot simply standing there.

As though he is waiting for something!

Ileot’s mouth twitched as though he was smelling something unpleasant. “Ah… yes of course.”

His hands cut upward in several sharp lines, and another huge blast of power shot upward. If the first was slightly off target, this was directly aiming for the Nether King. However, Ileot had also made this blast of energy even more eye-catching than the last. It was a raging landslide of glimmering lights, smashing up toward the Great Rift with unstoppable momentum.

Still, Lord Miln was inwardly furious. You couldn’t have created a more revealing attack if you tried!