After fourteen minutes, Randidly’s black eyelashes fluttered. It was with an exhausted relief that Randidly opened his eyes. Hopefully, it didn’t take too long. And now, to get ready for the big fight…

Sitting up, Randidly felt extremely strange. There were strange sensations across his skin like he was existing in a carbonated soda can that was constantly fizzing around him. Standing up, he did his best to ignore the sensation. Then he flexed his legs, cracked his neck, and shook out his arms.

His body was… light, but similarly extremely strange. Sensations were extremely crisp and vivid. Frowning down at the fingers of his right hand, Randidly moved his hand back and forth to test if the sensation grew worse at the high speeds that would be required in a fight.

The movements were so quick that his fingers became a blur. The tingling did increase, but not to an uncomfortable amount. Randidly dubiously had to consider the fact that he might be groggy from his earlier mental strain. But when Randidly took a deep breath, the air seemed so pure and clean that it was sweet on his tongue.

I figured there would be a change, but...

Acri and Sulfur hummed in concern at his confusion. Randidly could only shake his head helplessly. “...Hopefully, it’s nothing. Guess we just hope that this recovery goes even more smoothly than I had planned… luckily most health problems just sort themselves out with the System around...”

Randidly turned his attention inward. At his core, a huge mass of spiraling energy spread out in a disk-like nova. Around that huge Nether core, the smaller Nether cores slowly orbited. But Randidly didn’t miss how already, the pull from the central core was causing the outer ones to fall to pieces that would eventually be brought into the larger nova.

From there, moving onto the next step probably involves forces the nova back into a single core… Randidly tapped his lip, but his attention moved away from his Nether cores to the flip side of his inner world, where two violet drops of liquid pulsed with power.

Sighing lightly, Randidly reached out and touched one of the two drops of liquid Aether. His heart ached slightly to use something that ended up being so difficult to create, but it wasn’t like he had much choice. Although he seemed fine on the surface, Randidly’s images would still be quite insubstantial from his use of the Philosopher’s Key. He needed to draw some mental energy back into himself extremely quickly.

The fuzzing and pleasant popping bubbles continued around him even as his attention was focused inward. Mentally, Randidly extended a finger and touched one of the drops of liquid Aether. Even being near it, he remained the experience of allowing his emotions to be drained in order to form liquid Aether.

It wasn’t exactly mental strength that he used, but it wasn’t exactly dissimilar. The part of himself that he had poured into the process would take a while to recover. Forming two drops in his current condition was already relatively impressive.

When his hand was on the drop of liquid Aether, the use came to him instinctively. Randidly let out a breath then breathed in while activating Golden Roots of Yggdrasil. The drop of liquid Aether inside of him began to burn. Suddenly, Golden Roots stretched to fill the surrounding area.

Congratulations! Your Skill Golden Roots of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 226!

Congratulations! Your Skill Golden Roots of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 227!

Congratulations! Your Skill Golden Roots of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 228!

“Hupp!” Randidly gasped as his senses were overwhelmed with a surging tidal wave of energy. The second that his image spread to cover the surrounding area, information and power were poured into Randidly so quickly that he quickly had to set the information to the side and focus on digesting all the energy. If he hadn’t, he might have burst. The buzzing grew worse, as though the rapid gathering of energy only turned up the volume on a radio station rife with static.

Randidly’s mind became white, almost overwhelmed by it all. It took him fully another minute to digest all the energy and allow it to nourish his body and mind. And certainly, afterward Randidly felt immensely more well-rested. Yet the buzzing, popping sensation had only become more noticeable. As Randidly’s body and mind healed, his Grim Intuition just continued to feed him that confusing tingle from all around him.

Not just exhaustion then. Randidly snorted out a breath. Then what could it be…? Such an unfamiliar sensation… but not uncomfortable...

But his internal examinations of his own situation were blown away by a huge explosion of white fire and lightning that occurred at the edge of the Great Rift. The brightness was almost blinding even from this distance. The power of it was so great that a wave of tremors spread out from the ominously flickering light and cracked the ground beneath him.

Groooaaannnnn.

The sound of the wooden support structures of the fort failing beneath him finally snapped Randidly’s attention back to his current priorities. He hadn’t recovered a great deal of Mana, even with the Skill using liquid Aether, but he had plenty to utilize Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil. Just as the walls began to sag and tumble forward, Randidly carefully propped them all up with vines.

First thing’s first… Randidly grimaced as he looked behind him. When he hopped down from the battlements into the courtyard below, the tingling continued. But as he landed, Randidly relaxed immensely as he realized something.

It’s not that I’m exhausted… it’s just that… the sensation of using my images in the surrounding area feels so… Scratching his chin, Randidly shook his head and scanned the limp bodies in the courtyard for anyone requiring immediate aid to survive. Luckily, it seemed that most were just knocked unconscious. As quickly as possible, Randidly wanted to hurry toward that huge explosion and figure out what had happened. But he also didn’t want to just abandon these people here.

Especially when his interference was the only reason that the fort hadn’t collapsed like a house of cards on top of them.

The warmth flowing through his connection with Vualla continued to flow reassuringly, even as the amount of Aether she was using had grown again. So despite the obvious urgency, Randidly wasn’t willing to overlook these wounded individuals. It made a certain sense that her capacity would improve as she utilized her new image, but the amount of growth she was experiencing was preposterous.

I suppose that’s what I get for getting involved with the greatest energy utilization genius the System had ever seen… But Randidly dropped that thought when he saw a few soldiers groaning and sitting up.

Randidly strode quickly over and unleashed a direct blast of Aether into the air to try and aid in these soldiers’ recovery. For a brief second, Randidly was distracted by the way the Aether began to behave strangely only a meter away from his body. But after seeing that he could force the Aether to continue to diffuse out over the wounded crowd, he bent over and met the eyes of an individual with the body of an insect. Of them all, he seemed the most coherent. “You alright?”

The soldier nodded nervously, then abruptly straightened as he recognized Randidly a few seconds later.

Mirroring the nod, Randidly continued. “See if you can get the rest of the people up here up. Don’t leave anyone behind. Rouse everyone. And once you do… retreat. At least far enough that you can’t see any more cracks in the ground. I think… there isn’t much a point to defending this place any longer.”

The soldier nodded again.

Not super talkative, huh… probably for the best. Saves me time. Standing, Randidly turned away. But a voice manifested right as Randidly was about to accelerate toward the door to exit the fort.

“What about you? Why… why not come with us?”

Randidly grinned back at the soldier. “I have a weird feeling that today’s fighting isn’t over quite yet. Besides… my friends are fighting still. For now, I need to go out there.”

Although it was difficult to see through his insectoid face, Randidly could sense the soldier’s resolve firm. “...then we will stay too.”

Chuckling, Randidly allowed the image of the Grim Chimera to descend around him for a split second. The ghastly aura wafted away from him, filling the surrounding air. Randidly didn’t miss the way the buzzing intensified. His skin tingled pleasantly.

The soldier flinched.

“You are weak, soldier. This isn’t your fight.“ Randidly said lightly. “We all have roles. Yours right now is to follow orders. Withdraw, so you will be more prepared next time. Understood?”

Randidly didn’t even wait to hear the soldiers answer. He simply turned and accelerated out of Lady Iellaya’s fort. His limbs moved smoothly and blood pumped through his veins. The tingling bubbles continued but slowly grew less attention-grabbing. Beyond the gate were floating platforms and pillars of stone, which were all that remained of the edge of the continent.

Grinning in pleasure. Randidly leapt back and forth from to cross the intervening distance. The force of his steps and landings cracked and shattered the drifting pieces further, but he didn’t think his biggest worry would be the return journey.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Detection has grown to Level 179!

Randidly’s emerald eyes stretched sideways into crescents as he watched Aether sluggishly be forced out of the way by the speed of his acceleration. Again, the buzzing grew stronger. Then, when he reached the Great Rift, Randidly dived forward out into the vast darkness. At this point, it was almost instinctual to use Nether propel himself forward toward the rapidly diminishing fragments of stone floating out there.

That’s what the sensation is! The new Nether core creates a bubble around me that I can use as a defensive barrier. Randidly mused as he shot rapidly forward. If anything, he was faster in the Nether than when running through Aether space. But not only that… because the Nether is actually balanced with my Aether… it acts as a screen that keeps foreign Aether out completely. Not just Aether out, either...

Randidly flexed his hands and used Cursed Appetite of a Wraith to suck in a breath that absorbed some of the energy from the surrounding Nether. Yet when that Nether was pulled in toward his body, the energy needed to pass through the substantial energy field around him. For the Nether, it wasn’t the bubble that his core created that impeded its progress, but the pure Aether that filled the air between Randidly’s body and the bubble.

And the reason for the sensation of tingling that was slowly vanishing was that all of Randidly’s Skills now ran entirely on his own purified Aether. Not even a whiff of the System’s Aether was allowed near the balanced energies in Randidly’s body any longer. With only his pure Aether as fuel, Randidly had already noticed that his Skills were markedly more effective.

It would take time he didn’t currently have to see the extent that his Skills were improved, but it seemed that they were almost 30% more powerful just from removing the trace amounts of System Aether that Randidly had been subconsciously from the air. And the effect was especially noticeable when his Skills manifested within that two-meter sphere around Randidly…

But Randidly’s expression quickly grew serious as he continued onward. His eyes were on the distant battlefield, where the fading light and chaotic energies were making it difficult for his Grim Intuition. But even with those improvements, fighting against a Nether King… this won’t be easy.

As Randidly approached the battlefield, there was an extremely low-frequency noise that was steadily gaining volume. It wasn’t aggressive, but it was clearly some version of those noises that the Nether King produced. Worrying that it was building its strength for something, Randidly accelerated even faster.

His eyes narrowed as he attempted to gather what information he could. A little to the left there was a small platform of stone that had been the origin of that powerful earlier attack. Opposite that, there was an impenetrable grey cloud that was surrounded by white and black lightning. It was from that cloud that the low-frequency noise was emerging.

That’s the Nether King…? Randidly wondered. His eyes continued to search. Other than that, most of the surrounding area was just filled with drifting debris. For whatever reason, he still hadn’t managed to locate Vualla-

A blast of white lightning screamed across the battlefield. Taken by surprise, it was only when it was a short distance away that Randidly realized it was heading directly for his beating heart.

Randidly’s eyes burned emerald as his gaze fixed on his attacker. Ileot Swacc…!