Lady Iellaya drifted in the darkness surrounded by fizzing chunks of orange. She blinked slowly and her eyes focused, allowing her to watch the inky blackness slowly dissolve the nearby stones. The stump of her right arm was still warm, a phantom sensation of when she had touched ord Miln’s back. The righteous fury she had felt when she had struck him and pinned him to the Nether King still felt amazing.

The empty space where her forearm had once been was curiously cool, completely severed by that strange white lightning that Ileot used in his strike. The charred skin of Lady Iellaya’s elbow twinged in discomfort.

...I avenged you, Abiodun… Lady Iellaya worked her mouth, tasting blood on her tongue. Her head throbbed painfully. All she wanted was a well-deserved nap. You can rest in peace.

A voice continued to whisper persistently in her ear despite the fact that she allowed most of her consciousness to settle into numbed silence. The once familiar tone it used suddenly felt extremely strange. We failed… we couldn’t protect Abiodun. Everything we touch… is cursed to die. Better to just… drift here…

Lady Iellaya frowned and gently chided herself. Why had the voice made her current action out to be so bleak? This rest isn't a permanent state. Not so long as there are still other subordinates who have sworn their lives to me. I made a mistake and lost Abiodun… but that is a lesson for the future. I cannot stop here. As soon as I recover-

The voice grew louder and continued as though it hadn’t even heard her words. Lady Iellaya’s skin itched to hear it so shrilly in her ear. Hate. Hate them. It’s their fault. This world… these lives… they could all be-

“What the hell are you…?” Lady Iellaya whispered. She forced her eyes open. To her horror, she found that her whole body had been covered in a sea of feathers. They grew increasingly thick over all of her body, submerging her toes, legs, abdomen, and torso until only her face was currently bare. And as her skin continued to itch, Lady Iellaya felt those feathers slowly sprout out of her neck and creep upward like a beard.

I am the path you have chosen. The Path of vengeance. Seeking power to avenge your Abiodun, at any cost.

“I don’t choose you.” The pounding in Lady Iellaya’s head grew worse. A dawning horror seized her chest as the voice in the back of her head sounded less and less familiar. Those huge, throbbing wings she had dragged behind her began pulling her even more deeply into the darkness. They were rivers of feathers, an endless burial in an oily, dark flow.

You needed power! The voice insisted. We all need power. Only with power can we be saved. You let me into your heart. We want the same thing. Only with power can we avoid failing again. But we will always fail. Our touch is poison. The power we want is a perfect power that has no reason to be used. Because by using it we’d swallow everything up.

As the black feathers began to sprout from her face, Lady Iellaya smiled. “Am I really like you? Whatever you are… you have no future. And I won’t let you devour mine. No… not when I hold the future that Abiodun dreamed of in his life. The dream of the whole world belonging to me.”

You want to swallow the world… just like-

As the feathers began to spread across her high cheekbones and obscured Lady Iellaya’s vision, the raven winged serpent roared. With its short and sharp jaws, Lady Iellaya began to gnaw her way out of the sea of feathers that surrounded her.

*****

Randidly’s skin tingled as the beam of white lightning cut toward him through the intervening space. His instincts made it quite clear that this wasn’t something that he should face directly. Its power seemed to curdle the Nether of the Great Rift around it, leaving a trail of grey goop as the two powers rubbed against each other with enough friction to spark.

Randidly instantly surged into motion. His image spread out through the pure Aether maintained by his Nether Gatekeeper bubble. With his skin tingling, Randidly gritted his teeth and twisted out of the way to avoid the sudden attack. Chimeric Avoidance.

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Avoidance (L) has grown to Level 232!

The beam of sizzling lightning ripped across the edge of Randidly’s ribs, melting through Sulfur’s exterior rigid in a heartbeat. Glaring upward at Ileot Swacc, Randidly activated Man is Proud but the Chimera Takes. The empowered Skill surged into action, mobilizing Randidly’s own Nether to turn his body into a torpedo that surged forward toward Ileot. But just as quickly as he activated it, Randidly was forced to desperately activate the Skill again in a different direction as Ileot unleashed a bombardment of three more blasts of white lightning toward his vital points.

Congratulations! Your Skill Man is Proud But the Chimera Takes (L) has grown to Level 193!

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 251!

Gritting his teeth, Randidly could only flex his body to disperse his momentum into the surrounding space. The blasts whizzed by harmlessly, but Randidly could see that several more flames condensed around Ileot’s distant figure, ready to be shot forward. Yet Randidly couldn’t help but think there was something wrong with Ileot. His posture was rigid and his face was locked into a constant sneer.

But most strangely, Ileot had seemed to Randidly to be someone who loved the sound of his own voice. Yet now he attacked him without even speaking…? And the quality of these lightning blasts...

The performance of my Skills certainly has improved, but Ileot’s attacks are even faster than mine. If we were fighting near each other, there wouldn’t be any way for me to dodge… but still… Randidly’s eyes tightened. Even if I’ve improved… it should still be easy for someone like Ileot to crush me with his image. So why isn’t he doing that…?

Ileot’s eyes were half-closed, completely preventing Randidly from discerning any of his emotions or intentions. If Randidly didn’t know better, it would seem like Ileot was dozing off. Yet as Randidly paused and scanned his sudden attacker, three more blasts of white lightning shot down toward him. Swearing quietly, Randidly rolled to the side and quickly avoided the blasts.

Doesn’t he want to talk? Guess we aren’t friends any longer... Randidly’s gaze was sharp as he looked up at Ileot once more. There were no words waiting for him in Ileot’s half-closed eyes, only more tongues of white flame that sprung into existence around his foe. Either way, I won’t be able to do anything from this far away… But if I move closer too recklessly…

Damnit…! What the hell is going on…?

Then Randidly’s eyes widened as an idea occurred to him. He began to chuckle. Then he cracked his knuckles. “Alright then. Let’s do this the hard way. Even if you are more powerful than me… I don’t think you can compete with me in the Great Rift.”

“None will leave this place alive,” Ileot whispered.

When Ileot spoke the short phrase, Randidly’s grin only widened. With those words, most of Randidly’s confusion was satisfied; even if he didn’t understand the situation, the clarity that Ileot had become an enemy took away all of Randidly’s mental stress.

The familiar sensation of the Grim Chimera’s wild glee during its earlier missions into the Great Rift returned suddenly to Randidly. The danger had his blood smoldering. But the current Randidly Ghosthound had gone far down the Path of Nether. If Ileot Swacc was going to force them to be enemies, Randidly didn’t mind demonstrating how much he had grown.

After all, Randidly sincerely doubted that his ability to use Nether was as grand a secret as the Alpha Cosmos. If he had no choice but to fight, there was no reason to keep this secret hidden.

His large Nether core began to spin even faster, slowly dismantling the surrounding cores. Ripples began to spread through the bubble around Randidly. Still standing perfectly straight and still, Ileot unleashed more blasts of power. As Ileot attacked, the image of the Grim Intuition came into being around Randidly and expertly wove its way through the blasts.

All the while, Randidly’s preparations continued in secret.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 120!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 121!

As Randidly quickly wove his Nether RItual, he brought the image of Yggdrasil to life behind him. He considered using the drop of liquid Aether but decided against it. He would save that for a decisive blow.

The enormous brown trunk shot upward, its twisting branches and golden roots spreading to fill the surrounding area. Golden script glittered mesmerizingly across all of the World Tree. For the first time since the fight began, Ileot’s eyes narrowed; it was clear he recognized the image as a threat. Yet after a hesitation, Ileot didn’t attempt to contest the spreading reach of the tree at all. Instead, he just conjured more blasts of white lightning and unleashed them all at once toward Randidly.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 122!

Randidly grimaced as the six-shot volley Ileot unleashed crossed in complicated patterns too quickly for his eyes to follow. Without much choice, Randidly allowed one of the beams to pierce directly through the flesh of his thigh to avoid taking more serious injuries. To Randidly’s horror, he immediately felt the blast drain a fraction of his energy. Behind his back, that beam twisted around as though alive and aimed for Randidly’s spine.

The trick is to avoid them so they don’t build up any energy huh… With how much power it took, it probably can still circle around a few times…

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Ritual (A) has grown to Level 123!

But as Randidly expertly used Chimeric Avoidance to avoid the one blast that curved around and the four more that Ileot unleashed, his face curled into a smile. ...it’s such a pity that I’m no longer bound by just relying on Aether to fight you any longer. Honestly… I might actually be stronger as a Nether Beast than as an Aether soldier…

At that thought, Randidly’s body began to ripple. His limbs stretched and darkened, transforming partially into the vision of the Grim Chimera. His two long bone tails swung impatiently side to side as he glared up at Ileot. Acri trilled in pleasure and spun together to form its enormous lance form. Sulfur hummed in understanding and the three heavy fingers it had on Randidly’s left arm gradually sharpened into wickedly curved talons.

Ileot’s eyes narrowed in annoyance at the same moment that the Ritual finished. Yggdrasil surrounded them, its branches stretching out in every direction, its roots forming a wide base. They fought beneath Yggdrasil’s auspices. As the curving beam twisted again to aim at Randidly and Ileot hemmed in his movements with more attacks, Randidly reached out and touched a gnarled branch next to him.

In the next instant, Randidly was gone. The blasts of white lightning passed harmlessly through the void he left behind. The leaves of Yggdrasil rustled.

For a long second, Ileot stood on his basketball court’s worth of stone and looked at the spot where Randidly disappeared with blank eyes. The beam that had pierced through Randidly gradually ran out of its stolen energy and faded like its fellows. With a sudden sharpness, Ileot looked up and saw Randidly holding a burning beacon of emerald and orange fire in his left hand while accelerating down toward him.

Moving with all of the power that Randidly expected from an expert of Ileot’s abilities, Ileot Swacc twisted and unleashed almost a dozen curving arcs of incandescent electricity toward Randidly. With so many at once, they resembled the jaws of a wolf, closing in to swallow him whole.

Yet once more, Randidly reached out and touched a nearby branch of Yggdrasil. With the same sort of capability that the blue veins in the Great Rift possessed, Randidly followed that connection and appeared at one of the innumerable roots of the World Tree. With Randidly disappearing once more, the roots and branches in the surrounding area shifted once more, wriggling outward.

Before Ileot could react, the remaining stone beneath him shattered and Randidly surged upward, the glowing ember at the center of a bonfire. FIrebird’s Lament.

Congratulations! Your Skill FIrebird’s Lament (A) has grown to Level 86!

...

Congratulations! Your Skill FIrebird’s Lament (A) has grown to Level 101!

Flames blasted outward, knocking Ileot backward. Although the Skill wasn’t a powerful one, the evolved form of Verdant Nova had the most concussive force and rampant energies than most of Randidly’s abilities. In addition, it bought Randidly a split second to examine Ileot in close proximity. Because honestly, he hadn’t expected that Skill to hit. Both this and the prior movements were designed to draw out his strength so that Randidly could judge how aggressively he should engage in this fight.

Yet as Randidly studied his foe with Aether Detection, his eyes widened in recognition of what was happening in Ileot’s body. The reason he’s so stiff… is that he’s suffering from Aether Sickness! That last attack depleted most of his strength, and now that he’s suspended in the Great Rift! With how large his inner world is… with how long he lived… it must require a ridiculous amount of Aether to maintain his peak strength.

Just the Aether cost of supporting himself means he’s running at a deficit. That’s why these attacks are condensed and designed to steal energy for fuel… Ileot looks like he’s dozing off… because that’s actually what’s happening!

Although Ileot was something akin to an apex predator compared to Randidly… its ribs were showing through its patchy fire. It’s enormously powerful body had turned to eating itself in order to survive.