Thea Glasshammer crossed her arms. It had been such a hectic week that there was still blood under her nails and rips in her leather armor. Yet when the Nemesai had returned to their base, another surprise had been waiting for them. Torchlight flickered against the damp stones traced with lines of the Winged Serpent’s formations and left them all feeling profoundly unsafe.

Eventually, Thea couldn’t stand the tension any longer and flexed her fingers. The other Nemesai slowly shifted to lean against the walls of the cavern and waited for Thea to speak her opinion. Because all of the Zones were actively working together to hunt them in a way that severely curtailed their activities, their existence had been exceptionally miserable since the incident at the stadium.

Of course, the Nemesai had the edge in any straight fight with the normal forces of Earth. Even the likes of Alana Donal and Hank Howard could be handled. But the stadium revealed a devastating truth to the Nemesai.

Even with their images, Randidly Ghosthound could kill them.

The fact that we were forced base ourselves here, on a small island hidden in the Great Sea should be enough. But also…

Thea’s gaze grew heavy as she looked toward the center of the room. Chrysanthemum was sniffing the metal card that had been stuck into the flat stone the Nemesai had taken to using as a table for the duration of their stay. The placement showed both the ability to infiltrate and also an understanding of how the space was used.

Unless Randidly Ghosthound can read even our habits with images, Thea gritted her teeth.

“From what I can tell, a plant grew up through the stone ground, placed the invitation, then immediately withered away. The invitation must have been pulled through the ground.” The Winged Serpent’s tongue flicked out as it examined the space beneath the stone table. The other Nemesai were similarly uneasy. Obsidian Duke, who had only recently recovered from the injuries he suffered while holding back the Jade Prince at the stadium, rubbed his chin and refused to look at the card.

An Invitation to the birthday of Randidly Ghosthound… The Nemesai had obviously heard when Randidly started sending out invitations to the people of Earth. They had even been making some tentative plans around the event, although with the action at other locations; no one felt confident facing Randidly directly after watching Straud be squished like an annoying fly.

But now that he had gone so far to invite them personally…

“Your formations can’t stop him?” Thea asked and regretted it immediately. She shouldn’t cast doubt on the Winged Serpent now.

The Winged Serpent’s tongue flicked again. “It is possible for me to adjust the defensive formations so this specific act cannot happen again… but I suspect he would still be able to find other ways to accomplish his goals. The only fix for that would be… I could stay here and constantly be using the full might of my image to defend the place… but I’m unsure how long I could hold out if he assaults my defenses with his own image. This Randidly Ghosthound…”

“He’s breaking the rules,” The Bandit King whispered. In the flickering light from the torches, the Nemesis looked gaunt and exhausted. His flashy clothes were ripped and bloody, just like everyone else's’. “How are we supposed to win? Not everyone is like the Obsidian Duke, whose world managed to get an individual on both sides on a single world. If I fail, my world-”

“His people and mine are eternally at odds,” The Obsidian Duke snarled. “If he grasps victory, my clan will be slaughtered like dogs. And vice versa. So If you think-”

“Yet what I really want to know is how can you even think to continue struggling like a slug when you were easily overpowered by him?” The Bandit King said with a sneer. He took two steps toward the Obsidian Duke.

The Obsidian Duke took two steps toward the Bandit King. “While I have been forced to suppress my image, that child has been able to utilize his image much more freely in that same period of time. Of course, he has improved over the past two years! But soon I will-”

“Enough,” Thea said quietly. And along with her voice the air around her pulsed with her image growing image of bleak destruction. Her knowledge of Earth had earned her the respect to be among the Nemesai, but it was her growing image that made even the new arrivals willing to follow her.

Fire to scrape the flesh away from the dead. The stale sweat of sacrifice and bleak toil. A monolith of bones built femur by femur so that she could draw nearer to the moon.

For a second, that terrible image pressed against them and they didn’t relent. But quickly, the drawn-out exhaustion of the week saw them fold. Both of the formerly aggressive Nemesai unwilling took steps back while glaring at each other.

Yet what drove an icicle through her heart was completely unrelated to the duo. Across the room, Thea didn’t miss the way that Chrysanthemum stilled as Thea’s image filled the surrounding air.

Do you hate me? Is any remnant of you even present in that husk…?

At this point, Thea Glasshammer was seriously beginning to doubt the words that the Creature had said to her all those years ago when she had been convinced to seize the mantle of the Nemesis. But at this point… she had already chosen this Path. Everything would be for nothing if she lost her nerve now.

She had to keep walking forward and hope. And when her hope died, she was at least stubborn enough to keep walking anyway.

Thea released a breath through her nose. “I think it’s clear that this is a threat, but also just an implied one. Randidly Ghosthound... “

Thea remembered the man’s quiet determination and kindness while he was traveling under a false name with Simon. She remembered the dramatic conclusion of the search for his Soulbound companion. She remembered his clear emerald eyes while he had considered her. She remembered his firm conviction as the group pushed through the Raid Dungeon.

“...Randidly Ghosthound doesn’t need to toy with us. Since he sent the invitation, he genuinely wants us to come to his birthday party.” Thea continued in a quieter voice. “And although he definitely is one who subverts the way that the System should work… there are advantages to that for us as well. We simply have to be ready to seize the opportunity.”

“It is suicide to go to that party,” The Grey Lich spoke in its haunting voice.

Thea’s mouth twisted. “If Randidly Ghosthound wanted us dead… would he really need to invite us to a birthday party?”

And to that, the other Nemesai couldn’t find a satisfactory answer.

*****

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Detection has grown to Level 191!

After delivering the invitation to the Nemesai, Randidly had stayed within the vast sea Zone and thoroughly scanned the Creature’s image that was so pervasive on this portion of Earth. Of all the issues with Earth dealing with the First Calamity, this one always struck Randidly as the most serious threat. The Creature’s methods were outside the bounds of the System in a way similar to Randidly’s.

It was time he made sure that he was prepared for whatever plan she was hatching.

Randidly hesitated and looked down at the metal invitation that he held in his hand. But after shaking his head, he put it away. No, even for me, inviting the Creature to my birthday party would be a little much. After all, she’s used me for without my consent, imagine what she would take if I invited her in...

Settling down on the small island, Randidly closed his eyes and allowed the soft sounds of the waves against the pebbled shore to loosen his focus from the physical details of the world. Instead, Randidly spread his Grim Intuition out to cover a large area and parse apart the thick fog of images. Even with just the images, Randidly could feel the adventure and danger of the sea. Lurking below its surface were powerful Level 60 or so monsters that were just starting to touch the edge of an image.

A thick tapestry of will and color slowly unrolled to Randidly’s inner eye. But laying over everything was the pall of the Creature’s Aether.

And yet...

Randidly chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully. The problem had become that while the Creature’s image was definitely denser in the North part of the Endless Sea, as people were now calling it, it was a uniform thickness across the expanses of waves and deserted islands that made further investigation difficult.

So Randidly had come to the edge of the densest area and was now carefully sensing his way forward through the Creature’s proliferated image. Because now that he was here, Randidly was starting to have an inkling of what the Creature might be up to.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Detection has grown to Level 192!

Randidly had obtained a Coin of Territory in the past but had not yet used it. But he had instantly understood, even through the strangeness of the Coin used by Straud, that the man was using such a coin from an alternate Earth to claim the stadium. So it had given Randidly a little bit of insight into its uses.

And although the advantage that the territory gave Straud’s image hadn’t been enough to bridge the gap between Randidly and Straud, it had been a significant boost. For a few seconds, the Grim Chimera had relied on both the advantages of its Nether body and the full power of its image to suppress Straud.

Yet what connected the dots was the fact that the sensation of the territory had reminded Randidly of something he had encountered before: the lingering presence of images in areas where he had worked on something particularly powerful or transformative. The territory was just a System enforced mark that the owner made very easily. But such marks could be made with time and the focused use of images. Like the Creature had been doing here in the Northern portion of the Endless Sea.

It seemed that she was trying to claim an area of land as home turf for her image.

Which probably meant that the Creature would have a method of eventually drawing Randidly into her area. But even as Randidly ruthlessly combed through the extremely large area with his Grim Intuition, he couldn’t find from afar any specific concentration of image that he could assault. So Randidly would need to walk in blind to this area that the Creature had been preparing for almost six months in order to discover more.

Randidly growled in frustration. Knowing that the Creature was adjusting the environment in the Northern sea was progress, but it still left her actual motives in the dark. That was just an advantage; such a change wouldn’t have an impact on Earth’s future as far as Randidly could predict. It left him without the slightest clue how the Creature would proceed.

I suppose that’s not exactly true. I’ve always known what the Creature wants; to escape from the System. But it’s just that her methods have generally involved casually sacrificing the Earth… Randidly rubbed at his eyes and sighed. The waves continued to lap softly against the beach around him. Now the question is how I feel about barging in there…

And in the face of that prospect, Randidly currently found himself quite unwilling. Instead, Randidly returned to his meditative stance and then performed some experiments with Aether and Nether. He wanted to see if he could weaken the influence of the Creature’s image on the area if he spent some effort focusing on her presence.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Surgeon (Ru) has grown to Level 99!

Congratulations! Your Skill Living Aether (R) has grown to Level 160!

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Manipulation has grown to Level 215!

Congratulations! Your Skill Erode Image (L) has grown to Level 100!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 135!

Over the course of an hour, Randidly gained quite a number of Skill Levels as he cut and burned and straight eroded to try and get rid of the presence of the Creature that was working itself into the very air and stones of the sea around him. Even the monsters seemed slightly stronger than their Level should explain after feeding on the image for so long. Unfortunately, it seemed he was quite a bit too late to stop the process. His present efforts turned out to be a bit like trying to destroy a sand dune by pulling handfuls of sand from the bottom. There was definitely a result, but it wasn’t worth the effort to continue.

It turned out the most useful method was just using Erode Image directly, compared to attacking the image with Aether or trying to burn it away with Nether. But that was a Skill that left Randidly mentally exhausted only after a few uses.

So for the moment, Randidly got up with a frown and pulled out his Philosopher’s Key and opened a portal back to his island. His birthday was now only five days away, and Randidly was preparing to create something very special.

I should address the Creature before the birthday itself to make sure the people who come aren’t in danger, but I do want to do a little bit more preparation before I wander into a trap…