For almost fifteen minutes, Randidly lingered around in that ornate room after Theodora left, idly spinning the large golden globe as he waited for any indication there would be more meetings for him. After all, Tatiana had mentioned that there would be other meetings in the next few days. Randidly just didn’t know if there would be any more tonight.

Randidly hoped there wouldn’t be. For whatever reason, meeting Theodora had left him with a sour taste in his mouth. So when Tatiana didn’t show up, he directly produced the Philosopher’s Key and moved back to his island.

There, he finally allowed himself to collapse onto the ground with his arms spread wide. It had certainly been an aggravating day.

But just as quickly, Randidly breathed out through his nose and focused; he didn’t have time to waste any time now. There was a powerful foe waiting in front of him: Kaan Swacc, the Special Investigator for the Xyrt Brigade. A foe that would do his best to inflict harm on the Earth. And although Nether gave Randidly some confidence, he knew he still needed to improve his images before the advantage of Nether would be enough.

...and also there’s the tabled issue of the Creature’s memories… Randidly hesitated for a second, unwilling to simply allow the memories to persist unchaperoned on the Earth for a long period of time. But by the same token, Yyxtrix had effectively blocked Randidly from pursuing the memories. And with that last biblical line on Yystrix’s letter…

Something made Randidly believe that the memories would find their way back to him, one way or another. Whether it was karma or coincidence or a rise of a sudden threat… they wouldn’t simply disappear. He had no real basis for the belief, other than Yystrix’s actions but…

Perhaps this was just Randidly trying to display his sincerity for someone who was no longer alive to see it.

So for the moment, rather than allowing himself to be distracted by things he couldn't’ control, Randidly turned his attention inward and began to look at the image of Ignition Essence that he held in his chest. If he wanted to increase the power that he wielded, this was the image that would yield the most results.

It hadn’t struck Randidly quite so obviously until he had utilized all three images at once, but Ignition Essence was significantly less powerful than the other two images that he now possessed. It could be even seen from the base form of the image: while the other two images had their discrete shapes, Ignition Essence was just Randidly with some extra flames.

It was difficult to test the exact magnitude even with the glowstone tiles, but Randidly estimated that Ignition Essence was perhaps only one-third of the strength of the other images. There simply wasn’t enough originality or shape to provide the weighty substance that would provide the image with power. So Randidly’s first order of business was to spend some time with Ignition Essence, searching for the method to improve it.

Narrowing his focus, Randidly soon found the flickering flames of Ignition Essence in his core. Emerald and orange tongues of flame licked upward from an almost blindingly bright core. The aura of enlightenment that radiated outward couldn’t be physically perceived, but as someone who was intimately familiar with the image, Randidly could feel his thoughts flow more easily as soon as he gazed toward Ignition Essence.

There were three main sources for the current Ignition Essence. The first was its origin; the enlightenment that took humanity from beasts to an intelligent species. That first flash of light that inspired the rest of civilization. The gift stolen from the gods.

A treasure without name or context.

Randidly still felt the necessity present in that prison in Tellus that suppressed the activity of Mana and Stamina to an unbelievable degree. It had been a place where only image could exist, and it was the image that Randidly used to eventually escape. Without Ignition Essence, the Path of Tellus would have been much different.

The second source for Ignition Essence was much less glamorous; Randidly’s early Skills related to fire were consumed to form a large part of the base for the image. The color of the flames for the Skills became emerald and their usage became a little more precise, but largely they remained the same after the transformation. Because Randidly didn’t have the specific history of images like he obtained with the Spear Phantom Style, Ignition Essence just took his fire Skills and slapped a cosmetic change.

Quite a shallow base for power. Randidly grimaced as he considered how to change that moving forward. But still, he hoped the third source that would provide the answer to that question. While he looked at his inner space, Randidly’s focus narrowed toward the orange tongues of flame that were a part of Ignition Essence.

It was the addition of Illym and her powerful Fate that made the difference to Ignition Essence. Although again, the visual change to the image was only cosmetic, Randidly guessed that the effect was truly much deeper than that due to the sweeping changes that went through the names of his associated Skills.

Phoenix Slaying Bolt, Firebird’s Lament, Talon of the Restless Immortal…

The fire in Illym’s image easily grafted onto the rather generic base of fire Skills that Randidly had previously in Ignition Essence and infiltrated. What was problematic is that along with the weight of Illym’s Fate and the terrible heat it produced, he also received a lot of her ancillary images. A terrible depression that came from a lifetime where either she or her sister would need to give up their lives in order for the other to survive. And the guilt for unknowingly killing her sister in her desperation to be independent.

Guilt for the knowledge her sister had willingly died for her. A vast emptiness that her sister died without Illym being able to speak with her.

Those tiny emotions had swirled through the peripheral Skills, but the pure core of inspiration that founded Ignition Essence resisted any change without Randidly’s express choice.

Randidly sighed. Leaves me with a series of tough choices. I absorbed the Fates to help heal my Class and create my own Fate, and now I either try and extricate Illym or I find a way to reconcile the core image of inspiration in Ignition Essence with the deep darkness that Illym carried with her. And hope that whatever I choose to do, it won’t affect my other images…

After shaking his head, Randidly stopped thinking overmuch about the broader issue; he would find a solution or he wouldn’t. Forcing it now while he had no concrete ideas wouldn’t help. Instead, he began channeling his Willpower through the image. It erupted in a sea of hungry flames that crackled and howled. The reach of the orange and emerald tongues of fire grew and grew.

Even the pure core of inspiration grew brighter as Randidly concentrated.

If the frontlines had taught Randidly anything, it was that every bit counted. So once a few seconds of blazingly fierce image passed, Randidly focused forward and began to make small aesthetic changes to the image. The colors of the fire became more intense and vibrant. Randidly steadily refined the source of the light at the core to be a dodecahedron that seemed to fold in on itself with every rotation.

And heat. Randidly remembered heat that he could use to enrich the image. He remembered feeling Alana’s bold and honorable fire tonight. But he also remembered the poisonous and deadly flames of Aegiant, forcing Randidly to hide in the depths of a pool of lava to escape being melted. He remembered the whispery sound of lava evaporating.

He also remembered his own images of heat, that moment where enough carefully built up increases explode in a sudden paradigm shift. The cycle in his core that had been his Soulskill before the Alpha Cosmos.

This, at least, was a space where Illym’s emotions could be worked into the image more fully. Ignition Essence possessed a heat that was so intense it refused to be quelled, even with the possessor dearly wished to release. It was a heat that only knew its own obsessive pursuit of consumption.

As much as the heat might crave to cease being hot, it could not. Balking or slackening was not in its nature.

Randidly sharpened the edges of the tongues of flame. He expanded the area of influence that Ignition Essence exerted. Then Randidly experimented a bit with other forms to be producing the flame, but nothing but his own body felt genuine.

From the names of the Skills, Randidly wanted to make something akin to a phoenix that could fan the flames. But of course, Randidly hadn’t ever seen a phoenix. Or rather, the ones he had seen had been artistic renditions from pre-System Earth; they were completely useless to him.

What he wanted was the bird that personified fire. Not a fantastical drawing.

When casting around his mind for other options… nothing seemed to be a workable candidate. He had regret, guilt, desperation, and inspiration swirling in a confusing pot for the image of Ignition essence. What form could he give to this strange flame that would possess all those emotions…?

Coming back to his physical body, Randidly brought up the cool metal fingertips of his left arm to press against his temples. He hadn’t been exhausted by the work he did sharpening the edges of the Ignition Essence image, but it was still a little disappointing that he really had no idea how to proceed next. There were other methods of training, but... Perhaps if he contacted Illym’s parents and asked for some more details about her life-

And as Randidly had that thought, he felt the rope bracelet around his right wrist stir.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 32!

Tilting his head to the side, Randidly flicked his wrist and conjured the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night to float above his hand. Once more, the half dozen rotating hoops spun outward from a central area while a complex and geometric core extended between the hoops, overlapping and folding in unpredictable ways.

Once the Fatepiece unfolded, Randidly’s Grim Intuition flowed inside the Fatepiece to experience the deep and varied sea of chimes that lay within. But very quickly, Randidly could identify one of the chimes that was producing its noise at a very different frequency of the others. Likely, this was the source of the disturbance with the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night.

Looks like this started reacting when I was thinking about ways to find out more about Illym. I suppose the Fatepiece is trying to tell me that this is an answer…? Randidly thought with a frown as he considered the noise. After the emotional experience with touching the previous chime and finding Yystrix, Randidly was somewhat leery to just make an attempt.

But ultimately, he gritted his teeth and reached. As he did so, his mind skimmed through several of the most emotional or pivotal moments in his life, wondering where and when this would take him. The world around him warped and shifted and suddenly Randidly was in another place.

Contrary to what little mental preparations Randidly had done for this experience, he did not immediately recognize the surrounding area. In fact, it appeared that Randidly was somehow in a spot that Randidly had never seen before. It looked like a spacious and austere bedroom. A large mattress was against the far wall, next to a closet. There was an unlit lamp in the corner next to a desk. There were windows, but they were completely covered with dark cloth, throwing the room into shadows.

But he was standing frozen opposite someone else who was similarly frozen. An average looking woman with dark hair and a square nose looked incredulously over at Randidly while she held up a cherry-red sword with the tip pressed right below her breastbone.

And Randidly immediately knew her: this was Illym, the Above-Average Child. And based on the current scenario, it seemed like Randidly’s Fatepiece had somehow taken him to the moment right before Illym took her own life.

This is certainly… not what I expected...

Illym’s eyes had been bleak and hollow when Randidly had arrived, but his sudden appearance seemed to ignite something deadly and intent in her expression. Without batting an eyelash, she spun the sword in her hands and pointed the tip at Randidly. “You… what the hell do you think you are doing here…?”

“I…” Randidly tried to figure out a good answer to that question. After Illym’s expression darkened during a few seconds of hesitation, Randidly decided to go with something like the truth. “I’ve come from the future. I’m here to stop you from taking your own life-”

Illym snorted and swung the sword. As she did so, first the air and then the entire room around Randidly ignited in a furious roar of heat and fire. The image was pure and blunt, but certainly effective. Almost instinctively, Randidly activated the Chimeric Avoidance to dodge the damage, but the heat and suddenness of the attack gave him no room to retreat. His body began to bubble and boil.

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Avoidance (L) has grown to Level 241!

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 263!

-and then Randidly was back, floating in the dense mass of chimes. After shaking his head and righting himself, Randidly easily located the chime that continued to release its teasing cry so frequently. At least its good to know that I won’t suffer permanent damage from what happens within these strange places…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 33!

Sighing, Randidly went back and entered the area of that chime. The world shifted once more. Immediately after everything ceased melting into swatches of color, Randidly began to speak. “You see? Fighting me is useless. I’m truly from the future-”

Randidly paused. Because now he noticed that once more he had arrived to a dull-eyed Illym who had a sword pointed at her chest. She twisted the sword around. “You...what the hell do you think you are doing here…?”

A vein in Randidly’s temple throbbed. So the moment saved in the Dreamcatcher is static, huh…?

A split second later, Illym attacked Randidly again and knocked him out of the strange suspended moment.