After speaking with Lyra and bidding her good night, the sun was starting to near the horizon. The surrounding sky was stained red and purple to the West, while the heavy thunderstorms that he and Lyra had been watching in the distance had arrived and made their presence known. Thick waves of rain slapped against the stony surface of Randidly’s island, but he ignored it. He sat in his sitting spot and considered. Honestly, he appreciated the sensation of the water on his skin; it helped him focus on the problem at hand.

Kaan Swacc planned on making a peremptory strike against Earth. Randidly’s fury was a deep and wild thing, making the crashing thunder around him seem as meek as a housecat.

Despite the distance between Randidly’s island and the actual ground, stone and dirt dozens of meters below shifted uncomfortably as the spectral roots of Yggdrasil tightened in the Earth. The Grim Chimera rolled its shoulders and cracked its joints in preparation for the price it would extract from this arrogant interloper. Ignition Essence’s flame shrunk to two tongues, one emerald and one orange. The almost still flames produced a frightful heat in the area around Randidly.

Randidly’s Nether Nebula was spinning furiously. But he calmed himself. He had a choice to make right now.

The most important task now was preparation. After discussing the matter with Lyra for a bit more, Randidly couldn’t glean any clues about which of the task forces that Kaan was going to target. Randidly’s Grim Intuition would likely give him a read on where the attack was targeting once it started, but he couldn’t be sure that Swacc flunky wouldn’t have a way to mask his assaults. Which meant that Randidly was probably relying on a report that the attack was occurring from the forces themselves.

And then… and then Randidly would rush over to confront the Swacc individual?

In addition, there was the matter of Octavius’s assurance that the Special Investigator was only there to watch out for unusual elements, and couldn’t normally become involved in the fighting. Randidly sent a message to Octavius to ask for more information while considering his current conundrum.

No matter what else happened, he would probably need to fight this foe in two days. Or more like one day, now that night was starting to fall. Should he go into a Dungeon to buy some more time?

Randidly tapped his fingers against the wet stone ground. An answer was not immediately forthcoming. More time would be useful, but two things stopped him. One was the thought that he would lose some of the benefits of necessity if he had extra time. But in addition to that… there was a strange feeling in Randidly’s chest. It was a restlessness that kept him from focusing on the training that he should be doing at the moment.

It emphatically did not want him to go to the Dungeon.

Even submerging himself in the deepest suppression of his Nether Nebula didn’t sway the feeling. Which meant that it was probably not anything that he directly sensed, but a response that came from Randidly’s gut…

His thoughts were interrupted as the reply came from Octavius.

As I stated previously, this scenario is extremely old. That was a time in the System where oversight was very different than the current iteration in the Seventh Cohort. So technically there are no bindings in place that would prevent the Special Investigator from moving against non-aberrant elements, I have difficulty believing that someone from the Xyrt Brigade would flagrantly disregard the traditional approach in such a manner.

Randidly huffed in annoyance and closed the message. Octavius’s answer at least confirmed that it was possible, and mostly made Randidly regret listening so closely to Octavius when they had spoken. Because of that, he assumed he would have more time.

“So, the Special Investigator has nothing that stops him from running wild…” Randidly said aloud. He chewed on his lip for a few minutes, considering that. “Nothing but me…”

Which was why he really could use the benefit of some extra time to prepare for this fight. Randidly didn’t want to reveal that he could use Nether until he was sure that he could suppress and kill Kaan Swacc almost immediately. At the same time, Randidly felt relatively confident that he could survive Swacc’s assault, but protecting people from Earth would be a little bit more difficult. He needed more time to fully understand and strengthen his Nether Skills.

And of course, there was the matter of Ignition Essence… Yet even as Randidly began to feel increasingly convinced he needed to take time inside of a Dungeon to improve himself, the more that terrible feeling in his chest seemed to bloom until it felt similar to dread. Some part of Randidly definitely did not want him to go into a Dungeon right now.

Growling, Randidly shook his head, as though he could fling away his worries like a dog would shed water on the surroundings after a bath. When that didn’t work, Randidly flipped his wrist to activate the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night. Even if he couldn’t figure out what the main usage of this Fatepiece was, Randidly could use it now to lose some of his worries in a cleansing, brutal fight with Illym.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 39!

…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 42!

Randidly frowned as the world began to blur around him. Huh, so I suppose a significant portion of what is occurring really is related to the original purpose of dreamcatchers… to cleanse dreams and protect those that are sleeping… I’m not necessarily sleeping… but maybe it protects me during some other portion of my life…?

With no confirmatory Level, Randidly could only let those thoughts float away without holding onto them. Suddenly he was there, in the room with the dark curtains drawn across the windows and Illym standing with her luminous sword pointed at her own breastbone. As his eyes adjusted, there was that familiar second of stillness as Illym struggled to rationalize his sudden appearance. Randidly considered saying something, but he had learned by now that words were useless.

Better to just get a head start on the fight that would follow.

Emerald and orange flames sprung to life around Randidly’s limbs and he shattered the wooden planks of the floor beneath him as he moved. His leap had been honed through repetition, putting him directly in front of Illym just as he unleashed a brutally sharp Talon Strike to incapacitate the shoulder of her dominant arm.

Congratulations! Your Skill Talon Strike has grown to Level 131!

Congratulations! Your Skill Innate Violence (Ru) has grown to Level 197!

Illym spun smoothly out of the way of his strike and crouched down, bringing her blade around in a cut that was slice open Randidly’s stomach. But the practice in forcing together Innate Violence and the inspiration of Ignition Essence was starting to bear some fruit; Randidly’s eyes glowed emerald as he saw that shape of her reaction a split second before it occurred.

He brought his knee brutally up, slamming it into the pommel of her sword before she could bring the blade around. Illym’s eyes tightened and instantly Randidly had to endure a blast of scalding heat. Illym’s image seemed to raise its head and roar. Even with the presence of his Nether suppressing her image and Ignition Essence acting as a buffer, Randidly’s skin dried and cracked in a second underneath the onslaught of that heat.

But it was bearable.

Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Lifeless Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 263!

Illym hopped lightly backward, opening up some space for her monstrous image to do its work on ripping away at Randidly’s Stamina. And already he could feel himself tiring underneath the overwhelming assault of the image. But today was a day where Randidly had to face the knowledge that the first threats were coming to Earth, sooner than he expected, aiming to cripple his world.

Whether it was necessity or simply fury, Randidly did not back down from pushing himself to his limit. As it had when Randidly had first heard the news, the flames of Ignition Essence quivered and then began to shrink. And as they did so, they released a frightful heat that warped the air around Randidly’s body.

Standing on the boundary area where the two heats intersected, Randidly’s entire body seemed to warp and sway. It was honestly a little similar to the result of using too much Nether.

Left and right, Randidly threw out Talon Strikes as soon as Illym set her feet enough for Randidly to pin her down. The first she blocked with her arm, the second she deflected with the blade, and from the third forward she dodged the blow; she learned very quickly that Randidly’s Nether Brawn was an area that he completely suppressed her. Her feet were light and sure as she continued to maintain some distance.

Wave after wave of heat battered against Randidly’s body.

In addition, her movements were increasingly fluid as she began to match the pace of his assault, but Randidly forcefully ripped through air resistance to increase the speed of his attacks. His body began to steam, not because of the scalding images, but simply because the friction between his body and the air had reached a ridiculous level. Randidly lashed outward and Illym hastily retreated across her room. The heat between them continued to rise.

Of course, the room wasn’t infinite in length. It was ostentatiously large, of course, but perhaps only ten meters from the point that they had started to the wall. But it truly was a contest of who could hold out for longer. Even with Nether Brawn and a ridiculous amount of Stamina fueling him, Randidly felt his vision beginning to fade away at the edges. Ignition Essence continued to grant him flashes of inspiration on Illym’s responses, but now all he could react with was instinct.

Higher cognitive function was beginning to fade in the face of that pounding heat, and the quality of his Skills and images and Nether were not entirely at fault.

Because even as Randidly fought against the oppressive heat of the image, he could also feel the slowly growing headache as this projected experience deviated further and further from what originally happened. It was still mild now, but with him forced to deal with both of these forces…

Clang!

Illym’s heel finally hit the back wall of her room, meaning that she could no longer dodge his Talon Strikes. So she brought up her blade and knocked it away with all the force that she could muster. Her arms shuddered and Illym grimaced as she was forced to clash with Randidly directly.

Trails of steam lingered after Randidly’s arms as he physically ripped them back into a ready position and unleashed another few Talon Strikes. He finally had this chance. He wasn’t going to miss this-

When Ignition Essence screamed out in warning, Randidly didn’t hesitate. But he hadn’t been able to completely shrug off the exhaustion from these few frantic seconds of assault. As Illym’s sword began to glow cherry red, Randidly was just a second too late in pulling himself out of the way.

Congratulations! Your Skill Innate Violence (Ru) has grown to Level 198!

Randidly’s right hand hit the ground in a spatter of blood before rolling across a pair of smoldering foot impressions he had left on the ground. His expression was miserable as he looked down at his metallic left hand and the stump of his right arm. Fucking seriously? Couldn’t my metal arm get cut here?!? Just…

“Damnit,” Randidly whispered to himself. True, he was improving in combining Ignition Essence and Innate Violence, but that wasn’t enough. He hadn’t figured out how to resolve the paradox of Ignition Essence or had an idea about its form. And although Randidly was improving some of his lessor physical Skills, how much would that help against Kaan Swacc-

“I get it now.”

Randidly looked up sharply. Illym kept her blade pointed in his directions, but her shoulders relaxed as she stared at him. “You are here seeking strength. To test yourself against me. Heh. And to think that I… well, no matter. Consider that hand the price you had to pay to for interrupting my business.”

“I…” Randidly blinked rapidly. The headache from the mental exhaustion of using the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night was slowly growing.

Illym shifted her stance and inserted the still glowing tip of her sword into the floor in front of her. Then she looked him up and down with critical eyes. “So, do you want it? Advice on how to become strong.”

The headache grew worse. Things were deviating very quickly.