For about fifteen minutes, Randidly sat in one place and rubbed his forehead to try and alleviate the slowly growing headache. Every Level in his Fatepiece made the process a little easier, but the truth was he upped his activity much faster than he was gathered Levels. He had spent much of the past six hours attempting to fight against the isolated moment with Kaan Swacc and had to admit that he had initially been quite optimistic about his chances against him.

Perhaps it was time to consider options other than forcing a fight with the Special Investigator.

The biggest problem in fighting Kaan was that even the slightest hint of Nether from Randidly resulted in Kaan’s entire persona changing. With great prejudice, Randidly would be ripped from Earth into that isolated area and Kaan would explode with his own image. If that wasn’t bad enough, Nether was completely useless within that area. It was like the surrounding area was connected to some sort of Nether-sink, that would siphon away his energy to a location where it would become irrelevant.

The weapon that Randidly had been honing for the past couple of weeks was instantly made irrelevant.

Of course, after experiencing the suppression a few times Randidly learned some valuable information about the Special Investigator. It wasn’t that he was entirely sure that Randidly was a Nether spy based on the small manifestations of Nether that Randidly released, but that they were sufficient justification for the Special Investigator to move.

For all his honor, he was a loaded gun waiting for justification to shoot.

And on one of the occasions that Randidly gambled and fought for a short amount of time within the isolated area rather than fleeing, Kaan let slip that if Randidly wasn’t a Nether spy, he didn’t have anything to worry about. After he was captured and thoroughly scanned by the Xyrt Brigade’s special equipment, the truth would come out. If he was innocent, he would be released.

Randidly didn’t like the sound of that at all. Especially because he did have a Nether Nebula inside of his body. From his discussions with Octavius, seemed like something of an open secret that many people in the upper management of the Nexus understood Nether principles and could utilize it in small amounts. But the official stance of the Nexus was a no-tolerance policy.

Which didn’t even address the fact that such sophisticated scanning equipment would likely notice the existence of the Alpha Cosmos in Randidly’s body. Randidly hadn’t forgotten that the Alpha Cosmos was the entire reason that Ileot Swacc had tried to gain control of his body in the first place. At that point, it was a toss-up whether the Xyrt Brigade or the Swacc Family would be the ones to take him away and experiment on his unique physique.

Randidly did at least figure out that using his Stillborn Phoenix Skills that were based on Nether principles, but not fueled by Nether, didn’t trigger the isolation reaction out of the Special Investigator. He would doggedly fight with his physical body and Skills until an actual hint of Nether appeared. Of course, the Skills were much weaker without relying on Nether to fuel them. But the conflict was, at the very least, good training.

Besides, he prevents me from using Nether for longer than five seconds anyway, Randidly thought sourly.

Special Investigator Kaan Swacc was a demanding training partner. Because even without his images, he was a little bit stronger than Randidly due to his higher Skill Levels. Randidly’s higher Stats bridged some of that distance, but not enough.

As overpowering and killing the Special Investigator seemed to be less feasible of an option than he had anticipated, Randidly put more and more thought toward trying to apply some pressure through the Nexus. But that train of thought soon reached a dead end. Because he quickly realized that the force demanding a fight was no longer just the Swacc Family: at this point, it became the Xyrt Brigade.

It was actually a masterful bit of maneuvering on the part of the Swacc Family. Because the reason that the Xyrt Brigade had agreed to help was an effort to shirk responsibility for the Aether tithe to all the planets of wounded veterans. Now that it had gotten the taste of being free from that burden, it wouldn’t easily let that go. And orders from the Xyrt Brigade were probably why the Special Investigator would have his tied hands freed when the Epic Danger Zone was revealed; they didn’t want any accidents to occur.

Once Earth closed in on the finish line to obtain the benefits, the Special Investigator was free to act.

For a little while, Randidly considered whether to just accept the burden of the planets in the Epic Danger Zone that the Xyrt Brigade was giving them in order to avoid a confrontation. Based on what Octavius was able to gather, they were essentially getting enough land to rival the surface area of four old Earths. In addition, they would gain the populations of those worlds, some of which were very powerful in their own right.

Even with those benefits… most of the resources from those worlds will slowly dissipate over the next year… Randidly grimaced. What was worse was the issue of Aether density; assuming that he maintained his current state of passively releasing a small amount of Aether to supplement the planet, the resulting Aether would be barely enough for Earth’s current elite to survive.

All of the work they had done over the past five years would have been undone by a backroom deal in the Nexus. And that pissed Randidly off quite a lot.

On the other hand, I don’t have to actually kill Kaan Swacc. In theory, I could just occupy him so that Earth can finish things off. With Helen at the helm, they should be rather capable… But can I be sure that I can keep him from interfering with the Epic Danger Zone…? And who is to say he won’t just doggedly continue pursuing me after they succeed...

Growling, Randidly shook his head. It would be easiest if he could apply some internal pressure from within the Nexus to get the Xyrt Brigade to take a step back, but the original Vualla was still MIA. She had not responded to his messages and he didn’t have a connection with her like he did with the most recent iteration of Vualla to reach out directly with Nether Ritual.

She was supposed to be his greatest shield against these sorts of things. Which was why he had helped her take Ileot Swacc’s body away. Yet now Randidly was slowly becoming frustrated at her disappearance.

Besides, I’m a little leery of using Nether Ritual as long as the Special Investigator is here to observe me. Randidly sighed. Then the threw his hands up in the air. At this point, he had basically recovered from his headache; it was time to go back into the Dreamcatcher.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 52!

Randidly had the impression that there was a secret about the usage of the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night hid some sort of secret philosophy or something, but his attention was so focused on other things that he hadn’t been able to figure anything productive out. But he at least continued to note the times that it had Leveled.

The swirling colors slowly settled around Randidly. He was holding Acri and stepping through the portal. The duo in front of him was turning around in shock.

That earned a smile from Randidly. No matter how many times he saw it, the confirmation on Kaan Swacc’s face that he had been fooled by Neveah’s disguise never failed to put Randidly in a good mood. It helped that they were Soulbound, but the illusions that she wove were absolutely impeccable.

Randidly focused on this battle on getting more familiar with his Cosmic Necessity. After all, it was hard to find a sparring partner who was as enthusiastic as Kaan Swacc just lying around on Earth. And most others were too easy to bully.

Randidly’s gaze darkened as he took a step forward. A purple-black energy flowed around his limbs, filled with the tiniest pinpricks of emerald and orange. There was a strange sense of peace that flowed through Randidly as the energy filled him, giving him vast insight into how Kaan would move. He was part of a vast pattern, and with his sharp gaze, he could capture slight hints of what was to come.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 258!

Congratulations! Your Skill Cosmic Necessity (M) has grown to Level 203!

Randidly brought Acri upward in a vicious thrust toward the Special Investigator’s neck. The bronze man immediately responded by pulling up his hands to catch Acri. By this point, Randidly had seen this move so many times that he was already adjusting the angle of his thrust to avoid it. Annoyingly, Kaan’s hands unerring followed the blow.

Good Perception and Reaction… but not enough.

With a small grin, Randidly conjured a Cosmic Orb directly in front of him and activated it in quick succession. He pulled himself forward a short distance, throwing off Kaan’s predictions and smashing Acri’s tip against his foe’s collarbone. Unfortunately, Kaan’s body was exceedingly tough; he only staggered when hit and wasn’t pierced by Acri’s sharp tip.

Of course, Randidly wasn’t willing to miss this chance. He activated Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart (T) and smashed the back of Kaan’s knees with a surge of unexpected gravity. The Special Investigator’s face twisted into a snarl as he folded backward and Randidly brought Acri down in a vicious overhead strike to smash him into the ground.

Dooooonnnnnnnggggggg.

Unfortunately, Randidly hadn’t moved quickly enough. Kaan’s hand flashed upward to intercept Acri and he used his strange sound-based Skills to defuse the force of the blow into the air. The sand in the surrounding area was blasted away, but the Special Investigator was none of the worse for wear.

Randidly’s eyes narrowed. Spinning downward and dropping to his knees, he unleashed a kick at Kaan that the humanoid twisted away from at the last second. But of course, Cosmic Necessity saw that coming and Randidly was already surging forward. With Acri’s huge form brought to bear once more, Randidly unleashed three quick thrusts.

Dong. Dong. Dong.

There was a flash of bronze and all three strikes were dealt with. By this point, Kaan had caught up to the tempo. His hands spread outward and turned Randidly’s attacks aside. “Did you truly think- guh!”

Randidly conjured another Cosmic Orb and used it to accelerate his body into smashing his metallic left shoulder into the Special Investigator’s chest. It was only a half step backward that Randidly caused, but it was enough to seize back the initiative. He released Acri to let the plant lance act independently and unleashed a barrage of palm strikes at Kaan.

Acri was simply too big and unwieldy against a foe like Kaan who could neutralize kinetic force with but a touch. Better to rely on quicker strikes to inflict rapid damage.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cosmic Necessity (M) has grown to Level 204!

Congratulations! Your Skill Cosmic Necessity (M) has grown to Level 205!

Randidly landed several vicious hits against Kaan’s torso before the bronze humanoid managed to gather together more of a defensive stance. But Randidly could tell that his earlier blows weren’t nearly enough to inflict any lasting damage. And now that Kaan had seen his tricks with the Cosmic Orbs, he was on his guard against them. Randidly’s attempts were met with those dismissive palms, forcing him to rely entirely on his insight to keep the brawl even.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 259!

After about ten minutes of exhausting exertion, Kaan had seized the upper hand was beginning to release strange blasts of kinetic energy in return that Randidly could barely handle even with his devouring image. So Randidly swore under his breath and left the Fatepiece. Besides, his headache was already pretty substantial.

After he had recovered, he could try again. And then again.