“God fucking damnit…” Kaan Swacc growled, smashing his fist against the locked door in front of him once more. The lock was a purely metaphysical one, but he was completely barred passage all the same.

Timing had not been on his side these past few days. In the aftermath of it all, it felt like he had a bubbling cauldron in his chest, constantly threatening to explode outward and devour what little remaining self-control that Kaan possessed. Yet Kaan lightly clapped his hands together, releasing three harmonious chimes. It didn’t completely rid him of his rage, but it did let him focus.

Pressed her back up against the stone wall of this secret chamber in the System Ways around Earth, Lyra watched him. He ignored her for now. Once more, he reviewed the circumstances of the last few days.

The Special Investigator Kaan Swacc had watched with relish as the humans began their attacks on the final Danger Zone. He had begun his own preparations to launch an attack on Randidly Ghosthound and force him to reveal his Nether affiliations when he received the emergency distress beacon sent out by the frontline nearest to Cohort 7.

Despite the importance of his mission on Earth, his duty to the Nexus came first. Per regulations, he left Earth immediately and proceeded to reinforce the frontlines. But by the time that he had arrived there, the forces of Aether were already slaughtered. So he went to the closest Xyrt Brigade facility to figure out what the situation was.

Apparently, he had missed the Xyrt Brigade emergency response team’s departure by mere minutes. Which was good, because the entire group had been slaughtered without even having time to send a report as to how many opponents were in the Nether horde. But it was bad because, when Kaan Swacc had finally established contact with the Xyrt Brigade chain of command, they took the fact that he hadn’t been in time to join the emergency response as a deliberate act on his part.

Due to that ‘cowardice’, he was relieved of his military rank, pending a trial that would happen after the current crisis was resolved. In effect, Kaan Swacc was dismissed and exiled to Earth in the interim.

The frustrating part of that was that, when Kaan returned to the planet, the Epic Danger Zone had already been cleared. Even worse, although he noticed the presence of Nether in the sky, part of the privileges that he lost when his rank was striped was the use of the Xyrt Brigade dedicated channels of communication. So he could not report to the higher command that this was the beachhead of whatever assault Nether was planning and earn merit in that manner.

But he supposed that the System would release an emergency beacon as soon as its constructs were breached. Already the natural defenses against the Great Rift around Earth were wearing thin. He would not have long to wait.

Each hour, more painful disharmonies radiated outward through Aether. Very soon, the Nether forces would break through. And there was nothing that Kaan Swacc could do about it.

“All this… is your fault...” Kaan Swacc whispered, picturing the smirking face of Randidly Ghosthound. In truth, Kaan should have been prepared for this; from the beginning, he had known that Randidly Ghosthound was a talented Nether spy. But some part of Kaan hadn’t quite acknowledged the threat that Randidly represented.

Not the boy himself, obviously. He was just a foolish brat that was in over his head, despite all the Nether he held in his body. But the fact that he was able to fake several impressive exploits and earn a Commandership on a frontline, even a minor one, meant that the Nether forces had put significant resources behind him.

Was it any shock that they would even send a Nether King with perfect timing to foil Kaan’s plan…? Or probably Randidly had given the signal, giving the Nether inside information to take advantage of the situation once Kaan Swacc had been pulled away from the planet.

Still, all was not lost. Despite all of the rest of Kaan’s life coming crashing down around him, one fact continued to make him smile. Stretching out his hand, Kaan produced the Aether Mine controller and was glad to see that none of the Aether Mines had yet been deactivated by Nether. Each remained functional. With all four Danger Zones emptied, Randidly Ghosthound every breath must be agony at this point.

“You want to see which of us can hold out longer…?” Kaan Swacc forced his rage down and his mouth stretched wide in a smile. “I won’t fall for your trap… I’ll wait until you reveal your true colors...and then I will crush you…”

*****

The long and short of it, Octavius explained to Randidly, was that the Nexus had been completely caught flat-footed. Although there were defenses in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening, twelve hundred years of relative peace for the Nexus had made its vigilance lax. Those protections had atrophied to nothing, as could be seen in the fate of the emergency response force.

Real power would need to be brought to bear and that would take time. Although it was much easier now that Randidly had reported the location of the attack. Octavius had known the attack was coming somewhere but hadn’t had much luck locating its exact position.

His initial few searches hadn’t included Earth at all. Apparently the further through the System’s tasks a world progressed, the more it would move toward the center. So he had started with planets that were deeper in the System process.

So Octavius had been arranging for his aides to physically travel to each of the planets that were engaging a Calamity when Randidly had arrived. Octavius shook his head, continuing to look down at his scroll. “It makes sense that the Nether would pick a planet like yours, however. About to engage with a Calamity, so near enough to the center of the Cohort. But since the Calamity has yet to occur, the Nexus isn’t watching as closely. Is there anything else you remember? That could explain why Earth was targeted…?”

Octavius Shrike gave Randidly a sharp look as he spoke. Randidly thought about it. Aside from me, do you mean…? “There’s nothing that you don’t already know… but I was curious if it could have to do with the special trial the Earth was given. There were additional Aether constructs engaged, right?”

“Ah, I see,” Octavius Shrike rubbed his chin. “That is possible. Perhaps they thought the Earth was more important than it actually is, because of how much Aether was around it…”

Randidly let the comment about Earth being unimportant pass without comment. After loudly clicking his teeth together, Octavius turned back to Randidly. “I’ve already contacted the Xyrt Brigade. Their true experts should deploy within forty-eight hours. In the meantime… spread the word on your planet that there might be some… strangeness in the way that the System behaves. Unusual Classes, Paths, or Skills that appear. I would recommend that the people of Earth ignore these deviations, for everyone’s sake.”

That had Randidly’s hackles rising. “Strangeness?”

“The Nether assault is ripping apart the infrastructure of the System and integrating itself into the wreckage. The System will continue to function, but there will be… errors.” Octavius waved a hand at Randidly. “Don't’ look at me like that, it’s just a warning. It’s probably nothing, but… your planet is already under so much scrutiny because of the fact that you were given this special test. And you passed it. I think it will be difficult now to avoid the Nexus Council investigating in more detail once this threat has passed, since the original Vualla still hasn’t returned… and it would be for the best that they found nothing of note when they did.”

“You are suggesting that people could develop Nether related Skills,” Randidly said, eyebrows rising as he considered the possibility. “Especially-”

“Especially when the people of Earth realize that the pressure they sense from Nether is the same pressure they felt from you. They will think it’s natural to gain that sort of strength… so it will be natural for them to reach for it.” Octavius Shrike finished the thought for Randidly.

“Is it still necessary to hide my Nether usage from the Nexus?” Randidly glanced sideways at Octavius. “The Cohorts are built on top of Nether Kings, for god’s sake.”

Octavius Shrike shrugged. “Until you have the protection of someone of power within the Nexus, what does the truth matter? You are too eye-catching, Randidly Ghosthound. Perhaps even worse… strange things keep happening around you. The people of the Nexus do not adapt well to change.”

Randidly grunted but didn’t reply. After saying goodbye to Octavius, he walked up to his portal. But at the last moment, he looked over his shoulder. “So… what happens if the Xyrt Brigade doesn’t make it in time? If this Nether force frees the Nether King under the Seventh Cohort?”

“It has never happened in the past,” Octavius said softly. Pursing his lips, Randidly left Octavius’s office and returned to his floating island.

He released the portal and reached up to ruffle his black hair. This was becoming increasingly problematic. And it did nothing to improve Randidly’s mood when, as soon as he came back and looked upward, he saw another huge hook of azure veins striking the cage of Aether that was keeping the forces of Aether out of Earth.

Another horrible wave of pain spread out across the planet. Luckily, Neveah hadn’t been idle as Randidly went and talked to Octavius. She had spread out Randidly’s Aether to cover the sky, largely muffling the effect that the strike would have on the average person. But Randidly didn’t miss the way that this strike was more powerful than the one he had felt only a half an hour earlier.

Neveah landed next to Randidly. “Looks like the defenses will only hold up for a few more hours. Should I try and reinforce it…?”

After thinking about it for a bit, Randidly shook his head. “From Octavius’ explanation, the forces of Nether don’t actually need to attack the Earth. They just need to get through the defenses so they can access the core construct that connects us to our Cohort. Besides, Octavius advises us to do nothing to attract attention in the meantime. Being too skilled with Aether probably counts as attention-grabbing.”

Neveah snorted. “If you say so. But I doubt things will be that simple.”

“I know. I know.” Randidly sighed. Then he sent out several messages, informing the leaders of the various Zones of the streamlined version of what he had learned from Octavius. Specifically that the darkness in the sky was not an extension of the Corrupted Invaders but in fact a direct attack on the Nexus that the Earth was just an unfortunate casualty of a larger war. He also mentioned that, due to damage to the System, there might be strange Skills and Paths available. But he warned that when the System reestablished itself, there likely would be consequences for people who had taken those deviant options.

Then he sent a message to Heiffal. Despite the fact that Nether forces didn’t need to attack the Earth to accomplish their goals, the Earth would be on its own until reinforcements from the Nexus arrived. Which was a situation that was profoundly uncomfortable for Randidly.

But luckily, Randidly currently had an army that had experience fighting against Nether forces. For a little while at least, the Earth could probably manage.

*****

Sitting in her office, Theodora Greyman studied the message she had just received from the Ghosthound. Humming to herself, she pressed a button on her terminal and spoke into it. “Get me Richter. And a group of a dozen individuals whose loyalty to Zone 1 is unquestioned. It appears we are being warned away from some ‘deviant’ Skills. Let’s make sure we aren’t being scarred away from something extremely advantageous, shall we?”