As soon as the amber pyramid congealed into a recognizable shape and began to attack Neveah directly, Randidly realized what it was: Kaan Swacc’s Fate. And from it emerged something that was not a true image. Instead, the profound emotion of loneliness radiated outward into the surrounding area with Neveah as its target.

Randidly leapt forward across the deep gashes in the ground that the battle thus far had created, feeling through the Soulbound connection how Neveah’s mind was struck and broken by those emotions at a shocking rate. Gritting his teeth, Randidly once more transformed into the Grim Chimera. He thrust forward with his bone spear and shot toward Kaan’s back.

It was foolish not to think of Kaan’s Fate… but damnit, Neveah, snap out of it!

Randidly unleashed a burst of mental energy through their connection. For the briefest moment, Neveah stirred. But the aura radiating from the amber pyramid swiftly buried any of Neveah’s resistance. Although her physical body was powerful, Randidly was beginning to realize that Neveah’s mental strength was much more vulnerable to attacks.

Her pain was felt distantly by Randidly, and every dagger of agony she felt became a fire of rage in Randidly’s chest.

Randidly’s eyes remained fixed on Kaan Swacc’s Fate. A Fate that he had practically disassembled into a liquid form and spread through his body as blood. Why had he done that…?

A Fate is the tool to assist the Class, which is an Aether construct made with Nether Principles. The Class is the prayer to reach a dream, while the Fate is the culmination of the first 50 Levels of a Class. In Nether terms, the Fate is the beginning of a bridge to the dream, in Aether terms it is the condensed emotions of the journey the Class holder has taken… Yet he dispersed it into this form and made it part of his body…? Would it provide some passive bonus to his physique...?

Actually, now that I sense the way he utilizes his Fate… This sensation is familiar. It’s almost like what liquid Aether does is elevate an image to the status of a Fate for a brief moment… by crystallizing emotion and energy, it becomes fuel for an image. A fuel powerful enough that a simple image becomes a tool to help realize the ultimate dream upon which everything is based...

Surging forward, Randidly thrust his spear at Kaan’s undefended back. The pyramid tuned to Randidly released a new image, impacting his attack and causing him to drop the previous train of thought. For the moment, he just needed to deal with the concrete realities of the fight; the details could wait.

Kaan glanced over his shoulder with luminous eyes as Randidly approached. The image Kaan had chosen was one of impending death. Yet the Grim Chimera simply cackled and accelerated forward even faster. When hadn’t the Grim Chimera needed to struggle across the jaws of death? Kaan’s hand whipped up to block the thrust of the bone spear, but then Randidly twisted and lashed out with his leg, striking the thigh he had impaled earlier.

Kaan grunted and stumbled, unable to activate his defensive Skill in time. That gave Randidly a bit of confidence as he considered the wounded figure in front of him. Although Neveah was struggling, Kaan’s mobility had been severely hampered by the accumulated wounds. His defense was strong, but he didn’t possess the same monstrous recovery power that Randidly had.

Tune your body all you want, it’s so damaged that I’ll tear you to pieces, Randidly thought, fueled by a bubbling rage. Kaan set his feet and unleashed a powerful chop with his hands, but Randidly broke through the System limit on physical powers with ease, stepping forward and to the left and then forward to the right. He moved with such speed that Kaan blinked in confusion until Randidly’s elbow smashed into the small of his back from behind.

Randidly hopped away as Kaan spun around, more goopy blood dripping from his wounds. Now he stood between Kaan and Neveah, but in order to help her, he would need to address Kaan’s Fate. Direct attacks likely wouldn’t work, so he needed-

The pyramid above Randidly released a new image: one of certainty. Instantly, the Grim Chimera image overlay on his Randidly’s flickered and faded. Which left Randidly standing in a swirling cloud of Nether, his chest rising and falling rapidly with his heavy breathing. His brow furrowed as he stood in strained stillness. Rage urged him to attack, yet with all three of his images tuned, Randidly was cautious.

Kaan’s face was twisted into a triumphant grin. Two of his pyramids empowered his body, one each suppressed Randidly and Neveah, and the Fate pyramid continued to unleash waves of emotional attacks against Neveah. That left two pyramids, one floating above each of his outstretched hands as he regarded Randidly. “This has been… educational. But now it’s time for you to perish. I have finally caught you, Randidly Ghosthound. I see all of your powers. And compared to me, you are… insufficient.”

Randidly opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly he was struck with an otherworldly force. His vision twisted… and then snapped back into place. What he saw was two worlds pressed tightly on top of each other. On the one hand, he saw the shattered slope, strewn with cracked stone and dirt. Kaan was about ten meters down the slope, his shoulders hunched with a large wound on his chest and another on his thigh.

On the other hand, Randidly saw that familiar area of suppression with the endless darkness and the stone floor. Nausea struck Randidly as he stared out at the two landscapes yet was separated from both, but he suppressed it. After a few more seconds, understanding snapped into place. Kaan Swacc had tried to isolate Randidly once more, but whether because of his serious wounds or the fact that his Willpower was stretched to cover so many of his pyramids, he hadn’t quite succeeded. Randidly hadn’t been teleported and he still had access to his Nether.

Yet he hadn’t quite failed, either. There were two worlds pressing on top of Randidly and even his powerful body couldn’t do anything about it. Stuck in that crack, Randidly was frozen. At least he could still move images-

The Grim Chimera manifested itself with an impressive roar, but it was shattered just as quickly by the sense of certainty from the floating pyramid. In a world without chance, the Grim Chimera’s struggle was meaningless. It could only wait for its ordained death.

Immediately after, Randidly tried both the Stillborn Phoenix and Yggdrasil. But that infuriating pyramid floating above Randidly released counter-images that had been tuned to him. For the Stillborn Phoenix, it was hopelessness and failure. For Yggdrasil, it was the inevitable weakening that came with the passage of time.

A groan escaped from Randidly’s mouth. His muscles positively thrummed with the strain of trying to move, but he couldn’t get his body to budge. His thunderous heart was completely caged.

Kaan pursed his lips and looked at Randidly as he began to hobble forward. “How strange. I’ve never seen anything like this… but still, it appears to be effective. Just wait, spy. Once I deal with your companion… I’ll extract all the answers I need from you.”

Randidly’s rage exploded again, but he quickly cut through it with the knife of necessity. Anger would get him nowhere right now. Kaan had bound him and now focused on eliminating Neveah. Truthfully, Randidly wouldn’t have been able to deal with several of Kaan’s methods if not for Neveah. So the prospect of continuing the fight without her…

No, those are just the logical reasons. Randidly’s eyes burned. Rage was birthed in his heart and extinguished at a rapid pace. Every muscle of his body screamed to be able to explode into motion. The truth is… if this piece of shit tries to harm Neveah… No, he’s already harming her. The way her mind is shuddering… I haven’t felt this powerless since... Damnit... Damnit...!

His Willpower was sunk into the chill core of the Nether Nebula. The wild currents of Randidly’s Nether energy kept his emotions from overwhelming him. If he wanted to save Neveah, and also himself, he needed to be smart. Kaan’s Skill didn’t teleport him, but it still bound him. So all he needed to do was breakthrough that Skill, as Neveah had done, and he would be free to fight once more.

Kaan began to walk forward.

Freeing himself would leave him with the problem of dealing with Kaan with all three images being struck by counter-images, but Randidly ignored that problem for now. Kaan was three meters in front of him and Neveah was twenty meters behind him. He didn’t have much time.

His first thought was to borrow the knowledge from Neveah, but Randidly could tell through their connection that her mind was a mess. The targeted blast of loneliness had triggered a deep depression in Neveah’s heart that was probably there the entire time, waiting for weakness in her psyche. Now it engulfed her, making even the smallest action seem monumentally difficult.

Instead of searching around in Neveah’s chaotic mind, Randidly focused on his Nether. It was the energy of connection, after all. Usually, Kaan’s Skill would take away his ability to use Nether, but it hadn’t managed it this time. Therefore, as long as Randidly could create a connection with his Nether-

As Kaan passed Randidly, he took a small glance at him. In that glance, Randidly saw the answer to a secret question that he had: why didn’t Kaan use this opportunity to wound Randidly directly?

In that lingering gaze, Randidly saw that Kaan wanted to hurt him. And Kaan recognized that he could use Neveah to do that. Plus, Randidly had only been able to escape the isolation Skill with Neveah’s help. Now that she was dealt with, despite the partial activation of the Skill, Kaan Swacc was confident.

Kaan looked away from Randidly’s feverish glare. Then he proceeded forward several more steps. There were now only eighteen meters between the hobbled Kaan and Neveah.

Randidly’s mind continued to race, He attempted to create a Nether Ritual, but just as he started he stopped. That would let him witness himself stuck across space and time, but how would that free him? Its usual activation wouldn’t actually bridge the distance between two places. Then he thought about the old Skill given to him by Yystrix, Touch From Beyond, but he set that aside just as quickly. Both of those Skils had aspects of what he wanted, but he would need to take them apart to find the core activations.

Then he would need to repurpose those core activations… with time, it was possible. But right now-

Perhaps it was his panic, but his Nether rose to the occasion. It swirled around with increasing speed. The density of the energy at the core was becoming overwhelming, even for Randidly. In order to balance it with the Aether in his body, one of his five remaining drops of liquid Aether needed to take up residence-

Five? Randidly blinked. I should have refined seven drops of liquid Aether. Even if I used one, there should be six remaining. So where…?

But Randidly could only bite his tongue and tear his attention away from that issue for the moment. As ridiculous as it was, if he misplaced one of his drops of liquid Aether, so be it. All he needed to do was build a connection and the suppression would shatter. But Randidly was quickly realizing that he truly didn’t know how to utilize his Nether at all. He had simply unleashed the raw Nether against his enemies thus far. He had no true ability to use Nether.

Kaan Swacc continued forward. He was now ten meters from Neveah.

I can’t just stumble across the ability to manipulate Nether freely now, but maybe I don’t have to. As I’ve seen, Nether and Aether are two sides of the same coin; they mirror each other in several important ways.

Aether in the shape of Nether uses a Class to create a Fate to achieve a dream. Randidly pressed every ounce of the rage, panic, and worry that he felt in the current moment into the Nether rushing wildly around him. The beginning of something unusual was taking shape in his Nether Nebula. With a deft touch, he guided the currents of Nether to run in alternating circles, creating a huge amount of ambient energy in the areas of friction between them. The waves of power rolling off of him intensified. Then Nether in the shape of Aether… fueled with emotion…

A rumbling began to emerge from Randidly’s body. Although he couldn’t really understand the source, the collision of energy he was creating was damaging his physical body directly. But without any other ideas, he continued to push forward. What he needed now was power. Power he could use. This construct of Nether is also attempting to accomplish the same dream. But while Aether uses Fate as a tool… Nether would use….

The struggles of his muscles slowly shifted from preparations for an escape to agony-fueled convulsions. The pain came black today, nipping at the edges of his consciousness. Yet Randidly persevered.

For Nether, a Penance.

Randidly burned with the wild currents of Nether that continued to grind against each other. That word held weight. It began to depress the area in the center of his Nether Nebula. It was a base for something greater to form. But worryingly, he hadn’t completely succeeded in his attempt. The dangerous energies of Nether continued to flow without reservation or result. Very soon, the strange state of agonizing acceleration would collapse into chaos. He hadn’t been able to crystalize all his accomplishments in Nether thus far as Aether did to form a Fate.

But he hadn’t completely failed, either.

The density at the center of his Nether Nebula was overwhelming. That depression was a gulf, generating immense amounts of powerful Nether currents. A single, spectral grey bubble bobbed upward from the core of the nebula, radiating an overwhelming destructive power. Randidly tried to laugh but his body was still frozen.

He hadn’t truly formed his imagined Penance, but he had formed the equivalent of a drop of liquid Aether. And with this grey bubble, he could briefly wield the power of a pseudo-Penance.

So Randidly seized the bubble and it became weight beyond imagination. With that weight, he smashed Kaan’s suppression to pieces.