Randidly examined the piece of Aether Architecture that Octavius Shrike used to navigate them directly onto a deeply hidden Nexus Way on the relay platform and buoy them quickly toward the Nexus. It was much more sophisticated than the minor thing that Lyra had given Randidly; it seemed being the Overseer of an entire Cohort came with quite a few perks. But unfortunately, the structure was too delicate for Randidly to try his hand at adjusting his own.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Detection has grown to Level 228!

Randidly was somewhat disappointed that he didn’t have much of view as they moved quickly toward the Nexus along the Way, but supposed the sightseeing could wait until later. The two didn’t talk much after Octavius had told him they were heading to see the original Vualla, who now went by the name Edraine; they both understood that once they arrived, there would be a lot to talk about.

Inwardly…. Randidly felt strangely uneasy. There was something about what he sensed of the Nexus… it made him feel worried for a reason he couldn’t quite put into words. But no matter how much he examined that emotion, he couldn’t seem to find the source. Stillborn Phoenix wondered if it was due to the horrible significance below, but Randidly didn’t think it was that. So he continued his introspection in silence, trying to find that source of that sensation.

After about a minute of being within the Way, they popped out and suddenly Randidly was in the Nexus proper. He sucked in a breath, but the surroundings were underwhelming. Compared to the massive, open space of the teleporter relays, the current surroundings were much more mundane. They seemed to be within the bowels of the Nexus, appearing in a long corridor lined with ventilation ducts and water pipes running along the ceilings. Apparently, even the Nexus needed pipe for amenities. A low mist hung across the metal mesh floor, seeming to rise eerily from below.

Octavius saw Randidly’s wandering gaze. “We are in the Undercity, which makes up most of the actual Nexus. A lot of infrastructure goes into maintaining the perfectly manicured dreams in the upper city. Heh, you’ll get a real kick out of it when you see what it’s like up there. Oh, be careful about how much Aether you absorb down here. Oftentimes, it isn’t very pure. By the time you notice a problem… there is already a deep flaw in your image. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

They began walking down the long corridor while Randidly studied the Aether in the surrounding space. As Octavius had indicated, there was something… rough about the Aether. And now that Randidly examined it more thoroughly, he realized that the reason the Aether had felt so raw to him on his initial arrival was that it had a texture that was almost similar to molten metal. It had partially been re-solidified around the teleporter relays, but here in the core of the Nexus undercity, it was amorphous and chaotic, fresh from the smelter. It was the same brittle Nexus Aether, simply before it had hardened into shape.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Manipulation has grown to Level 240!

Randidly experimentally toyed with the Aether as they continued down the hallways, watching the ways it interacted with his images and body. His physicalized images basically ignored the diffuse pollution present, but Randidly could see the way it steadily attempted to infiltrate his other images. Because this Aether was fresh off from being generated, there were lingering emotions clinging to the energy. Likely they would eventually disperse on their own, but now those emotions greedily latched onto anything they could. Then, the emotions attempted to bleed into the image and stain it.

Emotional pollution, huh… Randidly thought. His mind drifted briefly down to what was probably happening below to produce this side effect. From what he had heard from Octavius in the past, perhaps the scariest truth was that this was only the exhaust of the grand engine that fueled the Nexus. Yet even the exhaust possessed so much ambient energy...

For most Nexus arrivals, this was likely a very dangerous type of pollution. For people of similar strength of image as Randidly, it was likely just annoying. But to Randidly himself… well, there was always an exception.

The Stillborn Phoenix was positively delighted that the energy displayed such a straight forward desire to approach it. It opened its vast, howling maw and began steadily sucking in those emotions, sweeping up a sizeable amount of Aether in the process.

Octavius glanced backward over his shoulder at Randidly, perhaps having sensed the movement of the Aether. He seemed to hesitate for a split second, then repeated his warning. “Be careful about how much energy you absorb.”

Randidly nodded but inwardly was rather unconcerned. There was something building within the egg of the Stillborn Phoenix, but there had been no stirrings thus far. Besides, this was the first time that the image had been able to devour emotions to its heart’s content. There was the possibility of pollution, but Randidly sensed those emotions were exactly what the Stillborn Phoenix needed. It was a creature of pure desire and unwillingness to accept reality. This sort of pollution would fit right in.

Honestly, it’s more troublesome that I have to absorb this crappy System Aether along with all these lingering emotions… Randidly frowned down at the floor, trying to think about how he could screen the emotions off of the Aether.

Meanwhile, Octavius walked up to a plain-looking metal door and twisted the knob. He opened the doorway and gestured. “This is the hollow spine of the undercity, the Web. Some areas are completely isolated through the maintenance corridors, so you need to head down through here directly. Just follow me for now; you’ll get the hang of it soon enough.”

Then Octavius leapt out of the door and into space, giving Randidly room to step up and peer out into the Web. The area really was a vast cylinder of space, stretching up and down farther than Randidly could see. The space was about a mile across, giving Randidly a view of countless thin layers of maintenance corridors continuing in tight rings stacked on top of each other opposite him. Periodically, small alcoves had been created that were fit with massive, Engraved lanterns to provide a light dusting of light that barely managed to cover the vast space.

Looking at the far wall, the area resembled a game of Tetris. Buildings had been stacked steadily on top of each other, with different metals and building styles showing that the process was done piecemeal. Sometimes, there were strange hollows in the wall, places where the builders couldn’t find exactly the right shape and had to waste space as they continued stacking. Unlike real Tetris, the previously built ground hadn’t been eliminated when a row was complete. So everything just continued to pile up.

The other rather obvious feature of this space, and likely the source of the moniker ‘The Web’, were the cables.

Randidly’s eyes followed Octavius Shrike. The Overseer of the Seventh Cohort landed rather lightly on a cable that cut down diagonally toward some distance location on the far wall and then allowed his weight to slowly shift to the side. When he was almost horizontal, he flexed his leg and shot himself down to the right.

Humming to himself, Randidly hopped down and mimicked him. The sensation of wind whipping past his face was actually quite pleasant.

They made rapid time, descending deeper and deeper down the web. The wires and cords they used at launching pads were relatively more sparse than Randidly had expected, but they were quite solidly anchored. The material swayed when they kicked off, but never seemed to fray. And now that Randidly was moving through the area, he noticed a few other scattered figures doing the same thing as them, either ascending or descending quickly and quietly amongst the wires. There was simply so much space that they were easy to miss.

As they continued to head deeper, Randidly quickly noticed that the lingering emotions in the Aether grew stronger. In front of him, he observed how Octavius began to circulate his energy in a very good imitation of a raincoat, pushing away the emotionally charged energy before it could infect his images.

Meanwhile, the Stillborn Phoenix cackled madly and sucked up as much of the emotions as it could. Both the Grim Chimera and Yggdrasil grimaced in embarrassment at their wild fellow image.

Time continued to pass. They proceeded deeper and deeper, the light inside of the Web slowly fading. More and more of the light alcoves were dim or broken, leaving more of the space in shadow. The emotions in the Aether became increasingly turbulent.

Until finally, Octavius leapt toward the wall and gripped a metal pipe running around the edge while he pressed open a door. They went in and Randidly found himself in a darkened street. He blinked and turned around, looking at the entrance to the Web and then back up again. When he looked for it, he could barely make out a sloped ceiling above him; they were in a dome about the size of a city park. But if he didn’t know better, he would say they were simply outside on a cloudy night.

Octavius closed the door behind them and led the way through the darkened street to a three-story apartment building. The mist lay thickly along the ground here, almost up to Randidly’s knees. They proceeded quickly inside and immediately Randidly felt the difference. There was some sort of energy field around the building that kept out the tainted Aether. Although the Stillborn Phoenix whined that it was still hungry, Randidly walked up to the third floor.

And there was Edraine, studying a map on the far wall. She smiled at him when he entered. “Finally made it, eh? Well met, Randidly Ghosthound. Welcome to the Nexus. Is it everything that you thought it would be?”

Randidly had two reactions to seeing Edraine. The first was a quivering sense of deja vu: she certainly looked almost exactly like an older version of Vualla. Her hair had greyed out and there was a large scar across her left eye, but otherwise, they looked so similar that it was uncanny. But Randidly supposed that this wasn’t actually singular experience; many individuals over the course of their budding relationships had met their partner’s parents and were slightly disturbed by how deep the resemblance ran.

But the second reaction… Randidly’s palms began to get sweaty. That strange confusion and fear that Randidly had felt growing along the underside of his heart since he had arrived at the Nexus… all that was instantly swept away by the raw aura of power that was wafting off of the Edraine in front of him.

She was smiling lightly at Randidly, but Randidly felt that massive image crouching behind her, ready to surge to the fore at a moment's notice. It was a headless simulacrum, sculpted with porcelain and pewter. It was a streamlined, perfect tool of destruction. If Edraine willed it, she could blast away a huge chunk of the undercity with a single movent. The potent silence of her image was almost unnerving.

Randidly’s smile curled upward until he returned Edraine’s grin. That sickly feeling that Randidly had felt when he had arrived had been disappointment. The Nexus was built at a scale beyond his imagination on some interstellar foundation, but everyone he had encountered felt so weak. He had come here to grow strong, and as he saw more and more of the sprawling Nexus, he had worried that it wouldn’t be as easy as he hoped.

But Edraine’s image blew all those feelings away. Although they might be deeply hidden, the Nexus was filled with individuals like her. Their ability might be kept tight, compact, and overwhelming, but they were present. The truly powerful had gathered here. These individuals were so powerful that Randidly wouldn’t even know how to begin fighting against them.

Randidly licked his lips. “The Nexus… heh. It’s certainly immense.”

Edraine chuckled. “It certainly is. But we don’t have much time to work. A very special opportunity came up, and I wonder if you would be interested in doing some more work for the Nexus Military Council. This time not as a frontline Commander… but as a Drill Sergeant.”