“So the next giver of the Fatepiece is Shal, huh,” Randidly said quietly to himself as he exited the underground tunnel. After finding out his solution, he and Nathaz talked a little bit further, especially about the capabilities of the Aether Scanning equipment. This led to Nathaz excitedly explaining how he had learned of the name of Randidly’s Fatepiece, which included a depiction of the associated image.

Randidly could tell from a single look at that individual that the next Fatepiece was coming from Shal. And honestly, he held quite a bit of anticipation toward a reunion with his original teacher. What would Shal think of his growth…?

Hopefully, my subconscious’s opinion on the subject is grossly off base… Randidly thought ruefully.

On his way back through the underground offices didn’t run into Neshamah Rex again, so he quickly returned to the surface. He took another long glance upward at the massive Engraving Guild pyramid and pursed his lips. Then he turned and walked slowly back toward the exit into the Web.

The news about his next Fatepiece was interesting, but not useful. In fact, Randidly would have ignored the news immediately if not for one detail. After all, Shal had vanished since he had ascended and allowed his planet to pass the Second Calamity. No matter how many messages Randidly sent, Shal didn’t respond.

But Nathaz Eloise had added that Shal and his Fatepiece were currently in the Fifth Cohort. Which brought Randidly back to the issue the same difficulty he had been puzzling apart his entire walk over here. His expression was thoughtful as he continued through the sandy streets as he considered his options.

He had already sent a request to Lady Iellaya, but she had replied while Randidly was speaking to Nathaz; they were blocking her ability to allow Randidly to serve under her for this war against the Nether. Military High Command didn’t vocally say anything, but some new regulations were aimed in that direction very obviously.

If Randidly wanted to go to the Fifth Cohort and participate, it was either as a volunteer or as an aide to Commandant Wick-

Randidly straightened abruptly. His Nether Core trembled. One of his connections was rapidly weakening.

And this connection was one of his strongest. His heartbeat quickened and his palms began to sweat as adrenaline flooded through his body.

He didn’t hesitate at all; Randidly Ghosthound produced his Philosopher’s Key and opened a portal directly to his destination. His shoulders trembling with the potent chemical flight-or-flight reaction within a System empowered body, Randidly stepped forward... and soon found himself standing over the cooling body of Raymund Ballast.

The Stillborn Phoenix devoured his emotions as soon as they flared to life in his chest. His attention became razor sharp and glacially still.

Randidly’s emerald eyes swept back and forth across the stone path, the discarded esophagus, and the drying blood. Then he briefly peered up toward the mountain. He could catch the hint of some obscured and mysterious significance upon the rocky summit that he had missed by only a few seconds. But just as quickly, the Ghosthound crouched down and pressed his hand to Raymund’s shoulder. Through the touch, Randidly unleashed a gushy blast of Vitality.

Yggdrasil rumbled. The massive brown swelled to the size of a skyscraper. The World Tree’s roots rumbled through the ground, seeming to want to crush the ground beneath it into power. Randidly’s gaze on Raymund intensified. Wave after wave of revitalizing energy was shoved into the fox man’s body.

And when his fading body didn’t respond to that, Randidly brought his other hand to Raymund’s shoulder. In his right had flowed Aether and in his left Nether. These he plugged directly into the apparatus of energy that was Raymund Ballast, in the eyes of the System.

His Soulspace was collapsing, but it hadn’t disintegrated yet. With burning eyes, Randidly held up the walls of his recruit’s soul. And then Randidly waited because that was all he could do.

In those long moments, he swore to himself that if Raymund died, he would chase the culprit to the end of the world. And then he would annihilate that individual, starting first with his body but also completely eroding his or her image.

A split second after that slightly crazed oath, the Foxman gasped and shivered.

Slowly at first, but then with more surety, his flesh began to knit back together. Raymund Ballast would not die this day.

Snorting, Randidly stood once again. Wreathed in the ethereal flames of Weight, he looked again up at the mountain above him for a long time. Someone had activated a very powerful working of Nether there. He could see the way that whoever had attacked Raymund had created a bridge deep into the folded space within the dominion of Nether above-

And speaking of that space… Randidly grimaced as he turned to gaze upward to the sudden developments in the sky. But although he was furious at the distraction, he was somehow comforted; now he had a concrete object towards which he could direct his significant ire. A rumbling wave of Nether swept out of some distant abyss and spread out to cover the space between the dark moon and this planet, but it also expanded to fill the surrounding solar system.

Randidly narrowed his eyes as he traced the way the Nether rapidly spun together in discrete threads and wove a great working in the sky. This… heh, shit. So this is what a true Nether King can accomplish…

The pieces of Nether moved independently from each other. They resembled the wild and newly spawned tadpoles in a shallow pond. They were flakes of dark snow spiraling toward the ground. Even after looking for ten seconds at the furious spree of activity, he could barely grasp the underlying principles on which the flood of Nether behaved.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 394!

And then the Nether above the planet changed.

Although a significant portion of his attention was on Yggdrasil pumping life through the coughing and hiccuping Raymund Ballast, Randidly also considered the sky with solemn attention. Admiration rose in his heart as he saw the deft way that disparate and chaotic strands of Nether very quickly became recognizable and meaningful patterns. The chaotic tadpoles crystalized into a perfectly warped kaleidoscope. A few seconds later, these patterns clicked together in a way that seemed perfectly natural and all of the space in the area of these two celestial bodies became bonded.

Now that’s a fucking Nether Ritual… Randidly thought with a little bit of fear as his anger ebbed at the awe-inspiring display. Another pulse of Nether ran through the sky and that enormously scaled Nether Ritual began to tighten and squeeze the bonded space.

But before the Nether Ritual managed to fold the moon even closer to the Aether Headquarters, a familiar feeling image exploded out of the Military Base. This image possessed none of the finesse and beauty of the Nether Ritual above, but the image of stratification and tight control was just as overwhelming. That singular Willpower exploded upward and smashed forcefully into the Nether Ritual. The sky creaked and groaned, a distant thunderstorm on the scale of planets. Randidly could feel the vibrations of the conflict against his skin, standing on the surface of the planet.

Commandant Wick saw the activating Nether Ritual and decisively said no. The Nether King and the Commandant clashed visibly, the two powers grinding away at each other. The Commandant’s image was a singular force moving to meet a complicated machine, yet that image was powerful enough on its own to completely make all the arrangement and Control of the Nether King irrelevant.

...which is exactly why I don’t quite want to quietly assume a post as an aide to the Commandant. He’s better as an ally than an enemy, but… Randidly barred his teeth at the sky. Both titanic figures upped their effort, causing dimensional cracks to flare to life and disappear in split seconds. Thick cords of black lightning ripped outward from those cracks, disappearing just as quickly as they came. Yet they left the air sizzling and buzzing; when Randidly sniffed, he smelled the distinct tang of ozone.

Then his eyes flicked sideways. Huge orbs of darkness were breaking off of the moon that hung so low over the planet and shooting downward. Almost thirty rolled lazily down from the moon to smash into the planet below. While the two leaders held each other at bay, it was time for the troops to engage. And coincidentally, one of the giant hunks of darkness was coming down to near Randidly.

“Well shit,” Randidly swore. Then he crouched next to Raymund Ballast and helped him sit up. The Vulpine was licking his lips, but his eyes were still glassy. Randidly grimaced. “Are you alright? Can you walk?”

“I… apologies. I…” The Foxman trailed off, clearly still deeply disturbed by his brush with death. Randidly sighed and didn’t pressure him. Instead, he glanced again up at the sky. The Nether Invasion was coming. Which meant that there wasn’t much time to arrange for Randidly to be part of Military High Command’s response. He could just assist in the fight, but then he wouldn’t receive any credit as a ‘volunteer’. And he supposed he could just enlist directly, but Randidly had the feeling that then he would end up with Commandant Wick anyway-

Randidly paused as a thought occurred to him. He looked down at the dazed Raymund Ballast. Then he grinned.

“Recruit Ballast; let’s not mince words. You aren’t fit for action right now, and we are running out of time. Hand over your identification card and I’ll take care of your muster call for the time being. In the meantime… I suggest you return to my Soulskill, where you can recover for a bit. When things have calmed down, we will discuss what happened to you.” Randidly said seriously.

Raymund blinked and raised his gaze at the sky. Through the haze of his own thoughts, the rapidly approaching invasion of Nether seemed to finally hit him. For a second his jaw tightened like he was going to pull himself together, but then that bleak blankness returned to his gaze. With a sigh, he nodded and passed Randidly his identification card.

After quickly opening a portal to his Alpha Cosmos and letting Raymund through, Randidly nodded and brushed himself off. He allowed one last look toward the descending Nether forces and then produced a long brown cloak from his inventory. Not that the recruitment coordinator would likely care about Randidly’s impersonation, but the longer it took for Commandant Wick to find out about it, the better.

Influence +3!

Through his connections with some of the other recruits, Randidly could feel them nearby. Clicking his tongue, he produced his Philosopher’s Key and opened a portal to nearby to the Military Headquarters, but not inside it.

The place was a kicked anthill as Randidly traveled the rest of the distance on foot, with soldiers running every which direction in a chaotic mass of bodies. Randidly was jostled several times as he moved forward, quickly eroding his patience to the point that the lingering fury he felt from Raymund’s mortal injury came back to the surface.

Next time when someone made to barrel into Randidly, his hands flicked out and tossed the offending grunt away.

As Randidly suspected, the muster station for the new recruits wasn’t difficult to pass through. All Randidly had to do was state why he was there and the harried Sergeant paused in his frantic packing up of the station to make a hasty note on a clipboard. Then the Sergeant gestured vaguely to the South. “You’ll see your people that way-”

RUMMMMMBBBBBLLLLEEEE!

The sky shook as the clashed between Commandant Wick and the Nether King intensified. The Nether King had created some new arrangements of its Nether and applied more pressure, but the Commandant didn’t budge an inch. The Sergeant visibly flinched from the explosive reaction and Randidly smiled and turned away.

Still wrapped in his long cloak, Randidly followed his instincts; even if the soldier had been general, he could feel the presence of his recruits through the Nether that they had shared. Those bonds might only have been built for three months, but they were the Nether flows he had made at Randidly’s current height of Nether sophistication.

The group was standing nervously together, still dressed in the same dark green uniforms of the elite squad. The material was dusty and worn from the constant physical training that the Overseers had demanded. DiOrtho was the first to notice Randidly as he strode confidently forward.

The ram demon’s eyes widening in recognition as he approached the group. “Head-”

“Everyone,” Randidly rumbled with a voice that was aided by his Nether Weight. Instantly, he became the center of attention and smiled around at his recruits. “I would appreciate it if you would pretend like I am Raymund Ballast for the next several hours. There isn’t time to explain, but everyone should be careful during the fight; the Nether isn’t our only foe.”

Looks of pained understanding came across many faces, but Randidly ignored those expressions and looked at the scroll in Vant’s hands. “We’ve got orders already?”

“Ah… yes, sir.” The ram demon scratched his cheek and passed over the scroll. Randidly scanned through it: the elite squad was supposed to move to clear one of the impact points for the giant Nether Spheres.

Randidly barred his teeth. If he hadn’t have come, taking on an impact zone alone would have been a dangerous prospect for the elite squad. He could sense there were at least a hundred Nether Gatekeepers within each sphere, with more hidden in their depths. But since he was here to help-

“One last lesson,” Randidly said gravely, looking around at his recruits. “Let’s take the first step together. Try to keep up. I’m not going to hold back.”