Randidly could feel how nervous the recruits were as they followed behind them, but they moved quickly for all their confusion about his presence; Heiffal and Helen had done their work well. But still, they didn’t have any time to spare. As they descended from the plateau on which the Military Headquarters sat to the plains between themselves and their target, the ground beneath their feet shuddered several times.

The Nether Invasions was crashing to the ground with enough force that no one could ignore its arrival. Randidly noticed other similar groups heading in different directions as they began to head toward their destination. Quite a few similar groups spread out from the base to accomplish similar missions.

Let’s make sure that this group’s result catches the eye of the lazy Commandants...

When they hit the tall grass of the plains, Randidly glanced around at the people around him. This pace wasn’t enough. “How much faster can we go?”

DiOrtho scowled and the other Squad Leaders looked at each other awkwardly. Even Vizzeret Clamman, who had always been rather cowed in the wake of their challenge, looked at Randidly with sharp eyes. The flames of determination were bright in his pupils.

“We can keep up,” DiOrtho affirmed.

Randidly chuckled to himself and shook his head. Well, it was typical for the inexperienced to bite off more than they could chew, but Randidly wasn’t going to call them out on it directly. Instead, he would do his best to help them protect their pride. For the first time in a long time, he activated his Ruinous Drive Skill. A pulsing heart of energy formed within Randidly’s body.

When that heart was fully formed and luminous, Randidly began to rush forward, practically gliding through the tall grass. The recruits moved to follow him in fits and starts. Every second that energy would pulse and spread an aura into the surroundings that clung to his subordinates. Their eyes brightened and they suddenly moved with increased explosiveness and vigor. In the past, he had used it to solely increase damage, but the current Randidly had drastically improved from that time in his life.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ruinous Drive (Ru) has grown to Level 115!

Congratulations! Your Skill Ruinous Drive (Ru) has grown to Level 116!

“So you even had a Skill like this,” Charlotte Wick whispered to herself. All of the recruits soon grew used to the pace and followed behind him in a tight group.

Randidly chuckled and accelerated a little further. “You don’t know the half of it.”

As they ran, Randidly began to tinker with the associated image of the Skill. When he was satisfied with that, he moved on to the way the energy was dispersed. In the past, it was enough to simply have an empowering aura. But his five years in the shaft had been a crash course in organic and meaningful energy flows. So very quickly, he swirled the energy of Ruinous Drive around his person in a whirl.

The flows split from each other and reunited in different combinations as they spun out from his body. In this manner, each recruit was continuously exposed to slightly different variations of the same energy. He could feel more and more accumulation in the bodies of his subordinates.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ruinous Drive (Ru) has grown to Level 117!

...

RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMBLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEE!

Congratulations! Your Skill Ruinous Drive (Ru) has grown to Level 139!

While the group surged forward to the agreed-upon location to deal with the descending Nether Sphere, the conflict in the sky remained deadlocked. The dark moon loomed over their heads with determined ill-will. Commandant Wick remained pinned down by the confrontation, mobilizing his significant image in order to hold the Nether King at bay.

Meanwhile, Randidly was exchanging messages with Lady Iellaya, who was managing the larger response in the large continent to the South of Military Headquarters. She fed him information regarding the broader situation.

The attacks were apparently not solely coming at this planet; all of Aether’s bases in the Fifth Cohort were being attacked at once. And these Nether Sphere’s were aimed to establish a foothold on the planets so the Nether King or his Heralds could expand their Nether Rituals down the surface. The more of these spheres that the various forces couldn’t eliminate, the more difficult it would be to prevent the space from being folded by the Nether Ritual.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ruinous Drive (Ru) has grown to Level 140!

Yet what Lady Iellaya mostly shared was that while the foot soldiers were panicking, the influential military personnel weren’t taking the attack seriously. There were also several strange ‘irregular’ units that were wandering around the command building, treating the situation like a fun hunting game.

Randidly pressed his lips together as he thought of the individuals that reigned supreme in the Nexus. His anger flared back to life. Just how many fucking lives will be lost to this game…? How big would that number need to be to get you to notice…? Shit-!

To distract himself from his fury, Randidly began to move the energy flows of Ruinous Drive in seemingly meaningless patterns. Instead of separating them into split flows, he segmented the energy into minuscule pieces and attempted to bring them together. Over and over again, that wild and oddly captivating chaos of the Nether King’s Ritual replayed in his mind. A flat plane with discrete bits of energy swimming as randomly as tadpoles moving on nascent instinct. They formed and died with all the performance of sparks.

Pieces to flows, flows to pieces, pieces to nothing, nothing to flaring pieces...

Yet even if the individual pieces faded as quickly as they joined and separated out from an energy flow, they contributed to a broader flow that was somehow maintained despite the minuscule longevity of the pieces… The whole was permanent, even if all the factors that created that meaningful whole were transient.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ruinous Drive (Ru) has grown to Level 141!

…

For the first time since Randidly had chosen his Path through the System, he had a slight headache for a very specific reason: he didn’t possess enough Control to accomplish what he was attempting.

Yet he gritted his teeth and continued to attempt it as he ran forward.

Congratulations! Your Skill Ruinous Drive (Ru) has grown to Level 163!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!

The ground beneath their feet shook and quaked from an enormous impact, but Randidly and his recruits simply hopped up in the air and let their significant momentum carry them forward. They were arching blurs through the air. For a few seconds, they were truly flying across the plains. By the time they drifted back toward the ground, the reverberations had stopped.

In the distance, a column of dust drifted up into the air and fuzzed the edges of their target. The impact site was right in front of them; their timing was rather good. Randidly grinned. “Alright, recruits. Let’s welcome them enthusiastically, shall we?”

The recruits nodded. As they neared the giant mound of Nether and the dust cloud drifted away, Nether Beast after Nether Beast ripped their way out of the Sphere and dropped to the ground. Due to the fact that the Sphere was about the size of a city block and every few square meters of surface area produced a Nether Beast every few seconds, by the time group arrived there was a sea of Nether Beasts waiting for them.

Hunchbacked bears with odd-numbered arms, flightless birds made of bone and talon, giant insects with twitching antennas, undead creatures with their flesh rotting away from their sagging bulk, giant metal constructs with glowing eyes… these Nether Beasts followed the principles of the Nether Beasts that Randidly had seen in the shaft; this was a true army of an uncontrolled Nether King.

In terms of power, these Nether Beasts seemed to be half again as powerful as those Randidly had encountered on the frontlines.

As soon as the recruits arrived, the Nether Beasts turned their gazes toward the newly arrived foes. With a roar, they surged forward to destroy these impudent beings of Aether. Kallum Xeruth looked at the surging army in front of them with bright eyes. “Looks like we are going to start with pest control, huh?”

“No need,” Randidly said coolly. Nether and Aether moved perfectly in tandem with his body. Perhaps it was because he had just encountered a limit to his Control for the first time in a long time, but he suddenly felt the need to make a statement. The air around Randidly was filled with the distinct sound of rustling leaves. He clenched his hands into fists. “If I’m here… quantity means nothing.”

The ground erupted beneath the Nether Beasts. Thorny roots ripped through the assembled Nether Beasts like scythes through wheat. Limbs were severed and lives were taken. If the Nether Beasts were a several-page-long math test, Randidly’s Skill was an industrial-strength paper shredder. In only a few seconds, he had completely decimated the accumulated army of Nether.

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil (T) has grown to Level 355!

Congratulations! You have reached Level 63! +8 Stats distributed between Vitality, Perception, Resist, Intelligence, and Control, +37 Free Stats! +1 Stat to a Mental Stat. +1 to a Physical Defense Stat. +1 to a Mental Support Stat. +2 Control. +46 Health, +55 Mana, +50 Stamina, +6.5 to all Regenerations! +1 to Health and Stamina Regeneration!

Due to Guidance of the Wraith Adder, +4 Agility and +2 Bonus Stats!

Due to your Fatepiece the Philosopher’s Key, +3 Intelligence, Wisdom, and Focus, +4 Reaction and Grim Intuition!

Due to your Fatepiece the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night, +1 Grim Intuition, +1 Reaction, +1 Focus, and +3 Control per Level!

Due to your Fatepiece the Visage of Obsession, +10 Focus and -1 Control Per Level!

Randidly clicked his tongue. Forgot how much experience these fools give me… well, there are other ways to force the powerful forces out of the Nether Sphere…

Randidly produced his Philosopher's Key and opened a portal to his Alpha Cosmos. His recruits looked at Randidly with a strange expression, but he just waited as the Nether Beasts had a brief reprieve to regrow their numbers. Then a strangely leafy figure, riding a chitinous black rhino and carrying a long lance, cantered out of the portal. The Rider of the Baleful Court glanced around, bowed slightly to Randidly, then moved out of the way for the rest of his people to follow.

Randidly had intended to lend his Riders to Vualla, but he had forgotten in the chaos of heading into the shaft. But they would now serve as an effective measure to deplete Nether numbers without gaining him too much experience. The Rhino Riders came first, their steeds thick and powerful with a curving horn on their heads. The recruits watched with widening eyes as hundreds streamed forth. And after them, the spider-mount riders came out with their agile movements and flowing silk cloaks. Next came the controlled cadence of the camel-riders.

At about two thousand Riders, the third type tapered off. Randidly’s Ruinous Drive spiraled outward to cover them all. But next came the miscellaneous Riders that had evolved in different directions. Riders that road giant toads, a Rider on the back of a Preying Mantic, a Rider on the back of a massive eagle…

DiOrtho coughed into his hand. “These are… reinforcements.”

“Yes,” Randidly smiled sharply and threw his Willpower behind Ruinous Drive. “Now… go. Clear me a path.”