While on Expira, Randidly had contacted all the Nemesai and obtained all the pertinent information regarding their home planets. With the proper identification, Randidly had sent a message to Octavius Shrike to confirm that the ‘whatever’ attitude described by the Frost Matriarch was truly the Nexus’ stance. After having to act at such a precise time to rid himself of the Engraving Guild’s tracer, he was quite leery of attracting any more undue attention.

Boring, studious, a stickler for rules, inflexible Octavius had actually laughed at Randidly’s question. So with the last remnants of doubts vanquished, Randidly used his Philosopher’s Key to travel to the Sixth Cohort and located the homeworld of the Obsidian Duke and the Jade Prince.

This would be his first target.

For a while, he simply floated at the edges of the planet’s atmosphere and observed the planet. From just a casual glance, Randidly could tell how horrifyingly thin the Aether across the world was; no wonder it was such a struggle for powerful individuals to develop on these forgotten planets. Randidly could also sense the Aether structures around the planet and how they’d been slowly fraying without constant reinforcement. Rather than a planet, Randidly felt like he was looking at a discarded child’s toy.

Just how the Nexus does business, huh...

Despite the sour note, noticing those structures sharpened Randidly’s gaze; if he could steal away those structures along with the planet, he would probably gain quite a lot of insight into the way the Nexus worked.

But first, Randidly took a deep breath. His gaze went slightly unfocused. He had come to this planet with an ulterior motive, after all. He really wanted to use the process of incorporating these planets into a network with Expira to balance out the chillingly singular Grim Chimera evolution that currently gurgled in his chest. Obviously, the evolution wouldn’t just shift by him taking kind actions or feeling empathy, but Randidly believed that he could use the Grim Chimera as the main lever of the operation and have some impact.

Of course, that leaves me with the prospect of figuring out the right sort of Nether Ritual to use in this case… and then have the Grim Chimera be the executor of that operation… Randidly offered a wry smile to the atmosphere waiting below. He had some ideas, but it would not be a simple thing.

Still, Randidly would rather get this started prior to the duel against Seeker Dusk Jackal so he could monitor how the Grim Chimera responded to the changes in activity. He needed to know for sure how fickle the aim of the evolution he held was. Then, relying on the information from the Frost Matriarch that the Dusk Jackal wouldn’t force the duel to be one to the death, Randidly would survive the experience and take his initial results from this expedition and his insights after the duel into the shaft.

His potential would need more time under deadly threat to accumulate to the point of facilitating explosive growth in time dilation, but the time would at least let him figure out the methodology to steal away a planet.

Clapping his flesh and metal hand together a few times to rouse himself, Randidly began to work. His Nether Core hummed to life. The ultimate goal was to weave a pocket around this world that would connect it intimately to his Nether Core and Alpha Cosmos. Then the planets he had promised to protect would be screened from the System and he could support them in the same manner that he was influencing his home planet.

There’s a big caveat to this process though, Randidly reflected soberly as he paused in his examination of the world below. Theoretically, these pockets mean that most forces, maybe short of Elhume and the Nether King, can’t get to the planets except through me. But it should be possible to damage me remotely by attacking these workings. My body can endure the force, but I’m more worried about exposing my Nether Core trauma…

In the end, I’ll probably need to think about taking things a step further, Randidly tapped a pointer finger against his chin. The pockets should be pulled directly into my Soulskill. So it finally resembles something closer to an actual Cosmos…

Forcing those thoughts to the side, Randidly began to experiment with flows of Nether. Thick strands spun out from his Nether Core to flow between his fingers. The trick was to weave thick enough significance around both himself, the already entangled Expira, and the new planet. However, getting the Nether tethers to hold the Nether Ritual in place around the new planet required a very deft touch.

Randidly had the seed of significance he needed for such an act because he was moving due to an agreement to protect the planet. In addition, Nether responded positively to his gradual movements as wove lines of significance out from himself into the world. The act of connection provided a bit of extra oomph to his working.

However, the difficulty was doing this all through the image of the Grim Chimera.

After confirming that his base theories had merit, Randidly raised both of his hands with the air of a magician underneath the unblinking eye of a hot spotlight. The skin of his lower torso turned ethereal while heavy, slate-grey armor grew across his shoulders and left arm. His legs were lined with sharp ridges and exact angles of the same material. His now physical lower tail thickened into an undulating train of spikes and segmented metal while a spectral upper tail flickered into existence at the base of his neck.

His heart began to pound and in addition to blood, it pumped thick flows of Nether through his veins. His Nether Core’s energy came through the image physicalizations of the Grim Chimera.

Randidly grimaced after a few seconds. Even though the evolution hadn’t yet been completed, just activating the image revealed the hollow and sharp-edged core that the Grim Chimera now possessed. A chilling certainty spread through him as the image influence him and the world below seemed extremely distant. A certainty that Randidly could crush the entire planet with a single fist flickered to life as he looked downward at the distant surface.

Then Randidly shook himself and didn’t dwell on the sudden impulse to destroy. He began to move his hands, using the weapon-like appendages to create an envelope of protective Nether to assist this unfortunate planet. Compared to the other images, the Grim Chimera was nowhere near as nurturing as Yggdrasil nor did it possess the overwhelming, celestial levels of yearning of the Stillborn Phoenix.

But the Grim Chimera had learned to grow in any environment; it had already incorporated Nether deeply into its identity. The image might lean toward violence now, but assimilation and adaptions were the true spirit of the beast. Those traits were dim now, but Randidly knew that enough dedication would bring them back to the surface.

So he worked until he had woven an entire barrier of Nether in front of him. The result was decidedly unimpressive.

Randidly wasn’t surprised that his first attempt was rather poor. The pocket was barely large enough to cover a building and collapsed at the slightest eddy of Aether. It was a failure on multiple fronts. But it was only the first attempt.

With the next ten attempts, Randidly addressed the problem of collapse; all his efforts would be useless if random Aether could disturb the working. And the problem wasn’t even antagonistic Aether: any passing image user would release an aura that could steadily destabilize the pocket. Randidly suspected that even the energy-starved individuals on the planet’s surface would eventually tear flaws into this sort of shoddy workmanship just by going about their daily lives.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 431!

The rather clumsy blades that the Grim Chimera had for fingers were still a problem, but repetition eased some of the jerkiness to the movements. In terms of addressing the instability, Randidly drew inspiration from the tightly layer spatial walls that Commandant Wick had created to diffuse the power of the Nether King. But in this case, Randidly used the same methods to create some separability to the Nether Ritual, so it could endure and recover from the influence of Aether.

Randidly breathed in deeply and made another attempt.

Congratulations! Your Skill Precise Nether Ritual (L) has grown to Level 267!

Congratulations! Your Skill Precise Nether Ritual (L) has grown to Level 268!

Randidly examined the resulting pocket of Nether and could only chuckle; he still had a long way to go. The principle was right, but the execution was still lacking. He finally put those razor-sharp fingers of the Grim Chimera to good use and diced what he had created to pieces. Then he rolled his shoulders, snorted out a breath, and returned to the process of creation. His Nether Core began to spin just a little bit faster.

He started again. He finished again. When it wasn’t perfect, Randidly destroyed and rebuilt the Nether pocket. Over and over, as the two days until the duel ticked away.

In subtle ways that he didn’t even notice until they accumulated, his movements became more smooth. The vicious edges of his hands weren’t softened, but they definitely didn’t move in such unimaginative ways any longer. The flow of Nether out of his body and into a Nether Ritual gradually gained familiarity. The brittle ruts that his image had created, in which it had intended to stay, were gradually weakened and broken down. A glimmer of life flashed in the eyes of the Grim Chimera as it continued to carefully sculpt Nether.

Congratulations! Your Skill Precise Nether Ritual (L) has grown to Level 269!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 432!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Precise Nether Ritual (L) has grown to Level 287!

After making a workable seal that would isolate the world, Randidly had to turn to the main problem: how to scale up the envelope to surround a whole world. Unfortunately, his first few experiments rapidly ran into a new problem: he didn’t have enough high-quality Nether to work for a time period long enough to create what he wanted. Randidly frowned and allowed the Grim Chimera to fade away; this was a more serious issue, without an easy solution.

He could stockpile Nether beforehand, but it would be a rather slow process. That could likely be addressed by going into the shaft and consulting with the Nether Gatekeepers, but that wouldn’t help him with the mental energy required to arrange everything.

In a way, Randidly was starting to understand why the Nether King made use of those inexplicably forming bits of energy and using complex patterns to move them. You needed to figure out how to generate the patterns to begin with, but once the thing was in motion, all you needed to do was manipulate it.

Randidly shook his head. “I’m a bit away from managing something like that though… guess I’ll just have to do it the old-fashioned way…”

Checking the time, Randidly didn’t attempt to weave an envelope again; he simply stood at the edge of this planet’s atmosphere and looked down at the surface. He could see their small villages with their even smaller envies and fears. He could see the young women and men of the planet starving for Aether, doing their best to train their bodies efficiently while not being a burden on their families. He could see the chokehold that the Nexus had placed on the planet, making it almost impossible to ever escape from their predicament.

With a sharp gaze, Randidly turned away and opened a portal back to the Frost Matriarch’s hideout. He fucking needed a shower right now, before the duel.

And after that, he could really use the duel. Randidly Ghosthound was not in a good mood.