Randidly tilted his head to the side and regarded the armored woman in front of him. “You are going to be my guide to Seeker Dusk Jackal’s base?”

Claudette nodded and favored him with a wide grin. She truly had exquisite bone structure. “Of course! I wouldn’t miss this rare chance to observe you fighting. I’m quite interested to see how you can combine your powerful physical body and your capability with Nether into your image during battle. Just in terms of breadth of tactics, it is an arsenal worthy of study.”

The blonde-haired woman seemed genuine enough, so Randidly ultimately nodded and turned away. He was strangely paranoid about connections to the Engraving Guild when she mentioned his ability to use Nether, but he reassured himself that she was the Frost Matriarch’s disciple and had seen him stave off the shockwave of Elhume. Anyway, most of his bad mood was due to the state of the planet he visited. Even after dunking himself in ice-cold water, he couldn’t get rid of that strange itch to destroy something.

Hard to say if it is the Grim Chimera’s lingering destructive impulses or just the Nexus that’s under my skin right now…. Randidly’s eyes flashed as he waved a hand and gathered the few personal items he had left laying around the room back into his interspatial ring. He traveled quite lightly. But… right now, I don’t want to keep hiding myself. I can’t bring myself to care too much about taking this arrogant shits by surprise. Hopefully, what they said about the Pinnacle Seekers not working with the orthodox factions is at least partially true…

Pah, I think it’s time to run a bit wild...

“Then let’s go,” Randidly said lightly. Claudette nodded and led the way through the passages of the Frost Matriarch’s base. Helen would want to watch the fight too, but she was currently training within the Alpha Cosmos. So it was enough for Randidly to send her a message and follow after Claudette Beigon.

Helen could be hand delivered to the battlefield via the Philosopher's Key.

As they walked, Randidly mentally went through the different activation procedures for his Hierarchy of Burden. In a way, he relished the chance to activate the Fatepiece. This would add a whole new dimension to his physical training. He now understood his new physical limits a little better, but how did that match up against those warriors in the original version of the Nexus…?

In the central area of the Frost Matriarch’s base was a wide teleportation formation modelled after the Nexus’ grand astroid constructs. But Randidly was interested to notice that there were quite a few differences in the actual Aether mechanisms that made this formation work; it looked like the Frost Matriarch had made some personal modifications to the base formula. He was equally fascinated that she had the know-how and by the particular adjustments that he could learn from.

Claudette led the way, taking several quick looks at Randidly as they settled into place.The two of them stood on the platform and Randidly tilted his head to the side, annoyed by her despite himself. When he spoke, his voice was cold. “Is there something you nood?”

Claudette, who had been favoring Randidly with sidelong glances even before they had entered into the teleporter room, blinked. Then she looked at him with a slightly heavier gaze as the portal beneath their feet began to activate.

Randidly sighed and shook his head. His loosened the muscles of his neck and the annoyance dissipated. “...sorry about that. I’m not in the best mood.”

To his surprise, Claudette laughed. “No, it’s actually quite alright. In a way, it’s a relief. You’ve been so… stoic and focused since you woke up from your cocoon, constantly training and seeking to improve, despite the fact that you almost died. Knowing that you have a very short-tempered and flawed side to you makes you seem more real. And truth be told, I did have something I wanted to ask of you…”

Claudette opened her mouth to say something just as the teleporter activated. The runes flared to life beneath their feet. The space around them wrenched and threw their two bodies across the Nexus. They landed with a lurch, much more roughly than Randidly had experienced in any other teleporter. The arrival was so abrupt that his tail subconsciously snapped out from his back and he bent his knees to absorb the force. Claudette stumbled and put a hand on his metal arm to prevent herself from falling over.

The teleporter beneath them buzzed and thunk’d audibly, like an old lawnmower that wondered if this would be the day its engine shook itself to pieces.

Randidly had the strange suspicion that Claudette hadn’t really lost her balance, but was just reaching out purposefully to create an excuse to touch him. The realization made him frown slightly, but he didn’t know how to feel about it. That occurrence and his inability to categorize it satisfactorily became one more strand of agitation coiling around his heart.

Randidly took a step away from Claudette and glanced around. They were now standing on a rather sandy hill above what appeared to be a dried riverbed. The teleporter was clearly in a state of disrepair. There wasn’t another soul in sight. “So? What was it you were going to say?”

“Ah…” Claudette blinked. From the long pause, it was clear she was making some sort of mental adjustment. “Just… how well do you know Neshamah Rex? She reached out to me, wanting to contact you. I wasn’t sure whether you knew each other.”

Claudette gestured and started walking down into the riverbed and Randidly followed while he considered that information. Did the same mechanism that prevented Neshamah from appearing in his encountered individuals list and and letting him send a message also work in reverse? Randidly hadn’t sensed her presence in the final isolated space, but Neshamah seemed like someone who had reliable sources of information in quite a few places. That she had heard word of Randidly’s usage of Nether wasn’t a surprise.

I told you Neshamah. A ghost of a smile flickered to life across his face. Didn’t I promise you a surprise?

Influence +17!

“Just an acquaintance,” Randidly finally said with his eyes straight forward. Perhaps before he was exposed to Nether King he would be more interested in arranging a meeting with Neshamah, but now Randidly was rather content. He had a lot more experiments to do before he exhausted all the inspiration he had from seeing the intricate way the Nether King could guide energy. Plus, Randidly’s accumulation of Influence had been steadily rising; he just recently broke past 10,000 Influence, which meant that he would likely earn some extra Weight when he attempted to advance his Nether Core.

His investigations of Expira and the Alpha Cosmos while he searched for the source of the time dilations also revealed that his growing Influence was accumulated through the support of the population in those worlds. Randidly stood in the sky of the Alpha Cosmos and could feel ethereal threads flowing up from those that thought of him, being inexorably pulled into his Nether Core. With that in mind, Randidly anticipated that the speed at which he could gather Influence would sky-rocket once he had a workable method of incorporating the Nemesai’s planets into the Alpha Comos.

And I never thought I would admit this… but this is only possible due to the proselytizing actions of those fanatical Frost Dragons. Randidly winced. Who knew that Nether would respond so positively to religion…?

Claudette seemed to accept Randidly’s noncommittal answer, because they walked in easy silence for five minutes as they proceeded along the dried riverbed into a canyon. At the bottom, they found Seeker Dusk Jackal, standing with his arms akimbo and watching them approach. The whole situation was eerily silence; not even the wind dared gossip as the duo approached.

The Jackal-headed Pinnacle Seeker licked his lips and looked Randidly up and down. The air around them was hot and still. “Have you made your preparations?”

Claudette raised a hand to cover her small smile while Randidly sent another message to Helen and opened a portal to the Alpha Cosmos. Helen walked out, cracked her neck, and then moved off to the side to observe from a safe distance. Randidly rolled his shoulders and produced Acri and Sulfur, allowing the two living pieces of equipment to stretch and engage in their own preparations.

Then, with that seed of bitterness from looking at the Obsidian Duke’s planet slowly germinating in his heart, Randidly grinned vicious toward his opponent. His hand tightened on Acri’s shaft. “I’m ready.”

“The rules are simple!” The Dusk Jackal bellowed, his voice bouncing off the sloping walls of the river basin around them. The force of his voice smacked against the stillness of the air and left it shattered and broken at his feet. The walls of the canyon loomed above them like bored sentinels, here to prevent a fearful captive from running away from his fate. “Since you can be considered one of the younger generation… we cannot stake our lives and honor on such a minor agreement. Instead, there will be a time limit: should you survive six hours, it will be considered your victory.”

Randidly’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t say anything.

The Dusk Jackal settled his muscular body into a crouch. The perfect bulges and lines of his physique reminded Randidly in mind of a formula one race car. The beastman flexed his hands outward and hatchets appeared in both of them. The light within the basin began to become filmy and glittering, as though everything was sifted through a filter. The richness of color began to fade, leaving in its place variant, metallic hues. “We begin… on your move, Seeker Ghosthound.”

Seeker Ghosthound, huh… Randidly was briefly distracted from his rising desire for battle by that mode of naming. Do you not know that I was employed by Military High Command… or are you telling me that such a thing doesn’t matter? Not so long as I seek to reach the Pinnacle…

Ha, somehow… hearing that is such a relief.

The Dusk Jackal continued to stand still, the coloration of his image bleeding outward. Randidly shook himself and marshaled his own abilities. He lowered Acri and allowed his Grim Chimera tail to extend itself fully behind him. His skin began to hum as blood accelerated through his veins. His heartbeat was even and strong.

His body shifted as the image physicalizations of the Grim Chimera manifested across his flesh. Some notes of the other two images were part of him as well, his left eye darkened and his veins turned golden, but this fight was another test for the Grim Chimera. And for Randidly’s new physical power.

Randidly adjusted Acri again and pointed the weapon toward the Dusk Jackal’s chest. Man is Proud, But the Chimera Takes.

The Dusk Jackal’s image flared up as Randidly accelerated forward and the light around him became almost blinding. He crossed his two hatchets and stayed in his crouched position to meet Randidly’s attack directly. The corner of Randidly’s mouth quirked upward. He’s probably not going to make this mistake twice.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

But Randidly was the one whose eyes widened when the two clashed. A huge fissure spread outward from the contact point, shattering the basin, but the Dusk Jackal remained standing in his original position. He had completely endured Randidly’s physical attack by suppressing the force with the breadth of his image.

As Randidly’s eyes narrowed in surprise, the Dusk Jackal spun forward, whipping his hatchets in vicious arcs. Randidly’s feet blurred as he stepped quickly around the blades and thrust his spear from a new direction.

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Impunity (M) has grown to Level 400!

The light around the Dusk Jackal intensified and both sides’ blows slid past the target. They spun away, adjusting their footing and preparing for another pass at one another. But to Randidly’s surprise, two shallow cuts emerged on his chest. He had dodged the physical weapons, but not the image.

The Dusk Jackal was trembling at this point. Drool oozed out through his yellowed teeth, flowing out of his mouth in thick and ropey clumps. He visibly attempted to lick away that drool and grinned over at Randidly. “Hehehe…. Now that I’ve drawn blood… your fate is sealed, you fool. Now, I’ll show you the true meaning of bloodlust…!”

Instantly, the intensity of the metallic light changed. Randidly’s spine tingled as he realized that a rust coloration was seeping up out of his small cuts and gradually darkening the surroundings. With a howl, the Dusk Jackal bounded forward.

A second later, Randidly’s Uncommon Metabolism kicked in and the wounds closed; luckily, the shifts in the Dusk Jackal’s image stopped. But the beastman was completely lost in the thrill now as he unleashed a flurry of attacks.

Randidly spun Acri as his blood quickened even further. Steam began to flow out of his nose as he breathed. Alright then, time to test the limits of this new body…!

With a quick step, Randidly ducked under the blows, ignoring the small cuts that the image still inflicted on his back. Then he hopped lightly up into the air and did a half somersault while turning, bringing his tail whipping straight up into the air. For a brief fraction of time, the heavily armored appendage pierced directly upward, like a solemn obelisk.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cosmic Necessity (M) has grown to Level 303!

Then the powerful tail came smashing down, taking the Dusk Jackal by the surprise and hitting the Pinnacle Seeker with enough power to forcefully embed him into the ground.

...unfortunately, in the next second, the Dusk Jackal leapt out of the hole with a gleeful cackle. Randidly pressed his lips into a thin line.