Still, Velio was slowly adjusting to Randidly’s increased speed. Randidly’s attack cracked the ambient energy of his foe’s defensive image, but the tan and muscular man twisted sideways and earned only a tear in his armor.

Then Velio retreated, rings of cobalt fire forming around his person that blocked all of Randidly’s avenues of attack. He raised his sword and looked at Randidly with a baleful expression.

For his part, Randidly was willing to give Velio space. The feeling of his speed was intoxicating, but he was still deeply exhausted. Every extra second helped. His Nether Core stabilized further and the discomfort from absorbing Tellus continued to decrease. Even if he was feeling slightly ‘overstuffed’, he had already swallowed the planet. The worst was now over. The Alpha Cosmos begrudgingly expanded, accepting the flow of significance that had now joined it.

Influence +9!

Influence +8!

Influence +6!

…

The accumulation of significance and Influence was slowly stabilizing, coasting back down to normal levels just above forty-four thousand. Randidly’s image physicalizations were also buoyed by the return of Nether to his body and became stronger. The natural armor of the Grim Chimera covered him. His veins gleamed with a luminous golden light. The graceful tail that had forcefully supported the Nether Ritual had now become armored and deadly as it undulated behind him.

“You…” Velio spoke quietly. “You insist on repeating those same mistakes of the past. I suppose I should compliment you for resembling that figure so closely… But all I feel when I look at you is disgust. Do you know how hard we had to fight not to be dragged along with that madman to our doom? And yet. AND YET YOU-!”

Randidly raised his spear and regarded Velio Dunn calmly as his shoulders shook with obvious rage. The bald and muscular man seemed completely lost in his memories as he continued to mutter. “And yet here you are… the spitting image of that hollow man…! If it’s to kill you… I will even break my oath…”

A ripple of Aether spread outward from Velio Dunn’s body. Randidly’s skin prickled as the cobalt runes across his bastard sword dimmed and then disappeared. Even though Randidly’s senses didn’t rely on light to see his enemy, the abrupt darkness left him briefly nonplussed. And then suddenly, Grim Intuition screamed that Randidly should retreat. And perhaps he would have even attempted that, but his senses also warned him that Velio Dunn had not exactly been idle while he was ‘waiting’ for Randidly to finish absorbing Tellus.

A complex cage of Aether surrounding them, forcing Randidly to keep his word that he would duel Velio for ten minutes.

The one silver lining was that the mechanism was tied to his word; Randidly could sense that somehow Velio had utilized Nether principles so that for the first ten minutes, the defenses of the Aether construct were vastly improved by his oath. But after that, Randidly should be able to force the issue and escape…

...but for now, Randidly licked his lips as he watched a dead-eyed Velio heft his sword. In so many ways, the change made him nervous. Across the skin of Velio’s arms and face, small crystals were forming. They were small and fragile, but they made Randidly’s heartbeat flutter. That… is that… crystalized Aether forming naturally on him…?

“I’ll ask you nicely one more time,” Velio rumbled. “Die for me.”

Randidly didn’t bother to point out that what Velio said wasn’t a question. His images spun together, supporting and settling into one another. Yggdrasil, the Stillborn Phoenix, and the strangely luminous Grim Chimera all surged with his Willpower, releasing ripples of power that pressed against the Nexus’ framework of Aether. With the base of his Nether Core linking the three images even more tightly than before, the multiplicative effect of utilizing all three at once had increased. Randidly felt massively powerful.

Not in terms of image detail, but simply in terms of clout. His weapons were blunt… but they were powerful.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm has grown to Level 440!

Then, on top of that boost, Randidly conjured the spectral flames of Weight and forced his power even higher. Against this Velio Dunn that gave him the chills, he held nothing back; he didn’t bother to withhold any secrets before the watching Claudette. Velio observed the changes in Randidly with narrowed eyes and then snorted. Both blurred into motion.

Randidly pressed his lips together. Even as he danced through the air, Velio was suddenly much more capable of adjusting to his sharp bursts of acceleration. So you still can go a little faster, huh…?

Randidly still had the advantage in speed, but whatever transformation his opponent was experiencing brought theme near enough that he wasn’t as intoxicatingly dominant as before. As he advanced, Velio Dunn’s image radiated out from him. His body seemed to become the core of a dying star, a white pinprick surrounded by cobalt flames. And from within that collapsing star, the suddenly dead metal of Velio’s sword swung forward.

Acri screamed out to meet the bastard sword. The tip of Randidly’s weapon glowed cherry red. Pernicious Fang of the Shade. Inscrutable Mien of Yggdrasil. Cosmic Necessity.

CLLLLAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG!

Congratulations! Your Skill Sharpness has grown to Level 291!

Congratulations! Your Skill Pernicious Fang of the Shade (L) has grown to Level 309!

…

Congratulations! Your SKill Sharpness has grown to Level 322!

Burning with Aether, Nether, and the queer inevitably of Randidly’s Primordial Nether Juju, Acri ripped through Velio’s image and met the dark grey bastard sword directly. Metal kissed metal and released a humming reverberation that possessed enough power that blood spurted out of Velio Dunn’s nose and mouth. Even Randidly’s remade mucous membranes tore slightly and began to leak blood and snot as his limbs blurred into motion.

Randidly ignored the small wounds and pursued Velio, who had been directly overpowered by his strike and sent drifting backward. After a small moment of stillness to trigger Dreadful Alacrity’s special effect, Randidly practically teleported beneath the tumbling Velio and raised his hand with his fingers splayed outward. Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart. Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil. Cursed Appetite of the Wraith.

Velio spun around and brought his shattered images back together into a burning whole, even as more crystals formed across his skin… but then Randidly poured everything he had into pulling that vibrant Aether from his opponent and into himself. He couldn’t steal an opponent's image like Raymund Ballast could, but Randidly could siphon off a fair chunk of charge.

Especially when his target was so brazen with it.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cursed Appetite of the Wraith (L) has grown to Level 368!

Energy flooded into him. The boost Randidly experienced made his image physicalizations briefly condensed even more fully, seeming more solid than reality across his body. At the same time, Velio cursed and spun around. Randidly’s Grim Intuition caught the way the thin layer of crystalized Aether spreading across his body slowed without that power fueling it.

Randidly kicked off the air and accelerate upward. Velio slashed downward, but Dreadful Alacrity and his images flared. His eyes glowed with an impossibly prescient awareness. Revelations of the Atramentous Threshold. The Glittering Leaves of Yggdrasil. Ruin is Inevitable, Yet This Too Shall Pass.

Randidly saw the minute adjustments to Velio’s attack even before Velio made them. He squeaked underneath the blade, raising Acri; he did not intend to allow this battle to drag out for the full ten minutes. The sooner he demonstrated to Velio he was not prey, the better.

His Soulseed weapon again ripped through Velio’s defensive image and stabbed into the spot beneath Velio’s right armpit.

Crack!

The feedback from penetrating just a half-inch into Velio’s flesh warned Randidly that something was wrong. He narrowed his eyes and used Chimeric Impunity to rapidly generate space between them.

Raw, liquid Aether gushed out of the small crack that Randidly had made in the ‘skin’ of Velio Dunn. The man sneered down at his side, but none of that hostility appeared to be directed at Randidly. Around the wound, crystalized Aether began to spread across his side and shoulder at a rate visible to the naked eye. “Heh. Even now, I cannot escape my own sins, eh…? A broken, forsaken toy. Well… so be it.”

Velio glanced up at Randidly. The radiating waves of danger he had been releasing dimmed further as his image died and cooled. “I never believed I was anything special. My only unique trait… was the fact that I survived, even when so many more admirable specimens died. Do you know what I’ve seen boy? The feeling of watching your people turn against your god? That is why you must die. Because you… you could open us all up to a return to that hell.”

“You kill to protect the status quo…” Randidly snarled. Velio Dunn’s rambling made no sense to him and he didn’t intend to dwell on it. Meanwhile, his Nether Core had fully returned to its glory, now erupting with extremely dense Nether as his growing Influence continued to improve the foundation of his Nether abilities. The spectral flames of Weight across his body grew more numerous. “Don’t you dare try and damn me with what I might do in the future.”

Velio appeared to be finished talking because he simply accelerated toward Randidly rather than responding. Thankfully, his speed hadn’t increased as the crystalized Aether spread across him and he continued to leak liquid Aether.

But the sword he swung at Randidly now was… different. The horrible darkness of Velio’s image continued to intensify with that weapon at the core. But even more strangely, the runes across his bastard sword once more activated… but didn’t glow. Instead, the surface released a strange mist, even in the vacuum of space.

Randidly settled himself and gathered all of his force for another strike. Before this broken, ancient being, he would not balk. Man is Proud, But the Chimera Takes. Piercing Gaze of the Egg. Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!

Immediately after the weapons impacted each other, he felt the wrongness. Randidly furiously activated Chimeric Impunity and his powerful physical body and tossed himself to the side. The mist-shrouded bastard sword sliced cleanly through the space where he had just been standing.

In his hand, Acri keened in agony and writhed. The tip of Acri’s spear was actually made out of three appendages, spun together and sharpened to a deadly edge. But in the last clash, Velio Dunn’s sword had completely severed one of those appendages and sheered a bit of material off of the other two.

That image…. Randidly’s grimaced to look at the small bit of Acri twitching and floating in the air between them. Velio smoothly pivoted and brought his sword up for another slash. Crystalized Aether continued to climb up his neck and over the edge of his jaw.

This then was Velio Dunn, the man who had approached the Pinnacle. He raised his sword slowly, glaring at Randidly with the resolve to kill him within the next nine minutes.