Influence +13!

Congratulations! Your Skill Lesser Aether Inoculation (M) has grown to Level 242!

His sleep was fitful right up until the moment his eyes snapped open.

Randidly pushed himself off the bed. His vision was blurry, but soon the surroundings settled back down and he identified the room around him as being one of Nrorce’s guest rooms. His long legs stretched off the end of the goblin-sized bed. Randidly grimaced and rolled over onto his stomach. His shin scraped over the bed frame. After groaning, he reached out blindly. Luckily, someone had placed a barrel of water next to the bed, which Randidly picked up and rapidly guzzled a few gallons down.

Then he sighed and rubbed his forehead.

The arrival of that strange memory of Nrorce and Ivlin had given him a much-needed respite. However, when that memory had eventually faded before Elhume’s horrible ‘encouragement’, Randidly had to return and fight against the memory all on his own. Even at his best, it had been a brutal and strained confrontation. And one that he definitely would have lost, if not for his recent growth in Influence. Only by relying on the powerful anchoring of his Nether Core had he been able to wear down the memory.

Now that he had finally managed to disperse it and heal some of the damage to his Class and Skills, he had forced himself awake, to check on the situation.

Right on cue, Helen walked into the room with a plate filled with an egg, diced red peppers, and sausage scramble. Randidly’s mouth twitched into a smile and he showed his thanks by digging directly into the food. Helen watched him in silence.

After clearing the plate, Randidly worked his jaw. Even words felt somewhat difficult right now. “How long was I out?”

“Two weeks,” Helen responded. She examined him closely. “Fucking nerve-wracking. Are you… are you completely recovered? Nrorce said… there might be lingering damage to your image, even with the help.”

Randidly waved a hand. So the memory did come from Nrorce… I’m surprised his image was so powerful… “I’ve actually dealt with something similar in the past. At the time… I definitely had to spend a lot of effort to recover from the damage. But having dealt with it before means I fared a lot better now. With that assistance…”

Finally, Randidly paused. And then he looked over at Helen. “That… memory that I saw. Of Nrorce and… Ivlin. Why was it so powerful…?”

Helen went somewhat pale for several seconds. She pressed her lips together. “I… didn’t know what sort of thing it was that Nrorce gave you… So it was… well, from what Claudette was saying… what he gave you was something precious called Aetherium. Something that is only created… when someone tries and fails to walk the Path of the Pinnacle. The successful, pure images that someone uses to get there can’t truly be destroyed, so they are crystallized.”

Randidly’s skin prickled as he digested that information. Then the thing that had been used to help him overcome that memory of Elhume… was an image remnant, and a powerful one. And one so pure that Randidly hadn’t even noticed it was an image, but thought it was just a pure memory. And based on what the Randidly had heard from the visiting goblins who had begged Nrorce and from the content of the memory…

That Aetherium was one of the last things Nrorce had of his deceased daughter. Nrorce had sacrificed that precious thing to help him.

...unless he thinks I’ll be able to give it back to him. Randidly’s stomach contracted. He was still exhausted, but that wasn’t a high priority right now. “Where is Nrorce? I should… definitely speak with him.”

“He…” Helen hesitated then shook her head with confidence. Her braid swayed behind her back. “He hasn’t left his… inner room since we took you in there to get the Aetherium. I think… right now, he needs a bit more time, even before you thank him. But also… there is something that I need to show you.”

Randidly tilted his head to the side but Helen just gave him a sad look and gestured for him to follow. Randidly ducked under the narrow thresholds as she led him out of the small, lowset building and onto the hill. Outside, he sucked in a breath of fresh air… but immediately, he could tell this difference. The scent was different. His pupils dilated as he looked around at the farm below them. “What… the hell…?”

The grass across the hill and fields below was stiff and yellow. The crops were wilting. Even the domesticated bears seemed to be leaner and more listless than Randidly remembered. This much had changed… in two weeks of sleep.

Helen spoke in a quiet voice. “I believe… that the Aetherium that Nrorce gave you… was what was sustaining this place. It naturally released raw energy into the surroundings and made this place so pure. And now…”

She didn’t need to finish; Randidly could see the results for himself. While his eyes continued to scan the surroundings, Grim Intuition blasted outward, giving him a broader view of the surrounding kilometers on the surface of this planet. And while Nrorce’s farm was steadily fading… the broader surface of the planet had already died.

Randidly sensed huge floods of refugees moving across the countryside. Sluggish trains of small goblins carried as many of their belongings as they could manage and trudged stubbornly forward, taking a winding path toward the least desolate place on their entire planet. For now, none of the groups had reached Nrorce’s farm. But soon…

But I can change this… Randidly trembled. Although I’m full right now, as long as I increase my power… I can bring this planet into the Alpha Cosmos. And then, all these people… the sacrifice that Nrorce made to help me recover…

Randidly gritted his teeth and turned to Helen. “You… can you stay here? Let me know when Nrorce leaves. I… I want to make sure he knows how much he appreciates what he did. And also, that I can bring this planet into the Alpha Cosmos too. I won’t let him just… sacrifice his planet for me.”

Helen nodded. Despite his strong words, Randidly felt guilty and sick as he turned away and began to walk toward the gate out of the farm. Several times, he stopped and turned around to look through that home sunken into the browning hill. But he gritted his teeth and kept going. He couldn’t just barge into Nrorce’s private room with an apology. With the time dilation inside of the shaft, Randidly could recover the rest of the way before Nrorce was done anyway.

In addition, he wanted to get used to the new Grey Creature image and how all three images merged together. Even more valuable than the combination method, through his experience Randidly had been exposed to two images so powerful that they had become memory indistinguishable from memory. Or perhaps they were a memory so powerful they generated a natural image. Either way, the experience reminded him so much of entering the Nether Prince on the frontlines that he knew there had to be a connection between the two. Plus, the sharp detail of those definitely could be used as a launching off point to refine his own image further-

A message from Claudette distracted Randidly as he left the farm. I hear you finally woke up.

Randidly wondered when Claudette and Helen got close enough to message each other. But then he supposed that Claudette must have been the one to drag him back to Nrorce’s. Yes. I know your deadline is coming up for beginning the process, but you don’t need to worry. I’m heading for some time dilation now. I’ll be prepared.

I’m glad to hear it… but I’m messaging you now about other issues. Claudette responded. Honestly, it might have just been easier if you remained unconscious… The Imperium Ball is in three days. So we need to… be ready for that. And also… I wanted to ask you something. You mentioned… about the planet… something about an Alpha Cosmos…? What exactly does that mean?

Randidly let his breath hiss out through his teeth. He reached up and rubbed his temples. Claudette finding out about the Alpha Cosmos felt like one more shock to his exhausted system. But still, Randidly supposed that he would have told her eventually; he couldn’t really hide the fact he had absorbed a planet into himself…

...but this conversation came a little bit more quickly than he had expected.

It will be easier to show you than to explain. Randidly sent back a message after several seconds. Will you be able to get out of the Beigon Compound and meet me in the Web below the Nexus?

Claudette responded quickly. Sure. You’ve been asleep for two weeks; plenty of time for my father’s observation to slacken. I’ll meet you there.

*****

Don Beigon held the memory crystal that Fellador had provided for him of the excursion his daughter and that boy Ghosthound had taken and squeezed it. After a flash of light, he found himself teleported to the place where Fellador had observed the entire thing. The details were somewhat blurry, but the impression of images was extremely clear, due to Fellador’s strange senses.

The Don had planned on watching the memory much sooner, but unfortunately, the blatant challenge that the Ghosthound had issued on the gates of the Beigon Estate had been more problematic than anticipated. Which, more than proving anything about the Ghosthound, made it abundantly clear that Commandant Wick was just using the boy as a front and stirring up trouble in the shadows.

Plus, his daughter had returned safely. So he hadn’t truly made it a priority to understand their brief skirmish with the forces of the Swacc Family.

After watching the memory a single time, Don Beigon was pale. If he hadn’t been so scared of what he had just seen, he would have immediately summoned Fellador and beaten him ruthlessly for failing to indicate how important this development was.

Of course, Fellador would have no way of understanding the import of the images contained within the memory. But it would at least work off some of Beigon’s nerves. He began watching again, studying everything more closely.

First, the Ghosthound had somehow absorbed a planet into himself and experienced a surge of growth in terms of his Nether. Don Beigon had enough familiarity with Nether to know that whatever the boy was doing was much more profound than either the Nether Lattice of the flawed cores of Solomon Rex. He might very well be a genius in regards to Nether.

Next, the Ghosthound managed to rely on Nether and his physical body to fight Velio Dunn to a standstill. Obviously, Velio’s image was much more powerful, but the Ghosthound was able to circumvent that.

Finally…

Don Beigon licked his lips. The final, frozen moments of the confrontation between the Ghosthound and Velio Dunn made him very, very nervous. He examined it from every angle he could in the memory crystal, making sure there couldn’t possibly be a mistake. Then he sent out a message.

For ten minutes he waited, his anxiety steadily growing. He tried to sip tea to calm his nerves, but the liquid was ash in his mouth. So he just sat and sweated.

Finally, there was a flicker in the air. A glowing, blurry figure manifested within the core area of the Beigon Estate, completely bypassing the powerful sealing Engravings that were some of the most powerful of its kind in the Nexus. That blurry figure then turned and looked at Don Beigon. The weight of Elhume’s attention made the Don shudder.

He spoke haltingly, struggling against the weight of the other’s presence. “Randidly Ghosthound… has somehow managed... to loosen Velio Dunn’s seal. I… do not know how fully… but…”

There were several long seconds as the projection of Elhume’s will simply looked at Don Beigon. And then that projection vanished, leaving the Don to slump over in his wicker chair and shiver.