Randidly floated alone in the darkness of the Shaft. He remained a little higher than usual, to avoid the eyes of the Nether Gatekeepers. Claudette was back in the Alpha Cosmos, preparing with Neveah for the image refinement process.

One portion of the work they still needed to do was generate a specific array to expand and magnify her image for Randidly to work, during which time Claudette would go into a sort of hibernation. Neveah was finalizing the details and refused his help, leaving Randidly to make his own preparations.

Neveah had taken a few breaks to send him a few increasingly pushy messages about taking some time to process the loss of Helen, but Randidly had ignored that.

Not because he didn’t think it might be helpful; he admitted that Neveah had been quite insightful about his mental health previously and was likely correct that he would need to cope with the loss before he could move forward.

But at the moment, Randidly didn’t want to move forward. And he had his own particular methods for coping.

Methods… that he believed Helen would have also engaged in, had he been the one who died.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Glittering Leaves of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 361!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Implacable Price of Exodus (M) has grown to Level 330!

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 472!

Randidly sat in the projection of his Yggdrasil image, methodically tightening his mental grip through the image. Waves of heat roiled off the thick and vibrant grass. The thick, natural architecture of the roots swimming out of the ground now released a blinding radiance of golden light as more and more energy was funneled toward the trunk of the world tree.

Those golden streams of energy flowed constantly inward, concentrating the force of this image.

The massive emerald canopy rustled, capturing and corralling the overwhelming heat released by a low-looming sun. Only due to the shade cast by the World Tree could this planet support life. From the high mountain tops nestled underneath the world tree, a mixture of water and frigid essence flowed downward, providing refuge from the unrelenting force of heat.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 473!

Due to his efforts, the sun was dragged closer and closer. The environment intensified. More energy was absorbed by the planet and gathered into those golden flows.

Randidly’s grip tightened further, ignoring the growing headache. Helen’s passing… had broken some inherent mental stop that he had possessed. The intensity with which he approached his image training wasn’t exactly stronger… but more desperate. Perhaps for the last few months, as the threat of the Swacc Family eased, a part of him had relaxed.

Only when reality had thrown weakness in his face did Randidly realize how foolish he had been to ease off his training. The Nexus had always been a guillotine hanging above his head. If he ever lost sight of that again, someone else would needlessly die.

For a brief instant, Randidly wavered. Why the hell didn’t you reach out…? If you had maintained our Aether connection, even if you lost your body, your soul-

“Fuck,” Randidly said. Then his lips quirked up for a small smile; the tightness in his chest eased somewhat when he recalled how foulmouthed Helen had been when they had first met during an under Level 25 Tournament on Tellus. Although she had eased up somewhat in the subsequent years, she always viewed any developments sourly, prepared to be shafted and complain about it.

The tightness quickly returned to his chest. He chewed on his bottom lip. She might have complained, but she had never failed him.

Then Randidly shoved all those things away and focused on Yggdrasil. The heat was sweltering in the dense jungle environment. The air was thick and humid. He ignored the sweat running down his shoulders and back and simply focused on the details. The buzz of insects. The growls and stink of the furred animals. The flickering figure in the canopy, the horrifying specter of death that stalked Yggdrasil, with a thousand strands of hair that ended in hands, now carrying with her an elegant iron implement with a serrated edge-

Congratulations! Your Skill the Implacable Price of Exodus (M) has grown to Level 331!

Randidly pulled his lips back to reveal his teeth. The surroundings began to hum. His Nether resonated with his emotional intensity, which he no longer stuffed inside of the Stillborn Phoenix. Those vibrations soon radiated outward through his being and joined Yggdrasil’s image, rising upward to a deafening pressure.

Aether was the energy of shape and emotion. Nether was the energy of significance and memory. Randidly squeezed all of those things together into a tight ball, just like he had gripped the air in his room.

Previously, he had mostly sharpened one aspect of the energies at a time. Which was effective for strengthening his foundation, but Randidly wasn’t here to reinforce his foundation any longer. Flames of Nether Weight even started manifesting around his cross-legged form in the World Tree world, lengthening and weaving themselves upward into the oppressive heat. Within his images based on strands of Nether, the Weight could exhibit an even greater amount of force.

Randidly snarled at the steaming ground. Even if I hate every fiber of his being… I can’t deny Commandant Wick’s accomplishments. And if I look at the difference between us broadly… that sense of fierce madness he possesses is not something that I have. I don’t need to follow him down the path to madness… but I need to capture that intensity. The emotional aspect of Aether is more important than I’ve acknowledged in the past.

The surrounding vegetation was soon engulfed in waves of resonating Nether Weight. Those pale spectral flames stretched higher and higher, rushing along the glowing gold/brown roots and soon reaching the trunk of the World Tree. From there, Nether and Aether spun together in pulsing waves of a grey inferno. The force of heat released by the world tree swiftly spiked upward, until it rivaled the tireless radiation of the sun.

Randidly’s muscles flexed. He gritted his teeth. Everything about Yggdrasil began to tighten and sharpen. When he squeezed, he was desperate.

I let my knight die.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 415!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil (T) has grown to Level 391!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Emerald Sap of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 303!

Randidly did not back off the strain running through his image. Perhaps under normal circumstances, the pressure would eventually twist and warp the shape or emotional affect into something monstrous, but with the resonance between his Aether and Nether, most of that dangerous push toward aberration just rippled outward through the Nether flows. Of course, Randidly’s Nether Core was beginning to wobble slightly as it whipped itself into a frenzy to cope, but he knew the sturdy core could handle this much strain.

He did not balk. Randidly dragged his heart across a thousand razorblade rails as ran through his memories of Helen. His mind forced itself to review their early training sessions when they most shared that intense, all-consuming desire to improve. He extracted those nurturing emotional elements and brought them out to weave into the fabric Yggdrasil. The roar of the Nether Weight flames squeezed everything into a single entity. Randidly lost in his throbbing headache and the constant rivulets of sweat that ran down his face. Instead, he was the massive hand that crushed everything toward evolution.

But no matter how much he tried to distract himself, Randidly always seemed to turn back to that moment from the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night, where Helen’s memory self had realized her fate and she smiled at him. Be realistic, for once in your fucking life.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 475!

Randidly blinked back tears that still squeezed themselves out of the corners of his eyes and joined the sweat that soaked his tingling skin. He laughed coldly, alone in his image in the empty shaft. “And what if I fucking say no?”

Even though his Nether Core was straining to stabilize the pressure that Yggdrasil was currently experiencing, Randidly flexed his Willpower and wrapped more and more Nether flows around the image. Only a fraction of that could provide the significance that truly strengthened Yggdrasil, but the rest of those flows accelerated faster and faster in tight loops to keep up with his Nether Core. Those loops tightened and squeezed Yggdrasil further.

And with that additional tightness, Randidly loosed the last bindings on his heart.

The wave of Randidly’s emotions shook his image. They were a constant demand for change that exploded from his form and wormed their way into the substance of the projected. The shape and the emotion fought for dominance, mixing and dancing together in a complex tug of war. Randidly’s headache intensified, even as he somehow squeezed out more and more Skill Levels. The plentiful energy in the trunk of the World Tree forced it to sway slightly in a groaning shift.

...

Congratulations! Your Skill the Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 419!

Congratulations! Your Skill the Emerald Sap of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 319!

That last notification earned Randidly’s attention. Yggdrasil continued to creak and groan between the crushing grip of his focus. The leaves rustled uncertainly, demanding a change. Randidly gradually returned back to his body, still slick with sweat. Perhaps… perhaps I do need to nudge myself in the right direction before Yggdrasil can grow to its next stage. Pressure alone isn’t enough.

His attention narrowed to the pitted bark of Yggdrasil, covered with glowing symbols that flitted and danced with all the stories in the universe. Then Randidly pressed himself deeper, digging through the history-filled exterior to sink into the core of the trunk. And there he found the life-giving Emerald Sap of Yggdrasil, flowing rapidly through the tree’s veins.

Randidly smiled grimly. Waves of heat and energy were concentrated on the trunk, rapidly altering the original environment of the Sap. With his Willpower, Randidly accelerated that process. His Nether Core hummed with the resonance between his shape, emotion, significance, and memory.

Of course Yggdrasil’s greatest aim to support and nurture: it is the World Tree. But… without tenacity, it wouldn’t have grown to be the dominant organism that it has become. Patience and foundation only get you so far…

The sea of Nether flames that covered the Yggdrasil environment began to rush along the roots, slurped toward the core of the image by the World Tree. Randidly raised his head and bellowed, his eyes unfocused. His head pounded as he pushed himself even further.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 475!

An agent of change is needed. Randidly clenched his jaw. His shoulders shuddered. Even if the steps are small, when they accumulate…

Warning! Skill Deviation is occurring.

Error- Warning, please see your nearest Village Spirit-

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 476!

Randidly tried to breathe but his chest was tied together in knots. So instead, he forced himself to stand in that sweltering, humid environment. His body felt heavy and strange after focusing away from it so long. Once he was on his feet he wheeled around and then took lumbering steps toward the trunk of the World Tree. His bare feet sizzled on the ground. The vegetation in the surroundings was wilting and dying underneath the vicious heat. Even Yggdrasil couldn’t resist the rising pressure.

Randidly’s joyless laughter echoed out through the dying wilderness as he slogged forward. Animals hid in their burrows. The streams of ice water melt gradually evaporated. The previously thick grass began to yellow and wilt, all the moisture dragged out by the heat.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 477!

The process was grueling, but Randidly dragged himself past larger and larger root archways and approached the pyre of seething Nether Flames that was the trunk of Yggdrasil. He had long sensed ceased sweating and now simply was baked dry by the heat. The surroundings were constantly rumbling, driven by image strain and the constant violence of emotions he released. As the grass died, the ground was revealed and began to crack.

To nurture the future… Randidly hissed as he sourly considered the last hundred meters to the central portion of his image. The selective reality of the image was a bit obnoxious, at the moment, but he did his best to put it out of his mind. One must resolve for the past to be destroyed.

In the memory, Helen smiled at him. Her lips trembled slightly. Her eyes were wet. Randidly’s heart folded inward on itself. He didn’t dare breathe, lest he shatter everything and be left with only broken pieces. His bare feet moved over dying grass and steaming ground.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 478!

Randidly reached out through the Nether flames and touched thick and pitted bark that lined the trunk of Yggdrasil. At the brush of his fingers, the bark finally ruptured and spat out the boiling sap that it contained. When it hit the ground, that sizzled and bubbled.

Recalculating…

Congratulations! Your Skill Emerald Sap of Yggdrasil (L) has evolved into Yggdrasil’s Unruly Ichor (M)! Skill Level will be maintained.