Upon the canvas Fatepiece, lines bloomed outward from an inky core of darkness. The first few changes seeped outward with all the speed of dripping blood, but soon everything accelerated. In only a few seconds, Randidly saw a black spiral staircase leading down upon the backdrop of a sky-blue void.

Seeing was being for the Visage of Obsession; he immediately found himself standing on the highest stair on that black pillar. He glanced left and right, but there were no distinguishing features of this empty place. The steps beneath his feet were wide and smooth. The colors were surprisingly rigid, compared to his prior activation.

He released a breath. I’m here to improve my image sharpening skills… and to use those skill to refine Claudette”s image to the point she can resist the machinations of her father. This time, that goal will be my obsession.

Randidly took his first step down the stairwell. Beneath his feet, the material felt solid. To his surprise, it only took eleven steps downward to arrive at a ‘landing’, guarded by a projected Claudette with a sweet smile on her face. She clapped her hands once. “Welcome. Due to the fact that this is your second time activating this particular Fatepiece, you are afforded certain benefits while using it. The first sacrifice is a freebie as you activate that ability. Step through the barrier and see a whole new world.”

Not that Randidly believed his Fatepiece would lie to him, but he narrowed his eyes at this enthusiastic reception from the Visage of Obsession. He regarded the fuzzy screen of darkness in front of him dubiously. A horizontal barrier completely blocked his view of the next step; he could be stepping into an endless abyss, for all he knew.

However, aren’t I essentially doing that by agreeing to activate this particular Fatepiece…? Randidly crouched down and stretched his metal fingers out to draw lazy circles in the material; the thick darkness rippled, but otherwise showed no response.

Randidly glanced one more time at Claudette. Her face seemed to have been carved into the expression of the warm smile, but as her face lingered in that position, it almost became mocking. He could only shake his head. This sort of thing makes me worried about the state of my subconscious…

Randidly took the next step and watched his bare feet sink into the dark barrier. The reassuring solidity of another stair was waiting for him beyond the limits of his senses. So he continued to descend until his head broke through the layer of shadow. On the other side, a notification popped up in front of him.

Congratulations! Familiarity with your Fatepiece is triggering a special effect!

Congratulations! For the remainder of your usage of the Visage of Obsession, you are under the effect of Enhanced Obsession (Tier I). Warning, entering combat with an outside foe will forcefully interrupt the Obsession, resulting in severe mental damage! Please make sure you are in a secure location before continuing.

Enhanced Obsession (Tier I): While the Obsession is in effect, your Skills will be 10% more effective. Your recovery will be 20% faster. You will experience time 30% more slowly.

So it really is a buff… although I’m quite vulnerable to external attacks while it’s active. I wonder what the System considers severe mental damage. Randidly briefly pulled his awareness out of the Aether Engraving, then back to himself inside the Visage of Obsession inside Claudette’s projected world. Being on the moon in the Alpha Cosmos and deep within the Shaft in the Nexus is probably as safe a place as I can find. Especially since Edraine still hasn’t contacted us.

Randidly blinked and looked around at the world inside his Fatepiece. He could feel the effect of the time shift. As he lowered his foot onto the next step, his body seemed to drag through the air on its way to the ground. At first, the feeling was uncomfortable, but Randidly soon grew used to the sensation. The surroundings remained relatively unchanged; he still stood on a black spiral staircase that descended into a blue abyss. If he had to point at something else that changed, perhaps the blue backdrop was stained imperceptibly by shadow.

Flexing his hands, Randidly pulled himself back out of his Fatepiece and stored away the canvas painting. For a few seconds, he waved his hands through the air, fascinated by the strange hint of delay that he experienced as a result of his Enhanced Obsession (Tier I). Then he focused back on the task and continued to work his way through Claudette’s image. A cold wind blew past him, but suddenly Randidly realized the surroundings remained silent.

Randidly grinned. Definitely need to add some rustling before I delve deeper.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Celestial Cataclysm (T) has grown to Level 487!

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 72!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 101!

Huuuuuuum.

Randidly flinched when the guide behind him offered its pleasure at the way Randidly had sharpened the dead grasslands into the barren and yellowed wastes now around them. Dried stalks of grass whispered their limited resistance during every gust of wind. He twisted around and eyed the guide’s depthless mouth for a few seconds. Honestly, if there was one drawback of the extra time I experience, its that the extra 30% makes the guide that much creepier…

But Randidly supposed it was an acceptable problem to have. Better than Claudette now revealing that she subconsciously wanted him dead. He spoke to the guide to banish the unnerving thought of this projection chasing him down, “Alright, let’s head deeper. Which way is the core?”

In its stuttering movements, the guide pointed in a certain direction. Randidly cracked his neck and walked in the indicated direction. His feet left crushed the dried grass and left an obvious path behind him.

Truly, Neveah had outdone herself with her Engraving. An entire world existed around Randidly, one that buzzed with the lavish spending of Aether that maintained it. Soon Randidly reached a choppy grey sea that he had to cross to arrive at the central area. A pulse of Grim Intuition let him know the state of this ‘sea’. What he saw made Randidly click his tongue.

He spent several hours adding depth and debris and water currents and weather to the sea, which had previously been a flooring style to this image world. In fact, Randidly spent quite a bit of time digging into the ‘crust’ of this dead world. If Claudette’s image was going to improve, she would need a strong foundation.

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 119!

Now, huge waves slapped against the stony shore and sprayed drops of water that partially froze before they could even hit the ground, creating the illusion of snowfall. Those heavy cloud banks Randidly made earlier loomed ever closer, filled with the capacity to unleash the sort of storm that could strangle a settlement.

As he started to move on from the sea into deeper portions of Claudette’s image, Randidly began to notice the drawbacks of his current Enhanced Obsession. He hadn’t engaged in any strenuous changes; mostly Randidly had been adding details to vague concepts in the periphery of Claudette’s imagery. But he was reaching the point of mental exhaustion where a throbbing headache would take up residence between his eyes.

I might have increased recovery, but that only takes effect if I pause and give myself a total break, Randidly breathed slowly in and out with his eyes closed, sensing the shift in his mind. And although the experience of time is 30% slower for me, the speed of my brain means that I can burn through my stores of mental energy that much more quickly…

Congratulations! Your Skill the Glittering Leaves of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 368!

Randidly’s lips twitched. Well, its not all bad. At least I’m grinding my mental recovery Skills while I’m here.

One step at a time.

*****

D’min Rrshk carried his father’s corpse across his scaled shoulders as he trudged through the ankle-deep snow. Kirkrik, his little brother who had yet to reach his growth stage, struggled along behind him, carrying D’min’s javelin. After two hours of this trek, both were reaching the ends of their Stamina.

His father’s corpse dragged at him constantly, urging him to collapse. He did his best to ignore that impulse.

His three-toed feet drunkenly swung to position themselves in front of each other, over and over again. D’min glanced upward to distract himself. Snow continued to drift lightly down, erasing the details of their task. At this point, the chill had seeped into his bones. This storm. If not for this storm, our defenses would have held… could the Calamity influence the weather…?

“Will the Central Hatchery be safe?” Kirkrik asked anxiously, for the sixth time since they had set off from the runes of their prior Hatchery. Which the monsters had transformed into a butchery.

D’min nodded solemnly. To acknowledge any other destination but sanctuary was to surrender to the cold, to allow the corpse of his father to die without being returned to the warm embrace of the Patron of the Sun. “Our brood’s sacrifice at the hands of these Calamity monsters was to ensure that the Central Hatchery remained untouched… it is a tragedy. But we have served a greater purpose.”

We have served a greater purpose. Those were the words spoken to the Lizakh by the Patron of the Sun. Saying them now, D’min felt as though he had swallowed the bitter gallbladder of a desert viper. Especially consider the line that generally followed.

Individual life is meaningless.

“But how much longer?” Kirkrik asked. He was forced to lower D’min’s javelin and allow the butt of the weapon to dragon along the ground, leaving a small rut in the snow. His arms were trembling, either from exertion or the cold. “We have been walking for hours…”

“Soon,” D’min whispered through dry lips. He could not bear to meet Kirkrik yellow eyes, lest his brother sense the lie.

The one benefit of the cold was that D’min’s wounds had long ceased bothering him. He had not been able to escape unscathed when the Sky Otters had used the storm as cover to raid their hatchery.

The foes of the Lizakh had apparently ridden high on the storm and then glided down with the worse of the snow. The Sky Otters’ wickedly sharp claws had eviscerated their guard posts, allowing their companions to sneak closer on the ground. By the time alarm had been raised, at least a hundred of the gluttons had been amongst the juveniles, disabling them and snacking on their small organs.

If D’min had any spare energy, he would be angry. But he did not have anything to spare.

The attack hadn’t even been a surprise; violence was common between the different species of monsters utilized by the Nexus to hone the images of lesser planets. They fought for territory and influence, so they could gather power to truly strike a blow at the native populations. The Lazakh in particular fought because every life they took was a sacrifice to the Patron of the Sun, who would someday return to the apex of the Nexus. And when that hallowed individual ascended, they would return and bring the LIzakh out of these hellish battlefields.

D’min raised his eyes and glanced around. They walked along the highest point of a stone ridge, but the constant snow softened the edges of the horizon and rubbed away at his understanding of their position. Exhaustion and blood loss made the experience even more confusing. With the screen of frozen white particles drawn across them, all of the canyons in the surrounding area looked the same.

One of them housed the hatchery that they were seeking. But D’min could not distinguish which was the correct path. And if he remained exposed in the cold for much longer…

Kirkrik… could you carry both myself and father…? D’min thought sadly. He shook his head. It was impossible.

Skreeeeee!

Both of the Lizakh brothers froze and straightened. They would recognize that noise anywhere: it was the call of the Sky Otters that had slaughtered their family.

D’min adjusted his grip on his father’s body and then reached to snatch his javelin from Kirkrik. The noise had spurred one sluggish pulse of adrenaline through his veins. “Follow. Observe the surroundings before you reveal yourself.”

Then the lizardman planted his foot and sprinted, believing in his heart that this would be his last crusade to harvest life for the Patron of the Sun.