The Fake Nether Prince slowly began to collapse, the energy hollowed out by the force of Randidly’s power. His breath began to quicken. He didn’t have any plan, but Randidly followed his intuition.

Somehow, he fiercely wished to protect the world inside of the memory from his crushing presence. With the same intensity he encouraged Padraic, he now gathered up his significance to an inarticulable goal.

He began weaving rapid patterns around the memory to relieve external pressure. The tether that had brought him here continued to pulse with power; this he flooded with as much significance as he could manage. When it slowed the collapse but didn’t stop the memory's disintegration entirely, Randidly’s eyes scanned the surroundings.

A small smile curled on his lips. His wild resolve began to resonate with his Fatepieces, all connecting back to his main Fate, the Paradox of the Alchemist. He burned with the desire to protect this dying memory. “If my connection isn’t enough, I’ll just prop it up with others.”

Wild impulses came at him faster and faster. He fixated upon this need to protect the alternate rendition of the memory he had entered. Strangely, he hoped Padraic had found the bravery to try and fail without fear. He hoped the young Devick saw an adult go to bat to protect her autonomy.

Randidly’s attention turned to the nearby connections. He wove reinforcements into the air around them, trying to tie the collapse fake Nether Prince to those in the surroundings more directly. His Nether Core whirled and whirled, suddenly liberated from the limits on its capabilities within the memory and very eager to demonstrate its true power.

Gradually, the collapse slowed. More and more connections around the memory began to activate, tethers of energy that went to god knows where. A strange tightness started to emerge in Randidly’s chest, a reaction to the resonance within his Fate. His eyes narrowed. This feeling is-

Celebrations! Your Attribute Muse’s Reverie has increased to 3/5! Continue to chase dreams and seek the impossible!

The notification flipped a switch. Randidly shivered, the tightness in his body evaporated. The gathered resonance began a force that leapt from a metaphysical sensation within his Soulspace and became a genuine force. A seed of fire erupted from the fake Nether Prince, racing along the connections and spreading at an incredible speed. Randidly felt his significance being sucked away more quickly than he could replace it.

The fire shot outward in every direction, impacting other Nether Princes, then exploding from there. Randidly’s eyes widened as the inferno spread. After five seconds, the surrounding layer was entirely revealed, the fake memories swirling with light.

Ten seconds later, Randidly looked up in wonder, suspended in the middle of a wild, celestial nebula. Each memory a star, each connection a dimmer line of radiance connecting them. The sheer volume of memories and connections made the whole tableau glittering and brilliant. Randidly stared upward and felt like he could see the top of the Sonara.

Then the light began to fade. The depletion of his significance slowed. His breaths still came quickly, feeling extremely drained by the sudden shift. And perhaps worst of all, he thought about the bitter expression on young Devick’s face on the balcony.

Here, suspended amongst the memories, he felt a deep, exhausting sense of loneliness.

Randidly blinked several times and tried to focus on other things to clear away his moodiness.. I… caused Muse’s Reverie to activate? Making the impossible possible, dealing in dreams… I suppose it’s quite similar to what this top portion of the Sonara is supposed to do. But I wonder… what did I do? What did I just spread throughout these memories?

It does look like the tethers are a bit stronger but other than that…

As he gradually recovered, as the Nether Prince in front of him began to heal, Randidly looked at the memory with a strange fondness. He wondered if the individuals would live entire lives in the isolated little sphere or whether there were limits. In the end, he hadn’t actually been able to learn much about Elhume and his early life; Randidly had gotten tied up in local developments, meeting a young Devick, the infuriating Padraic, and two genuine Nether Kings.

He released a sigh. Obviously, I was just within a memory, like the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night. My efforts adjusted how the memory proceeded, but it didn’t change history. I just hope… haaah.

Randidly reached up a finger and pressed it against the memory. It remained elastic to him, not allowing him to sink into it once more. Considering how he left it, he didn’t attempt to force the issue. He looked around at the tight currents of energy pushing and pulling. Now he just needed to go on to the next memory.

Hopefully, it would be more fruitful.

He had learned a few things from his first experience. The tethers had various meanings he could make use of. He concentrated on his inner desire for information, which highlighted many spreading lines of significance from his body. Luckily for him, the densest and most promising was also one of the shortest; he would not need to pass through too many layers to make it to the memory.

Once he focused on the tether, he pulled himself rapidly through the swirling void. Truly, this next memory was extremely close. Within five minutes, he had arrived. Compared to the previous memory, this one was much smaller and less complex. Randidly frowned at it, then shrugged. “Well, I trust the tether. Let’s see… what asking for information from the universe will get me.”

He pressed his hand against the memory. A ripple spread out. Just like that, he was in.

Immediately, Randidly gratefully noticed his revving Nether Core’s efforts remained. Right now the memory was solid and he felt like he could use almost six pinches of Nether without damaging that balance and ending up in the buzzing hell that the last memory had become. The more memories he sifted through, the more unbound he could become.

But for now, he would start with this one.

He looked around and felt confused; he was in a small hut that belonged to an extremely poor family. It was a single-room dwelling that smelled of sweat. A cold and empty fireplace dominated one side of the room, with a low wooden table against the opposite wall. In between, furs were piled together to form very basic bedding.

Randidly stiffened as he looked around; he wasn’t alone in the room.

A young Nether Warrior peeked up out of the furs, his eyes wide with fear. He was probably only as large as a preteen human, all skinny arms and sharp knees. From his sunken cheeks, he also hadn’t had a meal in quite a while. The two regarded each other, both obviously very confused by the other's presence.

Randidly chewed on the inside of his cheek. But the real question is probably not who this is, but who they are going to be. And why did grasping at information bring me here? The connection felt so strong-

Even as he finished that thought, the air in the cottage began to whirl in strange patterns. The boy’s eyes changed, becoming deep, unfathomable pools. He pushed himself up out of the furs and brushed off a skinny shoulder. “Apologies for luring you here, Randidly Ghosthound. But this is one of the only safe places we could speak. And do not worry, I will provide you with a satisfactory amount of information in exchange. Not about the past, but about the present.”

Randidly took a step back. He recognized the being that had descended into the body in front of him. The entire vibe of the room began to shift. Clammy sweat began to form on the back of his neck. “You… you’re the Nether King. The one running freely around the modern Nexus. The one who made a deal with Don Beigon.”

“The one you freed from the frontlines, yes,” The boy smiled. Then he gestured to himself, almost self-deprecatingly. “As you can see, my origins are actually quite humble. We are not so different, you and I. Can I offer you some refreshment? Water or fruit juice, perhaps?”

“What do you want to talk about?” Randidly’s tension steadily climbed. From the patterns the small boy released, he could tell how difficult it would be for him to win in a fight against this Nether King. Especially with his power restricted.

The boy raised his fingers and started tracing loose patterns that became Nether Rituals, almost accidentally, as they drifted from his active digits. Little prayers for luck, warmth, and happiness tucked themselves into the substance of the walls. “We want the same thing, do we not, Mr. Ghosthound? For the reign of the Nexus’s current ruler to come to an end. For the parallel universe to return to the main one, without the isolated space collapsing with so much force even the strongest of us are annihilated.”

The Nether King in his younger body pointed at his chest. “I have information, but I do not have access to the upper Sonara like you do; your actions have demolished its connection to the outside world. You will likely be the first and last person to move through this pointlessly maudlin effort here. And doing so with purpose will be very important.”

“Why?” Randidly asked.

“There is only one way to defeat Elhume, in his current form,” The Nether King looked Randidly straight in the eyes. His eyes still had that almost hypnotizing sense of depth. “To have at least tasted the Pinnacle. Without that piece, the foe is invincible. And, as I always assumed… the Path to the Pinnacle is blocked. Not just with defenses, but it is legitimately a dead end; the portal that opens to assist in the ascent is a trap.”

“Sounds like Elhume,” Randidly said shortly. Then he frowned. “Does this mean… he somehow prevented anyone from being able to ascend to the Pinnacle?”

“That would be impossible,” The Nether King said. “Some things are inevitable, just as someone like you was. If the Path to the Pinnacle was entirely blocked, another path would form; it is the way of the universe. So it is much more likely that the true Path to the Pinnacle is hidden somewhere else within the Nexus. Considering the timeline, there may be some clues in these memories. So track down Elhume while you are passing through the layers and see if you can learn anything.”

“And attract his attention?” That put Randidly’s teeth on edge.

The Nether King smiled genuinely at Randidly, his youthful features almost managing to cover up the monstrous power that currently inhabited him. “Heh. You are unnerved by my presence here, through my intermediary. You assume our foe will do the same. Well, it is possible. But I think you both underestimate my abilities… and also the damage you have done to the Sonara. The entire construction rumbles with the growing cacophony of fractious image fragments. It roars above the Nexus, a dying beast panting out its final breaths. Without the fineness of the connection between myself and the past, even I would miss your brushes with memories of me.”

Randidly just looked at the Nether King.

The boy shrugged. “As I said, I can do very little to convince you of my goodwill. We both want a change. I bring you here to say it will be impossible without at least locating the true Path. You have long sought a blade, to strike at the monster atop the Nexus? I will be that blade. But my own efforts to find the Path to the Pinnacle have been fruitless. I need your assistance.”

Randidly stilled, trying to judge the Nether King in front of him. The patterns he wielded remained unfathomable and complex, so simple and yet so meaningful. Even through the frame of his humble origins, his power and influence were obvious. And Randidly didn’t forget for a second he had been making deals with Don Beigon. At the one he witnessed, for a Nexus Citizenship Coin fabricator, but he doubted that was the extent of the arrangements.

Randidly was growing constantly stronger, but there were a few remaining figures that still made him cautious. This Nether King was one of them.

“If you reached the Pinnacle, what would you do?” Randidly asked on a whim. The question was the best litmus test of the Nether King’s intent he could think of.

The Nether King laughed again, but this time it wasn’t the innocent giggle of a child. This was an expression the Grey Creature recognized intimately, the vicious glee of a survivor about to achieve his revenge. “I would slay the child Pine. Or rather, sunder the corpse, perhaps. We are maggots trapped in a corpse, dreaming of liberation, Randidly Ghosthound. Do you not wonder what else we could be, outside of the Nexus?”