Demetrius began to grow slightly bored with extended observation of Hobfootie, but he didn’t say anything due to the intensity with which the Nether King watched the remainder of the match. To his eye, it was mostly bloodsport; a cathartic release of tension that the Aether people held due to their uncertain footing in the world. Around the area they were sitting, too many individuals had something very like madness in their eyes as they screamed and bellowed at the ongoing violence before them.

Knees were pulped by crushers. The Arakis Beast beheaded an unsuspecting individual, a rare injury that even the standby staff couldn’t heal. The game continued without pause. The crowd hooted and shouted.

After about ten minutes, the red team began to quickly isolate and knock out the blue team players. The score spiraled out of control, all while the Arakis Beast lazily thundered around and knocked out anyone not paying attention. Without much tension, red team won 73 to 21.

The Nether King excused himself and vanished almost as soon as the match was over. From his conflicted expression, perhaps he hadn’t enjoyed it very much at all. Yet the departure was a clear implied dismissal. Demetrius watched him flee, wondering what business the Nether King had that Demetrius couldn’t witness.

“Excuse me.”

Demetrius was suddenly aware of how quiet it had become in the area around him. He pivoted and saw, standing only a few meters away, the young woman with long crimson hair that had led the red team to such a complete victory. Behind her stood a tall Lizakh warrior in a suit of armor, releasing the sort of ominous pressure that only came with a Class and a related, powerful image. The other fans jostled in the surroundings, quiet and wide-eyed, trying to figure out what was happening and why this woman sought out a Nether Herald.

Her eyes scanned the surroundings then fixated back on Demetrius with an awkward smile. “This might be a strange question, but were you here with a Nether King during the match?”

“Yes, Nether King Hungry Eye,” Demetrius replied cautiously. Looking at the Lizakh warrior again, he felt his instincts warning him: this was not a foe to take lightly. His eyes went back to the young woman and felt slightly bewildered. Obviously, she was a talented player on a rising Hobfootie team, and much of the Aether population was weirdly obsessed with the bloody sport, but she didn’t seem so transcendent to require this powerful of a guard. For the first time, Demetrius wished she had been wearing a robe, so he could understand her affiliations.

He cleared his throat lightly. “...do you know Nether King Hungry Eye?”

A sad, self-deprecating smile came across the young woman’s face. Her features were expressive and lively, even with a sheen of sweat from the match. “Hah… this is complicated to explain. But… do you believe in love at first sight?”

“What?” Demetrius gaped. It wasn’t just him, either; a lot of the people standing around also seemed shocked by her words. The Lizakh warrior’s sharp eyes flicked to the young woman. His solemn image twitched slightly

She shrugged and laughed. Then she tapped the shoulder of her guardian and began to beat a quick retreat through the crowd. “I’m sorry, that was a foolish thing to say to a stranger. But hell, I’d rather be a woman who speaks my mind than one that lives with regrets. Anyway, nice to meet you. And thank all of you for the support today.”

With the star player gone, the crowd of people eventually dispersed. Demetrius remained in place, half because he was trying to consider whether an Aether being could love a Nether being and half because his black robes earned him some surly looks from certain individuals, now that the distraction of the match had ceased. If he moved without consideration, he would be isolated and jumped.

He sighed to himself. Could Hungry Eye have sensed the significance in her gaze, even before she came over to say something? I suppose him fleeing makes sense if he wanted to avoid unnecessary attention for his activities… Haaah. But now I need to kill some time before he comes and finds me again…

His eyes eventually landed on the Arakis Beast, which was lazing around the center of the field and chomping down on Ara Fruits while its handlers cleaned blood off its claws and spiked tail. Demetrius straightened and began to descend from the stands. Since he had some examples in his interspatial ring, he might as well offer the Nether King’s Ara Fruits to those who genuinely raised Arakis Beasts.

*****

Randidly sighed and rubbed his cheeks. I feel almost like a coward for running away… but interacting with Devick is just too complicated. If I can avoid it, I’d like to just focus on my efforts here in the memory without involving her again.

Knowing she had the same sort of careless upbringing as I did… God, it would be easier if the current Devick was here. At least then her madness would remind me not to empathize with her.

From the moment their eyes met across the chaotic field of play, a spark of significance had surged between them. Her attempts to bind them together in the future reached back, even into these memories, and created a constant gravity that would pull them together. But whereas the modern Devick had developed enough of her own ‘mass’ to drag him closer, in this interaction Devick was the one drawn helplessly toward him.

Randidly had known she would come seeking him, inexplicably drawn toward him. So he ran.

He walked along the edges of the central market area and found some side tunnels. Unwilling to deal with the constant looks of fear and whispers, Randidly slipped away from the well-trod areas into smaller tunnels that burrowed in every direction. He found a few that led up to an upper area, giving him a small window to look out across the cavern of the market. But even that quickly bored him; he walked deeper into the surrounding cave system.. His mind whirred, trying to understand why Devick would be working as a professional athlete in this memory.

He padded down the uninhabited stone tunnel, his body casting long shadows in front of him as he moved away from the lively market area. His first instinct was that this memory was earlier in time than the previous one, but just from looking at Devick’s physical appearance he could tell that wasn’t the case. The musculature of her body had grown more robust; this must have been a harsh time for her, tempering her into a more capable individual.

Considering the sort of cavalier attitude her adoptive father had toward her and his city, Randidly could understand exactly why. Plus, her significance hadn’t developed into anything worth noting for him, but she had definitely gotten more solid.

Which meant that she hadn’t possessed a Class in the first memory. And still hadn’t obtained one. That thought gave Randidly pause. Actually, this is before the Overlay System was added. Is there a difficult method for obtaining a Class…?

His musings were interrupted by a sense of pressure against the side of his face. Randidly took a few more steps forward to stand in the middle of a crossroads of tunnels and looked down the most cramped and narrow. Even from just looking, he got a strong and inexplicable sense that he shouldn’t go down this path. His instincts didn’t warn of danger, just a direct aversion.

Randidly showed his teeth and began to walk forward. The Engraving here is sophisticated in powerful if I both can’t see through it and it actually works against me. But when it comes to brute force, I don’t think there is anything that can rival me-

Static crackled against his skin, the Engraving hissing for him to turn back. Randidly kept his head held high and pushed forward. The defenses of the Engraving engaged, but just tore and shattered before him. Begrudgingly it allowed him to pass, its squeezes against him barely strong enough to ruffle his hair.

It almost felt like dragging sandbags, but Randidly’s body was a bit beyond common weight training.

The tunnel began to take several sharp turns. He had to duck under outcroppings and step around leaning ledges of stone. But for each tight turn he took, the brightness in the tunnel increased. Ahead, a bonfire of light seemed to be spilling out and seeping into the surrounding tunnel system. When Randidly finally arrived, he had to blink to adjust to the brightness.

A silence rippled out through the previous frantic combat in the cavern. The only sound was drops of blood falling from one of the harried central figures.

As one, a score of individuals paused in their combat and turned to look at the new arrival. A loud and clear laugh tinkled out from the non-bleeding of the two figures, who had been under the assault of the others. “See, Fi? Didn’t I tell you? All we need to do is hold out and a rescue will come for us. Our fortunes are turning! We may get out of this alive after all.”

Randidly’s eyes widened. The second figure sighed, lowering the dual shortswords he had been wielding to defend himself. He cast a withering glance at the woman beside him. “Seriously, making puns? Look you dumbass, I’m just saying you can’t rely on luck to solve all of your problems. The world does not provide answers. If you want something, you need to take it for yourself-”

“Enough,” A stone-skinned man with folded arms growled out, interrupting the brief spat between allies. His heavy black eyes swiveled to Randidly. “You unfortunate fool. We do the private business of Westrisser, protecting the interests of Malloon. Because you stumbled onto this… you will not be able to leave here alive. Kopal, take him out, and be quick about it.”

Another stone-skinned man began striding toward Randidly, but Randidly’s attention was still fixated elsewhere. The reason Randidly couldn’t look away was that the second figure had a very distinctive set of features: he was a Vulpine with eight tails flicking around behind him. He watched the tails flow behind the foxman as the robed figures began lashing out once more, resembling fireworks in his new energy vision.

Congratulations! Your Skill Tapestry of Ten Thousand Radiances (M) has grown to Level 630!

That’s… the Patron of the Borrowed, Fiero, Randidly released a low breath. His heartbeat quickened; he had finally found a core individual he could use to learn more about Elhume and the important events of the time. His eyes flicked to the smiling, silver-skinned woman with brilliant gold hair. She waved her hands and released soft, rose petal-colored bursts of energy that redirected attacks. Then she…

The group attacking the duo wore robes so brown they looked almost black. However, Randidly’s examination time abruptly ended as Kopal planted his foot and accelerated at him with a genuine burst of speed.

“Unlucky day, you piece of-” Kopal drawled as he raised his fist to crunch in Randidly’s forehead in a rush of velocity. However, Randidly whipped his leg sideways, slamming his shin against the side of the man. To both their surprise, Kopal was flung sideways and crashed into the wall. Randidly lowered his leg, the bone aching from the denseness of his foe’s body.

Randidly’s expression tightened. A genuine body cultivator. And a strong one, too. Well, isn’t this fun?

His eyes flicked sideways. The mahogany-robed individuals were clearly getting impatient, beginning to release pulses of their image. Axe blades chopped down and were barely deflected by Fiero’s shortsword. The Vulpine danced sideways, impossibly graceful, stealing one attack and throwing it back to destabilize another. But from his heavy breathing warned he couldn’t keep this up for much longer.

The mahogany aggressors circled like vultures.

The whole group was more powerful than all of the people Randidly had encountered so far, combined. He studied their images, somewhat impressed. So this is the influence and power of Faelmac Westrisser’s organization. It wasn’t for nothing that he crusaded out of Malloon and burnt an entire Nether city to the ground.

Kopal shoved aside the shattered rocks and growled. “You think this is over? I’m going to squash you like a bug and- guhk!”

Randidly’s knee cracking Kopal’s nose brought a swift end to the vindictive monologue. He stumbled backward holding his face and Randidly landed and adjusted his footing. Blowing a puff of air out through his nose, he whipped Sulfur around and landed a haymaker of a left hook on the temple of the distracted individual.

Sulfur cooed in pleasure from the dense body of the opponent, even as he dropped like the load of bricks that he was. The being’s outer stone skin ruptured beneath the force. Randidly’s senses tingled and he whipped around to face the ambush. He raised his arms to block, following his instincts; across the cavern, the lean individual had his palm pointed toward him with fingers splayed out.

A massive image surged out, with his body as the epicenter. Fiero hissed and hopped backward to stand next to the silver-skinned woman, grasping twice with his hands and creating two spectral tails behind himself with which to form a defensive barrier.

The wave of brown reached Randidly in only a short span of time. That color seeped out and seemed to stain everything. He could observe the flows of energy, but they undulated out and covered the surroundings before he could take any action. The new, mahogany world rumbled and growled.

As the displeasure of an entire world hit him, Randidly gasped. This was a type of image he had seen others do on a smaller scale, but hadn’t experienced from someone truly powerful. It was an image of an alternate world, one where a different set of laws were true.

In this case, an enormous pressure ground against Randidly’s chest. His bones creaked and muscles twitched; even his powerful body began to give ground before the force of this image. No wonder his subordinate had trained his body to such an extent, with a leader able to conjure this strange image world. The grinding force it unleashed at its full power would probably have been able to grind Randidly to dust, eventually.

However, his body could last a few seconds.

And in that time the Grey Creature stirred.