Cerulean chuckled. His image spun more densely around himself, violence and superiority forged into truth. He always enjoyed this reveal, the movement where he displayed the capability to subdue even himself. A power that transcended his original identity and could stand on its own.

It amused him how horrified most were by his choices. By the resolve that had made it possible to control the trajectory of his life. As though they also hadn’t committed horrible crimes in order to accumulate power. If anything, Cerulean should be praised for his selflessness. Both literally and because his actions exacted the price for his power from his own body, not from those weaker than he.

Yet now was not the time for him to educate this Nether King regarding his well-reasoned life philosophy. It was time to drink that heady nectar of victory, shattering this foe and claiming his power for a trophy. His emotions quivered in anticipation.

All he had to do now was to drag the trick out of the Nether King and break it over his knee.

Bleak Sky growled and twisted, turning to look at Cerulean’s clone which spread his claws and churned the meat of his chest. Or rather it was Cerulean’s original personality, broken and domesticated by the image he wished himself to be. Due to the unique nature of what he had taken from himself, this power could exist outside of his body, unlike that of the other trophies. It could even utilize trophies on its own. While his foe was distracted, Cerulean drew on the experience of the Violet Spear.

His body cut through the intervening distance, even as Bleak Sky managed to force back the clone. Blood gushed out of the deep wound on his chest even as Cerulean cackled and rammed his violet spear into the other side of the Nether King’s body, worsening his wounds. He released a hungry blast of his image-enhanced Predation, but the Nether King managed to shrug it off and staggered sideways. The being flared Desolate Horizon, adding extra pressure to the dozen or so meters directly around him.

Cerulean gnashed his teeth in annoyance, but he wasn’t too bothered by the drawn-out struggle. Nether Kings were always difficult to put down, but Bleak Sky took this stubbornness to the extreme. Although Cerulean had ripped the flesh of his body over and over again, those wounds easily healed.

However, with blood flowing almost constantly from his body and most of his Nether tied up in maintaining the influence of Desolate Horizon, Bleak Sky’s defenses were extremely low. His energy was being pulled in too many ways. Cerulean cackled and struck at that vulnerability. “Erode Essence!”

The flaws inflicted in the Domain by himself and Nether King Hungry Eye were enough to slip a genuine attack through. The concentrated viciousness Cerulean wielded rushed through the small gap and slammed into Bleak Sky’s body. The Nether King stiffened, his Nether Core enduring the force of the attack directly. After a teetering moment of struggle, Desolate Horizon collapsed. Beak Sky took two steps back.

The grey sky shattered and darkness flooded back into the area.

Small tongues of flame fluttered down from the Nether King’s defensive aura and fizzled out against the ground. His bald head seemed damp with nervous sweat. The tight grip he had maintained on his Nether finally loosened. Power churned and frothed in the area; Cerulean took advantage of that to spread his image and imprint it on the surrounding space.

“We both know this is not your limit. Will you reveal your Authority now, or shall I push you even further?” Cerulean jeered. When Bleak Sky swayed without responding, his cruel glee multiplied in his chest. The other Cerulean circled around, preparing to engage in a pincer strike at the shaky foe. “Yes, this is how it needs to be. Refuse me until the end. Only then will obtaining your trophy be fulfilling. Fatal Predation.”

“...” Bleak Sky didn’t speak. His gaunt eyes just followed Cerulean’s movements. One Cerulean struck from the side, the other from the front. One began its attack with violet spear while the other leapt and slashed, only both for switching their methods of assault at the last second. Both attacks sunk into the Nether King’s body. He wasn’t able to defend either. Hunger surged in Cerulean’s chest. He felt the hooks of his Fatal Predation digging into the weakened Nether King, ready to rip out a trophy-

Tsk-ing, Cerulean squashed his emotions and leapt backward. His clone also complied; the two had risen to their current capability by believing the information fed to them by their instincts. And right now, Nether King Bleak Sky felt dangerous.

Deadly even.

“This… is not your authority,” Cerulean said slowly. “You… choose the path of an apostate? Well, I suppose one such as you would not care for the lives of those who have given you Phaea.”

Strange aqua ripples spread out from Bleak Sky’s body. Without the constant half-light of Desolate Horizon, the effect because even more eye-catching. The area seemed to have been dragged down to the bottom of the sea, with eerie illumination and strange echoes. Still, Cerulean didn’t dare underestimate this shift. To become apostate, a Nether King had to sever all of his connections, inverting them and extracting the power of his supporters.

Those waves of Nether moved slowly and totally annihilated any gains Cerulean had made on influencing the surrounding environment. IT was Nether, purified until it didn’t even resemble its original form.

Once the choice to become an apostate king was made, the Arbiter itself would hunt down the Nether King and slaughter them for their crimes. Even when being threatened with hundreds of years of incarceration, Bleak Sky hadn’t chosen to become apostate king in the past.

“Most of those unfortunate enough to enter into Phaea with me have already died. Few will suffer, and those who will have made their peace with my choices long ago.” Nether King Bleak Sky grunted. The aqua pulses grew more and more powerful. That refined Nether burned with power. The ground on which he stood began to mutate from exposure.

Cerulean frowned with genuine irritation. The two blues clashed in the air, their auras struggling with each other. His was pushed back in every point of contact. “If your supporters have already died, your power must be weak. Why draw the ire of your people now for a meaningless display? Just utilize your Authority. I wish to taste the power I will carve from your corpse. Truth be told, I’ve never taken a trophy from a Nether King before. Usually, they are too weak to bother.”

As he had for their entire fight, Bleak Sky didn’t even bother to respond to the provocation. Instead, he raised his hand and gathered the aqua light into an orb in his palm. The refined Nether congealed into an ectoplasm. The Nether King studied Cerulean with hollow eyes. Despite his wounds and torn clothes, he seemed positively regal. “You… truly don’t understand the slightest thing about the Nether people. Well, drown in your own stupidity.”

Bleak Sky flicked the orb forward. At first, Cerulean narrowed his focus and prepared to overcome this orb with raw power. He gathered all of his might into his body and allowed his desire to hunt and consume the entire universe to manifest itself. The intensity of his image reached toward the sky. However…

…the orb moved almost comically slowly. It meandered forward at only half a meter a second, gliding serenely forward. With a snort, Cerulean flickered to the side and dashed past the orb. It didn’t attempt to follow him. He reached out to touch his will to the clone of himself, to coordinate his attack, and started.

Cerulean looked forward. He stood in his original position, the orb sliding toward him. The heavy Nether in the orb curled space and time, drawing everything back into place. In a way, such a strike was inevitable. The connection to the clone had somehow been cut. In fact, nothing existed around him. Malloon, the Nether Ritual, and even Bleak Sky himself had all vanished. All that remained was the orb.

“Such disrespect…!” Cerulean hissed. The blue flames around his body swelled to almost twice their normal size. He was determined to devour this strange strike of an apostate Nether King and understand it.

*****

Randidly hissed in displeasure as Bleak Sky unleashed the prodigious amount of Nether and attacked Cerulean. His Nether Core struggled to neutralize the waves of significance heading toward Sulfur. A strange barrier emerged around the orb and the target, one Randidly wasn’t able to peer through even as he folded his awareness over and over again. However, he had bigger problems.

What the hell is this Nether?

Bleak Sky remained in the same spot he had been standing, although he withered and collapsed like a spent tube of toothpaste once he released the concentrated aqua light. However, the massive Nether Ritual continued to churn. The dense storm of significance swirled above the city of Malloon, coming closer every moment. From his moment of insight into the Nether Ritual and Neveah’s rapid research into its activities, the Nether Ritual would finish in the next two minutes. With Cerulean out of the picture, it seemed a foregone conclusion the Nether Ritual would be completed.

Randidly urged his skyislands again, forcing them to speed across the sky and escape the area of Malloon. With the Desolate Horizon Domain destroyed, their speed had increased. But even so, Randidly had no idea how he should think about the area of fallout around an event like this. I can use the Alchemist’s Passport to move away quickly… but so many will die. I don’t…

Shit, do I need to intervene directly? Against three Nether Kings, Seize will have a hard time slowing the Nether Ritual down for long. Even if I destabilize it from within with the trap I built into the weather modulation pattern-

But should I be changing the past in the first place? Will it matter? These memories-

“Shit,” Randidly whispered to himself. He still had a headache from understanding the core functions of the Nether Ritual. His body ached from being exposed to the Wither authority and given enough time to heal. A part of him trembled with anxiety as Sulfur continued its fight toward a powerful evolution. He sucked in a long breath through his nose and released the breath just as slowly.

He had to make a decision. How much was he willing to sacrifice to save Malloon?

However, before his emotions could work out their turmoil, the air rippled and suddenly the distinct image of Cerulean flared in the air. The raptor construct spared a single glance for the collapsed Bleak Sky then sneered up at the massive Nether Ritual. “Heh, this was supposed to destroy us? Not enough. Not close enough. Erode Essence.”

He unleashed a powerful blast of concentrated image, not with a concrete shape but with a distinctly anti-Nether focus. The Nether Ritual was massive enough to barely slow even when impacted with the projectile, but the three Nether Kings turned and glared at Cerulean. And into that space, a small, goblin-ish old woman appeared by the raptor construct.

“Sinner’s Folly,” She croaked out.

With a horrifying rumble, one of the pillars of the woven Nether Ritual wrenched itself sideways with such force that it tore itself off of its place and separated from the Nether Ritual. Randidly swore and threw himself in front of the tide of Nether before it could impact Sulfur.