The ending was inevitable, they were just two people surging toward its transformative entanglement.

Why resist the inevitable?

Why not... embrace it?

Devick sat up with a gasp, in her dream only an inch from her lips pressing against Hungry Eyes’. For a moment she looked around in a confused daze, no longer surrounded by the bodies of the slain foes the Nether King had defeated to claim her as his own. Strands of her tangled hair kept getting into her eyes and mouth as clarity crept back. Disappointment and amusement warred in her chest; for a while, she had been completely lost in the dream.

It had been nice to drift without worries for a bit.

She looked around. She squeezed the comfortable leather of the couch on which she lay. The piece of furniture was plush and luxurious enough she instinctively squeezed again. Her eyes drifted across the cluttered shelves that covered the opposite wall, filled with glittering brass objects, ancient tomes, and well-sculpted awards. Light filtered in through wide windows to Devick’s left. She heard birds chirping.

Huh, Devick was suddenly very conscious of the dried blood on her hands and face, her mud-covered dirty gremlin-self dirtying the expensive feeling furniture beneath her. Maybe I died? Mmm, truly, what unending torment! To think I am cursed to an existence in lavish comfort, but forced to dream every night of Hungry Eye’s amorous eyes, just a split second away from our carnal communion! I-

“Good, you are awake. The Ghosthound is busy at the moment, but if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to make a request,” Opposite the windows, a striking woman with hazel eyes looked up from a desk. From the casual set of her shoulders and the intensity of her gaze, Devick immediately wanted to slip inside this woman’s skin and fucking be her. She owned the entire room, and as far as Devick’s instincts could ascertain, quite a bit of the area around it. The woman gestured to the side. “This automaton has been assigned to you. It’s name-”

“BA Zethusala, Madams,” A brass anthropoid stepped forward and bowed. Devick could hear the soft clicking of its interior gears. Beautiful bits of writing flared and slithered across its body before fading away. “I am at your service.”

“Zethusala can provide you with everything you need. Due to your relationship with the Ghosthound, you can be considered my special guest. I would like to give you greater context for what’s happening, but for now, it is enough that you understand that you are safe within a special zone maintained by… Nether King Hungry Eye, as you know him. Now,” The woman shuffled some papers into a neat stack and stood. “I am hosting a silly meeting to placate fools. In the meantime, try not to cause any trouble.”

“Uh.” Devick blinked. Her dirty hand squeezed the couch again. “Of course.”

The woman gave her a sharp look as she walked past, but nodded. She opened the door to the room and each stilettoed heel produced an echoing click. Waiting outside was a massive ogre wearing tiny glasses, who bowed and followed after the influential woman as she proceeded serenely forward. He began reading notes off a ledger to the woman, but his voice was cut off as the door clicked shut behind her.

Devick now sat alone in the office with the brass being Zethusala. When she looked at it, the metal automaton bowed again.

She scratched her cheek, her mind spinning. The monstrous darkness given to her by Homewell’s Lifeseal slithered up and peered out from a perch on Malice’s shoulder. It couldn’t comprehend the casual opulence it witnessed inside of this room.

Devick resolved that someday, she would own her own intimidating desk and brood across its important expanse at lesser individuals. For a while she toyed with half-formed ideas for silly, pseudo-important sounding titles. She waited for a bit, unsure of what she should do. The birds continued chirping out the window. When Devick realized that she really had simply been left here to her own devices, she got up and wandered to the window.

What she saw outside took her breath away. Her pupils dilated. “Wow. All this… was this made by Nether King Hungry Eye?”

Zethusala emitted several rapid clicks. “I am unfamiliar with this term, but based on the context used by Lady Tatiana, if Nether King Hungry Eye is a moniker of Randidly Ghosthound, Progenitor of the Alpha Cosmos, yes. Kharon and many of its surrounding Skyislands were personally created by the Ghosthound. Even my people owe their genesis to deviations of some of his visionary Engraving patterns.”

The vision out through the window came to Devick in layers. Close up, several grey sparrows fluttered back and forth just on the edge of a nearby pondering gargoyle. Beyond that, the glittering city lay, all tall buildings and shining glass windows. People could be seen marched across the roofs and connections between the various buildings. Above that was a strange series of interlocking rivers of traffic. Beings flew on vehicles varying from small scraps of wood to rectangular boxes of metal as large as a room. Individuals sometimes curled off from the general traffic and swooped down through the layered sky, but mostly all contributed to an ever-shifting, mesmerizing series of patterns.

Sunbeams glittered and refracted from the constant whirl of motion.

And looming above the strange skyline of buildings and flying individuals were several floating chunks of land, orbiting around the city. At this distance, it was impossible to tell what occurred on these other skyislands, but they were larger and busier than the ones made by Hungry Eye around Malloon. Devick’s mind spun as she tried to conceptualize how many people orbited around this strange city.

“Randidly… Ghosthound.” Devick whispered to herself, trying out the shape of the name. She raised her gaze even further and paused. She pointed. “What’s that?”

“That is the subject of Lady Tatiana’s current meeting,” Zethusala hummed. “It is a recent development of unknown origin. Considering both its ominous nature and its appearance only ten minutes ago, it is believed to be caused by the Ghosthound himself. Although some others whisper that this is finally another Calamity coming for Expira.”

Devick looked on in wonder. A hole had been punctured in the sky. Color and light ran out the edges and flowed into it, like a drain. Which left an ominous dark absence in the sky, hanging opposite the sun in the sky.

“Astronomers have confirmed that the phenomenon has replaced Expira’s moon,” Zethusala continued. “As far as experts can tell, its presence or lack thereof hasn’t had any ill effects on the tides. So for now, it just becomes a grumbling point for those who distrust the Ghosthound. The various Zones have gathered their defensive forces, but no foes have materialized.”

Devick’s skin prickled as she frowned. In her chest, Malice roused itself out of its recuperation and drew back its lips. “They are targeting him here?”

“Of course not. At this point, even the most staunchly oppositional parties have accepted it is impossible and dangerous to try and remove his influence. They will simply use this as a political gambit, to sway the population into support of some of their other policies. Do you have any more questions?” Zethusala paused and emitted a rapid series of clicks as he did some rapid calculations. Its excitement was apparent. “I must say, I admire your interest in human politics. It was my favorite subject during integration training.”

Devick opened her mouth and closed it twice in a row. Honestly, she had dozens of questions, ranging from what sort of space this truly was, to more information about Hungry Eye, and finally background data on that stately woman who had just left. However, as her mind combed through all the myriad strange details of the environment around her, she surprised herself by blurting out. “You aren’t wearing robes!”

To his credit, BA Zethusala nodded without acknowledging the strangeness of the question. “Indeed. Some BAs have suggested we begin wearing decency coverings, but we cannot agree on the body parts that should be covered. Are robes common from your planet?”

“Everyone needs to wear robes. For whatever reason, it has become a political issue.” Devick replied, her mind wandering to the tightly cinched waist of the powerful woman, the way her skirts flared out flatteringly around her hips. Her Grand Fate and Malice spoke quietly to each other in fractured impressions, agreeing that additional investigation into this matter was warranted. She cleared her throat. “Could you… show me the seamstresses of this place? Do you know what sort of clothes Hungry… Randidly Ghosthound would like?”

Zethusala tilted his head to the side. “I have very little information I can provide on this matter. However, a close personal acquaintance, BA Motet, specializes in weaving patterns and fashion. I will contact him. In addition, Lady Tatiana has a significant portion of discretionary funds remaining for the month; there should be no problem in procuring you some physical samples with which to experiment.”

*****

Randidly felt blood spurt from between his shoulder blades, even as he forced the grin to linger on his lips. The grey waves of significance that Deganawidah dragged behind him finally battered aside the Dread Homunculus and began to carve a path through Randidly’s body. His two defensively aimed images finally collapsed.

Uncommon Metabolism and Egg’s Illusory Plume slowed the significance’s charge for his core, but the former was only an Uncommon Rarity Stat and the latter drew its power from the now-defunct Stillborn Phoenix. Nether hacked and tore to clear a path. The muscles of his back tightened, squeezing the wounds closed before the next wave arrived.

However, Randidly knew he now lingered on borrowed time.

On the other side of this conflict, the Songstress of Absence wept and consumed with her vast and hollow song. Sorrow sprinkled through her silent ballads added power, so that each time she opened her mouth the significance within Deganawidah vanished, the way a concentrated beam of light scared away shadows. The Monster’s Nether Core remained strong, yet his surrounding Soulspace began to seriously suffer. The blurring of the environment began to fade, revealing the two to be standing still in the corpse of Cerulean’s wrecked camp, locked in a deadly embrace.

Congratulations! Your Skill Siren’s Dirge of Bottomless Taking (P) has grown to Level 879!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Diffracted Corruption of the Avarous Impossibility (P)(U) has grown to Level 1021!

Congratulations! Your Skill Siren’s Dirge of Bottomless Taking (P) has grown to Level 903!

Randidly’s head throbbed as the two attempted to lay waste to each other. Neither hesitated as they twisted and controlled their respective energies to ravage the other. Narrowing his eyes through a particularly painful impact, Randidly considered his options. He cradled in his pained psyche a fist full of willpower, to be thrown behind either the defense effort or the Songstress of Absence.

He looked in Deganawidah's wide eyes and golden teeth, all stuffed into the Nether Monster’s egg-shaped body. So much of the core areas of both of their powers had been stripped away. They could peer into each other's secrets and weaknesses.

What he saw didn’t quite manage to surprise him: Randidly could see Deganawidah’s hidden Penance, tucked away in the farthest reaches of his power. Deganawidah could see that the only cards remaining to Randidly were his Authorities, and both understood how little they would be able to accomplish against Deganawidah.

Distant shouts from the other fighting between Aether and Nether drifted to their position, but their focuses didn’t waver.

Randidly felt a sinking feeling in his chest. His emotional sea had shallowed from the constant act of empowering his images. A defense right now would not see him through this confrontation: Deganawidah might be similarly damaged at the moment, but that’s because Randidly’s attacks came from inside, while Deganawidah had to smash through his body.

But just as Randidly was about to throw his last bit of vicious concentration toward the Singularity of the Inhospitable Depths, to inflict as much damage as possible, a development outside their fatal dance drew both Randidly and Deganawidah’s attention.

The light from the Lifeseal dimmed as so much of its power concentrated into a floating orb above the city of Homewell. It glittered in the sky for a moment, different energies contorting and tumbling inside like a lava lamp. Gleeful bolts of cobalt lightning danced across the surface of the blast, hinting at where Cerulean had fled. With a rumbling crack, the orb popped and avalanched down across the sky, an enormously impressive quantity of energy exploding out like a collapsing mountain, aiming to wipe out the lion’s share of the Nether Warriors that marched toward the city.

Deganawidah shifted his attention and Randidly could feel his reaction humming through his bones. A tragic loss of life. But more will be. They always are.

Deganawidah shifted back. Randidly felt sweat beads beginning to form on the back of his neck.