Randidly curled up in the pocket of gravity, warm and comfortable. He became a metaphysical seed planting itself in the essence of the memory world, pushing itself toward germination. Yggdrasil spread out its roots into the environment, drinking down the chaotic fragments of energy left on the battlefield. When those had been completely depleted, the image drank from the ground and sky.

At the moment, the two armies just watched each other. They probably assumed the slight exhaustion that began to seep into their bones was just stress. Any dissipating energy wasn’t missed. And Yggdrasil knew well enough not to take from those capable of noticing.

On the one hand, Randidly knew he was inflicting pretty serious long-term damage on the memory: most substances couldn’t produce, let alone consume, even a fraction of the energy he burned through on a daily basis. The expenditure of even just supporting him back to the point his own engines revved to life would leave an environment crumbling and bleak. A whole new Badlands was being created on the Northeastern side of Homewell, under the armies’ very feet, masked right now by the scars of war. Yet he also possessed Animation Nova. He might take now, but he could replace it later.

That’s how he comforted his conscience, anyway.

Still, he knew this process was necessary; Randidly needed to be back up to full strength as quickly as possible. Movements began in both armies. First in the Aether army, as it prepared to take advantage of Deganawidah’s absence. Then the Nether forces shifted in response, taking defensive positions.

The prolonged period of stillness for Randidly also had the effect of letting the Songstress of Absence adjust to her new form. A vibrant azure gleam settled across the siren’s fin wings, although her skin remained grey and haunted. Her black eyes pulsed and drank in the surrounding light, possessing scraps of the horrifying allure of an event horizon.

A deep wound of frustration and anger had burned in her chest as she discovered herself, but pausing and playing with the Twin Lingering Shadows of Misfortune did a lot to teach her the joys of possessing a physical form, although she was mute. She could play and recuperate, acclimating to the presence of his other images.

The Songstress of Absence would need help as it held his second attempt on the impossible together, after all.

Randidly checked and he could still manifest the event horizon, a herald of the Songstress’s arrival. His chest rose and fell with his breaths. He mentally went through the final preparations for his second attempt and checked off box after box.

He had access to the mechanics of cohort creation.

His Nether Core recovered most of its momentum and could once more wield significance.

He had a powerful image capable of creating a bridge of superposition.

His focus and emotional potency dribbled back to him, his sea filling up as he gathered his own strength and began to purify the dark unconscious flowing into him from the Alpha Cosmos.

Below, the two armies lurched into motion. An elite squad led by the golden-armored Turtleine barreled forward, crashing through the Nether Warriors. Unified images helped forced the Nether forces back, despite their superior numbers. And Randidly finally understand the variable that gave the Aether forces the confidence to attack: the Cult of the Savior had crawled out of its hole and prodded the two back on a collision course.

In his seed state, Randidly glared balefully down across the battlefield. His awareness locked onto the two individuals from the Cult of the Savior, not even bothering to keep his focus slightly adjacent in order to not alert them. He felt a grim thrill of satisfaction as the Scythe twitched as he locked onto them. Yggdrasil’s carrion clicked its teeth, reminiscing about the sensation of ripping into this shadow being’s flesh.

I need the conflict. Yet I hate that I need to allow you to endanger more life to get it, Randidly’s heart ached. He closed his eyes. It was an old quandary, one which had plagued him since the Alpha Cosmos came into existence; how much should he shield his people, how much should he allow them to suffer, for the greater good?

He also would need Lowanna’s assistance later, which made him hesitate. But with Deganawidah clucking around her like a mother hen and Enmya stampeding his way through the milling columns of Nether Warriors, Randidly trusted they would be able to protect her.

Randidly allowed his consciousness to unfocus. Even the imperative seared into him about the limits of the possible became less pressing as he drifted. Gradually, his recovery accelerated. His body hummed with a feeling of fullness he hadn’t had in quite some time as Nether and Aether moved freely within his limbs. His heart beat, his Nether Core whirled. The density of energy ticked upward, improved by the prolonged periods of depletion.

He advanced, inching toward the horrifying capability of those like Deganawidah.

With his mind switched off, all the accumulated physical energies ignited in his person. His three images hummed back to furious life, each burning with a different desire. Yggdrasil sought stability and growth. The Dread Homunuculus turned its fearsome intellect toward what would happen next. And the Songstress of Absence wanted to prove she existed when her physical body didn’t quite make her feel totally real.

If you keep fixating on a certain idealized feeling, you’ll always be digging that hole, The thought drifted across Randidly’s mind, tinged blue with sadness. You don’t feel real by adding some element to your existence, but by accepting it. If you can’t do that-

Yggdrasil smoothed the thought away with a gleaming root, before it could distract the Songstress of Absence. The gleaming emerald canopy creaked back and forth, in imitation of a shook head.

Some lessons an individual needed to discover on their own.

Congratulations! Your Skill the World Tree Sips from Every Realm (T) has grown to 1039!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Aureate Arteries of Yggdrasil has grown to Level 981!

Congratulations! Your Skill the World Tree Sips from Every Realm (T) has grown to Level 1050!

When Randidly came back to himself, Aether forces knifed forward, already deep within the Nether lines. He had probably been unconscious for almost ten minutes, meaning the golden-armored Turtleline with Scythe hovering in his shadow had neared the edges of Deganawidah’s significance.

Now’s the time.

Yggdrasil surged to life, picking up all the broken remnants of attacks and pulling them into a swirling, overwhelming wind that originated from his gravitational seed. His mind buzzed with clarity; he hadn’t felt this focused in weeks. Still, he couldn’t have time to savor the sensation. He needed to begin.

The Songstress of Absence crooned out a complex and nonexistent series of notes. The gravitational vortex around Randidly’s body twisted and stretched, growing in size from a pinprick into a fist, then larger into a body-sized orb. Nether and Aether citizens lashed out and fought against each other. Blood spurted out of wounds onto the ground. Screams of rage and pain mixed together, their shrill notes pulled into the energies drawn out of the battlefield, pulled up into the storm around the event horizon.

Randidly felt attentions snap upward to his position as he moved past his usual aura to a tier of power just as destructive as the attack unleashed by Homewell’s Lifeseal. Most notably he felt the hateful glare from the Prophet, earning a sharp smile from Randidly. But he kept his senses tingling for sights of the more dangerous saboteur, Deganawidah the Thirce-Drowned.

However, the Nether Monster’s emotions remained opaque. His significance swirled, giving no sign of a response to either Randidly or the Aether offensive. And after a second, Deganawidah returned to whatever business kept him occupied at Lowanna’s position.

Randidly chewed on his lips but didn’t question the lack of interference. His attention returned to the force he corralled, swirling it around his position faster and faster. The Songstress released soft notes, adding vicious edges to the folds of winds. If Randidly had descended atop his storm, his storm would have blended most of the bodies below, turning all the fighters into pulped flesh.

But Randidly didn’t descend. Randidly cracked his fingers and began to rise, the pure core of gravitational power stabilizing a monstrous mixture of Aether and Nether.

When he had risen to a height where he no longer threatened to crush the embers of the conflict, he looked up with a burning intensity. His eyes traced the glittering Aether constructs, primal sorts of Engraving that possessed a deep and influential power. Closer to these vital structures of the Nexus, Randidly felt a howling sort of resistance, a deep energy carrying notes of the Hierarchy of Burden. To reach out and touch these mechanisms was to near the howling edge of this isolated universe.

Randidly checked down once more, but no one attempted to investigate his actions. He grinned.

The gravity around his body expanded outward, towering winds flowing together into a massive monolith that speared out and impacted the Cohort's fundamental workings. Almost instantly, crackling static ran through his images and slammed into Randidly’s body, but these sorts of neutered energies only tickled him.

Randidly huffed a breath out and bloomed. The layers of gravity unfolded and sunk into the precise formations. A thrum went through the Nexus as Randidly engaged with the ancient pieces.

Howls and screams drifted up from the battlefield as the average soldier didn’t notice the shift, but Randidly knew there was no way the truly powerful could misunderstand who caused that sensation. Especially those trying to manipulate the Universe Core, as Randidly attempted to bypass the interior activation and simply utilize force to twist the tools from the outside.

Gravity captured the storm of force and expanded it into billowing pockets. These spread outward and impressed themselves across all the different pieces, giving Randidly an even more detailed picture of what he needed to do. He hummed to himself and considered, then began to gather as much gravitational force as he could muster. The Songstress of Absence raised her voice to a warbling aria, although she could wield no sound or release no vibrations.

The battlefield below was important because Randidly knew he needed the slightest nudge from the inside of the Universe Core, or this would be hard. Not impossible, not enough for his Fateset to lick its chops in excitement, but a bone-cracking sort of exhaustion that would have left him completely depleted for the even larger challenge waiting beyond this first hurdle.

The two energies, in conflict. Lives evaporating from the Nexus at unprecedented speeds. The looming threat of even more ominous consequences. Tension would build and build in the Universe Core. And then, when Randidly Ghosthound reached out and prodded the mechanisms, the universe would follow, craving a release.

Another gamble in a long line of pushing the envelope. But from his brief brushes with the Pine of the memory, he believed the degrading Shallah would be only too willing to try and help save this memory.

After metaphorically rolling his shoulders to marshal his Grey Monarch’s Authority and emotional potency, Randidly lifted his eyes and looked at the critical portion of the mechanism. Energy and meaning roared through his veins, ready to explode. The First Authority: Seize.